Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Great Book on Prayer--Excellent Book for Lent!
This is without a doubt one of the best books on prayer, gestures and growing closer to God through Christ that has appeared on the scene in the last fifty years...
Day of Ashes
I am posting Lenten meditations that are bits and pieces of a book that I'm currently working on at a another site that you can access by clicking on the "gate" at the right.
Here is origin of this day from CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ash Wednesday:
"The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead -- or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure -- of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: 'Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.' The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of them ancient. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense. The celebrant himself, be he bishop or cardinal, receives, either standing or seated, the ashes from some other priest, usually the highest in dignity of those present. In earlier ages a penitential procession often followed the rite of the distribution of the ashes, but this is not now prescribed. "
Here is origin of this day from CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ash Wednesday:
"The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead -- or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure -- of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: 'Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.' The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of them ancient. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense. The celebrant himself, be he bishop or cardinal, receives, either standing or seated, the ashes from some other priest, usually the highest in dignity of those present. In earlier ages a penitential procession often followed the rite of the distribution of the ashes, but this is not now prescribed. "
Boston Abuse Victim Found Dead
From My Way - News:
"Patrick McSorley, a victim of defrocked pedophile priest John Geoghan who spoke openly of the deep scars left by clergy sexual abuse, has been found dead, his lawyer said on Monday.
Mitchell Garabedian, who represented McSorley and dozens of others who said they had been abused by Geoghan, confirmed reports that McSorley's body had been found in downtown Boston, but declined further comment on the cause of death.
Boston police declined to comment, but said they had responded to a report of a 'sudden death' in that neighborhood early on Monday.
'He was a loving father, a caring son, and a hero to all survivors of clergy abuse,' Garabedian said. He said he had spoken with McSorley on Friday and that he seemed 'fine' at the time.
McSorley, 29, was a public face of the victims during the clergy sexual abuse scandal that erupted in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston two years ago."
"Patrick McSorley, a victim of defrocked pedophile priest John Geoghan who spoke openly of the deep scars left by clergy sexual abuse, has been found dead, his lawyer said on Monday.
Mitchell Garabedian, who represented McSorley and dozens of others who said they had been abused by Geoghan, confirmed reports that McSorley's body had been found in downtown Boston, but declined further comment on the cause of death.
Boston police declined to comment, but said they had responded to a report of a 'sudden death' in that neighborhood early on Monday.
'He was a loving father, a caring son, and a hero to all survivors of clergy abuse,' Garabedian said. He said he had spoken with McSorley on Friday and that he seemed 'fine' at the time.
McSorley, 29, was a public face of the victims during the clergy sexual abuse scandal that erupted in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston two years ago."
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Not a Violation of Church Law Then...?
Here is a strange story with the reasoning that when he might have done it wouldn't have been a violation of Church law? Perhaps this explains what we'll be reading about on Friday. Evidently, according to who ever made this statement at the Vatican, it was okay then but not now. Unbelievable!
From Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - U.S. Headlines:
"The Vatican has reinstated a U.S. Navy chaplain as an active priest after he was placed on administrative leave amid sex abuse allegations, Detroit Roman Catholic leaders said.
The Rev. Brian Bjorklund, 64, was suspended last summer over allegations he molested a 17-year-old boy in his early years in the ministry. He was ordained in 1966.
Vatican leaders say the alleged contact was not a violation of church law at the time, though it is now."
From Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - U.S. Headlines:
"The Vatican has reinstated a U.S. Navy chaplain as an active priest after he was placed on administrative leave amid sex abuse allegations, Detroit Roman Catholic leaders said.
The Rev. Brian Bjorklund, 64, was suspended last summer over allegations he molested a 17-year-old boy in his early years in the ministry. He was ordained in 1966.
Vatican leaders say the alleged contact was not a violation of church law at the time, though it is now."
Why are these People so Crazy?
Here is a group that you would think would be exemplary in their outlook but when you hear what they have to say about others you begin to see how they are more a "cult" than faithful followers of Jesus Christ. It is sad and perhaps a good example of what happens when people exhalt themselves against the Church.
I grew up just a few miles from where they are located. They weren't there when I lived there over twenty-five years ago, but even when I was living there the area was a refuge for hippie communes and other seeking to flea the city. Granted, the Boston Globe probably was fishing for just such quotes but sadly it looks like they got more than there share.
For the full story go to the Boston Globe, here is a snipet of the more sane part of the story:
In Richmond, a small town south of Keene, those traditions are immediately on display, ideas and rituals so powerful that people are willing to live at odds with their own church hierarchy to preserve them.
On Sunday mornings, 200 to 300 people gather in a hilltop chapel, a low-ceilinged basement with wooden pews. The families are huge, some with as many as 11 children, displaying, a community leader says, "their noncontraceptive glory."
Before the Mass, they recite the rosary aloud, in unison, a chorus of Our Fathers and Hail Marys, as one man walks, praying, along the Stations of the Cross. Women wear black veils. A group of celibate women in black habits with white wimples sing Gregorian chant.
