Modernism Defined
July 2, 2008
Thanks to Adoro Te Devote for this succinct definition:
Modernists reject the idea that God can be known from without; they embrace the concept of immanence, that religion comes from within man, and comes from a certain personal experience. It is completely subjective, so lends to the next logical conclusion that in fact, all religions must be the same and equally valid, for no one can argue with another person’s personal experience. Additionally, there is the idea of “evolution”; modernism has an evolutionary character, meaning that over time it develops in response to man’s own subjective beliefs or needs or desires. They equate a “living religion” with a constant state of fluidity, and in fact, much of what we witness in modernism can be called “New Age”, for it leads one towards a certain “divinization,” making themselves God, deciding for themselves what is right or wrong not according to an external and objective “deposit of faith”, but rather that internal evolution or divinization. The additional factor of modernism is one of a collective unconscious, and this is what forms dogma. The big question is where the world is going and what they should do to look to the future and be “prophetic”.
Well Said @ CA Catholic Daily
July 2, 2008
“A beautiful act of love”
“The pope does not put on Prada, but Christ,” said Fr. Guido Marini, the Holy Father’s master of ceremonies, in an interview that appeared in the June 26 L’Osservatore Romano. Marini was explaining Pope Benedict XVI’s decisions affecting the liturgy.
Marini said the pope’s restoration of the traditional Latin Mass and liturgy had a “precise, twofold intention.” The first, said Marini, was to make it “easier to reach ‘a reconciliation in the bosom of the Church’; and in this sense, as has been said, the motu proprio is a beautiful act of love for the unity of the Church.” The pope’s second aim “is that of fostering a mutual enrichment between the two forms of the Roman rite: in such a way, for example, that in the celebration according to the missal of Paul VI (the ordinary form of the Roman rite) ‘will be able to demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage.”
As for the pope’s celebration last January of Mass in the Sistine Chapel at the ancient altar, facing liturgical east, Marini explained that such a celebration “is not a matter of turning one’s back to the faithful, but rather of orienting oneself together with the faithful toward the Lord. From this point of view, ‘the door is not closed on the assembly,’ but ‘the door is opened to the assembly,’ and it is led to the Lord.”
According to Marini, kneeling for communion and receiving it on the tongue will become “a regular practice at papal celebrations.” The master of ceremonies noted that “the distribution of communion in the hand remains, from the juridical point of view, a dispensation from the universal law, conceded by the Holy See to the bishops’ conferences that have asked for it.” Benedict’s proposed practice at papal Masses “tends to emphasize the continued validity of the norm for the whole Church,” said Marini. Receiving on the tongue, he continued, “better highlights the truth of the real presence in the Eucharist, aids the devotion of the faithful, and makes it easier to enter into the sense of mystery. In our time, pastorally speaking, it is urgent to recover and emphasize these aspects.”
What of those who accuse Benedict of imposing “preconciliar models” on the Church? Terms like “preconciliar” and “postconciliar,” “it seems to me,” said Marini, “belong to an outdated language, and if they are used with the intention of indicating a discontinuity in the Church’s journey, I maintain that they are mistaken and typical of highly reductive ideological views. There are ‘old things and new things’ that belong to the treasury of the Church of all time, and must be considered as such.”
“Not all that is new is true, nor is all that is old,” said Marini. “The truth spans old and new, and it is for this that we must strive, without prejudice. The Church lives according to the law of continuity in virtue of which it recognizes development rooted in tradition.
“What is most important,” Marini continued, “is that everything work together so that the liturgical celebration truly is the celebration of the sacred mystery, of the crucified and risen Lord who becomes present in his Church, reenacting the mystery of salvation and calling us, in the logic of an authentic and active participation, to share to the full in his own life, which is a life given in love to the Father and to his brothers, a life of holiness.”
