Category Archives: Liturgy

August 6, 2016 · 11:06 am

It’s the Feast of the Transfiguration! The Apostles Saw the Face of God and Lived!

Here is the picture and explanation from http://www.morningoffering.com

Transfiguration

Feast of the Transfiguration

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord takes place on August 6th, an event mentioned in all three Synoptic Gospels. After revealing that he would be put to death in Jerusalem, Jesus took the three disciples of his inner circle to the summit of Mount Tabor in order to reveal his glory to them. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigure before them, radiant in the fullness of his glory as he truly was, the Son of God. Next to Jesus were Moses and Elijah as witnesses to Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament law and prophets. St. Matthew writes of the event by saying, “He was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow.”

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January 10, 2015 · 1:44 pm

There is No Cussing in Latin

Most days, I say my rosary in Latin.

I have always loved this ancient language from the time I’ve been in high school and had a little nun named Sister Mary Hope teach me  four years of wonderful Latin.  During 3rd and 4th year Latin, I was one of two students.  I’m surprised that Judy and I were allowed to actually take the class for credit and Sister Mary Hope was allowed to teach it.  I earned translation awards, one on a National Level when I was a senior.  Needless to say, I was a Latinphile; have been for my whole life.

I can put on a CD of the monks singing Latin hymns in Gregorian Chant and I can sing along with these angelic choirs, actually knowing what I’m singing.  (I love me some Gregorian chant, too.  However, that’s another blog post.)

I think it goes without saying that I prefer my Mass parts in Latin and would really prefer the Tridentine Mass every Sunday.  In all of North Georgia it is only available at one Catholic Church.  This is what our archbishop thinks is making it readily available to those of us who want it.  So much for Summorum Pontificum in this Archdiocese!  (Again, that’s another blog post.)

Okay, so why do I try to pray in Latin?  Because I have never heard a “potty-mouth” use it to curse or swear or utter a profanity.  American English has been polluted with all manner of foulness, and I just don’t want to pray in a language that I think has been debased.  I’m not judging or demeaning anyone’s prayers whatever the language.  I’m just sharing my preference and one of the reasons why I prefer Latin prayers, Latin Masses, and Latin hymns.

I do believe that a language can either lift our minds, hearts, and souls to God or it can fall short.  For me, Latin does the trick.  And, it really is not that hard.  JMJ

 

 

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March 29, 2014 · 9:51 am

“We are the Church Militant; not the Church Pansy.”

Don’t you love it?

I do not agree with this post 100%.  However, I think it is very interesting and wanted to share it with you, today.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/03/are-you-fighting-wrong-battles-could-be.html

Hope you are having a great Lent, so far!

I am.  (including my small sharing in the cross 🙂 )

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March 17, 2014 · 3:25 pm

happy st. patrick’s day–i guess!

had an accident today that necessitated 5 stitches in my hand.  (and a tetanus booster)

so today, i present to you an article that i read about distraction in prayer.  enjoy

Are You Distracted During Prayer?

 

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September 16, 2013 · 2:47 pm

Lumen Fidei Chapter 3: I Delivered to You What I Also Received

The Church, Mother of our Faith

37.  “Those who have opened their hearts to God’s love, heard His voice and received His light, cannot keep this gift to themselves.  Since faith is hearing and seeing, it is also handed on as word and light.”

Faith is passed on by contact from one person to another just as at the Easter Vigil, many candles are lit from the one Paschal candle.  Faith can also be passed on by words.

38.  The transmission of faith travels through time from generation to generation.  So we see the face of Jesus through an unbroken chain of witnesses.  This is the ONLY way we can possibly verify something that happened so very long ago.

“The Church is a Mother who teaches us to speak the language of faith.”

She is the one witness that remembers everything about faith’s past.  She does this by the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church and “unites every age and makes us contemporaries of Jesus, thus guiding us along our pilgrimage of faith.”

39.  “It is impossible to believe on our own.”

Faith must be open to the “We” of the Church.  It is not simply an individual decision.  It must take place with the communion of the Church.

When we say, “we believe” we are reflecting the openness of God’s own love, which is a relationship; a “We,” a communion of 3 persons.

“Here we see why those who believe are never alone, and why faith tends to spread, as it invites others to share in its joy.”

The Sacraments and the Transmission of Faith

40.  So how are we sure that the faith that is being passed down by the Church is whole and true?

“It is through the apostolic Tradition preserved in the Church with the assistance of the Holy Spirit that we enjoy a living contact with the foundational memory.”

