Monday, May 30, 2011

A Case for Life-Teen Music: Your Response?

Paul Weber
"...but he problem with his thinking is that all religious experience must occur within the context of the Mass. This, as we all know, is untrue. Pius XII gave the distinction between Sacred-liturgical and Religious-recreational music in his encyclical of 1955, and both are good. It's a matter of using the right tool for the right job. Music destined for the Sacred Rites must be appropriate for them by being derived from them, which is how the music achieves holiness and universality (artfulness is another matter). The nature of art destined for the universal Sacred Rites cannot have as its point of reference the individual. This is the problem with the following justification of Life Teen music's supposed liturgically-appropriate holiness:
"Which means the musicians who are going to be interpreting this composition have to have holiness as the center of their life. The people receiving the music have to have a passion to be holy. Sacred music rises or falls in its sacred dignity on whether or not holiness is at the center. Let it be so, because if you start with a holy seed, you’ll get holy fruit. And as music serves the worship, so will it serve holiness if it starts in holiness and is brought by holiness."
It isn't up to the composer, the performer or the individuals of a congregation to determine whether they feel holiness. For that matter, holiness is hardly a matter of objective feeling (that's piety). Holiness is a quality conferred upon the liturgy by God, and through the liturgy to Sacred Art by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through Sacred Tradition. What's wrong with using Life Teen music for extra-liturgical prayer (Holy Hours, festivals of praise, retreats, etc.) and maintaining an elevated form of music and art appropriate for a supremely elevated task: the Sacred Liturgy. Religious music, as Pius XII teaches, is uniquely powerful in moments of catechesis and evangelization among the young and within families, but this does not displace the singular expression required for the Mass. Use the right tool for the right job.

http://www.chantcafe.com/2011/05/case-for-life-teen-music-your-response.html#idc-container

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Do Women Have a Role in the Liturgy and in the Church?

Posted by Revd Fr Christopher Smith

"...There are thus two different sacred powers associated with two different sacraments which were instituted by Christ for the salvation of souls. But they both are intimately related to the sacrificial offering and priesthood of Christ, although in ways irreducible one to the other. These two distinct powers mark the difference between the ministerial priesthood of Christ the Head conferred by Ordination and the common priesthood of the members of Christ’s Body conferred by Baptism. Just as Christ’s Body and Head are distinct, but cannot live one without the other, so too the priesthood and the laity are distinct and cannot live one without the other.

Note that in none of this discussion has the difference between the two types of priesthood been described in terms of function. The difference is not functional, but sacramental. Furthermore the two are not parallel to each other as adversaries, but mutually complementary to such a degree as to be impossible one without the other. Thus we understand why Blessed John Henry Newman, when asked what he thought of the laity, responded, “We’d look foolish without them!” Just as a head would look foolish without a body.

If the Mass is the sacramental re-presentation of the self-offering of Jesus Christ to the Father, the sacramental distinction between ministerial and common priesthood is logical. But once we begin to see the Mass as a sacrifice of praise given by a community to God, it is hard not to transform our idea of the priesthood from a sacramental one to a functional one. Once the functional trumps the sacramental, the ministerial priest becomes one elected among the assembly of the faithful who presides over them by gathering them together and organizing their common prayer. The common priest is then one who participates in any way in such a common prayer. Then the question arises: if the priesthood (common or ministerial) is merely a question of function, Who decides who fulfills those functions?..."

http://www.chantcafe.com/2011/05/do-women-have-role-in-liturgy-and-in.html

A Great New CD by the St. Gregory's Academy




http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumID=ALB000077535

Simple English Propers

Ricardo Mutti on Church Music



Posted by Jeffrey A. Tucker

From Catholic Culture:

The music director of the Chicago Symphony has thrown his support behind the drive by Pope Benedict XVI to revive the tradition of sacred music.

''The Pope is right when he says it is necessary to bring our great musical heritage back into churches,'' said Ricardo Muti. The Italian conductor said that the revival in church music “cannot happen outside the great traditional path of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphonic choral music.”

Muti said that he has no objection to the composition of new sacred music, but resents the use of pop tunes. “When I go to church and I hear four strums of a guitar or choruses of senseless, insipid words, I think it's an insult,” he said. Offering mediocre music, when the Church boasts a priceless treasury of compositions, shows “a lack of respect for people’s intelligence,” he said.




Monday, May 23, 2011

Schola June Calendar

At OLPH
Saturday Mass (8:15AM) (Warm - up at 7:40)
June 4

Kyrie XI
Gospel Accl.
Sanctus XVIII
Mysterium Fidei and Amen
Agnus Dei XVIII
Cantate Domino
Regina Caeli


At Resurrection Church
Satruday Mass (9AM) (Warm-up starts at 8:30)
June 11, 25

Kyrie XI
Gospel Accl.
Sanctus XVIII
Mysterium Fidei and Amen
Agnus Dei XVIII
Veni Creator Spiritus (11)
Qui Manducat (25)
Salve Regina


Ascension Thursday at St. William of York

Missa Cantata (Traditional Mass)
June 2nd, 7AM (warm-up at 6:45AM)

Introit: Viri Galilaei

Alleluia I: Ascendit Deus
Alleluia II: Dominus Sina

Offertory:Ascendit Deus

Communio;Psallite Domino

Regina Caeli

(Ordinary parts, Mass setting I, Credo I)


Children's Schola

At OLPH
First Friday Mass, June 3, 8:15 AM (warm up at 7:45 AM)

Regina Caeli(prelude)
Kyrie XVI
Gospel Accl.
Ametur(offertory)
Sanctus XVIII
Mysterium Fidei and Amen
Agnus Dei XVIII
Gustate et Videte(communion)
O Salutaris Hostia (Benediction)

