ELECTRIC ALTAR CANDLES IN THE 1950’S? YOU MIGHT FIND THIS SHOCKING, BUT YES! DON’T BLOW A FUSE!

 This is a low Mass thus only two candles are lighted. But look closely at the six tall candles.

Low Mass at Baclaran Shrine during the 1950's

MY MONTHLY TLM AT SAVANNAH’S SACRED HEART ❤️ CHURCH

 Please note the sunbeam directed at yours truly:

And these other miracles of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

Please note the perfect height to lift the chasuble!!!

GOOD SUGGESTIONS FROM CARDINAL ARINZE ON HOMILIES, BUT 10 MINUTES IS WAY TOO LONG; I RECOMMEND 6 MINUTES AT THE MOST!

Since I entered into so-called retirement, I have cut my Sunday homilies in half from about 12 minutes to about six minutes.

People now love my homilies, not so much because they are good, but because my homilies are short. 

If you are a priest or deacon and want compliments about your homilies after Mass, keep them to six minutes!

Here is what the good Cardinal Arinze has to say, press the title:

Cardinal Arinze Cautions Priests Against Lengthy Homilies

WHO KNEW THAT CARDINAL CUPICH WAS SO HILARIOUSLY FUNNY!

 I can’t stop laughing!

Cardinal Cupich says that young Catholics will look back at the synod on synodality as ‘one of the most historic moments in their lives, for it has redirected the focus of where the church is going.”

WILL THE NEXT POPE DEAL WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S MAJOR PROBLEM FOR THE PAST 60 YEARS, HER OWN CANCEL CULTURE?!

What the American elections can show the current leadership of the Church from the top down is that the cancel culture of the last many years has been a dismal failure and is rejected by a landslide of those with any common sense. The Catholic Church has had its own virulent cancel Culture since 1964 propmoted by clericalism and a lust for power over rank file Catholics. That needs to be addressed in the future papacy.

Let’s face it, the major problem with the implementation of Vatican II, in particular its fluid and failed “spirit”, is that this implementation canceled so much of what constituted Catholic identity for the clergy, the religious and the laity of the pre-Vatican II era.

A small clericalism caste and cadre of bishops and theologians from their on-high position and by manipulating the work of the Holy Spirit for their own narcissistic privileges, were able to cancel the manner in which the Church had existed since the major reforms of the Council of Trent. 

The spirit of Vatican II clericalists, canceled the manner in which the Mass had been celebrated for over 1,500 years, but codified or standardized by the Council of Trent. They canceled the manner of living religious life and tried to cancel the sacramental aspect of the clergy turning them from worship and prayer to being social workers for the poor, something proper for religious who are not clergy and certainly for the laity.

The spirit of Vatican II tried to cancel the hierarchical nature of the Church and authority of the college of bishops in union with the pope.

What Vatican II’s poor implementation did was to cancel what had previously been understood as constituent to Catholic identity and proposed and then dictatorially imposed it on laity who accepted this imposition solely on the pre-Vatican II appreciation they had for Church authority, especially the pope and bishops. They didn’t like it but they were obedient pray, pay and obey Catholics.

St. Pope John Paul II and especially Pope Benedict XVI tried heroically to end the cancel culture of the Church in the post-Vatican II era. They did it slowly with non-dictatorial edicts. They proposed and enabled the ending of the cancel culture but they did not impose it on all. 

The apex of the genius of Pope Benedict XVI was and is Summorum Pontificum, that enabled a return to liturgical tradition of the pre-Vatican II era while encouraging the reforms of the Liturgies but now within continuity with the past not in a breach of the past or worse yet, canceling that past.

With the dismal and unfortunate abdication of Pope Benedict, a 1970’s ideologue was elected to the See of Peter as the new pope. We have seen since 2013 a return to the spirit of Vatican II’s cancel culture, the one most blatant was and is the canceling of the two papacies of St. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict. The apex of this cancelation was the dictatorial canceling of Pope Benedict’s centerpiece of his papacy, Summorum Pontificum and the resulting resentment of the current papacy and its 1970’s agenda. 

The next pope will have to be a redeemed Donald Trump who will restore the papacies of the previous two popes but in continuity. Pope Benedict’s reform in continuity is the way forward and that must be revived! 

