Wednesday, December 23, 2015
T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS EVE
'Twas
the night before Christmas Eve, when all through the rectory
not a creature was stirring, not even a secretary.
The ministry schedule was hung on the bulletin board with care,
in hopes that those scheduled soon would be there.
not a creature was stirring, not even a secretary.
The ministry schedule was hung on the bulletin board with care,
in hopes that those scheduled soon would be there.
The
altar servers were all negligent not daring to care,
while visions of iPads danced in their stares.
And vicar in his biretta, and I in mine,
had just settled our complaints for a long Christmas night.
while visions of iPads danced in their stares.
And vicar in his biretta, and I in mine,
had just settled our complaints for a long Christmas night.
When
out in the parking lot there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.
The
sun on the breast of the old asphalt lot
gave the lustre of doom to objects that park,
when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but extraordinary ministers dressed in gym gear.
gave the lustre of doom to objects that park,
when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but extraordinary ministers dressed in gym gear.
With
little old lectors, so dull and boring,
I knew in a moment it must be a rehearsal for liturgical moaning.
More lethargic than slugs, their coursers they came,
and they hemmed and hawed and called me names:
I knew in a moment it must be a rehearsal for liturgical moaning.
More lethargic than slugs, their coursers they came,
and they hemmed and hawed and called me names:
"Now pastor! Now vicar!
Now, throw backs to pre-Vatican II'ers!
On, preachers! O Judges!
On, useless and vindictives!
To the top of the porch!
To the top of the wall!
Now leave us alone! Go away!
go away all!"
Now, throw backs to pre-Vatican II'ers!
On, preachers! O Judges!
On, useless and vindictives!
To the top of the porch!
To the top of the wall!
Now leave us alone! Go away!
go away all!"
As
dry liturgical creativity that before the wild Liturgy fly,
when they meet with the clericalism of the pastor, they mount a petition to the bishop;
so up to the chancery the coursers they flew,
with the sleigh full of complaints, and a copy of Vatican too.
when they meet with the clericalism of the pastor, they mount a petition to the bishop;
so up to the chancery the coursers they flew,
with the sleigh full of complaints, and a copy of Vatican too.
And
then, in a twinkling, I heard the phone ring
and heard the screeching and complaining of the vicar general insane.
As I drew in my breath and was turning around,
down the phone line the reprimand came with a pound.
and heard the screeching and complaining of the vicar general insane.
As I drew in my breath and was turning around,
down the phone line the reprimand came with a pound.
It
was dressed all in fury, from the beginning to the end,
and his voice was all hoarse with epitaphs and coarse.
A bundle of insults he had flung at my ear,
and he sounded like a Soprano just hoping kill.
and his voice was all hoarse with epitaphs and coarse.
A bundle of insults he had flung at my ear,
and he sounded like a Soprano just hoping kill.
His
voice--how it screeched! His words, how stern!
His vocabulary was like a sailors, his tenner like a mortal sinner!
His droll little diatribe was drawn up like a bow,
and the arrow in his quiver was like a missal that made me shiver.
His vocabulary was like a sailors, his tenner like a mortal sinner!
His droll little diatribe was drawn up like a bow,
and the arrow in his quiver was like a missal that made me shiver.
The stamp of his foot he pounded like an anvil,
and the smoke of his wrath encircled his my head like a mantle.
It had a broad affect and not just a little to worry ,
that shook me to my soul, like a book full of black mold.
and the smoke of his wrath encircled his my head like a mantle.
It had a broad affect and not just a little to worry ,
that shook me to my soul, like a book full of black mold.
He
was staunch and mean and not at all a jolly old elf,
and I cried when I heard him, in spite of myself.
A slam of the phone and the shock of a click
made me blink.
and I cried when I heard him, in spite of myself.
A slam of the phone and the shock of a click
made me blink.
He
spoke no more words, but went straight to his work ,
and scribbled an evaluation which left little to the imagination .
And laying his tongue to envelope,
and giving a nod, off to the post office it rose.
and scribbled an evaluation which left little to the imagination .
And laying his tongue to envelope,
and giving a nod, off to the post office it rose.
The postman sprang to the truck, then
gave a whistle,
And away it all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard the bishop exclaim, 'ere the truck drove out of sight,
And away it all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard the bishop exclaim, 'ere the truck drove out of sight,
"happy
clappy Masses to all, and to all a good night!"
RE-ACCESSING SPOTLIGHT
He said he did and that he liked it and that it should be a must-see for seminarians and clergy.
He said that it presented the whole scandal in a fair and balanced way to include looking at the culture in Boston that refused to acknowledge the elephant in the room, which also included the Boston Globe. It implicated police, lawyers, judges and politicians in the cover up and also reporters and not just the institutional Church.
It also pointed out that not only did the Church (meaning the bishops, but Catholics in general who are a part of the Church, by the way) want to hush this but also many victims and their parents. They didn't want a public free for all concerning their children and were happy with settlements that included nondisclosure clauses. Teenagers themselves, at the time, didn't want others to know what had happened because of the stigma associated with homosexual sexual abuse.
So, even the Boston Globe was late in reporting this as it began in 2000 or so. However, the Bishops of the USA where publicly speaking about this prior to the Globe's spotlight review in their televised national meetings on EWTN. And of courese we know that the National Catholic Reporter did an expose on it beginning in the early 1980's and continuing through the next two decades.
How the Irish culture's repressive attitudes (puritanical/Jansenist) towards sex and silence about it played into this has not been well studied. Keep in mind, that Catholicism in the northeast (New England) is primarily Catholicism of Irish immigrants. I think there is a higher occurrence of sexual abuse and secrecy concerning sex in general and not dealing with the elephant in the room in Irish culture and cultures more repressive when it come to sex, seeing sex as dirty and the dirtiness of it the erotic element. Sounds like our pop culture concerning sex today and the pornographic elements of it so much a part of people's lives today.
I was emailing one of the important reporters on the Boston Globe at the time (we had a nice email relationship) and I told him that the Boston Globe was way behind the Catholic Church in reporting this, by missing what the Bishops were discussing on national TV at their meetings and what the NCR had reported.
The Boston Globe hasn't learned much from this as their culture of silence concerning sexual abuse in venues apart from the Church, such as in the family and in public schools is not reported at all.
SOLEMN SUNG MASS AT MIDNIGHT: SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH, MACON, GEORGIA
Our Solemn Sung Midnight Mass will be in the Ordinary Form in English, however, it will have the EF's Rite of Sprinkling Holy Water as a prelude to the Introit. The Introit will be the traditional Midnight Mass Introit chanted in Latin in the traditional Manner. The Kyrie in Greek in the traditional EF format, the Gloria and Credo III chanted in Latin.
This Ordinary Form Mass will have a deacon and subdeacon and their movements choreographed as would be in the EF Solemn Sung Mass. The Mass will be celebrated ad orientem.
Following the Solemn Blessing and Dismissal, the Last Gospel will be chanted as a postlude prior to the recessional hymn.
Christmas Mass at Midnight
Organ: “Fantasia on ’Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’” Alec Wyton
Cinda Ortiz, Trumpet
The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ: Fr. Vernon Knight
Processional Hymn Prelude to Mass: “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
Choir and Congregation
1.Adeste fideles . . . Choir only.
2.O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant;
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him, born the King of angels;
Refrain: O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him;
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!
3.Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest! Refrain.
Asperges Prelude
“You will sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I shall be cleansed;
you will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow.”
Cantors
Priest: Show us, O Lord, your mercy.
People: And grant us your salvation.
Priest: O Lord, hear my prayer.
People: And let my cry come unto you.
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Introductory Rite
Introit “The Lord said unto me: You are My Son, this day have I begotten You.” Why do the nations so furiously rage together: and why do the peoples imagine a vain thing? Gloria be...Refrain. Cantors
Priest: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Penitential Act
Confiteor
All: I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do,
And, striking their breast, they say:
through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Priest: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.
