More 4 please

I few weeks ago I mentioned/complained to a priest friend that in the two years since the new translation of the Missal had come in, I had only heard Eucharistic Prayer IV used once.  It was in Letterkenny Cathedral, and the reason it was used was it was on the missalette. 

(On an unrelated note, while I don't have massive hangups about missalettes the way some people do, I do dislike the shorter ones which are "forcing" priests to use the Apostles Creed because the Nicene doesn't fit.  And a few weeks ago an entire paragraph of the second reading was missing.)

My friend said you couldn't use Eucharistic Prayer IV on Sundays as the preface was fixed for that prayer and there were special prefaces for use on Sundays.

Being the polite, respectful, chappette I am, I didn't argue the case too much with him, though I thought he was wrong.  But now I've done my research and he was wrong.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 365 d, states: "Eucharistic Prayer IV has an invariable Preface and gives a fuller summary of salvation history. It may be used when a Mass has no Preface of its own and on Sundays in Ordinary Time.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 365 d, states: "Eucharistic Prayer IV has an invariable Preface and gives a fuller summary of salvation history. It may be used when a Mass has no Preface of its own and on Sundays in Ordinary Time.
What is a Mass with a preface of its own (or proper preface)?

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments clarified this in an official reply to a doubt in the mid-1970s. The response specified that a proper preface meant preface of the day, not the preface of the season.  Only those Masses are considered to have proper prefaces which are obligatory on a specific day.

In practice this means the Masses of major solemnities which have prescribed prefaces, such as Christmas, Easter, and the Sacred Heart; or one of a specific range of prefaces, such as Sundays of Advent and Lent.

Thus, Eucharistic Prayer IV may be used on Sundays of Ordinary Time. It may also be used for daily Masses during the same period, and may even be used for daily Mass during periods such as Advent and Lent. Though it may be pastorally better to use the seasonal preface unless there is a very good reason for using Eucharistic Prayer IV.

Likewise, this Eucharistic Prayer may be used for any votive Mass, even if the rubrics indicate another preface. Since the celebration of the votive Mass is itself an option, the Mass's variable elements are not strictly obligatory.

For example, the preface of St. Joseph is obligatory on March 19 -- and consequently Eucharistic Prayer IV may not be used on that day. If, however, a priest celebrates a votive Mass of St. Joseph on any day that such Masses are allowed, he would be free to use either the preface of St. Joseph, or another legitimate preface.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2535379/Contempt-court-Mother-walking-baby-pram-woman-40s-pull-hair-draw-blood-fierce-fight-outside-Belfast-trial.html

Why is the Immaculate Conception celebrated today and not on Saturday?

 

Today, in Ireland at least, we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which fell yesterday on the 2nd Sunday in Advent.  According to the General Instruction in the Divine Office (Page xcvi) it should transfer to Saturday, not Monday.  There is a reference to “Norms for the Liturgical Year”, n. 5. 

So I went looking for that on line and I found two versions, both dated 14 Feb 1969. 

This version on EWTN library site says Saturday:

5. Because of its special importance, the Sunday celebration gives way only to solemnities or feasts of the Lord. The Sundays of the seasons of Advent, Lent, and Easter, however, take precedence over all solemnities and feasts of the Lord. Solemnities occurring on these Sundays are observed on the Saturdays preceding.

And this one  from the Liturgy Office of the Bishops Conference for England and Wales says Monday. 

5. Because of its special importance, the Sunday celebration gives way only to solemnities or feasts of the Lord. The Sundays of the seasons of Advent, Lent, and Easter, however, take precedence over all solemnities and feasts of the Lord.  Solemnities occurring on these Sundays are transferred to the following Monday except in the case of their occurrence on Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) or on Easter Sunday.

What's the story? Usually when you amend a set of norms you reissue them with a new date.  I presume it is something to do with the introduction of Saturday vigil Masses which make it problemmatic to transfer a solemnity. 

Noticed this in the Norms as well:

58 For the pastoral advantage of the faithful, it is permissible to observe on the Sundays in Ordinary Time those celebrations that fall during the week and have special appeal to the devotion of the faithful, provided the celebrations take precedence over these Sundays in the Table of Liturgical Days. The Mass for such celebrations may be used at all the Masses at which the people are present.

