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     Today I spoke at seven Masses between St. Vincent Ferrer and All Saints, to see if I could drum up some business for the Mission this week. Time will tell and your prayers that I can, with the Lord’s help, pull this off. Here is a prayer I wrote for the Holy Card that I handed out today

Heavenly Father, in this Holy Season of Lent we call to mind our sins and the things that prevent us from loving you withour whole heart and soul.  We are burdened with many cares and concerns that drain our bodies and weaken our souls.

Send us the Holy Spirit to fill us with a living hope. May this hope help us to let go of the past and keep our eyes on the future. May this hopeturn our focus from the passing things of this world to the lasting and higher things of heaven. May this hope help us to remember that you have promised to bring all the good you have begun in us to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Instill is us a strong faith and an ardent love. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who died for our sinsand rose from the dead that we may share his everlasting life. Amen.

Please pray for all priests and Seminarians, and support Sacred Heart Radio.

       Begining on Monday, I will be doing a four day mission entitled “Reclaiming our Catholic Hope” at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish and All Saints Parish. Each talk will be done in the morning and in the evening. The Schedule is listed below:

Ferbuary 25  8:30am Mass at All Saints; 9:15 am Talk one: Reclaiming True Hope.

                        7:00pm St. Vincent Ferrer Talk One: Reclaiming True Hope

February 26  8:30am Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer; 9:15 Talk Two: Be Reconclied to God

                        7:00 pm   Talk Two: Be reconciled to God; This is followed by the opportunity      to go to confession.

February 27  8:30am Mass All Saints; 9:15 Talk Three: Christ is Life

                        7:00pm Choir concert at St. Vincent Ferrer followed by Talk Three at 7:30pm Christ is Life

February 28   8:30am Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer; 9:15am Talk Four: Now is the Appointed Time

                         7:00pm All Saints Talk Four: Now is the Appointed Time

     I will be taping these talks and they will be made available through Sacred Heart Radio in a week or so. I hope some of you will be able to attend these.

      A couple of weeks ago, Channel 12 reporter Jeff Hirsch interviewed several children from Guardian Angels School about angels and patron Saints. He then came across the street and asked me to provide some of the Church’s theology on the Saints and the Angels. I saw that Channel 12 will be broadcasting this Monday night during the 11:00pm news. It might be intersting to tune in and see how they deal with it.

     I saw that with the 20/20 interivew on ABC, that attendance at the Bodies exhibit has picked up steam. It reminds me of the movie that recently came out starring Diane Lane, where a person was hooked up on a drug and a website, and when someone logged on, it sped up the person’s death. There is no doubt that human beings have a strange response to the dead. On the one hand we want to hide it and on the other we want to put it on display. It is kind of like people who slow down when there is a terrible wreck to see the damage, or those who watch surgical operations on TV. Human Gore seems to thrill some people.

     As a society based on a market economy, if death sells, people are going to be putting it out there, even if they use the word educational to cover it up. It s clear that the most important motive is profit. It is also clear that any publicity is good publicity for this group. The only way to shut things like this down is to stop talking about it and stop going. When it no longer pays, the vendors  will find something or someone else to exploit for a profit. Hopefully some of the people who walk through there will remember that these are real human beings, and say a prayer that they find peace in their souls, even if their bodies were turned into sideshow attractions.

Please pray for all priests and seminarians, and Support Sacred Heart Radio.

     Last week it was published on several Catholic new sites that five Cardinals petitioned the Holy Father to pronounce a fifth dogmatic statement about the Blessed Mother, namely that she is the Mother of the human race, Mediatrix of all Grace and Co-Redemptrix. (The focus is on her Spiritual Maternity) They believed that this pronouncement would serve both inter-religious as well as ecumenical purposes.

      This movement has been hot and cold in Church circles since the 1920′s when Cardinal Mercier began to push for Mary to be pronounced Mediatrix of all grace. It has also been the part of a petition drive with the group Vox Populi Mariae Mediatricae (I think the title is correct) over the last 20 years or so.