People: Amen.
Kyrie (Lord, have mercy) Missa di Angelis
Gloria: Missa de Angelis Hymnal #106
Collect
The Liturgy of the Word
First Reading
Psalm
Alleluia
Second Reading
Homily
Profession of Faith: Credo III (Latin) Hymnal #213
Universal Prayer (chanted)
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
Music at the Offertory:
Offertory Antiphon: Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad before the Lord: for He is come.
“Born in Bethlehem” Stephen Hough
Mass Setting: “Mass of Creation” Marty Haugen
Holy, Holy
Memorial Acclamation
Great Amen
Pater Noster
Agnus Dei (Took's Holy Trinity Mass)
Instructions on Receiving Holy Communion
We invite those practicing Catholics who are in a state of grace (free of mortal sin or any other impediment) to come and receive Holy Communion. If you are not able to receive Holy Communion, you may come forward to receive a blessing; please indicate your desire for this blessing by crossing your arms over your chest. Please kneel along the entire length of the altar railing.
Music at Communion: Choir and Congregation
Communion Antiphon: The Word became Flesh and we have seen His glory.
“Angels We Have Heard on High”
1.Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply Echo back their joyous strains.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
2.Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong?
Say what may the tidings be, Which inspire your heavenly song.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
3.Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come adore, on bended knee, Christ, the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
“Silent Night”
1.Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright
‘Round yon Virgin Mother and child, Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.
2.Silent night, holy night, Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar, Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia;
Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born.
3.Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Meditation after Communion: “Cantique de Noël” Adolphe Adam
Richard Kosowski, Tenor
Blessing and Dismissal
Last Gospel Postlude (All genuflect at “AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH.”)
Recessional Hymn: “Joy to the World”
1.Joy to the world, the Lord is come: Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heav’n and nature sing . . . .
2.Joy to the world! The Savior reigns: Let all their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy . . . .
3.He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love . . . .
Postlude: “Noel Suisse” Claude Daquin
* * * * * *
Father Allan J. McDonald, Pastor
Father Vernon Knight, Parochial Vicar
Monsignor John Cuddy, Priest (Retired)
Deacon Don Coates Deacon Tom Eden
* * * * *
Trumpets: Cinda Ortiz, Jermaine Morell, Jabari Thomas
Timpani: Rob Sumowski
Kerrell Goolsby, Baritone
Dr. Richard Kosowski, Tenor Beau Palmer, Tenor
The Choirs of St. Joseph
Nelda M. Chapman, Organist and Director of Music
This Ordinary Form Mass will have a deacon and subdeacon and their movements choreographed as would be in the EF Solemn Sung Mass. The Mass will be celebrated ad orientem.
Following the Solemn Blessing and Dismissal, the Last Gospel will be chanted as a postlude prior to the recessional hymn.
Christmas Mass at Midnight
Organ: “Fantasia on ’Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’” Alec Wyton
Cinda Ortiz, Trumpet
The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ: Fr. Vernon Knight
Processional Hymn Prelude to Mass: “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
Choir and Congregation
1.Adeste fideles . . . Choir only.
2.O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant;
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him, born the King of angels;
Refrain: O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him;
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!
3.Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest! Refrain.
Asperges Prelude
“You will sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I shall be cleansed;
you will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow.”
Cantors
Priest: Show us, O Lord, your mercy.
People: And grant us your salvation.
Priest: O Lord, hear my prayer.
People: And let my cry come unto you.
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Introductory Rite
Introit “The Lord said unto me: You are My Son, this day have I begotten You.” Why do the nations so furiously rage together: and why do the peoples imagine a vain thing? Gloria be...Refrain. Cantors
Priest: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Penitential Act
Confiteor
All: I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do,
And, striking their breast, they say:
through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Priest: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.
People: Amen.
Kyrie (Lord, have mercy) Missa di Angelis
Gloria: Missa de Angelis Hymnal #106
Collect
The Liturgy of the Word
First Reading
Psalm
Alleluia
Second Reading
Homily
Profession of Faith: Credo III (Latin) Hymnal #213
Universal Prayer (chanted)
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
Music at the Offertory:
Offertory Antiphon: Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad before the Lord: for He is come.
“Born in Bethlehem” Stephen Hough
Mass Setting: “Mass of Creation” Marty Haugen
Holy, Holy
Memorial Acclamation
Great Amen
Pater Noster
Agnus Dei (Took's Holy Trinity Mass)
Instructions on Receiving Holy Communion
We invite those practicing Catholics who are in a state of grace (free of mortal sin or any other impediment) to come and receive Holy Communion. If you are not able to receive Holy Communion, you may come forward to receive a blessing; please indicate your desire for this blessing by crossing your arms over your chest. Please kneel along the entire length of the altar railing.
Music at Communion: Choir and Congregation
Communion Antiphon: The Word became Flesh and we have seen His glory.
“Angels We Have Heard on High”
1.Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply Echo back their joyous strains.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
2.Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong?
Say what may the tidings be, Which inspire your heavenly song.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
3.Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come adore, on bended knee, Christ, the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
“Silent Night”
1.Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright
‘Round yon Virgin Mother and child, Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.
2.Silent night, holy night, Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar, Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia;
Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born.
3.Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Meditation after Communion: “Cantique de Noël” Adolphe Adam
Richard Kosowski, Tenor
Blessing and Dismissal
Last Gospel Postlude (All genuflect at “AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH.”)
Recessional Hymn: “Joy to the World”
1.Joy to the world, the Lord is come: Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heav’n and nature sing . . . .
2.Joy to the world! The Savior reigns: Let all their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy . . . .
3.He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love . . . .
Postlude: “Noel Suisse” Claude Daquin
* * * * * *
Father Allan J. McDonald, Pastor
Father Vernon Knight, Parochial Vicar
Monsignor John Cuddy, Priest (Retired)
Deacon Don Coates Deacon Tom Eden
* * * * *
Trumpets: Cinda Ortiz, Jermaine Morell, Jabari Thomas
Timpani: Rob Sumowski
Kerrell Goolsby, Baritone
Dr. Richard Kosowski, Tenor Beau Palmer, Tenor
The Choirs of St. Joseph
Nelda M. Chapman, Organist and Director of Music
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
MY CLAIRVOYANCE TELLS ME THAT THIS DISCOURSE BY POPE BENEDICT 10 YEARS AGO TODAY WILL EVENTUALLY WIN THE DAY AS WE LIVE THROUGH THE LAST THROWS OF THE WALK-BACK TO 1970'S MENTALITY
Oddly enough, Pope Francis' was forced by the Holy Spirit to give his Christmas talk to the curia in the seated position as Pope Benedict would do. Pope Francis sat because of influenza and His Holiness stated that he didn't have the strength to give the talk on his feet.
Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia
Thursday, 22 December 2005
Your Eminences,Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
“‘Expergiscere, homo: quia pro te Deus factus est homo’—Wake up, O man! For your sake God became man” (St. Augustine, Sermo, 185). With the Christmas celebrations now at hand, I am opening my Meeting with you, dear collaborators of the Roman Curia, with St. Augustine’s invitation to understand the true meaning of Christ’s birth. I address to each one my most cordial greeting and I thank you for the sentiments of devotion and affection, effectively conveyed to me by your Cardinal Dean, to whom I address my gratitude.
God became man for our sake: This is the message which, every year, from the silent grotto of Bethlehem spreads even to the most out-of-the-way corners of the earth. Christmas is a feast of light and peace, it is a day of inner wonder and joy that expands throughout the universe, because “God became man.” From the humble grotto of Bethlehem, the eternal Son of God, who became a tiny Child, addresses each one of us: He calls us, invites us to be reborn in him so that, with him, we may live eternally in communion with the Most Holy Trinity.
