Last summer's work: now released!

You might remember that last August we were in the sound studio working on a new album, with our "choir cam" installed in one of the isolation booths. Well, it arrived today in our Chicago bookstore.  I haven't even heard it yet, but the sisters have been playing it downstairs nonstop.  (That's a really good sign!)
As I wrote while we were singing it, the music is mostly inspirational pop. Not our usual style, but we are all convinced that this album is not for our usual audience. This is an album you can confidently give to just about anyone, and it will be especially comforting to people in need of some consolation, whether they are the "religious type" or not. 
I picked up the player code from our official website. I can't get it to work for me, but maybe your system will allow you to sample some of the tracks... (Mom, can you hear me now?)

Noodle Night

Tonight I go to claim my bounty at Noodles & Co. To go with the "Mac and Cheese bar" they are providing (that's what I won),  I spent all day in the kitchen preparing hors d'œuvres (had to look that one up) and dessert (pecan pies, three of 'em). Sr Helena took care of setting the tables and preparing the gathering space (thank Heaven!); Sr Barbara did the cleaning (a lot, God bless her!).
Meanwhile, I am processing a video (I hope for the last time) to send to the motherhouse. It still has some weirdnesses (for example, it is enormously wide, but if I try to adjust that, my images get squished). I hope Sr. Domenica (who studied filmmaking and has a really up to date Mac) will be able to fix it. (Idea! Send her a DVD of all my files!) I also have the May retreat for the Cathedral of St. Paul percolating on my brain's back burner. It had better come to a boil soon: the retreat is next Saturday!
Here in Chicago, the front page news was about a local priest (no, not that kind of news). Fr. Michael Pfleger (social activist in a severely troubled part of Chicago) got suspended after going on a nationally syndicated radio talk show and saying that, rather than accept a different assignment, he would leave the Catholic Church in order to keep doing what he feels called to do. [And that the National RIFLE Association has been pressuring the Cardinal to transfer him. (?!)] I'm sure it was really a lot of blather, but it's not the first time he's insinuated that he would leave the Church and take his flock with him. This time the Cardinal called him on it.
Cardinal George's letter, which was made public (since "Father Michael" tends to provide the media his own reports), pointed out that a priest makes two core commitments that express his gift of self: one is the vow of celibacy; the other is his promise of obedience to his bishop.  Together, these commitments claim the whole person as a "man of the Church." It is the bishop, of course, who is really the "pastor" of the local Church, so the promise of obedience puts the priest at the service of the people in a way that is integrated with the needs of the whole diocese. Incidentally, regular transfers of priests helps them to keep that wider ecclesial vision and not get completely wrapped up in kingdom building in a single, well-loved parish. (Father Pfleger has been allowed to stay in "his" parish for almost his entire priesthood.)
It's a delicate situation, even though Fr. Pfleger doesn't exactly seem like the delicate type. Pray for him (and other priests in crisis) in a particular way during this Easter Octave.

It's Easter all week!
How are you observing this week of solemnities?

Can't stop singing (or writing, or translating...)

Keeping quite busy these days! I am preparing a video to go with the release of our latest album ("There can be Miracles"). Actually, three of us are doing these short videos to show what the singers do when they're not at the motherhouse recording albums... But I am also preparing the First Saturday retreat for the Cathedral in St. Paul, MN--for May 7. And in between, I am trying to make progress in translating the hours and hours and hours of interviews that we filmed in Italy for the documentary on the Founder. Sr. Helena got some footage of me doing that "simultaneous translation" from the video files so you can see me in action:

"The Christian faith 

stands or falls 

with the truth of the 

testimony that 

Christ is risen 

from the dead"

(Pope Benedict XVI, 

Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2).

"In the place where Jesus was crucified...

there was a garden, and in the garden, a new tomb..."

"Today you will be with Me in Paradise."

