Belloc on the Church

"One thing in this world is different from all other. It has a personality and a force. It is recognized, and (when recognized) most violently loved or hated. It is the Catholic Church. Within that household the human spirit has roof and hearth. Outside it, is the night."

-Hilaire Belloc

Read more about this author and man of faith in this interview from Zenit.

Coming Soon - Lent

Just a reminder: Lent begins in 2 days.
The National Catholic Register has some suggestions for you.

Free Sacred Music

The Tallis Scholars, a wonderful group of singers that specializes in the sacred music of the renaissance, were recently nominated for a Grammy Award for the album, Victoria - Lamentations of Jeremiah. This album includes music for Holy Week by Tomás Luis de Victoria. On the Gimell Records’ website, the “First Lamentation for Maundy Thursday” is available to download for free. I have downloaded it and it is beautiful. Go and do likewise…or just buy the whole album.

Nice Post

There was a very nice post today on the blog Orbis Catholicus.

Virtual Pilgrimage

Take a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

Distributism - Catholic Economics

I have recently been reading a bit about the economic system known as distributism. This system was championed by the likes of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc and based on the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum. Below are some links to the Distributist Review, a website dedicated to this idea. There is tons of information and links on the site. Reading some of it recently has truly been enlightening. Check it out!
Home page
FAQs
Introductory reading

Sunday Inspiration - Gaudete Sunday

Today is Gaudete Sunday, the day during this time of Advent when we joyously look forward to what this whole season is leading to: Christ coming into the world. For this reason, the Priest and Deacon put on Rose colored vestments. As Pius Parsch tells us, "The Church modifies her colors; instead of violet she uses rose, a softened hue of violet and thus a compromise between the colors symbolizing penance and joy." In the Gospel reading we hear St. John the Baptist telling us that one mightier than himself is coming to baptize us with the Holy Spirit.

We also hear from St. Paul today; his words guiding us to joyful preparation for the coming of the Lord (Phil 4:4-7):

"Brothers and sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

One thing that I believe is something to rejoice about is the Church that Christ created here on earth. With all of the negative things said about the Church, and sometimes done by members of the Church, it is easy for people to have a negative view of it. The tradition of the Church, however, is so rich, so beautiful, and so alive. We need not forget that; in fact, we need to celebrate that.

Over at the blog The Hermeneutic of Continuity, Fr. Tim Finigan recently posted the video I have below. It is a trailer for a film project known as The Catholic Project. Here is the description from their You Tube channel: "Join Fr. Robert Barron on a journey across the planet and deep into the faith. CATHOLICISM is a breakthrough documentary series presenting the true story of Christianity and the Catholic faith." This film is due to be released in 2010. The trailer for this project is truly inspiring.



I pray today that you will be inspired by and rejoice in all of the beauty and tradition that the Church offers us, from the scripture to the liturgy, from the sights to the sounds, by all that Our Lord has blessed us with.

Vestments

A few weeks ago on the Feast of Christ the King, the priest and deacon at my parish wore a wonderful set of gold vestments made in the 1930's. They were absolutely beautiful and in my opinion enhanced the liturgy by their beauty. This was on my mind recently when I read a few different posts on the New Liturgical Movement about vestments and liturgical colors for Advent. I thought I'd share these with you, as well as a couple of other blogs that focus on vestments. Before checking out these sites, though, I would like to suggest that you read this short comment made by Shawn Tribe of the NLM:

"At times, considerations such as these bring forth a certain subset of people who believe that it is objectionable to ponder these matters -- what they sometimes reduce to being mere "fashion" considerations. Here I would simply make note that vestments are another branch of the sacred arts and we should not be reductionistic and secularize our considerations of them. Their symbolism, their dignity and beauty are equally as pertinent to the matter of the sacred liturgy as the matter of sacred architecture, music, painting or sculpture; they too can be bearers of the sacred, lending to (or, indeed, taking away from) our liturgical worship. We should indeed give them thought then, considering what does and does not lend to the dignity and gravitas of the liturgical rites; the rites in which the Church offers her public worship to God, and where we give our public witness and expression to that divine worship."

