Rome & Canterbury

The Pope and Dr Rowan Williams had a twenty minute meeting yesterday whilst it was announced Cardinal Dias would appear at the Lambeth Conerence.

The Vatican has come to the aid of Rowan Williams, the head of the Anglican church, ahead of this year's Lambeth conference.
As the Archbishop of Canterbury arrived in Rome yesterday for a private meeting with the Pope, it was announced that Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Indian prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, would be among the speakers at this summer's event, which brings Anglican bishops together in London once every 10 years.
Rebel bishops, angry at Williams's acceptance of gay bishops, plan a breakaway conference in Jordan and Jerusalem, threatening the break-up of the Anglican Communion.
Dias has been touted as a possible future candidate for the papacy. Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, may also attend the Lambeth event.
"We expect someone from the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity to attend, as we have in the past," said a spokesman for the Anglican Communion office in London.
Rev Keith Pecklers, a professor of liturgy at the Gregorian University in Rome, who has worked with the Anglican Centre in Rome on relations between the two churches, said: "Cardinal Kasper might be expected to attend, given his role, but Cardinal Dias's presence is proof that the Vatican wants to be supportive of Williams.
"The message is 'We're in this together and we are ecumenical partners, even if there are issues on which we disagree quite clearly,' " he added.
The meeting follows criticism by Vatican officials of Williams for suggesting that some aspects of sharia law in Britain were unavoidable.
But despite his conservative views on women priests and homosexuality, Pope Benedict appears determined to bolster Williams's leadership in the name of Anglican unity.
Williams and the Pope, who have forged a "warm relationship" since first meeting in 2006, had talks for 20 minutes yesterday at the Vatican and discussed "ecumenical relations and Christian-Muslim relations", said the Anglican spokesman. Gifts were exchanged: a medallion for Williams, and Love's Redeeming Work, a collection of essays including one by Williams, for the Pope.

POPE ON THE ROSARY

(Zenit.org).- The rosary is not a "pious practice" to be relegated to the past, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope led the praying of the rosary Saturday at the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Afterward, he addressed a few words to the faithful gathered.
"In the experience of my generation, May evenings evoke pleasant memories of evening appointments to pay homage to the Virgin Mary," the Holy Father said. "Today we together confirm that the holy rosary is not some pious practice relegated to the past, a prayer of distant times to be thought of nostalgically. Indeed, the rosary is experiencing what is almost a new springtime."
The Pontiff affirmed that the rosary can help put Christ at the center of life.
"In the modern world that is so dispersive, this prayer helps us to place Christ at the center, as did the Virgin who meditated upon everything that was said about her Son and upon what he himself did and said," the Pope continued. "When we recite the rosary we relive important monuments of the history of salvation, we again go over the various stages of Christ's mission. With Mary we turn our hearts to the mystery of Jesus.
"May Mary help us to welcome within ourselves the grace that emanates from these mysteries, so that through us, this grace can 'irrigate' society, starting with our everyday relationships, purifying it from many negative forces and opening it to the novelty of God."
Benedict XVI said that the rosary, if prayed well, has many benefits.
"The rosary, when it is prayed in an authentic manner -- not mechanically and superficially, but profoundly -- brings peace and reconciliation," he said. "It contains the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the heart of each Hail Mary."
The Pope called on those present to ensure they remain united to Mary during these days leading up to Pentecost, "invoking a renewed effusion of the Holy Spirit for the Church."
Pentecost will be celebrated this Sunday.
The Holy Father also entrusted the faithful with "the most urgent intentions" of his ministry: "the needs of the Church, the great problems of humanity, peace in the world, the unity of Christians, and dialogue between cultures," as well as the pastoral objectives of the Diocese of Rome, and the "solidary development" of Italy.

Clerical baseball caps... yuk

Yesterday Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa celebrated Mass with Catholic Action in St Peter's Square.

Apparently the Congregation for Divine Worship is going to announce a competition to design clerical headwear in the next few weeks.

Seriously, this does look ghastly, the CDW should encourage an alternative, at the World Youth Day under the harsher Australian sun we can expect worst.

There are two historically based answers one the biretta, the second is using the amice, the vestment now worn as a neckcloth but was formally a head covering, a type of hood.

Reduce blood pressure and stress

from the Daily Mail!!!

via Fr Z

Stress levels could be reduced simply by participating in some Gregorian chanting, researchers claimed today.

Dr Alan Watkins, a senior lecturer in neuroscience at Imperial College London, revealed that teaching people to control their breathing and applying the musical structure of chanting can help their emotional state.

