The Holy Innocents

or as one parish bulletin had it "the Holy Innocence"

Today we celebrate those who, in the words of the Collect for the day, confessed Christ not by speaking, but by dying. In a great rage, Herod ordered that all male children under the age of two be slain. He feared a rival to his throne.
Again and again society finds ways to repeat its history. From the earliest of times, recorded in the Bible, we find human sacrifice. Our Lady of Guadalupe has been named the patroness of the unborn by such ecclesial giants as Fulton Sheen. She once put a stop to child sacrifice in Mexico, and we pray she will do the same for us here. Meanwhile, our politicians, following the example of Herod, are putting to death far more children than he did. There reason? It is the same as his -- the fear of losing power. They would rather condemn unborn children to to death than lose an election.

Let us pray today for an end to abortion without exception.

St John the Divine

Today we celebrate the Feast of St John the Evangelist. In spite of modernist theories, the Church still celebrates the Evangelist and Apostle as one and the same. There are many things to do on this day.

• We are still celebrating the Octave of Christmas, while our separated brethren, who don't really believe in the Incarnation, have already begun to pack away things. It's bad luck to have your tree up after New Year's Day, ya know!
  
• Let's not forget the blessing of wine. St John is the one who tells us that Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the best vintner ever, so let's get out our Rituale Romanum and a case of wine to bless this day!

Have a blessed Feast of St John, and enjoy the rest of the celebration of Christmas. By the way, if you follow the Extraordinary Form, you can celebrate Christmas until Feb 2, the 40th day.

Razor

From Kobol to Earth!

Having just watched Battlestar Galactica Razor again -- that is a great show. I cannot wait until season 4. Is Cara (Starbuck) Thrace going to lead them all to doom? This could prove interesting. At any rate, it is a good diversion for this cleric in the Lone Star state.

There is only one Cylon left for us to see. Will it be Cara? Adama. Lee?

Stay tuned.

Vestments

There have been several posts comparing the vestments of the Holy Father for 1st Vespers of the 1st Sunday of Advent in 2006 vs 2007. Fr Z and Gerald Augustinus are examples. It's amazing some of the comments that appear. That said, there are some things to note:

• The patience of His Holiness in allowing the former MC to dress him in Tie-dye vestments and Joseph and his Technicolor dream-copes.
• Complaints that his new vestments are "foppish" -- is there no understanding that the vestments worn actually demonstrate the dignity of the Sacred Liturgy? He is not foppish, he's Catholic.
  
• There is, among those who prefer Marini I's vestment choices, a lack of understanding of how the human mind naturally perceives beauty. Such things as balance and symmetry are important. Hence the balanced six candles and Crucifix on the altar!

The classical vestments take these things into account. Modern ones do not. I despise having to wear cheap polyester vestments into the Holy of Holies. Sadly, we have to purchase our own vestments these days because many of our predecessors threw away the cloth of gold vestments and replaced them with burlap. There are fewer things more embarrassing than having the Episcopalian priestess down the street wearing nicer looking vestments than the Catholic Priest.

We've Survived Worse

From the files of stranger than fiction:

Last Sunday, on the Feast of Christ the King (according to the Calendar for the "Ordinary Form"), a Priest went into the Sacristy to find the two men, who will be ordained to the Permanent Diaconate from his parish, attempting to light the incense. Mind you, they were trying to light the incense, not a charcoal. Yep. They'll be clerics soon.

As one PLU said, "The Church survived the persecutions, she can survive the Permanent Diaconate."

Happy New Year

We have embarked now upon a new liturgical year. It's hard to believe that Advent is already upon us. How can we make this year better than last year? A list (not comprehensive) could include such things as:

• Regular confession -- Unless your memory is better than an elephant's, you probably don't remember much that you did three months ago. If you want to make a really good confession, monthly is a good practice. Every two weeks is even better. Many, including myself, have found that spiritual growth goes faster if confessing regularly.
• Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus -- Devotion to Our Lord's Sacred Heart is irreplaceable. Our Lord promises to protect all who fly to the protection of His Sacred Heart.
  
• Consecration to Jesus through Mary -- The practice of Total Consecration according to St Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort cannot be beat. Anyone who has done it can tell you of times that the protection of Our Lady was there because of it. I personally could not have made it through seminary without it! This, of course, includes the Rosary daily.
• Daily Holy Hour -- If you want to get close to Christ, in a way it is just like any other friend. How many relationships do you know of that don't grow cold from lack of contact? Spend time with Christ as you would with a spouse -- He wants your soul for His spouse.
• Devotion to Saints -- When you find a Saint with whom you relate, you find a friend who can help you grow closer to Christ. That person may be someone who has been through the things you have, or has a similar temperament.

I pray that this year will be grace-filled for us all. For those who are struggling with seminary staff or vocations' directors (wreckers?) who seem intent on giving you a chance to be the next chapter of Goodbye, Good Men, hang in there. If you do the Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary, you will be amazed at the difference it makes. Persevere! As the Italians say (in America) Deo vede e Deo provede!

Hermeneutic of Continuity

Aside from being a great blog http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/, the Hermeneutic of continuity is a general line of though of Benedict XVI, now gloriously reigning. There is a nasty tendency of some to interpret the Missal of Paul VI, most recently published in the third typical edition by John Paul II in 2000, as a complete rupture with what preceded it. If one were to apply the idea of a hermeneutic of continuity to the celebration of Mass, than it stands to reason that the celebration of the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI should resemble the Ordo Missae as reformed by John XXIII in 1962.
This said, why then is there such a strong reaction to the idea of doing anything that, to some, smacks of "the old way of doing things"? It seems that those who have wrought such destruction over the last 30 years are trying to salt the field in the style of Napoleon on the way out of Russia.
They are sure, for instance, to bury the footings of the altar that they moved half-way into the nave in so much cement as to make it impossible for the next pastor to move it back, at least to within the original sanctuary. It truly will take decades to rebuilt what has been lost.
Let us all pray for long life for the Pope so that he can continue to appoint new Bishops who think as he does.