Posted on 04/12/2017 3:43:30 PM PDT by NYer
For I have learnt for a fact that nothing so effectively obtains, retains and regains grace, as that we should always be found not high-minded before God, but filled with holy fear. –St. Bernard of Clairveux
Last evening, April 11, 2017, the Diocese of Madison joined with Bishop Morlino at the Chrism Mass. It was a glorious evening, with many of our priests in attendance.
During Bishop Morlino’s homily, he alluded to a recent March 31 address by Cardinal Sarah, the “Vatican Liturgy Chief” (Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments). In his address, Cardinal Sarah was forthright in calling for a recognition of “the serious and profound crisis” which, since the Council, has affected the liturgy by placing man and not God at the center of worship:
“The serious crisis of faith, not only at the level of the Christian faithful but also and especially among many priests and bishops, has made us incapable of understanding the Eucharistic liturgy as a sacrifice, as identical to the act performed once and for all by Jesus Christ, making present the Sacrifice of the Cross in a non-bloody manner, throughout the Church, through different ages, places, peoples and nations,” he said.
“There is often a sacrilegious tendency to reduce the Holy Mass to a simple convivial meal, the celebration of a profane feast, the community’s celebration of itself, or even worse, a terrible diversion from the anguish of a life that no longer has meaning or from the fear of meeting God face to face, because His glance unveils and obliges us to look truly and unflinchingly at the ugliness of our interior life. But the Holy Mass is not a diversion. It is the living sacrifice of Christ who died on the cross to free us from sin and death, for the purpose of revealing the love and the glory of God the Father,” he added.
The notion that the Church is in crisis is not new. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is, to a large extent, due to the disintegration of the liturgy.”
In his Chrism Mass homily, Bishop Morlino highlighted the fact that the Catholic Church is very good at social issues at every level – Catholic organizations, dioceses, parishes and individuals – but, ours is a crisis of faith, revealed by less than 25% of Catholics attending Mass any longer (less than 5% in many parts of Europe). Where we are failing is in a lack of fervor in our faith, Bishop stated. This is most evident in how we, as priests, are offering the Mass, and how the faithful are praying the Mass.
Bishop Morlino went on to speak about “actuosa participatio” as being more about “actual participation” than “active participation.” Bishop lamented that we seem to feel everyone needs to be busy “doing something” at the Mass, when it is more important that we are deeply contemplating what is being done at the Mass … that God is made Present – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. This should stir our soul and fill us with awe and wonder. But, are we too busy to take notice?
A year ago, Bishop called for all tabernacles to be in church and in the center of the sanctuary. Last Fall, as part of the Bishop’s overall plan to add sacred beauty and reverence to all Masses in his diocese, Bishop Morlino encouraged all of his priests to strongly consider Cardinal Sarah’s call to offer the Mass ad orientem. Bishop Morlino then announced he would, from now on, be offering all of his Masses ad orientem.
Now, during last evening’s Chrism Mass, Bishop Morlino concluded his homily by appealing to all of his priests in his diocese to strongly encourage their parishioners to begin receiving Communion on the tongue while kneeling, beginning this September.
Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Catholic Caucus ping!
Looking for a “like” button.
The way it used to be!
Yes see because this is the most important part of the eucharist after all.
Good grief. Its like arguing about how bright of a light to use for shadow puppet theater.
Excellent post!
Yes!
Or, as some might say, "A little bread and wine".
I missed that part. Where in the article can I find it?
Thats the point. Didnt use my /sarc tag.
I don’t understand your point.
Are you saying that expressing a concern for reverence betrays an obsession which supersedes all other important matters concerning the Eucharist?
Because I didn’t get that from the article.
Receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, does seem like kind of a big deal to me.
Maybe I just have a strange idea that God is kind of important.
Well see, I got that from the headline.
You can take communion kneeling and not be reverent. Proaborts do it all the time.
Likewise you can take communion reverently and not be kneeling.
It’s the right thing to do. If they’d asked the faithful in the pews before changing it, we never would have stopped!
The bishop is right on this point, of course, but while acknowledging that it is, indeed, profane for one to receive Holy Communion “in the hand while standing”, he says not one word about the laity distributing the Holy Eucharist to the faithful. Think about that. Is it even logical?
If Bishop Morlino truly believes that it is profane for a Communicant to receive in their “unconsecrated” hand while standing, why is it not just as profane for the so-called extraordinary ministers who distributes the Host with “unconsecrated” hands? And of course it is. It is unclear to me, therefore, why this bishop is taking this stand at this time and in this way?
Does anyone really believe that tBishop Morlino is actually starting a crusade to encourage all faithful Catholics to return to the true, pre-Vatican II teachings of the Church, and that this is but the first step of a great many we will all see in the very near future? If they do, they have not been carefully watching what these modern popes and bishops have been doing to the Church over the years.
I’m suspecting that this bishop is seeing, like the rest of us, the dramatic decline in the number of Catholics since the Second Vatican Council, and believes that maybe a small turn back toward “conservatism” will help stem that tide. And since the USCCB and the Catholic Church these days are almost exclusively about the collection of money and the distribution of wealth, retaining membership is critical. If you don’t have the people, you won’t collect the money.
As a member of an SSPX Chapel, I am not faced with the prospect of receiving Holy Communion in the hand. Holy Eucharist is only distributed by a priest, on the tongue while kneeling at the altar rail. The SSPX is also not faced with the prospect of losing members (the growth in membership is actually astonishing). Yet it is far from a “liberal environment”. In fact, modern Catholics would call the SSPX Chapels very “conservative”. Faithful Catholics who attend these Chapels simply call it the truth.
Nevertheless, while the modern popes and bishops have done everything in their power to destroy the SSPX, they have not only failed in that regard, but recognize that it is the traditional Catholicism that is attracting the faithful to SSPX Chapels, and is the very reason why the Chapels are growing geometrically. I’m quite sure Bishop Morlino must see this as well, so perhaps his reasoning for his action is simply to look a bit more “conservative”. It can’t hurt things, and it might help.
So there is no intrinsic difference in (outward) reverence between kneeling and standing? If I stand in front of you, it displays nothing different than if I kneel before you?
Of course we all know that kneeling is intrinsically more reverent than standing. Therefore the argument is shifted from the intrinsic nature of the act to the exceptions (those who kneel in order to merely appear reverent.) The problem with exceptions, though, is they do not negate truth.
A friend of mine produced a television commercial designed to welcome fallen-away Catholics back home to the Church. In a “nostaligia” scene a little girl — in her First Communion dress — kneels before an altar rail as she receives Holy Communion. Well, the anger and the fury of some viewers over that scene was breathtaking. “You people just want to turn the clock back!”
I find the extreme negative reaction to the act of kneeling to receive Christ, and the twisted sophistry used to denigrate it an interesting study in psychology.
What mental trauma could possibly cause modernists to be so vehemently attached to their novelties?
That is the way we used to do it. Knealt down at Communion rail to receive Communion.
Knee damage. Elderly.
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