Undusted Texts

"From time immemorial the ecclesiastical hierarchy has exercised this right in matters liturgical. It has organized and regulated divine worship, enriching it constantly with new splendor and beauty, to the glory of God and the spiritual profit of Christians. What is more, it has not been slow - keeping the substance of the Mass and sacraments carefully intact - to modify what it deemed not altogether fitting, and to add what appeared more likely to increase the honor paid to Jesus Christ and the august Trinity, and to instruct and stimulate the Christian people to greater advantage. The sacred liturgy does, in fact, include divine as well as human elements. The former, instituted as they have been by God, cannot be changed in any way by men. But the human components admit of various modifications, as the needs of the age, circumstance and the good of souls may require, and as the ecclesiastical hierarchy, under guidance of the Holy Spirit, may have authorized....All these ...

"It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church." --Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio §3 As the extra ecclesiam nulla salus doctrine is currently understood, we do not despair of the salvation of the non-Catholic baptized.  We acknowledge that the Spirit works through those aspects of the Faith they share in common with the Church.  The Church has the fullness of the faith: this cannot be denied.  When other Christians break away from the Church, they deny different aspects of this fullness; however, they hold on to some parts of the Faith, some vestiges of the Church, and these are enough to bring salvation.  (I refrain ...

Though I don't know if I've ever just reposted something, I think this is a fantastic event for the Roman liturgy: the addition of the name of St. Joseph by Pope Francis into all the Eucharistic Prayers, not just Eucharistic Prayer I (the Roman Canon), into which his name was added by Pope Bl. John XXIII. For more information, see Fr. John Zuhlsdorf's post. St. Joseph the Betrothed, pray for us!

In some way, liturgically, each week we celebrate Holy Week anew. The most obvious way this principle is seen is in the liturgical celebration of Sunday, the Lord's Day, the Day of the Resurrection.  Disregarding feasts, Sunday liturgies (in the widest sense: I am not solely referring to Eucharistic Liturgies) are more festive than the liturgies throughout the rest of the week.  "Every Sunday is a little Easter," I have heard it put frequently.  This is why, during Lent, Roman Catholics popularly partake of whatever food or activity they fast from (or "give up") throughout most of the Forty Days.  Every Sunday we celebrate Pascha. The second most obvious case of this principle is in the liturgical celebration of Friday, the Day of the Cross.  Friday is the most somber day of the week, liturgically: on Friday, we are all called to fast.  Each Friday recalls Good Friday, the day Our Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross for us.  It is the day of pena...

As we celebrate the Sabbath (still the Greek term for Saturday) each week, how should it draw our minds to Christ? The Sabbath began as a day of rest, the day on which the Lord "rested" from His work of creation.  In memory of that, it became the Lord's Day, the day when the Jews were likewise called to rest from their work.  Though now Sunday, the Day of the Lord's Resurrection, has taken the place of the Sabbath as the Lord's Day, our day of holy rest, we know that Saturday was originally the day of rest. Yet how much could God really rest on any day?  If there were not energy coming from God to us at all times, wouldn't we cease to be, we who are contingent beings?  And could God ever even need to rest?  He is omnipotent, after all.  We, though, weak as we are, need to rest, so God may have been giving us a model to follow, the model of holy rest.  The Sabbath was made for man, after all. That does not solve the problem, though, of a God Wh...

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword." -- Mt 10:34 Since today's Gospel reading (Mt 10:32-11:1) contains Christ's statement that He brings a sword, and since we frequently call Him "Prince of Peace," I thought today would be a good day to post a poem attempting to reconcile this seeming contradiction in Christ. He brings peace, yet gives a sword:  How to reconcile these?  But one man who's divinized  will be a sign of conflict:  Yet a people divinized  will be truly a race of peace.  Thus peace He gives to each man  and 'til ev'ry man has peace  swords will come on peaceful men:  from a man goes peace to men.    Text ©201 3 Brandon P. Otto .  Licensed via CC BY-NC.   Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the author.

 It is hard to doubt that monasteries (and I mean this in a wide use of the term: any community (or even person) who lives apart from the world and prays for the world) have been a key aspect of the Church for millennia, at least since the time of St. Antony the Great.  Monasteries began as hermits who lived near each other and had some community.  Eventually this expanded into communities who lived and prayed together.  In the West, this then expanded into the different religious orders, while in the East the forms of monastic life stayed more or less has they were in the early centuries of the Church. How are monks (again, in a very wide use of the term, including both men and women) helpful for the Church?  In two ways: through their witness and through their intercession.  Monks have a knack for being witnesses even when they try to remain closed off from the world: the faithful still hear of them, find them, seek their advice, and ask for their ...