Wonder how many priests ever chose to do that.  SS Peter and Paul could be candidate.  And plenty of others.

I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking.

Repeat after me a million, sqillion times till you get it right

It is right to give him thanks and praise and just.

Deacons in Armagh - congratulations, but some questions?

Congratulations and best wishes to the five men ordained to the diaconate in the archdiocese of Armagh yesterday.

I fear the archdioces is making life difficult for them in where they have assigned them and the message that has been sent out. 

Priests have always been afraid of deacons.  They fear their "power base" so to speak and it was the reason the order, which remember existed before the separate order of priesthood, was consigned to a temporary and somewhat meaningless stage before ordination to the priesthood.  These fears still exist among many priests, now with the added dislike by feminists, and fears of loss of power by certain lay people.  It will not be easy to be a deacon.

So assignments.  The five deacons have all been assigned to parishes some distance from their home parishes.  And when they get there -

"He is called to minister in close-collaboration with priests and with laity who are entrusted with various ministries. Deacons play a key role in the development and coordination of lay ministry, they are not intended to replace lay ministries. These men have been reminded that in a parish they find their role by negotiation, supporting what already exists and helping to address needs that aren’t being met."

Not the easiest position in which to be put.  But my real concern is this - they are all married men with families and jobs.  They are told explicitly that they must put their marriages, families and jobs first - and yet they are assigned in some cases twenty miles away.  So, Sunday morning comes.  Mammy sings in the choir, two of the children are altar servers, the third is a sulky teenager who just about makes it to Mass.  And Daddy?  Well he has to drive somewhere else for Mass, no longer with his family. 

Next day, Daddy gets home from work.  He's a meeting to go to, only it's not just down the road now like it used to be, but forty minutes away and mammy needs the car.  And work has asked him to stay a bit late.

So, what is the problem with assigning deacons to their home parishes where they are likely already involved in various activities, where it will be easier to negotiate their way round, where they can continue attending church with their wives and children?

The (welcome) return of the Scorzelli ferula

Pope Francis

I am quite happy to see Pope Francis has begun using the Lello Scorzelli ferula again.  It has been used by all Popes at some point since the Servant of God, Venerable Pope Paul VI.

Servant of God, Pope Paul VI

Pope John Paul I

Blessed John Paul II

Pope Benedict XVI



Pope Michael, Bishop of Meath

 It is also driving the traddies to distraction.  With each passing day they search for new things to accuse the Pope of.  Over in Rorate Caeli a commentator has a list of about fifty things - the usual black shoes, no mozzetta stuff, but also the distinctly weird, like drinking tea in public.  Apparently the only thing we should see the Pope consuming is the Blessed Eucharist.  Who knew?  They think the cross is Jansenist because the arms go up.  Don't remember Jansen promoting that.

I'm not a massive fan of modern art - the blue square, black wall sort of stuff.  But I do like some of the dramatic such as La Resurrezione by Pericle Fazzini in the Paul VI audience hall.

Scorzelli's cross looks very much like it was inspired by the famous drawing of the crucifixion by St John of the Cross and subsequently Dali's painting.  If you're ever in Glasgow be sure and go to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and see it.

Dali drawing

I always felt that Blessed Pope John Paul II took great support from it, physically and spiritually.  Scorzelli made one specially for him that was lighter to carry.  Pope Francis is using the original one made for Paul.

Kicking the habit

I had a fight/discussion recently with a friend on the status of priests from religious orders who are ordained diocesan bishops.  I said that I thought they ought not to continue wearing the habit of their order.

At the time I couldn't find the evidence but I have today come upon the Instruction of the Secretariat of State, Ut sive sollicite, on the dress, titles, and coats-of-arms of Cardinals, Bishops, and lesser Prelates (31st March, 1969).


Section 17 says:

Episcopi ex Ordinibus vel Congregationibus religiosis delecti utentur veste talari violacei coloris, veste talari cum vel sine torulo, globulis, ocellis ac subsuto rubini coloris, haud secus ac ceteri Episcopi.

Bishops chosen from religious Orders or Congregations will use the purple cassock, and the cassock with or without red trimming, buttons, buttonholes, and lining, just as other Bishops.

