Vocation

Well, i finally bought the plane ticket this past week to go to Missouri in January and spend a week with the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles. $500 was a big chunk of change, but i know that the spiritual worth of such a trip will be more valuable the monetary amount i had to pay. I hope the Lord gives me some further direction from this coming trip, because if they are not the religious order i am eventually to join, i don't know where else to look. There are only a couple of really traditional women religious orders in the U.S. (sigh) may God give me guidance and teach me not to worry.

Mater Ecclesiae

I know i'm a little late in putting this here, but this is the first i've known about it. After the release of the Motu Propio in July, my parish here in NJ had a wonderful mass of celebration and much festivities in the hall after (which unfortunately i could not be a part of since i was in Vermont), and the Philadelphia Inquirer was invited to do a story and videotape the Mass. So i wanted to share with you the video that is online! Click here.
My parish is one that knows how to sing hymns! :-)
Just thought you all might like to see how we celebrate mass here.

what does the future hold?

I again had a wonderful day at my parish and sang a choral mass for the closing of our forty hours' devotion, which included mass celebrated with the blessed sacrament exposed (only allowed in the extraordinary form i think) and the chanting of the litany of the saints followed by a procession outside the church. oh, how i LOVE my church!!! There was of course, much socializing after, as usual.
That however, is not the topic of my post. I am a frequent visitor of the NLM blog and particularly like to read stuff by Jeffrey Tucker, and have read a few things by him and some other people about how to start a schola in your own parish. The article is here and gave me much to think about. I know i will forever be learning about the music and liturgy of the church, but even more feel like there is still so much for me to learn to be able to serve a parish in bringing about musical reform. I wonder, will I have the patience for such a thing? will i be a good example of Christian charity? will i know how to discuss with those who may disagree about the direction the music heads in? With Jeffrey making reference to the fact that a new schola in essence has to prove themselves, what happens when you do make a mistake in how things are done? What if it then all falls apart? In some ways, i fear of making those types of mistakes, of not having the patience of not know how to correctly deal with parishoners when confronted, of not even knowing where exactly to start! Especially if i do end up in a situation where it's two parishes trying to unite as one with only one mass at one church and two at the other? how do you go about such reform in such a condition?
I know my fear probably mainly comes from a lack of trust in God to prepare me for what he has in store for me, and the best answer would be to pray more. But it so often is hard not to think about the future and where you might end up and how you would handle it, etc.
Such a tough year this is already proving to be in the areas of discernment and trust in God's will, and patience. I hope that is because those are precisely the areas God will help me to grow in.

Cabrini College Gone Traditional??

Probably not, sorry to say. However, upon going to their chapel on campus this year, i was met with a pleasant surprise: the sanctuary has been quite extensively remodeled, and it's beautiful! It would be a wonderful place to celebrate the TLM or the Novus Ordo ad orientem. Despite this beautiful sanctuary now(it is also bigger because of the renovation), they still don't use it to say mass, which is unfortunate. But, at least an intimate place to adore the blessed sacrament is now provided. I don't have before pictures, but here is the sanctuary and the chapel as it is now:

As you can see, it is set up so that mass is said from the middle of the chapel, which is just ridiculous, and does not follow the norms laid down by the church. What is new to the sanctuary is all the woodwork along the walls and coming out toward the center, and the tall windows and the layered look to the back wall. I think it is simple and beautiful. It reminds me of a choir for monks because you can sit all along the inside now against the wall. Before, there was just a small step up and just the altar in the middle, and a couple of those chairs placed in front to be able to adore the Eucharist when it was in the tabernacle. I was told that the renovation was donated by someone, and otherwise, they wouldn't have done such a thing. I remember last year when i wrote to the school (for lack of knowing who to address) about the inappropriateness of the setup of their sanctuary and missing elements according to Vat. II documents, and was made to feel like some sort of criminal, like i had done something wrong for addressing the issue. the school or chaplain (who is a franciscan priest from Villanova) didn't even talk to me about it, instead they had Eastern's chaplain talk to me about my concerns about Cabrini! It was pretty odd. And the only thing told to me by the Franciscan priest was: "we aren't going to change the chapel to fit your tastes" and it was not in a very nice tone either.

