So Much Time, So Little To Do...

Wait, switch that, reverse it. There is so much that I have wanted to posted about this weekend, but I have been extremely busy. I think the best way to catch up is to do a link round-up. This enables me to touch on a few things at once, a la Conversion Diary and The Anchoress style. So here are some topics and links I want to discuss and let you know about. (Link goodness included... click on them, but dont forget to come back!)

Spirituality and The Mass

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Spiritual Combat & Warfare are always a big topic for me. I found a February post over at The Catholic Thing: Born for Combat talking about such a topic and think it is a good piece. I would have posted earlier, but I really am trying to cut down on my - rehashed posts of other blogs. This post says it all, and I just want to make more people aware of it. It is about the importance of fighting for the faith as Catholics.

Likwise the New Theological Movement posted a month or so ago about the Mass as a Sacrifice. This is a subject that I think more discussion needs to occur about on blogs, but I have had a hard time thinking of anything to add to the topic. The post stands for itself and is a must read. They also discuss the fact that so many folks deny this reality. Mass is not entertainment or "learn about the Faith" time. Our American faith culture is so Protestantized and edutainment driven, we have lost sight and complete understanding of what the Mass truly is.

Bishops Making News

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There are a few good Bishops who are doing things worth posting about, for various reasons. Raymond Cardinal Burke has been in the news quite a bit lately. He got a lot of coverage for his appearance down south at the large Planned Parenthood, but more recently has been quoted talking about the Mass. He echoes the sentiment of a few prominent Catholic media personalities, as well as this blogger's, concerning the need to shift away from a human focused Liturgy to a God centered one.

Bishop Etienne of Cheyenne on the other hand is making news with his ... gun? You have to check out his blog about a spring turkey hunt. Yes, you read all of that correctly.

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The 2011 Canon Law conference will again be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin. It is in August and I would just love to go! Dr. Peters will of course be there and Cardinal Burke will be hosting. Dr. Charles Rice, a former Ave Law professor and great gentleman, will also be presenting. Oh, if I had a million dollars! Alaska makes this trip almost undoable but if you live anywhere in driving distance and have some relation or interest in law or Canon Law, you would be foolish not to attend. It has a high registration fee relative to its function, but again, those related to the law should not see this as any hurdle. In fact, if you help out with legal (Canon or Secular) issues within your parish or diocese, I would suggest requesting a scholarship of sorts. This is the Superbowl of events for a geek like me.

For those of you in Anchorage, or elsewhere, that attend the Dominican Rite Mass, there is a new booklet  that can help you follow along.

Have you heard about the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska? They have 41 Seminarians! Their Catholic population is estimated around 95,000. That is one seminarian for every 2317 people. Comparatively that number crushes almost all other Dioceses efforts. Could it be the Bishop? You make the call.

The whole, 'When should Confirmation occur?' debate has come up again. This probably merits its own post, but the NTM takes a Thomistic view of the debate. They make some really good points, and once again the weight of the debate falls on the side of moving the Sacrament's celebration earlier and not later in life. There is good theological reasoning behind it, but of course you have to shed any humanistic emotion and bias to understand it, which means that the ears that need to hear it will be of course deaf to the argument from the get-go.

Finally, Erin Manning discusses the troubled situation in the K.C.-St. Joe's Diocese regarding a priest controversy. There is a lot going on in that issue, but the point she brings up about a "Chancery Bubble" is the part that I want to focus on. (Not that the other issue isn't the important one, but I leave other more adept folks to get to the bottom of that.) She discusses how many Bishops shield themselves in many ways behind the Chancery. In some instances I think that the Bishops are really a figurehead to the body politic of the Chancery. Manning brings up some really valid and interesting points that should be considered.

Ok... my fingers are tired... and hopefully you all learned something from this post....

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The Weakening of the Mass - Cardinal Burke and Canizares

There is an article out there [Bad Mass= Weak Faith] that I am sure just about every blogger and their little brother are going to be writing about, but it is so important that I want to cover it. I know it is "bad" to be a "copy-and-paste" blog, but there are somethings worth repeating. It may be one of the most important posts that I have written in a long time, if not ever.

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we are not the center of the Mass

Speaking at the release of a book by Father Nicholas Bux, Cardinals Raymond Burke and Cardinal Antonio Canizares had some rather forceful, but important statements to make about the Mass.

For some, a priest's strict adherence to the Rubrics of the Mass are of little importance. There is a plague in the modernist mind of the AmChurch [The American Catholic Church - culturally and theologically] that cares only of a Mass's validity and not its licitness. This is a dangerous and incorrect way to view the Mass. Too many Catholics go to Mass and talk about what they "get out of Mass." This thought process, while not completely faulty, does lead a person to view the Mass as something that is about them, and not what it truly is – about God.

Cardinal Raymond Burke

Cardinal Burke had this to say, at the book launch:

“If we err by thinking we are the center of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith,” said U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s Supreme Court.

This statement is thick, because there is more to it than meets the eye. Father Z has commented on this piece and to this statement has said that there is a "reciprocal relationship between how we pray and what we beleive." What he is essentially saying is: "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi." The concept is that "what we pray is what we believe." This means that how we pray and the way we pray, are both a reflection and a formative factor in what we believe.

If the Mass is the "source and summit of Christian Life" (see also: Lumen Gentium #11) then we must treat it and view it as such. Anything less degrades in our mind and heart that it is exactly that. We share in the duty to make the Mass as perfect as it should be. What we do at Mass, as both laity and clergy, is not necessary but for the request of God. That does not excuse us from attempting proper conduct and adherence to liturgical norms in an effort to make the Mass as universal as possible.

Cardinal Burke told those gathered for the book presentation that he agreed with Father Bux: that “liturgical abuses lead to serious damage to the faith of Catholics.” Unfortunately, he said, too many priests and bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant when, in fact, they are “serious abuses.”

Cardinal Antonio Canizares

These abuses draw us away from the Mass and damage our faith not because God and the Mass are easily destroyed, but because we are. Our nature, as fallen men, is to be swayed and deceived by the slightest distortion of the truth. Satan is the master of deceit, his power comes from his twisting of the truth and not some incarnate evil.

Cardinal Canizares said, “Participating in the Eucharist can make us weaken or lose our faith if we do not enter into it properly” and if the liturgy is not celebrated according to the Church’s norms."

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the Mass is something God does, it isn't something a priest and a congregation do

Having two Cardinals speak to this matter, and ones that so deeply understand and profess the faith of the Church is a telling sign of what we need to inspect in our own parishes. The most telling comment may have come from the author himself though. Father Bux touched on the fact that there should be a continuity in the Mass. It is by definition a universal action that helps unite the faithful.

Father Bux said that too many modern Catholics think the Mass is something that the priest and the congregation do together, when, in fact, it is something that Jesus does: “If you go to a Mass in one place and then go to Mass in another, you will not find the same Mass. This means that it is not the Mass of the Catholic Church, which people have a right to, but it is just the Mass of this parish or that priest.”

The strength of our Faith comes not from what we do, but from what God gives us. This does not mean though that the way we pray, the way we practice our faith, and the way we choose to worship at Mass does not somehow both reflect and effectuate in us spiritual conversion. This can occur in both directions, the good and the bad. Therefore it is vital that we adhere to the premise: "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi." What we pray truly is...what we believe.

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