David Ancell / Monday, May 31, 2004 / Comments(0)
I’ve recently learned that some dictionaries are changing the definition of marriage. Perhaps George Orwell should have named his famous book “2004.” It appears that newspeak is taking over.
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David Ancell / Saturday, May 29, 2004 / Comments(0)
I’ve been having a good time on the new Catholic Answers forum. They are now starting to take up a number of topics of contention. I’ve just added this post to a thread on holding hands during the Lord’s prayer.
Let me start by saying that, if you grab my hand during the Our Father, I will wipe my nose with your hand. No matter what the intent, no one has the right to add something to the Mass that is not in the rubrics. If it isn’t in the book, don’t do it. It doesn’t matter what kind of feelings it gives you. I’m sure that holding hands during the Our Father is not grave matter, but it still requires obedience.
I’ve heard people say, “The rubrics don’t say we can’t do it.” However, please understand the nature of liturgical law. The rubrics also don’t say that we can’t:
However, I can envision that few, if any, people reading this thread would actually consider any of the above acceptable. In fact, in the case of the second and third points, the rubrics specifically say to do something else. My point is that there is no way that the rubrics can be written to prohibit everything that someone will try to do, especially considering the strange things that have happened in American liturgies. Therefore, they normally only state what is permitted. Anything else isn’t permitted.
There are some really good other posts on the topic. Here is one that contains official documentation, and here is one by Karl Keating.
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David Ancell / Friday, May 28, 2004 / Comments(0)
Here’s something for those who use the excuse “There are hypocrites in church.” to avoid Mass:
If you go to Mass, you will spend one hour a week with these kind of people. If you were to go to Mass every Sunday for the next 100 years, you would spend the equivalent of about 217 days with the hypocrites (less then one year). Contrast this with having to spend all eternity in Hell with them, and you see that you will do much better at avoiding hypocrites than if you avoid going to Mass.
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David Ancell / Friday, May 28, 2004 / Comment(1)
I can’t swear to the authenticity of this, but this page claims to have a draft of the new translation of the Mass in English. If this is really what we are going to experience soon, I am excited. Some of the phrases, especially in the Creed, will be more difficult to say at first, but this is much better that what we are currently subjected to.
Here are some things I noticed:
1. The mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa was restored to the as it should be. On top of that, the word “exceedingly” is reinserted to describe how we have sinned in the confeitor.
2. The Nicene Creed now has “visible and invisible” where it used to contain “seen and unseen.” It also emphasizes that Jesus existed before time began.
3. The Eucharistic Prayers, especially the Roman Canon, have been improved significantly. It more clearly emphasizes victim, sacrifice, and the divinity of Christ.
4. The crass “And also with you” was replaced with “And with your spirit.”
5. The Memorial Acclamation has dropped the “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” This version of the acclamation is widely used, but it is not in the Latin at all. It is at best silly and at worst heretical to address Christ in the third person when he is right there on the altar.
6. Just before Communion, the priest now says “Behold the Lamb of God” and “Blessed are they who are called to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.” The congegation responds “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
I really hope that this comes into general use quickly, even though it will mean that I have to buy new missals. It is beautiful. I hope that it will be preceded by teaching on the true meaning of the Mass.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, May 26, 2004 / Comments(0)
What if the abortion issue was really an issue of beheading of bishops? Well, Jeff Miller (along with Mark Shea) have an idea.
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David Ancell / Sunday, May 23, 2004 / Comments(0)
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David Ancell / Saturday, May 22, 2004 / Comments(0)
I heard about this on the Catholic Answers forum, but now here is an article. Apparently, our congressmen (including some who are pro-life) have decided that the Church should stay out of “partisan politics” by stating that a politician should not be denied the Eucharist on the basis of voting record.
But wait, there’s more . . . . these guys claim that anti-Catholic bigotry will return if the politicians are refused Communion. Nevermind the fact that it never left. Nevermind the fact that Jesus plainly said that “if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.” Anti-Catholic bigotry plainly exists. If it didn’t, why would politicians see a need to divorce their faith from their public life.
If the bishops were to conform to the statements of these politicians, one would have to accept one of two absurdities:
1. The Church, and therefore Christ himself, is subject to the laws and constitution, or even the culture, of the United States.
