The Remedial Catholic

Eat This Bread, Think of it as Me

2012-04-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

--John 6:35

We’ve already covered two of the seven Sacraments of the Church in the typical order a person would receive them: Baptism, then Reconciliation. In this post we’ll look at the next Sacrament a Catholic would typically receive: The Eucharist. Since we’ve spent a vast majority of this entire blog so far talking about the Mass, which is the prayerful service that continues to bring the Eucharist into being in the world, this won’t be an incredibly long series. Hopefully you’ve read the series on the Mass, and if not, now might be a good time to go back to the beginning and start reading those. For the rest of us, though, we’ll continue…

At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his “bride,” the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet “in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.” (CCC 1322)

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all Church ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch. Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking. (CCC 1324, 1327)

Again, since we’ve devoted most of this blog, already, to the Mass, we’ll be more general in our discussion of the Eucharist, here. The Greek word eucharistein means “to give thanks.” It finds its roots in the Jewish Festival of Booths (Sukkot) celebrated four days after Yom Kippur. To celebrate their hard work, the farmers and their families would go to the temple in Jerusalem to offer thanks (eucharistein). The Greek word eulogein (Barrakah in Hebrew) means “to bless.” It finds its roots in the Jewish Festival of Wheat during which the Hebrews asked El (God) to bless their harvest. By the time of Jesus, these two festivals had become intertwined, and in a single festival, God was given thanks and asked to bless the harvest/new wheat.

The Jews also made sure to get rid of all wheat in the house before the feast of Passover (according to custom) as a sign of emptying themselves. In the same way today, we empty ourselves prior to receiving the Eucharist through the sacrament of Reconciliation and through a fast of one hour prior to receiving the Eucharist.

The primitive Christian Eucharistic celebration consisted of a meal in common. But already in the Jewish tradition this never lacked a religious dimension, which expressed itself especially in the Kiddush (the solemn prayer of thanksgiving completed with a glass of wine and in the breaking of bread by the father of the house). The breaking of the bread began the meal, and a solemn prayer of thanksgiving formed the conclusion in which the father of the house spoke three prayers of blessing over a silver blessing cup: 1. thanksgiving for the shared meal, 2. praise for the Promised Land, and 3. a petition for Jerusalem.

Whether Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover meal or not is hard to know for sure, due to some incongruencies of chronology in the gospels. Either way, it’s pretty much a definite that it stood in the tradition of the Jewish festive meals, which were dedicated to the covenant between the Jews and the God of Israel. With the Last Supper, the new covenant is established in the Sacrificed Body and Blood of Christ.

As we’ve seen already, as early as the second century we have the witness of St. Justin Martyr for the basic lines of the order of the Eucharistic celebration. They have stayed the same until our own day for all the great liturgical families. The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day. It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity: 1. the gathering, the liturgy of the Word, with readings, homily, and general intercessions; 2. the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and communion.

If from the beginning Christians have celebrated the Eucharist and in a form whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of times and liturgies, it is because we know ourselves to be bound by the command the Lord gave on the eve of his Passion: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Over time the individual actions of the celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist have been adapted to fit the times, but the basic theological foundations have (for the most part) remained in tact.

Again, this isn’t as in-depth of a review of the Sacrament of the Eucharist as we saw of Baptism and Reconciliation, but if you want more information on the Eucharist, go back and re-read (or just “read”) my posts on the Mass for the whole story. Next post we’ll talk about Eucharistic Adoration and briefly touch on the ministry of bringing communion to the sick.

“This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”

--Luke 22:19

But I Think It's About Forgiveness - Part V

2012-04-25T19:57:00.001-07:00

Most protestant faiths do not believe in the concept of confessing sins to another person to receive forgiveness like we do in the Sacrament of Reconciliation as Catholics. They completely ignore John 20:22-23 and confess their sins directly to God. This might be fine in the eyes of God, but there’s a definite benefit that they miss out on of having that person-to-person interaction and having someone challenge you and hold you accountable in your life like the priest does in confession. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” Why ignore that??

There’s also the fact that Jesus probably wouldn’t have bestowed the power of forgiveness of sins on his apostles if he didn’t want them to actually forgive sins. By not taking advantage of that ministry that Jesus, himself, instituted, you’re missing out on a gift from God. Like St. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation.” Why would anyone CHOOSE to ignore a free gift from God? Don’t know…but that’s one reason I’m a Catholic.

Protestants have any number of reasons (a.k.a. “excuses”) for not receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Catholics, on the other hand, have hundreds of excuses for not receiving the sacrament. Here are my top 3:

1. I don’t think what I did was that bad.

Deciding whether a sin you committed is a mortal sin or a venial sin is sometimes really difficult to decide. Please Forgive Me, If I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You can give you an overview of the two types of sin if you’re fuzzy on them. Instead of making excuses and justifications, just go. It’s better to confess them all than purposefully leave something out.

2. I think what I did was too bad to be forgiven.

In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus tells us that every sin will be forgiven except “blasphemy against the holy Spirit.” The obvious question is, “What is blasphemy against the holy Spirit?” The Catholic Encyclopedia references St. Augustine who explained (and I’m paraphrasing here) that blasphemy against the holy Spirit is refusing to accept God’s forgiveness for sins we’ve committed, essentially refusing to believe that God can forgive us. God’s perfect and all-powerful. God could even have forgiven Hitler, had he asked for that forgiveness and been willing to accept it. Nothing we do is beyond the forgiveness of God, other than refusing to accept that forgiveness, but even then, it’s not God’s fault—it’s ours.

3. I’m embarrassed that the priest will tell someone or treat me differently.

Three words: Seal. Of. Confession. Canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 says very bluntly:

“Let the priest absolutely beware that he does not by word or sign or by any manner whatever in any way betray the sinner: but if he should happen to need wiser counsel let him cautiously seek the same without any mention of person. For whoever shall dare to reveal a sin disclosed to him in the tribunal of penance we decree that he shall be not only deposed from the priestly office but that he shall also be sent into the confinement of a monastery to do perpetual penance.”

The priest won’t say anything. If he does, he essentially won’t be a priest anymore. Even if you’ve committed a crime, he can’t tell the police. He’ll probably try to convince you to turn yourself in so that you can “do your time” and be “forgiven” by the general public in addition to your forgiveness from God, but he can’t rat you out. What’s even better is that most priests will tell you that by the grace of God, they generally forget everything you told them by the time the next person comes in for confession. They won’t judge you, they won’t criticize you, they won’t treat you differently. Nothing you say can shock them…they’ve most likely heard MUCH worse.

Then of course, there’s the excuse of people who say that they don’t go to Confession because they don’t know how. Well, luckily for you, these past few posts have totally gotten rid of THAT excuse!

Finally, I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t point out and answer one of the questions I get asked most often about the Sacrament of Reconciliation: What if I forget to confess something? St. Thomas Aquinas tackles this question in the Summa Theologica. I wish you the best of luck trying to read it, because this guy was so brilliant, he didn’t even realize that he was writing in a way that you need a PhD. and a PRAYER to understand. Essentially, though it comes down to the fact that God recognizes our contrition—our apology for what we’ve done wrong and our sorrow for realizing the damage we’ve caused—and we accept his forgiveness because of the sincerity of our hearts…not because of the fact that we didn’t leave out a single thing that we did wrong. This only applies, though, for sins that we TRUTHFULLY “forget” to confess. If we consciously think of something that we did wrong, and purposefully leave it out of our confession, that sin is NOT forgiven. You can’t be forgiven for something you purposefully don’t ask for forgiveness from. God wants us to “own up” to what we’ve done. Remember, God knows what we’ve done, and the priest doesn’t care what we’ve done. Saying it in the sacrament is not going to surprise God, and not going to shock the priest. They’re both there to make sure that we know we’re forgiven and ready to start over on our journey.

Next post we’ll quickly touch on the Eucharist. We’ve spent a majority of this blog talking about the Eucharist, in the context of the Mass, that is, so we’ll also hit on concepts like Eucharistic Adoration and the really cool ministry that involves bringing the Eucharist to the sick who can’t attend Mass.

But I Think It's About Forgiveness - Part IV

2012-04-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Let’s jump right into the final parts of the formal structure of the Sacrament taken from The Rites, Vol. 1.

1. Prayer of the Penitent and Absolution

a. Penitent prays some form of contrition and asks for God’s aid in refraining from future sin.

b. Priest extends hand over penitent and says, “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” to which the penitent answers, “Amen.”

2. Proclamation of Praise of God and Dismissal

a. Following absolution, Priest gives praise to God, prays for God’s aid to penitent in his future endeavors to be free from sin, and invites penitent to go forth in peace.

Praying some form of contrition usually means saying the “Act of Contrition.” The version I grew up saying goes like this:

O my God, I am heartly sorry for having offended thee, and I detest of all my sins because of thy just punishment, but most of all because they have offended thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.

More recently, to get away from the thees, thous, and thys, and of course, that super-confusing art, a more recent formal version goes like this:

My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In His Name, my God, have mercy. Amen.

Now, it’s vitally important to learn at least ONE of these prayers, because unless you use one of these forms of the Act of Contrition, your sins will NEVER be forgiven, and you’ll be doomed to live eternity burning in the miserable fires of blackest hell, right? Well, no…just in case you couldn’t tell by the incredibly sarcastic “right?” I threw in at the end, there. These prayers were written not in a “you must say these prayers or be doomed” sort of way, but in an “in case you are at a loss for words, here is an example of how your Act of Contrition should go” sort of way. As long as you prayerfully express your sorrow for what you’ve done wrong, recognize WHY what you did was wrong, and make a promise between you and God that, you’ll try your absolute hardest to do better in the future…with his help, of course.

Then comes the awesome part…actually being forgiven. Again, you can re-read the last few posts to see where in the Bible Jesus actually gave the power to forgive sins to his apostles, who then ordained successors to carry that ministry on. Think about it: would Jesus have started this Gospel message only to have it die off with that generation? Absolutely not! Although Jesus doesn’t specifically tell the apostles to, they had enough common sense to realize that Christianity needed to continue until Jesus came back. Since he hadn’t by the time they started expanding the Church and dying off, themselves, they realized some select people would need to take over to keep the Church going. That’s why we have priests today. That’s why priests can forgive sins in the name of Jesus, because Jesus told the apostles: “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained.’” (John 20:22-23)

So the priest extends his hands and says one of the coolest prayers a priest gets to say. Because I’m just crazy like that, let’s take it concept-by-concept:

God, the Father of mercies

--Starting off the prayer by calling on the power of God. “The Father of Mercies” is just a reference to the awesome forgiveness of God.

through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself

--Go re-read It’s a Nice Day for a White Wedding for a thorough explanation of this, but this part mentions how God made the forgiveness of our sins possible.

and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins

--This part references that line from John 20:22-23 I mentioned above.

through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace,

--Let’s not forget that we’re all in this together. The Church prays for its members so that we can all realize we are forgiven and fully accept that forgiveness.

and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

--Finally, this is where the priest exercises that gift that Jesus bestowed on the priestly ministry in John 20: 22-23

In true Catholic fashion, we respond Amen after this. Then the priest encourages us to go in peace and look to God for guidance in turning away from sin so that we can keep our relationship with him as solid as possible.

Next post we’ll wrap up the Sacrament of Reconciliation by talking about the poor excuses we give for not receiving it, and why they’re just that—excuses.

“With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.”

--Psalm 130:7bc

But I Think It's About Forgiveness - Part III

2012-04-18T17:50:00.003-07:00

Let’s be honest. If we took a poll of all the Catholics in the world and asked each person what their least favorite part of the Catholic Faith is, “going to confession” would probably be somewhere near, if not in, the top spot. Very few people like going to confession. Why? Most people’s quick answer would be that they’re embarrassed of what the priest might think about them. Unfortunately, the truer (more true?) answer is this: People don’t recognize the gift of forgiveness that comes from the sacrament. What they’re REALLY scared of is their belief that they’ve done things that are too horrible for God to forgive. There, I said it. One thing about me is I’m never lacking in harsh realities. But in all seriousness, the reason people don’t go isn’t one of pride. Sure, that might play a small part in their rationalization, but the reality is that if we fully understood and accepted the forgiveness of sins that comes along with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we wouldn’t think twice about the embarrassment factor. (Ok, maybe twice, but definitely not three times.) To help us better understand how we receive that forgiveness, let’s finally dive into what actually makes up the formal structure of the sacrament.

First of all, the question arises of who actually can/should receive the sacrament. Simply/broadly put, any baptized Catholic with right heart and mind may receive the sacrament of his own will at any time, although it should not be abused/taken advantage of. We shouldn’t just do whatever we feel like doing in our lives with full knowledge that what we’re doing is wrong while in the back of our minds saying, “Oh, it’s ok…I’ll just go to confession for what I’m about to do.” Although it unfortunately might happen from time to time (hey, it’s even happened to me more often that I’d like to admit), we should make sure that before we go to confession, we are TRULY sorry for what we’ve done. Just like apologizing to a friend you’ve treated badly, an apology to God needs to be sincere for you to be truly forgiven—and to RECOGNIZE that forgiveness.

