On Tabernacles...

The Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend has issued directives regarding both the design and placement of tabernacles. These directives take effect on August 4, 2009.

It can be difficult to create universal directives for a subject that is so dependent on architecture - which can greatly differ from "sacred space" to "sacred space". I was pleased to read para #5 which clearly states these directives apply to "all churches, oratories, and private chapels in the diocese". Also, these directives which rely heavily upon conciliar and papal statements, address the oft heard debate between the liturgy of the Mass and the devotions which occur outside of Mass. "... they are certainly not mutually exclusive", are certainly welcomed words! Lastly, I was pleased to see a call for greater catechesis of the people of God.

Tabernacle Diocese of Fort Wayne South Bend August 2009

Summer Golf...

I haven't played golf in well over a year and yet such a relevant fact didn't keep some dear former parishioners* from asking me to be a last-minute-substitute for the South Bend Country Club's junior golf-camp tournament. The father, Scott, had to coach his younger son's baseball tournament and so they called in another father, me. The mother, Lori, came along to snap photos and to often ask why it was that we were searching for our ball in the peripheral rough and mud.

The weather was picture perfect, the company was enjoyable, and the post-game food was tasty. Alas, we didn't come in first, but we certainly weren't last. I'm grateful for the invite and a chance to get away from studying French! As you can see in the second photo, my golf partner was eager to offer advice on how I could improve my game. I am grateful.

I will be out of town but for those who are in South Bend, might I suggest you take part in the 7th Annual Holy Cross School Golf Tournament, to be held this August 23 at the Warren Golf Course at ND. All proceeds benefit scholarships.

*Though it is easier to say "former parishioners" rather than "parishioners at the parish where I use to minister", they are quite insistent to remind me that it was I who left them and the parish, not the other way around. Point taken.

Thoughts Matter...

A few weeks ago a friend of mine mentioned his enjoyment of Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life by Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, OSB. This is the first in a trilogy of books including Tools Matter for Practicing the Spiritual Life and Humility Matters for Practicing the Spiritual Life.

Funk bases her writings on the early monastic tradition, especially the writings of the famed monk, John Cassian, wherein one finds his system of three renunciations: of one's former life, of one's mindless thoughts, and finally, of one's image of God.

And so, Funk helps the modern reader to work through this second renunciation, that of thoughts. She opens with a chapter on thoughts in general and then systematically discusses specific thoughts, based on Cassian's eight vices: thoughts on food, sex, things, anger, dejection, acedia, vainglory, and the most deadly of them all, pride.

Funk's counseling words on food and sex are quite prudent and it is clear that she is rooted well in the tradition and doesn't have some sort of "modern liberating" agenda. She presents the wealth of Christianity's approach to these two earthy and normal topics in short and accessible prose that is faithful to the tradition. Whereas someone might not be likely to pick up Cassian's large Conferences, they can indeed read this 136 page book without fear of getting lost in the ancient world's context and worldview of fourth century monastics.

I knew I liked this book when on page 29 she writes, "When the mind is stilled the smell, taste, and feel of that first cup of coffee is special and enjoyed as if for the first time!"

A few lines:

"Cassian taught that extremes meet. Having either too much or too little usually results in the same consequences in the spiritual life. All self-willed compulsions are to be avoided; gluttony or excessive fasting, for instance, are equally dangerous. Frigidity and hostility toward others are as bad as sexual fantasies that lead to lewd conduct. The middle road helps to keep me humble" (pg 76).

"Humility is a right relationship with myself; fear is a right relationship with God" (pg 107).

"Thoughts against God that [spiritual] pride stimulates follow this sequence: I have powers, even spiritual ones. I can use them for my benefit. God no longer deserves my loyalty. In fact, other seekers should be loyal to me. I can show ethem a path to great heights of wisdom and power. God may not exist. He has no power to punish those who have figured this out, like I have. God can be damned for all I care. Hell, damnation and punishment don't exist either. If God is good, he won't punish, and if He does then I don't want any part of that either" (pg 125).

A New Favorite...

After class this morning I walked across the quad to the newly dedicated Eck School of Law - a beautifully designed building, quite worthy of its location on the main circle. I entered the main door and was pleased to see the seal of the Congregation of Holy Cross in the marble flooring. I primarily wanted to see the chapel and I now have a new favorite chapel on campus.