With that said, the New Liturgical Movement's posts focused on the liturgical colors of blue and rose, both interesting to consider because of their very limited use. Blue, apparently, is only allowed to be used in certain places, namely Spain. I must say that after viewing the pictures posted on the site, I kind of wish that Blue was accepted everywhere! Here is one of their pictures from Málaga, Spain:

Rose is also a rarely seen liturgical color, as it is only used once each during Advent and Lent. This upcoming Sunday is Gaudete Sunday, the day during Advent when Rose is permitted, so be on the lookout!

Finally, just for fun, here are a couple of sites to check out regarding vestments:

Dappled Photos is a site dedicated to "Catholic ceremonial vesture and objects." I believe I have linked to their site in past posts, but thought it would be appropriate to bring up again.

Last (and maybe least), is a humorous site called Bad Vestments. This site has photos of some strange looking vestments. A bit different than what NLM features, but fun to look at, at least once.

The Week Ahead - Keeping Up With All The Feasts

There are a number of important feast days in the upcoming week. I would like to make posts about each one, but I am predicting that I will not end up having the time due to this being a very busy week for me. I will try, but I figured that, just in case, I would write one quick post here mentioning them and encourage everyone to take some time each day to observe the celebrations of these Holy men and women.

Monday, December 7th is the Feast of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

Tuesday, December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation in the United States.

Wednesday, December 9th is the Feast of Blessed Juan Diego, the man to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared.

Saturday, December 12th is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas.

A great way to keep up with all of these wonderful feast days is to check out the website Catholic Culture. Visit their site and click the link "Liturgical Year" at the top of the homepage. They have tons of great information about the liturgical celebrations of the Church. One feature I especially like on their site is their "Things To Do" section for some feast days. They give ideas for ways of celebrating the feast days, including cultural traditions, links to websites, and even recipes.

Another great way to keep up with all of these Feasts is to have a book, such as a Lives of the Saints book to read daily. I have been very lucky lately to obtain a couple of great books that have a vast amount of information about the Church's liturgical traditions. Both of the books are pretty old, so they may not be easy to acquire, but if you can get your hands on them, I would highly recommend them.

The first is titled Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs; The Year of the Lord in Liturgy and Folklore by Francis X. Weiser. Originally published in 1952, my copy was printed in 1958. It is filled with historical and cultural facts about the Church's liturgical celebrations.

The second is the first volume of the set of books called The Church's Year of Grace by Dr. Pius Parsch. A good friend recently gave me this book. I haven't read much of it yet, but I can tell you that it has a ton of great information about the Church's liturgical life. The volume I have spans from Advent to Candlemas. Each day has its own entry with information about the prayers and mass for the day. It does, of course, not follow the modern Roman calendar exactly since it was written before the Second Vatican Council, but the information it contains is still wonderful.

I believe that we as Catholics are called to more than just attending mass on Sundays. We need to be a part of the liturgical life of the Church, which will lead us, as St. Paul exhorted us, to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). By observing the feasts of the Church and sharing the traditions of the Church with our families, we will be learning more about our faith and strengthening our relationship with Our Lord.

Have a great week!

Listen to Sung Masses and Vespers

Last night I had the opportunity to attend sung Vespers for the first Sunday of Advent along with exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at my parish. It was a very beautiful and prayerful service. I wish that more parishes made this available for the faithful to take part in the beautiful prayer of the Church.

Going right along with that, The New Liturgical Movement made a post today about the Monks of the Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy who have begun recording their sung Masses and Vespers and made them available to listen to for free on the internet. Here is a portion from NLM explaining:

"The NLM and the Benedictine Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy (the birthplace of St. Benedict) are pleased to jointly announce today that, as we begin the liturgical year, so too has a new initiative begun which will make available recordings of festal and Sunday Vespers each and every Sunday as well as for important feast days of the liturgical year.

"The monks are, of course, already making available audio recordings of their daily Mass and this addition now makes Sung Vespers, in a Benedictine form of the Divine Office, available to a wider public, thus facilitating greater access to sung Sunday and Festal Vespers than has heretofore been available to the general Catholic public -- not, mind you, as it might be sung by a professional choir of course, but rather Vespers sung from within the intimacy of the monastic community and as part of the day-to-day exercise of the monastic horarium.

