To downplay health concerns, and this truly is a sign of a health concern, Father Lombardi states that the pope wants to conserve his energy for upcoming trips. His Holiness doesn't want to ride in an open air car to accompany the Most Blessed Sacrament, so that the focus isn't on His Holiness but upon the our Lord Jesus Christ! Eh? Ma cosa stai dicendo?
Yes, folks, IT DOESN'T TAKE A CLAIRVOYANT LIKE ME TO STATE there is a health problem and we need to pray for His Holiness!
Last year's Corpus Domini Procession with Pope Francis, not to be duplicated this year, although His Holiness will offer Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament outside of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major:
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The Solemn Mass for Corpus Christi with Pope Francis outside the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the Cathedral Church of the Holy City of Rome, followed by the Corpus Christi Procession to the main doors of the Basilica of St. Mary Major for Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament:
Here we go again. In some places of the world, Corpus Christi is always celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Why Thursday you ask? Because it was on Holy Thursday that our Lord instituted the Most Holy Eucharist. So Thursday is always celebrated as a special day in the Church in commemoration of Holy Thursday with a special emphasis on the Most Holy Eucharist, just as each Friday of the year commemorates our Lord's passion and death as we do acts of penance.
Keep in mind that when Saint John Paul II instituted the Luminous Mysteries for the Holy Rosary, he said these were to be prayed on Thursday and of course the 5th Luminous Mystery is the Institution of the Most Holy Eucharist.
This silly debacle of transferring feasts from their fixed date to the Sunday following is as I wrote, silly! Why in the name of God and all that is holy is Ascension Thursday transferred from Ascension Thursday to the 7th Sunday of Easter? Our Lord, as the Gospels tell us, ascended into heaven 40 days after Easter Sunday--that's always a Thursday. He did not ascend into heaven 43 days after Easter Sunday!
When Ascension Thursday was actually 40 days after Easter Sunday and still a Holy Day of Obligation (still is in the northeast) my parish in Augusta was packed at the Masses we had scheduled.
Why reduce the number of Holy Days of Obligation especially now that secular society doesn't want Christianity doing visible things outside of Sunday Church? Have our bishops lost their minds? Don't answer that!
Could you imagine if our bishops ordered all pastors to make sure a Eucharistic Procession took place outside on Corpus Christi and not on Sunday but the actual traditional day for it, Thursday, a work day?
In Macon, Saint Joseph could procure a license to process down Cherry Street and no I would not wear my Macon Cherry Blossom Festival Finest Pink!
Holy Spirit could get a license to process down Eisenhower Parkway!
Saint Peter Claver could get a license to process down Vineville Avenue!
We could make sure to synchronize our processions to create the most traffic havoc possible! Oh the glory!
Another kind of outdoor procession! The young man in the front passenger seat is Nate Swann and he's entering the seminary at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland in August! See what a parade can do for vocations!
Now, I understand why the Holy Father doesn't want to be in an open car for the Corpus Christi procession in Roma tonight--because his celebrity would get in the way of the Faithful's concentration on the Most Blessed Sacrament solemnly exposed. Could you imagine in the photos below, how my celebrity would get in the way of the true focus of a Eucharistic Procession if our Lord's Real Presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was in front of me?
14 comments:
Holy Spirit could get a license to process down Eisenhower Drive!
Are you trying to get Ignotus and his congregants killed?
In Southern Germany and Austria Corpus Christi (Frohnleichnam) is a public holiday and the procession, a major event, is in the morning following Mass, with bands and many people wearing traditional dress. I have seen waterborne processions on the lake. Then in truly Catholic fashion everyone repairs to the Biergarten, for as Hilaire Belloc remarked 'Where'er the catholic sun doth shine, There's always laughter and good red wine' (or beer, as the case may be).
In Protestant England processions were normally held on the following Sunday, and if Mass preceded, it could be celebrated as an 'external solemnity' of Corpus Christi, although the Thursday obligation still remained. Benediction followed. In the 19th century, when anti-Catholic sentiment was still strong, Catholics would process the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of northern industrial towns and cities, unashamed to proclaim their Faith.
The post-V2 crowd didn't approve of Eucharistic adoration or late medieval feasts like Corpus Christi, and would have suppressed it altogether if they had dared. Instead they renamed it 'Corpus et Sanguis Christi', suppressing the Feast of the Precious Blood, and made the beautiful Sequence 'Lauda Sion', by St Thomas Aquinas, optional.
The mindset, a mixture of modernism and arcaeologism, of the men who authored the Novus Ordo has tainted that rite in the eyes of many, including the most eminent of modern liturgists.