The St. Thomas More Chapel is located on the ground floor just off the main archway and is certainly a worthy space for Mass and private prayer. Behind the altar are three large and beautiful windows that gives the 75-seat chapel a much larger appearance.

The main window in the center and behind the altar and tabernacle depicts the Blessed Sacrament evident in a monstrance.The right window is dedicated to Our Lady, patroness of the university.The left window depicts St. Thomas More, patron of lawyers and the law school.
The chapel's back wall has three windows as well, featuring Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and the seal of the Congregation.

Arkansas Ordinations...

Congratulations to Father James Melnick and Father Eddie D'Almeida of the Diocese of Little Rock who were ordained priests of God on July 11th. Frs. Jim and Eddie were both students at the North American College in Rome, a city to which Fr. Jim will return to complete his licentiate studies. A full article on their ordination can be found at the Arkansas Catholic Newspaper.

I first met these two four years ago when they were seminarians in Rome and I traveled there with my parents. They hosted us for Sunday brunch. At the end of the trip, my father had leftover Euros and instead of buying me a nice scotch in the duty-free shop of the airport, decided to give the Euros to the two Arkansas seminarians. As you can see, I haven't forgotten that! But I suppose it's ony right considering these two may minister directly to my parents someday.

And so, praised be God for the gift of these two new priests. May their lives and the Diocese of Little Rock be blessed.

Forty is the New Thirty...

Baldovin's book Reforming the Liturgy, which I posted on previously, reminded me of Denis Crouan and his membership in the "camp" that promotes not a "reform of the reform" nor "reverting to the '62 Missal" but instead insists that the intent of Sacrosanctum concilium be followed and that the depth and breath of the liturgy be performed and made reality in parishes today.

I read Crouan's The Liturgy Betrayed many years ago but this weekend I finished The Liturgy After Vatican II: Collapsing or Resurgent?. Because it was penned in 1999 I felt compelled to scatch out the 30 in "thirty years after Vatican II" and write-in forty. Unfortunately, the sort of abuses and impovershments Crouan laments are still found with some ease in parishes today, forty years after Vatican II.

The 1999 publishing date also meant that his commentary on whether the two instances of the Roman Rite (post-Vatican II and the '62 Missal) could or should coexist was informed without the insight and knowledge of Summorum pontificum, issued on July 7, 2007 and in effect by September 14th of that same year. Interestingly, Crouan was not in favor of allowing two forms to coexist - his concern being that it would only allow those who respect the ritual structure and rubrics of the Rite to go off to their secluded chapels while those who for forty years have treated the rubrics at a whim would continue to digress into rabid individualism and style liturgies to suit their personal needs. Crouan, instead, wants the Roman Rite, that is the Roman Rite which was restored after the Second Vatican Council, to be celebrated worthily and authentically.

But, Summorum pontificum was issued and I would imagine that the Crouan-of-2009 shares the hope of Pope Benedict XVI that the two forms of the Roman Rite enrich and inform one another. He writes:

The liturgy from before Vatican II can help us a great deal: not by serving as a refuge, as is all too often the case nowadays when it has become unhappily necessary to escape the disobedience of certain members of the clergy or the incompetence of all too many teams of liturgical animators, but by serving as a point of reference in the long history of the Roman liturgy (pg 116).

I enjoyed this book for pedestrian reasons - well written, clearly outlined, etc., but also because Crouan identities himself not as a "traddie" who cynically mocks the "spirit of Vatican II" nor as a "hippie" who for forty years have falsified the liturgy, but instead, as a moderate who desires to remain close to liturgical documents and to the depth of what the Roman Missal offers.

My critique would include the choice by the English translator from the original French to use "liturgical animator" for those in parishes/chapels, etc who prepare liturgies. I think a better word than "animator" could have been employed. Also, there are two or three instances where a quote is not cited, most noteably a sizeable quote by Dom Odo Casel on page 104. And overall, the book seems to make some rather broad generalizations of parish life. These would be directed mainly to France where the author writes, and the editor insists are also appicable to the English speaking world.