"Jesus knew he would enter directly into fellowship with the Father—that the promise of “Paradise” was something he could offer “today”. He knew he was leading mankind back to the Paradise from which it had fallen: into fellowship with God as man’s true salvation" (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2).

"As I have done, so you must do"

In this evening's Mass of the Lord's Supper, we will again hear the Gospel of the washing of feet, and Jesus' command (the "Mandatum" from which today gets its name of "Maundy Thursday") to follow the example he set: to wash each other's feet; to "be servants to one another out of love" (as Paul put it).
Last year I gave a retreat at the Cathedral of St. Paul on the theme, "Mary and Paul, Servants of the Lord." In the first talk, I used tonight's Gospel to meditate on what it means to be a servant of the Lord, so I include it here for your Holy Thursday meditation...

In the Garden

It was here that Jesus experienced that final loneliness, the whole anguish of the human condition. Here the abyss of sin and evil penetrated deep within his soul. Here he was to quake with foreboding of his imminent death. Here he was kissed by the betrayer. Here he was abandoned by all the disciples. Here he wrestled with his destiny for my sake.
Saint John takes up all these experiences and gives a theological interpretation to the place when he says: “across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden”  (18:1).

Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week

Image from St. Paul's Church, Chicago 

Via Crucis

An article in today's Zenit Catholic news highlighted the display of a life-sized set of Stations of the Cross in Rome. They're not going to stay in Rome, though: this set of stations (the world's largest) is destined for South America.

Sr Helena and I saw many of the completed statues in the foundry of the Sisters of the Divine Master when we were in Rome. The various pieces were set up helter-skelter in a room where a sister was creating the clay model for a statue of Our Lady of Loretto, and another sister was designing a scale-sized pulpit (see photo). The Sisters of the Divine Master are one of our sister-communities, founded by Bl. James Alberione, so we were at the foundry ("Domus Dei") to get footage for the documentary.




Romans Growing Fond of Chile's Via Crucis
Life-Size Depictions of Christ's Suffering Line Vatican Thoroughfare

ROME, APRIL 19, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The world's largest Stations of the Cross will linger in Rome only 10 more days before heading to the Chilean
hill in the port city of Coquimbo for which they were commissioned. The bronze Via Crucis -- 49 life-size statues in 14 stations -- has been
stopping passers-by on the Via della Conciliazione since it was inaugurated March 13.

But the statues' placement on the main thoroughfare leading to St. Peter's Basilica is only temporary. The Via Crucis was commissioned for the city of Coquimbo in central Chile by the "Fundacion Cruz del III Milenio."

That foundation was formed after Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Chile and the following year, it began the project to construct a 280-foot cross above Coquimbo. The bronze Via Crucis will complement that work.

Italian artists Pasquale Nava and Giuseppe Allamprese have created the Stations, following the description of the Passion given in the Gospels.

The sculptures were cast and modeled in the vast atelier of Domus Dei, owned by the Congregation of the Pie Discepole del Divin Maestro, which produces art and liturgical objects for churches.

Local media claim the project has cost some €800,000 ($1.1 million), but a vote in Coquimbo showed popular approval of the project.

"It was ordered by the municipality of the city of Coquimbo with the collaboration of the Fundacion Cruz del III Milenio," Mariella Valdiserri, the spokesman of Domus Dei, explained to ZENIT.

Father Ramón Bravo was a consultor for the Coquimbo municipality when the Cross of the Third Millennium was made. Now he has a direct role in coordinating the Via Crucis project.

"The sketches of the Via Crucis were approved personally by Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez, then prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments," the priest noted. Cardinal Medina is himself a native of Chile.

The first statues were finished in 2006, and the 15th Station* is now being completed. In total there will be 53 statues weighing 33 tons. The Risen Christ is already in Chile.

Valdiserri noted how each statue is unique since the original mold disappears in the lost-wax technique being used for the artwork.