And how does the Church witness to and communicate the Faith?  Faith needs a means that is worthy and suitable to what is being communicated.

The answer is, of course, the sacraments, celebrated in the Church’s liturgy.  The sacraments engage the core of our being, touch our minds, wills, and emotions.  They are the only things capable of “engaging the entire person, body and spirit, interior life and relationships with others.”

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May 20, 2013 · 6:14 pm

The Liturgy

I wanted to be finished with this study of the Year of Faith by Pentecost.  We are about a week behind, so we should finish by Friday.  I will be praying over what to do next.  I was leaning toward the Epistle of St. James because there are about 50 parallels between St. James and the Sermon on the Mount.  Or, we could do Matthew 25?  If you have any ideas, let me know.

Before we begin, let’s read Jesus Institutes the Eucharist in Luke 22:  14-20.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gives His Body and Blood to the apostles in the Eucharist so that they can have eternal life.  Then, He commands the apostles to “do this” so that they can bring eternal life to us.  He simply requires us to believe in Him and His words, and to believe that He truly gives His flesh and blood for us to have eternal life.

Early Christian Worship

“The Acts of the Apostles shows that the early Christians continued worshiping in the Temple, much as Jesus had done.  Yet, Jesus’ new ritual was also practiced by these Christians from the beginning of the Church. ‘ All who believed were together. . .attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising god and having favor with all the people’ “ (Acts 2: 44, 46-47)

The structure of the Eucharist was influenced by Jewish ceremonies.  Some of our Mass prayers come from the synagogue service.  i.e. the dialogue before the Preface.  In the synagogue, this was followed immediately by the Sanctus—a quote from Isaiah 6: 3.

Later Christians continued to develop the prayers of the liturgy in different parts of the world and in different languages.  The amazing things was the similarity of structure throughout the various rites.  (Pentecost truly reversed the Tower of Babel.)

Eventually the structure became set in each rite.  This had a couple of advantages.  First, the community knew what to expect and how to participate.  Secondly, the liturgy could refine the various expressions of faith in each prayer.  These prayers could then teach doctrine while the community was worshiping.  For instance, the Creed reminds everyone of the teaching of our faith.

The Liturgical Calendar

“Another element of Christian liturgy derived from Judaism is the notion of the liturgical calendar.  Jews celebrate four main feasts – Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles.  Other holy days are also celebrated—New Year, Hanukkah, and Purim.  Furthermore, the rabbis had developed a lectionary cycle for the synagogue.  Its core consisted of readings from the Torah, plus readings from the Psalms and the prophets.

Christians have imitated both elements.  A liturgical year begins with Advent, flowing to Christmas, Epiphany, Lent Eastertide, Pentecost and Ordinary Time, plus a variety of feasts celebrating the events of salvation and the lives of the saints.

Also, a liturgical cycle existed early, with the core being the four Gospels as requisite, plus readings from the epistles and other New Testament books, the Psalms, and other books of the Old Testament.  Just as the covenant sacrifice was preceded by reading the Ten Commandments and the laws, so is the liturgy of the Eucharist preceded by the liturgy of the word of God.  This is meant to stir up faith to further believe the words of Jesus in the Eucharist.”

MC900436065Next time:  Why some lose the faith.

Meditation:  Spend a few minutes after Mass thanking God for the gift of faith.

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May 17, 2013 · 8:22 pm

The Bread from Heaven John 6: 22-71

If you haven’t done so yet, I would suggest that you stop and read these verses in your own Bible.

6: 27  Food which perishes:  While earthly food is necessary to sustain our life on earth; we need something more to give us supernatural life or to guard us against death. (6: 49)  Only Christ can give us food that satisfies our spiritual hunger and leads us to everlasting life.  Eventually in 6: 50-58, this food will be identified as the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

6: 31  He gave them bread:  This is a reference to Exodus 14: 4.  The manna that was provided by Moses was a food that was perishable.  Even though it had a heavenly origin, it melted away every morning and turned rotten if stored over night.

6: 32  the true bread:  The manna was merely a sign of the imperishable bread that the Father sends down from heaven in His Son, Jesus.

The Bread of Life Discourse:  Invitation to Faith (6: 35-47)

“I am the Bread of Life.”  This is followed by a string of invitations to come to Jesus and believe in Him for salvation.  The import of this metaphorical teaching of Jesus is not lost on the Jews, because they don’t ask Him why He calls Himself bread, but how can He claim to have come down from Heaven.  (6: 41  “Jews then murmured.”–just like they did in the desert about the manna.)

