I am a Christian layman who loves the faith. In today's times, where organized religion is seen as unpopular or evil, where the majority of people who claim faith know nothing of it or keep it hidden in fear of offending someone, I proudly stand with Christ and His Church, and see no need to hide the faith in my private life. And so I keep this blog to post media that demonstrates what the Christian faith really looks like, especially a side that not everybody knows or remembers. For my personal blog, visit allofthegrero.tumblr.com

25th April 2013

Video with 5 notes

Ukraninan Eastern Divine Liturgy celebrated by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1996.

Tagged: catholiccatholicismChristianChristianityjesusgodbibleorthodoxorthodoxypoperythe man himselfpope john paul iimassEucharistholy eucharist

17th April 2013

Post reblogged from Future Battler of Pink Robots with 33 notes

digitalpapist:

discipleofkreia:

actuallycharlesbingley:

Both the Ordinary Form of the Mass and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass are accepted in the Church. As long as it isn’t abused, the Ordinary Form is not heretical. I don’t believe either Mass is better or worse than the other. They are both MASS. THEY ARE BOTH THE HOLY SACRIFICE. I’m getting really sick of people talking about how TLM is the REAL Mass. They’re both the real Mass.

EWTN and the Papal masses are great examples of Novus Ordo. In case people haven’t realized, the Extraordinary Form can be abused too. Has it occurred to anyone that maybe those who want to return to the Pre-Vatican II days are covering up these abuses to make their cause look better?

The EF was abused before the introduction of the NO, largely for the same reasons then as today.

The reason why EF Masses today are, on the whole, solid and reverent is due to a self-selection; since no one is required to celebrate the EF, and one must choose to either learn or enter an institute with traditional liturgy as its charism, one gets a select group of celebrants who ardently desire to celebrate the liturgy reverently.

With the NO, it’s the ordinary form.  Everyone has to celebrate it, so you get a much wider disparity with none of the internal selection.

Anyone who believes that prior to the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI Mass was celebrated perfectly with no abuse is deluding themselves.  In various countries, local folk music had been substituted for sacred chant for centuries (with or without permission).  Vernacular had been substituted in.  Prayers had been changed/omitted. 

Priests had gotten away with it because

A). Most people didn’t know enough Latin or have liturgical resources on hand to make a difference

B).  Most people couldn’t really tell what the priest was doing anyway

One of the reasons you saw an impetus towards liturgical reform was to introduce a liturgy that would overcome the distance from the true theology of the Mass and the way most people viewed it.  It’s why the idea of “active involvement” got a lot of currency.  It would have hopefully forced a sense of conformity to the rubrics by drawing the laity in, and would have the laity understand and participate in the sacred dynamic of the Mass.

Except none of that happened.  Instead of the laity assuming a more “dignified” role, it simply lead to the clericalization of the laity and the laicization of priests.  “Active participation” meant every damn piece of music must be belted out*.  Rubrics were simply discard because any notion of the vertical/transcendent of the Mass was thrown aside in the interest of vindicating and legitimizing a material community. 

I really don’t know what other conclusion can be drawn except that the NO Mass, in the majority of its historical celebrations, has been a failure. 

Sure, the way Pope Benedict celebrated it was beautifully reverent.  I just doubt that more than 2% of all the NO’s celebrations come anywhere close to its reverence.  Until you start seeing massive reform of allowable deviations from the rubrics, and a strong emphasis on sacred music, you won’t get out of the quagmire.

That’s not to say the NO Mass is bad, or heretical.  In fact, its greatest strength is how more than half of the prayers/responses are directly from Scripture.  The entire liturgy is a form of Scriptural exegesis.  And I love that.

Signed,

Someone who has to deal with guitars, drums, and a surprisingly large number of Spanish compositions in a parish where 99% of the people are native English speakers. 

*One of the lies most of us were fed in various religious ed programs was that the more we are “participating” (I.e. singing, verbally responding to the prayers, etc), the better we were doing.  Again, that’s a lie. 

I think the money quote above is “Until you start seeing massive reform of allowable deviations from the rubrics, and a strong emphasis on sacred music, you won’t get out of the quagmire.” However, any more reforms at this point would simply through the faithful into even more confusion. Now that the can of worms has been opened, so to speak, there is an even greater freedom for individual celebrants to impose their own liturgical vision onto the rites, and thus any more attempt at reform would simply be seen as pontiff x or prelate y imposing their own personal views on everyone else (i.e. the way the media tries to contrast Pope Benedict and Pope Francis). Priestly Institutes established for the celebration of good liturgy in any form and the formation of priests according to solid liturgical principles are a relatively new phenomenon in the life of the church, and until more priests have this solid background, any return to our patrimony will have to be a grassroots movement. And this is precisely one of the reasons more and more people are liking the old Mass: in an attempt to restore our liturgical patrimony the EF provides a sort of short-cut to this process, because this form allows for fewer deviations from the ‘ideal’ and more protection from abuses. digitalpapist actually makes similar remarks to what Cardinal Arinze made a few years ago: celebrate the OF according to these ideals and there’d be smaller demand for the EF.