Rosa Scannella, a spokeswoman for Domus Dei, said many people stop by the group's stand near the Via Sacra with the plea: "Keep them here in Rome."


*The lower picture shows St. Peter in the 15th Station.

Roman Missal: Kingdom Come!

As I look over the new translation for the Mass, one of the characteristics that struck me with extraordinary power was the heightened eschatological sense. To put it in everyday language, a sense of expectation and anticipation of Christ's Second Coming. It is in the present translation, too, but in a less obtrusive way. Or (this may be closer to the truth) I just didn't notice it because it has been said the same way for so very long. (Maybe we should have a new translation every 10-20 years to keep us all on our toes?)
The first part of the new translation I was exposed to was the Creed. Granted, in the Creed we explicitly state our faith that Christ, at the Father's side,  "will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead," and that we "look for the resurrection of the dead." It's that second phrase that is changing in a way that made me sit up and take notice: "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." Then, still in the Order of the Mass, there are the invitations I wrote about last week:
"... as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ"; "Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb" (from Revelation: how much more eschatological can you get?); and the (unstated) response to the faithful centurion, whose words we will make our own right before Communion. These invitations are a way the Liturgy tries to keep us alert and light on our feet in view of our real destination.
The Prefaces all put heaven on our minds, reminding us that the "Holy, Holy, Holy" we sing here is identical with the unending song of the angels and saints. In the middle of the Eucharistic Prayers, there is the "Mystery of Faith," but often the "memorial" puts what we are doing here and now in reference to the return of Jesus and our hope for heaven: "Have mercy on us all, we pray,
that with the Blessed Virgin Mary...we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life"  (EP II); "so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect, especially with the most Blessed Virgin Mary..."; "as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice..." (EP III); "as we await his coming in glory, we offer you his Body and Blood" (EP IV); "and looking forward to his blessed Coming, we offer you...this sacrificial Victim" (Rec. I).

Then there are the "proper" prayers, the specific prayers that change from Sunday to Sunday. The Prayer after Communion usually ties the Communion we have just received with the ultimate Communion. Here's a sample from Advent: "Nourished by these divine gifts, almighty God [there's the Communion just received], we ask you to grant our desire: that, aflame with your Spirit, we may shine like bright torches before your Christ when he comes. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever."
 Here's one from Lent: "May your holy gifts [code words for the Eucharist!], O Lord, we pray, give us life by making us new, and, by sanctifying us, lead us to things eternal. Through Christ our Lord."

And then there are the ritual ways the Church turns our gaze toward the Second Coming. One is only manifest in the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite (the Tridentine Rite), when the priest and people are facing the same direction, a symbolic "East." East isn't simply a compass point for the liturgy: it is a symbol for the return of Christ, the "sun of justice" whose coming is "as certain as the dawn." When we are sent out after Mass (more about the new dismissals later), it is as though the priest had said, "The Bridegroom is here, go out to meet him!" (not as the wedding guests, but as the Bride!). All the wedding language in the liturgy is eschatological. We are sent out from the assembly knowing that on the eighth day, we will again be gathered in worship, either in the fullness of the Kingdom itself, or in its earthly manifestation at Mass.

What the he--?

I prepared this post for the Chicago Tribune's religion blog after reading what the other contributors had to say on the Time magazine cover story casting doubt about the doctrine of hell.

Pastor Rob Bell has a new book out, and some readers are finding that he's selling hell short.

He calls that good news?

Bell isn't really introducing anything new: he's repackaging speculation that goes all the way back to 3^rd century Egypt. (In Catholic circles, this was done by Hans Urs von Balthasar, who was named a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II.) But that Bell's book made the cover of this week's “Time” magazine underlines our cultural obsession with the thought of hellfire and damnation (along exorcisms and the fate of Judas).