THE NATIONAL NOT CATHOLIC REPORTER THINKS THAT THIS INTERVIEW IS JUST HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE I SAY, THUS WE KNOW THAT IT IS A GREAT INTERVIEW

 The Democrat operatives masquerading  under the guise of the National Not Catholic Reporter just can’t believe how our Catholic people voted President Trump back into office. Crocodile tears there are, let me say that again, crocodile tears, tears I say. Your can read the Democrat’s meltdown over this intereview HERE.

To view this video, do not press the center arrow but go to the bottom left corner and press “watch on you-tube”:

ANOTHER WAY TO LOOK AT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S AND VICE PRESIDENT VANCE’S LANDSLIDE VICTORY AND BY COUNTY

 This graphic really shows how deep in do-do the Democrat Party is. And this a party that once upheld political and religious values of our Judeo Christian nation and refused to cater to atheists and agnostics and immoral, amoral ideologies. It is sad indeed, but it is the rise and fall of a once great political party:

And over at the National Not Catholic Reporter, Sean Michael Winters and all his cohorts and wailing and grinding their teeth. This is in part what he has to write today:

The Democratic Party has a choice. It can change or it can find a different country. When you can't beat a convicted felon, lose really excellent public servants like Senators Bob Casey and Jon Tester, and watch your margins shrink in virtually every demographic, you need to do some serious soul-searching.

Currently, the Democrats are engaged in a round of finger-pointing and counterfactuals. What if Joe Biden had not dropped out? Can't know for sure, but my bet is the country would have tired of the anxiety that swept the nation every time he went to a microphone. What if he had dropped out earlier and the Dems had found a different candidate? Looking at the losses in down-ballot races, it is hard not to conclude that the problem is the brand.

Read the whole dang thing there by pressing HERE!

HOW DO YOU SPELL A LANDSLIDE VICTORY? A PICTURE HAS ALL THE LETTERS…

Boy was I wrong! To be honest with you, I never thought an Electoral College landslide victory would ever be possible again. But the Democrat Party of abortion and anti-science, anti-DNA far left ideology when it comes to boys/men becoming girls/women and frequenting girl and women’s bathrooms and locker rooms and competing on their teams, MADE IT POSSIBLE!

WELL, I’LL GIVE THEM AN “E” FOR “EFFORT” BUT, TO BE FRANK, IT MAKES ME DIZZY AND SEASICK! IT’S JUST TOO MUCH AND TOO BUSY AND EYE DISORIENTING!

 To be honest with you the “before” plain look isn’t that bad. I don’t think the church needed to be duded up as much as it is. It is too much and too eye-disorienting. The “after” ceiling approach should have been the approach to the walls.

And then you have that busy red carpet runner adding to the seasickness! 

While I like the attached altar, it should have had the ability for the Mass to be celebrated toward the nave too. The reason I say this is because that diocese might get a bishop who will demand that the Mass be celebrated toward the nave. Then they’ll have to put another altar out in front of the current one and you once again have the two back to back altars that so many places have and even with new construction. It makes no sense to me!

Before and After: St. Ann's Catholic Church in Plattsburg, Missouri

Before:

After:

(Mystery question): If you look above, there is a door to the sacristy, where the Sacred Heart statute is in the first photo below. How does one access the sacristy now, as there appears to be no door to it behind the altar? 

THE sYNODAL cHURCH RATHER THAN THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH UNDERMINES A BISHOP’S AUHORITY ONCE AGAIN, UNDERMINES APOSTOLIC SUCESSION…

BISHOP ABROGATES DECREE ON SACRED MUSIC IN JEFFERSON CITY

November 7th, 2024|Categories: Liturgy, Music|Tags: Bishop Shawn McKnight, Jefferson City

This is an extraordinary move from Bishop Shawn McKnight, following the uproar surrounding the banning music in his diocese:  

Read More

My comments: Recently, the Bishop of Jefferson, issued a very good, direct and much needed censoring of songs at Mass that contain lyrics that are less than Catholic in their theology. 