The Rites, Vol. 1 of the Catholic Church outlines the form of the sacrament. It’s noted as the “Rite for Reconciliation of Individual Penitents.” Here’s the format (with my frequent interjections and explanations):

1. Reception of the Penitent

a. Priest welcomes penitent warmly and greets him with kindness

b. Penitent makes sign of the cross with or without the priest

c. Priest invites the penitent to have trust in God prescribedly by saying “May God, who has enlightened every heart, help you to know your sins and trust in his mercy” to which the penitent answers “Amen.” Similar words may be used by the priest in place of the prescribed prayer.

When you first enter the confessional, whether sitting in a chair facing the priest or sitting or kneeling behind a privacy screen (which I’m pretty much in high opposition to, but hey, to each his own, right?), the priest should make some acknowledgement of your presence. Granted, this is much easier on the priest if you “man up” (or “woman up”) and opt for the face-to-face confession. After all, the beauty of the Sacrament of Reconciliation being ministered by a priest is the fact that you have a real, tangible, visible person who you can talk to and interact with forgiving your sins (as he was ordained by God to do as an assistant to the direct successors of the apostles who were commissioned by Jesus to do so…re-read the last post if you’re still fuzzy on the Scripture references for that concept). Anyway, once you’ve said your hellos, it’s time to get started. You, as the person going to confession, make the Sign of the Cross (don’t forget to go back and read I Saw the Sign for a refresher on why this is a super-prayerful action). Traditionally, a formula that’s given to help guide people along in the sacrament tells you to say, “Bless me, father, for I have sinned; it has been _________ since my last confession.” If this helps you along in your preparation for the sacrament, feel free. If not, just continue along.

2. Reading of the Word of God (Optional)

a. Priest may read or recite from memory Scripture passage which shows God’s mercy and calls man to conversion.

3. Confession of Sins and Acceptance of Satisfaction

a. As an option of general confession, the Confiteor may be recited by the penitent.

b. Confession of sins occurs. Priest may aid in recalling of sins, and may give counsel; urges penitent to be truly sorry for his faults to experience fullness of forgiveness.

c. Priest assigns a penance (fitting to the sin) for the penitent to perform as a sign of personal atonement before God in thanksgiving for his forgiveness.

If you’ve called a priest and scheduled a particular time to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest might take a little extra time with you and offer that #2 option of a Scripture Reading. However, if you wait until the typical “10 minutes before Mass starts,” simply because it’s convenient, well, beggars can’t be choosers, can they? Especially since there are probably 5 other people hoping to squeeze in a quick confession before Mass, too. Now The Rites, Vol. 1 talks about saying the Confiteor as an option of general confession. The Confiteor is the prayer that we recite as part of the Penitential Rite at Mass that begins “I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers & sisters…” Typically, though, confession involves ACTUAL confession, which brings us to the real “meat & potatoes” of the Sacrament here: Confession.

Don’t be scared…start with the big ones. They’re the reason you came in the first place, aren’t they? Don’t be afraid to turn this part into a conversation with the priest, either. Like the outline says above, the priest can help you in recalling sins, usually by urging you to consider different angles of certain situations, and—as usually happens in my case—poking holes in your horribly sad attempts to logically justify your sins. Get over yourself…they’re sins, and no amount of justification just to make yourself feel better is going to change that. If something’s legitimately not a sin, the priest will probably point that out. Also, the priest is encouraged to give you counsel. If you really open yourself up to this guy, you might be surprised at the different perspective he can put on how you might go about avoiding these sins in the future. Just like a psychiatrist or a psychologist can help you fix your mind, the priest can help you fix your soul. That’s ultimately his day job, anyway. Let him do it. Let him give you some challenging things to think about.

After your confession, the priest may help you realize why what you did wasn’t great. Remember, if we aren’t truly sorry, it’s hard to truly recognize the forgiveness we need. Then the priest will give you a penance. Here’s where it gets tricky. This all depends on the priest. Some priests go for the tried and true “3 Hail Mary’s,” while others get a little more creative. One priest I went to confession with while I was in the Seminary once gave me the penance of waking up a little early to watch the sunrise and recognize the glory of God’s creation. The penance should “technically” be some sort of sacrifice that makes you appreciate the whole circumstance of Jesus’ suffering on the cross in atonement for our sins, but ultimately it all comes down to accepting God’s love, so a little interpretation in this way by the priest seems like a pretty ok concept. In the end, it’s all helping foster reconciliation with God, so it’s all means to the same end.

In the interest of time—and of decreasing lengths of attention spans of modern readers—we’ll hang it up there for today. In the next post we’ll finish unpacking the formal order of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and wrap up with some FAQs about the sacrament.

But I Think It's About Forgiveness - Part II

2012-04-16T19:06:00.001-07:00

Now that we have a good overview of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, here we’ll start to dive into the history of the sacrament a little more.

The first thing we need to understand is what the earliest Christians would have thought about the sacrament. Even today, if you believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection was in order that our sins would be forgiven, you have to wonder why we need to worry about our sins at all. Well, it’s true—Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins and so that we could have a chance at eternal life with God in heaven. But that’s only half of it. Since the “original sin” of Adam, man’s possibility of living with God in heaven was taken away when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden/Paradise/Heaven. With Jesus’ death, descent to “the dead” and his resurrection, he broke open the gates of the underworld in order to win for us the POSSIBILITY of living in Heaven. The rest is up to us. We have to ACCEPT God’s love and forgiveness so that we can have clean souls worthy of being united in a state of Heaven with God for all eternity. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is our way on earth of accepting God’s love and forgiveness.

So why do we go to a priest for the Sacrament of Reconciliation rather than just confess our sins to God? Well I hate to repeat what I said last post, but it’s all pretty important:

Matthew 18:18—“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

John 20:22-23—“And when he had said (‘Peace be with you’), he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’”

James 5:16—“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”

2 Corinthians 5:18—“And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation…”

Hard to argue with Scripture. At least I think so. Anyway, if we know that there are direct scripture verses that at least point to the overall concept of reconciliation…including one from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians that mentions reconciliation by name…it’s not hard to realize that this concept was developed incredibly early in the history of the Church. The early Christians dove into their greater understanding of the sacrament and the overall idea of the forgiveness of sins because of something that Jesus said in three of the Gospels:

Matthew 12:31-32: Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Mark 3:28-29: Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”

Luke 12:10: “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

The early Christians realized that the idea of “unforgivable sins” gave light to the possibility of forgiveness of sins (a.k.a. “absolution”) after baptism. This set of verses is also where the Catholic Faith gets the concept of Purgatory from. No, Jesus didn’t use the word Purgatory, itself, but that doesn’t make it any less real of a concept for us to deduce from the Scriptures. When Jesus says, “Whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come,” we can use a little common sense to realize a fuller truth that Jesus was talking about: some sins are able to be forgiven in the age to come. Since God is perfect, and nothing imperfect can be in full union with him in a state of eternal peace that we refer to as “heaven,” we can put two and two together to understand that there is some state of being after death where we can be sorry for what we’ve done, ask for forgiveness, and have our soul cleansed of its imperfections. Over time, we just gave this concept—a concept which Jesus, himself pointed to—the name Purgatory. Anyway, back on topic…

By the end of the 3^rd century, the idea that all sinners without exception could be reconciled once in their lifetime by undergoing some sort of spiritual penance was generally accepted in the whole church. The procedure began with a private confession to the bishop, reception into the status of “penitent,” laying down of form of penance, and excommunication from Eucharistic celebration, or in certain cases, only from Eucharist. From this practice, there were different “degrees” of Penitents:

· Weepers—obliged to stand at the narthex and beg those going in for their intercession

· Listeners—allowed to stand at the church door, but had to leave with the catechumens before the celebration of the Eucharist.

· Kneelers—had their place inside the church door, but likewise had to leave with the catechumens

· Standers—allowed to assist at the whole celebration with the faithful, but without receiving communion

After going through all these stages, a person was considered back “in full communion” with the Church.

The High Middle Ages recognized public penance. One form of this was pilgrimage undertaken as penance, and then private confession of sins. Confession, itself, largely has roots in monastic life (life of monks living in communities) when it took place as part of spiritual direction (a sort of one-on-one spiritual counseling with a wiser person), and did not necessarily have to be with a priest; however, if actual forgiveness/absolution was desired, a priest was necessary. The 9^th century Irish Celtic Churches presented idea of Confession with absolution given only after fitting penance was assigned and carried out. Because of “inconveniences” (it was time-constraining to give someone a penance, have them leave and actually DO the penance, then return for the rest of the sacrament), a penance was assigned, and absolution was given with the understood promise that the person going to confession would actually carry out the penance later. This became universal norm at end of millennium. The 4^th Lateran Council (1215) decided that every believer must go to confession once a year. Reconciliation was declared an official sacrament at the Council of Trent and took form as it exists today on December 2, 1973.

Sorry for putting on my mental tweed coat with leather elbow patches for this post, but with a Church that’s nearly 2,000 years old, history is bound to play a vital role from time to time. Tomorrow we’ll dive into who can receive the sacrament and what the “formula” of the sacrament looks like today, and more importantly why you shouldn’t worry about following that formula “to the letter.”

But I Think It's About Forgiveness

2012-04-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

In the last few posts we talked about the Sacrament of Baptism. While original sin and its effects are washed away in baptism, most of us are able to realize that we are human and we all fall short of the glory of God—meaning, nobody’s perfect. Because of this, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When? Did Jesus ever say, “I now institute the Sacrament of Reconciliation!”? In short, no. The labels of the sacraments are something we came up with a good time after Jesus’ death and resurrection to help us define and more easily discuss and experience concepts that Jesus spoke about during his life. It was a very short time after his resurrection, though, when he commissioned his apostles to go out and forgive sins—as I pointed out in the quotation above from John’s Gospel. So just because Jesus never used the term Sacrament of Reconciliation, doesn’t mean that he didn’t institute it. We just gave it a label. Just like the concept of Purgatory. Jesus never said the word Purgatory, but he sure talked about it. (See ‘Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part XIII for more info on Purgatory.)

Want some specific Bible quotes that point to the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Here you go:

Matthew 18:18—“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 9:6—“’But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic, ‘Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.’”

2 Corinthians 2:10—“Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ…”

2 Corinthians 5:18—“And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation…”

James 5:16—“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”

The Sacrament of Reconciliation might be called different things by different people, like conversion, confession, and penance, but in the end, these are all different names for the same sacrament. The Sacrament of Reconciliation reflects for us Jesus’ call to conversion, which is the first step in returning to the Father after we’ve strayed from Him by sinning. Think of it as sort of a reflection of the parable of the Prodigal Son if that helps (Luke 15:11-32). The sacrament is called the Sacrament of Confession, since the confession of sins to a priest is a very important element of receiving all the graces of the sacrament. The other meaning of the word “confession” also pops up here: acknowledgement and praise of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man. It’s called the sacrament of forgiveness, because by the priest granting absolution of the sins of the person receiving the sacrament, God grants that person pardon and peace. It’s called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it gives the person the love of God who reconciles: “Be reconciled to God.”

Remember back when we were talking about the Penitential Rite in the Mass, we talked about the two types of sin—mortal & venial—and the differences between them and what they each do to our relationship with God? Let’s have a little refresher:

When things are going well, God loves us fully and we love him back (as best we can), and our relationship with God looks something like this:

Then sometimes we might sin in a way that involves a “grave” (serious) matter, and we have full knowledge that what we are about to do is wrong, and we commit the sin anyway, completely under our own free choice. This is called Mortal Sin. When we commit a mortal sin, our relationship with God changes to look something like this:

Take a good look at how the relationship changes with mortal sin: we sever our love of God by deeply offending Him. BUT, notice that God doesn’t stop loving us. In fact, he doesn’t love us ANY less when we sin. God loves us the same no matter what we do. So if we completely sever that relationship, it would take something substantial on our part to get things back on track. This is where the Sacrament of Reconciliation comes in, and it brings our relationship with God back to looking like this:

Now, sometimes we commit sins that are less serious sins, or more serious sins that are committed either without fully thinking about their consequences, or done by force of habit. For instance, if we gossip about someone and completely destroy their reputation after we thought about it, knew it would destroy their reputation, and did it anyway, that would be a mortal sin. But we can take that same sin of gossip in a less serious way (say, if we whispered to our friend that the person sitting across the restaurant from you was wearing the most hideous shirt you’ve ever seen), and since it was a less serious matter, and you probably didn’t think about how you’d hurt this person’s reputation before you said it (especially if you’re in the habit of doing this kind of gossiping all the time), and you’ve just committed what’s called a Venial Sin. When we commit a venial sin, our relationship with God is not broken, but strained, and it ends up looking something like this:

Again, notice that although our side of the relationship has changed, God loves us just the same: perfectly. Now, we CAN confess our venial sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but we also have a way of reconciling ourselves to God after venial sin built right into the Mass! By fully participating in the Penitential Rite and receiving the Eucharist, our relationship with God is restored back to:

So that’s the purpose of the Sacrament of Reconciliation—to fully restore our relationship with God after us doing something that really showed God that we stopped loving him…at least for a while. When that relationship with God is restored through Reconciliation, we’re back on track and ready to receive him in the Eucharist.