I'm not a trained psychologists though being one would have been helpful while reading this text. Crouan spends a sizeable amount of time arguing that liturgical abuses of the past forty years have at their root a psychosis of the individual "liturgical animator" who insists on projecting his or her own weaknesses, needs and "pleasurable disorder" upon the liturgy and the gathered parish. This is most clearly seen when ministerial roles are confused. It is an interesting angle, though again, I'm not a pyschologist and would be uncomfortable myself to make such broad statements.

Crouan's The Liturgy After Vatican II is a short, well-written, and clear text that represents well a particular outlook toward the liturgy in these thirty,... that is to say, forty years after Vatican II.

Get Rhythm....

In his book Deep Rhythm and the Riddle of Eternal Life, Fr. John Dunne, CSC speaks of his "own quest of eternal life". He recounts the days when he was in his early 30s and was haunted by his own passing youth. He asked, "If I must die someday, what can I do to satisfy my desire to live?" He answered, "It was only in 'the words of eternal life' in the Gospel that I found the hope of eternal life I was looking for. All other answers seemed to fail. 'Lord, to whom shall we go?' Peter says to Jesus in the Gospel of John. "You have the words of eternal life'." pg 3.

Typical of Fr. Dunne's writings, he engages with a eclectic list of great figures including: Dante, Augustine, Kant, Freud, Otto, Ghandi, St. Paul, Aquinas, etc.

Here are a few memorable lines:

"In plainsong there is no pulse, no beat, but there is the rhythm of the words. So too in a journey with God in time there is no counting of time but instead a living in the presence in the present" pg 108.

"We all have a continual conversation with ourselves, a conversation about our hopes and fears. Prayer, as I understand it, means letting that conversation with ourselves become a conversation with God, and this means turning our hopes and fears over to God, entrusting them to God" pg 18.

"Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness" pg 59.

Roman Visitor...

On Monday, Fr. Damian Hils of the Diocese of Covington visited his alma mater of Notre Dame along with his family. Fr. Hils is a student of dogmatic theology at the Angelicum and a fellow resident at the Casa Santa Maria.

We concelebrated the 11:30 basilica Mass, enjoyed a simple lunch at Corby Hall and then took in the great view from the same house's front porch for a bit.

Fr. Hils graduated from Notre Dame in 1987 with his master's degree in medieval history. Now serving in the Diocese of Covington, he previously served in North Dakota where he founded St. Gianna's Maternity Home, a Christian house for expecting or young mothers in need.

Undergraduate Seminary Press...

CNS has written on undergraduate seminaries, including Old College which serves the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Seminarians learn and discern as college undergraduates

By Jordan Gamble
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Kevin Wack has a pilot's license and even started college as an aerospace engineering major, but he will not be flying planes for a living after he graduates from the University of Notre Dame next spring. Instead, he plans to become a priest.

Although he has considered other paths -- pilot, husband -- Wack said the priesthood has been popping up since childhood family gatherings with his two uncles, both priests in the Congregation of Holy Cross.

"Priests were always very normal people to me. They were and still are the two happiest people I know. As a young kid, 8 years old, I was really drawn to that happiness," Wack said in a phone interview with Catholic News Service .

As a senior in high school, Wack was serious enough about the priesthood to apply to Old College, an undergraduate seminary at Notre Dame. The three-year program is a precursor to the Congregation of Holy Cross' Moreau Seminary, also located on Notre Dame's campus in South Bend, Ind.

Old College is an example of a collaborative college seminary. Unlike stand-alone seminary colleges, collaborative programs are attached to accredited colleges or universities.

"We find it a great asset to be able to be here on campus," said Holy Cross Father Kevin Russeau, director of Old College and himself an alum of the program, in a phone interview.

The "Old Collegians" live in their own residence hall, a tiny, 166-year-old brick building that survives from the university's founding. Father Russeau said its number of occupants has fluctuated in the last decade: from 18 in 1999, down to four in 2006, and up to a crowded 22 this fall.

Though Old College residents form a tight community, they are not tucked away from the rest of campus. From taking classes with other undergraduates to joining extracurricular activities, Old College students can and do participate in college life.

"We have some that are on a club-level baseball team, others in the marching band, others working in campus ministry. They do a variety of things typical to college students," said Holy Cross Father Ed Obermiller, vocations director for his congregation's Indiana province.

"Unlike their peers, however, they tend to go to bed a little earlier because they are up at 7 a.m. for a half-hour of meditation," he said.