Then, after the uproar of a number of progressive liturgists and their fans, he rescinded his decree to a certain extent and has decided to approach his mission as the primary liturgists of his diocese through a synodal process. 

Let me say that I endorse consultation with clergy and laity in a diocese. Under Bishop Raymond Lessard, a very Vatican II prelate, in terms of its proper implementation, he modeled what he expected pastors to do in their parishes. We had/have pastoral councils and various committees as well as canonically required finance councils. Stewardship Councils were encouraged. 

Priests need to consult with the their parishioners before making major decisions that change something and have a large expenditure of monies. Autocratic decisions that have nothing to do with doctrines and dogmas of our Faith or go against canon law, should be tempered through consultation. 

Bishop Lessard had a Diocesan Pastoral Council consisting of two lay Catholics from each deanery in our diocese. He met with them at least twice a year although it might have been quarterly.

But when it comes to the liturgy, we need experts in liturgy and theology to make decisions as well as in Canon Law and the rubrics of the Mass.

Music is a major problem for the Reformed Mass and it has been so since 1964 and the first minor revision of the 1962 Roman Missal. Junk is and was allowed and by junk, not just that sacred words are set to secular notes and genres of music, but that the words of many songs are heterodox.

We need dogmatic theologians to critique the words of hymns and what is or isn’t appropriate for the Mass. We don’t need those who base their statements only on opinion and what they like making those decisions.

Hopefully, Bishop McKnight’s synodal approach will not dumb down the Church or her liturgy, but shore it up with those making decisions based upon sound doctrine and liturgy. 

Bishops are the primary liturgists for their diocese. However, they must follow the Doctrines and dogmas of the Church. They must follow Canon Law and they must make decisions in line with the rubrics of the Mass and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. 

They can make unilateral decisions that upholds the Catholic Faith, its doctrines and morals and how the liturgy is to be celebrated without consulting with those who know very little to nothing about these teachings and canon laws. 

POLITICAL ELITISM AND SECULAR CLERICALISM

A CNN commentator called out Democrat elitists by saying,  they have become “smarty pants, tea and crumpets elitist college educated progressives looking down their nose at everyone else especially blue collar, non college educated people.” Political clericalism anyone?

These smarty pants Democrats have betrayed Catholics and the Catholic Church in general. They pandered more to the “nones” that those engaged in their Catholic Faith and have made abortion their sacrament.

Vice President Harris has a track record of anti-Catholic sentiments. I bet she now regrets not going to the New York Catholic Gala and sent a stupid, insulting to Catholics video! I bet she regrets telling a Christian who shouted “Jesus is Lord” at one of her rallies, that he was at the wrong rally!

The elitists of the smarty pants cabal of leaders in the Democrat party are:

1. Celebrities who think people love their ideas and political opinions, Oprah being the biggest problem

2. Aging democrats from another era, like the two Obamas, Pelosi, the Clintons. Did I say Pelosi? Talk about someone who is out of touch and did more in the last two days of the Harris’ campaign to do her in.

3. And their rhetoric, by calling supporters of President Trump and Trump himself, fascists, Nazis, trash, baskets of deplorables,  threats to democracy, unfit, and so on and so on. 

4. Taking jobs away from blue collar workers and expecting them to do dainty jobs that require educational and personal skills they do not have, thus leaving them in danger of going homeless and not able to support their families

5. Thinking that solar panels, windmills and only electric cars will change the climate.

6. Democrats call practicing pro-life Catholics who are pro-life, abortion phobic. They continue to call everyone out as being phobic on every stupid ideology they support, from LGBTQ+++++ stupidity to masculinity, which they call toxic and pro-life people who they call backwards and a threat to women’s freedom! They want men in girl’s bathrooms, locker rooms and on their teams.

One Democrat commenters on my blog is a prime example of Democrat condescension. This is what he wrote: “ The pope did not frame the election as you suggest. Your reading skills, as you often exhibit, are poor and tend to be self-serving. 2. "Half the nation" would be 165 million. Only 138 million voted, so "half the nation" is more than a slight exaggeration. 21% of the nation voted Trump. Poor math skills to go with the reading problems...” That commenter departed America before the election for an exotic vacation, not realizing that the America he will soon return to has completely changed and his party is in complete meltdown because of themselves. There is no one else to blame!