In the next few posts, we’ll talk a little more about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and what to do when you actually go to confession. We’ll also touch on a few big points like why we confess our sins to a priest, instead of going directly to God; and what happens if you either forget to mention something in confession, or if you purposefully leave out a sin or two during your confession. ‘Til next time!

That's What the Water Gave Me - Part III

2012-04-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, let’s try to wrap up this series on the Sacrament of Baptism. We’ll continue where we left off with the Rite of Baptism, itself.

III. Celebration of the Sacrament:

Blessing and Invocation of God over Baptismal Water

· This prayer is reminiscent of the scriptural signs of baptism and asks that the water be given the grace of Christ Jesus, so that in the sacrament of baptism all those whom God has created in His likeness may be cleansed from sin and rise to a new birth of innocence by water and the Holy Spirit. The celebrant touches the water and asks God to send the Holy Spirit upon the waters of the font. He asks for all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism to rise also with Him to newness of life.

Renunciation of Sin and Profession of Faith

· The celebrant questions the parents and godparents about their rejection of Satan, sin, and the glamour of evil. Next he questions them about their faith in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. The celebrant offers an affirmation of the inquiry to which all respond: “Amen.”

Baptism

· The celebrant invites the family to the font and asks if it is the will of the parents that their child be baptized.

· He baptizes the child in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, immersing or pouring water upon the child after each person of the Trinity.

· The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As “by one Spirit we were all baptized,” so we are also “made to drink of one Spirit.” Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water welling up from Christ crucified as its source and welling up in us to eternal life. (CCC 694)

IV. Explanatory Rites:

Anointing after Baptism

· The celebrant proclaims that God has freed the newly baptized from sin and brought him to new life through water and the Holy Spirit. He then anoints the crown of the child’s head symbolic of Christ as Priest, Prophet, and King (positions which are installed through ceremonial anointing)

Clothing with White Garment

· The celebrant explains that the newly baptized has become a new creation and has clothed himself in Christ. The white garment is placed on the child as an outward sign of his Christian dignity.

Lighted Candle

· A member of the family of the newly baptized lights the child’s candle from the Easter candle and is told by the celebrant to “Receive the light of Christ.”

· The celebrant then instructs the parents and godparents to keep the light burning brightly that the child may keep the flame of faith alive in his heart.

Ephphetha (Prayer over Ears and Mouth)—OPTIONAL

· Ephphetha is a Greek word meaning “be opened.”

· The celebrant touches the ears and mouth of the child with his thumb asking that God touch the ears of the child to receive His word, and the mouth of the child to proclaim His faith.

V. Conclusion of the Rite:

Procession to the altar (unless baptism was performed in the sanctuary)
Lord’s Prayer

· Celebrant stands in front of the altar and addresses the assembly saying that the newly baptized are now called children of God. He also foretells that in Confirmation they will receive the fullness of God’s Spirit, and that in Holy Communion they will share the banquet of Christ’s Sacrifice. The Lord’s Prayer follows this.

Blessing and Dismissal

· Celebrant gives a final blessing to the assembly and invites them to go in peace to which they respond: “Thanks be to God.”

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

--Matthew 28:19-20

That's What the Water Gave Me - Part II

2012-04-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

Last post we got a super-thorough (sorry) look at what the Sacrament of Baptism means and where we get the idea from in the Bible. In this post, we’re going to look at the Sacrament of Baptism as most of us would see it celebrated today—baptism of a baby.

So here’s the outline of the Rite taken from The Rites: Vol. 1:

I. Reception of the Children:

1. Ideally, sacrament takes place on Sunday (celebration day of the Paschal Mystery). Rite should be attended by faithful, or at least by family and friends who are all to take an active part in the rite.

2. Parents accompanied by godparents present child to Church for baptism.

3. Celebrant greets congregation and asks name of child and what parents ask of the Church. Parents respond with name of child and “Baptism.”

4. Celebrant asks if the parents and godparents understand their responsibilities in the baptism of the child.

5. Celebrant welcomes child and claims him for Christ by signing the child’s forehead with the sign of the cross, and invites parents and godparents to do the same

I guess I’ll just go ahead and give my two cents on each section as I give it to you. First of all, while we’re being baptized into Christ, we’re being baptized as Christians, and so it’s a good idea to have baptisms done at Mass, if possible, and in the presence of the congregation where the family will be (BETTER be) bringing the child to Church as the child grows up. This way, there’s a real sense of community being felt here with the rest of the Christian community welcoming a new member into the “flock.” It only makes the Mass a few minutes longer, and I’ve never seen anyone leave the Catholic Church because they were “sick of all these babies.”

Next, a “godparent” is simply someone chosen by the parents to help guide the child on their journey of faith. It should generally be someone who actually PRACTICES and BELIEVES in the faith that the child is being brought into…not just a relative or a friend who couldn’t even tell you where the nearest church IS, and was chosen out of obligation…just sayin’. According to Canon Law, a godparent must be at least 16 years of age, and must have received the sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist, “and who lives a life of faith which befits the role to be undertaken.” (Canon Law #874.1.3) The godparent also cannot be the father or the mother.

Only one godparent is needed for the sacrament, and that one godparent must be Catholic. Since most people opt for 2 godparents (godfather & godmother), and since there are about 600 billion protestant denominations out there today (ok, so that’s probably a gross exaggeration), it’s not uncommon for a baptized child to have one Catholic godparent, which is the official godparent of the child as far as the Church is concerned, and one non-Catholic godparent (usually a relative or close friend) to fill the other role. This should be done carefully, though. The non-Catholic godparent should still be someone who is baptized and lives a good Christian life, regardless of their particular denomination, but should take care to not steer the child away from his Catholic faith. Unfortunately, though, when I talked about the idea of godparents to my religious education students Monday night, they were surprised. They thought that your godparents were just supposed to get you nicer gifts than the rest of your aunts and uncles for your birthday and Christmas. (Sad, but painfully true story.)

Next comes the part where we tie all that we’re doing to the Bible:

II. Liturgy of the Word:

Scripture Readings and Homily:

· One or two gospel passages are read from 4 selections:

o John 3:1-6…The meeting with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, questions Jesus on how a man grown old can be born again. Jesus answers that no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

o Matthew 28:18-20…The apostles are sent to preach the gospel and to baptize. After His resurrection, Jesus tells His apostles “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

o Mark 1:9-11…The baptism of Jesus. Jesus identifies Himself with the people of Israel in submitting to John’s baptism of repentance and in bearing on their behalf the burden of God’s decisive judgment.

o Mark 10:13-16…Let the little children come to me. Jesus tells his apostles, “whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

· After the reading, the celebrant gives a short explanation of the connection of the subject of the reading(s) with the sacrament taking place.

Intercessions (Prayer of the Faithful)

· Prayers are made for the baptismal candidates, their families, and for the renewal of grace of baptism for all those present, to which the congregation responds “Lord, hear our prayer.”

· A short Litany of the saints follows including, but not limited to: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Joseph, and Saint Peter and Saint Paul.” The Litany concludes: “All you saints of God…” To each line, the people respond: “Pray for us.”

Prayer of Exorcism and Anointing before Baptism

· A short prayer of exorcism is said by the celebrant to cast out the power of Satan, to rescue man from the kingdom of darkness, and to bring him into the splendor of God’s kingdom of light. All respond: “Amen.”

· The celebrant anoints each child on the breast with the oil of catechumens.

· The symbolism of anointing with oil signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew “messiah”) means the one “anointed” by God’s Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, but Jesus is God’s Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit who established him as “Christ.” (CCC 695)

Obviously, we get our main guidance on how to be Christians from the Bible. Because of this, it’s important that we connect what we do to the Scriptures, and more specifically, to what Jesus actually said and did in the Gospels. The readings for baptism should reflect this idea so people can make the connection between the life and teachings of Jesus and what’s going on right in front of them. Just in case they can’t, the celebrant of the baptism can give a short homily. After this, we offer our prayers for everyone present to have a renewal of our baptism promises.

Then comes the anointing with the Oil of Catechumens. As mentioned above, it’s reminiscent the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for to save them. The word Messiah literally means “anointed one.” The Oil of Catechumens used here is the same oil used in the ordination of priests, the blessing of churches, the consecrations of altars, and the coronations of kings and queens. Using this same oil here in baptism makes us (as mentioned in the Rite of Baptism) share in Jesus’ threefold mission of priest, prophet and king. Pretty deep stuff, there. We are priests in that we are like “bridges” between God and humanity, prophets in that we bring the message of God to the world, and kings in that we have a share in the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Well, that’s about half of the Rite of Baptism, which I think is more than enough for this post. We’ll finish up our look at the sacrament of Baptism next post, then move on to the other six sacraments.

That's What the Water Gave Me

2012-04-03T18:29:00.002-07:00

“We were indeed buried with (Christ) through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”

--Romans 6:7

As we said last time, there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. What we DIDN’T mention, is that these are broken up into categories. Baptism, the Eucharist, and Confirmation are known as the Sacraments of Initiation. Marriage & Holy Orders are known as the Sacraments of Service. Reconciliation & Anointing of the Sick are known as the Sacraments of Healing. In this next series of posts, we’ll take a look at each of these categories, and the sacraments they lump together individually, starting with the first sacrament that everyone receives: Baptism.

Let’s take a quick look at a few things the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about Baptism:

“Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: ‘Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.’” (CCC 1213)

From this statement in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we see that this first sacrament of Christian Initiation (and in turn the first sacrament of the Church) is a pretty big deal in the life of a Christian. In Baptism, we are cleansed of original sin which we inherit in our souls from the very beginning because of the first sin of Adam and Eve. Because of this it is totally necessary for our salvation, and it instills in us an indelible spiritual mark (an unrepeatable act that permanently changes life and soul) that consecrates us for Christian worship. As the Catechism says, “It signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one ‘can enter the kingdom of God.’” (CCC 1215)

Before we get into the real “meat” of what goes on in the sacrament, I promised you guys I’d give examples straight from the Bible that support our seven Sacraments. Here are a few signals for the sacrament of baptism in the Old Testament:

Book of Genesis:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church points out that the first idea of water being used to wash something clean comes in the story of Noah: “The Church has seen in Noah’s ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it ‘a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.’” (CCC 1219) The Blessing of the Water during the Easter Vigil talks about this, too: “The waters of the great flood You made a sign of the waters of Baptism, that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness.” (Roman Missal: Easter Vigil)

Book of Exodus:

We’ll turn to the Catechism again here, ‘cause, well, the Catechism’s just a pretty good book like that: “But above all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from the slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by Baptism.” (CCC 1221) Again, the Easter Vigil Blessing of the Water says: “You freed the children of Abraham from the slavery of Pharaoh, bringing them dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea, to be an image of the people set free in Baptism.” The last sign of baptism also comes from the book of Exodus in the crossing of the Jordan River in which water became the bridge between the old life of torment the Hebrews lived in while they were slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh and the new land “flowing with milk and honey” that had been promised to the descendants of Abraham.

Then there’s always the obvious John 3:5, “Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

So what about the word, itself? Baptism. The term baptism comes from the Greek baptizein which means to plunge or to immerse. “The ‘plunge’ into the water symbolizes the catechumen’s burial into Christ’s death, from which he rises up by resurrection with Him, as ‘a new creature.’” (CCC 1214) Pretty cool, huh?

In the early days of Christianity (and Catholicism), only adults were baptized—and only after a period of catechumenate (learning about what it means to be a Christian) which lasted about three years. The catechumens (the people preparing for the sacrament) were allowed to enter into the Liturgy of the Word (the first half of Mass), but were removed before the Liturgy of the Eucharist began. A day of fasting was held on Good Friday, and during the last phase of preparation, a series of exorcisms (cleansing people’s souls from temptations and urgings by the devil) were performed with the last being performed by the bishop on Holy Saturday followed by the laying on of hands (which we’ll see and talk about in a more profound way when we get to our posts on the Sacrament of Holy Orders), the breathing on the candidate (like how God “breathed life into Adam” in the Book of Genesis), and making the sign of the cross on the catechumen’s forehead, ears and nose. The Baptism, itself, began after the Easter vigil with the prayer over the baptismal water. The catechumen was brought to a baptistery which housed a pool-style baptismal font. He would strip his clothes as a sign of leaving behind his former life, and enter the pool. After a rejection of Satan and three-part faith questioning, the deacon would dunk the candidate into the water three times saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The candidate would be held under for a time at each immersion to get a sense of struggle and being baptized not only into new life in Christ (as most understand) but also into a share of Christ’s death. The newly baptized would then be led out of the pool and clothed in a white garment as a sign of the “putting on of Christ Jesus.” He was then taken to the church where the bishop laid hands on him and anointed him on the head with the “oil of thanksgiving,” gave the kiss of peace, and welcomed the new Christian into the Church. During the Eucharist, a chalice containing a mixture of milk and honey was offered as a sign, that the baptized had reached the Promised Land.