The priest faces a high altar, not the assembly, as he celebrates the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Rite Mass. He distributes Communion over a rail to communicants kneeling as they receive the Eucharist in their mouths.
"We're Catholic, and to be Catholic means to be traditional," said Sister Marie Therese, 35, the prioress and the principal of the community's school, which has 37 students. "It can't be something new."
The St. Benedict Center, a 200-acre complex featuring a few church buildings and land that is being sold to sympathetic families, is headed by a Catholic priest and is home to five celibate brothers and six celibate sisters, who are part of a religious order called the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Worship services attract between 200 and 300 each Sunday. Since 1989, about 20 to 30 families have moved to the area to be near the church.
This community, like others around the country, is out of step with the official Catholic Church. The residents are so-called Feeneyites, followers of the Rev. Leonard J. Feeney, a Boston priest who was silenced by Cardinal Richard J. Cushing in 1949 and dismissed from the Jesuit order because of his insistence that there is no salvation outside the church, a doctrine that runs contrary to current church teaching that anyone, even non-Christians, can get to heaven. Feeney died in 1978.
I grew up just a few miles from where they are located. They weren't there when I lived there over twenty-five years ago, but even when I was living there the area was a refuge for hippie communes and other seeking to flea the city. Granted, the Boston Globe probably was fishing for just such quotes but sadly it looks like they got more than there share.
For the full story go to the Boston Globe, here is a snipet of the more sane part of the story:
In Richmond, a small town south of Keene, those traditions are immediately on display, ideas and rituals so powerful that people are willing to live at odds with their own church hierarchy to preserve them.
On Sunday mornings, 200 to 300 people gather in a hilltop chapel, a low-ceilinged basement with wooden pews. The families are huge, some with as many as 11 children, displaying, a community leader says, "their noncontraceptive glory."
Before the Mass, they recite the rosary aloud, in unison, a chorus of Our Fathers and Hail Marys, as one man walks, praying, along the Stations of the Cross. Women wear black veils. A group of celibate women in black habits with white wimples sing Gregorian chant.
The priest faces a high altar, not the assembly, as he celebrates the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Rite Mass. He distributes Communion over a rail to communicants kneeling as they receive the Eucharist in their mouths.
"We're Catholic, and to be Catholic means to be traditional," said Sister Marie Therese, 35, the prioress and the principal of the community's school, which has 37 students. "It can't be something new."
The St. Benedict Center, a 200-acre complex featuring a few church buildings and land that is being sold to sympathetic families, is headed by a Catholic priest and is home to five celibate brothers and six celibate sisters, who are part of a religious order called the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Worship services attract between 200 and 300 each Sunday. Since 1989, about 20 to 30 families have moved to the area to be near the church.
This community, like others around the country, is out of step with the official Catholic Church. The residents are so-called Feeneyites, followers of the Rev. Leonard J. Feeney, a Boston priest who was silenced by Cardinal Richard J. Cushing in 1949 and dismissed from the Jesuit order because of his insistence that there is no salvation outside the church, a doctrine that runs contrary to current church teaching that anyone, even non-Christians, can get to heaven. Feeney died in 1978.
Happy Fasnacht!
Leave it to the English to turn it into "pancake Tuesday", there is something a little more interesting about the German name, probably because I hadn't heard of it before.
From EPICURIOUS: ENGLAND: SHROVE TUESDAY:
"Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Lent -- also known as Mardi Gras (literally 'fat Tuesday' in French), Carnival (from the Latin for 'farewell to the flesh'), and Fasnacht (the Germanic 'night of the fast') -- is celebrated across the world with riotous merrymaking and feasting.
While Brazilians samba in the streets of Rio, and New Orleans throws its most famous party of the year, the English celebrate with Pancake Tuesday. It may seem an unlikely last indulgence, but pancakes use up rich ingredients like butter and eggs from the larder before the pious Lenten fast. Families gather for sweet and savory pancake suppers, and housewives still compete in the peculiar tradition of donning their aprons and racing each other holding pancake-filled skillets. "
From EPICURIOUS: ENGLAND: SHROVE TUESDAY:
"Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Lent -- also known as Mardi Gras (literally 'fat Tuesday' in French), Carnival (from the Latin for 'farewell to the flesh'), and Fasnacht (the Germanic 'night of the fast') -- is celebrated across the world with riotous merrymaking and feasting.
While Brazilians samba in the streets of Rio, and New Orleans throws its most famous party of the year, the English celebrate with Pancake Tuesday. It may seem an unlikely last indulgence, but pancakes use up rich ingredients like butter and eggs from the larder before the pious Lenten fast. Families gather for sweet and savory pancake suppers, and housewives still compete in the peculiar tradition of donning their aprons and racing each other holding pancake-filled skillets. "
Monday, February 23, 2004
My Bookreview of Stalking the Divine
Scroll down on Marly Rusoff Literary Agency's web site to Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith With the Poor Clares by Kristin Ohlson is heralded as a modern classic by Catholic News Service. Click on "Read more..." and you'll notice that I'm the "reviewer."
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