Tea and crumpet democrats who look down their noses at those who disagree with them both in their own party and those who are of other parties, especially those who support President Trump. 

God and what He has created will not be mocked and Divine retribution is always a possibility especially at the Final Consummation of the world and the Last Judgement which climate change may well be a harbinger! 

President Trump’s landslide victory over Democrat stupidity and clericalism can be seen as a sign of God’s Divine Retribution, no?

POST ELECTION PRAYER FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! 🇺🇸

Post Election Prayer for our Nation:

God of all nations, Father of the human family,

we give you thanks for the freedom we exercise

and the many blessings of democracy we enjoy

in these United States of America.

We ask for your protection and guidance

for all who devote themselves to the common good,

working for justice and peace at home and around the world.

We lift up all our duly elected leaders and public servants, in particular President Elect Donald Trump and Vice President Elect JD Vance and those who will serve us as legislators and judges, those in the military and law enforcement.

Heal us from our differences and unite us, O Lord, with a common purpose, dedication, and commitment to achieve liberty and justice in the years ahead for all people, and especially those who are most vulnerable in our midst. 

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

THANK YOU POPE FRANCIS FOR FRAMING THE AMERICAN ELECTION AS A CHOICE BETWEEN THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS!

History is repeating itself from 2016 and 2024. This morning at 1:50 am Fox News declared President Trump the winner. CNN at this same time, is trying to show how Vice President Harris could win. The same thing happened at both networks in 2016. Pope Francis framed the American election as choosing the lesser of two evils. When it comes to the foundational pro-life issue, the right to life of the unborn, President Trump is clearly the lesser of two evils compared to Vice President Harris. Pope Francis, at the same time, called abortion murder and hiring a hit man to carry it out. God willing, both Republicans and Democrats will move back to a truly pro-life ethos with the right to life of the unborn foundational.

IS SYNODALITY AND THE RHETORIC OF TODAS, TODAS, TODAS, I.E. INCLUSION, THE MEANS TO BRING ABOUT A CHURCH DIFFERENT FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, A WOKE SYNODAL CHURCH ?

 Bishop Baron’s critique of the movie “Conclave”? I am sure Pope Francis Jesuit pal, Fr. James Martin, gives all of this a 👍’s up!

BOTH MY CAT, KUDO KAT, AND ME ALREADY VOTED AND FOR THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS…

 Yes! Both of us have already voted and for the lesser of two evils as Pope Francis frames the American election. I honored Kudo Kat’s right to privacy in the voting booth and did not press her on her vote but she is partial to kat ladies 🐈‍⬛….I was a bit suspicious when a Russian Blue Persian came by to register Kudo Kat to vote, hmm…

POPE FRANCIS’ ALL SOULS’ MASS

 And the Proper Entrance Chant was chanted in Latin. But, but, but, the synodal church would have wanted On Eagle’s Wings or Be Not Afraid or How Great Thou Art or Amazing Grace. But the penultimate song for purgatory is All Are Welcome!

THE STATE OF THE MODERN VERNACULAR MASS TODAY, MAKES ME WANT TO PULL OUT MY HAIR, WHICH IS NOT TOO HARD TO DO AS THERE IS SO LITTLE!

I gave kudos to Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City for banning certain hymns that the Liturgy Commission of the USCCB had banned a few years ago. 

But isn't that one of the main problems with the Modern Mass which everyone wants to adjust or fix because no one is actually thrilled with it and we are always finding ways to fix it?

Recently I, and the synodal congregation in front of me, celebrated Sunday Mass at St. Francis by the Sea here on Hilton Head Island. I was thrilled that the Processional Chant was actually the English version of the Entrance Chant but sung in a responsorial fashion. One did not even need the words and music in front of them. The cantor, chanted the refrain and everyone repeated and then the verses were chanted to organ accompaniment. In other words it was done as the Responsorial Psalm is done. The setting was very nice and singable. 

It was completed with the Gloria Patri and final refrain. It was great and I was able to bow at the words, Glory be to the Father...

