Hello, Katie and Branum!

My sister (Katie) and brother-in-law (Branum) are up visiting for a few days. Other than having had some great weather to check out the cherry blossoms, the hands-down highlight of their trip occurred this evening as they tried their hands for the first time at duckpin bowling. And a good time was had by all...

Extraordinary Form...

Came across one of the nicer videos I've found of a solemn high extraordinary form Mass. I'm watching it to jog my memory, since it looks like I'm going to be the subdeacon for one on Palm Sunday. I think the last one we had back home was at least 12 years ago.

Thanks to Maury...

About once a week a group of the guys here where I'm living get together on the patio after dinner to enjoy a drink and a cigar (we like to refer to it as "incense"). Thursday evening was particularly nice (mid-60's), and so was the cigar. A gift from a good friend back home (Maury), a "La Gloria Cubana - Artesanos de Miami." A new line of smokes from the popular cigar makers from "Little Havana" in Miami, FL. I highly recommend picking one up (or two...). Thanks Maury!

Pope reflects on New Generation, Priesthood...

In speaking about the establishment of a "year of the priesthood," Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the proper understanding of Vatican II as not being "a rupture with the past" and the centrality of an understanding of the unique role of the ministerial priesthood and its centrality in the Church. The text can be found HERE.

My point of reflection on this topic: One point the Holy Father makes concerns the dearth of priests available for ministry. This is something we are all familiar with. It seems that, by and large, the past twenty years has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of priests, but not a corresponding decrease in the expectation on the part of the faithful in the amount of ministry they receive. Father serves two, three, or more parishes as the pastor, but oftentimes the expectation is that the number of services provided will remain the same. The end result: father is burned-out after a few years, and the people by-and-large don't feel the sting of the decreased number of priests. While one response has been to "substitute" lay ministers in the effort to provide the same number of pastoral services (e.g. the so-called "canon 517 §2 pastoral minister"), the end result is a blurring of the proper lines between ordained and non-ordained ministry, with the result that ordained ministry is de-valued. The Holy Father seems to suggest that a decrease in the proliferation of lay ministers in roles more proper for the ordained (for example: pastoral leadership of a parish) would lead to a heightened appreciation for the ministerial priesthood, and an increased sense of haste on their parts to promote the priesthood and religious life within their own families. Interesting...

(you knew I would notice it: check out the fiddleback...)

Friday in Lent...

In honor of another Lenten friday of abstinence, I offer "friders:" deep fried White Castle burgers. I hate to admit it, but this one actually doesn't sound bad...

Happy St. Patrick's Day...

A friend of mine (Chris) sent me some photos from the St. Patrick's day parade from back home. Somehow, he apparently "finagled" his way into being "St. Patrick." I really underestimated how frightening it would be to see him dressed as a bishop...



And now, also in honor of St. Patrick's day, a photo from my own "pilgrimage" to a holy shrine:

Ninja Nuns...

It's been a while since I put some nun material on here... this comes from my Latin professor of all people... Enjoy!

C-A-R-D-S! Big East Champs...

ok, you don't see much by way of sports on here, but I can't help but put a celebratory note about the Louisville Cardinals winning the Big East Championship. Reminiscing about the glory days of the mid-80's and "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison, Scooter McCray, Darrell Griffith... these are heady times. Made even sweeter by the fact that UK looks to be headed to the NIT's (but then again, UK is more of a football school anyway, right???!). Go Cards!

New Form of Confession?

OK, this is slightly scandalous ("slightly" you say???). My thanks to Teodore(The "Honorary Romanian Redneck") for passing this along, he seems to be quite fond of this new form of confession...

"Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me!" Spring Break is Over...

But not before one last shot of humor... see if one of these tunes sticks in your head like it has mine.

First Sunday of Lent

A short video of Mass this afternoon... the choir did a nice job with the "Adoro te Devote" at communion.

"In defense of giving something up for Lent" - a homily for the first Sunday of Lent

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, given at the 12:30 Extraordinary Form Mass, March 1, 2009:



My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

This week, Holy Mother Church enters into the great season of Lent. Once again, we assume our penitential practices as we prepare for the commemoration of the holiest events of our faith: the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord.

