Course registration for my semester abroad at the Angelicum in Rome is complete:
Poets and Mystics of the Twentieth Century (Rev. Paul Murray, O.P.)
Church, Culture and Biomedical Revolution (Paul Wojda)
Fundamental Moral Theology (Rev. Wojciech Giertych, O.P.)
Christian Art and Architecture (Liz Lev)
Lest my three readers think that I’ve fallen off the face of the planet (or perhaps that they’ve been left behind), here I am with a short post and something to watch on this rainy South Bend day.
There is news on campus that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York is coming to Notre Dame in October and celebrating Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. If true, this would be very exciting news indeed.
Update: Heeeee’s cooooooming…
Update (again): False alarm. For someone unknown reason, he couldn’t make it. But the music prepared for him was still used at the Mass (brass ensemble and percussion). Too bad.
[I]f everyone follows and observes the tradition of the apostles, no heretic, and indeed no human being at all, will be able to lead you astray. The reason why heresies have increased is that leaders have been unwilling to make their own the teachings of the apostles and have acted as they pleased and not as they should have.
–from The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (c. 315 AD)
It’s always good to hear a good homily, and even better to share it with others, I think.
So here’s one.
Fr. Stephen Koeth, CSC, Assistant Director of Old College (the undergraduate seminary of the Congregation of Holy Cross), offered Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (this past Sunday). Here is a video of his homily.
The following letter was sent to Notre Dame students via email on Wednesday, September 16, by Fr. John I. Jenkins, CSC, President of the University.
Dear Members of the Notre Dame Family,
Coming out of the vigorous discussions surrounding President Obama’s visit last Spring, I said we would look for ways to engage the Notre Dame community with the issues raised in a prayerful and meaningful way. As our nation continues to struggle with the morality and legality of abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and related issues, we must seek steps to witness to the sanctity of life. I write to you today about some initiatives that we are undertaking.
Each year on January 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the March for Life is held in Washington D.C. to call on the nation to defend the right to life. I plan to participate in that march. I invite other members of the Notre Dame Family to join me and I hope we can gather for a Mass for Life at that event. We will announce details as that date approaches.
On campus, I have recently formed the Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life. It will be co-chaired by Professor Margaret Brinig, the Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law and Associate Dean for the Law School, and by Professor John Cavadini, the Chair of the Department of Theology and the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the Institute for Church Life. My charge to the Task Force is to consider and recommend to me ways in which the University, informed by Catholic teaching, can support the sanctity of life. Possibilities the Task Force has begun to discuss include fostering serious and specific discussion about a reasonable conscience clause; the most effective ways to support pregnant women, especially the most vulnerable; and the best policies for facilitating adoptions. Such initiatives are in addition to the dedication, hard work and leadership shown by so many in the Notre Dame Family, both on the campus and beyond, and the Task Force may also be able to recommend ways we can support some of this work.
I also call to your attention the heroic and effective work of centers that provide care and support for women with unintended pregnancies. The Women’s Care Center, the nation’s largest Catholic-based pregnancy resource center, on whose Foundation Board I serve, is run by a Notre Dame graduate, Ann Murphy Manion (’77). The center has proven successful in offering professional, non-judgmental concern to women with unintended pregnancies, helping those women through their pregnancy and supporting them after the birth of their child. The Women’s Care Center and similar centers in other cities deserve the support of Notre Dame clubs and individuals.
Our Commencement last Spring generated passionate discussion and also caused some divisions in the Notre Dame community. Regardless of what you think about that event, I hope that we can overcome divisions to foster constructive dialogue and work together for a cause that is at the heart of Notre Dame’s mission. We will keep you informed of our work, and we ask for your support, assistance and prayers. May Our Lady, Notre Dame, watch over our efforts.
In Notre Dame,
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
A required text for my theology course on the Mass of the Roman Rite, What Happens at Mass by Benedictine Father Jeremy Driscoll turned out to be more of an enjoyable spiritual reading than a technical reading assignment. The book consists in a series of carefully crafted spiritual meditations on the parts of the liturgy, beginning with a reflection on the Mass as a mystery and ending with the dismissal “Ite missa est”. Each section explains the spiritual realities behind the gestures and words of the liturgy, with special emphasis on their significance for us as participants in the Mass and as sons and daughters of the Father.
I’ve found that my experience at Mass is almost always a reflection of my own interior life. An unfocused mind sets the ground for a foggy and divided participation on my part; a prayerful and quiet morning before Mass leads to a fruitful and grace-filled reception of the Eucharist; an attentiveness to the liturgy and its details makes me appreciate fully the gift of ritual. Having read this book, I’ve come to recognize what the Mass has been all along: the manifestation of God’s love for us right before our very eyes.
A few powerful passages:
“Everything and everybody in the world is destined by grace for eucharistic transformation” (p. 12).
“I put my life on the line in what I say Amen to. I agree to it. I ratify it. To say Amen at the beginning of Mass to the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and to the sign of the cross is to say es, I know this is the only way into Eucharist; Yes, I accept again my Baptism; Yes, I believe in the holy name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Something similar applies to all the other times we will say Amen throughout the Mass. It means I agree and I am glad for this glorious truth” (p. 23).
