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.

Does the Mass differ in any way from the Sacrifice of the Cross?

1.) EXTERNALLY
We have seen that on the Cross, Christ expressed inner adoration toward His Father, by loving Him more than the thing most precious to Him--His own life. We find the same interior adoration in the Mass, since Christ's preferential love for His Father persists eternally.

The difference appears in the outward expression of Christ's inner sentiments. On the Cross, Christ manifests His love for His Father by His death in a bloody manner. In the Mass, Christ offers Himself to His Father in a non-bloody manner.

What sign, then, in the Mass gives outward expression to Christ's inner adoration? For the Mass, like the Sacraments, has a visible sign that signifies and actualizes the Sacrifice. This sign is the separate Consecration of the bread and wine, representing the separation of our Lord's body and blood on the Cross. The active Consecration--that is, not yet accomplished, but in process of accomplishment--effectively signifies Christ's Sacrifice; since it renders present on the altar the same Sacrifice as that of Calvary.

Note that the Real Presence of Christ in the tabernacle is not, properly speaking, a sacrifice; since the exterior sign--the Consecration--is lacking. Where the exterior element is lacking, there can be no sacrifice.

2.) BY THE MODE OF OFFERING
Two things are needed to make a sacrifice: (a) Renunciation or immolation; (b) preference, choice, oblation or offering.

Now on the Cross, as in the Mass, it is the same Victim that is immolated--our Lord. A difference exists, however, in the method or mode of oblation. In the Mass, it is still our Lord who offers Himself as He did on Calvary, but through the ministry of His priests.

Nevertheless, the priest is merely Christ's representative. There is only one priest--Jesus Christ. But our blessed Lord, in His great mercy, and in order to make us participate still more intimately in His Sacrifice, has self-imposed the condition whereby He cannot offer Himself on the altar without His priests. Thus, on the Cross, Christ offers Himself by Himself in our name. In the Mass, it is the priest who, in the name of all the people, offers Christ exteriorly. For interiorly, it is always Christ who offers.

3.) AS TO TIME AND PLACE
The Sacrifice of the Cross occurred at a given moment in a given spot on the earth. Christ offered His death in the present. In the Mass, Christ offers Himself throughout the whole universe, exactly as the prophet Malachi had prophesied, and at each moment of the day and night. He offers His death as an accomplished historical fact.

The Holy Guardian Angels

Tomorrow, October 2, is the Feast of The Holy Guardian Angels. God's love for us was not satisfied with giving us His Son, Jesus, for our Redeemer and Mary for our Advocate; He has been pleased to give us also His Angels to be our guardians: "He hath given His Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways" (Ps 90:2). These holy spirits and princes of heaven are always present with us, and assist us in all our actions. And on this account, out of regard to our guardian Angels, we ought carefully to refrain from every action which can displease them.

"O God, Who in Thine ineffable Providence hast deigned to send Thy holy Angels to keep watch over us: grant to us Thy suppliant people, that we may always be defended by their protection, and may rejoice in their fellowship for ever" (Oratio, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels, October 2).