Our hearts brimming with the joy that comes from this knowledge, let us think back to the events of the year that is coming to an end. We have behind us great events which have left a deep mark on the life of the Church. I am thinking first and foremost of the departure of our beloved Holy Father John Paul II, preceded by a long period of suffering and the gradual loss of speech. No Pope has left us such a quantity of texts as he has bequeathed to us; no previous Pope was able to visit the whole world like him and speak directly to people from all the continents. In the end, however, his lot was a journey of suffering and silence. Unforgettable for us are the images of Palm Sunday when, holding an olive branch and marked by pain, he came to the window and imparted the Lord’s Blessing as he himself was about to walk toward the Cross. Next was the scene in his Private Chapel when, holding the Crucifix, he took part in the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, where he had so often led the procession carrying the Cross himself. Lastly came his silent Blessing on Easter Sunday, in which we saw the promise of the Resurrection, of eternal life, shine out through all his suffering. With his words and actions, the Holy Father gave us great things; equally important is the lesson he imparted to us from the chair of suffering and silence.
In his last book Memory and Identity, he has left us an interpretation of suffering that is not a theological or philosophical theory but a fruit that matured on his personal path of suffering which he walked, sustained by faith in the Crucified Lord. This interpretation, which he worked out in faith and which gave meaning to his suffering lived in communion with that of the Lord, spoke through his silent pain, transforming it into an important message. Both at the beginning and once again at the end of the book mentioned, the Pope shows that he is deeply touched by the spectacle of the power of evil, which we dramatically experienced in the century that has just ended. He says in his text: “The evil ... was not a small-scale evil. ... It was an evil of gigantic proportions, an evil which availed itself of state structures in order to accomplish its wicked work, an evil built up into a system.” Might evil be invincible? Is it the ultimate power of history? Because of the experience of evil, for Pope Wojtyla the question of redemption became the essential and central question of his life and thought as a Christian. Is there a limit against which the power of evil shatters? “Yes, there is,” the Pope replies in this book of his, as well as in his encyclical on redemption. The power that imposes a limit on evil is Divine Mercy. Violence, the display of evil, is opposed in history—as “the totally other” of God, God’s own power—by Divine Mercy. The Lamb is stronger than the dragon, we could say together with the Book of Revelation.
At the end of the book, in a retrospective review of the attack of 13 May 1981 and on the basis of the experience of his journey with God and with the world, John Paul II further deepened this answer. What limits the force of evil, the power, in brief, which overcomes it—this is how he says it—is God’s suffering, the suffering of the Son of God on the Cross: “The suffering of the Crucified God is not just one form of suffering alongside others. ... In sacrificing himself for us all, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering, opening up a new dimension, a new order: the order of love. ... The passion of Christ on the Cross gave a radically new meaning to suffering, transforming it from within. ... It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with the flame of love. ... All human suffering, all pain, all infirmity contains within itself a promise of salvation; ... evil is present in the world partly so as to awaken our love, our self-gift in generous and disinterested service to those visited by suffering. ... Christ has redeemed the world: “By his wounds we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5).”
All this is not merely learned theology, but the expression of a faith lived and matured through suffering. Of course, we must do all we can to alleviate suffering and prevent the injustice that causes the suffering of the innocent. However, we must also do the utmost to ensure that people can discover the meaning of suffering and are thus able to accept their own suffering and to unite it with the suffering of Christ. In this way, it is merged with redemptive love and consequently becomes a force against the evil in the world.
The response across the world to the Pope’s death was an overwhelming demonstration of gratitude for the fact that in his ministry he offered himself totally to God for the world; a thanksgiving for the fact that in a world full of hatred and violence he taught anew love and suffering in the service of others; he showed us, so to speak, in the flesh, the Redeemer, redemption, and gave us the certainty that indeed, evil does not have the last word in the world.
I would now like to mention, if briefly, another two events also initiated by Pope John Paul II: They are the World Youth Day celebrated in Cologne and the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, which also ended the Year of the Eucharist inaugurated by Pope John Paul II. The World Youth Day has lived on as a great gift in the memory of those present. More than a million young people gathered in the city of Cologne on the Rhine River and in the neighboring towns to listen together to the Word of God, to pray together, to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist, to sing and to celebrate together, to rejoice in life and to worship and receive the Lord in the Eucharist during the great meetings on Saturday evening and Sunday. Joy simply reigned throughout those days. Apart from keeping order, the police had nothing to do—the Lord had gathered his family, tangibly overcoming every frontier and barrier, and in the great communion between us, he made us experience his presence.
The motto chosen for those days—“We have come to worship him!”—contained two great images which encouraged the right approach from the outset. First there was the image of the pilgrimage, the image of the person who, looking beyond his own affairs and daily life, sets out in search of his essential destination, the truth, the right life, God. This image of the person on his way toward the goal of life contained another two clear indications. First of all, there was the invitation not to see the world that surrounds us solely as raw material with which we can do something, but to try to discover in it “the Creator’s handwriting,” the creative reason and the love from which the world was born and of which the universe speaks to us, if we pay attention, if our inner senses awaken and acquire perception of the deepest dimensions of reality. As a second element there is a further invitation: to listen to the historical revelation which alone can offer us the key to the interpretation of the silent mystery of creation, pointing out to us the practical way toward the true Lord of the world and of history, who conceals himself in the poverty of the stable in Bethlehem.
The other image contained in the World Youth Day motto was the person worshipping: “We have come to worship him.” Before any activity, before the world can change there must be worship. Worship alone sets us truly free; worship alone gives us the criteria for our action. Precisely in a world in which guiding criteria are absent and the threat exists that each person will be a law unto himself, it is fundamentally necessary to stress worship.
For all those who were present the intense silence of that million young people remains unforgettable, a silence that united and uplifted us all when the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was placed on the altar. Let us cherish in our hearts the images of Cologne: They are signs that continue to be valid. Without mentioning individual names, I would like on this occasion to thank everyone who made World Youth Day possible; but especially, let us together thank the Lord, for indeed, he alone could give us those days in the way in which we lived them.
The word “adoration” brings us to the second great event that I wish to talk about: the Synod of Bishops and the Year of the Eucharist. Pope John Paul II, with the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia and the apostolic letter Mane Nobiscum Domine, gave us the essential clues and at the same time, with his personal experience of Eucharistic faith, put the Church’s teaching into practice. Moreover, the Congregation for Divine Worship, in close connection with the encyclical, published the instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum as a practical guide to the correct implementation of the conciliar constitution on the liturgy and liturgical reform. In addition to all this, was it really possible to say anything new, to develop further the whole of this teaching?
This was exactly the great experience of the Synod, during which a reflection of the riches of the Eucharistic life of the Church today and the inexhaustibility of her Eucharistic faith could be perceived in the Fathers’ contributions. What the Fathers thought and expressed must be presented, in close connection with the “Propositiones” of the Synod, in a postsynodal document.
Here, once again, I only wish to underline that point which a little while ago we already mentioned in the context of World Youth Day: adoration of the Risen Lord, present in the Eucharist with flesh and blood, with body and soul, with divinity and humanity. It is moving for me to see how everywhere in the Church the joy of Eucharistic adoration is reawakening and being fruitful. In the period of liturgical reform, Mass and adoration outside it were often seen as in opposition to one another: It was thought that the Eucharistic Bread had not been given to us to be contemplated, but to be eaten, as a widespread objection claimed at that time. The experience of the prayer of the Church has already shown how nonsensical this antithesis was. Augustine had formerly said: “nemo autem illam carnem manducat, nisi prius adoraverit; peccemus non adorando’—No one should eat this flesh without first adoring It; we should sin were we not to adore It” (cf. Enarr. in Ps 98: 9 CCL XXXIX 1385).