"It is certainly my own hope that, in addition to providing people with the opportunity to listen in each week, on feast days, or with whatever frequency they may choose, this might further inspire people to take up the praying of the Divine Office as part of their own personal spiritual practice, and also encourage priests and parishes to make sung Sunday Vespers available as part of their own parish liturgical life -- both of which were encouraged by the Second Vatican Council."

On the right side of this page, you will see a picture that links to the Monks' site with their recordings. I have listened to a bit of what they have up there and it is beautiful. It is in Latin which may pose a problem for those attempting to pray along, unless a Latin-English prayer book is available. If not, however, it is still nice to listen to while you are working on your computer or as background while you pray Vespers yourself in English. Regardless of how you intend to use these recordings, they are beautiful and I would encourage all to give them a listen!

St. John Lateran Virtual Tour

A few weeks back, I wrote a post about the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. Well, I recently found out about a website on which you can take a virtual tour of this magnificent Church. Once on the site, you can choose various areas of the Church to explore. It takes a minute to load, but once it does, you can use your mouse to look all around. Be sure to take a look at some of the side chapels which are more beautiful than most churches I have ever visited. The site also provides beautiful music to listen to while you're looking around. Check it out, I think you'll be glad you did.

1st Vespers of Advent

I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that Catholic TV is going to be airing the 1st vespers of Advent with Pope Benedict XVI from the Vatican on Sunday, November 29th at noon and 8pm. Here is their commercial for it:



The New Liturgical Movement already has pictures of the service on their site.

Tune in if you can to watch this beautiful beginning of Advent.

USCCB Encourages Action on Health Care Reform

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is encouraging the faithful to speak up about Health Care Reform and the issue of the sanctity of all human life. The Bishops have issued a nationwide bulletin insert, available on their website here.

In this insert, they state,
"Congress is preparing to debate health care reform legislation on the House and Senate floors. Genuine health care reform should protect the life and dignity of all people from the moment of conception until natural death. The U.S. bishops’ conference has concluded that all committee approved bills are seriously deficient on the issues of abortion and conscience, and do not provide adequate access to health care for immigrants and the poor. The bills will have to change or the bishops have pledged to oppose them."

The website linked above also has an easy way for you to email your representatives and senators to let them know that you stand with the Bishops and the Church on these issues. DO THIS! Our Congressional representatives need to know that there are many people who care about life!

Christian Unity

In yesterday's Gospel (St. Luke 12:49-53), Our Lord said,

"Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Since Christ's earthly life, not only has the world experienced that division between believers and non-believers, but also within Christ's Church itself.

Our Lord also prayed, however: "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me." (St. John 17:20-21)

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI is taking this prayer of Jesus very seriously and trying to unify Christian peoples. In the 4 1/2 years of his pontificate, we've witnessed him do many things to try to create more unity in Christitanity. He has made provisions for those who prefer the traditional liturgy. He has held talks with leaders of the Orthodox Church. He has agreed to hold talks with the Society of St. Pius X. And now this week, he paves the way for large numbers of Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church. (A great video explaining this was posted on American Papist. See it here.)

We need to continue to pray for our Pope and pray the prayer of Jesus for unity of all Chrisitan peoples into what St. Irenaeus called "the tradition derived from the Apostles of the greatest, most ancient, and universally known Church, founded and established by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul...the faith decalred to men which through the succession of bishops comes down to our times."

Sunday Inspiration

This weekend, share your faith with someone. Talk to a friend about the joy you experience at Mass. Invite a family member who has fallen away from their faith to come to Mass with you. Let someone know that you're praying for them.

Maybe you could email them a link to this video from Catholics Come Home:

Some Interesting Websites

I personally enjoy learning about some of the lesser known facts and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. Below are a few websites that I have found in my searching the internet that include some of these interesting tidbits. If you share a similar interest, check them out!

Dappled Photos: This site includes a plethora of photos and information about the Roman clergy's vestments. Here is one example of their great photos:

Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston 1944-1970

Catholic Hierarchy: On this site, you can trace the episcopal lineage of any bishop. Type in your bishop's name and see who ordained him! It also has other information, such as info about dioceses.

Going right along with that is the site, Apostolic Succession in the Roman Catholic Church. On the homepage of this site, there is an explanation of why most episcopal lineages trace back to one man, Scipione Cardinal Rebiba.

So if you have some spare time, and are interested, check out these sites. They're fun, informative, and might even inspire you to learn more about your Church!