Over the years, baptism evolved and added new elements of symbolism. In the Rituale Romanum of 1614, child baptism had become the rule. The rite involved exorcisms (with the breathing on the child), and the sign of the cross on the forehead and breast. The infant would also have salt placed on its tongue, which had a two-fold symbolism: (1) The preserving quality of salt was to be a sign that the catechumen’s decision to receive baptism would be lasting, and (2) Salt was given a guest at his reception before a meal—this was taken as an allusion to the real food of life, the Eucharist, which was taken after Baptism. Because of feelings that the infants being baptized should not be thought of as a “small grown-up,” revisions were made to the rite that were more fitting to the situation and the status of the candidate. On Ascension Day 1969, the new ritual for child baptism in the universal church appeared as prototype for rituals in local churches, the “Ordo Baptismi parvulorum” (Latin: “Order of Baptism of Children”).

So now we get to the question: Who can receive the Sacrament of Baptism? Simply put, every person not yet baptized and ONLY a person not yet baptized is able to be baptized and OUGHT to be Baptized. In other words, everyone should get baptized, but only once. There’s absolutely no need to get baptized more than once. NONE. Period. Why am I putting emphasis on this? Ask any former Catholic who left the Church to be part of a protestant church, and they’ll tell you one of the first things they had to do was get baptized at their new church. The reason is that protestant churches don’t think our baptism matters. To them, when you’re baptized, you’re baptized into a faith, and not baptized into the universal Christian community. So if you’re a Catholic, then start going to a non-denominational church, then go to a Baptist church, then a Methodist Church, you’ll get baptized FOUR TIMES! Or, I should say, you’ll THINK you’re getting baptized 4 times, when really, you’re only getting baptized once. The other three times, you’re just getting wet. Think back to 'Cause I Gotta Have Faith - Part XI…in the Nicene Creed, which we say at Mass every Sunday, we say, “I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” In saying this, we are saying that there is only ONE true baptism, and we believe that to be the form of being cleansed with water and someone baptizing us in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As long as this is what happened at your baptism, you’re baptized. No need to do it 40 times over the course of your life.

The last question we’ll tackle in this post (which has been incredibly long already) is that of who can actually baptize someone. The ordinary ministers of Baptism are the bishop, the priest, and in the Latin Church (which is probably the rite you belong to if you go to a typical Catholic church in the United States…although I noticed I’ve got a few Canadians, Europeans, and Asians reading this blog, so it’s up to you to figure it out), the deacon. In case of emergency, though, (and this is pretty interesting) ANYONE (even a non-baptized person) with the right intention can baptize someone by using the Trinitarian baptismal formula (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”), and immersing the person in water or pouring water onto his head after each naming of each person in the Trinity. It’s not incredibly uncommon in hospitals for nurses or some other person to baptize a newborn baby if it seems like the baby will not make it long enough to be baptized in a Church, and welcomed by a community. The key, though, is that the person has to WANT to be baptized, or in the case of a baby, the parents have to want their child baptized.

We’ll get into the formal Rite of Baptism next time.

I Don't Need No Proof When it Comes to God & Truth

2012-04-01T15:10:00.002-07:00

So now that we’re done walking through the Mass and understanding why we do what we do, how long we’ve done it, and where we got it from, it’s time to start tackling other big topics that make up our Catholic Faith.

Other than the Mass, one of the biggest things that makes us, well, Catholic, is our recognition of the seven Sacraments. The Sacraments of the Catholic Church have been the topic of many discussions and even straight-up fights over the course of history, and still stir up a little skirmish here and there today. The sacraments, themselves, are as follows: Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. But before we jump into the details of each of them, we need to understand what they are, exactly, and why we continue to observe them.

The Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org gives a pretty good, clear, concise definition of a sacrament: “Sacraments are outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification.” This is a super Catholic definition that a Catholic could fully agree with. The reason other denominations of Christianity do not agree is because they choose to not recognize the sacraments as instituted by Christ in the Bible. Don’t worry, I’ll point out every scriptural reference to the sacraments as we unpack each one in their own posts. For now, just trust me…the sacraments ARE in the Bible.

As far as what this definition translates to in plain English, it’s pretty complicated, but surprisingly simple at the same time. Let’s take it apart one thought at a time. First of all, let’s talk about “outward signs.” Think about the sacraments. All the sacraments have some tangible, physical aspects of them that you can experience with your senses. In Baptism water is poured over your head. In Confirmation, oil is traced on your forehead. Even in Reconciliation, you’re physically interacting in a conversation with a priest. There are aspects of all the sacraments that allow us to physically immerse ourselves in the experiences associated with them.

Next part of the definition: “…of inward grace.” Grace essentially comes down to a gift from God to men (and angels, in certain regards that we may or may not dive into in this blog) that helps us on our journey to eternal salvation. So a sacrament being an inward sign of an outward grace means that the sacrament is really a physical way to come to a more tangible understanding of the gifts that we are receiving from God in the gifts that are the sacraments. Think of it this way…God is in heaven. We can’t physically see him. It’s really difficult for us to understand what God tries to grace us with when we can’t physically see God, and can’t physically see the grace he gives us. God understands this—he’s a pretty smart dude. It’d be great if we all had the faith it took to just believe blindly with absolutely no proof, but for most of us, that’s not totally realistic. But to God, that’s ok. He knew that it would be easier for us to understand—and more importantly, appreciate—the graces that he gives us if he had a physical “version” of the graces for us to experience. Boom…sacraments.

Jumping to the last part of the definition—so we can finish the post on a more exciting note—there’s the whole “for our eternal sanctification” bit. This should be pretty self-explanatory. If you’re a regular reader on this blog, you should have gotten the point by now that following God’s rule is all about eternity. The choices you make now—good or bad—play some part in your “eternal sanctification.” Partaking in the sacraments (wow…did I just use the word “partaking”??) allows us to receive graces from God that help keep us on the right path to eternity in Heaven.

Now for the tricky part: “instituted by Christ.” Believe it or not, all seven sacraments CAN be found in the Bible. Not only that, but all seven sacraments were directly mentioned by, performed by, or alluded to by Jesus, himself. Over the next few posts, we’ll dive into each sacrament, individually, and in each explanation of each sacrament, we’ll mention the exact passages in the Bible where the sacraments are pointed to. Until then, Happy Palm Sunday!

Although We've Come to the End of the Road

2012-03-29T19:33:00.002-07:00

Ok everybody, I swear I haven’t forgotten. I just haven’t been posting. No excuses, just life. But I’m back now, and hopefully posting with a little more regularity…at least until I stop posting for some unknown and totally bogus reason that will just be a cover-up of how lazy I let myself get. Hey, we’ve all got our weaknesses. Currently, “Grimm” and “Once Upon a Time” are my biggest ones. Anyway, on with the show!

We last left off with Communion. For some readers out there, you may be wondering why I would continue to talk about the Mass at all now that we’ve wrapped up the posts on Communion. Well, for those of us who DON’T succumb to the temptation of walking out of church after we receive the Eucharist (a.k.a. “The Judas Shuffle”), there’s still a little more Mass to go. This little bit—the last little bit—is called the Concluding Rite, which is basically a wrap-up prayer, and a send-off.

Just before we jump into the Concluding Rite, though, there’s a little piece to bring to your attention. After Communion, the priest takes the chalice and ciborium (“the cup and the bowl”) from each of the ministers of Holy Communion, consumes the remaining Blood of Christ, and either consumes or places the remaining Eucharist in the Tabernacle. Then he “does some dishes” and quickly cleans the chalices and ciboria before placing them on the credence table until Mass is finished. He uses a purificator to do this quick cleaning, which will be done more thoroughly in the Sacristy after Mass, pouring the water used to clean the vessels down the drain of the sacrarium. (Go back and re-read the You Never Even Call Me by My Name series if any of these terms are confusing you. For Sacristy, you’ll have to check out I’m Sure in Her You’ll Find the Sanctuary.) While he does this quick cleaning, he says a silent/quiet prayer:

Priest: What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.

After this short purification and prayer, the priest returns to his chair for a period of either “sacred silence” or individual prayer time accompanied by a song sung by the choir. Then the priest stands, and gesturing for or verbally directing the congregation to do the same, the priest says:

Priest: Let us pray.

He then reads the Prayer after Communion found in the Roman Missal (formerly known as the Sacramentary). This prayer is a petition for the effects of the Mass just celebrated to be realized and fully acknowledged and accepted by all those who participated. To affirm this prayer and make it our own, the congregation responds:

All: Amen.

Finally comes the Concluding Rite—only 6 paragraphs into the post that’s meant to explain it…not too bad considering our track record of lengthy tangents in this blog. The priest greets the people one last time, and we respond:

Priest: The Lord be with you

All: And with your spirit (Remember, we’re into this whole “New Translation of the Mass” thing now)

He then gives his final blessing, which on certain days may be a little longer and would be found in the Roman Missal. If it is the longer form, the priest will say:

Priest: Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing

The priest will then go through a series of three short prayers, with the congregation responding “Amen” to each prayer. After this, the priest makes a sign of the cross over the people, saying:

Priest: May almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

All: Amen.

Then as the send-off, formally known as the Dismissal, the deacon (if there is one…priest if not) says one of three dismissals:

Deacon:

A) Go in the peace of Christ.

B) The Mass is ended, go in peace.

C) Go in peace to love and serve the Lord

All: Thanks be to God.

Then as the priest celebrant, and any ministers recess out of Church, a recessional hymn is usually led by the Choir…notice I said LED…NOT “performed.” The recessional hymn (a.k.a. the “closing song”) is still a part of the Mass, and we should still participate in singing. Once the priest and ministers have exited the Church, and the hymn has ended, this particular instance of the sacrifice of the Mass is complete.

Boom. There it is. The Mass. Don’t forget to actually GO, though, instead of just reading about it. It’s fairly important.

What’s also important is that our “unpacking” of the Mass is over. We’ve been pretty well set on subject matter for a while now. Any subjects/questions you can think of for me to tackle next? Leave your suggestions in the comment section below or message me on Facebook. Until then, peace out.

Where is My Mind?

2012-01-25T15:12:00.001-08:00

To sum it all up, what generally happens during the Rite of Communion?

Once the priest(s) and other ministers (ordinary and/or extraordinary) make their way to their stations of distribution for communion, the congregation flows in an orderly and respectful way to the front of the church where they receive the Eucharist. This should be done in a very reverent and prayerful way so that we can prepare our hearts and minds on our way up to receive the Risen Christ in the Eucharist.

How do we make sure we are reverently and prayerfully processing? Well, for the most part, that’s between you and God. Just talk to Him and ask for the gift of recognition of the gifts and blessings that come along with receiving Christ truly present in the Eucharist. However, I CAN point out that a good way to DISTRACT yourself from what’s going on is to shake hands with and wave to everyone you see on your way up. If you’re reading this, and you’re an usher at a church that uses ushers to guide each individual pew up to communion (which, for the record, seems a TAD unnecessary...most people sitting on the ends aren’t completely oblivious as to what’s going on with the pew in front of them…but that’s just my opinion—like so many other things I’ve said in this blog), PLEASE note that being an usher isn’t meant to be an easy way to mingle and say “hello” to everyone you see going up to communion. Ushers shaking hands with people going up to communion is incredibly distracting to not only the people having their hands shaken, but also those who witness the conversation happening right in front of them while they’re trying to be prayerful. It’s also distracting when you feel “obligated” to shake hands with an usher because you happen to know them and would normally shake hands with them under normal circumstances. Just sayin’…

So once we prayerfully, reverently, and hand-shaking-less-ly make our way up to the Ordinary or Extraordinary Minister of Communion, this is where it gets back into our “lack of official guidance” category. In the area I happen to live in, the norm directed by our neighboring archdiocese is that once you come face-to-face with the Minister of Holy Communion, you should bow to the Eucharist before you receive it, then once the minister says “The Body/Blood of Christ,” you respond, “Amen.” After that, you consume the Eucharist, then make a sign of the cross (if you so desire), and make your way back to your pew to follow whatever post-communion activity your parish happens to partake in (see Too Much Confusion, I Can’t Get No Relief for that spiel).

The Eucharist is regarded by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the “source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324) The graces that are attached to receiving the Eucharist that were promised by Jesus are way too numerous to mention in this blog, but I’d encourage you to do a bit of reading on your own. (The link to the Catechism of the Catholic Church page on the Eucharist above is a good start.) With all the graces that come from the Eucharist, it’s important that we make sure our minds and hearts are in the right place when we go up to receive the sacrament. If not, we fall into the general concept of the “vain repetition” St. Paul talked about in 2 Timothy 2:16. We need to be ACTIVELY participating in the liturgy so that we don’t just “go through the motions,” but we fully understand and realize what blessings we’re receiving by participating in the liturgy. Don’t forget, the Eucharist (paired with the Penitential Rite and a repentant conscience) forgives venial sins. (Check out Please Forgive Me, If I Can't Stop Lovin' You for a refresher on that concept.)