Indeed, we do not merely receive something in the Eucharist. It is the encounter and unification of persons; the person, however, who comes to meet us and desires to unite himself to us is the Son of God. Such unification can only be brought about by means of adoration.
Receiving the Eucharist means adoring the One whom we receive. Precisely in this way and only in this way do we become one with him. Therefore, the development of Eucharistic adoration, as it took shape during the Middle Ages, was the most consistent consequence of the Eucharistic mystery itself: Only in adoration can profound and true acceptance develop. And it is precisely this personal act of encounter with the Lord that develops the social mission which is contained in the Eucharist and desires to break down barriers, not only the barriers between the Lord and us but also and above all those that separate us from one another.
The last event of this year on which I wish to reflect here is the celebration of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council 40 years ago. This memory prompts the question: What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done? No one can deny that in vast areas of the Church the implementation of the Council has been somewhat difficult, even without wishing to apply to what occurred in these years the description that St. Basil, the great Doctor of the Church, made of the Church’s situation after the Council of Nicaea: He compares her situation to a naval battle in the darkness of the storm, saying among other things: “The raucous shouting of those who through disagreement rise up against one another, the incomprehensible chatter, the confused din of uninterrupted clamoring, has now filled almost the whole of the Church, falsifying through excess or failure the right doctrine of the faith ...” (De Spiritu Sancto, XXX, 77; PG 32, 213 A; SCh 17 ff., p. 524). We do not want to apply precisely this dramatic description to the situation of the post-conciliar period, yet something from all that occurred is nevertheless reflected in it. The question arises: Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult?
Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or—as we would say today—on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarreled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit.
On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call “a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the “hermeneutic of reform,” of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God.
The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. However, the true spirit of the Council is not to be found in these compromises but instead in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.
These innovations alone were supposed to represent the true spirit of the Council, and starting from and in conformity with them, it would be possible to move ahead. Precisely because the texts would only imperfectly reflect the true spirit of the Council and its newness, it would be necessary to go courageously beyond the texts and make room for the newness in which the Council’s deepest intention would be expressed, even if it were still vague. In a word: It would be necessary [on that view] not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit. In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim.
The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. However, the Constituent Assembly needs a mandator and then confirmation by the mandator, in other words, the people the constitution must serve. The Fathers had no such mandate and no one had ever given them one; nor could anyone have given them one because the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself.
Through the sacrament they have received, bishops are stewards of the Lord’s gift. They are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1); as such, they must be found to be “faithful” and “wise” (cf. Luke 12:41-48). This requires them to administer the Lord’s gift in the right way, so that it is not left concealed in some hiding place but bears fruit, and the Lord may end by saying to the administrator: “Since you were dependable in a small matter I will put you in charge of larger affairs” (cf. Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27). These Gospel parables express the dynamic of fidelity required in the Lord’s service; and through them it becomes clear that, as in a Council, the dynamic and fidelity must converge.
The hermeneutic of discontinuity is countered by the hermeneutic of reform, as it was presented first by Pope John XXIII in his speech inaugurating the Council on 11 October 1962 and later by Pope Paul VI in his discourse for the Council’s conclusion on 7 December 1965. Here I shall cite only John XXIII’s well-known words, which unequivocally express this hermeneutic when he says that the Council wishes “to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion.” And he continues: “Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us ….” It is necessary that “adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness ...” be presented in “faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another ...,” retaining the same meaning and message (The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., p. 715).
It is clear that this commitment to expressing a specific truth in a new way demands new thinking on this truth and a new and vital relationship with it; it is also clear that new words can only develop if they come from an informed understanding of the truth expressed, and on the other hand, that a reflection on faith also requires that this faith be lived. In this regard, the program that Pope John XXIII proposed was extremely demanding, indeed, just as the synthesis of fidelity and dynamism is demanding. However, wherever this interpretation guided the implementation of the Council, new life developed and new fruit ripened. Forty years after the Council, we can show that the positive is far greater and livelier than it appeared to be in the turbulent years around 1968. Today, we see that although the good seed developed slowly, it is nonetheless growing; and our deep gratitude for the work done by the Council is likewise growing.
In his discourse closing the Council, Paul VI pointed out a further specific reason why a hermeneutic of discontinuity can seem convincing. In the great dispute about man which marks the modern epoch, the Council had to focus in particular on the theme of anthropology. It had to question the relationship between the Church and her faith on the one hand, and man and the contemporary world on the other (cf. ibid.). The question becomes even clearer if, instead of the generic term “contemporary world,” we opt for another that is more precise: The Council had to determine in a new way the relationship between the Church and the modern era.
This relationship had a somewhat stormy beginning with the Galileo case. It was then totally interrupted when Kant described “religion within pure reason” and when, in the radical phase of the French Revolution, an image of the state and the human being that practically no longer wanted to allow the Church any room was disseminated.
In the 19th century under Pius IX, the clash between the Church’s faith and a radical liberalism and the natural sciences, which also claimed to embrace with their knowledge the whole of reality to its limit, stubbornly proposing to make the “hypothesis of God” superfluous, had elicited from the Church a bitter and radical condemnation of this spirit of the modern age. Thus, it seemed that there was no longer any milieu open to a positive and fruitful understanding, and the rejection by those who felt they were the representatives of the modern era was also drastic.
In the meantime, however, the modern age had also experienced developments. People came to realize that the American Revolution was offering a model of a modern state that differed from the theoretical model with radical tendencies that had emerged during the second phase of the French Revolution. The natural sciences were beginning to reflect more and more clearly their own limitations imposed by their own method, which, despite achieving great things, was nevertheless unable to grasp the global nature of reality.
So it was that both parties were gradually beginning to open up to each other. In the period between the two World Wars and especially after the Second World War, Catholic statesmen demonstrated that a modern secular state could exist that was not neutral regarding values but alive, drawing from the great ethical sources opened by Christianity. Catholic social doctrine, as it gradually developed, became an important model between radical liberalism and the Marxist theory of the state. The natural sciences, which without reservation professed a method of their own to which God was barred access, realized ever more clearly that this method did not include the whole of reality. Hence, they once again opened their doors to God, knowing that reality is greater than the naturalistic method and all that it can encompass.
It might be said that three circles of questions had formed which then, at the time of the Second Vatican Council, were expecting an answer. First of all, the relationship between faith and modern science had to be redefined. Furthermore, this did not only concern the natural sciences but also historical science for, in a certain school, the historical-critical method claimed to have the last word on the interpretation of the Bible and, demanding total exclusivity for its interpretation of Sacred Scripture, was opposed to important points in the interpretation elaborated by the faith of the Church.
Secondly, it was necessary to give a new definition to the relationship between the Church and the modern state that would make room impartially for citizens of various religions and ideologies, merely assuming responsibility for an orderly and tolerant coexistence among them and for the freedom to practice their own religion.
Thirdly, linked more generally to this was the problem of religious tolerance—a question that required a new definition of the relationship between the Christian faith and the world religions. In particular, before the recent crimes of the Nazi regime and, in general, with a retrospective look at a long and difficult history, it was necessary to evaluate and define in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel.
These are all subjects of great importance—they were the great themes of the second part of the Council—on which it is impossible to reflect more broadly in this context. It is clear that in all these sectors, which all together form a single problem, some kind of discontinuity might emerge. Indeed, a discontinuity had been revealed but in which, after the various distinctions between concrete historical situations and their requirements had been made, the continuity of principles proved not to have been abandoned. It is easy to miss this fact at a first glance.
It is precisely in this combination of continuity and discontinuity at different levels that the very nature of true reform consists. In this process of innovation in continuity we must learn to understand more practically than before that the Church’s decisions on contingent matters—for example, certain practical forms of liberalism or a free interpretation of the Bible—should necessarily be contingent themselves, precisely because they refer to a specific reality that is changeable in itself. It was necessary to learn to recognize that in these decisions it is only the principles that express the permanent aspect, since they remain as an undercurrent, motivating decisions from within.