At St. Paul
Wednesday June 1, 8 AM (warm-up at 7:45)

Veni Creator Spritus (prelude)
Kyrie XVI
Gospel Accl.
Sanctus XVIII
Agnus Dei XVIII
Gustate et Videte(communion)
Regina Caeli

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Why the Catholic Church needs to be distinctly Catholic

"Because, for one reason, there are people out there making powerful, though flawed, arguments like the ones in the video below. The video reminds viewers that you “don’t need a church to GIVE” and encourages people to “give DIRECTLY to a cause dear to your heart, essential to your community and worthy of your support.” Causes that don’t “manipulate the penitence of their disciples.” The implication in the video is that religion is just an unnecessary type of middleman that gets unfair tax breaks and skims the top off of charitable giving for its own enrichment...."


http://www.ncregister.com/blog/why-the-catholic-church-needs-to-be-distinctly-catholic?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register#When:13:32:14Z

Traditional Mass, Universae Ecclesiae, New Translation, Homeschoool

This past Thursday, I attended two Traditional Masses.(7AM and 11 AM). My boys were doing double duties as altar boys.

The 7 AM Mass has been growing since the priest started as his private Mass, and now we had a first communion last week. The boy and the family decided to it at the Traditional Mass. (The boy is in my children's schola, and he commented that the music he got a CD for the communion at the Novus Ordo were not very inspiring to him.:-) Since he is a homeschooling boy there were many homeschooling families at the Mass. Many of them had never attended the Traditional Mass before. They were so impressed by the beauty of the Mass that they decided to invite the priest this week to the homeschooling group and had the Traditional Mass. We had to move chairs and the table around in the sanctuary, and give a brief instruction to the families and the children before the Mass. It was like a miracle! The Mass was celebrated beautifully, and the children were following the Mass amazingly well. (It took a couple of years for me.) It was a low Mass, and the congregation did the dialogues and Ordinary parts from 'the red book'. The group wants to continue to have the Traditional Mass at least once a month when they meet together, but there are only two priests we know available to do so. (one has to drive about 40 minutes.) And the other priest is a pastor for two parishes, extremely busy. I really wish there are more priests who can celebrate the Traditional Mass. (there is another homeschooling group I teach chants also wants to have Traditional Mass, but don't have a priest who knows how to do it.)
I found out in the class on the new translation I attended yesterday that many people, even devout Catholics, really don't have much knowledge on liturgy, and they were so happy now that they have a class on liturgy and the prayers. People were asking many questions about the liturgy and made lots of positive comments, such as the Mass is not about me, faith isn't based on feelings, appreciate the riches and reverence in the new translation and not so casual dialogues in the Mass especially in 'And with your Spirit." ... My pastor who is very careful with introducing Latin in Mass even repeated a few times that they all have been in Latin already, and very enthusiastic about the richness of the forthcoming translation, and people started to feel the importance of the tradition and the root of our faith. Because of the misunderstanding of Vatican II and the absence of the Tradition, the tradition which was almost wiped out in celebrating Novus Ordo in many parishes, especially in this area, many Catholics are so confused and at loss in terms of celebrating the Mass. Mostly we just did what others did during Mass without thinking. The experience and the knowledge of Traditional Mass can be truly valuable for many Catholics to understand and appreciate the Mass and deepen their faith through it.

Today, may 13th, the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (UE) has been released.

"The will of the Pope in the Motu Proprio included that people who don’t know the older form actually come to be exposed to it. The older, Extraordinary Form is a gift for all, not just those who know about it. For all. Every Catholic of the Latin Church – and also in the whole of the Catholic Church – has the Extraordinary Form as part of their heritage. It belongs to all of us...

The Instruction, in line with the Motu Proprio, does not regard only those who desire to continue to celebrate the faith in the same way by which the Church substantially did for centuries; the Pope wanted to help all Catholics to live the truth of the liturgy in order that, by knowing and participating in the old Roman form of celebration, they might grasp that the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium wanted to reform the liturgy in continuity with tradition."

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/05/must-read-msgr-pozzos-comments-on-the-instruction-universae-ecclesiae-in-losservatore-romano/

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/05/wdtirs-universae-ecclesiae-21-drilling-into-the-latin-and-english-training-of-priests-and-seminaries/

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2011/05/13/vatican-tells-bishops-give-priests-the-option-of-learning-extraordinary-form/

"A new Vatican instruction calls on local bishops and pastors to respond generously to Catholics who seek celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal.

The instruction, issued today, said pastors should approve such Masses for groups of faithful, even when such groups are small or are formed of people from different parishes or dioceses. These faithful cannot, however, contest the validity of the modern Mass or the authority of the Pope.

“In deciding individual cases, the pastor or the rector, or the priest responsible for a Church, is to be guided by his own prudence, motivated by pastoral zeal and a spirit of generous welcome,” it said.

The instruction said that, depending on pastoral needs, bishops should make sure seminarians are trained in celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Mass..."

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/new-guidelines-for-tridentine-mass-10-key-facts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29

"Vatican City, May 13, 2011 / 10:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Local dioceses should give a “generous welcome” to any laity who wish to attend Mass in the “extraordinary form” and to priests who wish to say it..."

We live in a very exciting time in the history of the church. I only wish we can help our children to cherish the Holy Mass as the center of their life by our examples and the teachings of authentic Catholic faith. The church needs lots of saints. The Mass is the 'font' of our faith, and the holiness truly flows from the Mass where we experience God and His true love and Holiness. This is the most extra ordinary event in our daily life. If the Mass is celebrated in a casual manner with casual music, casual dialogue, casual manner..., how the children can take the Mass seriously? We need to learn to celebrate the Mass properly, so we can help ourselves and children truly experience God and deepen our faith through the Mass.