The Ark and The Dove

Feb. 14 - St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr

This is the entry from my short version of Butler's Lives:

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in their persecution under Claudius II.  He was apprehended and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterward to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year 270.  Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole, which for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini.  The greater part of his relics are now in the Church of St. Praxedes.  To abolish the heathens' lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the name of girls, in honor of their goddess Februsta Juno, opn the 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of Saints in billets given on this day.

Don't forget Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who officially have the feast day today.

The Pope's Lenten Message

 "“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced.”  Let us look with trust at the pierced side of Jesus from which flow “blood and water” (Jn 19:34)! The Fathers of the Church considered these elements as symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Through the water of Baptism, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, we are given access to the intimacy of Trinitarian love.

Read it here.  Or read it in German.  It's only a page or so long.

Only when they made a holy day for God

...did they find they had made a holiday for men. -- G.K. Chesterton

Archbishop Dolan, observing that his local newspaper has hailed February as "The Fun Month" due to its opportunities for partying and celebration - namely Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and Mardi Gras - reflects on how these days are all Catholic in nature (or at least in origin).

The Alpha and the Omega

In the beginning and at the end of something is where you find the parts of the thing that have perhaps the most power to stick in your mind.  It's just a property of how the human mind works.  Of course the really important parts generally have to go in the middle, but it is impossible to overstate the importance of the first and last impressions in contributing to that middle.  The first sets the tone for the main body and the last should sum it up in a short conclusion.

Anyone who reads or writes texts in Latin is highly aware of this, perhaps even more than speakers of other languages, because the Latin freedom to choose word order leaves you with no excuse not to choose deliberately.  For instance, in the poems Catullus wrote to mock or taunt people he didn't like, he would often make sure an insulting word would go at the end of the last line, just to make sure that's what the reader was left with.

So with this heightened sense of awareness of first and last words in mind, especially with regard to things composed in Latin, I was thinking about the Mass.  What's the first thing that's said?  Not "Hello," not "Good morning;" not even the opening hymn is the beginning, properly speaking.  "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti" - the Trinity and the Cross, and after that, one of the greeting formulas from the New Testament Letters.

How about the end?  It would seem that "amen" might be a good choice - it's what we use so often to conclude and intensify a prayer or vocally ratify one and make it our own after hearing it, and it was so often on the lips of our Lord.  But when you think about what the Mass is, and the aforementioned rules about what the last thing should be...you've heard in a hundred homilies what the word eucharist means: thanksgiving.  Thanks be to God - Deo gratias.

Progress

From Zenit:

The Enlightenment had taken the idea of progress as its leitmotiv, preaching a secular humanism that would usher in an age of reason, where religion would be replaced by science. Nineteenth-century ideologies built on many of the aspects of the Enlightenment...Add to the mix Hegel's philosophy of dialectical progress, and we had the perfect setup for the tragic totalitarian experiments of the 20th century, which sought to bring about an earthly paradise without God. By excluding God, they also wound up trampling on the human person as well.

Q: How does the Christian idea of progress differ from these ideologies?

For more depth, the encyclical itself.

Crude and provocative expression of opinions

That's what bloggers do, apparently.  According to an influential liberal blogger I read now and then, he "stood up to" Ms. Marcotte, apparently by giving her a good talking to and pretending there wasn't a problem.  Admittedly, my opinion of him as a statesman was not very high to begin with, but this doesn't convince me that I'll be wanting to see how he'd "stand up to" people who threaten the country.

Die Grosse Stille

It starts playing March 23 in the E Street Cinema in DC.

Edifying sacred art

I can't help noticing that when I am at Mass and listening to the homily, if my attention starts to wander for whatever reason, my eyes start wandering around the church.  If the church is decorated with depictions of scenes from Scripture or the lives of the saints or representations of truths of the Faith, then my mind wanders to meditating on those things.

However, if the church is bare of ornamentation, as is typical of puritanical style in vogue among those who design Catholic churches these days, my eyes search in vain for something, and finding nothing, it is much more difficult to avoid thinking about an irrelevant topic. 

Just saying.

"That’s you, folks!"

Fr. Philip Powell, O.P. says,

I wish I could tell you that it’s not your job to stir up vocations. But young men called to priesthood are often demoralized by the national sex scandals, status seeking parents, oversexed friends, spirits of rebellion and entitlement, and priests, bishops, DRE’s, sisters who allow junk to pollute the faith if not kill it outright. The witness of the lay faithful is needed now more than ever! If the faith is to center our vocation efforts, then we need daily witnesses, daily teachers, and the everyday faithful. That’s you, folks!

New Eucharistic Miracle?

There are reports of a Eucharistic miracle occurring recently in Lourdes.

By "recently" I mean it happened seven years ago.  The bishops kept things quiet, but it is being talked about now because a cardinal found out about it and brought it to the Pope's attention, and the Pope thinks there might be something to it, or at least thinks the French bishops were too hasty in deciding not to consider it.

If my (very rudimentary) Italian serves me right, it seems that at the Mass of the Italian National Eucharistic Congress in 1999 (which explains why there is video footage of the Mass), the host levitated about half an inch above the paten from the epiclesis until the end of the canon of the Mass.

If you are confused about why the bishops did not tell everyone but instead kept it under wraps, first let me explain that this is what usually happens even when something quite otherwise inexplicable has happened.  When an unusual supernatural event, prodigious sign, or miracle is reported, with the exception of atheists who dogmatically deny that such things can occur, there is no one more difficult to convince of its authenticity than a priest, especially a bishop.  This is not an indication that priests do not believe such things can or do occur - the most faithful are perhaps the most demanding.  You can understand, perhaps, how strongly they want to avoid giving credence to something and then having it turn out to be not of divine origin.  When you hear that the Church has "approved" an apparition or miracle, you can be sure that it has been subjected to the most intense scrutiny by the most skeptical people they can find, including atheists, to see if it can be accounted for by natural causes.  For the Lourdes healings (of which there are many), the investigation process is just now making public its findings on things that happened fifty years ago, just to avoid rash judgment.

Secondly, because the Church does not depend on visible miracles as a chief means of converting peoples' hearts.  They're certainly nice when they happen, and often a help to peoples' faith and devotion, but the Church is so confident in the truth that has been entrusted to her keeping by Christ that she does not "need" miracles.  She is not desperate to demonstrate that the supernatural exists.  This is traceable to our Lord in the Gospels - look at his attitude toward his own signs and wonders.  For instance, when St. Joseph of Cupertino started levitating all over the place (this is attested to in his bull of canonization - see the previous paragraph), his superiors did not parade him out in front of everyone (Hey - come see the amazing levitating guy!) even to try to get people to believe in the Church's preaching.  Rather, they locked him in the basement.  Perhaps this seems strange, but it is the way the Church works.

Third, the Catholic Church is Miracle Central.  We can't keep track of them all.  If you believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist, a little levitation, while out of the ordinary, wouldn't even be the most noteworthy thing about a Mass.  Most people haven't even heard of Lanciano, which sounds like it would be a lot harder to fake than this (reported) one.

Anyway, this is neat to hear about, but if there is ever a definitive official decision on this one, it probably won't happen for a good long while.  In the meanwhile, God makes Himself bodily present at every Mass.  But that's not news, I suppose, since it happens every day.  Once a reporter asked Pope John Paul why God doesn't reveal Himself more so that more people would believe in him; the Pope answered that if anything, God had revealed Himself so much that people find it hard to believe.