Revering the hands of a newly ordained priest

Antipolo, May 2008

Altar Arrangement (Ordinary Form)

The New Liturgical Movement blog has posted several photographs of altar arrangements for the celebration of the ordinary form that is being reintroduced by Pope Benedict XVI. Last Sunday, the Feast of the Divine Mercy, I took a photograph of the altar in the Parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy while the Mass in the ordinary form was being celebrated.

"Turning towards the Lord" on Palm Sunday

On March 16, 2008, Palm Sunday, Father Michell Joe Zerrudo, pastor of the Parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy and his parishioners turned towards the Lord and celebrated Palm Sunday facing the liturgical east together using the Missal of Pope Paul VI in the vernacular. Father Zerrudo, in beautiful traditional vestments, himself an exorcist and liturgist, teaches his parishioners through example the essence, the beauty and spirituality of catholic ad orientem worship.

"On the other hand, a common turning to the East during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of accidentals, but of essentials. Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. It is not now a question of dialogue, but of common worship, of setting off towards the One who is to come. What corresponds with the reality of what is happening is not the closed circle, but the common movement forward expressed in a common direction for prayer...." - Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy

"In the early Church there was a custom whereby the Bishop or the priest, after the homily, would cry out to the faithful: "Conversi ad Dominum" – turn now towards the Lord. This meant in the first place that they would turn towards the East, towards the rising sun, the sign of Christ returning, whom we go to meet when we celebrate the Eucharist. Where this was not possible, for some reason, they would at least turn towards [the liturgical East] the image of Christ in the apse, or towards the Cross, so as to orient themselves inwardly towards the Lord. " - Pope Benedict XVI, Easter Vigil 2008 Sermon

Harrison Plaza "Cuaresma Exhibit" Ad Orientem Mass

An ad orientem Mass according to the ordinary form was celebrated by Fr. Michell Joe Zerrudo last Saturday night at the Cuaresma Exhibit in Harrison Plaza annex building. Fr. Jojo wore the traditional vestments we often see in Tridentine Masses like the laced alb, cincture, stole and roman chasuble (fiddleback). The Mass was unique and memorable for everyone who assisted as it was in the presence of the relics of the True Cross and relics of the Holy Apostles, with the priest and the congregation oriented to the liturgical east facing these sacred relics. The presence of these sacred relics of the cross and the images of the different scenes from the passion of our Lord was a fitting reminder for everyone who assisted that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is indeed making present the great sacrifice of our Lord at Calvary. The Mass was in English while the central part, from the Eucharist Prayer 1 onwards, were in Latin, filled the atmosphere with a depth of mystery and sacredness.

Some photographs taken during the Holy Mass

Vatican Official: Time to reevaluate Communion in the hand

CNS Story about Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith on communion in the hand. Emphasis mine.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments said he thinks it is time for the Catholic Church to reconsider its decision to allow the faithful to receive Communion in the hand.

Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, the Vatican official, made the suggestion in the preface to a book about the Eucharist by Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Bishop Schneider's book, "Dominus Est: Reflections of a Bishop from Central Asia on Holy Communion," was published in Italian in late January by the Vatican Publishing House, though some of it had been released earlier in the Vatican newspaper.

In the newly released preface to the book, Archbishop Ranjith wrote, "The Eucharist, bread transubstantiated into the body of Christ and wine into the blood of Christ -- God in our midst -- must be received with awe and an attitude of humble adoration."

The archbishop said the Second Vatican Council never authorized the practice of Catholics receiving Communion in the hand, a practice that was "introduced abusively and hurriedly in some spheres" and only later authorized by the Vatican.

The liturgists, theologians and pastors who encouraged the change said it better reflected the ancient practice of the church and the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, he said.

"It is true that if one can receive on the tongue, one also can receive in the hand because this organ of the body has equal dignity," he said.

However, Archbishop Ranjith said, the introduction of the practice of receiving Communion in the hand coincides with the beginning of "a gradual and growing weakening of the attitude of reverence toward the sacred eucharistic species."

"I think the time has come to evaluate these practices and to review them and, if necessary, to abandon the current practice," Archbishop Ranjith said.

"Now more than ever, it is necessary to help the faithful renew a lively faith in the real presence of Christ in the eucharistic species with the aim of reinforcing the very life of the church and defending it in the midst of dangerous distortions of the faith," the archbishop wrote.

The bulk of Bishop Schneider's book was published in early January in the Vatican
newspaper; he said that if a Catholic truly believes in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, he or she should kneel in adoration and reverence when receiving Communion.

The article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, appeared under the headline, "Like a nursing child in the arms of the one who nourishes him" and included the bishop's opinion that just as a baby opens his mouth to receive nourishment from his mother, so should Catholics open their mouths to receive nourishment from Jesus.

Solemn Mass for the Sto Niño

A solemn Mass according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI (ordinary form) ad orientem with Latin and Gregorian Chants (Missa de Angelis) will be offered at 7:00 pm today, the 23 January 2008 at the PNB Main Building in Macapagal Ave, Pasay City in honor of the Sto Niño.