And every so often, hell itself seems to oblige that obsession by breaking into history with the most diabolical of crimes against humanity. The last century seemed to host more of those infernal incursions than any age deserved. As apocalyptic and hellish as natural disasters are, (and we've seen plenty of them in recent years, too) they lack the dimension of evil that comes into play in massacre, torture and other inventions of twisted human freedom.

The stereotype of hell depicts the damned as weak, pitiful, beings groveling before omnipotent wrath. The reality is that the doctrine of hell reveals the terrible enormity of human freedom; it is the measure of our Godlike dignity, seen in reverse. And still, our culture grasps for the thin consolation that can be found in consigning hell to oblivion, clearly unaware that to believe that hell exists is not to claim that anyone is actually there (whatever “there” may mean).

Our skeptical age seems to be saying two things: “There is no hell” and “We are terrified of being sent there.” This is both interesting and ominous. We are living in a culture that fears that it is damned. In other words, a culture that has no hope.

The doctrine of hell is not simply a threat; a supernatural cudgel to force the recalcitrant sinner to shape up. It is the correlative of hope. It says that human freedom matters. So rather than eliminate the doctrine of hell, pastors might consider focusing more on hope. Not the flabby, “cheap grace” Bonhoeffer decried (in a hellish age), but a hope that, according to the classical description, involves a great good that is difficult, but still possible: Jesus spoke in terms of a “narrow gate” that leads to life; Paul urged the Corinthians to exercise the same discipline and perseverance they would in an athletic match.

In the words of Pope Benedict (in his encyclical on hope): “According to the Christian faith, 'redemption'—salvation—is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.”

Whether it's heaven or hell, clearly our eternal destiny begins in the choices we make here and now. Human freedom matters.

Roman Missal: What's new?

Even though the Roman Missal we will be getting in Advent is largely the same old, same old (but with a new translation), it is bringing some new things to the Eucharistic table. A quick list:

• New names for some things... new to us, at any rate: Roman Missal (Sacramentary); Collect (Opening Prayer); Communion Chant (seems to be interchangeable with Antiphon)
• New Saints since 1975 (St. Katharine Drexel, St. Pio, Bl. John XXIII, St. Josephine Bakhita...)
• New Prefaces (the lengthy thanksgiving prayer that culminates in the "Holy, Holy, Holy")
• New Masses (e.g. Vigil of Epiphany, Vigil of Ascension; new Masses in honor of BVM; Masses for special needs like times of war, of storm, of drought; Mass of Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life...)
• "New" Prayers for every day of Lent (some of them date to the 600's); this is an old tradition being restored. The prayers come just before the final blessing.
• Brand new Pentecost Vigil service, along the lines of the Easter Vigil (this is from Pope Benedict, just in 2008)
• New Dismissals: The new options for the dismissal came as a fruit of the Synod on the Eucharist; Pope Benedict strongly recommended them in his document "Sacrament of Charity" (which was his summary of the Synod). The dismissals are so good, I'm going to do a separate post just on them!

Roman Missal: What book are we talking about?

At a parish a few weeks ago, I invited the people who had come for the Lenten talks to raise any questions they had about the coming Missal. There are two questions that keep coming up: "What book is that?" and "Will it involve the lectors?"
The two questions really do go together.
"The Roman Missal" is the official title of the book containing the prayers for the Mass. You'll recognize it as the "altar missal," which currently goes by the name "Sacramentary." (A Sacramentary is the book that has all the prayers and readings necessary for a particular sacrament.) With the new translation of the texts, we are also getting a stricter translation of the title of the book. (Most of the other language groups have been calling it the "Roman Missal" all along.)