Of course, for whatever it’s worth my opinion is that part of the vertical-ness of the EF precisely comes from its texts, and the simplification of those texts in the OF contribute to its horizontal-ness. Which is why I think the EF cannot simply be replaced by an OF Mass celebrated in a very similar manner.

Finally, the sacraments are the very means by which Christ enacts our salvation here on earth. Some people don’t like these debates, but I think if we need to argue over something this would be the most important thing to debate.

Tagged: catholiccatholicismmassLatin MassTraditional Latin MassEucharistChristianjesusgodbible

Source: actuallycharlesbingley

4th April 2013

Link reblogged from Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts with 3 notes

For Friars, Finding Renewal by Sticking to Tradition →

victoryofjustice:

Two of my favorite things: Dominicans and Ireland!

Religious life has long been used to revitalize the clergy in different places and in different ages. Religious particularly have a unique and key role in the new evangelization.

Tagged: Dominicans=bestDominicanscatholiccatholicismchurchjesusgodbible

3rd April 2013

Link reblogged from Semina Virtutum with 13 notes

Semina Virtutum: For those of you involved with liturgy, a question? →

semina-virtutum:

Have you ever heard of the interdicasterial instruction Ecclesiae de mysterio? It was ordered propagated by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, signed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger when he was head of the CDF, and seven other dicasteries of the Holy See.

One highlight is a clarification of how…

Tagged: I've heard of itit's why I'll never willingly be an emcatholics look at thiscatholiccatholicismchurchmassjesusgodbible

26th March 2013

Photo

Tagged: catholiccatholicismPoperypoperypicsLatin MassmassTraditional Latin Massholy eucharistjesusgodbibleChristianChristianityProtestantevangelical

23rd March 2013

Photo with 18 notes

His Holiness Benedict XVI, getting Passiontide right. Pope Francis comes for a private visit.

His Holiness Benedict XVI, getting Passiontide right. Pope Francis comes for a private visit.

Tagged: catholiccatholicismPoperypoperytothemaxthe men themselvesthe man himselfpoperypicsChristianChristianitychurchjesusGodBible

16th March 2013

Photoset reblogged from Utter Mentality with 338 notes

hard-sophoclean-light:

Pontifical Swiss Guard appreciation post.

Those guys are a walking time machine. The burgonets alone…. 

Tagged: Poperypontifical swiss guardcatholiccatholicismchurchjesusgodChristianChristianity

Source: hard-sophoclean-light

16th March 2013

Link with 1 note

What it means to serve the poor →

Tagged: catholiccatholicismDominicans=bestChristianChristianityevengelicalProtestantbiblejesusgod

16th March 2013

Quote with 10 notes

To set our duty to serve the poor against the splendor of divine worship is nothing less than to split Christ in two.
— Fr. Pius Pietrzyk O.P.

Tagged: Dominicans=bestcatholiccatholicismpoperychurchjesusgodbibleChristianChristianity

13th March 2013

Post with 17 notes

HABEMUS PAPAM!

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
Habemus Papam;
Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum Georgium Sanctae Romanæ Ecclesiae Cardinalem Bergoglio,
Qui sibi nomen imposuit Franciscum.

Tagged: catholiccatholicismchurchgodbiblejesusChristianChristianitypoperypopethe man himselfhabemus papam

12th March 2013

Post with 5 notes

smoke is black, next vote tomorrow

Tagged: catholiccatholicismchurchjesusgodbibleChristian

6th March 2013

Link with 1 note

Just reminding everyone →

that there is this legit and awesome choral group known as The suspicious Cheese Lords.

Tagged: and there are churches advertising them with a straight faceyes goodcatholiccatholicismchurchpoperymusicChristianjesusgodbiblesuspicious cheese lords

5th March 2013

Photo with 28 notes

Apparently a Catholic school in Virginia decided to have a mock conclave. I must say, whoever made those outfits did a really good job.
See more photos at   http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/03/just-too-cool-catholic-school-children-hold-a-conclave-photos/

Apparently a Catholic school in Virginia decided to have a mock conclave. I must say, whoever made those outfits did a really good job.

See more photos at   http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/03/just-too-cool-catholic-school-children-hold-a-conclave-photos/

Tagged: catholiccatholicismDiocese of Arlingtonchurchcardinaljesusgodbiblechristiancatholic schoolI'm not even mad

3rd March 2013

Photo with 3 notes

Tagged: poperypoperypicscatholiccatholicismchurchmassTraditional Latin MassEucharistJesus ChristJesusGodBible

28th February 2013

Link with 75 notes

Is there a Pope? →

Tagged: catholiccatholicismchurchpopepoperyChristianChristianityJesusgodbible