Salve, Sancta Parens
July 1, 2008
Mary’s first action after God had come to dwell in her was one of self-denying charity. She undertook a troublesome journey in order to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Thus she proclaimed charity to be the virtue which above all Christ brought with Him from heaven. God made Mary’s visit the occasion of a wonderful miracle. On her entrance into St. Elizabeth’s dwelling, St. John Baptist was cleansed from sin in his mother’s womb. Mary was the channel of this exceptional privilege of the cleansing away fo sin in the case of the unborn child. As then, so now: Mary is the channel of all graces, and above all, of the restoration of the sinner to friendship with God. Mary’s charity is not less present now than at the time of the Visitation. Nay, she is far more eager now than then to promote the happiness and console the sorrows of those who fly to her for succor.
“Precious Blood, Ocean of Divine Mercy, flow upon us!
Precious Blood,
Most Pure offering, procure us every grace!
Precious Blood,
Hope and refuge of sinners, atone for us!
Precious Blood,
Delight of the Holy Souls, draw us!
Amen.”
— Saint Catherine of Siena
True Oecumenism
June 29, 2008
The Creed was recited at this morning’s Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Greek by Batholomew I and Benedict XVI.
Symbolum Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum
Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, ὁρατῶν τε πάντων και ἀοράτων.
Και εἰς ἕνα κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων, φῶς ἐκ φωτός, θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρί·δι’ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο· τὸν δι’ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ σαρκωθέντα ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ παθόντα καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρα κατὰ τὰς γραφάς, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ πατρός καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον μετὰ δόξης κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος.
Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, τὸ κύριον, (καὶ) τὸ ζωοποιόν, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, τὸ σὺν πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν. εἰς μίαν, ἁγίαν, καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν· ὁμολογοῦμεν ἓν βάπτισμα εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν· προσδοκοῦμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. Ἀμήν.
Kneeling. Communion. On Tongue. Today.
June 29, 2008
US Bishops News Service Reports
June 26, 2008
Mons. Marini Speaks for PBXVI
June 25, 2008
Of Interest
June 5, 2008
Please make your way to New Liturgical Movement where you will find two articles of interest to my readership: Bishop Morlino of the Diocese of Madison and Upcoming EF Mass in Washington, DC and New York.
Vatican speaks on “difficult obedience”
June 2, 2008
The Holy See Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has published a new instruction on authority and obedience for religious men and women.
The new instruction entitled, ‘The Service of Authority and Obedience’ examines the theme of religious obedience, “the root of which is seen in that search for God and for His will which is particular to believer,” according to a media release from the Congregation, Spero News reports.
“Christian and religious obedience does not, then, appear simply as the implementation of ecclesiastical or religious laws and rulings, but as the momentum of a journey in search of God which involves listening to His Word and becoming aware of His design of love - the fundamental experience of Christ Who, out of love, was obedient unto His death on the cross.”
“Authority in religious life,” the communiqué added, “must be understood in this light, in other words, as a way to help the community (or institute) to seek and achieve the will of God. Obedience, then, is not justified on the basis of religious authority, because everyone in a religious community (first and foremost the authorities themselves) are called to obedience. Authority places itself at the service on the community so that God’s will may be sought and achieved together.”
The instruction also considers “the delicate matter of ‘difficult obedience’, that in which what is requested of the religious is particularly hard to carry out, or in which the subject feels he sees ‘things which are better and more useful for his soul than those which the superior orders him to do’.”
The instruction seeks to recall that obedience in religious life can give rise to situations of suffering in which it is necessary to refer back to the Obedient One par excellence, Christ.
“It must, moreover, be borne in mind that authority too can be ‘difficult’, experiencing moments of discouragement and fatigue which can lead to resignation or inattention in exercising an appropriate guidance of the community.”
The document also offers a vast and coherent set of guidelines for the exercise of authority, such as inviting people to listen, favouring dialogue, sharing, co-responsibility, and the merciful treatment of the people entrusted to authority, the communiqué said.