On the other hand, not so permanent are the practical forms that depend on the historical situation and are therefore subject to change.
Basic decisions, therefore, continue to be well grounded, whereas the way they are applied to new contexts can change. Thus, for example, if religious freedom were to be considered an expression of the human inability to discover the truth and thus become a canonization of relativism, then this social and historical necessity is raised inappropriately to the metaphysical level and thus stripped of its true meaning. Consequently, it cannot be accepted by those who believe that the human person is capable of knowing the truth about God and, on the basis of the inner dignity of the truth, is bound to this knowledge.
It is quite different, on the other hand, to perceive religious freedom as a need that derives from human coexistence, or indeed, as an intrinsic consequence of the truth that cannot be externally imposed but that the person must adopt only through the process of conviction.
The Second Vatican Council, recognizing and making its own an essential principle of the modern state with the decree on religious freedom, has recovered the deepest patrimony of the Church. By so doing she can be conscious of being in full harmony with the teaching of Jesus himself (cf. Matthew 22:21), as well as with the Church of the martyrs of all time. The ancient Church naturally prayed for the emperors and political leaders out of duty (cf. 1 Timothy 2:2); but while she prayed for the emperors, she refused to worship them and thereby clearly rejected the religion of the state.
The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in that God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one’s own faith—a profession that no state can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God’s grace in freedom of conscience. A missionary Church known for proclaiming her message to all peoples must necessarily work for the freedom of the faith. She desires to transmit the gift of the truth that exists for one and all.
At the same time, she assures peoples and their governments that she does not wish to destroy their identity and culture by doing so, but to give them, on the contrary, a response which, in their innermost depths, they are waiting for—a response with which the multiplicity of cultures is not lost but instead unity between men and women increases and thus also peace between peoples.
The Second Vatican Council, with its new definition of the relationship between the faith of the Church and certain essential elements of modern thought, has reviewed or even corrected certain historical decisions, but in this apparent discontinuity it has actually preserved and deepened her inmost nature and true identity. The Church, both before and after the Council, was and is the same Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, journeying on through time; she continues “her pilgrimage amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God,” proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes (cf. Lumen Gentium, 8).
Those who expected that with this fundamental “yes” to the modern era all tensions would be dispelled and that the “openness toward the world” accordingly achieved would transform everything into pure harmony, had underestimated the inner tensions as well as the contradictions inherent in the modern epoch. They had underestimated the perilous frailty of human nature which has been a threat to human progress in all the periods of history and in every historical constellation. These dangers, with the new possibilities and new power of man over matter and over himself, did not disappear but instead acquired new dimensions: a look at the history of the present day shows this clearly.
In our time too, the Church remains a “sign that will be opposed” (Luke 2:34)—not without reason did Pope John Paul II, then still a cardinal, give this title to the theme for the Spiritual Exercises he preached in 1976 to Pope Paul VI and the Roman Curia. The Council could not have intended to abolish the Gospel’s opposition to human dangers and errors. On the contrary, it was certainly the Council’s intention to overcome erroneous or superfluous contradictions in order to present to our world the requirement of the Gospel in its full greatness and purity.
The steps the Council took toward the modern era which had rather vaguely been presented as “openness to the world,” belong in short to the perennial problem of the relationship between faith and reason that is re-emerging in ever new forms. The situation that the Council had to face can certainly be compared to events of previous epochs.
In his First Letter, St. Peter urged Christians always to be ready to give an answer (“apologia”) to anyone who asked them for the logos, the reason for their faith (cf. 3:15). This meant that biblical faith had to be discussed and come into contact with Greek culture and learn to recognize through interpretation the separating line but also the convergence and the affinity between them in the one reason, given by God.
When, in the 13th century through the Jewish and Arab philosophers, Aristotelian thought came into contact with medieval Christianity formed in the Platonic tradition and faith and reason risked entering an irreconcilable contradiction, it was above all St. Thomas Aquinas who mediated the new encounter between faith and Aristotelian philosophy, thereby setting faith in a positive relationship with the form of reason prevalent in his time. There is no doubt that the wearing dispute between modern reason and the Christian faith, which had begun negatively with the Galileo case, went through many phases, but with the Second Vatican Council the time came when broad new thinking was required. Its content was certainly only roughly traced in the conciliar texts, but this determined its essential direction, so that the dialogue between reason and faith, particularly important today, found its bearings on the basis of the Second Vatican Council.
This dialogue must now be developed with great openmindedness but also with that clear discernment that the world rightly expects of us in this very moment. Thus, today we can look with gratitude at the Second Vatican Council: If we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church.
Lastly, should I perhaps recall once again that 19 April this year on which, to my great surprise, the College of Cardinals elected me as the Successor of Pope John Paul II, as a Successor of St Peter on the chair of the Bishop of Rome? Such an office was far beyond anything I could ever have imagined as my vocation. It was, therefore, only with a great act of trust in God that I was able to say in obedience my “yes” to this choice. Now as then, I also ask you all for your prayer, on whose power and support I rely. At the same time, I would like to warmly thank all those who have welcomed me and still welcome me with great trust, goodness and understanding, accompanying me day after day with their prayers.
Christmas is now at hand. The Lord God did not counter the threats of history with external power, as we human beings would expect according to the prospects of our world. His weapon is goodness. He revealed himself as a child, born in a stable. This is precisely how he counters with his power, completely different from the destructive powers of violence. In this very way he saves us. In this very way he shows us what saves. In these days of Christmas, let us go to meet him full of trust, like the shepherds, like the Wise Men of the East. Let us ask Mary to lead us to the Lord. Let us ask him himself to make his face shine upon us. Let us ask him also to defeat the violence in the world and to make us experience the power of his goodness. With these sentiments, I warmly impart to you all my apostolic blessing.
[Translation issued by the Holy See]
HELPING THE POOR WITH DIGNITY
Every year our parish participates in their "Gifts of Love" for Christmas. The three parishes combined as well as other financial sources provide Christmas presents for needy families FAM has assisted totaling about $34,000!
These families picked up their gifts this past Saturday. However, children were not allowed to come for the pick-up. Our program desires that the children not see the Church giving them their gifts but rather their parents. This builds up the dignity and self-worth of the parents too.
We don't want those we help to see the Church as Santa Claus but rather the Church helping people to learn how to fish rather than just giving them a fish, as the old saying goes.
Monday, December 21, 2015
FLU STRICKEN POPE FRANCIS IS AT IT AGAIN, GIVES BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS TO THE CURIA AFTER LAST YEAR'S DRESSDOWN, A GIFT OF SWITCHES AND COAL FOR A CURIA THAT HAD BEEN NAUGHTY NOT NICE!
With Christmas gifts like this, who needs coal?
THE LONG ANTICIPATED CHRISTMAS SPEECH (2015) TO THE ROMAN CURIA (AND THE DRESS-DOWNED COMPLIMENT IS LONG:
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged the Roman Curia to “return to the essentials” and follow a path of gratitude, conversion, renewal, penance and reconciliation as indicated by the Year of Mercy.
The Pope was addressing members of the Curia gathered in the Vatican Clementine Hall for the annual Christmas Greetings.
Please find below the full text of the Pope’s address to the Curia:
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to offer heartfelt good wishes for a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year to you and your co-workers, to the Papal Representatives, and in particular to those who in the past year have completed their service and retired. Let us also remember all those who have gone home to God. My thoughts and my gratitude go to you and to the members of your families.