     First, do I believe that Mary is the Mother of the human race, Medatrix of all Graces and Co-Redemptrix? Yes I do. This is not the issue. My central issue is that the majority of the Catholic faithful do not know what these titles mean. In most cases, they have not been part of the liturgical tradition in the recent past. After 40 years of horrible catechesis, people have been taught very little about Jesus Christ, much less his Mother. For example, how many people do you know believe that the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception refers to Jesus’ conception by Mary? It has been 154 years since that dogma has been proclaimed and many to do not know that it refers to the conception of Mary by her Mother Anna.

     It seems to me that the most disputed title is Co-Redemptrix. This title can be misinterpreted by some to say that Mary’s role was equal to Christ’s role as Redeemer. This is definitely wrong. Mary’s role in secondary, insufficient and dependent on Christ. Even saying that Mary redeems “with” Christ can be open to misinterpretation. Until these points can be clarified, it would not be appropriate to proclaim another dogmatic teaching on the Mother of God.

    It took Duns Scotus and his idea of Preservative Redemption to pave the way for the Immaculate Conception. It took over 800 years to clarify this teaching and proclaim the dogma. Until someone equal to a Scotus comes long to work out the language of this teaching, it is best to be left as it is. If the cardinals are calling for more research and refelction on the doctrine, bringing it out of the shadows of theology, that is a good thing, but in my opinion, we have a pretyy steep hill to climb before the pope would consider sending a letter to all the bishops of the Church asking if it is appropriate that this doctrine be dogmatically proclaimed. Let me know your thoughts.

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support SACRED HEART RADIO.

      I have been following all of the attention given to the travelling monstrance that is going throughout the archdiocese to promote vocations. I wonder if all this is somewhat misdirected because our focus should not be on the monstrance, even if it has been blessed by the Pope, but the ONE WHO WILL BE PLACED AND WORSHIPPED INSIDE THE MONSTRANCE, NAMELY, THE SON OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST.

      If people are coming just to see a monstrance or pray before a monstrance with the Eucharist in it not because it contained the Son of God, but simply because it was blessed by the Pope, what does this say about our faith?   Are we beginning to think that God is not enough? Does he have to be placed in a monstrance blessed by the Pope to make him interesting or worthy of worship?  I am not trying to start trouble, but I am wondering your response to the issue I am raising?

     As you can see alongside the website, the Catholic World news site reports that Cardinal Franc Rode, Prefect for the Congregation for Religious reports that “priests tend to be less obedient to the Churchand more responsive to the world.” I guess there are different ways of interpreting this. I do not consider myself worldly, but I do have a lot of stuff. I guess if the Cardinal speaks of wordliness in terms of excessive materialism, I would be guilty as charged. Living at the Seminary, I have a lady who cleans my room and does my laundry. There are cooks who provide three meals a day. I have a large library, some electronic gadgets (eg. ipod) and of course my own website. I have a TV, DVD player and cable (at least when Time Warner is not cutting it off!). I drive a 2002 Chevy Blazer. I find as I get older that I don’t even know why I have amassed this stuff, but here it is. At the same time, I wear my clerics everywhere I go, unless I am traipsing around the Seminary on the weekend. I say my Office every day, do spiritual reading every day, celebrate or concelebrate Mass practically every day and usually end up falling asleep saying the rosary.

     There is a strong temptation among priests who are pastors who be so focused on putting out fires and doing administration that prayer, study and homily prep take a back burner and sometimes get neglected. At the same time, when people want their priest, they want their priest no matter what he is doing. I can understand why priests feel they have to hide out and sneak away. Priests get tired too, especially since often times many are not only carrying their crosses, but helping others to carry theirs as well. Sometimes they may just want to blend in with everyone else, not because they are up to no good, but simply because they want to be anonymous for awhile.

   I do not know if just because a priest appears incognito for a while that he is worldly. I think the worldliness makes itself seen when the priest decides to play fast and loose with the liturgy. There is a problem also when he does not like it when people refer to him as “Father.” When he takes political and/or moral positions contrary to Church teaching, especially when there are politicians in his parish that espouse them, he is being worldly. I think when the only people he seems to associate or socialize with are the wealthy members of the parish, there is a problem with that. Of course, they may also be the only ones that invite him over. When his homilies consist of jokes and what is happening on American Idol or Desperate housewives and nothing of the “Reform your life and believe the Gospel,” there is a problem.

