(i looked up tableform in the common sense dictionary, and it gave me this picture.)

Our Lady, Immaculately conceived, Pray for us!

Do we have to pull up chairs for it to be a table?

A tale of two alters...

The author had quite the informative talk yesterday with a dear friend. Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei was the topic of discussion. This writer (we'll call him A) believes he had it in the bag, while friend B thought so too...

In paragraph 62 when it says it would be straying from the right path to wish the altar restored to its primitive tableform, I didn't think there was much wiggle room. My friends answer was he doesn't think the new alters are table form. He sees "primitive table form" where it was like the Last Supper and everyone has his or her seat. He doesn't see the four legs and a top as tableform, so I don't know what else I can do. Is it me? Am I wrong thinking that Pope Pius meant something when he said table form? I know friend B is not stupid, but look at it! I have provided a picture of two altars, and I would like you to point out the table. If it looks like a table, it smells like a table, it barks like a table, it is a table.
Also in that paragraph, the Holy Father warns us not to get rid of black vestments. Oops!

Paragraph 109. " Let everything be done with due order and dignity, and let no one, not even a priest, make use of the sacred edifices according to his whim to try out experiments."
Well some brave priest out there must have said, "You know what? I am going to try something new and say Mass toward the people today." And then everybody went along with it and that is the normal way now.
B was anxious to point out that A's priest is the rouge here, and that he is more or less doing what ever he wants. If a priest is faithful to the way the Holy Mass has been celebrated for well over a millennium, how is this according to his whim?
Man has been walking upright for at least 8,000 years :). Somewhere in history, someone experimented and found out that it is possible to walk on your hands. You cannot get very far, but you can get from one location to another. That is what we have here. There is a fun cool way to get around nowadays, and it is called the Novus Ordo. But if my priest chooses to put one foot in front of the other, like the fathers have taught him, who is experimenting?

My dear friend B had an idea. He said that all the Masses around the world should be said like how the Holy Father says Mass. (Hey, you could even kneel and receive Our Lord on the tongue! This writer gives it to B, he hates Communion in the hand as much as A does.) He basically told me that if the Pope is wrong, then that is his sin, and we will be judged whether we were good sheep and followed the head.
That is why Holy Mother Church sets up rules, canons, and laws that foresee the problems of today! You just have to take of your Modernism glasses and think clearly and listen to logic.

Also, Pope Pius XII has some black and white things to say about Gregorian Chant! The music that has been in the priests' hearts and on their lips for over 1400 years. He also has some gray things to say about modern music. I find it hard to believe Pius XII would find 1947 modern music the same as 2010 modern music, but we shall see. We shall see.

A pray that all two of my readers have a fruitful Holy Week. May our suffering bring us closer to the Cross. No Resurrection with out Crucifixion! May all of those present at the foot of the Cross some 1,977 years ago pray for us.

Mother of Sorrows, Pray for us,
St. Mary Cleophas, pray for us,
St. Mary Magdalen, pray for us,
St. John the beloved, pray for us,
St. Joseph of Arimathea, pray for us,
St. Nicodemus, pray for us
the penitent thief, pray for us!
St. Pope Gregory the great, pray for us!

I will possess your heart

I'm not the biggest fan of Death Cab for Cutie (perhaps I covet the front man's wife, Zooey Deschanel) but they do have a fantastic song that can get you thinking, because it points out something so obvious it hurts.

The first time I heard this song, I thought only of the girl whom I spent every hour thinking of, and unfortunately for this author, dear reader, I did not quite get the same response back...

Well, that is very selfish of me. What about Our Lord! He who loves me more than I can fathom. The Word can use these lyrics to move even the most hard of hearts. In the sacred silence of adoration the Holy Ghost can whisper His wish of complete union of wills. Sanctification will come when my will and His Will are one. One Voice singing...

How I wish you could see the potential,
the potential of you and Me.
Like a book elegantly bound...
but in a language that you can't read (just yet.)
You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with Me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.

You reject my advances,
and desperate pleas,
I wont let you let me down so easily.

We must spend time with Our Lord in front of the Blessed Sacrament. How can we love someone who we don't know? How will we know what we don't try to know? Two of the few real gifts we are all given are time and choice. Sure, some of us have beauty, others of us have money, few have smarts. Woe to those who have all three! But we all can become saints. Beauty, money, or brains wont get you into heaven. Something else will though. But what?

Let us start with Catechism 101. We must know God, love God, and serve God.

Can we say we know God if we don't continually study Him and the works of the Holy Spirit? If we don't take time out from our busy schedule to get on our knees and ask for the graces necessary to know what offends Him and what pleases Him?

Can we honestly say we love Him if we only visit Him once a week? I see old friends more than that. Can we say we love Him who is Love if we receive Holy Communion like snacks? I admit, I have received Our Lord unworthily. I should perhaps reread I Cor. 11:27. And I would do well to remember that the reception of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament needs not only a soul in the state of Grace, but a right intention. How do I know something is wrong? Because I am not a saint. There are enough graces that receiving the Holy Eucharist just once to a predisposed and open soul would make an immediate saint. Time and time again the graces are poured, but like a water on a rock they shed off me and most do not permeate. Why? Because I do not Love Him as much as he loves me! I reject his advances. I try to keep my life instead of saving it. Catechism 1 says to know God, love God, and serve God. Not "know God, love Ourselves, and serve God."

The last of the three commands is to serve God. How should we serve God? Being a postulate to the Dominican order of Penance, I would say take our patriarch as an example. He sold everything he owned, even books copied by his own pen, to relieve the poor. I haven't even seriously considered going near a soup kitchen. He went barefoot and begged for bread from door to door. Ive been eating like a king (and its Lent.) He was walking down a road from one town to another and hired assassins lay in wait to kill him. The hired hands were "struck by the sanctity and dignity of the man of God and was powerless to raise their weapons." They asked Saint Dominic what would he have done if they would have gone on with their plan, and he said "I would have asked you not to kill me with one blow, but to cut off my limbs one by one, and then to put out my eyes and to leave me half dead, bathed in my blood, that I might suffer the longer for the love of my Crucified Savior." I have yet to have a thought like that cross my mind. What service St. Dominic had for our Lord and Our Lady, and what ground I have to make up!

Now that we have heard the Good News, we can no longer stand in the middle ground. It is black or white. It is Jesus Christ or the Prince of the World we chose to follow.
I would like to end with a short prayer...

Oh, most Holy Trinity, grant us more time to do penance and make reparation. Give us opportunities to prove ourselves to you. Let us spend Your time (for it is ours only on loan) in a manner more fit. Let this Passion week be fruitful. Give us an eye for what is easy, and what is right. We beg for a greater desire to devote our gifts to a supernatural end: sanctity. We give thanks to Thee for health and joy! Do not let us let You down. We ask for strength to let us die to ourselves, so that we may rise with you on the third day and reign with You and Your saints forever and ever. Amen.

May Our lady keep you well,

St. Paul, Pray for us.
St. Dominic, Pray for us.