In our meeting in 2013, I wanted to stress two important and inseparable aspects of the work of the Curia: professionalism and service, and I offered Saint Joseph as a model to be imitated. Then, last year, as a preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation, we spoke of certain temptations or "maladies" – the "catalogue of curial diseases" – which could affect any Christian, curia, community, congregation, parish or ecclesial movement. Diseases which call for prevention, vigilance, care and, sadly, in some cases, painful and prolonged interventions.
Some of these diseases became evident in the course of the past year, causing no small pain to the entire body and harming many souls.
It seems necessary to state what has been – and ever shall be – the object of sincere reflection and decisive provisions. The reform will move forward with determination, clarity and firm resolve, since Ecclesia semper reformanda.
Nonetheless, diseases and even scandals cannot obscure the efficiency of the services rendered to the Pope and to the entire Church by the Roman Curia, with great effort, responsibility, commitment and dedication, and this is a real source of consolation. Saint Ignatius taught that “it is typical of the evil spirit to instill remorse, sadness and difficulties, and to cause needless worry so as to prevent us from going forward; instead, it is typical of the good spirit to instill courage and energy, consolations and tears, inspirations and serenity, and to lessen and remove every difficulty so as to make us advance on the path of goodness.”
It would be a grave injustice not to express heartfelt gratitude and needed encouragement to all those good and honest men and women in the Curia who work with dedication, devotion, fidelity and professionalism, offering to the Church and the Successor of Peter the assurance of their solidarity and obedience, as well as their constant prayers.
Moreover, cases of resistance, difficulties and failures on the part of individuals and ministers are so many lessons and opportunities for growth, and never for discouragement. They are opportunities for returning to the essentials, which means being ever more conscious of ourselves, of God and our neighbours, of the sensus Ecclesiae and the sensus fidei.
It is about this return to essentials that I wish to speak today, just a few days after the Church’s inauguration of the pilgrimage of the Holy Year of Mercy, a Year which represents for her and for all of us a pressing summons to gratitude, conversion, renewal, penance and reconciliation.
Christmas is truly the feast of God’s infinite mercy, as Saint Augustine of Hippo tells us: “Could there have been any greater mercy shown to us unhappy men than that which led the Creator of the heavens to come down among us, and the Creator of the earth to take on our mortal body? That same mercy led the Lord of the world to assume the nature of a servant, so that, being himself bread, he would suffer hunger; being himself satiety, he would thirst; being himself power, he would know weakness; being himself salvation, he would experience our woundedness, and being himself life, he would die. All this he did to assuage our hunger, alleviate our longing, strengthen our weaknesses, wipe out our sins and enkindle our charity”.
Consequently, in the context of this Year of Mercy and our own preparation for the coming celebration of Christmas, I would like to present a practical aid for fruitfully experiencing this season of grace. It is by no means an exhaustive catalogue of needed virtues for those who serve in the Curia and for all those who would like to make their consecration or service to the Church more fruitful.
I would ask the Heads of Dicasteries and other superiors to ponder this, to add to it and to complete it. It is a list based on an acrostic analysis of the word Misericordia, with the aim of having it serve as our guide and beacon:
1. Missionary and pastoral spirit: missionary spirit is what makes the Curia evidently fertile and fruitful; it is proof of the effectiveness, efficiency and authenticity of our activity. Faith is a gift, yet the measure of our faith is also seen by the extent to which we communicate it. All baptized persons are missionaries of the Good News, above all by their lives, their work and their witness of joy and conviction. A sound pastoral spirit is an indispensable virtue for the priest in particular. It is shown in his daily effort to follow the Good Shepherd who cares for the flock and gives his life to save the lives of others. It is the yardstick for our curial and priestly work. Without these two wings we could never take flight, or even enjoy the happiness of the “faithful servant” (Mt 25:14-30).
2. Idoneity and sagacity: idoneity, or suitability, entails personal effort aimed at acquiring the necessary requisites for exercising as best we can our tasks and duties with intelligence and insight. It does not countenance “recommendations” and payoffs. Sagacity is the readiness to grasp and confront situations with shrewdness and creativity. Idoneity and sagacity also represent our human response to divine grace, when we let ourselves follow the famous dictum: “Do everything as if God did not exist and then put it all in God’s hands as if you did not exist”. It is the approach of the disciple who prays to the Lord every day in the words of the beautiful Universal Prayer attributed to Pope Clement XI: “Vouchsafe to conduct me by your wisdom, to restrain me by your justice, to comfort me by your mercy, to defend me by your power. To thee I desire to consecrate all my thoughts, words, actions and sufferings; that hencefore I may think only of you, speak of you, refer all my actions to your greater glory, and suffer willingly whatever you appoint”.
3. Spirituality and humanity: spirituality is the backbone of all service in the Church and in the Christian life. It is what nourishes all our activity, sustaining and protecting it from human frailty and daily temptation. Humanity is what embodies the truthfulness of our faith; those who renounce their humanity renounce everything. Humanity is what makes us different from machines and robots which feel nothing and are never moved. Once we find it hard to weep seriously or to laugh heartily, we have begun our decline and the process of turning from “humans” into something else. Humanity is knowing how to show tenderness and fidelity and courtesy to all (cf. Phil 4:5). Spirituality and humanity, while innate qualities, are a potential needing to be activated fully, attained completely and demonstrated daily.
4. Example and fidelity: Blessed Paul VI reminded the Curia of “its calling to set an example”. An example of avoiding scandals which harm souls and impair the credibility of our witness. Fidelity to our consecration, to our vocation, always mindful of the words of Christ, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much” (Lk 16:10) and “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes” (Mt 18:6-7).
5. Rationality and gentleness: rationality helps avoid emotional excesses, while gentleness helps avoid an excess of bureaucracy, programmes and planning. These qualities are necessary for a balanced personality: “The enemy pays careful heed to whether a soul is coarse or delicate; if it is delicate, he finds a way to make it overly delicate, in order to cause it greater distress and confusion”. Every excess is a symptom of some imbalance.
6. Innocuousness and determination: innocuousness makes us cautious in our judgments and capable of refraining from impulsive and hasty actions. It is the ability to bring out the best in ourselves, in others and in all kinds of situations by acting carefully and attentively. It consists of doing unto others what we would have them do to us (cf. Mt 7:12 and Lk 6:31). Determination is acting with a resolute will, clear vision, obedience to God and solely for the supreme law of the salus animarum (cf. CIC can. 1725).
7. Charity and truth: two inseparable virtues of the Christian life, “speaking the truth in charity and practising charity in truth” (cf. Eph 4:15). To the point where charity without truth becomes a destructive ideology of complaisance and truth without charity becomes myopic legalism.
8. Honesty and maturity: honesty is rectitude, consistency and absolute sincerity with regard both to ourselves and to God. An honest person does not act virtuously only when he or she is being watched; honest persons have no fear of being caught, since they never betray the trust of others. An honest person is never domineering like the “wicked servant” (cf. Mt 24:48-51), with regard to the persons or matters entrusted to his or her care. Honesty is the foundation on which all other qualities rest. Maturity is the quest to achieve balance and harmony in our physical, mental and spiritual gifts. It is the goal and outcome of a never-ending process of development which has nothing to do with age.
9. Respectfulness and humility: respectfulness is an endowment of those noble and tactful souls who always try to show genuine respect for others, for their own work, for their superiors and subordinates, for dossiers and papers, for confidentiality and privacy, who can listen carefully and speak politely. Humility is the virtue of the saints and those godly persons who become all the more important as they come to realize that they are nothing, and can do nothing, apart from God’s grace (cf. Jn 15:8).
10. Diligence and attentiveness: the more we trust in God and his providence, the more we grow in diligence and readiness to give of ourselves, in the knowledge that the more we give the more we receive. What good would it do to open all the Holy Doors of all the basilicas in the world if the doors of our own heart are closed to love, if our hands are closed to giving, if our homes are closed to hospitality and our churches to welcome and acceptance. Attentiveness is concern for the little things, for doing our best and never yielding to our vices and failings. Saint Vincent de Paul used to pray: “Lord, help me to be always aware of those around me, those who are worried or dismayed, those suffering in silence, and those who feel alone and abandoned”.
