This Week's Workshops on the Roman Missals

I was delighted to be with the good Friars of Providence College this week.  Today I was pleased to join the people of Saint Paul's in Cambridge and Saint John the Baptist in Peabody (click here for the slides).  My thanks to all who joined us!

Just a reminder: many of the resources I recommended can be found in the bar to the right of this posting.  May these new translations of the Missale Romanum lead you all more deeply into those rites which are the  source and summit of our lives!

On Fear...

The following homily was preached on October 27th at Saint John's Seminary.

What are you afraid of?

What is a seminarian most afraid of?  That they will throw you out before breakfast?  That I will not turn out to be the super-priest I thought I’d be?  That my friendships will fall apart?  That I won’t be able to stuff all that stuff into my head?  That they’ll laugh at me?  That maybe this is not what God is calling me to?

And what is a faculty member afraid of?  That I’ll sound like a fool in class?  That I’ll not have the strength or the grace to provide the example I think I should be?  That once they get to know me they’ll see I’m a fake?   That I will get cancer or have a heart attack or start to pass a kidney stone during Mass?  That the Cardinal will transfer me to Our Lady of God-Knows-Where or put me in charge of  Archdiocesan finances?  That my faith will grow cold?  That my parents will get even sicker and die?  

That’s probably enough for 7:30 in the morning.  But we are afraid.  No matter our age or our station in life.  We tremble deep inside.  Every one os us.  On a regular basis. 

We suffer anguish over the things that wake us up at two in the morning.

We are distressed by the things that assault us throughout the day.

We are persecuted by those who resent or just don’t trust us.

We hunger for love and fulfillment and hope.

We are naked, when we come into this world and when we leave, and desperately try to clothe ourselves with artifice in between.

We bleed from the slings and arrows and don’t always see them coming.

OK, now that’s enough for 7:30 in the morning.  Forgive me, I’m Irish, and I love  doing this.

But we fear.  

And God smiles at us in our foolishness, like a knowing parent looking down at a three year old, and he loves us.

Loves us so much that he sends his Son.  Loves us so much that he wills him to carry our death down into the grave, rising triumphant (taking us with him) interceding at his father’s right hand for his friends, for his brothers.

For we are brothers of Christ and the Sons of the Eternal Father, sealed with the Holy Spirit, a Royal Priesthood by Baptism, tasked with offering the fears and the joys, the hopes and failures of our lives, joined with his perfect sacrifice on the Altar of the Cross.

So what have we to fear?  What can harm?

Nothing and No One.

For he through whom all things were made and who is our Blessed Savior has broken through all the doors we have locked and whispered into our hearts: Be Not Afraid.  Of anything.

For Jerusalem might kill the prophets and throw stones at the back of your head, but it is Christ Jesus who loves you, and who yearns to gather you under the wings of his mercy, like a mother hen ever mindful of her brood.

On Loving Them All...

Homily

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wow.  Is there any tougher Gospel than the one we hear today?  

"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.”
AND:

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

And what’s more, our first reading from Exodus, provides us with a list of those who, since the time we all lived as Pharaoh’s slaves, we have had the hardest time loving:

The alien, the old widow, the orphan, the poor, and our neighbor.

Since I’m afraid a homily on each of those categories might end sometime next Thursday afternoon, allow me to choose just two: loving the alien and loving the old.

Aliens by definition are “the other.”  The person who looks or talks strange, who is not “one of us.”

Jesus and Mary and Joseph were aliens in Egypt, where they were forced to flee from Herod’s persecution.  I’m sure the Egyptians looked upon this Palestinean family with curiosity and maybe even suspicion.  It is this same Lord who spent his childhood as an immigrant who tells us that he will judge harshly those who do not welcome the stranger, like Abraham and Sarah welcomed the three strangers who were a manifestation of God.  “Whatsoever you do,” Jesus tells us “for one of these least one, you do for me.”

Not an easy thing to do.  For it’s easy to be afraid or distrustful of “the other,” this person I do not know.  I remember reading last year about a man who was  staying in a small village in Ireland. Since he was planning to visit the next small town, about six miles away, he inquired about directions at the local gas station.  They refused to give him directions.  “That’s no place to be going,” they replied angrily, “and there’s nothin’ and no one there for a good man like yourself to be concerned with.”

Why, he asked them, did they so hate the residents of the neighboring town.  “In 1066, when William the Conqueror came through Ireland, he attacked that village first. They didn’t send anyone here to warn us that he was coming.   So you see, they’re just good for nothin’s over there!” 

So “they” couldn’t be trusted. “They” were a danger. And for nearly a thousand years, “they” had remained “other,” the enemy. 

