Sound of Magdalen

Our choir yesterday singing the introit.

Under-Celebrating the Ascension

I think we under-celebrate the Ascension, I think it should be as great feast as Christmas.
At Christmas True God enters the world in a human body, at the Ascension True Man enters heaven in a human body. It is not simply "that God goes up with shouts of joy" but that Jesus Christ, the God-Man, goes "up".
In this feast we celebrate Man's entry into Heaven, the corollary to this feast is the Assumption: where Christ our Head has gone, there the Body, Mary the type of the Church, follows.
Today we celebrate flesh and blood in Heaven, sitting at the right hand of God. Quite what this "flesh and blood" is, we do not know, as we don't know what our own glorified bodies will be like.
At the Incarnation the All-Knowing emptied himself and took on human Not-Knowing, the Divine who knew but was incapable of experiencing death, pain and suffering today takes on that experience and ascends to Heaven with it.

In the icon, 9th cent Sinai, note thee relationship with the figure of Christ and his mother her out-stretched praying hands reach up trying to follow.

ICEL: Ad Experimentum

In a conversation with our bishop recently, I thought he said that some parishes in the diocese were already using the new ICEL translations of the Missal, and that he had no problem with them being used ad experimentum, as they were now an official text which had received the recognitio of the Holy See, I had obviously grabbed the wrong end of the stick because a friend on ICEL, who had read the previous version of this post, told me Rome had not yet given permission for their use in England.

ICEL wants these texts to be used after appropriate catechesis next year. However, this morning because of my misunderstanding, I used the new translation of the Roman Canon. As there are the four Eucharistic Prayers in the Missal, plus the two prayers for Reconciliation, the three (is it?) for children, and then those ghastly Swiss ones, I thought that no-one in the congregation would object, and from the reactions I heard people thought it was a vast improvement.

Some people have suggested the translations are a bit lumpy, I found the Roman Canon immensely beautiful, so much so that I feel deprived not being able to use it tomorrow.
The problem I have is that it seems so natural to use the rubrics of the Usus Antiquior, the signs of the cross, for example at phrases like, "... bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices, ..."
I think it is going to be difficult to get people to change their responses, that is going to be the big catechetical problem, not what the priest says.PeoplesMassCard-NewTranslation

Difference between Protestant and Catholic Worship

That wise old Anglican cove, Fr Hunwicke has this to say about the contrast between Protestant and Catholic worship:

In other words, for classical Protestantism, the Eucharist is an acted word; it is a sermon dramatised; it is intended to instruct the witnesses and draw their heart to that saving faith which justifies. But for the Catholic, it is an opus operatum; an action which by the powerful and indefectible promise of Christ is objectively (not merely subjectively and in the heart of the believer) effective. So the celebrant is not in the business of moving or instucting or edifying or converting the viewer - if such may be the the by-products, even useful ones, of the action, they are not its intrinsic purpose. The priest's intrinsic purpose is to confect and offer the Body and Blood of the Redeemer in sacrifice for the sins of men. Failure to realise this is at the heart of what is wrong with so much modern and 'relevant' liturgy; and, to judge from my own reading and experience, the error is just as pervasive and deep-rooted inside the Roman Communion as it is outside it.

Why a picture of Lancing College Chapel? Fr Hunwicke taught classics there for aeons.

Yards and yards of it

In a big Church you need something to make a bishop seen.
I have to admit it I love a Cappa Magna, it is so wonderfully absurd!
I remember an old bishop who said, "Wearing it reminds me I am nothing but a walking clothes horse, it is not me it is the office." I paraphrase him of course but their is a truth here of course, it makes the man unimportant, almost rediculous and points us to what he is for Christ.
It is Bishop Slattery celebrating Pontifical Solemn High Mass in Washington DC.
Thank you to Hugo for sending me the link.

An Anglican Response!

When the Archbishop of Canterbury wanted a largish celebration in Rome to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the All Saints Anglican Centre in Rome, the diocese of Rome allowed him to use a Roman Basillica of S Sabina, it even allows him to carry a crozier, a symbol of authority. How does All Saints respond? It makes itself available for the ordination of an Old Catholic women priest, who herself claims it is a stunt, "to stimulate a debate amongst Catholics".
Maybe Benson had something when he coined the phrase, "Old Mother Damnable".

Fessio: Tablet Sensationalism

Father Joseph Fessio is pretty damning, in that understated Jesuitical way about The Tablet's reporting of various private remarks made to journalist by Cardinal Schönborn.

Fessio not only accuses The Tablet of sensationalism but of ignorance and I suppose of breach of confidence. It just underlines the need for The Tablet to start employing mainstream Catholics who understand mainstream Catholic theology, who haven't got an axe to grind. No wonder it is apparently Britain's fastest declining Catholic weekly, incidently with a print run of 22,000 a week, it has less readers than this blog on a good week and Fr Tim on a bad one!