That seems pretty definitive to me.

Old translations, pagans, tightropes and balls

At Mass in Dublin today.  Treated myself to visit to the Jesuits on Gardener Street.  The Pro-Cathedral is ghastly and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel on Bachelors Walk is claustraphobic.  But one thing they all have in common is that almost no one in the congregation uses the "new" translation of the Mass.  Loads of "and also with you"s.  And no one, but no one says "it is right and just".  The Sanctus is confused mess.  The Non Sum Dignis likewise.  The priest doesn't even know the acclamation of faith.  And the dismissal has become a meandering "Go, and proclaim the gospel with your lives and live it with your peace" sort of thing.

Mustn't grumble though.

My six year old announced on Sunday that she wished she were a pagan as she was fed up going to Mass. 

Her mother responded: "Of course there'd be no Christmas, no Easter eggs".

Six year old:  "Well there'd still be Hallowe'en".

Continuing the digression, what to do when a bunch of local kids or teenagers decide that your front wall is the perfect place to congregate.  I was advising a neighbour recently that he should do what St John Bosco {or was it Philip Neri?} did, get a tight rope and some balls and teach them to juggle.

3 for 2 when you pick a Pope and why it's right to wash women's feet

You know those deals in bookshops?  3 for the price of 2, a carryover from supermarkets but always a difficulty in books.  You go in to buy a specific book as I did in Easons today and it has a 3for2 label on it and suddenly you have a quandry - do you fall for the marketing ploy or do you stubbornly resist and only buy the book you want while quietly fuming that somehow you are being short changed by the shop?

Electing a Pope is like that.  We all have the qualities we want in a Pope - holiness, intellect, patience, a hard man, a good manager, a great speaker, a man of prayer.  No one person can have all those qualities and we usually prioritise.  You pick one, and then you have to look for other qualities.  And sometimes you get things you wouldn't have picked if you'd a free choice.  We loved Benedict for his teaching, his fidelity, his creativity, his love of liturgy, his humility.  But we had to take his history which the press always misunderstood.  We had to take his not really getting on top of his staff and perhaps being overly loyal to them.

With Pope Francis we get a lot of good things too.  Perhaps someone not afraid to tackle his staff - but that means someone who might refuse to wear a mozzetta or even a stole.  We get a simple preacher, with a clear direct message, but perhaps his writing won't be so good.  We get a love for the poor and a sense of the real need for new evangelisation and a Church cut to fit that cloth.  There is a thin line between determination and stubborness as I know only too well and we'll have to see where Pope Francis falls - I hope on the right side.

Lots of you have asked me about his washing of the feet of girls and muslims.  My views are mixed.  In terms of the process, I think the Pope, as supreme legislator for the Church, should respect his own laws and if he wanted to change them he should have changed them, not simply ignored them (Creative Minority Report takes the same line).  Only he has the power to change the liturgical laws but there is a process.  He could have done that very simply on Spy Wednesday.  By breaking his own laws he has rather left the door open for other priests to break the laws for the usual "pastoral reasons".  So the priest in Newry who thought it a good idea to celebrate Mass wearing a soutane and red chausable (no alb) because Down were in the All-Ireland might claim the right to do so.

That said, on the issue itself, I think it is right and proper to open up the so called mandatum ceremony to women.  "But Jesus only washed the feet of the twelve apostles" you cry in protest at my descent into quasi-liberal madness.  Indeed He did.  And He only gave Holy Communion to the Twelve.  Are we to presume that only men may receive Holy Communion?  Only bishops?

The mandatum ceremony re-enacts a scene from John's gospel - but not in the same way that the Mass re-enacts the Last Supper and sacrifice of Calvary.  We are not doing something sacramental.  What was the purpose of what Jesus did?  It was to show that those in authority - himself, the Twelve, monarch, bishops and priests - are there to serve those whom they have authority over.  So it makes sense for a bishop, including the Pope, to wash the feet of twelve of his priests.  But for a priest in a parish, it makes more sense for him to wash the feet of a range of ordinary parishioners, including women and even non-Catholics.

