2008 February archive at Cornell Society for a Good Time

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Archive for February, 2008

Rutler on Marini, or contra pious undulations

Fr. George Rutler, of Our Saviour’s Church in Manhattan, has a blistering, delightful review of Piero Marini’s book on the reform of the liturgy in the newest edition of First Things. Since it’s only for subscribers now, I thought I’d pull a couple of choice bits out to encourage people to read the whole thing. It’s a sore point among traditional Catholics, but I maintain that, whatever unfortunate material sometimes appears on its pages, First Things is a magazine that should be read by most thoughtful Catholics. But leaving that argument for later, a bit from Fr. Rutler:

“To young people today, Vatican II reposes in a haze with Nicaea II and Lateran II. Their guileless ignorance at least frees them from the animus of some aging liturgists who thought that the Second Vatican Council defined a whole new anthropological stage in the history of man. The prolix optimism of many interpreters of that council has now taken on a patina—not that of fine bronze but more like the discoloration of a Bauhaus building.”
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Published by Ambrosius February 29th, 2008 2 Comments

Virtue and the Mind

There is an old and learned priest, presently my confessor, of whom I heard an illustrative story. He heads a college seminary, and once when he was in the confessional a seminarian, writing a thesis on moral theology, came to him to confess. When the boy had finished, Father began his remarks by explaining the difference between a mortal and a venial sin. When the seminarian interposed that he didn’t need the explanation, noting that his thesis was on a related topic, Father shot back, “that’s not relevant here!”

The point, if I may expand, is that in this present darkness we humans can easily reach firm convictions and comprehension in our intellectual considerations that utterly fail to penetrate our lives generally. While this is an old theme, I return to it now because of late there has been some back-channel discussion among this site’s contributors about what does and doesn’t constitute prudent matter for discussion in this forum. I don’t want to address that question directly, though readers may leave their thoughts if they wish. Rather, I think a more interesting question is how a Christian views himself, his intellect, and his work in light of the demands of virtue, living under the shadow of the cross.
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Published by Ambrosius February 29th, 2008 2 Comments

Appealing to Saints

My apologies for the long silence here at CSGT. I took a trip to Ithaca this last week, to give a paper and to settle some things concerning my academic program. The trip was very successful in all its intended goals, and carried the additional benefit of putting me back in company with those members of the Cornell Society for a Good Time who still reside in the Ithaca area. (Particular thanks go to Iosephus and Catharina Oxoniensis for their warm hospitality!) As usual, it brought me back with multiple posts in my mind, but I’m going to start with a small one just to get things warmed up again.

To which saints to you often appeal throughout the day or week? The practice of asking for the intercession of saints, throughout the day and in normal situations, has grown on me gradually in the years since I became a Catholic. I don’t believe I was ever explicitly recommended to do it. It becomes very natural, though, as you develop devotions to particular saints, that their help should be asked in situations where it seems they would be sympathetic. Appealing to God and to Our Lady can and should be done at all times of day, naturally. But more and more, I find particular other saints coming to mind for particular occasions.

Published by Clara February 27th, 2008 12 Comments

A Visual Metaphor for the Future of the Church

From modernist monstrosity to traditional altar in 15 mins. Courtesy of the FSSP in France.

Published by Doctor Asinorum February 19th, 2008 1 Comment

Is there such a thing as a Catholic college?

An issue that has been raised on this blog is the merit of post-secondary school education. Central to the issue is how the Faith is affected and influenced in the college environment. Evaluating something like this is not easy. Is it possible to effectively and accurately evaluate the academic and social environment as consistent with Catholic teaching and ideals? One possible solution is to attend a Catholic college.

Unfortunately, even a college or university with a Catholic name attached does not guarantee that Catholic ideals and values are upheld and defended.

This disappointing fact has led most of us to agree with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., that parents should “send their children to secular colleges and universities that have an active and involved campus ministry loyal to the Catholic faith rather than use what I call a phony Catholic school.”

Not all is lost, however, in the pursuit of higher education. In the same essay from Fr. Groeschel in the Foreword to “Choosing a Catholic College” (pdf link) where this quote is taken from, he says encouragingly: “There is, however, cause for hope, and it is manifested in those oases of Catholicism profiled in this publication.”

Published by Franciscus February 18th, 2008 44 Comments

You know you’re in trouble

When you have to turn to the Muslims to explain traditional Christian liturgical seasons. But that’s what’s happened in the Netherlands, where the Catholic charity Vastenaktie is has taken to branding Lent the “Christian Ramadan.” Noting that only a tiny minority of the 400,000 Catholics in the Netherlands still fast during Lent, they decided to turn to the more familiar concept of Ramadan to illustrate what the Lenten season is really about.

Published by Clara February 18th, 2008 0 Comments

Photos from the Pallium Mass

Last summer I wrote a post about the Pallium Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29th). In case you do not recall, the pallium is the ceremonial scarf worn by metropolitan archbishops of the Latin Rite. Every June 29th, the archbishops appointed during the last year come to St. Peter’s to be invested with the pallium by the Pope. These vestments have spent the previous night in the confessio, or tomb, of St. Peter. Here are the photos, which I hope you will enjoy. I took the photo above from the left side of the nave during the processional. (Unfortunately, much of the clarity of the original photo has been diminished by shrinking the file, which is necessary to post the photo to the blog.) Continue reading

Published by Tobias Petrus February 14th, 2008 3 Comments

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!

This is the head of St. Valentine, from the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. He was a Roman priest martyred in the second half of the third century. Two other martyred Valentines, one a martyred bishop of Terni and the other an African martyr, are also honored on February 14. (Before anyone tries to critique these historical claims, I got them from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. It is certainly not infallible.)