The content of the Missal is divided into roughly four sections:
The Order of the Mass is the basic framework, with standard prayers and responses. (This part includes the various Eucharistic Prayers.)
The Proper of Time includes the specific prayers for a particular day in the liturgical year or for particular needs in the Church. A full set includes the Entrance Antiphon, Collect (opening prayer), Prayer over the Gifts, Communion Chant and the Prayer after Communion. (In Lent, we will now also be getting a special prayer of blessing at the end of each Mass; this is one of those truly new things in the new missal.) "Proper" means "specific to" or "belonging to" and is used here in the sense that the Mass for, say, the 5th Sunday of Lent is truly distinctive and belongs quite "properly" only to that day in the liturgical year.
The Proper of Saints contains the specific prayers for the feastdays of the saints and blesseds that are celebrated in the area covered by this edition of the Missal. The U.S. edition has the Mass prayers for our own citizen-saints, like Elizabeth Seton and Katharine Drexel, whose feasts would not be celebrated in, say, the Philippines or some other English-speaking nation. Conversely, those nations will have saints and blesseds of their own. But we all will celebrate the feasts of certain saints who are especially signficant on a world scale.
The Commons: You could call this a section of "general" Mass prayers, divided according to category. There are Mass prayers (complete sets, as in the Proper of Time) for significant events  like the anniversary of the Dedication of a Church; in honor of Our Lady; general prayers that fit the bill for the feast of a martyr (or a group of martyrs), a Pope or a saintly lay person (perhaps the Proper of Saints will have only the first prayer, the Collect; the Commons fills in for the rest).

The "General Introduction" of the Roman Missal (known as GIRM) was released and implemented several years ago (remember?)--that covered the rubrics dimension. What we are getting come Advent is the rest of the book that we read the Intro to already.

The readings, meanwhile, for all those specific days and saints, as well as all those general or "common" needs and saints are all in the Lectionary. So the lectors can breathe easily this time. (We got the revised lectionaries earlier in the decade, remember?)

Roman Missal: In other words

Depending on who you talk with in Church circles these days, you could walk away with the impression that the coming translation of the Missal is either the ruin or the rescue of the Church. In most such conversations, the assumption seems to be that what is coming is something on the order of a complete break with what we have right now.

In one of the sillier criticisms of the Missal, some in the "ruin" category have gone so far as to say that the Missal we are about to get imposes "bad theology" on the worshiping community. I've heard that one--and so has the New York Times.

There are some new things in the 3rd edition of the Vatican II Missal, but basically it's the same book we're using right now. (Here one might be tempted to ask if it's really the Latin they take issue with, in which case they are objecting to Vatican II itself...)

The real issue for critics of the upcoming Missal is that it is such a strict translation from the Latin.
Back in 1969, a document outlined the translation principles to guide the work of putting the venerable Roman liturgy into modern languages. That document called for a lean, mean approach: find the overarching meaning of the phrase or sentence and express it succinctly, doing away with excessive repetition and aiming for a fresh, contemporary and easily-understood style. You don't have to be a liturgist to recognize that some concepts don't easily lend themselves to conversational language, or to acknowledge that "modern" speech forms can quickly become dated. (If only those who worked on the translation had followed the example of the Anglicans, who, after all, had been using the vernacular in their liturgy for over 400 years!)

After about 40 years of experience with the liturgy rendered in conversational language, the Church has been able to look back and see that, with all the benefits this translation approach offered (it has been very helpful in encouraging Catholics to identify with the action of the liturgy), at the same time, some core elements suffered. Biblical allusions (some of which were present in a single, very specific word) were lost;  accuracy suffered; expressions of profound awe at God's overflowing mercy were truncated or replaced with psychological language; connections between the Scriptural revelation and our petitions (underlining the unity of revelation itself) were severed; the very powerful sense of our expectation of the Second Coming was toned down: all because the translation principles were not adequate to the "surpassing weight of glory" the liturgy contains and bestows!

So now we are getting a new translation, done according to very different principles indeed. It won't always be easy or fun. We may have to learn some new theological vocabulary, too. But perhaps one thing the occasional awkward turn of phrase will do for us is remind us that we are united in prayer with a universal Church; that we are, indeed, using a translation, and that these prayers we offer did not originate with us, but are part of the heritage of faith, and thus a form of interpretation of Scripture that we have received from the early Church.