There, now it only took me five minutes to write that - that's what Pope Francis should have written on Spy Wednesday when he change the rules.

By the way - my 3 for 2 books - Department 19:  Battle Lines;  The Maleficent Seven;  and Light.

Salt of the earth

On Sunday morning I heard my wife giving out to my football playing eleven year old who had somehow managed to get muddy water all over the front door which my wife had cleaned during the previous week. [Editor: Really?  Who cleans a front door?  Catholicus Nua: Womem, apparently.]

I thought little of it.  Then that evening decided to go to Mass - it was Easter Sunday and the whole family, for the first time, had gone to the Easter Vigil, but I fancied a Mass on Easter Sunday itself.  I looked at the door, then I noticed the front of the car, similarly marked, the windows of the front room. Not muddy, but more white.  A sort of white passover.  And it dawned on me.  I have a tradition, inherited from my childhood.  Get a bottle of Easter water at the Vigil and as soon as you come home you bless the house, outside and in (and the car). 

All I can is my parish priest must have used a hell of a lot of salt in the Easter water.

Struggling with my conscience

The Pope is not the only one who has to wrestle with his conscience, trying to decide what's the right thing to do.  It's that time again.  After midnight on Ash Wednesday and I'm trying to decide whether to have a bowl of cereal or not.

It's also that time of year when your kids come home from school with Trócaire boxes and you think to yourself, "if I wanted to give my money to Israeli hating lefties I'd still be a member of Amnesty International" before trying to decide whether to use them to keep your dried peas in or put them straight into the bin.

If  you can cope with reading anything more about the Holy Father's retirement/ resignation/ renunciation/ abdication Crisis Magazine has some excellent pieces, particularly this one - go visit.

Update on post on Fr Z

By way of update to my recent post on Fr Z and the contempt shown for the Ordinary Form of the Mass.  I see that he has removed my second comment.

Remember all those who used to attack the cult of Fr Corapi, many of whom were part of the cult of Fr Z?  It's always a problem when you can't accept critical comments (which aren't defamatory or abusive).  People will start to question your openness to the truth.

And before you know it they'll be asking exactly how an American gets to be an unassigned priest of the Diocese of Velletri-Segni and has the time to spend blogging, publishing recipes and photos of his dinner and his bird houses near his Wisconsin home.

Time to annoy some traddy Catholics

Well I know I shouldn't be encouraging bad behaviour but if you've a spare moment pop along over to Fr Z's site for a spot of commenting.  My first comments below and Fr Z's reactive reply in red.


Folks when you talk about “binning the Novus Ordo” you’re talking about putting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in a bin! [No. That is NOT what is being said. They desire that the Novus Ordo not be used and that the Usus Antiquior be used instead.] It’s hardly the language or sentiment one would expect of Catholics. It’s called the Ordinary Form for a reason. It’s the main form in ordinary use and the sooner you accept that it isn’t going away the better for you. As for calling protestants heretics and schismatics, it’s time to grow up! [And it is time to curb your hysteria and revive your critical thinking skills.]

My second comment below:


Well pardon my hysteria and lack of critical thought process in understanding “bin” to mean “a receptacle in which to deposit rubbish” as per the Oxford English Dictionary and therefore not an appropriate term to employ in connection with the rite commonly used for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If a bishop or a Catholic newspaper said it was time to bin the Extraordinary Form this blog would be all over them like a rash.

Lobbing around words like schismatic and heretic, well it’s not Catholic. Go read Unitatis Redintegratio and if you don’t like what it says run off and frolic with your friends in the SSPX.

The film's as close as Flannery will probably get

Good coverage in tomorrow's Irish Catholic of Fr Tony Flannery story.   Elaborates on the way that Fr Flannery has sought to shift the focus on to ordination of women, homosexuality etc and away from his heterodox views of Catholic priesthood.  Notes that he has a Dublin PR company working for him. 

Irish Catholic has sources in Rome which confirm that:

1) chief concern is his views on priesthood;

2) that this is the reason they don't want him leading/involved with the Association of Catholic Priests;

3) that he has never been threatened with excommunication and there is no question of excommunication, noting that in other cases, including bishops, excommunication has only been applied where a priest has taken part in a simulated ordination ceremony for women.