There is no need for the liturgy planner to pick some kind of hymn for any sung Mass. Sing what is prescribed. The official Entrance Chant, the offertory and Communion antiphons should never be changed to something else, like "All are Welcome" "Ashes" and the "You Who" Song--aka, Eagle's Wings!

These are Scripture passages as important to the Liturgy as the Scriptures in the Liturgy of the Word! The danger, for the Liturgy of the Word, is the synodal "church" that would want people not to listen to God's Word but rather to heterodox Catholics bloviating about things they want to change. Perhpas the synodal church will remove the Gospel from the Liturgy of the Word and read on-going segments of the Synod on Synod's final document which Pope Francis adopted as a part of His Holiness' synodal magisterium. 

In the spoken or sung TLM, never, ever, was it permitted to omit chanting or saying the Introit, Offertory and Communion Chants! Never!

Reform the MVM by restoring the sanity of the the TLM as it concerns these chants and stop using made-up hymns of whatever type. I don't have much more hair to pull out!

WHY WOULD THE BISHOP OF JEFFERSON CITY FORBID THE CELTIC ALLELUIA, SENDING FORTH????

 Does anyone know the official reason why this popular ditty would be banned?

WOW! JUST WOW!

 Our Lady of Mount Carmel, located in Newport News, Virginia

Before (not horrible):

After (stunning)and please note how two altars appear as one:

See full article here

THANK YOU BISHOP SHAWN MCKNIGHT OF JEFFERSON CITY!!!

 

WHY SYNODALITY WILL NOT BE EMBRACED BY MOST CATHOLICS, BISHOPS, LOWER CLERGY AND LAITY! AND JESUIT FATHER THOMAS REESE UNWITTINGLY GIVES THE REASON!

 If you want to know why synodality will not gain the sensus fidelium of 99.9% of the Church, clergy, religious and laity, all you have to do is read Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese's opinion piece in the National "catholic" Reporter:

Synodality demands transparency and accountability from bishops

I won't quote anything in his article as you can read it for yourself by pressing the opinion piece's title. 

Most commentators are saying that the Synod on Synodality was an exercise in Catholicism Lite, and vapid "spirit" of Vatican II thinking placed on steroids. 

The walking together and listening to each other seems to have omitted the primacy of listening to God first, through Scripture, Tradition and the 2000 year history of the Magisterium of the Church, especially the early Church Fathers. 

 

The final document, now added to Pope Francis papal magisterium, is embarrassingly vapid and not worth the paper or electronic medium on which it is read. 

But let's get back to Fr. Reese's opinion piece. If you read it, you will note that he says nothing about synodality enabling all the baptized to hear the Word of God in Scripture and Tradition, to be converted by God's grace alone to Divine Truth and to be saved from the fires of hell by fidelity to the Divine Person of Jesus Christ and all that He has revealed consistently to the Church since His public ministry to the current day. 

 

There's nothing about morality based upon our Judeo-Christian patrimony. There's nothing about the Blessed Mother and the other saints. Nor is there mention of the angels.

 

There is nothing offered as to how Catholics can be evangelizers in their homes, work places and the public square. It is only about power in administrative things of the Church and manipulating the defined teachings of the Church to please the worldliness of heterodox Catholics who are power hungry politicians seeking to implement their own worldly ideological points of view upon the entire Church of Christ. 

 

Rather, for Reese, and evidently for the pope too, synodality is about going to meetings only and making sure the laity are consulted and have power through parliamentary means, to control what happens in the parish, the diocese, the national Church and the Universal Church. 

It's like the Seinfeld TV show of old, it really is about nothing, except administration and more meetings for bishops and priest to attend, which in the USA, is already on steroids. 

What a crock synodality as promoted by the current magisterium is and will be. It will die a merciful and happy death as soon as this papacy is over, God willing!

SHOULD THERE BE DEVOTIONAL PRAYERS IMMEDIATELY AFTER MASS LED BY THE PRIEST, SUCH AS THE SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL PRAYER?

 This is from Rorate Caeli:

Paprocki defends Saint Michael prayer in Wall Street Journal

A retired priest, Rev. Gerald Bednar, in the Diocese of Cleveland -- the former vice rector of the seminary there -- had a letter to the editor published in the Wall Street Journal, taking an opportunity to oppose reciting the Saint Michael prayer after Mass, which is done at nearly all traditional Latin Low Masses, as well as a growing number of novus ordo liturgies in conservative parishes.