So just remember next time you’re going up to communion, that who you see along the way is not at all important. What’s important is what you’re about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen….wow…that just sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Anyway, what’s important is what you’re about to receive in the gift of the Eucharist. Think about that, and ONLY that on your way up to communion, and you’ll be on your way to getting the most out of your Mass.

Too Much Confusion, I Can't Get No Relief

2012-01-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

If you go to a different church parish for the next 8 weeks, you’ll probably see 8 different ways the congregation handles the whole process of receiving Communion and returning to their pews. And since Christmas will be in that mix, you’ll have those twice-a-year Catholics who only go on Christmas and Easter that are going to make this process a REAL mess. So what should and shouldn’t happen during this time? To quote Spud McConnell, "Get a cup of coffee, we gotta talk:"

Some congregations all get up right when the priest and any other ministers come down to distribute Communion, and stay standing until they return to their pews, then kneel until priest sits down, and they, in turn sit down. Other congregations kneel until the pew in front of them gets up to receive Communion, then they get up, but stay sitting on the edge of their pew like they’re perched and ready to strike until it’s their pew’s turn to go up, then they come back and kneel until the priest puts the remaining Eucharistic Hosts in the Tabernacle, then they sit. Still Other congregations all stand at the beginning of Communion and stay standing until the Prayer After Communion.

So who’s right? Well, they all are…..and none are. I’ll explain by first giving you the General Instruction of the Roman Missal’s guidelines for when to kneel, stand, receive Communion, kneel again, and sit again; then I’ll give you MY take on the whole thing.

So here’s the GIRM’s guidance for how to handle the flow of Communion…ready? Here it is:

Ok, got that? Now there should be no question about how to handle Communion, right? Oh, wait, you didn’t see any guidance? No, it’s not an “Emperor’s New Clothes” sort of deal—there IS no guidance. Well, almost none. There’s a short reference in GIRM 43 that says, “The faithful should sit, on the other hand, during the readings before the Gospel and the Responsorial Psalm and for the Homily and during the Preparation of the Gifts at the Offertory; and, if appropriate, they may sit or kneel during the period of sacred silence after Communion.” This, however, HARDLY clears anything up.

Ultimately, it’s left up to individuals, congregations, or even the bishop to establish a “norm” for the flow Communion. So before I go any further, let me throw a disclaimer out there: the rest of this post is my PERSONAL thoughts on this matter. This is in no way, shape, or form reflective of what the church officially says SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be the way to handle the flow of Communion. It’s just what I find makes the most sense.

First, let’s take the “standing the whole time” route. Our posture (the way we situate our whole bodies) at Mass are directly reflective of the level of respect and honor we give to what’s happening at the time. The Eucharist, being the source and summit of the Christian life, should be given the utmost respect and honor. For practical purposes at Mass, we best show respect for the Eucharist in the form of kneeling. So while I understand and appreciate the goal of everyone standing the entire time—that being that it is the only way to have everyone do the same thing the entire time as one body and one community—I believe that it lacks the level of respect we should be showing God and his gift of himself that we get to experience in the Eucharist. Nice thought, but I’d argue that it’s not the “best” option here.

The other options are all fairly similar in that you begin by kneeling, then at some point you stand, follow the line to receive Communion, and then return back to your pew to kneel until some later time in the Mass. Whether everyone stands all at once or stands row-by-row really doesn’t bother me, although if I had to pick one, I’d say that kneeling longer and getting up row-by-row would be “best.” (Again, this is just my opinion, and in no way reflects any “official position” of the Catholic Church...because there IS no “official position” on this subject.) Either way, you go up to receive Communion, then return to your pew and kneel for a time of private prayer.

The next big question is when to get up after your time of private prayer following Communion. Again, there is absolutely no guidance on this, so we have to think it through and decide what makes the most “sense.” To me, if we’re deciding the best time to get up from our kneeling posture, we should pinpoint why we were kneeling in the first place. The answer is the Eucharist. So it seems fair to say that the point we should stop kneeling is the point when the Eucharist is no longer present. Now, theologically, this is an incredibly tricky concept, because technically (and realistically), God never “leaves” the room just because we lock up the Eucharist in the Tabernacle for safe and respectful keeping until the next Mass. God is always present. But it’s not realistic to think that we should go through life constantly on our knees. If that’s what God wanted, why would he have given us feet? For our purposes, though, I’d say that the separation of events at this point in the Mass happens when the Priest takes the remaining Eucharistic hosts over to the Tabernacle, closes it, then genuflects. The priest getting up after genuflecting is what I’d say is our signal to break that kneeling posture and sit back down in our pews. Plenty of churches I’ve been to wait for the priest to sit down in the presider’s chair before sitting back down. To me, this seems like we’ve been giving the respect to the PRIEST the whole time, and that now that he’s decided to sit, we can do the same. Don’t get me wrong…I like priests…but I like the Eucharist more. It just doesn’t make sense to make the priest sitting down our cue to do the same. Even worse is when the “norm” for the parish is to sit when the priest does, but people can’t even seem to make it that far, so they just start randomly sitting down when the priest is walking to his chair. Wouldn’t those congregations feel a little ridiculous if they THOUGHT he was walking to his chair, but he took a quick detour to the Sacristy to get a sip of water? So my summarized suggestion is to kneel until your pew gets up for Communion, receive Communion, then go back to your pew and kneel in silent prayer until the priest genuflects after reverently storing the Eucharist in the Tabernacle. Again, there is no official guidance from the church on how to handle this…this is just my suggestion as to what makes the most sense. And if you couldn’t tell by the slight presence of frustration in my tone, I (usually) attend a church that kneels when the priest is on his way to his chair to sit down after all this goes down, and I’ve never been ever to figure out the reasoning for this.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember to have a REASON for doing it OTHER THAN the sheer fact that it’s what everyone else does and has been doing for as long as you can remember.

Oh My God, We're Back Again

2012-01-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, I fully understand that I am the worst blogger in history: 1 post in late November, NONE in December, and finally getting back into things 1/3 of the way through January. What can I say? Life. Anyway, let's just jump right in and pick up where we left off, shall we?

Now that the Priest has received Communion, it’s our turn. First of all, you may have noticed a few people from the congregation get up from their pews at some point between the Rite of Peace and the Priest receiving Communion and move to some spot near, in, or around the Sanctuary. These people are called the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

Ideally, the people who should FIRST be distributing Communion are priests, and then deacons. In reference to the Eucharist, these guys are the “Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion” because they are ordained through the Sacrament of Holy Orders with the mission of doing so in one form or another. Let’s say for argument’s sake that your church is a small, modest, country church, and you have very few members of the congregation, one priest, and one deacon at Mass. It might be easy to have everyone receive the Body of Christ from one ciborium (go back and read You Never Even Call Me By My Name if you just made a completely puzzled expression at the sight of that word) from the priest and the Blood of Christ from one chalice ministered by the deacon. No issue here. Now let’s imagine you’re at an ordination, and there are about 800 members of the congregation, a bishop or two, about 3 or 4 dozen priests, and another few dozen deacons in attendance. No shortage of Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion here, but there are way too many people in the congregation to think that one ciborium and one chalice are going to cut it. There’s absolutely no problem with multiple ciboria (yeah, that’s the right ending) and multiple chalices. These should be ministered by priests and deacons if at all possible, but should be carefully handled so that you don’t have an absurd number of “cups & bowls” scattered throughout the church. We’re here to experience the miracle of the Risen Christ here…not get in and out as quickly as humanly possible just to satisfy our “Sunday obligation.” If it takes more than a few minutes to distribute communion, that’s fine. It just shouldn’t take so long that people are distracted from prayer because of how slowly this part of the celebration is moving.

Now here’s that issue that MOST churches face: average-sized congregation (200-500), one priest, and no deacon. It’s obviously not feasible for the priest to distribute both kinds of Communion to everyone by himself. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) says:

The priest may be assisted in the distribution of Communion by other priests who happen to be present. If such priests are not present and there is a very large number of communicants, the priest may call upon extraordinary ministers to assist him, e.g., duly instituted acolytes or even other faithful who have been deputed for this purpose. In case of necessity, the priest may depute suitable faithful for this single occasion. (GIRM 162)

Redemptionis Sacramentum, an instruction on the proper way to celebrate Mass in the Roman Rite issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2004 also addresses lay (not ordained bishops, priests, or deacons) people as ministers of holy Communion by saying, “Only when there is a necessity may extraordinary ministers assist the Priest celebrant in accordance with the norm of the law.” (RS 88)

So let’s say you’re at that “average” parish, and you need 5 or 6 Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in addition to the priest celebrant/Ordinary Minister of Holy Communion. When should these Extraordinary Ministers go up? You might be surprised to find that your parish isn’t doing things exactly “by the book” (“the book” being “the GIRM”). The GIRM says that Extraordinary Ministers “should not approach the altar before the priest has received Communion.” (GIRM 162) Some might argue that going up and standing 10 feet or so away from the altar does not count as “approaching” the altar, because there’s still a significant distance between them and the altar…but come on, we know what’s going on.

Many (if not most) of you are probably sitting there reading this and are thinking, “What’s the big deal? Is God going to strike the entire congregation dead because the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are a couple feet closer to the altar than they should be before the priest receives Communion?” Ok, I’ll grant you: probably not. But let me spin that back on you: Am I proving that I’m not doing anything wrong just because God doesn’t “strike me dead” after I punch someone in the face? No. Maybe God’s not entirely concerned with the smaller details of the Catholic Liturgy, but remember…we’re Catholic. The word catholic means, “universal.” One of the most amazing things about the Catholic Church is that it’s the same wherever you go in the world. Different languages, sure, but the same basic elements are there in their proper orders. There are slight differences between countries and cultures, sure. But there has to be a line when “this is the right way” meets “this is good enough.” Who decides that line? You? Me?? Well, I know it’s definitely not me, and it’s probably not you, either. Who does, then? Well, it’s those guys in the black outfits with the white collars. What makes them so special? How about an indelible mark on their souls? Good enough reason? Don’t know what an indelible mark is? We’ll get to the rest of the sacraments soon enough, and we’ll explain that during our discussion on Holy Orders. For now, how about we just look at the fact that those guys have studied WAY more than the average Catholic, and devote their entire lives to learning more about our faith and why we do what we do, and what God is asking of us in our lives in today’s world. Plus, they’ve got the backing of 2,000 years of learning, conversation, reading, reflecting, and most importantly, prayer to back up the decisions they make…much more impressive than my 28 years here on earth so far…especially since I couldn’t talk for the first year, and couldn’t really understand what was going on in church for the first 10 or so of those years. So let’s say I’ve got a solid 18 years of understanding what’s happening in Church. I didn’t really care until I was about 19, so I’ve really only got about 11 solid years of understanding AND truly caring. 11 years of sporadic questioning and finding answers…or…2,000 years of nothing BUT questioning and finding answers? I don’t know about you, but I’m siding with the Church on this one. So let’s just go with it.

There’s one more thing to mention in this post, though. Although some things are pointedly spelled out in the GIRM, one thing is spelled out in the first two paragraphs of Chapter IX of the GIRM:

386. The renewal of the Roman Missal carried out in our time in accordance with the decrees of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council has taken great care that all the faithful may display in the celebration of the Eucharist that full, conscious, and active participation that is required by the very nature of the Liturgy and to which the faithful, in virtue of their status as such, have a right and duty.

However, in order that such a celebration may correspond all the more fully to the norms and the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy, certain further adaptations are set out in this Instruction and in the Order of Mass and entrusted to the judgment either of the Diocesan Bishop or of the Conferences of Bishops.

387. The Diocesan Bishop, who is to be regarded as the High Priest of his flock, from whom the life in Christ of his faithful in some sense derives and upon whom it depends, must promote, regulate, and be vigilant over the liturgical life in his diocese. It is to him that in this Instruction is entrusted the regulating of the discipline of concelebration (cf. nos. 202, 374) and the establishing of norms regarding the function of serving the Priest at the altar (cf. no. 107), the distribution of Holy Communion under both kinds, and the construction and ordering of churches (cf. no. 291). It is above all for him, moreover, to nourish the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy in the Priests, Deacons, and faithful.

So while the GIRM gives the formal path to follow, the bishop is the authority in each diocese and has the ability to make minor changes, or make official decisions on normal procedures for items that have multiple options.

Man, I love soapboxes. Next post we’ll talk about OUR participation in receiving Communion and what we should/shouldn’t do between the time we get up from our kneelers to the time we get back in the pew.

It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding

2011-11-22T16:49:00.000-08:00

Why do we go to Mass? The answer, of course, is because either our parents make us, or because our parents made us when WE were younger, and now we get to make OUR kids sit through it.