Published by Tobias Petrus February 14th, 2008 0 Comments

On prayer

“We do not pray to change divine decree, but only to obtain what God has decided will be obtained through prayer. In other words, as St. Gregory says, ‘by asking, men deserve to receive what the all-powerful God has decreed from all eternity to give them.’”

St. Thomas Aquinas
Summa theologiae II, II, Q 83, Art 2

Published by Catharina Senensis February 13th, 2008 3 Comments

Clara and the Doctor

As Fr. Z would say, some Trad nuptial Mass eye-candy (though ours is clearly better). The celebrant is the Society’s honorary chaplain. The venue is Founders Chapel at the University of San Diego, June 9, 2007. Photo credit to studio m / michael spengler photography.

Published by Doctor Asinorum February 13th, 2008 4 Comments

Get a Missal

Now that the Traditional Latin Mass community in our part of the country has become more established, I’ve been looking about me on Sundays and wondering: why don’t more people buy daily missals?

Quite recently, I was surprised to see Fr. Z of What Does the Prayer Really Say? write a post about the Baronius Missal which he had apparently just seen for the first time. Now, I received a Baronius Missal from my dear Doctor as a baptismal gift in May of 2005, so by now it’s an old friend for me. But, looking around at the congregation on Sunday at the Latin Mass, I note that surprisingly few people have their own daily missal. Many use the small red booklets from Ecclesia Dei, together with printouts containing the propers for the day, but it’s only the rare odd person who actually has a full missal.

Published by Clara February 12th, 2008 10 Comments

Praying the Rosary with Our Lady

Today is the 150th anniversary of Our Lady’s first appearance to St. Bernadette in the grotto at Lourdes. Those who have not yet done so have five more hours in which to visit a church, grotto or “other decorous place” in which an image of the Virgin of Lourdes is displayed as an object of devotion. By praying in front of this image, it is possible to obtain a plenary indulgence. I hope you have all had a chance to do this already, but if you miss it, there is another way — you may obtain the same indulgence by taking a pilgrimage to Lourdes at any time before December 8 of this year.

The story of St. Bernadette is widely known so I won’t retell it here (although, for any who have not yet seen the movie, you really should.) I did think, though, that I might relate my favorite detail of the story, which (so far as I recall) is not detailed in the film. As most of you probably know, Bernadette was out gathering firewood with her sister and a neighbor girl when the Blessed Mother first appeared to her. Understandably, she was rather frightened, and so, devout Catholic child that she was, she took out her Rosary beads and began to pray them. The Blessed Lady simply smiled and allowed her to continue praying… except during the Gloria, when she joined in.

Published by Clara February 11th, 2008 4 Comments

Prayer as Sacrifice

Rote prayer gets a bad rap. We are given to believe that there is nothing so bad as saying a fifth Hail Mary in a row without quite having a heart overflowing with devotion, when one might instead be — say — making a common duty into a prayer, exploring a traditional meditation, or some such thing. And why not? ‘Words without thoughts never to heaven go,’ as that, ah, devout king says in a certain theatrical production. It’s useless praying away, multiplying words with an empty heart, thinking that a few more times through a long and ornate paragraph that even we aren’t paying attention to will act an incantation, winning us God’s favor and with it, maybe, a nice run of luck.

But is that all there is to it? The image of the devout ancient filipina tearing through rosary 8 or 17 before cutting ahead of you for communion, or the cruel eyed unreconstructed monk scrupulously reading his office while living a pharisaical and joyless vocation? I hardly think so.

Published by Ambrosius February 8th, 2008 2 Comments

Super Fat Tuesday

Isn’t it ironic that the Day of Sin should coincide exactly with the most significant day for the primary elections? In honor of such a momentous day, I thought I would take a plunge into some of the political questions that have been simmering on the edge of some of the previous posts. I’ve promised to post about Ron Paul and Pope Leo XIII. I’m going to do that, but there are several pieces to this puzzle, and rather than posting them all in one monster thread that nobody can get to the bottom of, I thought I might break the thing down into a couple of pieces. In this thread, I want to open the floor to a discussion of politics generally. I want to explain, especially, why it’s often so difficult to use Catholic thinkers as a resource in deciding how to view certain political questions.

As we know, the Church claims to be infallible only in matters of faith and morals. She will not infallibly predict the weather or the outcome of a sporting event; she does not offer intimate details about DNA or the respiratory systems of the horned frog; she cannot definitely say what is the best way to persuade a six-year-old to stop torturing his little sister. This sometimes gets tricky when it comes to morally charged political issues, because they tend to involve a mixture of pragmatic questions (on which the Church is not infallible) and moral ones (on which she is.)

Published by Clara February 5th, 2008 106 Comments

Juno

My husband and I went tonight to see Juno, a recent hit comedy about a high school girl who has a baby and gives it up for adoption. It was cute. We liked it. We were trying to figure out afterwards why we haven’t heard much from the pro-life movement about this film. Admittedly, it isn’t a perfect reflection of everything Catholics hold dear. The heroine, in addition to getting herself knocked up in a one-night stand, has divorced parents, is a fan of rock music and slasher movies, and mentions in passing the possibility of giving the child to a lesbian couple. Unlike Bella it isn’t filled with gardens and large families and other analogies to help press home the pro-life message. At its core, though, Juno does a nice job of cutting through many of the lies of the pro-abortion movement, and, as compared to Bella, it has the signature advantage of being a real hit. (It’s even been nominated for Best Picture.) As a mainstream movie with no trace of outright moralizing, there’s nothing to scare away liberals and regular teenagers looking for a good time. Actually, maybe it’s a good thing that the pro-life movement hasn’t made a fuss about it.