In future posts, I will develop some of the characteristics of the liturgical Latin that we will begin to notice showing up at Mass, come Advent. I'll also post on the "new" things this Missal offers--and that we in the English-speaking world will be among the first to benefit from!

Roman Missal: More about the Many

About two weeks ago, I posted a bit about the new translation of the words of consecration. After attending another all-day seminar and continuing to reflect on what I heard then, and what I have been reading in the Pope's latest book (along with his Apostolic Exhortation "Sacrament of Charity," which in many ways reads like a first draft of some of the passages in Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2), I have more insights on the much-criticized use of the word "many" in "for you and for many." It is critical that we have some kind of appreciation for what is hidden in this phrase, because it is so ripe for misinterpretation, and can be a source of scandal for the unprepared.
Context, of course, is everything, so here are the words over the chalice in full:

Take this, all of you, and drink from it,
for this is the Chalice of my Blood,
the Blood of the new and eternal Covenant,
which will be poured out for you
and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this in memory of Me.

The words are addressed to "all of you." But that's not in the Latin. The Latin verb is addressed in the second person plural, but the word "you" is not there. I think that is already significant. Because the word that is there in the Latin is "all." The "you" addressed is an "all": omnes.

The next subject is the Chalice with the "Blood of the new and eternal Covenant, which will be poured out." (Currently, we hear that this blood will be "shed.") It makes a difference which expression is used! That blood being "shed" refers to death; but covenant-blood being "poured out" from the Chalice takes us to the scenes in the Bible when the blood of a sacrificed animal (collected into a vessel) was poured out around the altar (God's stand-in) and sprinkled over the people, who in this very graphic way actually entered into the covenant. I think this covenant language does not receive enough attention when the whole "all/many" issue is engaged in the context of liturgy. "Christ died for all" (2 Cor 5), though clearly not everyone enters into the covenant by being "baptized into his death" (Rom. 6)--and the invitation still stands open to "all those still far off whom the Lord our God calls" (Acts. 2).

Then there's the famous "many." Many means many. It is the opposite of "few." It is not a restrictive term, though it sounds that way to us now, because we are so used to hearing "all."

Most discussions about this term (including my earlier post) note that at the Last Supper, Jesus himself most likely actually used the word "many," and did so knowing he was fulfilling the prophecy of the Servant of the Lord who would give his life as an offering "for many and win pardon for their offenses." But these are not the only places in the Gospel (or the New Testament) where that "many" shows up. When James and John wanted the best seats in the kingdom, Jesus told them that they would be following the Son of Man who "came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many."

And then there's Paul. Paul refers to Jesus and the "many," too: for Paul, Jesus is the new Adam who undoes what the first Adam did. In the Letter to the Romans, Paul practically plays a game with the words "one" and "many":

• Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin...
• But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
• For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

There's a clear sense of the disproportion between the action of "the one" and the effect for "the many" (kind of like Neil Armstrong's words as he touched his foot to the surface of the moon!).

Do you think that these reflections can help those who may be upset by the new translation? What other insights have you come across?

Pope trumps Priest on "Blessed" feast day

Well, it's official. Our first Pauline "blessed," Father Timothy Giaccardo (feast day, October 22) has to move over to make room for a very high profile "blessed" to share his feast day. As of May 1, Oct. 22 will also be the Memorial of Bl. John Paul II, pope. Well, it's only a Memorial in the diocese of Rome and in Poland, but I suspect it won't be long before various dioceses, bishops' conferences and religious communities will ask to have the day established on their liturgical calendars, too. Meanwhile, Bl. Timothy remains a "community" observance (except maybe in the diocese of Alba?).
If he's canonized first, does Bl. Timothy get dibs on Oct. 22?