Obviously neither of those is a good reason. I’d say that the best reason for going to Church isn’t even because God commanded us to “Keep Holy the Sabbath Day.” (Don’t worry, I’ll unpack each commandment in its own post later.) I’d say that the best reason for going to Mass is so that we can be a witness to the ever-present sacrifice of Christ’s death on the cross, in which he gave up his own body and blood as a sacrifice in atonement for OUR sins, and so that we can receive the Body and Blood of the Risen Christ in its true substance in the physical guise of what looks like ordinary unleavened bread and ordinary wine. How do we experience this? Through the Eucharist.

At this point in the Mass, we come to Communion. We jumped the gun a little in the last post, mentioning the silent prayer the priest prays, asking God to prepare his spirit for receiving the Eucharist. After this silent prayer, the priest holds the Body of Christ up over the Chalice filled with the Blood of Christ (or over the paten), so that the congregation can see the true presence of Christ in their midst. He then says:

Current Text:

This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper.

Beginning Advent 2011:

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.

We respond:

Current Text:

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

We’ve already talked a good bit about Jesus as the Lamb of God. We mentioned in ‘Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part V that the title “Lamb of God” is reminiscent of the ancient Jewish ritual (prescribed by God in the Old Testament) of sacrificing an animal in atonement for sins. The basic idea was that it’s easy to sacrifice pocket lint or a dust bunny or something else that has no value and we don’t want to keep for ourselves, anyway, but sacrificing an animal—a GOOD animal—was a real sacrifice for the Jewish people. They relied on these animals for food AND drink (they milked goats the way we milk cows today). They could also use these animals to trade for other goods they needed. It was a real sacrifice to offer God one of your better animals, but this was a good way of showing God that you were really sorry for what you did and you wanted to be back in a solid relationship with him. So it’s very fitting that when the priest shows the newly changed Body and Blood of Christ to the congregation that he would take a moment to remind us that what we’re looking at IS Jesus—the Lamb of God—who was sacrificed in atonement for our sins.

Then he says something a little interesting: “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” I know we’re about to go and “eat” the Body and Blood, but should we go so far as to call it supper? I mean most people go to Mass even before lunch time on Sunday morning. Why would we call it supper if we’re eating it between breakfast and lunch? Shouldn’t we call it the “Brunch of the Lamb?” Well, not exactly. We get this term from the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 19:9 John writes, “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These words are true; they come from God.’”

So if the Mass is a wedding feast, who’s the happy couple? Well, interestingly enough, the wedding is that of Christ and the Church. Bear with me for a second, here…In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws a parallel between the relationship of Christ and the Church (the entire group of believers in and followers of Christ…not the Church “building”) and that of a husband and his wife. It’s the whole “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands, as to the Lord,” (Ephesians 5:22) line that you often hear at weddings, although it’s been neglected in more recent weddings because women don’t like to hear that they should be “subordinate” to their husbands. (There’s that whole “women’s lib” issue that arises with this passage.) The problem many people have with this passage (like many other passages from the Bible) is that they stop reading when they hit something they don’t like. If you KEEP reading past this line, you read the REAL heart of this passage: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27) Now that’s good stuff, right there.

The Eucharist is that ever-present proof of the sacrifice of Christ for his church. He handed himself over to be sacrificed like a lamb of the old Jewish traditions, so that we could be cleansed of our sins. In the Eucharist, we are forever joined to Christ on earth that foreshadows the relationship we’ll have with God in heaven.

So now the Priest takes the Eucharist and prays a little prayer:

Current Text:

Before Receiving the Body of Christ: May the Body of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Before Receiving the Blood of Christ: May the Blood of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Before Receiving the Body of Christ: May the Body of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.

Before Receiving the Blood of Christ: May the blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.

Next time we’ll talk about who distributes Communion and why. Peace out!

Who Can Forgive Forgiveness Where Forgiveness is Not? Only the Lamb White as Snow

2011-10-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

Moving along with the Mass, the Fraction of the Bread (a.k.a. “Fraction Rite”) comes next. The word fraction (for all you non-math whizzes) refers to pieces broken apart from a whole object, or a partial amount of something. In this case, we’re talking about the priest breaking apart the main Eucharistic Bread that has now become the Body of Christ into many pieces. He sometimes does this with the help of a concelebrating priest, or of a deacon if necessary. This is a direct reflection of Christ’s actions at the Last Supper (the meal he shared with his apostles the night before he was crucified), and his action of breaking the bread, which he referred to as his Body, and sharing it with his apostles gathered there.

In the Mass today, we have such large congregations gathered together, that it’s not entirely practical to have a piece of bread large enough for everyone to share. We believe, though, that God’s power transcends the fact that we don’t all eat from the same “large piece” of bread, and that we spiritually partake of the one bread that St. Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 10:17: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” So don’t go nuts…I’m sure God’s happy enough for having so many people wanting to have a relationship with him by attending Mass that it doesn’t much bother him that we each have our own, individual pieces of bread that have been consecrated and have had their substance changed to the Body of Christ. It’s just one of those practical things we’ve evolved to over time.

After breaking the bread (Body of Christ), the priest then breaks off an even smaller piece that he places into the chalice of the Blood of Christ to show the unity of the sacrifice of Jesus’ Body and the Blood. And speaking of the sacrifice of Jesus, while this Fraction of the Bread is going on, we all sing (or recite together, if there’s no music at the Mass) the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) supplication (which is a fancy word for a humble prayer to God). It goes like this:

Everyone says together:

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.

The “…have mercy on us” line is said at least twice, but can be repeated as many times as necessary (but be reasonable about it) to give ample time for the fraction rite. The “…grant us peace” line is said only once, and is said at the end of the supplication. Why three times with the third time having a different ending? I’d love an answer if anyone has one (and preferably a source of your information, too).

Now, I want to note here, that this is one of those times you may look around and see people inserting their own little gesture of making a fist and beating their chests. They don’t have something caught in their throat that they’re trying to dislodge, they’re crossing into “rubrics” territory. Rubrics are the little directions in the Sacramentary (soon to be the Roman Missal) that give the priest directions as to what to DO while he’s saying the things it tells him to say. The word rubrics comes from the Latin ruber, meaning “red,” and directly refers to the color of the words in the book…not very creative, I know, but true. Anyway, the rubrics here call for the priest to “strike his breast”—meaning make a fist and hit the chest—while saying, “Have mercy on us,” and, “Grant us peace.” Over time, people in the congregation noticed and figured they should do it, too, and it just spread and stuck over time. Nowhere does it say, however, that the congregation needs to do this, and we need to remember that we shouldn’t mindlessly add our own little nuances to the Mass wherever we feel like it—ESPECIALLY if our only reason for doing it is that “everyone else does it.”

After the Agnus Dei, you might notice that the priest stays quiet for a moment. He’s not just taking a break; he’s praying a silent prayer that prepares him to receive the Eucharist. That prayer goes like this:

Current Text:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world. By your holy body and blood free me from all my sins and from every evil. Keep me faithful to your teaching and never let me be parted from you.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit, through your death gave life to the world; free me by this your most holy Body and Blood from all my sins and from every evil; keep me always faithful to your commandments, and never let me be parted from you.

Current Text:

Lord Jesus Christ, with faith in your love and mercy I eat your body and drink your blood. Let it not bring me condemnation, but health in mind and body.

Beginning Advent 2011:

May the receiving of your Body and Blood, Lord Jesus Christ, not bring me to judgment and condemnation, but through your loving mercy be for me protection in mind and body, and a healing remedy.

Don’t you just love those little tidbits you don’t catch at Mass being brought to light? But we’re about to cross over from the Fraction of the Bread to the Communion Rite, so we’ll stop here (even though we sort of already did cross over with the Priest’s preparation for Communion). Be back next time with the Communion Rite.

All We are Saying is Give Peace a Chance

2011-10-24T19:19:00.003-07:00

Alright, so we’re truckin’ right along with our quick (ha!) look at the Mass. Next up after the Lord’s Prayer is the Rite of Peace. But before we start running around church kissing hands and shaking babies (that joke was for me), the priest prays a Prayer for Peace that goes a little sum’n like this:

Current text:

Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom, where you live forever and ever.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. Who live and reign forever and ever.

Naturally, we all respond, “Amen,” ‘cause that’s just what we do.

Jesus did, in fact say these words to his apostles, but when did he say them? Let’s mosey on over to John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world give do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” The footnote associated with this verse in the New American Bible says that the peace Jesus gives is different than the peace the world gives, because Jesus gives the peace of salvation, which is the ultimate peace. What could put a person more at peace than knowing that they have the opportunity to be in heaven? (Nothing, that’s what…in case you were having trouble with that brain-buster of a question.) Notice, if you read the context of that verse, it’s said during the Last Supper (the last meal Jesus ate with his apostles), and fittingly, we go through this peace exercise right before we receive the Eucharist. Coincidence? I think not.

Speaking of peace, it’s time for the actual Rite of Peace. As I mentioned in the last post, the Rite of Peace is where we as a united Church ask for peace and unity throughout not only those gathered, but all of humanity (the universal Body of Christ). We greet each other in a peaceful manner; here in the United States, that usually means a handshake, but could also be a hug, or a kiss (depending on your relationship with the person). The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) leaves the manner in which the congregation is to normally greet each other with a sign of peace up to the bishops of individual dioceses in order to allow local customs to dictate the actions so that people are not made to feel awkward or uncomfortable. Immediately before we give the sign of peace, the priest grants us peace, we return it, then the deacon (or priest if there’s no deacon) invites us to greet each other:

Current Text:

Priest: The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Congregation: And also with you.

Deacon: Let us offer each other the sign of peace.

Beginning Advent 2011:

(our part changes from “And also with you” to…) And with your spirit.

Remember that this isn’t a free-for-all where we should be running across the church to shake hands with or hug someone sitting 24 pews behind us and across the center aisle. The GIRM says that we should offer the sign of peace only to those nearest to us and do so in a “sober” (calm and heart-felt) manner. See, if you greet the 5 or 6 people around you, and they greet the 5 or 6 people around them, eventually the whole congregation is connected in unity. It’s not necessary for you to shake hands with every member of the congregation to accomplish this. It’s also good to remember that if the guy sitting in front of you just cut you off on the highway on the way to church, or just sued you for pain & suffering from a car wreck, or burst his pimples at you and called your door opening request a “silly thing,” he’s still your brother in Christ, and we should forgive others of their trespasses so that we can be forgiven in a similar way and be better prepared to receive Christ in the Eucharist…which is what we’re about to do at this point in the Mass.

When I Say that Something, I Want to Hold Your Hand

2011-10-19T18:39:00.001-07:00

After the Embolism, the people respond with the Doxology, which goes, “For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.” Simple enough to take at face value, right? “The Kingdom” is the “Kingdom of Heaven,” but not just what we think of as heaven after death. We’re referring to all of creation as the Kingdom, because the King (God) totally has dominion over all his creation on both heaven and earth. Obviously all power and all glory also belong to him. But what I REALLY want to talk about in this post is what we’ve been doing with our hands all this time we’ve been praying the Lord’s Prayer at Mass.

If you’re like me, you’ve been to plenty of different churches in plenty of different cities, in plenty of different states, in plenty of different countries. To me, one of the best things about the Catholic Mass is that no matter where you are in the WORLD, the Mass is the same. It might be in a different language, but the order and the content is the same. There’s really no time in the Mass when you have no clue what to do….no time, that is, except for when it comes time to say the “Our Father.”

Do we hold hands? Do we open our hands? Do we hold hands across the aisles? Do we keep our hands to ourselves? Pretty wide range of options, here! Thoughts on what the congregation should do here are so different that even neighboring parishes less than a 10-minute drive from one another can do completely different things. So what’s the official answer? What SHOULD we do during the “Our Father?”

The most common practice I find these days here in southern Louisiana is to hold hands. This practice apparently grew in wide-spread popularity by the early 1990s. However, there is no official guidance from the Church that says that hand-holding should be the norm during the praying of the “Our Father.” A revision of the Sacramentary (book which denotes what to do and pray during the Mass) in the ‘90s by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) was discussed by the United States Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy (BCL) who recommended specifying that the “orans” position (Latin for “prayer”—position of holding hands out as if pleading) be made the official norm for the “Our Father.” For the sake of history, it’s important to note that when the Holy See came out with the new Roman Missal in 2000 (making its appearance in 2002), not only did they replace this Sacramentary revision, they officially rejected it.

Confused yet?

Ok, let’s make it worse…

See, there’s an intellectual feud that’s been going on for quite a while in the church as to the use of the orans position by the congregation. Those who are in favor of the orans position make the argument that it was used by the earliest Christians, and so our use of it now keeps us in union with our earliest roots. Those who oppose its use claim that it is a depiction of Christ crucified, and that, during the liturgy, it should be performed only by the Priest, who is acting In Personae Christi (in the person of Christ). Judging by the responses of the Church through its wording of the 2000 edition of the Roman Missal and the accompanying General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), both and neither side is correct. As for the holding of hands, some schools of thought say that the most intimate moment of the Mass is the Rite of Peace, which immediately precedes the Eucharist. The Rite of Peace is explained in the GIRM as follows:

The Rite of Peace

82. The Rite of Peace follows, by which the Church asks for peace and unity for herself and for the whole human family, and the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament.