This seeks to answer the then Cardinal Ratzinger's, now Pope Benedict XVI's call to follow the true mind of Vatican II, a mind that seeks to restore and continue from the past the greater sense of reverence, mystery, beauty and the sacred in the celebration of the liturgy, specially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In other words, it is a mind of continuity and not of rapture.

"Necessary Conversation" About Ideologized Liturgy by Fr. Rob Johansen

This is a cross-post on a piece I originally found in the New Liturgical Movement about an analysis written by Father Rob Johansen on Thrown Back regarding the reactions made by people to a thought-provoking question asked by Amy Welborn in her blog:

In a charitable, clear manner, explain what you see here. What gratifies you about the action in the photograph. What bothers you. Those who see it as beautiful, explain why and its deeper relation to your Catholic faith. Those who are bothered by it or mystified by it, explain why.

I would like to share the photo from Amy Welborn and Fr. Rob Johansen's piece to the Filipino audience:

"Necessary Conversation" About Ideologized Liturgy
by Fr. Rob Johansen

The other day Amy Welborn posted a thought-provoking question involving this picture, depicting either a Mass of the Extraordinary Form or a Novus Ordo Mass celebrated Ad Orientem:

Amy asked people for their reactions to the photo, and the reactions were themselves thought-provoking and revealing. What they seem to reveal is something I have noticed before in many of the negative reactions to Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio and to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, otherwise known as the "Tridentine" rite. What is apparent to me is that many of the objections are ideological rather than theological or spiritual. Here are a list of some of the words and phrases used in the negative reactions to the photo, or other objections and complaints about Summorum Pontificum and/or the Extraordinary Form that have appeared in the media since last July:

"too complicated"
"put off by all males in the sanctuary"
"a period piece…"
“stuffy,”
“elitist”
“inaccessible”
“extreme"
“antiquated”
"medieval trappings"
"nostalgia"
"hierarchical"
"staged"
"Latin is a dead language"
"the priest has his back to us"
"a step backward"
"exclusionary"
"sexist"
"liturgy should be simple"
"clericalist"
"passive"

These words and phrases, and others similar to these, characterize much of the opposition to and complaints about Summorum Pontificum and the resurgence of the Extraordinary Form. And what is remarkable is that none of these words and phrases are, properly speaking, either theological or liturgical. Rather, they are ideological. And they illustrate that the post-conciliar liturgy, at least in the United States, has been invested with a rather heavy ideological burden.

I think that the ideologies represented by these terms can be roughly divided into three categories. They are:

(a) Egalitarianism or Democratism
(b) The Ideology of "Progress"
(c) The Ideology of "Authenticity"

The first ideology, egalitarianism, can be seen in such terms as "stuffy", “elitist”, "hierarchical", "the priest has his back to us", and "clericalist". Egalitarianism, of course, is the ideology that seeks to level all differences and distinctions, and asserts radical equality. The problem is that Catholic liturgy is intrinsically "unequal". Liturgy is about we humans, who are not God, worshipping God, who is God. Sorry to belabor something that should seem obvious, but, unfortunately, many have worked for the last 30 years to obscure that obvious fact. Catholic Liturgy is intrinsically hierarchical: In it God comes to us in an act of condescension, witnessed by the angels and saints who are quite literally above and beyond us, through the ministry of a priest who is at the time of the Eucharistic Sacrifice alter Christus. One commenter at Amy's asserted that at Mass we "no longer have an alter Christus". If that's the case, then we no longer have a Mass or Eucharistic Sacrifice; we have something else. Fortunately, the commenter's assertion is wrong: Both Vatican II's Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) and on the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) make clear that the priest offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice "in the person of Christ" (in persona Christi) and that his priesthood differs from the common priesthood of the faithful "in essence and not merely in degree". In other words, the priestly essence and action in the liturgy is hierarchical. To complain that the Mass is "hierarchical" is to complain of a tautology.

But there has been a great effort to downplay and even eliminate the hierarchical nature of the liturgy in recent decades. There has been an attempt to "horizontalize" the liturgy: hence all the 70's and 80's talk of the liturgy being a "celebration of community". The mindset created by such rhetoric can be seen in the complaints that in the EF, or the Novus Ordo celebrated ad orientem, the priest has his "back to the people". Of course, the assumption inherent in that complaint is that priest "should" be facing us, that is paying attention to us. Nowadays, when some people see a celebration ad orientem, they are "put off". I submit that this is because they have been subtly led to think that the liturgy is "about" us. A posture in in no way mandated by either the liturgical teaching of Vatican II or any post-conciliar document has been invested with an ideological meaning (itself nowhere taught by the Council), and has deformed the liturgical sensibilities of many of the faithful. Our expectations of the liturgy have been formed not by authentic Catholic theology and piety, but by the ideologically constructed categories of the prevailing culture.