So needless to say, i hadn't gone back there till now and i still won't for mass, but i think i'll go more often to adore Christ, who desperately needs it there since this past Wednesday i was the only one to adore the Sacrament that was exposed except for the priest.

Obviously, there liberal liturgy and soft catechesis isn't drawing any of the students to the faith....(or the drums and piano music).

But maybe, just maybe, this renovation will be a first step to something better... and a new chaplain in the future.

Parish prayer for vocations

I thought i would share with all of you a prayer that my parish says before the sermon at every mass. I think it is a good practice in our day to start having parishes say a prayer for vocations together because they are so desperately needed, and maybe by hearing the prayer every week, it will get families to foster religious vocations in their children. Here it is:

O God, we earnestly beseech thee, to bless the church with many priests, brothers, and sisters, who will love thee with their whole strength, be faithful to their vocation, and gladly spend their entirely lives to teach thy truth, serve thy church, and to make thee known and loved.
V. Bless our families, bless our children
R. Choose from our homes those who are needed for thy work.
V. O Mary, Queen of the clergy
R. Pray for our priests, seminarians, and religious; obtain for us many more. Amen.

I hope that some of you priests can introduce this prayer or something similar in your parishes, and send it to other priests. V. is led by the priest, then the parish responds.
Our parish also says an Our Father after for and end to terrorism and the conversion of the Muslims and all people to Christ, but that's a different mattter.

Is the Church to fall apart in Holland?!

I ran across an extremely disturbing and distressing article on the NLM blog about the state of mass in Holland being led by the Dominican order. They essentially are trying to turn the Catholic church protestant from what i can tell! And they are trying to spread it through the whole country by their recent booklet they are putting out. mind you, this same group already came under scrutiny by the doctrine of the faith earlier. Why hasn't this been stopped by now? To give you an understanding of how distressing a situation this is, go to http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/170066?eng=y .
Things like this continue to remind how much i should sacrifice more for the church because it needs saints! It needs more of us really willing to sacrifice for the faith and live it heroically. The article also makes me upset though, because i wonder why such a situation as this has not provoked immediate action by the church, even the bishop or the rest of the Dominican order!!! isn't anyone willing to stand up and condemn this for what it is? Will we just let so many people get led astray while it is all carefully looked into? If the situation is really as bad as it sounds, i would think immediate action should be the reaction!
pray for the church in Holland and pray for us young Catholics that God may form us into heroic saints.

The Kiss of Peace

I would like to encourage people and priests especially to check out a post today on the NLM blog about the kiss of peace. Most of us are familiar with how it tends to disrupt the sacred action in the mass with a moment of generic greetings. Instead of saying more i shall refer you here. It's a wonderful article by a Cistercian monk and if other things get posted ahead of it just search for the title: "NLM Guest Article: The Liturgical Kiss of Peace". Make sure to read the comments especially! there are a lot of good suggestions in there for ways to do the kiss of peace in a more dignified way that more clearly expresses the peace of Christ rather than a time to say hi to our neighbors. I think the first two comments would be my favorite options for the sign of peace. Definitely check it out! Although, getting a parish to change how they give the sign of peace might be a little challenging, i'm not sure. I would think if the change was explained, it would be better recieved? Education i at least know, would be key.
Well, i should get to my homework. Keep my friend Shawn in your prayers. He is studying abroad this semester in Oxford and has a tutorial with Fr. Aiden Nichols! His tutorial is on "the liturgical theology of Pope Benedict XVI! i hope he learns a lot. then he can come back and know what i'm talking about when i try to talk to him about liturgy :-)