Franciscan at Home

At the edge of a wood stands a larkspur, its deep green leaves characteristically rounded, and with delicately bending, yet firmly formed, slender, stem.  The blossom seems as if cut out of heavy silk, of a blue as deep as a gem, so that the whole air around seems filled with it.  Someone comes and plucks the flower, and then, getting tired of it, throws it on the fire.  In a few moments the whole bright splendour has become a small streak of grey ash.

t was the Associate Pastor’s first Sunday in his new assignment. He was counseled (or cautioned) by the pastor that the congregation was somewhat unenthusiastic during Mass. The idea came to him to begin Mass with a joke or humorous story as a way of engaging them. As the choir concluded what seemed like their Broadway debut, he tapped the microphone to test its sound. Nothing! He panicked and tapped it again this time speaking apologetically to the congregation, ‘Something’s wrong with the mic.’ To which everyone dutifully responded, ‘And also with you, Father!’

Ah, the familiarity of the Mass responses! We could say them with our eyes closed - and perhaps sometimes many of us early risers do! Yet familiarity can be a good thing, for it allows us to concentrate on the symbolic gestures during Mass and to ponder the depth of their meaning. However, come November 27, 2011 when the Church begins to use the revised translation of the 2002 Roman Missal, some of this familiarity will diminish, and for many Catholics this will be a challenge. Even if priests spend the recommended year preparing their congregation for the new texts, it is most certain that for a few Sundays following November 27, 2011, some in the congregation will continue to profess proudly their faith in Christ who is ‘one in being’ with the Father, instead of ‘consubstantial.’ Habits are hard to change - especially prayerful ones.

Often our struggles with change - especially in the area of Church discipline or teaching - result from misunderstandings, which in turn can lead to camps or ‘extremist ideology.’ At one extreme we can find a certain ‘dogmatic fundamentalism’ or ‘traditionalism’ that views change, especially liturgical change, as a ‘rupture from the past.’ At the other extreme lies a kind of ‘enlightened progressivism’ that sees reality in ‘continuous flux’ and theology in a state of ‘process.’

Neither position is true, as Blessed John Henry Cardinal Neman insightfully demonstrates in his magnificent work, The Development of Doctrine. Organic growth in doctrine is always rooted in the unchanging reality of Jesus Christ and His revelation, even as it matures or develops into fuller expression.

This liturgical meditation is take from Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

We long for union with God, and we must so long, for it is our inmost need. Our soul points out two ways of obtaining this: they are different ways, but both reach the same goal.

The first way to union goes by knowledge and love.

Knowledge is a union: by knowing things we penetrate them and draw them into ourselves; they become our own, a part of our life. So also all love is union – not a mere striving, but in itself a union. So far as a man loves something, so far doe it already belong to him.

This union is, however, of a special kind: we express this by saying that it is ‘spiritual.’

Yet this word does not fully say all, for the other union, of which we shall speak later, is also spiritual. What we mean is that this union is one not of being, but of motion; of consciousness and frame of mind.

Is there any outward form for this – a likeness? Certainly, and a very wonderful one – light and heat.

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

The church space within speaks of God. It belongs to the Lord and is quite filled with His holy presence. For it is God’s House, separated off from the world, enclosed in walls and vaulted roof. This space is turned inwards, towards the hidden God. It speaks of the mystery of God.

But what of the space without? The great wide space over the plain, which extends endlessly on all sides? The space on the hills, spread out into the infinite? In the valleys, deep lying, surrounded by mountains? Is all this not connected with sanctity?

Most certainly this also. From the House of God the tower grows up into the free air and, as it were, takes possession of it in God’s name. In the tower, in the belfry hang the bells of heavy brass.

He only can bless who has power; he only can bless who can create: God alone can bless.

God looks upon His creature and blesses him.

This liturgical mediation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

He calls him by name: His almighty love turns towards the heart and life-centre of His creature, and from God’s hand flows the power which gives growth, which gives fertility, health, and goodness: “I will have regard to you, and make you to grow.”

Only God can bless: for a blessing is a decree on what is, and what acts; blessing is a word of power from the Lord of creation, it is a promise and a prophecy from the Lord of providence; blessing is good fortune.

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

We men have become gross; of many profound and delicate things we now know nothing. The word is one of those things: we think of it as superficial, for we no longer realise its inwardness; we think of it as transitory, for we no longer feel its force – it does not hit, it does not strike; it is only a light structure of sounds. But it is a fine body for something spiritual. The essence of some object before us, and what is awakened in our own soul on seeing it – these two meet and find expression in the word.

That is how it should be, and how it surely was with the first man.

In the earliest pages of Holy Writ we are told that God “brought the animals to Adam, to see what he would call them.” With open mind and seeing soul, man looked through the form of the animal and spoke its name, and his soul responded to the creature. Something stirred in him which stood in special relationship to that creature, for man is the summary and union of all creation.

And this essence of the thing outside, and this response within man himself, both in living union, were the twofold source of the name spoken by man.

En una época en que la igualdad y la no discriminación son consideradas por muchos como los más altos e incluso los únicos principios de moralidad, entre las verdades que hoy en día más les cuesta a muchos Católicos (o que podrían ser católicos) comprender, aceptar o justificar, es la reserva del sacerdocio únicamente para varones.