   One thing that has been happening a lot in this diocese is that priests have been turning parish rectories into offices and having the parish purchase them a house offsite. Usually, the reason is that the priest believes he is living above the store. I think for the price of a house, there could be found space on parish property for offices, and have the rectory be the rectory. In some cases, priests are not even living within their parish boundaries. It is just my opinion, and not worth much, but I would argue that the pastor ought to be close to the Church and not have to “drive to work every morning.” I know a lot of the brethren would disagree me on this, but we ought to be bound to our Churches like fathers are bound to their homes and families. The only exception to this is if a group of priests who pastor neighboring parishes would want to live together for fraternal support.

     Anyway, all priests need your prayers and support. We all need, myself included, a fuller understanding of our committment to Christ and his Church and the courage to fully live it out. May the Lord send the Holy Spirit to renew us in our mission of spreading the Gospel, leading the faithful and celebrating the sacraments with love and devotion. Any and all comments appreciated.

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and Support SACRED HEART RADIO.

     The best made plans get messed up when Time Warner turns off your internet for no good reason!! Most of my blogging was done in the evenings, and the last two weeks I have been grading exams and writing up notes for a new course on Sacramental theology I am teaching the Permanent deacon students. Now with the end of the quarter things have not really slowed down, but some time has opened up a little, so I hope to be adding more to the site

    Please pray for the fourth year seminarians who are doing their canonical deacon retreat from Monday to Friday of this week. For the archdiocese of Cincinnati, they are Marty Bachman, Robert Hadden, Matthew Lee, Shawn Landenwich, Tony Tozzi, Barry Stechschulte and David Endres. For the diocese of Toledo, they are Chris Bohnsack, Jason Kahle, and Tony Recker. They will all be ordained to the Diaconate in April.

     With the focus on the revival of the 1962 Rite and the revision of the Good Friday prayers, a lot of people have a lot of hope that a Liturgical renewal is on the way. The realist in me does not necessarily see it. I know that when the Extraordinary Rite is brought up, even to some of the retired priests, some almost apoplectic.

     Now, it was noted in Catholic News Report online ,that Archbishop Ranjith, of the Congregation for Divine worship wrote in a book introduction that it is time for the Church to revisit the idea of communion in the hand. He would like to see reception returned to being on the tongue only. Here at the Seminary, I know that the majority receive the Lord on the tongue. However, would it be a good idea for the Church to mandate again communion on the tongue only? I don’t know. It is not because I think communion in the hand is a good thing, but because once something is given, it is very hard, if not nearly impossible to take it back.

     Here is whatI think is a good example: The GIRM and Sacramentum Caritatis mandates that only metal chalices be used in the distribution of the precious Blood of Jesus. However, how many places have you gone where glass/crystal is still being used? I recently received the Church goods catalogue from Meyer-Vogelpohl here in Cincinnati, and besides the very ugly iron work stuff they are trying to pass off as suitable for the liturgy (ne gustibus), they make this statement in regard to their MV glassware: Meyer-Vogelpohl continues to serve the liturgy with glass vessels meant exclusively for sacred use; they are not easily broken and they do not easily deteriorate. Over the years, these glass vessels have enabled the assembly to see the Eucharistic elements as food and drink for the journey of faith. MV glass has become an important part of the liturgical custom of the Church of the United States today and we will continue to offer quality glass that is worthy of the Eucharist. (emphasis mine)

     It appears to me that in light of the highlighted statement, the Congregation for Divine Worship will have to clear any emendations of liturgical vessels with Meyer-Vogelpohl in Cincinnati. I doubt that Archbishop Ranjith knows this. I doubt that he even cares.

     Have we reached a point in the US where the Church goods business determines the kind, syle and material of vessels used in the liturgy more than the documents of the Church? What do you think?

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support SACRED HEART RADIO

    Beginning today, on the feast of St. Agatha, Mass here at the Seminary was celebrated in Latin with the exception of the readings and prayers of the faithful, in the Novus Ordo Form. It will be celebrated on the first Tuesday on every month. I have to admit that I do not have a strong feeling on it one way or the other. It is my hope, though, that it will cause the seminarians here to focus on the study of the Latin language. Learning a language is hard work and having Mass in Latin once a month is not going to help much in their knowledge of it. It will, however, show its usefulness to them and encourage them. Now, if we can only get them to learn KOINE GREEK.