Roman MIssal: Invitations

With the new translation of the Missal, those of us in the pews are going to have to pay extra attention to  make sure we catch the newly translated "cues" from the priest. Since our responses have been re-translated, too, we can't run on autopilot! And those cues (and our responses) have a lot to say...
For example:
"Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries." We're not being asked to "call to mind" our sins (that would be a prelude to a guilt trip), but to take responsibility for them. We are entering into worship in a spirit of ongoing conversion.
As the Eucharistic Prayer is about to begin, the priest will say: "Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father." Not so different. But it does hint that we are not offering a generic sacrifice: each of us, including the priest, is making our own sacrifice in union with that of Jesus.
Before the Our Father, we will hear: "At the Savior's command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say..." and after our "deliver us from evil," the priest continues: "Deliver us, Lord...that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
Although I really like the expression "in joyful hope," that's not actually in the Latin. Instead, we get something even better. This last prayer brings out what was for me an unexpected characteristic of the new translation: a strong sense of our being alert and ready for the Second Coming. (It is especially clear in many of the post-communion prayers.)
And then, right before Communion, comes my favorite invitation/response pairing:
    "Behold the Lamb of God,
      behold him who takes away the sins of the world.
      Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb."
Two scripture quotes, back to back: the first from the Gospel of John, chapter 1; the second from the book of Revelation, chapter 19. That "supper of the Lamb" isn't simply "this" Holy Communion, though many priests seem to have that impression (they may alter the words slightly to say something like "Blessed are we who are called now to this supper..."); it is really the wedding feast of the Lamb; the heavenly nuptials. That's what Mass is all about. Even John the Baptist, whom the priest quotes in the first part of the invitation, knew that. (And the very next chapter of the Gospel is the story of the wedding feast at Cana: not a coincidence.)
To that scriptural invitation, we make a scriptural response, changing only one word from the  centurion's act of faith:
     "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,
      but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."
As it currently stands, this final prayer before Communion seems to be simply an act of humility: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you..." But there's so much more than that going on.
The first thing I notice in the new translation is the change of perspective. Right now, the first part of that expression focuses on "I": I am not worthy; I ... receive you.  In the new, stricter translation, I am still "not worthy," but the focus is on Christ: that you should enter.
So much for the grammar. The really exciting part of this scriptural prayer is the part we don't hear: the part that comes after the centurion's words in Matthew, chapter 8. That would be Jesus' own answer: "Many shall come from the east and the west and sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven."
In other words, "Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb."

Roman Missal: Triple Plays!

With the new translation of the Roman Missal, we're getting back a feature that had been hidden away in the Latin for 50 years: the threefold "mea culpa." That puts the Confiteor back on the list of liturgical triple plays, along with the Kyrie (Lord have mercy), the Gloria ("you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us"), the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) and the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).  As it is, only the "mea culpa" was trimmed down in the first translation of the Order of Mass.
Repetition is one of the features of the Latin that formed the liturgy's way of expressing faith. It's a form of emphasis, or a kind of superlative. The repetition may not be strict: we don't say "Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy" but "Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy" (Trinitarian! The first "Lord" is addressed to the Father, and the last to the Spirit.) Repetition also takes the form of parallel phrasing. Look at the Gloria:
    "You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us;
     you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer;
     you are seated at the right hand of the Father, receive our prayer."
But wait, there's more!
The repeated invocations in the Mass often build up to a kind of crescendo. That happens first with the mea culpa:
    "Mea culpa
     mea culpa
     mea maxima culpa ."
It's in the Gloria ("you are seated at the right hand of the Father"), and the Agnus Dei, too:
    "Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
     Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
     Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace."
Actually, the only time our "triple play" doesn't advance to a crescendo is in the Sanctus, when we are quoting from Isaiah's vision of heaven!
I guess if something is worth saying once, it's worth saying three times: not for God to get the point, but for the point to get to us.

And the winner is...