But even the person I do not know, and perhaps especially him, I am called to love, as Jesus loved them, unto death.  “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

And then there’s the elderly, those who, in the words of Cicero, have reached the Autumn of life.  The Scriptures are rich in singing the praises of old age.  We read that “youth and the dawn of life are vanity”

 and that the faithful old man will still bear fruit when he is old, “still full of sap, still green, to proclaim that the Lord is just.”

  That’s why Saint Paul commends the old to be “temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love and in patience…[that they might] teach what is good, and so train the young....”

This is why the Scriptures teach us to revere and treasure those who have grown old, to honor them,

 to learn from them and to seek their wise counsel.  The Book of Sirach is blunt: ‘Spend time with those who have grown old…for with them is found wisdom.’

And yet, every year an estimated 2.1 million older Americans are victims of physical, psychological, or other forms of abuse and neglect.  And what’s more, some experts suggest that this figure may, in actuality, be closer to 10 million or more older people who are neglected, beaten or starved in our country each year.

And what of those who are alone and in pain in our nursing homes?   How many of the folks I see in the nursing homes go without a visitor, sometimes for months at a time.  It’s not that they don’t have children or nephews or nieces, but most of their are caught up in the business of their own lives, leaving the old to fend for themselves.

Yet each of us are the poorer for our neglect of those who have grown old in body and wisdom.  How much richer we all were in the days when grandma and grandpa lived in the back bedroom and the wisdom of their years was readily available to their children and grandchildren. When, as the Psalmist says, the old “might proclaim God’s strength to every generation that is to come!”

   We are all the poorer when we fail to love those who first taught us to love.

Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind.  Tough enough.  A lifelong task.

And love your neighbor as yourself.   Tougher still.  But no work is more worthwhile, and no road more sure to lead to God.

Revised and Expanded Edition of THE MASS EXPLAINED Now Available from Catholic Book Publishing Company

The newly revised and expanded edition of The Mass Explained: An Introduction to the New Roman Missal  is now available from Catholic Book Publishing.  This new edition of my popular guide to the Mass now includes several new chapters on the role of the Priest, the Deacon and the Gathered Assembly, as well as a short summary of the process followed in the new translation of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia.  This new edition has been fully updated with all the new translations which will go into effect in just a few short weeks.

I am very grateful to Catholic Book for keeping the price as affordable as possible at just $8.95.  You can get your copy by visiting the Catholic Book Website by clicking here.

The E-Book edition will be available for your electronic reader within the next few weeks and a Spanish-language edition is on the way thanks to all the good folks at Catholic Book Publishing Company.  As you may know, Catholic Book celebrates one hundred years of providing, devotionals, prayer books, ritual editions, Bibles and the best of Catholic books.  I am deeply grateful to the Cavalero family for making this revised edition available in such a timely manner.  I pray that you will find it to be helpful as together we all seek to grow more deeply in our love for the Sacred Liturgy!

Saint Agnes and Saint Athanasius in Reading

It was a joy to be with the good people of Reading at Saint Agnes Parish this week.  If you would like a copy of the slides from that presentation, please click here.  For additional resources on the new Roman Missal, consult the links on the bar to the right of this blog.

Worcester Serrans

What a great group of Serrans were present at Saint Anthony's in Dudley this morning!  I was honored to offer some reflections on Promoting the Priesthood in the Twenty-First Century.  To download the slides from this talk, please click here.

In my keynote I reviewed the recent Cara survey on what influenced the newly ordained class of 2011 in discerning their vocation, looked at what the new Roman Missal says about priestly identity, and suggested ways in which we might support Priests as teachers, sanctifiers, and shepherds.  Here's an excerpt from the last part of my talk:

How do we promote the priest as teacher?

First we listen.   We let him teach. A few years back Pope John Paul II in speaking to a group of bishops from the United States noted that “in a culture which neither favors nor fosters meditative quiet, the art of interior listening is learned only with difficulty.”   but listening is indispensable to learning and is a recognition that we have something to learn. Are priests in infallible? Are they always so fascinating that we hang on their every word? Of course not.  But we do believe that they have been chosen by God to be the chief teachers of the truth, the ones who pass on the tradition which began with Jesus and the apostles. In the first and most important thing we can do in promoting their teaching ministry is to listen to them.

And then we can reflect: take what they say to heart. Take it seriously. The words they preach can change our lives. Hear the ways in which their words comfort us in our affliction, and afflict us when we are entirely too comfortable. 

And finally we must support the priest in a ministry which oftentimes brings him ridicule, derision, or worst of all creates within his heart the impression that he is irrelevant, properly ignored, and just not very important. But the words that he speaks are important, indeed they are the most important words that we will ever hear. They are the words of Christ, spoken through his Church and by his sacred ministers and if we hear them they will change the world and maybe, even change our hearts.