“That one of the ordained is preaching is meant to be a guarantee in the assembly that what is heard is the Church’s apostolic faith and not merely the private thoughts and experiences of an individual” (p. 52). (!)
“The Creed is not sung very often anymore, and this is too bad….We would here our many voices blending together into the one single voice of the Church, and we would feel immediately the beauty of the reality of the Church’s clear and precise understanding of all that the scriptures say” (p. 57).
On the collection: “Money is our work. Money is hours of our lives. And now we give it away, we sacrifice it, for the work of the Church, which in the end is its work of charity and evangelization” (p. 61).
“The transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is for our sake. The risen Lord does not somehow personally profit from this remarkable transformation. Such a transformation would have no sense without its reference to us. The Lord becomes bodily present in sacramental form so that the Church can be formed as his body” (p. 98).
Maybe my theology professors won’t get too upset if I use these search engines for my papers this semester…
Recently, on my last visit home during the summer holiday, I undertook as one of my vacation projects the renovation and refurnishing of the family study. The project was long overdue: no room in the house, including this one, had been painted since it was built over twenty years ago; scraps of brightly colored construction paper and spilled bottles of sparkles from my schoolboy years were threatening to ruin the vacuum every time it passed through the room; and, most visibly, the collection of books, growing faster and faster since I began my university studies, were swallowing up the floor (and the closet, and the desk, and the cabinets). It was time for a clean-up.
After addressing the first two problems with a nice avocado-colored paint, crown molding, and a good sweep, I eagerly devised a plan to handle the third: the books. The first step, easy, involved acquiring new bookcases; the second involved the rather difficult question of categorization. Seeing that I don’t have too big of a personal collection (around 350 books or so), the task wasn’t as difficult as some would imagine. The sections are: theology (broken up into reference, scriptures, catechetical materials, writings of and on saints, spiritual texts, doctrine, and history), philosophy (by author and subject), history (by author), and fiction and literature (by author). The cases look rather handsome organized and filled with books, but after all was said and done, I was left with a rather annoying (yet important) pile of small books, which, lined-up on the shelf, would look silly and waste quite a bit of space.
What were they? Prayer books: My Daily Bread (Paone, S.J.), Christ is Passing By (Josemaria Escriva), The Wartime Prayer Book (Fulton Sheen), and many others. They are timeless classics, each with their own wisdom and occasion, but perhaps most importantly, small enough to carry in a pocket or backpack. Unfortunately, though, they proved quite a challenge in an organization campaign like mine.
But one of these books, I’ve determined, need not vie for a spot on the coveted book shelf, since it will more likely find itself in my own back pocket.
Mike Pacer’s Prayers for Catholic Men, published by Saint Anthony Messenger Press, is a treasury of spiritual gems from the Catholic tradition perfect for the modern man. Among these gems are the time-honored and always efficacious prayers to the Blessed Virgin (the Angelus, Regina Coeli, holy Rosary), the angels (prayer to St. Michael), and the saints (litany of St. Joseph). What is beautiful about these is the accompanying commentary which precede each prayer, noting the history of the prayer and the kinds of opportunities at which one might turn to them. The scriptures and the decrees of Vatican II are often cited in these introductions.
Also included are more contemporary prayers well-suited and accessible to the man on the go: prayers for lunch time, the work day, one’s family, and for spouses; for single men in a serious relationship, for sexual purity, and the end to addictions; and prayers for practical needs, for times of financial crisis, illness, and (my favorite) “when your job doesn’t satisfy you”.
Nothing is new under the sun, the scriptures say, and the evidence is ample: the difficulties of day-t0-day life, the temptations involved in being a man of God (temptations which are amplified by our secular culture), and the struggle to find God in our midst. Yet, the comfort offered by the prayers of Catholic tradition is always new and always refreshing. Whether ladled out from the deep and historic barrels of old wine — which is the Church’s ancient treasury of prayers, or skimmed from the new wine of our generation’s spirituality — which seeks to keep up with this rapidly changing age, the prayers in Prayers for Catholic Men will satisfy any hunger of the working man and comfort him in the ordinary hours of his extraordinary and God-given life.
This book will never find a place in the home office or living room bookcase; instead, it will find its home in your back pocket, briefcase, or business suit, never too far for a brief but powerful taste of God’s grace and comfort.
This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Prayers for Catholic Men.
O God, Who didst disclose to Saint Augustine the hidden mysteries of Thy wisdom and didst enkindle in his heart the flame of Divine Love, thus renewing in Thy Church the pillar of cloud and fire, graciously grant that we may pass safely through the storms of this world and reach the eternal fatherland which Thou didst promise us, through Christ Our Lord.
Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!
All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
The low desire, the base design,
That makes another’s virtues less;
The revel of the ruddy wine,
And all occasions of excess;
The longing for ignoble things;
The strife for triumph more than truth;
The hardening of the heart, that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth;
All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds,
That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
The action of the nobler will;–
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.
The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.
The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise.
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern–unseen before–
A path to higher destinies.
Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
For in your providence your hands, my God, did not forsake my soul. By my mother’s tears night and day sacrifice was being offered to you from the blood of her heart, and you dealt with me in wonderful ways.
Confessions, V.vii (xiii)