The Bread of Life Discourse:  Invitation to the Eucharist (6: 48-58)

“I am the Bread of Life.”  We are invited to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood.  The impact of this literal teaching of Jesus is not lost on the Jews either, because they ask how is it possible for them to eat His flesh.  (6: 32)  The crowd is thinking of cannibalism, which would be repugnant to them.  They misunderstand because Jesus give us His glorified humanity that was His after the resurrection.  This is why He calls Himself “the living bread.”  (6: 51)

We conclude then that without faith we cannot be united to Christ or recognize Him in the Eucharist.  If eating is believing in 6: 35-47; then believing leads to eating in 6: 48-58.

The Words of Eternal Life

6: 66  His disciples drew back.  This is the only time in the Gospels when Jesus is abandoned by His disciples in such large numbers.  Yet, Jesus does not soften His words or make any effort to clear up any possible misunderstanding.  Instead He asks “Will you also go away?” (6: 67)

6: 68-70  Peter’s profession of faith:  He speaks from his heart because he doesn’t yet understand the mysteries that Jesus has just revealed.  “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

The Promises of Eucharistic Adoration

The Promises of Eucharistic Adoration

Next time:  Early Christian Worship and the Liturgical Calendar.

Meditation:  Reread John 6: 68-70.  What new insight about my faith have I received from this scripture?

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May 15, 2013 · 7:54 pm

Sacrifice in Genesis and Exodus

This Year of Faith “will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is ‘the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; . . . and also the source from which all its power flows.'”  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei (n. 9)

Cain and Abel:  This tragic story revolves on their experiences of offering to God sacrifices from their crops and flocks.  Cain’s sacrifice is not pleasing to the Lord, so he become jealous and murders his brother.

Noah:  The next act of worship in the Bible is after Noah and his family leave the ark.  Noah offers a sacrifice that so pleases the Lord, that He makes a covenant never to flood the whole earth, again.

Abram:
As Abram leaves Ur and Horan for Canaan, he turns away from worship of pagan deities to worship the one true God.  Sacrifice becomes more frequent.  Here are the places where Abram built altars and offered sacrifice:

  • Sechem (Gen 12: 5-7)
  • Bethel (Gen 12: 8)
  • Oaks of Mamre near Hebron (Gen 13: 18)
  • Salem (Gen 14: 17-20) where Melchizedek offers bread and wine for Abram.
  • (Gen 15: 7-21)  God renews His promise to Abraham of many descendants and “he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  This act of faith is followed by the building of another altar and another sacrifice.
  • (Gen. 22: 1-18) Abraham is asked to sacrifice Isaac.  Abraham obeys, takes Isaac to Mt. Moriah where an angel of the Lord stop him and he offers a ram instead.

Jacob:  For considering Jacob’s sacrificial/worship relationship with God, let’s read Gen 27-32: 22-32 in our own Bibles.  One note on Gen 32: 22-32–when Jacob returns to Canaan with his family and wealth, he wrestles with God’s angel who injures his hip.  God lets this happen so Jacob knows that He is in charge of their relationship, not Jacob.

Moses:  The Lord calls Moses and instructs him to deliver Israel from Egypt and bring them to Canaan, the land that was promised to the ancestors.  He tells Moses that He will be with him and he shall lead the people to worship on Mt. Sinai.  After all the angst and crises of the Exodus, the Israelites arrive at Mt. Sinai where six things happen.  For additional details, the passages are presented.

  1. (Ex 19: 3-9) Moses presents God’s offer of a covenant and the people accept the offer.
  2. (Ex. 19: 10-15) The Lord asks Moses to consecrate the people.
  3. (EX. 19: 16-17)  God comes down to the mountain, causing the people to be afraid, and summons Moses to meet Him.
  4. (Ex. 20-23)  God gives Moses the 10 Commandments (and other laws), determining the moral quality of life the Israelites must lead to be His chosen people.
  5. (Ex. 24: 1-42)  Moses returns to the people with the law and the people hear it and give their acceptance of it as a community.
  6. Ex. 24: 4b-11)  Moses offers 12 bulls as sacrifice, pours the blood on the altar and on the people, and there follows a sacrificial meal on the mountain.

Joshua:  The book of Joshua contains a number of liturgical events.  Joshua 4: 190-24 describes the first shrine in the Promised Land at Gilgal.

Jacob_Wrestling_with_the_AngelNext Time:  Jesus’ new liturgy

Meditation:  For understanding this new liturgy:  John 6: 22-71

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