Happy Feast of St. Francis

St. Francis in Ecstasy by Caravaggio

BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR OCTOBER

VATICAN CITY, 30 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for October is: "That Catholic universities may more and more be places where, in the light of the Gospel, it is possible to experience the harmonious unity existing between faith and reason".

His mission intention is: "That World Mission Day may afford an occasion for understanding that the task of proclaiming Christ is an absolutely necessary service to which the Church is called for the benefit of humanity".



BXVI-PRAYER INTENTIONS/ VIS 20100930 (90)

What runs through my head when I get up really early

EF Mass today!

I had the opportunity to attend another Extraordinary Form Mass today. My mom & I drove the 30+ miles for 9 A.M. Mass at St. Anthony of Padua parish.  The atmosphere is one of quiet prayer. The readings were for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost, and Father Edwin preached on the reading from Ephesians. He really made St. Paul come alive, someone I could relate to as a real person!  I have put in a category in the sidebar called 'spiritual reflections' and have put links there to the sites for Father's homilies and catechetical lessons. They are well worth listening to, and I invite and encourage everyone to check them out! Today's homily should be posted there by Tuesday.

Carleigh from the Octave Sphere pointed out the lighting effect. I can hardly believe that I didn't notice it right off. (and no, it isn't photoshopped) It looks like the rays are coming from the figure of Christ crucified! The other figures, on either side of the altar at floor level, are Our Lady, Mary Magdalene, and John the beloved disciple. This really emphasizes visually the fact that the Mass is the re-presentation of Calvary.

Mother Teresa stamp to be released Sept. 7

A big thank-you to CatholicVote for the petition to have a postage stamp in honor of Mother Teresa! Mother Teresa stamp to be released Sept. 7

 There will also be a special Mass at the National Basilica Shrine in DC on Sunday 9/5 at 2 pm and stamp ceremony to follow.

  Be sure to express your appreciation by purchasing this special stamp!

The Tetragrammaton, or why we no longer pronounce YHWH at Mass

We had one of the revised text YHWH hymns at Mass this morning. The hymnal referenced the change in the directives from the Vatican on why the change was made. Here are the links to a couple of relevant articles for anyone interested. (yes, I know the changes were made two years ago, but due to hymnbooks having been printed way ahead of time, we are only experiencing the changes now.)

the first announcement courtesy of Zenit

another later post from the Communio blog

Fortunately, the change only affects a few hymns, and they are not often used at my parish. But, in case anyone asks, you are now armed and dangerous.....I mean informed and ready to defend Church teaching! :)

Latin immersion Cenaculum - Optime!!

Salvete, omnes!

     Through a benefactor, I was able to attend one day of the week-long Latin immersion Cenaculum, held at our local retreat center a couple of weeks ago. It was a great privilege, and I got to meet many people from all over the world who get together annually to experience Living Latin. That’s right; all communication for the whole week is in Latin!

   My spoken Latin is woefully inadequate, so I spent most of the day listening to the various talks and presentations. However, I was able to participate at a higher level during the morning, midday, evening & night prayers, Benediction, and of course the Holy Mass. This was my first experience of the current, or Novus Ordo, Mass being completely in Latin, including the homily! Celebrating the Mass ad orientem, with the priest and people all facing God together, felt very natural.

    The day’s talks varied from a presentation on St. Charbel, to a discourse on the Christological controversies of the early Church, complete with some Greek words thrown in for good measure, to a presentation for children on the Calendar. Finally, there was an evening slide show on the Holy Land. Remember, all these were presented in the Latin language! I understood about ¾ of the presentations. By the evening slide show, the presenter’s heavy French accent made it a little harder to understand her descriptions of her travels, but the slides made up for my fried brain cells by that time.

     Next year, the Cenaculum will be held in Mobile, AL. I highly recommend the Cenaculum to anyone interested in Latin. It isn’t quite as dead a language as it is made out to be!

Familiae Sancti Hieronymi may be found here:
http://www.fshcm.com/

Valete!