11. Intrepidness and alertness: being intrepid means fearlessness in the face of troubles, like Daniel in the den of lions, or David before Goliath. It means acting with boldness, determination and resolve, “as a good soldier” (2 Tim 2:3-4). It means being immediately ready to take the first step, like Abraham, or Mary. Alertness, on the other hand, is the ability to act freely and easily, without being attached to fleeting material things. The Psalm says: “if riches increase, set not your heart on them” (Ps 61:10). To be alert means to be always on the go, and never being burdened by the accumulation of needless things, caught up in our own concerns and driven by ambition.
12. Trustworthyness and sobriety: trustworthy persons are those who honour their commitments with seriousness and responsibility when they are being observed, but above all when they are alone; they radiate a sense of tranquillity because they never betray a trust. Sobriety – the last virtue on this list, but not because it is least important – is the ability to renounce what is superfluous and to resist the dominant consumerist mentality. Sobriety is prudence, simplicity, straightforwardness, balance and temperance. Sobriety is seeing the world through God’s eyes and from the side of the poor.
Sobriety is a style of life which points to the primacy of others as a hierarchical principle and is shown in a life of concern and service towards others. The sober person is consistent and straightforward in all things, because he or she can reduce, recover, recycle, repair, and live a life of moderation.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Mercy is no fleeting sentiment, but rather the synthesis of the joyful Good News, a choice and decision on the part of all who desire to put on the “Heart of Jesus” and to be serious followers of the Lord who has asked us to “be merciful even as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Mt 5:48; Lk 6:36). In the words of Father Ermes Ronchi, “Mercy is a scandal for justice, a folly for intelligence, a consolation for us who are debtors. The debt for being alive, the debt for being loved is only repayable by mercy”.
And so may mercy guide our steps, inspire our reforms and enlighten our decisions. May it be the basis of all our efforts. May it teach us when to move forward and when to step back. May it also enable us to understand the littleness of all that we do in God’s greater plan of salvation and his majestic and mysterious working.
To help us better grasp this, let us savour the magnificent prayer, commonly attributed to Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero, but pronounced for the first time by Cardinal John Dearden:
Every now and then it helps us to take a step back
and to see things from a distance.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is also beyond our visions.
In our lives, we manage to achieve only a small part
of the marvellous plan that is God’s work.
Nothing that we do is complete,
which is to say that the Kingdom is greater than ourselves.
No statement says everything that can be said.
No prayer completely expresses the faith.
No Creed brings perfection.
No pastoral visit solves every problem.
No programme fully accomplishes the mission of the Church.
No goal or purpose ever reaches completion.
This is what it is about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that others will watch over them.
We lay the foundations of something that will develop.
We add the yeast which will multiply our possibilities.
We cannot do everything,
yet it is liberating to begin.
This gives us the strength to do something and to do it well.
It may remain incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way.
It is an opportunity for the grace of God to enter
and to do the rest.
It may be that we will never see its completion,
but that is the difference between the master and the labourer.
We are labourers, not master builders,
servants, not the Messiah.
We are prophets of a future that does not belong to us.
I would have added: Save the Liturgy; Save the Curia!
THE LONG ANTICIPATED CHRISTMAS SPEECH (2015) TO THE ROMAN CURIA (AND THE DRESS-DOWNED COMPLIMENT IS LONG:
Pope tells Roman Curia to "return to the essentials"
Pope Francis addresses the Roman Curia in the Vatican's Clementine Hall - AFP
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged the Roman Curia to “return to the essentials” and follow a path of gratitude, conversion, renewal, penance and reconciliation as indicated by the Year of Mercy.
The Pope was addressing members of the Curia gathered in the Vatican Clementine Hall for the annual Christmas Greetings.
Please find below the full text of the Pope’s address to the Curia:
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to offer heartfelt good wishes for a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year to you and your co-workers, to the Papal Representatives, and in particular to those who in the past year have completed their service and retired. Let us also remember all those who have gone home to God. My thoughts and my gratitude go to you and to the members of your families.
In our meeting in 2013, I wanted to stress two important and inseparable aspects of the work of the Curia: professionalism and service, and I offered Saint Joseph as a model to be imitated. Then, last year, as a preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation, we spoke of certain temptations or "maladies" – the "catalogue of curial diseases" – which could affect any Christian, curia, community, congregation, parish or ecclesial movement. Diseases which call for prevention, vigilance, care and, sadly, in some cases, painful and prolonged interventions.
Some of these diseases became evident in the course of the past year, causing no small pain to the entire body and harming many souls.
It seems necessary to state what has been – and ever shall be – the object of sincere reflection and decisive provisions. The reform will move forward with determination, clarity and firm resolve, since Ecclesia semper reformanda.
Nonetheless, diseases and even scandals cannot obscure the efficiency of the services rendered to the Pope and to the entire Church by the Roman Curia, with great effort, responsibility, commitment and dedication, and this is a real source of consolation. Saint Ignatius taught that “it is typical of the evil spirit to instill remorse, sadness and difficulties, and to cause needless worry so as to prevent us from going forward; instead, it is typical of the good spirit to instill courage and energy, consolations and tears, inspirations and serenity, and to lessen and remove every difficulty so as to make us advance on the path of goodness.”
It would be a grave injustice not to express heartfelt gratitude and needed encouragement to all those good and honest men and women in the Curia who work with dedication, devotion, fidelity and professionalism, offering to the Church and the Successor of Peter the assurance of their solidarity and obedience, as well as their constant prayers.
Moreover, cases of resistance, difficulties and failures on the part of individuals and ministers are so many lessons and opportunities for growth, and never for discouragement. They are opportunities for returning to the essentials, which means being ever more conscious of ourselves, of God and our neighbours, of the sensus Ecclesiae and the sensus fidei.
It is about this return to essentials that I wish to speak today, just a few days after the Church’s inauguration of the pilgrimage of the Holy Year of Mercy, a Year which represents for her and for all of us a pressing summons to gratitude, conversion, renewal, penance and reconciliation.
Christmas is truly the feast of God’s infinite mercy, as Saint Augustine of Hippo tells us: “Could there have been any greater mercy shown to us unhappy men than that which led the Creator of the heavens to come down among us, and the Creator of the earth to take on our mortal body? That same mercy led the Lord of the world to assume the nature of a servant, so that, being himself bread, he would suffer hunger; being himself satiety, he would thirst; being himself power, he would know weakness; being himself salvation, he would experience our woundedness, and being himself life, he would die. All this he did to assuage our hunger, alleviate our longing, strengthen our weaknesses, wipe out our sins and enkindle our charity”.
Consequently, in the context of this Year of Mercy and our own preparation for the coming celebration of Christmas, I would like to present a practical aid for fruitfully experiencing this season of grace. It is by no means an exhaustive catalogue of needed virtues for those who serve in the Curia and for all those who would like to make their consecration or service to the Church more fruitful.
I would ask the Heads of Dicasteries and other superiors to ponder this, to add to it and to complete it. It is a list based on an acrostic analysis of the word Misericordia, with the aim of having it serve as our guide and beacon:
1. Missionary and pastoral spirit: missionary spirit is what makes the Curia evidently fertile and fruitful; it is proof of the effectiveness, efficiency and authenticity of our activity. Faith is a gift, yet the measure of our faith is also seen by the extent to which we communicate it. All baptized persons are missionaries of the Good News, above all by their lives, their work and their witness of joy and conviction. A sound pastoral spirit is an indispensable virtue for the priest in particular. It is shown in his daily effort to follow the Good Shepherd who cares for the flock and gives his life to save the lives of others. It is the yardstick for our curial and priestly work. Without these two wings we could never take flight, or even enjoy the happiness of the “faithful servant” (Mt 25:14-30).