How can we support the priest as Sanctifier?

First, we can pray, for him, for ourselves, for all the needs of the church. Only through a deep and profound relationship with Christ can we be made holy. And only through “full, conscious, and active participation in the sacred liturgy” can we receive the grace which Christ imparts through the hands of the priest in the mysteries which are the source and summit of our lives.

Participation in the sacred mysteries which the priest celebrates in our name and on our behalf is not only the way in which we support the Priest, but the way in which we live out the baptismal priesthood which makes us the mystical body of Christ.

And finally, we must support our Priest in his efforts to authentically and faithfully celebrate the liturgy as it has been handed down from the time of the apostles. Celebrating the liturgy with full knowledge of our unworthiness we seek not so much to express ourselves as to worship the God who has sent us this priest to bring us the sacramental graces which will literally save our lives.

How can we support the priest as Shepherd, the leader of our Parish?

First we can listen to him. In an age of talking heads, when MSNBC and Fox 5 for our allegiance more than our understanding, the greatest support we can provide to the priest is to hear where he wishes to lead us.

And then we can follow him. The first words which Jesus spoke to his disciples were “follow me”. He speaks to us still in the parish priest who asks for volunteers, seeks collaborative partners, and makes every effort to use the talents, insights, and energy of all the members of your parish to promote the work of the church in your town and community.

And finally, to use a word not too popular anymore, we can obey. Priests have promised to obey the Bishop, and bishops to remain loyal to the see of Rome. Likewise, parishioners oh a certain debt of obedience to the one whom Christ has placed before them as their shepherd. Not blind obedience,  nor unthinking allegiance, but the obedience of faith which gives the benefit of the doubt to the one whom God has sent to lead us home to himself.

Institute for Continuing Theological Education

I just finished three wonderful days at the Pontifical North American College with a great group of priests on sabbatical at NAC’s ICTE program.  If any of the participants would like to download the slides for my major presentations, please click the following:

Ars Celebrandi and the new Roman Missal

Translation and the new Roman Missal

Rhetorical Forms and the new Roman Missal

Questions and Some Answers

The resources I described are on the bar to the right of these postings.  I have added links for the great MP3 and Video files of the chants of the new Roman Missal from Boston as links 9 and 10.

Waiting for the new Roman Missal with Priests of Brooklyn

Well, we don't have too long to wait now....According to my clock, in just fifty-two days, the new Roman Missal will be with us!  And in Brooklyn this week (the one hundred and twenty-third diocese I have addressed on the Missal) I presented a keynote on four presuppositions as we prepare for an effective reception of the new translations.  My slides may be downloaded by clicking here.  As always, resources on the Roman Missal may be found on the bar to the right of these postings.

Life Teen on the New Roman Missal

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND some new videos produced by Life Teen to assist in the implementation of the new Roman Missal.  You can see them all here.

Here's a particularly great video designed for Middle School Youth:


New Roman Missal for Middle School Youth - Word for Word by Life Teen from Life Teen on Vimeo.

Mission at Saint Columbkille's Parish

It was such a joy to spend three nights in prayer and study with the good folks of Saint Columbkille's.  If you would like to download Quicktime videos of my slides, please click here for the first conference, here for the second conference, and here for the third conference.

Finally, you might want to check out these sources for further reflection on the mysteries we explored as we await the new Roman Missal!

---------------------------------

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

1324. The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."

1325. “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.”

1326. Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all.

1327. In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: "Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking."

On the Presentation of the Gifts

“This humble and simple gesture is actually very significant: in the bread and wine that we bring to the altar, all creation is taken up by Christ the Redeemer to be transformed and presented to the Father. In this way we also bring to the altar all the pain and suffering of the world, in the certainty that everything has value in God's eyes.”  (Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 47)

“Your prayers, and your faith, and your blood, with His in the chalice,

These, like the water and wine, form the matter of his sacrifice.”   -Paul Claudel

"Therefore when you approach the altar, never come alone. Together with yourselves, you have the power and the mission to save your home, your street, your city, and the whole of civilization. . . . The worker will offer up the monotony of assembly-line work or the joy of skilled craftsmanship. The mother of a family will offer up her household cares, her fears for a sick child. The man of science will offer up the world of ideas, the universe whose depth and breadth have been tapped. It is the task of the scholar, the philosopher, the sociologist, the artist, at this turning point in the world’s history, to gather the world together in order to raise it up to the Father.”

• Cardinal Suhard, Assisi, 1955.