Mi objetivo aquí es dar una clara presentación de lo que la misma Iglesia dice acerca de este tema, con la esperanza de que será útil para aquellos que transmiten la fe de la Iglesia, en especial con aquellos que están involucrados en programas de catecumenado o de RICA, o similares, que se ocupan de personas que pueden muy probablemente influenciados por estos dos “dogmas” modernos de igualdad y no-discriminación. Consideraré sólo los argumentos que se encuentran dentro de los documentos del Magisterio, ya que con ellos viene una cierta seguridad de su validez.

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

How does a man hold himself when he is proud? He stands up straight, lifts his head and spreads out his shoulders and makes the most of himself. Everything about him says ‘I am bigger and greater than you!’ But if a man is humble and ‘feels small,’ he bends his head and, as it were, sinks into himself. He ‘lowers himself.’ And the greater the person before whom he stands, the more does he lower himself, and the smaller he feels in his own eyes.

And when do we feel more clearly our littleness than when we stand before God, the great God, who is the same yesterday as today, the same through all the centuries and thousands of years? It is He Who fills this room, this city and the whole wide world; Who stretches far beyond all the starry heaven, and before Whom it is all but a speck of dust. The holy God, pure and just, and of endless greatness. How great He is – and how little I am! So little, that I cannot measure myself against Him; that before Him I am a mere nothing. It stands to reason that I cannot be proud before Him. I truly feel small and could wish to make myself even smaller, so that it may be more in keeping with His presence.

¿Cómo podemos asegurar que demos un enfoque litúrgico a nuestra catequesis?

El corazón de lo que quiere decir la Iglesia con el término de catequesis litúrgica es que procedamos desde ‘lo visible a lo invisible, del signo a lo significado, de los "sacramentos" a los "misterios"’ (CIC 1075). ¡Este es el secreto de toda catequesis litúrgica! La liturgia, en fin de cuenta, permite un encuentro espiritual con Cristo Nuestro Señor – y es la razón por la cual la liturgia se describe como ‘la cumbre a la que tiende la acción de la Iglesia’ (CIC 1074).

Podríamos decir que la catequesis litúrgica tiene tres aspectos:

Primero, está la preparación catequética para la liturgia: podemos llamarla ‘la enseñanza para el Rito’. Catequizamos acerca de la liturgia para que la gente sepa qué esperar, para enseñarles el sentido de lo que verán y experimentarán.
Segundo, está la catequesis que sucede a través de la liturgia misma: Cristo y su Novia nos instruyen por medio de la liturgia, iluminando nuestra mente y nuestro corazón.
Tercero, hay una catequesis que sigue desde la gracia de la liturgia: ésta se llama ‘mistagogia’.
El enfoque de este artículo está sobre la primera de estas tres – estamos buscando cómo catequizar para preparar la gente para la liturgia. También damos sugerencias concretas sobre cómo proporcionar oportunidades para aquellos que están siendo catequizados para que experimenten más la liturgia, y así puedan ser catequizados por la liturgia misma. Para esto, tiene que haber un compromiso por integrar a las celebraciones litúrgicas a la catequesis para que podamos dar seguimiento a nuestra catequesis con, por ejemplo, la Santa Misa, la bendición, un tiempo de adoración, el Oficio Divino, o un acto de penitencia. Nos aseguramos que la liturgia de la parroquia forme una parte integral del programa catequético. El gran pensador y escritor catequético, Johannes Höfinger escribió:

‘He aquí la razón última y más decisiva del por qué la enseñanza a través del culto es superior a todas las demás formas de enseñanza cristiana: la liturgia da lo que enseña, no solamente presenta el misterio de Cristo de forma concreta: sino que también nos permite participar de forma inmediata en este misterio’.i

Esta es una verdad que podemos reiterar para aquellos a quienes enseñamos – y por supuesto nos ayuda a ver el por qué de la importancia de dar una catequesis sobre la liturgia para que las personas nunca queden sordas y ciegas ante las realidades espirituales que están al corazón de la liturgia.

En este Año del Sacerdote, este artículo examina la importancia de la oración Eucarística en la catequesis. Esta es una oración única porque solo el sacerdote puede recitar esta oración, más sin embargo, la oración nos involucra a todos. Cuando el sacerdote recita la oración, todo el Pueblo de Dios es incluido en esta oración y hace acciones santas extraordinarias. En la parte central de la Misa, recordamos a Jesús que murió por nosotros y nos volvemos parte de su sacrificio.

El modo usual para presentar a la Eucaristía y la Iglesia es decir que es la Iglesia que hace la Eucaristía. Pero en su encíclica sobre la Eucaristía y la Iglesia, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Juan Pablo II señaló que también podemos decir que la Eucaristía hace la Iglesia. Quisiera bosquejar algunas de las implicaciones importantes contenidas en esta antigua fórmula para a catequesis. En la primera parte de este artículo, enfocaremos el memorial, y en la segunda parte el sacrificio, siguiendo las palabras de la Segunda Oración Eucarística: ‘Así, pues, Padre, al celebrar ahora el memorial de la muerte y resurrección de tu Hijo, te ofrecemos el pan de vida y el cáliz de salvación, y te damos gracias porque nos haces dignos de servirte en tu presencia.’