Lent is a season of fasting, abstinence, and self-denial. It is the Church's traditional practice for us to give something up during this season. A small convenience; a small enjoyment; some small pleasure. This practice, however, has become more and more of a foreign concept to many in our world today. Things such as doing penance and fasting are seen as something of a vestige from the past... something that serious "modern people" don't do. After all, our world is all about gratification: the more the better. "Life is short," the modern man would remind us, best to "live it up" while we can. "Eat drink and be merry," the old saying goes, "for tomorrow we die." While our modern world encourages us to live for today, doing penance, in a certain fundamental way, is a recognition of eternity: that you and I are meant for something more than just this world.

Sadly, voluntary self-denial is becoming more and more of an oddity of the past. Even more sadly, this attitude has crept even into Catholic circles, even amongst some priests. Fasting and penance is something increasingly foreign to them, and they attempt to explain these things away, in favor of a "more modern" approach to the season of Lent. "Better to do something extra than to give something up" they usually say. They say things like: "instead of giving something up, pay more attention at Mass... make a donation to a homeless shelter... go visit your elderly neighbor..." While performing acts of charity are indeed a vital part of our spiritual lives, it would be a betrayal of the fundamental purpose of Lent to simply do this in favor of eliminating true acts of penance altogether. After all, shouldn't we be performing acts of charity all throughout the year, not just during Lent? In spite of what some might say, the practice of performing penance is still praiseworthy and even required of us by the Church. More than just simply "focusing" upon something we should already be doing throughout the year, Lent is a time to do more. We mustn't be afraid to challenge ourselves to an even more radical self-denial than what we should already be doing.

Canon law "binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way" (c. 1249). In achieving this end, Canon law specifically recommends works of piety and charity, as well as acts of self-denial. Not to perform some act of self-denial would be in some way a betrayal of what the Church, in her motherly care, asks of her children.

But we may ask ourselves: "why?" Why does holy Church ask her children to suffer, even if only in some small way? The answer to this question lies in her concern that in this life we give proper place to our relationship with God. For we are reminded each Lent that the true purpose of our sacrifices is not that the Church merely wants us to suffer a little bit by avoiding those things we enjoy, but to remind us of our ultimate need for God. For in the coming weeks, when that craving hits us for whatever it is we might have given up, that craving we experience is meant to remind us of the hunger we should have for God in our lives. If only we craved God in our lives as much as we will crave those certain things which we give up... If only we craved God as much as we crave the little comforts of this life, then we all would be better off indeed.

We give up those little things so that we can, if only in some small way, become more like Christ, who gave up His very life for us.

The practice of doing penance is ultimately a practice of stripping away: of stripping away the little comforts and conveniences of this life that can buffer us from entering more deeply into the life of Christ. Eternal life, which you and I are both called to enjoy, is a state of being in perfect union with God. It is an existence where nothing comes between me and God. Attaining to eternal life, then, entails a process of radical self-abandonment, where those things in us which do not pertain to our relationship to God are stripped away: our own human ambitions, our own prerogatives, our own pursuits. All these are stripped away, to make room for that more perfect relationship with Christ. This, the Church reminds us, is the ultimate purpose of the teaching on purgatory: a process that can be likened to a period of penance: of stripping away from us all those things which prevent a more perfect union with God. Our penances this time of year are meant to be a small participation in this purgatorial process, in anticipation of our own destiny as human beings to be united perfectly with God who is the author of our being and who desires to be united with us completely. A good penance, then, shortens our purgatories and achieves in us a more perfect union with God.

This Lent, then, let’s pray that God might give us the strength to live up to our commitments to penance, abstinence, and prayer. Let’s take advantage of those opportunities such as prayer and fasting, the Stations of the Cross, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and Eucharistic Adoration, as means to a deeper recognition of our need to change our lives. Let’s pray that we will be prepared to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection with renewed meaning this year.

+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Happy Ash Wednesday...

To mark our first day of fast and abstinence this year, I offer the following: The "Big Mac Chicken with Cheese." yum yum...

The "Godfather"...

Home over the weekend for a quick visit to stand as Godfather for the new daughter of good friends Tony and Jacque.

Pope to Pelosi: "protect life..." Pelosi to Pope: "look at my grandchildren..."

Today, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI... and from their respective press releases you would think that they weren't speaking about the same meeting. While the Holy Father took the opportunity to reiterate the Church's stand on the sanctity of human life, according to Pelosi it was about the chance to offer her congratulations to the pope and show him pictures of her grandchildren. A difference in perspective I guess... Read about it HERE.