Another thing that sets Old College apart is its meticulous application process, including interviews with current Holy Cross priests and a screening by a psychologist. Joining Old College also depends on acceptance into either Notre Dame or the nearby Holy Cross College, but that decision is up to each school's admissions committee.

Old College has a more diverse curriculum than some college seminaries because of the Holy Cross focus on teaching.

"Because we are a teaching community, we do not wish to require that all seminarians major in philosophy. We want them to discover their passions and perhaps find the field they might pursue a Ph.D. in and teach at one of our institutions," said Father Russeau in an e-mail to CNS.

An additional concentration is not required, he explained, but the formation staff encourage the students to study their interests so long as they also complete 18 credit hours in philosophy and 12 in theology, prerequisites for the master of divinity program at Moreau Seminary. Typically, 30 philosophy and 12 theology credit hours are required to apply to a major seminary, a standard set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the Program for Priestly Formation.

Other colleges offer study and discernment communities for people already past the regular college age. The pretheologate program at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, has both an undergraduate, preseminary formation program and a condensed, two-year curriculum for people who need philosophy and theology credits but have already completed an undergraduate degree.

Eric Scanlan went to Franciscan University after he graduated from the University of Florida in 2007 with a business degree. The priesthood was in the back of his mind, he said, but he was unsure of pursuing it. He joined the pretheologate program on a friend's recommendation.

The brotherhood and guidance he found there provided support for his discernment.

"The greatest blessing of the pretheologate program was the community of men really striving for holiness. I didn't know what to expect -- the whole priesthood idea was a pretty new idea to me at the time. I was so impressed at, I guess you could say, how normal the guys were: the friendship, camaraderie, and really looking out for each other," he explained.

The community in the pretheologate program is comparable to Old College, except there are separate households (small group residences) for graduate students like Scanlan and for undergraduate students, who are on a four-year track. The program has grown to about 50 or 60 students since its start in 1985 as a discernment group of four men.

While Old College prepares men for living in the Holy Cross community, the pretheologate's purpose is more exploratory. This is because Franciscan University's program fulfills the academic prerequisites for many major seminaries but is not tailored for a specific diocese or religious order. Pretheologate graduates go on to diocesan and religious seminaries across the nation and world.

When interviewed in June, Scanlan was just days away from starting the next stage of his priestly formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. In a few years he will be a priest in his home Diocese of Venice, Fla.

In Indiana, Wack was spending the summer as a counselor for a high school conference at Notre Dame. Fittingly, his job was to lead a group of teenagers in discussions about their own calls to vocation.

After three years of living in Old College, Wack will move into Moreau Seminary this fall, where he will combine finishing up his undergraduate degree in theology with his novitiate year for Holy Cross. Five years from now, he will be ordained a priest, like the uncles who inspired him as an 8-year-old.

"Other kids might see a shiny firetruck in their future, but I saw the priesthood," he said. "There's some sort of this draw, this silent desire, that says maybe this life is for you."

Ordinations...

Congratulations to Fr. Ciprian Vacaru who was ordained recently in his native Romania. Fr. Ciprian and I both suffered through Latin and Greek together this year at Sant'Anselmo. His Italian is superb and he is also eager to learn English. I, on the other hand, have superb(?) English and am eager to improve my Italian. So, most days we would walk back to the center of Rome after class, him speaking in broken English and I in my broken (but improving!) Italian, offering one another corrections on the way.

Fr. Ciprian is kneeling to the right. And is also seen second from the bottom right of the group-shot.

Blessings to Fr. Ciprian and his classmates!

Precisely...

Air Force One press conference:

Q Was it a conversation [between the President and Holy Father] that you think is likely to change the President's views on certain controversial issues like abortion or --

MR. McDONOUGH: Well, the President, as he said in Notre Dame, has thought long and hard about these issues and he has his views on it. And so on one level I think part of the effort to find common ground is an effort to use language that is more hospitable to both sides on this question, as he himself has done. But at the end of the day, it may just be that there's issues that they can't come to agreement on, but I think he believes that you can be -- that you can disagree without being disagreeable.

"use language that is more hospitable"..........."you can disagree without being disagreeable".