2. One can avoid any Church teaching he finds inconvenient by declaring it to be “partisan politics” or by declaring it to be some kind of area into which the Church should not tread. Oh wait, we already do this. Don’t we say that the Church should stay out of our bedroom, our business, and any other place where we decide we should to what we darn well please. Ah, but this is what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for in Matthew 15:5-6. They created a loophole in God’s law that allowed one to avoid honoring one’s father or mother by saying that anything that would have helped them is dedicated to God.
Of course, they can’t go without introducing the red herring of the war in Iraq. While the Just War Doctrine is indeed church teaching, the Pope’s opinion on the application of it is just that – his opinion. This is not so with abortion. The teaching against abortion is the consistent teaching of the Church, and abortion is intrinsically evil. Direct abortion is sinful in any and all circumstances regardless of whether one does or does not believe it.
We must pray that our leader’s hearts will not be so hard against the truth. Their duty to God is greater than their duty to their constituents.
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David Ancell / Thursday, May 20, 2004 / Comments(0)
In case you haven’t seen them yet, check out the Catholic Answers forums. They haven’t been there long, but they are already very active. Karl Keating even stops by to talk with members often. He even provided a forum to discuss his weekly newsletter.
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David Ancell / Thursday, May 20, 2004 / Comments(0)
It seems that pro-life issues are taking up a lot of my blog time lately. Then again, they are a very worthy cause. Bishop Sheridan of Colorado Springs is not backing down from his stance that pro-aborts cannot receive Communion. Although someone has threatened to cancel a $100,000 pledge, his spokesperson has stated that the Church is not about money. I second this. I’d rather see the Church lose all of their facilities and have to meet in people’s homes than have the Church fail to proclaim the truth.
Unfortunately, one of his own priests has spoken publicly against him. The priest was so eager to comment that he did so before he had bothered to read the entire letter. This priest should be removed as a pastor and immediately sent to a monastery to do penance and learn the faith.
Now that I’ve written about the good and the bad, the ugly is no less than John Kerry’s statements on assisted suicide. The fact that he calls it anything less than gravely evil further shows that he is not really Catholic. I pray that he repents before he dies. Otherwise., he will be very surprised to learn that God isn’t impressed with his “separation of Church and State” mentality.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, May 18, 2004 / Comments(0)
In case you haven’t heard, Moveable Type is going commercial. They have completely revised their licensing starting with version 3. There is still going to be a free version available, but it limits the number of blogs you can have, and it limits the number of users to one.
Will I upgrade? I do not know. The software does almost anything I want now. I regret that I never got around to sending a donation, and that may be a reason for me to buy it. This is truly excellent software, and the authors do deserve more support that they have received from me in the past. However, the user limits on licensing may cause a future problem.
At one time, Spiritual Pyromania was powered by Moveable Type. I switched it to something that I wrote because I wanted to integrate it with the web site’s password-protected area more closely. This prevented my members who worked on the blog from having to remember two passwords.
If I were to be able to get enough interest, revive the blog, and decide that I needed to use blog software, I would not buy Moveable Type under its current limit of five users for the $100 license. The Frassati Society has no money and will not make any money from our website. I can’t even use PayPal donations because there is no place to send them.
The web site runs off my web account from a directory mapped to a different URL. I would not want to run into a situation where I had to buy a license for the number of users I had. I can just imagine myself telling a member “Sorry, I can’t let you blog because I don’t have enough licenses.” or “I have to buy a license for you before I can let you on.” Given the time I had getting people to post to that blog, I am not about to refuse someone who can make a valuable contribution.
Of course, it may not be an issue. I shut that blog down in February, and I will not likely revive it unless a few members request that I do so and promise to support it. If I do, however, I won’t be able to use version 3 of Moveable Type. So, as much as I would like to support the authors (who, by one report, are fellow Catholics – correct me if I’m wrong), this is a potential impediment to my doing so. I’d have felt better if I had donated earlier.
I have disallowed comments on this post because I don’t want to hear any garbage from people who have a problem paying for software in general. People who work need to get paid for it. I am not criticizing them for charging for Moveable Type. They are well within their rights to do so.
The authors have also asked for feedback here.
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