As for the sign of peace to be given, the manner is to be established by Conferences of Bishops in accordance with the culture and customs of the peoples. It is, however, appropriate that each person offer the sign of peace only to those who are nearest and in a sober manner.

So the Rite of Peace (not the “Our Father”) is supposed to be when the congregation shows their communion & mutual charity. Think back to the last Mass you went to. Other than your family members who either got a hug or kiss (or both), what did you do with the people around you during this time? Most likely, you just shook their hand. Now give this a little thought: what’s more “intimate”? A quick handshake, or holding someone’s hand for about a minute? Most people would say that the “hand hold” rather than the “hand shake” is the more “intimate” action. So the argument could be made, then, that holding hands during the “Our Father” can detract from the communal nature of the Rite of Peace. (Please note: “sober manner” doesn’t mean that the people shouldn’t be drunk when they give a Sign of Peace…of course, they SHOULDN’T be drunk at church, but that’s another matter…it means that you should exercise reasonable judgement and not let yourself go overboard with your Sign of Peace.)

So what SHOULD we do during the “Our Father”? There’s actually NO mention in the GIRM of what the congregation is supposed to do during this time. There’s no mention in the Sacramentary, either, by the way, nor in the newly revised Roman Missal that will be coming into mandatory use in Advent of 2011. It is important to note, that the GIRM does leave certain things up to variation to be ordered by either the local Conference of Bishops (in our case in the USA, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—USCCB), or to each individual bishop; however, the mandate of what the congregation should do with their hands during the “Our Father” is not on that list of items, so a congregation should NEVER feel pressured or obligated to situate themselves in any particular way (other than standing). The simple answer is this: whether you hold hands, stand in the orans position, or (like me) just keep your hands reverently to yourself (which seems to lend itself to the LEAST theological friction), be sure you remember WHY you do what you do and try to make sure you don’t making others around you uncomfortable, which can distract them from prayer.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2011-10-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Once we finish praying the Lord’s Prayer together as a congregation, the priest does this little prayer, called the Embolism, which comes from the Latin embolismus, meaning “insertion.” It’s basically a little insertion (so they word fits) between the Lord’s Prayer and the Doxology, which we’ll talk about later. The Embolism goes like this:

Current Text:

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, 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.

Again, these “changes” that are coming soon to a Liturgy near you are being put in place so that what we say in English today most closely matches the meanings of the Latin we replaced in the 1960s.

The Embolism builds on that last petition we make in the Lord’s Prayer: “…but deliver us from evil.” God has the power to keep our minds and hearts focused on his will and away from those “counterfeits” the devil places in our lives…we just need to ASK for his help and his grace. This prayer that the priest prays on behalf of the whole congregation (notice he says “us” and “we” instead of “me” and “I”) does just that—it asks God for help in keeping us focused on what’s right.

As for the “safe from all distress” line, I have an analogy that I like to use with my CCD students. I tell them to think about when they are at a friend’s house because they told their parents that THAT’s where they’d be (for you guys reading this blog, you may have to dig back in your memory banks to retrieve that little bit of experiential knowledge). Then I tell them to think about what would happen if their friend said, “Hey, let’s go over to _______’s house,” or, “Hey, let’s go over to the Sock Hop,” or whatever the devil these kids are into these days. (Don’t worry…I know the kids aren’t into sock hops anymore…socks just get way too dirty to be hopping around in. I mean, have you ever LOOKED at the bottom of your socks after just walking around your house for a couple minutes? It’s enough to make you want to stop what you’re doing and start mopping right then and there. Imagine hopping around in your socks all night, probably in some dirty, stinky school gym…your socks would be FILTHY!!!) The first thing that SHOULD go through your head when that happens is, “Wait, I should call mom first to ask her if it’d be ok for me to go over to _________’s house or to the Sock Hop.” The problem is that most of my students agree that their action of choice would be to just go without asking permission because they think that their parents would tell them, “No,” and the kids just want to have fun, and they KNOW they won’t do anything wrong and they’ll be fine, and their parents just don’t want them to have any fun, and their parents hate them and wish they were someone else’s kid.” (Nearly verbatim rant by one of my students, by the way.) Well, obviously, when you look at the situation objectively, the parents just want to know where their kids are so that they can be sure of their safety—not because they don’t want them to have fun, but because they want them to have the “right kind” of fun.

Then I tell my students to think about how they feel when they decide to go somewhere without telling their parents first. Can they REALLY have as much fun as they thought, or are they too worried about how much trouble they’ll be in if they get caught to have as much fun as they could be having? They unanimously agree that their worry of being caught would be more powerful than their enjoyment level of whatever they would be doing. If they would just pick up the phone and call their parents, sure their parents might say, “No,” and the never-ending parent-child battle would ensue, but if their parents WOULD say, “Yes,” then they could go where they had asked to go KNOWING that it was ok, and they wouldn’t have any worry, anxiety, or despair about their fate if they would get caught.

This is the same principle the priest hits on in the Embolism. Sure God’s laws may not seem “totally rad” at times, but there are REALLY good reasons for them. If we know what we’re doing is wrong and sinful, then we WILL be filled with anxiety in our lives. If we know what we’re doing is right and in line with the will of God, then we’ll feel much more happy and free and at peace. See, just like our parents, God wants us to be safe and happy—but even more so, because he’s God, and is infinitely more perfect than our parents…not because our parents are bad or mean, obviously, but because God is just that good. And just like our parents, God doesn’t try to be our “buddy” when it comes to laying down the law of what will keep us safe and most happy. Some of us get hooked on particular sins that we really like or feel “entitled” to, and after justifying to ourselves why WE think they shouldn’t be sins, we convince ourselves that they’re not, and do the things we want, anyway. These people, though, are NOT (I GUARANTEE you) as happy as they COULD be, because they’re not following God’s law. There is always a part of them—no matter how small that part may be at times, and no matter how small the rest of the world may convince them to MAKE that part of themselves—that questions their judgment, and keeps them in a state of spiritual unrest.

So let’s just make this Embolism our solemn prayer for ourselves so that we can eventually realize that God DOES want us to be happy and enjoy life. Let’s also pray for the faith to accept that if God says something is bad, it is—even if we can’t understand why it is. When we can accept this, we can apply God’s law to our lives, and we can live our lives freely KNOWING that we won’t be steered wrong and that what we’re doing is going to let us receive our eternal reward in Heaven.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part IX

2011-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

...but deliver us from evil

You might have noticed that we use the words “our,” “us,” and “we” instead of “my,” “me,” and “I” in this prayer. There’s a really good reason for that (other than the fact that those are the words Jesus told us to use). When we say this prayer, we pray not only for ourselves, but for the whole Body of Christ (the Church…the universal Christian Church, that is).

Now for this petition, in particular. Let’s not beat around the bush, here. The “evil” Jesus was talking about is the evil “one;” i.e., the devil. God does not create evil, but, then again, neither does the devil. Only God has the power to create. The only thing the devil has the “power” to do is turn the good of God’s creation into a “counterfeit” version that he can use against God by tricking us into believing that the “counterfeit” version is better than God’s version, and that the “counterfeit” is what we REALLY want.

Let’s look at an example of the counterfeit vs. the real thing. Why not start with a biggie? Sex. I bet a couple of you cringed a little or got red in the face when you read that word. Why? The reason you did is at the core of the very point I’m making right now. Sex is generally seen by the majority of our society one of two ways: (1) fun & exciting, or (2) dirty & shameful. Those who lean more towards the “fun & exciting” side say it’s perfectly fine for people to have sex outside the context of marriage. They make arguments like, “Would you buy a car without taking it for a test drive first?” and, “As long as two people love each other, what’s the harm?” Well, the “harm” isn’t that the Church doesn’t want you to think of sex as “fun & exciting.” In fact, totally to the contrary, we FULLY understand that sex was designed by God to be fun & exciting. If God had made it awkward and painful, the human race would’ve died out thousands of years ago! The problem is that the counterfeit version daily “pitched” to the world by the devil has us ONLY focus on the fun & exciting part of sex, and forget the more fundamental purpose for it—creating new life. Some people recognize this twisting of sex by the devil, and take it to the opposite extreme by thinking of sex as dirty & shameful. These people are wrong, too! (…at least they’re wrong when we view sex in the holy context of marriage, that is.)

When you untwist the devil’s version, we still get fun & exciting sex (*gasp* I can’t believe he just said that!!! Well, I did…deal with it.), but we ALSO get the opportunity to be co-creators of life with God. Remember what I said earlier in this post? ONLY God has the power to create. The rest of us just take what God has already made and come up with new combinations for it. It’s sort of like God gave us the colors red, yellow, and blue, and allowed us to take those and mix them together to make orange, green, purple, etc. With sex, though, it’s way different. God invites us into the process of the creation of a new life. It’s like he created the colors red and yellow, and even though he’s fully capable of creating “blue” by himself, he invites us to take part in creating “blue” with him. This is super big. This is pretty much (what I’d argue to be) one of the most theologically profound things we can do as people here on earth. Don’t feel horrible for priests, though, just because they can’t get married and experience this process of co-creating new life with God. Priests have some pretty awesome things they can do, too. They can act in the person of Christ to forgive sins, and they can bring the Eucharist into continued existence through the sacrifice of the Mass. For lay people, though, this “co-creation of life thing” is a pretty awesome calling. It’s how humanity continues on earth. But think about it: if the devil wants to take good things God has created and twist them so that he can tempt us to use these things AGAINST the will of God, how much more will he “target” things that are holier than most? It’s no wonder why you can turn on your TV right now, flip through a few channels and probably find at least 15 different “counterfeit” versions of sex being presented to us in the comfort of our own living rooms.

The gifts and blessings that God gives us in our lives can EASILY be counterfeited by the devil. When we give in to the counterfeit versions (besides this being a basic definition of “sin”), we may be temporarily happy, but it can never compare to the true happiness that comes from following the will of God. Think about your own life. I’m sure if you thought about it—and most of us probably don’t have to think to hard—you could find an example of some counterfeit that you’ve bought into in the past year, month, week, or even DAY that you thought would bring you happiness. The danger is that it probably did, but eventually, that counterfeit either destroyed something really good in your life (like your family, your job, or your friendships), or the happiness you once felt from it wore off, and you were left even emptier than you started. This is why we pray this petition in the Lord’s Prayer. We need God’s daily help and guidance to be steered away from the counterfeits and towards his will. ONLY then will we truly be happy.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VIII

2011-10-11T18:12:00.001-07:00

…and lead us not into temptation

Man, I’m glad Jesus added that in there…if he hadn’t, God would be leading everybody into temptation all the time, and you’d never know WHAT was right or wrong, right? Not exactly. God is ultimate, supreme, and perfect good. It’s not in his nature to “lead” anyone into temptation. He cannot be tempted by evil, and he cannot tempt anyone to commit evil acts, either. Here’s just one more example of why you can’t expect to read the English translation of the Bible on your own and understand EVERYTHING there is to pull out of the Scriptures. The Greek phrasing used here means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation,” and “do not let us yield to temptation.” This alludes to the whole Matthew 26:41 “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” thing.

So why is it important for us to make this petition if it’s not possible for God to tempt us into committing evil acts? Pretty simply, it’s for the exact opposite reason. We are asking God to help us choose good, rather than evil. Remember, God gave us all the gift of free will. Because of this, God, in turn, chose to not force himself upon us. He doesn’t FORCE us to make good choices. If we’re praying for guidance and want to be good Christians, though, God is willing to offer his help to anyone who asks for it in weighing out the pros and cons of everyday decisions.

One term you may hear in your faith journey is the word discern. Discern fundamentally can be compared to the concept of “figuring something out.” When dealing with matters of faith, we generally use it in association with discerning what is good versus what is bad, but we can also use discernment to help us choose between two good decisions. When a guy is thinking about whether to become a priest, a married man, or a single man, we say he is discerning his vocation. This implies a little more than just making a “decision.” Using the word discern has more of a sense of ending up in a “realization” attached to it. I tell people all the time that I believe loving someone is not a choice, but more of a realization. I love my wife, but I don’t believe I “chose” to love her as in the sense of making an “effort” to come to that decision. I noticed that not long after we started dating, I just sort of “realized” that I loved her. It really just happened, and I just had to be in the right place and frame of mind and state of heart to realize what had happened. It’s a similar situation with discerning the priesthood, discerning who to marry, or discerning right from wrong. We have to come to a realization of what the best path is. This petition is all about asking God to help us discern what is right and to help us commit to that end result.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VII

2011-10-10T18:34:00.001-07:00

…and forgive us our trespasses…

Easy enough, right? Well, easy enough when you think of “trespasses” as our “sins.” We’re not only asking God to forgive the times we’ve wandered onto private property that we weren’t allowed on. We hear all the time that “Jesus died for our sins,” and we touched a little on how that worked in Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part V. It makes sense, then, that when Jesus, who died so that our sins could be forgiven, would encourage us to ask God TO forgive our sins. It kinda makes his whole “dying thing” worthwhile. This petition (or really this “part” of a larger petition—don’t worry…we’ll get to that in a second) is made with the realization that we’re not perfect, and that we FIRST must recognize that we’re sinners and ADMIT that to God.