Me!
There's a "Noodles & Co" restaurant two doors from us (I think I've enjoyed maybe five meals there since they opened four years ago), so I signed up for a free birthday meal... and on a lark entered their "March Madness" contest. Hey, you never know.
Except that I haven't won anything (at all) since I was a sophomore in high school, many decades ago.
So when I ever got an email telling me that I was one of the 255 winners of a "Mac 'n Cheese bar for 20" I was very, very excited. Even though I am not really that into pasta. (When I lived in Italy, it caused the sisters no end of consternation when I would skip the pasta altogether.) But free is free. And free food is always good to share.
That was yesterday, when I was at a workshop all day and most virtuously did not look at my phone from 9 to 4. When I finally got home, I was bursting to tell the first sister I encountered. It was Sr Helena. Seeing me in happy dance mode, she commented, "This is about food, isn't it?" 
Yep. And free food is always good to share!

Slapstick must be really big in Belgium--and even more entertaining when delivered with a veneer of activism. But it becomes positively gut-busting when the victim is an unpopular Archbishop. Or so it would seem.
You may have already heard that yesterday a Belgian "prankster" released videos of the Archbishop of Brussels getting hit in the face with a custard pie. Other public figures have been on the receiving end of this form of "comedy," but the unfortunate Archbishop seems to be the victim of choice, with no fewer than four tastes of the same punishment, one of them delivered before an audience that laughed and cheered as if the whole thing were some kind of reality show.
The press was told that the action was a protest of the bishop's statements on homosexual behavior and abortion. (This is the same Archbishop who was locked out of his residence while the government made an illegitimate search for non-existent incriminating documents that they presumed had been hidden there--and in his predecessors' tombs.)

I get the impression that the bishop is a bit too plain-spoken for his own good (and not very media savvy). He seems not to recognize when a "reporter" is asking a leading question, and attempts to respond in ways that our sound-byte culture cannot comprehend or follow. He's sure to suffer future indignities in the name of respect and tolerance. 

The FSP on PBS

A few weeks ago, a crew from "Religion and Ethics" paid a visit to our motherhouse in Boston; on Friday, some of that footage ended up in the PBS program:

Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

What a funny world. Today I found (and "liked") the official Pope John Paul II Beatification Facebook page; yesterday I learned that a local parish is actively discouraging parents from permitting their children to use Facebook, because of the moral dangers and the risks associated with online privacy (not that Facebook is for children).
So, reader of a nun's blog, what do you think about faith and social media? If you join a convent podcast for evening prayer, does it count? What are the opportunities and the risks of online evangelization?

Just one book!

Sr Julia talks about just one book, and about the power of just the right word:

Please pray for Sr. Julia's mom, who is recovering from heart surgery. Thanks.

Hermanita Ruth

Our Sr Maria Ruth has been the voice of Radio Paulinas for 25+ years. Here's a great article about her programs. According to the piece, she is one of the biggest producers in Spanish radio, with shows on over 100 stations worldwide.
We used to have a weekly program on one of the Spanish radio stations here in Chicago, but we got priced totally out of even the Sunday morning slots some time in the '90s when advertisers realized that Hispanics were a huge market... Anyway, be sure to read the article: it taught me a few things about our radio apostolate that I didn't even know after living in community with Sr Maria Ruth for years!

A few years ago I did a video of Sr Ruth telling her vocation story:

Beatification Countdown

No fooling! It's just one month to the Beatification of Pope John Paul II!




Here are some books for all ages... The links will also let you read samples of some of the books.

The Man behind Masstimes

I spent some time with Robert and Phyllis Hummel, who got the Masstimes.org ball rolling some 20 years ago. This great site (which started out as an 800 #) helps you find Churches and Mass schedules (in a variety of languages) pretty much everywhere--and not simply Mass schedules, but adoration and confession, too. (The Hummel's daughter, Sr. Roberta, is in our Moscow community.)


If the video doesn't work, you can watch it here.