Lay "Blessings" Again

I second Father Z's opinion:

D. of Madison’s newspaper’s explanation of EMHC’s giving blessings as if they were priests:

In The Catholic Herald of the Diocese of Madison, where the great Bishop Robert Morlino exercises oversight, there is a great article on an issue we have addressed here many times: Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion giving blessings to non-communicants as if they were priests.

The whole thing deserves a reading here and there is no combox over there.

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Another Solution

to the difficulty about EMHC's giving blessings:

Blessings from lay people?:

My post yesterday about deacons giving blessings prompted a reader to write: My question is, as a eucharistic minister, would you have in your repertoire a short blessing that we can use when a non-Catholic or child comes up for a blessing during communion? I use, " May the Lord's blessings come down upon you in abundance" Acceptable? Well, actually...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Mea Culpa

It's the Catholic thing to acknowledge one's guilt. In the Latin (curiously changed in the present-and-soon-to-be-replaced translation) we start each Mass by confessing our sinfulness: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa ([through] my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault--replaced with "through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do;"). So it is good for us to consider how we have been complicit in the Long Lent that we are still suffering through:

Happy Hour Links:

Peggy Noonan on the Catholic Church's catastrophe.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

Internal Politics

in the Church?

“using the victims of clerical child abuse to fight internal political battles”:

Some analysis from the UK by Damian Thompson with my emphases and comments:

Some liberal Catholics are thinking: It’s payback time, Ratzinger!



By Damian Thompson



There is still no good evidence that Pope Benedict XVI is seriously implicated in the atrocious child abuse scandals that are – rightly – blackening the reputation of the institutions of the Catholic Church. But still the attempts to join the dots continue. To put it bluntly, there is an increasingly frantic media campaign against the Pope in which headlines are being written first and then facts shaved to fit them.  [What’s on the masthead of Hell’s Bible again?  "All the news that fits"?]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Epimetheus

is my name, I decided many decades ago. Epimetheus ("Afterthought" in Greek) was Prometheus' ("Forethought") brother. So many occasions in my life I made decisions about which I had to explain to myself or others as "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

One of the more egregious examples was joining the RCIA team in the parish. There were certain encouraging signs that I took to be God calling me forward. And I'm still not sure that it wasn't true. But I charged in without "due diligence" and so was unprepared for the conflicts that arose over those three years. Those conflicts were, in fact, completely foreseeable. If only I had done the research and thought and prayed first.

But Estel is my other name. So I remain hopeful that I can learn from experience and do better in the future. So when Father invited me to become an EMHC early this year I was non-commital. The invitation was renewed a little while ago, so I started praying, thinking and studying. There is Hope after all.

A regular position of service in the parish would be a good thing, at least in the abstract. But the issue of EMHC's isn't all light and happiness. Some respectable Catholics argue that their very use as currently seen (regularly scheduled and quite ordinary in that sense) is, in itself, an abuse.

If and when you get past that meta-issue, there are some specific areas of concern:

• EMHC's in the Sanctuary before the Celebrant has taken Communion,


• EMHC's giving "blessings" to non-communicants,


• EMHC's drinking the remaining Precious Blood after Communion and
• EMHC's taking the Eucharist from the Tabernacle themselves when going to deliver to the sick.

Training, whatever that consists of, and Archdiocesan guidelines, to the extent these are written and accessible, will help with some of the answers.

But this time around, I intend to do all the praying, thinking and researching in advance, so that I can ask the appropriate questions and only then make a well-informed decision.

My funeral

Ok, don't get too excited: nothing is planned, as yet. But Rich Leonardi's meditation did get me thinking about that final celebration. No hymns composed later than, say, 1960. Latin should make an appearance at least (Immaculate Mary doesn't seem like quite enough). Would there be a place for Tantum Ergo?

Anyway, while I'm pondering this, you can read Rich's list:

My funeral: While doing this gives me a strong sense of the macabre, what follows below are requests for the celebration of my funeral Mass, which hopefully is a long way off. It was inspired by the discussion of the reportedly excessive celebratory nature of the funeral Mass for Fr. Dan Schuh last weekend.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Ten Reasons.)

Pet Peeves

We all have them, of course. One of mine is exercised every Sunday: clapping at Mass. In particular, the seemingly obligatory applause after the Recessional Hymn for the Choir. This is not entertainment, folks. They are supposed to be helping us to praise God and to experience God's Presence in the Eucharist more fully. Why does this generation feel comfortable clapping at Mass? Do the hardy hand-shakes at the Rite of Peace have anything to do with it?

Hold the Applause: Confessions of a Conflicted Clapper: "

Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.  

The above words were penned…

"

(Via Catholic Exchange.)

No Soap Box Today

I'll let Rich do the blogging:

Populist scrutiny: "Fr. George Rutler's 'acerbic' review of Archbishop Marini's new book, a nostalgic treatment of the heady days of liturgical experimentation in the aftermath of Vatican II, has been making the rounds on St. Blog's:

Considerable erudition was at work in those years, but too often did its populism overrule the people. It was like Le Corbusier sketching a new metallic Paris. Marini complains about ' a certain nostalgia for the old rites. ' In doing so he contradicts Pope Benedict's distinction between rites and uses, but he also fails to explain why nostalgia for the 1560's is inferior to nostalgia for the 1960's, except for dentistry. This book's editors want to 'keep alive' the 'vision' of the Consilium, but their diction is a voice in the bunker embittered by many ungrateful people. If an organism is truly healthy, it does not need a life support system. In his preface to 'The Reform of the Roman Liturgy' by Klaus Gamber, Cardinal Ratzinger said plainly: 'We abandoned the organic living process of growth and development over the centuries, and replaced it, as in a manufacturing process, with a process, with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.' In consequence, the fragile construction must be pumped up by multiple Gnostic-Docetic innovations such as dancing, referred to in a prescriptive text as 'pious undulations.' Hula dancers at the beatification of Father Damien in 1995 hardly gave a sense of verisimilitude in Brussels. Having eliminated the papal flabella and burning flax as the detritus of imperial Rome, it was even more anachronistic to trumpet the Great Jubilee in modern Rome with costumed men affecting familiarity with the art of blowing elephant tusks.

Nowhere does one feel like 'populism overrules the people' than when liturgists unleash the Lenten 'scrutinies' on unsuspecting worshipers this time of year. These optional rites showcase a handful of engaged would-be converts who've been coaxed into RCIA by their cohabiting Catholic fiances. Anyone who has been trying to engage in lectio divina during Lent by reading ahead in the Sunday lectionary is faced with an inexplicable alternate set of readings. The highlight is a slow-motion procession of candidates up the main aisle of the church led by their oh-so-serious-looking program director. All told, it's about as organic as a three-pack of Zingers.

(Also, you can read Fr. Alcuin Reid's review of Archbishop Marini's book here.)"

(Via Ten Reasons.)