Father Bednar's letter from a few days ago follows. So does one, published in today's paper, from His Excellency Thomas John Paprocki, bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois.

My common sense and astute comments:

As a rule, my own preference is no to devotional prayers prior, during and after Mass! But let me explain. In the TLM, the Leonine Prayers are only prayed following the Low Mass only. There are no devotional prayers after a High or Solemn High Mass, during the week or on Sunday. 

In the Modern Vernacular Mass, MVM, no devotional prayers are prescribed and the Leonine Prayers have been suppressed (some would say these are suppressed also for the TLM's Low Mass).  

Because of all of the other silliness that is allowed within the MVM, such as the priest's verbal diarrhea, not prescribed, prior to the Penitential Act, after the homily and after Holy Communion,  and additional things added to the Mass during the Mass, many also add all kinds of prayers and devotions immediately prior to Mass and after to Mass.

At least in the TLM, in the USA, prior to Vatican II, the recitation of the Leonine Prayers was mandated by the bishops of the American Church only for the Low Mass and this was to combat Communism and pray for the conversion of Russian Communists back to Christianity. It was anti-communist!

With the MVM and its loss of Low, High and Solemn High descriptives,  things are added to any style of Mass, spoken or sung, partially or in total.

But today, it is the pastor's directive which devotional prayers are prayed or no devotional prayers prayed in his parish. In one parish where I assist, the St. Michael Prayer is prayed after every Mass, daily and Sunday. And immediately prior to Mass, the Angelus is recited. Of course, because of this, everyone who attends this parish regularly knows these prayers by heart. I guess that is the reason it is done. We don't get our people back for popular devotions, so we force these devotions on everyone who attends Mass during the week or on Sunday. 

Today, bishops and priests do whatever they want to do at Mass, from ignoring rubrics to making up their own, from ad libbing many parts of the Mass to adding their own concoctions of prayers and devotions during Mass. 

I say, read the red and do the black. Stop the insanity of priestly individualism at Mass! Unless it is prescribed by bishops, do no popular devotions before or after Sunday Mass (daily Mass might be exempt but that too needs vigilance by the bishops).

But all of this hinges on proper liturgical formation of bishops and priests, not the individualism we have today. We need to recover the discipline of the TLM when it comes to doing the red and reading the black. But I fear we need a change in the top leadership of the Church and a younger generation of JPII and Benedict XVI bishops and priests to courageously bring discipline and sanity back to the hierarchy and laity. 

Keep in mind, too, that the Recessional Hymn is not prescribed for the MVM

AS WE SAID IT IN THE 1960’S, WILD MAN, JUST WILD!

 This is a parish church in the Philippines. I am sure the parishioners are proud of it. I am proud of them for the Benedictine altar arrangement! 

MASS THIS MORNING AT SAINT PETER’S REVEALS STUNNING RESTORATION OF THE BALDACCHINO

 

Pope: May we be a Church on the move, sharing the joy of the Gospel

At the concluding Mass of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis encourages us to be like Bartimaeus in today's Gospel and "entrust our blindness to the Lord" in order to be "a missionary Church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world."

By Thaddeus Jones

Marking the conclusion of the XVIth Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis presided over the Synod's closing Mass on Sunday 27 October in Saint Peter's Basilica. The Pope gave thanks to the Lord for the "journey we have made together" in the Synod on Synodality that began three years ago with local, regional and continental meetings, culminating in month-long October meetings at the Vatican in 2023 and concluding in 2024.

The newly restored relic of the ancient Chair of Saint Peter and Bernini Baldachin featured prominently in the video coverage of the celebration. The Pope recalled how the Chair represents love, unity and mercy, and the call to service according to Jesus' command to the Apostle Peter, while the Baldachin helps us rediscover the glory of the Holy Spirit, "the true focal point of the entire basilica."

Recognizing our own blindness

In his homily Pope Francis recalled today's Gospel narrative of the blind man Bartimaeus helped by the Lord who cries out to Him asking to regain his sight. Resdiscovering his sight, Bartimaeus joyfully sets out to follow Jesus along the way.