He said: "We have recently carried out research that demonstrates that the regular breathing and musical structure of chanting can have a significant and positive physiological impact."

The research involved five monks having their heart rate and blood pressure measured throughout a 24-hour period.

Results showed their heart rate and blood pressure dipped to its lowest point in the day when they were chanting.

Dr Watkins pointed to previous studies that also demonstrated such practices have been shown to lower blood pressure, increase performance hormone levels as well as reduce anxiety and depression.

The lecturer also runs Cardiac Coherence Ltd, a company that helps executives perform under stressful conditions.

He said: "The control of the breathing, the feelings of wellbeing that communal singing bring, and the simplicity of the melodies, seem to have a powerful effect on reducing blood pressure and therefore stress."

"We have found that teaching individuals to control their breathing, generate more positive emotional states and connect better with those around them – all key aspects of Gregorian chanting – can significantly improve their mental state, reduce tension, and increase their efficiency in the workplace."

Record company Universal recently chose the monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, Vienna to make an album after responding to a public interest in the genre.

The company also believes the Halo computer game series, available on PCs and Xbox consoles, sparked a resurgence in the music traditionally sung in male church choirs, as Gregorian chant-like melodies form the main soundtrack of the games.

God in man - man in God

(AsiaNews) - "Saint Peter's Square presents itself today almost as an open-air 'cenacle', crowded with faithful, many of them members of Italian Catholic Action": this is how Benedict XVI greeted the 100,000 members of the most widespread ecclesial association in Italy, in his reflection before the Regina Caeli today. The young and adults of Catholic Action (AC) were gathered in the square to celebrate the 140th anniversary of their foundation with a Mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops' conference.

The pope gave an address to them after the Marian prayer.

Before the Regina Caeli, the pontiff emphasised the value of today's feast, the Ascension of Christ to heaven and his "return to the Father" with his and our humanity. "He", the pope explains, "in fact came to the world to bring men back to God, not on the level of ideas - like a philosopher or master of wisdom - but really, as a shepherd who wants to lead his sheep back to the fold . . . It is for us that he came down from Heaven, and it is for us that he ascended there after making himself like men in all things, humiliated to the point of death on the cross, and after touching the abyss of the greatest separation from God".

"God in man - man in God" are "not a theoretical truth, but a real one", an anchor for the life of all men. "And what does man need more in every age if not this: a solid anchoring for his existence?".

"After the Ascension", the pope further recalled, "the first disciples remained gathered together in the Cenacle around the Mother of Jesus, in fervent expectation of the gift of the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus (cf. Acts 1:14)". From this arises the invitation "to remain united together in prayer, to invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit. In fact, only to those who 'are born again from above', meaning from the Holy Spirit, is opened the entrance to the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Jn. 3:3-5), and the first one 'born again from above' is precisely the Virgin Mary".

After the Marian prayer, the pope addressed a greeting in various languages to the faithful present. Among others, he greeted a group of the Neocatechumenal Way from Mumbai.

To the members of the AC, the pope recalled the ample "ecclesial dimension" of the association, not a "sign of an uncertain or outdated identity", but "rather a great responsibility of our lay vocation".

He then urged all to mission in society: "In a missionary Church, placed before an educational emergency like the one found in Italy today, you who love and serve it should be tireless announcers and prepared, generous educators; in a Church called to trials of faithfulness that are sometimes very demanding, and tempted to adaptation, you must be courageous and prophetic witnesses of the radical nature of the Gospel; in a Church that faces the relativistic, hedonistic, and consumerist mentality on a daily basis, you must be able to make more room for rationality under the banner of a faith that is the friend of intelligence, both in the area of popular mass culture, and in that of more elaborate and reflective research; in a Church that calls to the heroism of sanctity, respond without fear, always trusting in the mercy of God".

Litugical Latin Pronunciation

Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkr

Jeffrey Tucker of NLM

It's impossible to keep up with the number of CD companies and monasteries that are recording chant for commercial ventures right now, but just looking through a page on Amazon shows this is entering another boom period, which is all to the good.

Among those who believe that there is something odd about monks selling their music like this, I would only respond that commerce and monastic life have been bound up with each other since the early middle ages, when monasteries led the way in capital development long before the industrialists of England got into the act. So long as a market for this material exists, it seems like a splendid thing that monasteries can develop a funding base by doing what they do best: sung prayer. Fantastic!

Here is the video of the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkr that won these monks a contract, and, my goodness, they sound just great. It is interesting for me to hear the slight differences in the chants they sing as versus the typical parish use.