2. Idoneity and sagacity: idoneity, or suitability, entails personal effort aimed at acquiring the necessary requisites for exercising as best we can our tasks and duties with intelligence and insight. It does not countenance “recommendations” and payoffs. Sagacity is the readiness to grasp and confront situations with shrewdness and creativity. Idoneity and sagacity also represent our human response to divine grace, when we let ourselves follow the famous dictum: “Do everything as if God did not exist and then put it all in God’s hands as if you did not exist”. It is the approach of the disciple who prays to the Lord every day in the words of the beautiful Universal Prayer attributed to Pope Clement XI: “Vouchsafe to conduct me by your wisdom, to restrain me by your justice, to comfort me by your mercy, to defend me by your power. To thee I desire to consecrate all my thoughts, words, actions and sufferings; that hencefore I may think only of you, speak of you, refer all my actions to your greater glory, and suffer willingly whatever you appoint”.
3. Spirituality and humanity: spirituality is the backbone of all service in the Church and in the Christian life. It is what nourishes all our activity, sustaining and protecting it from human frailty and daily temptation. Humanity is what embodies the truthfulness of our faith; those who renounce their humanity renounce everything. Humanity is what makes us different from machines and robots which feel nothing and are never moved. Once we find it hard to weep seriously or to laugh heartily, we have begun our decline and the process of turning from “humans” into something else. Humanity is knowing how to show tenderness and fidelity and courtesy to all (cf. Phil 4:5). Spirituality and humanity, while innate qualities, are a potential needing to be activated fully, attained completely and demonstrated daily.
4. Example and fidelity: Blessed Paul VI reminded the Curia of “its calling to set an example”. An example of avoiding scandals which harm souls and impair the credibility of our witness. Fidelity to our consecration, to our vocation, always mindful of the words of Christ, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much” (Lk 16:10) and “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes” (Mt 18:6-7).
5. Rationality and gentleness: rationality helps avoid emotional excesses, while gentleness helps avoid an excess of bureaucracy, programmes and planning. These qualities are necessary for a balanced personality: “The enemy pays careful heed to whether a soul is coarse or delicate; if it is delicate, he finds a way to make it overly delicate, in order to cause it greater distress and confusion”. Every excess is a symptom of some imbalance.
6. Innocuousness and determination: innocuousness makes us cautious in our judgments and capable of refraining from impulsive and hasty actions. It is the ability to bring out the best in ourselves, in others and in all kinds of situations by acting carefully and attentively. It consists of doing unto others what we would have them do to us (cf. Mt 7:12 and Lk 6:31). Determination is acting with a resolute will, clear vision, obedience to God and solely for the supreme law of the salus animarum (cf. CIC can. 1725).
7. Charity and truth: two inseparable virtues of the Christian life, “speaking the truth in charity and practising charity in truth” (cf. Eph 4:15). To the point where charity without truth becomes a destructive ideology of complaisance and truth without charity becomes myopic legalism.
8. Honesty and maturity: honesty is rectitude, consistency and absolute sincerity with regard both to ourselves and to God. An honest person does not act virtuously only when he or she is being watched; honest persons have no fear of being caught, since they never betray the trust of others. An honest person is never domineering like the “wicked servant” (cf. Mt 24:48-51), with regard to the persons or matters entrusted to his or her care. Honesty is the foundation on which all other qualities rest. Maturity is the quest to achieve balance and harmony in our physical, mental and spiritual gifts. It is the goal and outcome of a never-ending process of development which has nothing to do with age.
9. Respectfulness and humility: respectfulness is an endowment of those noble and tactful souls who always try to show genuine respect for others, for their own work, for their superiors and subordinates, for dossiers and papers, for confidentiality and privacy, who can listen carefully and speak politely. Humility is the virtue of the saints and those godly persons who become all the more important as they come to realize that they are nothing, and can do nothing, apart from God’s grace (cf. Jn 15:8).
10. Diligence and attentiveness: the more we trust in God and his providence, the more we grow in diligence and readiness to give of ourselves, in the knowledge that the more we give the more we receive. What good would it do to open all the Holy Doors of all the basilicas in the world if the doors of our own heart are closed to love, if our hands are closed to giving, if our homes are closed to hospitality and our churches to welcome and acceptance. Attentiveness is concern for the little things, for doing our best and never yielding to our vices and failings. Saint Vincent de Paul used to pray: “Lord, help me to be always aware of those around me, those who are worried or dismayed, those suffering in silence, and those who feel alone and abandoned”.
11. Intrepidness and alertness: being intrepid means fearlessness in the face of troubles, like Daniel in the den of lions, or David before Goliath. It means acting with boldness, determination and resolve, “as a good soldier” (2 Tim 2:3-4). It means being immediately ready to take the first step, like Abraham, or Mary. Alertness, on the other hand, is the ability to act freely and easily, without being attached to fleeting material things. The Psalm says: “if riches increase, set not your heart on them” (Ps 61:10). To be alert means to be always on the go, and never being burdened by the accumulation of needless things, caught up in our own concerns and driven by ambition.
12. Trustworthyness and sobriety: trustworthy persons are those who honour their commitments with seriousness and responsibility when they are being observed, but above all when they are alone; they radiate a sense of tranquillity because they never betray a trust. Sobriety – the last virtue on this list, but not because it is least important – is the ability to renounce what is superfluous and to resist the dominant consumerist mentality. Sobriety is prudence, simplicity, straightforwardness, balance and temperance. Sobriety is seeing the world through God’s eyes and from the side of the poor.
Sobriety is a style of life which points to the primacy of others as a hierarchical principle and is shown in a life of concern and service towards others. The sober person is consistent and straightforward in all things, because he or she can reduce, recover, recycle, repair, and live a life of moderation.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Mercy is no fleeting sentiment, but rather the synthesis of the joyful Good News, a choice and decision on the part of all who desire to put on the “Heart of Jesus” and to be serious followers of the Lord who has asked us to “be merciful even as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Mt 5:48; Lk 6:36). In the words of Father Ermes Ronchi, “Mercy is a scandal for justice, a folly for intelligence, a consolation for us who are debtors. The debt for being alive, the debt for being loved is only repayable by mercy”.
And so may mercy guide our steps, inspire our reforms and enlighten our decisions. May it be the basis of all our efforts. May it teach us when to move forward and when to step back. May it also enable us to understand the littleness of all that we do in God’s greater plan of salvation and his majestic and mysterious working.
To help us better grasp this, let us savour the magnificent prayer, commonly attributed to Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero, but pronounced for the first time by Cardinal John Dearden:
Every now and then it helps us to take a step back
and to see things from a distance.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is also beyond our visions.
In our lives, we manage to achieve only a small part
of the marvellous plan that is God’s work.
Nothing that we do is complete,
which is to say that the Kingdom is greater than ourselves.
No statement says everything that can be said.
No prayer completely expresses the faith.
No Creed brings perfection.
No pastoral visit solves every problem.
No programme fully accomplishes the mission of the Church.
No goal or purpose ever reaches completion.
This is what it is about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that others will watch over them.
We lay the foundations of something that will develop.
We add the yeast which will multiply our possibilities.
We cannot do everything,
yet it is liberating to begin.
This gives us the strength to do something and to do it well.
It may remain incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way.
It is an opportunity for the grace of God to enter
and to do the rest.
It may be that we will never see its completion,
but that is the difference between the master and the labourer.
We are labourers, not master builders,
servants, not the Messiah.
We are prophets of a future that does not belong to us.
I would have added: Save the Liturgy; Save the Curia!
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