The Pope explained how Bartimaeus represents the "inner blindness" we all can have that can holds us back from "the dynamism of life" and having any hope. This can also affect us as Church, the Pope added, where we can become "incapable of perceiving the presence of the Lord, unprepared to face the challenges of reality" and at times unable to respond adequately "to the questions of so many who cry out to us."

“We cannot remain inert before the questions raised by the women and men of today, before the challenges of our time, the urgency of evangelization and the many wounds that afflict humanity.”

The Pope warned that "a sedentary Church" that "confines itself to the margins of reality" risks remaining blind and will "fail to grasp the urgency of giving a pastoral response to the many problems of our world."

Crying out to the Lord

By remembering that "the Lord is passing by", the Church can be like Bartimaeus as a community of disciples who hear the Lord, go out to seek Him, and "feel the joy of salvation...awakened by the power of the Gospel." The Church in turn does this "when it takes up the cry of all the women and men of the world" who seek the joy of the Gospel, wish to rediscover faith, or are set back by suffering, poverty or marginalization.

“We do not need a sedentary and defeatist Church, but a Church that hears the cry of the world and gets its hands dirty in serving.”

Following the Lord

Just as Bartimaeus cried out to the Lord in faith and hope, may we do the same, the Pope said, as we also recognize God's action in our lives and  set out to follow him. Whenever we are set back by weakness or inertia, may we find the strength and courage "to arise and continue along the path", returning to the Lord and his Gospel.

“Again and again, as (the Lord) passes by, we need to listen to His call so that we can get back on our feet and He can heal our blindness; and then we can follow Him once more, and walk with Him along the way.”

As the Gospel recounts that Bartimaeus “followed (the Lord) on the way”, the Pope suggested how this offers an image of the synodal Church when the Lord calls us, helps us up when we are lacking intertia or have fallen, and restores our sight so that "we can perceive the anxieties and sufferings of the world in the light of the Gospel." 

“Let us remember never to walk alone or according to worldly criteria, but instead to journey together, behind him and alongside him.”

Bringing the light of the Gospel

The Pope emphasized that we need to be "a Church on her feet...not a silent Church, but a Church that embraces the cry of humanity" and is enlightened by Christ bringing the light of the Gospel to others.  

“Not a static Church, but a missionary Church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world.”

In conclusion, the Pope gave thanks once again for the synodal journey undertaken and that we may "continue our journey together with confidence." And like Bartimaeus, may be "take heart" in hearing the Lord's call, entrusting our blindness to the Lord, rising up and once again carrying "the joy of the Gospel through the streets of the world."

“This is the synodal Church: a community whose primacy lies in the gift of the Spirit, who makes us all brothers and sisters in Christ and raises us up to him.”

WAS THE SYNOD ON SYNODS A COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME, MONEY AND 1970’S THINKING? BACKWARDIST?

 

Whatever you think Crux nails it:

An excerpt:

Francis also announced Saturday night that unlike in past synods, this time there will be no apostolic exhortation to draw conclusions – the final document will stand on its own as the closing act. In this way, Francis has short-circuited the possibility that activists disappointed with the lack of breakthroughs from the synod might hope to get them from the pope.

As to why the pontiff chose this path, a variety of explanations are possible. Perhaps the example of the German synodal way, with its seemingly real risk of schism, provided a cautionary tale; perhaps the pontiff didn’t want the jubilee year in 2025 to be overshadowed by narratives of a Catholic civil war.

Whatever the reason, Francis has engineered a denouement to his synod that may not stir anyone’s imagination, but neither will it create many new fault lines. To put the point differently, the conservative wing of the church may not have been well represented in the synod hall, but it did seem to be present in the calculations of the synod’s founding father.

So, is the outcome of the synod a letdown – a case of going out with a whimper rather than a bang?

Perhaps, although there is another perspective to consider. In a deeply divided and polarized age, the fact the Catholic church could stage such a massive consultative exercise and still somehow manage to hold everyone together at the end, even if no one’s fully satisfied, has to rate as a minor miracle – and, come to think of it, maybe not so minor after all.

Read the rest there