Twenty Five Years Ago Today



The "smiling pope" was elected, a refreshing breath of life entered the church after the declining years of Paul VI. Yet it was a short breath that lasted for a mere month and to some extent was eclipsed by the election of Pope John Paul II. But many were touched by the short reign of John Paul I, enough in fact that a cause for his has been going strong. I've linked to it below along with a beautiful prayer taught to John Paul I by his mother:http://www.myhelppage2.homestead.com/glorification.html:



"'Lord, take me as I am, with my faults and with my sins, but make me become what You want me to be.'



If you are unfamiliar with John Paul I and would like to read more about him, may I recommend the fine title by Leo Knowles, Modern Heroes of the Church, that was just released this year:

Amy Continues with More GIRM Misuse



open book:



"Go back and read the notorious section 43 (in the Adoremus link). This priest is implying that standing through the communion rite is the norm, mandated in the GIRM. It's not. In fact, the implication of the last paragraph of the section that kneeling after the Agnus Dei is the norm, although a bishop may make another decision.



This seems like a minor point, but it's not really, because it's symbolic. If those bishops want to know what's going wrong in this Church at that September 8 meeting, if they have any time left after going over the rot of secrecy about clerical sexual abuse and episcopal responsibility, they might turn their eyes to how the GIRM is being implemented in their dioceses. It is the perfect example of what happens, and what has been happening for forty years in the US: Directives come from Rome, are adapted by the US, as is our right and responsibility, and then are simply ignored or deliberately misinterpreted by a whole layer of Church employees who have their own agendas, and then blindly accepted by the faithful because it's a priest or nun telling them that this is the way it should be so sure, it must be true, because you know a priest or nun wouldn't lie."

In a Nutshell



To seek in the Church anything besides Christ (and it means to seek oneself and one's own) inevitably leads to temptation, to distortion and finally to self-destruction.



-Alexander Schmemann-

Cleveland "Embraces" Changes For the Sake of Change?



This is wrong...Catholics to change Communion ritual



The only change that is mandated in the new GIRM and it is an adaptation by the US bishops is bowing before receiving communion. None of these other changes has anything to do with the revised GIRM and I can't believe the reporter of this story or some other people in the Diocese of Cleveland haven't pointed this out to Father J. Glenn Murray!



This is horrible! It is another example of someone "mandating" there personal tastes and using the Vatican as the excuse. What is even more pathetic about it is that it makes the changes seem as though they are liberal, when in fact the changes all aim to reign in extraordinary eucharistic ministers etc.



Catholics in Cleveland should rise up and lodge a protest against the Office of Pastoral Liturgy and have Father Murray point out to all exactly where in the Revised GIRM it says to "embrace" during the sign of peace (it doesn't--tells the priest to stay up by the altar unless it's a wedding or funeral), "lift up your hands" during the Our Father (doesn't only the priest is required to do this, no one else) or to continue standing while everyone else is receiving (doesn't). Accretions, things added to the liturgy were one of the things that Vatican II tried to get strip from the liturgy, it amazes me how "liturgist" are constantly trying to add new ones in the name of "Vatican II."



For a more positive take on something going on in Cleveland, check out the book reviewed below:

Book Review-Highly Recommended



I sort of stumbled across this book while I was doing a search of Poor Clare Monasteries after our recent trip to Cleveland, OH a week ago. While we were in Cleveland we stopped in and visited the chapel of a Poor Clare monastery that I was sure was the same place that a Franciscan nun that I knew had once spent a year in. The nun had remarked how these nuns did not wear shoes, lived an incredibly austere life and the one incident I remember above all was that during the Christmas season they took turns being "Mary" holding the plaster Christ in their hands in the chapel manger scene.



Kristin Ohlson's book is not about the monastery we visited but another in Cleveland, one that we must have driven past at least three or four times during our stay but never even noticed. Something that Ohlson who lives in Cleveland says she had done herself before seeing an ad in the Plain Dealer for a Christmas service there several years ago.



This is one of the best books I have read in a long time, and this is no small praise giving the fact that part of my job is reading endless submissions of this genre. I think what makes this book so compelling is the personal faith quest of Kristin Ohlson. Here is a tale that reminded me favorably of a book that she quotes, Thomas Merton's Seven Story Mountain. Like that tale opened up the richness of Catholicism to a war time generation over fifty years ago, this book could end up having a similar impact on the present generation.



Ohlson's life in many ways mirrors the lives of so many and it why her tale is so compelling. What she encounters behind the grille at the Poor Clare's reminds one of Dorothy on her quest to Oz, yet unlike the Wizard those behind the grille do not pretend or claim to be the "great one", they are mere fellow pilgrims on a journey to a greater Kingdom. But what they do serve as living reminders that there is something greater, some ultimate meaning, something worth giving up everything that pretends to be of value in this life. It is a haunting presence one, felt and whose voice is heard but remains cloistered and out of sight.



The honesty of Ohlson's search is refreshing. In a time where Catholics call themselves Catholic and then pick and choose what they believe, here we find a woman on a genuine faith quest striving to believe. "I believe, Lord, help my unbelief."



I highly recommend this book, it'll make you think more about your own faith, and perhaps your lack of faith. It'll make you thirsty for God and perhaps you'll find yourself wanting to go to your church and pray. Do yourself a favor and read this book and then give it to someone else to read...

Book Review-Recommendation!



Michael Rose, the author of Goodbye, Good Men, has a new book out by Sophia Press. This book could easily have been entitled Hello, Good Men, it details the virtues and charisms of ten Catholic priests, nine of whom are alive and functioning in the church today. I was critical of Goodbye and will admit that in reading this latest work by Rose that colored my preconceptions about the book. But in reality there was very little to not like about this book. The priests presented in the book are alike only in that they are all ordained priests but their lives and ministries are as varied as the office of priesthood is.



The publisher advertises the book as a rememedy to all the bad news about priests. I think it succeeds on that level. Again, I don't think i picked the book up with a lot of objectivity but I found the accounts to be honest and to reflect a wide scope that I would presume gives evidence that in this case Rose is at his best. The priests are all orthodox but their interests make them hardly carbon copies of one another.



Most of the priests presented see their calling under the image of "battle." They are at war with the culture and sometimes the very church. In many cases they seem alone with God and the faithful few who support them.



The priests represented are diocesan and religious, ministering in places like Russia and Washington, D.C., in seminary work and parishes. A good cross section of the church in all her glory.



As I said at the begining, this book could easily have been called Hello, Good Men. It paints a positive picture of hope and fidelity that is out there. Hopefully this book will do even better than Goodbye and restore hope and some trust in the office of the priesthood.

A Modern Noah



One of the more interesting sagas of the past year has been the building of a boat over at Nancy Nall's house as recorded in her journal/blog/website.



No doubt the neighbors thought it odd when day and night they heard Nancy's husband working loudly on the building of a boat. Perhaps at times they even ridiculed him, telling him he'd never get it done. But there had to come a time when they wondered if Alan was answering some divine intuition and was building the boat as a way to escape the coming divine retribution against Fort Wayne, so that he could take his wife, daugther, dog and himself somewhere safer, (like Ann Arbor, MI).



I thought about this when the water's of the St. Mary's river had risen to their highest levels in recorded history around here and water was lapping the edges of Old Mill Rd. a few blocks from both there house and ours last month. But alas, the waters have returned to normal and Alan has nearly finished a true work of art. They reached Ann Arbor without the boat but he was close to ready if they had need it.



Visit Nancy's web site for a view of the finished project, look to the archives for the progression of the project.



nancynall.com