World Youth Day Is Finally Here!

"What The World Needs Now Is..."

In his 1931 “social” encyclical Quadragesimo anno,  Pope Pius XI wrote:

“Wherefore,” to use the words of Our Predecessor, “if human society is to be healed, only a return to Christian life and institutions will heal it.” For this alone can provide effective remedy for that excessive care for passing things that is the origin of all vices; and this alone can draw away men’s eyes, fascinated by and wholly fixed on the changing things of the world, and raise them toward Heaven. Who would deny that human society is in most urgent need of this cure now?

Minds of all, it is true, are affected almost solely by temporal upheavals, disasters, and calamities. But if we examine things critically with Christian eyes, as we should, what are all these compared with the loss of souls? Yet it is not rash by any means to say that the whole scheme of social and economic life is now such as to put in the way of vast numbers of mankind most serious obstacles which prevent them from caring for the one thing necessary; namely, their eternal salvation."

Why Praise and Worship Music May Be Praise, But Not Worship

While Father Christopher Smith "paints with a pretty broad brushstrokes" in his comments on The Chant Cafe blog about praise and worship music in the liturgy, his points are generally very well made and worth serious consideration.

A Universe Brimming with Fruitful Spiritual Life: Reflecting Transcendence in the Liturgy

Bishop James D. Conley, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Denver, provides an exceptional reflection on the new translation of the Roman Missal which we begin using the First Sunday of Advent this year.

In an excerpt from his address at the Midwest Theological Forum, quoting Father Roman Guardini, Bishop Conley says:  "...the liturgy aims to create a new world for believers to dwell in. A sanctified world where the dividing lines between the human and the divine are erased. Guardini’s vision is beautiful: 'The liturgy creates a universe brimming with fruitful spiritual life.'  The new translation of the Mass restores this sense of the liturgy as transcendent and transformative   The new translation reflects the reality that our worship here joins in the worship of heaven.  And also from Pope Benedict XVI:  'The essential matter of all Eucharistic liturgy is its participation in the heavenly liturgy. It is from thence that it necessarily derives its unity, its catholicity, and its universality'.”

The entire article is well worth reading!  Thank you, Bishop Conley!

Greeting Christ

George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, served as chairman of the Vox Clara Committee, formed to oversee the new translation of the Roman Missal.  In the June 2011 issue of Columbia (the Knights of Columbus' monthly magazine), Cardinal Pell provides an excellent and succinct explanation of the new greetings that will be used at the beginning each Mass when the use of the new translation of the Roman Missal begins in the United States the First Sunday of Advent this year.

The Holy Father's "Reform of the Reform": An Excerpt from Cardinal Burke's Homily at Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving

Among other things, in his homily at the Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving on the Occasion of the Ordinary Public Consistory celebrated at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Raymond Cardinal Burke had this to say about the Holy Father's "reform of the reform":

"I think also of the tireless work of our Holy Father to carry out a reform of the post-Conciliar liturgical reform[11], conforming the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy to the perennial teaching of the Church as it was presented anew at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, so that in every liturgical action we may see more clearly the action of Christ Himself who unites heaven and earth, even now, in preparation for His Final Coming, when He will inaugurate "news heaven and a new earth," when we will all celebrate the fullness of life and love in the liturgy in the heavenly Jerusalem. The Cardinal today is called, in a special way, to assist the Successor of Saint Peter, in handing on, in an unbroken organic line, what Christ Himself has given us in the Church, His Eucharistic Sacrifice, "the font and highest expression of the whole Christian life." The right order of Sacred Worship in the Church is the condition of the possibility of the right order of her teaching and the right order of her conduct."

Read the whole text here.

Season of Advent

The idea of Advent is "Prepare you for the coming of Christ." Therefore the very appeals of the Patriarchs and Prophets are put in our mouths in Advent. Prepare for the coming of Christ the Redeemer, Who comes to prepare us for His second coming as Judge.

When the oracles of the Prophets were fulfilled and the Jews awaited the Messiah, John the Baptist left the desert and came to the vicinity of the Jordan, bringing a baptism of penance to prepare souls for the coming of Christ. The world took him to be the Messiah, but he replied with the words of Isaiah: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare ye the way of the Lord."

During Advent we make straight for Christ the way to our souls--and behold, our Lord will come at Christmas.