Well, I guess we can change this slide (describing partial birth abortion) in an attempt to be "more hospitable" to: The licensed medical doctor who took the Hippocratic Oath carefully inserts scissors into the fetus' skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the surgical incision.

Same result. Same horrendous act. But I'm sorry, I'm just being typically disagreeable. My bad.

Calm & Collected...

Low and behold, these past 2 1/2 weeks have afforded me the space to catch up on some good spiritual and liturgical reading. I just finished Reforming the Liturgy: A Response to the Critics by Fr. John Baldovin, S.J. of Boston College and was quite pleased by both the overview of its structure and the lack of antagonism in its content.

Baldovin employs the work of Msgr. Mannion who diagrammed a five-part classification of various liturgical "camps"and their reactions to the liturgical reforms stemming not just from the Second Vatican Council, but the entire swath of 19th - 20th century scholarship and reforms.

Admittedly, perhaps one reason I appreciate this book very much is that, like myself and Mannion, Baldovin places himself in the fifth category of "Recatholicing the reform" which has as its concern, two. First, a need for deeper appreciation of the aesthetic. Second, a broader appreciation for liturgical history that does not wallow in a sort of antiquarianism but remains vitally connected to the full breadth and length of the Church's litugical treasury.

Baldovin is certainly a well-respected liturgical historian and his descriptions of the various "camps" are endowed with an aire of fairness and manners. Also, any critique he offers is done in a manner I certainly wish more theologians/bloggers/commenters would discuss in - charitable. I did notice, however, that Baldovin often claims various critics of the reform to be "nostalgic" and "romantic" in their analysis of liturigcal history and time periods. "Nostalgic", in my opinion, strikes me as a bit too harshly dismissive.

This book provides a good overview of the current conversations taking place over 40 years after the Second Vatican Council - a helpful overview - needed in a time of "rapid" change and the coexistence of dual "forms" of the Roman Rite. While reading, I was reminded in the section on Klaus Gamber that "a good deal of one's attitude toward the reform of the liturgy is shaped by one's theology of priesthood - and vice versa" (pg 51). This topic intrigues me greatly.

Baldovin later writes blunt observations:
Since well over half (I am being very conservative here) of priests cannot seem to understand how to use the facultative moments of introduction in the liturgy (introduction to the Mass, to the readings, and to the eucharistic prayer), my suggestion would be not to allow any ad lib remarks during the eucharistic liturgy, except of course for the homily, announcements, and prayer of the faithful. Imagine how incongruous one would find it if the priest began the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with 'Good morning. I'm Father George and I want to welcome you here today.' Why is it that we are not quite so astonished when this is done in the Roman Rite (pg 152)?

Also, I want to read more the works of Denis Crouan whom Baldovin describes as someone "much more sympathetic to the reforms inspired by Vatican II's Liturgy Constitution. In fact, his basic position is that the reforms as instituted by the church in the aftermath of the council are laudable. The problem is that they have not been put into practice" (pg 61). I would strongly agree.

Thanks to Baldovin for writing and Liturgical Press for publishing such a helpful work.

Numb the pain...

The National Institute of Health has released its finalized guidelines for embryonic stem-cell research. The USCCB has released its response.

I suppose having Kmiec's book nearby might help numb the pain and ease the consciences of Catholic voters, lukewarm and uninformed as they may be.

Vivo ancora, ma negli Stati Uniti adesso....

Yes, I am alive and well. I was quite pleased to have finished my exams in Rome and two days later boarded a direct flight from the Eternal City to the Windy City. Notre Dame is beautiful - the campus filled with high school retreatants, athletes, undergraduates whose focus is a bit more primed, and graduate students who find little rest even in this solstice.

Last Tuesday, the 23rd, I began a six week course in French for reading. This will be the third of eventually four modern languages I need for the doctorate in liturgy. The other two so far are Italian and English (American?). Fr. Greg Haake, CSC, himself fluent in Italian and French assured me that these two languages share 98% of grammatical rules and I am pleased to find this to be true thus far.

The class only meets for an hour each morning but then I put in a few hours afterward into review and vocabulary memorization. The afternoons have been a blessed time for catching up on spiritual and liturgical reading. I'm also working on a "pet project" that might turn into something more substantial. At the very least it will help me practice my writing.

God Bless.