The problem with asking for forgiveness, though, is that we as humans won’t let God’s mercy FULLY penetrate our hearts and grant us the forgiveness we ask for, unless we have first forgiven others who have done wrong to us. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.” (CCC 2840) Remember, God IS powerful enough to penetrate even the hardest of hearts, but he has given us the gift of free will for us to freely choose whether or not to accept his love and forgiveness. God CHOOSES not to “force” himself upon us, but asks that we let him into our hearts. So while it seems like an easy enough request to make to ask God to forgive our sins, we have to first finish this particular petition:

…as we forgive those who trespass against us

The word “as” isn’t used here to indicate time, as in, “LSU punter Brad Wing taunted the Gators punt return team as he neared the goal line during the greatest fake punt in recent history (that unnecessarily got called back for “unsportsmanlike conduct”. I mean, seriously…I heard the argument that he should “act like he’s been there before,” but he’s a PUNTER!! He HASN’T been there before!!! It was an unnecessary flag, in my opinion, but I digress…as usual…).” It’s more of a comparison as in, “LSU Punter Brad Wing’s fake punt run for a would-be touchdown was as awesome as the Saints’ onside kick to start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV.” (Ok, even I, the most rabid LSU fan/Florida Gator-Hater imaginable can admit that the onside kick was a way better play…I was just trying to prove a point.) We’re asking God to forgive our sins, but we’re putting a condition on it that says that we want God to forgive our sins in the same way that we forgive others who do bad stuff to US. We have to forgive others FIRST, and then we can really have a clear and open enough heart to fully accept the love and forgiveness of God. (Told you this prayer was hardcore.) We need to let go of things in the past so that we can always be looking forward toward eternity. (Don’t feel bad, I need to listen to this as much as anyone else reading this blog.)

But how much should I forgive someone for something they did to me? Jesus says to forgive someone 70 times 7 times. So once you’ve already forgiven someone for something 490 times, and they do that same thing again, IT’S ON, right? Well, not exactly. Like many other things Jesus said, that whole “70 times 7 times” probably wasn’t a math riddle. (By the way, this is just another reason you can’t take Jesus’ words literally all the time. Do you really think Jesus would have told us to stop forgiving someone after forgiving them 490 times? I didn’t think so.) If we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), we need to take our lessons in forgiveness from Him. God forgives us over and over again (as long as we’re truly sorry and truly want to accept his forgiveness). We should then do the same for others so that this petition in the Lord’s Prayer can be fulfilled to its fullest extent.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VI

2011-10-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Give us this day our daily bread...

There’s a quote that I really like that goes: “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” I really like that quote. Just because we get what we WANT in this life, doesn’t mean that we’ll be truly happy. I know that sounds a little, well, wrong, but think about the last time you really wanted something that you ended up getting. Was your life really made monumentally better by getting that thing? How long did it take you to lose interest in that one thing you just HAD to have, before you started wanting something else? Things we NEED, on the other hand are always good. The petition “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer is about those things we NEED—our basic essentials for survival.

Obviously, the “daily bread” concept is directly linked to the Eucharist. It’s no coincidence that Jesus decided to use bread as the medium for how we continually ask God to bless us with the presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist. Think about how much bread is mentioned in the Bible. Bread is painted as THE essential food item needed for survival. When the Hebrews wandered in the desert after being freed from slavery in Egypt, God gave them bread from heaven so they could have food. Jesus multiplied 5 loaves of bread (and 2 fishes) to feed the 5,000 (5,000 men, that is…sorry, ladies, it was written to a patriarchal society…counting women and children, it was probably closer to 15,000, which is WAY more impressive). Think about the references to wheat, also. In fact, there’s a whole metaphor for the Christian journey wrapped up in the concept of bread.

Bread is made from wheat. Wheat is sown in a field, then cared for so it can grow. It must be planted in fertile soil so it can root well. If a sower is sowing seeds, and they fall on a path, they will never have a chance to take root and will be eaten by the birds. This is like someone who is not brought up to have a firm foundation of faith in Christ and will be “eaten up” by the negativity of today’s society. If they fall on rocky ground with little soil, they will root up quickly, concentrating on the stalk, rather than the roots, and when the sun comes, it will kill the plants because they do not have a firm root system. We might learn about Jesus, but instead of nurturing our relationship with him deeply, we might let the world (especially in today’s society) take us down because we don’t have a firm foundation of faith. If the seeds are sown among the thorns, they will grow, but the weeds will choke out the plants and they won’t produce grain. Even if we try to live a good life, if we surround ourselves with people who don’t have our best interests in mind, we can be led away from God and won’t be able to be productive members of the universal Church. The seed that is sown in fertile soil, however, will spring up, produce grain, and can be harvested. (Read Mark 4 for that) That wheat is then cut down and ground in a mill. Much like Jesus tells us we have to take up our cross daily and follow him, there’s an element of sacrificing ourselves for the will of God that draws a parallel to the “wheat motif.” Once it’s made into flower, it’s mixed with water to make dough. Out of our suffering and sacrifice, we are given new life by God (water is used over and over again in the Bible as a symbol for life…since we need water to live). When we are given that new life, we are kneaded like dough and shaped, molded, and formed into what GOD needs us to be—what God CALLS us to be (our “vocation”). Once the dough is shaped, it still needs to be put in the oven and exposed to heat (fire) so that it can truly fulfill its purpose. In the same way, once we pursue our true vocation, we will come under “fire” in our own ways so that we can truly become what we’re meant to be. Another old saying is, “That which does not kill us only makes us stronger.” This is the general idea of what is going on here. We’re continually tested and strengthened by God so that we can be prepared to handle whatever it is we’re meant to handle in our lives.

…So there’s the whole “bread” analogy for the Christian life. Now that we see the importance of bread in the Bible, it makes sense that when Jesus taught us how to pray, he decided to get metaphorical and say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” rather than being simple and saying, “Give us this day our basic needs.” The Lord’s Prayer is a profound prayer that Jesus asks us to pray, and it asks for things as large as God’s will being done above our own will, and as small as asking to be blessed with the basic necessities we need for survival. There’s more to come, though, ‘cause this prayer’s far from over. Next we get to the REALLY hard prayers about forgiveness. Until then………..

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part V

2011-10-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

…Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

“Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.” Ever heard that before? Probably from a painfully old person who never learned what the word cliché means? The thing about clichés is that they became clichés because they’re true enough to be repeated. Each petition seems to make the Lord’s Prayer even more dangerous than the last. This petition, though, touches on some pretty profound fundamentals of Catholic teaching.

First, there’s the concept of a “separation” of earth and heaven. God is infinite, yes; and because of this, God is all around us and, in fact, IN us. The problem is because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, we’re made to live a short, mortal life here on earth where we make the best of what we’ve been given and strive to live according to the teachings of Christ before we die and leave our mortal bodies so that our souls can be united with God in a perfect state of eternal happiness and love which we call “heaven.” (Heck of a sentence there, huh?) Since there is this conscious “separation” between the perfection of heaven, and the “imperfection” of our mortal world, we recognize the need to desire to be perfect (or at least as perfect as possible) in accordance with the will of God.

The next concept that is implied here is that of free will. As Catholics, we believe that each individual has been given the gift of “free will” by God, that we may FREELY choose what we do in this life. God does not force himself on us, but INVITES us to seek his love and do what he has asked us to do in our lives. The best way for us to figure out what God wants us to do—what God’s WILL for us is—is to pray for guidance and answers. Now, don’t expect a booming voice to come from the clouds and give you an answer. God typically doesn’t operate like that. God’s will might come in the form of a “good feeling” you have about a job offer, or a simple suggestion a friend made to you about how he thought you’d be a good fit to teach a Religious Education class. Sometimes when trying to figure out God’s will for you in your life can be incredibly hard to reason out, the answer can be as simple as telling God, “This is what I’ve decided to do because I feel it’s what you’re asking of me, but if I’m wrong, I’m asking you to put something in my life to stop this from happening.” Many times, though, we can EASILY do things in our lives that are not done according to the will of God. Often, this comes in the form of sin. Other times, we may not follow God’s will exactly, but if our intentions are good, God will often bless our lives based on our decisions, anyway. This line in the Lord’s Prayer asks that God have HIS will—not OURS—be done in the world.

This brings us into the pretty deep question of the ultimate purpose of prayer. Luckily for you guys, I just had this discussion with a priest buddy of mine last night. In south Louisiana, we have a pretty universal prayer we include in the Prayer of the Faithful during Mass every hurricane season. It’s a simple prayer that asks that God would spare us from any major storms or hurricanes during this hurricane season. Now that raises an obvious question. If we pray for no storms, and get hit by a storm, is God listening? Even more deeply, what’s the point of praying to be spared from a storm if God has already decided that we WOULD be hit by a storm this year? The answer is not a simple one, but in the end, does make sense.

Obviously, God doesn’t want his people to suffer any unnecessary hardships, but he typically is not acting like a “puppet master” pulling the metaphorical strings of the world and our existence. He sets things in motion, and works through natural processes, intervening when he sees necessary to do so. But again, there’s the question is if that’s all decided already (since God is eternal and unchanging), what’s the point of prayer if God has already decided when a storm will hit, or when someone will get killed in a car crash, or even something as simple as whether you will have enough patience to get through reading the rest of this blog post? The answer is time. We are bound by time. God’s not. It’s not that God has already decided everything and our prayers have no bearing on God’s plan. The fact remains that we cannot fundamentally “change” God’s plan, but that God knew from before the world began that you would, right now at X:XX o’clock am/pm on Month-X Date-X, Such-and-Such a Year be praying for something in particular. Then he took that prayer and considered it based on what would be best for you in your life, and decided accordingly…long before he said “Let there be Light.” See, God WANTS to give us what we ask for, but in the end he knows what’s BEST for us. If you’ve ever been in a bad relationship or have had a drinking problem, you probably understand the principle of how we sometimes want things that are not good for us. God takes our petitions and gives us what we want and ask for when it’s in our best interest, and denies our prayers when it’s not what will fall in line with his ultimate plan.

But remember, we still have to ask. Even though it’s decided already, the decision has been made (partially) based on our actions. If we decide right now that we’ll never ask for anything again, God knew we would choose to do that, so he would never have decided to take our desires into account. Catching this? It’s pretty complicated, I know. Just remember that when you want something from God, Jesus has told us in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” He goes on to say there, though: “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?”

God knows what he’s doing. He hears you. Just because you don’t get everything you ask for, doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear you asking. Before getting upset about the things you ask for and DON’T get, take a second to think about the amazing things you DID get—things you probably didn’t even ask for. Keep praying.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part IV

2011-09-30T19:21:00.001-07:00

Thy kingdom come…

The “kingdom” here is obviously the “Kingdom of Heaven.” But that’s a tricky term to take at face value. “The Kingdom” was here on earth when Jesus was made man. “The Kingdom” comes alive when we hear the Gospel proclaimed at Mass. “The Kingdom” has come in Christ’s death & resurrection. “The Kingdom” has been coming into our midst ever since the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. So why do we pray that God’s kingdom should come to us?

St. Cyprian suggests that it may be that the “Kingdom” refers to Christ, himself, who we desire in our daily lives, so we should ask for the “Kingdom” to come to us in the form of Christ: “For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.” That may be a cool side thought, but it seems that this 2^nd petition of the Lord’s Prayer refers to the final coming of God’s reign through the return of Christ Jesus at the end of time.

When we stop and think about it in those terms, we might be a little more hesitant with this line. If we’re praying for Jesus to come again, we need to be ready to face the consequences that come along with that. Ever see those bumper stickers that say “Jesus is coming…look busy”? Well, this petition is sort of reminiscent of that idea. We’re asking that Jesus would fulfill his promise and come again one day, but what that implies is that we’re confident enough to think that we’re actually READY for that. I don’t know about you, but I’m rarely in any shape to get a front row seat to the Parousia (Greek term meaning “arrival” but used in the Catholic faith with a capital letter to refer to Christ’s second coming…impressive word to know).

Remember, this whole “Lord’s Prayer” did come straight from Jesus, himself. He said, “This is how you are to pray.” He didn’t say, “Here’s an easy way to pray so you can get whatever you want with no work on your part aside from just saying the words.” It’s a dangerous prayer, and the words “Thy kingdom come” are three of the most powerful in it. Almost as powerful as the next petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” WOAH! Big “ask” there…we’ll check that one out next post.