The second category of terms can be classified as belonging to the ideology of "Progress". This ideology can be seen in such words and phrases as "a period piece…", “antiquated”, "medieval trappings", "nostalgia", and "a step backward". The ideology of Progress asserts or implies that we now necessarily know more and understand things better than our forebears, and that what is past is necessarily inferior to what is present. The phrase "the past has nothing to teach us" could well summarize this ideology. In the Church, this ideology has driven the "hermeneutic of discontinuity", which operates from the assumption that the Pre-Conciliar Church and Faith are different from the Post-Conciliar Church and Faith. But, of course, as C.S. Lewis pointed out in his essay on "The Myth of Progress", this point of view is absurd on its face. What is true yesterday will be true tomorrow. The time of day has nothing to do with it. Or, as Pope Benedict put it, "what earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too...". The fact that something is old does not mean that it is therefore meaningless or irrelevant. It merely means that it is old.

Finally, the third category of negative terms falls under the heading of offenses against the ideology of "Authenticity" or simplicity. This ideology consists in the atittude that what is most "authentic" or meaningful is that which is simple. This ideology can be seen in words or phrases such as "too complicated", “inaccessible”, "staged", and ""liturgy should be simple". I have heard this attitude expressed in the assertion "surely God meant religion to be simple". Well, just why should we think that? The universe that God made is certainly not simple. I don't hear people complaining "astrophysics should be simple." Well, astrophysics is one way of approaching an understanding of a complex reality, and religion is a different way. Why one should be any simpler than another is in no way obvious. And why the worship (liturgy) of our religion, which puts us into contact with the ultimate Reality, should be "simple", is also in no way obvious.

It seems to me that, at worst, this desire for "simplicity" is but one step removed from indifferentism. For the indifferentist usually wants, in the name of "simplicity", to put aside all those complex doctrines and teachings, and get down to a common "core" which we all can agree on. "We really all believe the same thing", is the claim. Well, we don't. And that which is fully and distinctively Catholic is expressed in a celebration of the liturgy of the Extraordinary Form, or in the Novus Ordo when it is celebrated in manner which is in continuity with the full liturgical Tradition of the Church. It seems to me that, at bottom, at least some of the complaints about "simplicity" are in fact veiled complaints or difficulties about what is in fact authentically Catholic.

And the complaint that the liturgy is "inaccessible" seems to me especially to miss the point. We are talking about approaching the infinite and ineffable Mystery of God. That is inherently "inaccessible". Not "incomprehensible", to reiterate a point made by Frank Sheed. But does anyone really expect that God coming among us and uniting us to Himself, and giving us His very self as food and drink, should somehow be "accessible"? The liturgy is mystagogical: that is, it leads us into a Mystery. We can penetrate that mystery more fully, and come to know it more deeply, but it will never be "accessible" this side of Heaven. To want a liturgy that is "accessible" seems to me to want to put God into a box of our own making; to create a comfortable, tame, suburbanized God that doesn't challenge, doesn't make us uncomfortable. And come to think of it, doesn't that explain much of our parish liturgies over the past 30 years: tame, comfortable, suburbanized?

At best, the complaint that the EF is "too complicated" reveals a taste. And, as the saying goes, "de gustibus non disputandis". If your taste is for simple liturgies, that's fine. At many parishes the early Sunday Mass is the "simple" one: minimal music, quiet, etc. I like such liturgies myself on occasion. But recognize that it's a taste, and don't try to absolutize it into a liturgical principle. Let's be honest, though, is there really anything "simple" about many parish Masses, which involve a "cast of thousands" of Extraordinary Ministers, Lectors, Commentators, a "music ministry" group with all manner of keyboards, guitars, mixers, electronic equipment, etc.? If you prefer a Mass like that, your complaint isn't really about simplicity, it's about something else.

Though unintended by the Council fathers, and, I will presume, the Consilium that assembled the Novus Ordo liturgy, the post-conciliar liturgy has been invested with a great deal meaning and import that has little to do with the Catholic Faith and very much to do with certain ideological trends in American culture. And those ideologies are in large part antithetical to the Catholic faith. That has led to the phenomenon we witness today in many parts of the Church: the liturgy has been put to work against itself. And we will only have true progress (progress that is, toward holiness and deeper union with Christ) and reform when we recognize the ideological burden placed on the Novus Ordo liturgy and remove it.

Kneel before the Lord thy God

What makes it hard for us to genuflect before our God? We, the lay people, religious nuns and brothers, extraordinary ministers, seminarians, altar servers, church assistants and helpers, even priests, pass before the tabernacle with the sanctuary lamp lit or before the exposed Blessed Sacrament and just do a simple bow when we should genuflect! Sometimes we even just ignore the Divine Presence. What makes it so difficult for us to give due reverence to Jesus who is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament? Are we afraid and ashamed that our fellow "catholics" would accuse us of worshiping and genuflecting before a wafer or cookie? Has genuflecting become a scandal? Are we afraid that they would accuse us of superstition? Is this an "inculturation" thing that prevents us from doing so? If the statues could move, they would already have knelt and worshiped.

Lord, we ask for Your forgiveness and mercy. Teach us to humble ourselves before You, to give due reverence to You, our Lord, our Saviour, our King. Give us the courage not to be afraid and ashamed to kneel, genuflect and give you due reverence when people accuse us of worshiping a cookie when it is really is Your Body, it is really You who Is truly present. Amen.