Would I do such a thing or suggest suggest a thing?
If Father Lombardi is attributing to Pope Francis that His Holiness won't be in the Corpus Christi Procession, even sitting behind the Most Blessed Sacrament in the Flatbed Chevy Pickup or an open air auto behind the truck in order not to draw attention to the Holy Father and thus distract from the Most Holy Eucharist in Solemn Exposition, then isn't this a good case for Mass ad orientem? In this case, the attention is on the sacramental action at Mass not on the priest, his looks, demeanor, spirituality of facial expressions of personality. (I might make this a regular post later!)
But I digress, since when is a pope or other bishop of a diocese a distraction to a Eucharistic Procession--it really begs the question!
The Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit could appropriately be celebrated to-day.
You can fix this calendar problem by having the Corpus Christi Mass today. The feast isn't transferred in the 1962 Missal.
Also, moving this feast to Sunday isn't a major thing like it is for Ascension. It is in keeping with long practice to celebrate Corpus Christi as an external solemnity this upcoming Sunday.
(As always, I subject myself on these matters to the correction of John Nolan and others with greater knowledge.)
Father, you asked: "since when is a pope or other bishop of a diocese a distraction to a Eucharistic Procession"?
And I'd answer: well, since Francis became pope, because he is like no other.
Kinda like your pink jacket :-)
It never ceases to amaze me that some (presumably high school graduates) have insufficient clarity of thought to distinguish between a particular feast day and another day on which its Mass may happen to be celebrated, for whatever pastoral reason.
A society devoted to the Nativity of Our Lord might have its annual meeting on the 4th of July in Las Vegas and its chaplain celebrate the Mass of the Nativity (Christ’s Mass) on that occasion. But surely no one would be so stupid as to think that Christmas had thereby been transferred to the 4th of July. It would still be the 4th of July, not Christmas Day.
So this Sunday at our local Latin Mass, we will enjoy the Mass of Corpus Christi--as an external solemnity, which simply means the celebration of a Mass on some other day than its appointed feast day--for the spiritual benefit of those faithful not able to attend on the actual Thursday feast day of Corpus Christi itself. But all of us will still know that the feast day of Corpus Christi was Thursday, not Sunday. (For me, it’s a double bonus, as I celebrate Corpus Christi today with its Divine Office, and then its Mass this Sunday.)
Of course, in the U.S. it has long been customary for Catholics to celebrate the Mass of Corpus Christi as an external solemnity on the succeeding Sunday, at least since the U.S. indult to this effect given by Pope Leo XIII in the late 19th century. And, similarly the 1962 rubrics specifically authorize celebration of the Mass of the Sacred Heart (the 2nd Friday after Trinity Sunday) on the following Sunday everywhere, which this year however is the (actual) solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul. So this will be the first time in recent years that our local community (with only Sunday TLMs) has not seen the Mass of the Sacred Heart on a Sunday.
The pink coat is REALLY creepy. Do Christianity and the Holy Roman Catholic Church a favor and put it in the nearest dumpster. Don't give it to CSS or Goodwill. Nobody should wear it.
Yes, it has been practice to have Corpus Christi celebrated as an external Solemnity in the US...
Which can perhaps be a solution to the BIshops' problem of transferring feast days. Keep the feast days and celebrate them as an external solemnity for those that can't make it...
But there is a connection to Holy Thursday which people often miss for the solemnity of Corpus Christi...so much is lost...
I see you still have altar girlettes, this is most sad, you should be fostering young boys to the altar in hopes that they will become our future priests. This is not fair to the girls, for they cannot and never will be priests of The Holy Roman Catholic Church. Do your duty Father!!
Some Sundays the Sanctuary is crawling with females...
The only ministry that is not allowed females in the Ordinary Form of the Mass is that of deacon, priest and bishop. I do not buy the belief that having all male servers leads to more vocations. We have had vocations from St. Joseph in the past ten years, three that I know of, and in my previous parish at least 15 if not more since about 1983 and this in a parish of no more than 1200 families at its peak.
What promotes vocations to the priesthood is a strong Catholic family life where prayer is central, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated with dignity and solemnity and where altar servers boys and girls are well trained and provided a spirituality of serving.
The attitude of some who comment here about girls or women in the sanctuary is ridiculous and misogynist sounding or in fact is misogynist.
Focus on well trained servers with a spirituality of serving and separate the girls and boys in terms of the spirituality that is taught, one for religious life and the other for priesthood.
We have a gyno-Mass…LOL!
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