New and Eternal Word Series Begins Broadcast

In the new original CatholicTV Network series The New and Eternal Word, Monsignor James P. Moroney explores how the Church celebrates the Holy Mass in our day. In particular, he examines how a new Missale Romanum and a new English translation of these prayers can draw us more deeply into the words and rites of the Mass.

Click here to view a preview.

Series schedule:

Week of Oct. 3 - Ars Celebrandi: Praying the Mass from the inside out
Oct. 10 - Where does the Mass come from?
Oct. 17 - Why Latin and why translate?
Oct. 24 - How the Church translates the Mass
Oct. 31- The Prayers of the People at Mass: Part I
Nov. 7 - The Prayers of the People at Mass, Part II
Nov. 14 - The Prayers of the People at Mass, Part III
Nov. 21 - The Kind of Prayers We Pray at Mass
Nov. 28 - The Prayers of Advent and Christmas: Emmanuel!
Dec. 5 - The Prayers of Lent and Easter: Paschal Joy
Dec. 12 - Preparing for Mass by Prayer and Study
Dec. 19 - A 50-Year-Old Vision Fulfilled!

New shows premiere Mondays at 11 p.m., and are rebroadcast Tuesdays at 9 a.m., Wednesdays at 3:30 a.m., Fridays at 3:30 p.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

CatholicTV is a nationally-broadcasted television network streaming a live feed 24 hours a day at CatholicTV.com. Heeding Pope Benedict XVI's call to greater utilize the power of television and new media, the CatholicTV Network features its cable TV station, Catholic web site, mobile apps and widget. Celebrate Mass online; pray The Rosary; enjoy programs on prayer, the saints, the Scriptures and the Catholic Church on America's Catholic Television Network.

A DVD including all twelve half hour shows will be available shortly and how you can obtain your copy will be advertised in this blog.  Come join us as we explore the New and Eternal Word of the New Roman Missal!

Watch Catholic TV Live on the Internet!  Just click here.

Tending the Garden...

Homily

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Two gardens we hear about this afternoon.  And each has a problem.

The first gardner is tending the vineyard for his friend, and he fills it with everything he thinks it need to thrive.  A hedge, a tower...all the latest conveniences.  But it fails.  Sour grapes.  It’s good for nothing, this garden of his own design.

The second gardner tends the garden as a tenant.  But the owner fares no better than in the first story.  For when his managers come to inspect his garden, they are killed by the gardner.  As is his Son.  As is his Son.

We are the gardeners.  And the Garden is this Church which God has left us to tend.

And, like the the first gardner, we have all kinds of bright ideas about how to tend it...how run our lives, how to be happy, how to be prosperous, how to do what we want to do.

And, like the second gardner, we ignore and even seek to discredit those whom he sends to tell us his will.  When their advice is painful or even inconvenient, when their ideas of happiness do not line up with our pursuits of pleasure.

He tells us to tend his garden not by building monuments to out own greatness, or ny hedging in our riches, or arranging the acreage so it meets our needs.  No, he tells us that in order to reap a fruitful harvest of something other than sour grapes, we must tend this Church with love, and mercy, and truth.

With truth.  Hard truths.

• The truth that no matter how alone or afraid we are, sex outside of marriage is always a sin

• The truth that no matter how much that pregnancy will our their plans for life, aborting a baby us always a sin

• The truth that no matter how obnoxious your daughter or son has grown to be, ignoring them is a sin

• The truth that no matter how curmudgeonly your aging parents have become in their old age, they still deserve to be loved and honored

• The truth that no matter how much the homeless lady smells, we ares still called to love her

• The truth that no matter how nice and warm the bed feels on Sunday morning, skipping Mass is never a good idea

• The truth that no matter how much she hurt you, seeking revenge is always a sin

We know how to tend the garden God left to us.

And it's not by building all the hedges and towers of our inspired designs, for, in the end, all our brilliant ideas are worth nothing.

The tending of the garden begins and ends with his will and conforming our hearts to the Sacred Heart of his Son, who they killed on a cross and in whom we find perfect love, perfect mercy, and all truth.

Free Bulletin Inserts Preparing for the New Roman Missal

In these last weeks of preparing to receive the new Roman Missal, I have received many requests for resources.  While there are many great resources out there, I have prepared a series of FREE BULLETIN INSERTS which you are welcome to download by clicking the following links:

Roman Missal Bulletin Inserts Part One

Roman Missal Bulletin Inserts Part Two

Hope you find them to be helpful!

The Roman Missal and the Consecrated Life

My thanks to the sisters of Philadelphia for exploring the impact of the new Roman Missal on consecrated life in our day.  It was a joy to be with you!  If you would like a copy of the slides from my presentation, please click here.  Additional resources on the new Roman Missal are found in the sidebar to the right of this blog.