July 4th

It is a significant weekend here in the US with celebrations of the anniversary of Independence Day. Already the campus and the town is turning red white and blue with stars and stripes.

For us at the Liturgical Institute the weekend marks the half-way point of our studies. Two of our classes finish today: Sources and Methods of Liturgical Research and The Liturgical Movement of the century before the Second Vatican Council. After this morning's Sources and Method's exam the community is feeling a bit weary. It was a tough exam and the in the last few days the house has been very focussed on study. Even numbers at "holy hour" decreased. I am pretty confident that I passed the exam, but I had hoped to do better than that. Next week will tell.

This afternoon I complete the final paper for the Liturgical Movement class. I am nearly there as as soon as I finish this note I will spend an hour completing the essay.

A few of us are heading into Chicago city for the weekend. It will be good to have a break from the campus environment. I will arrive back here on Sunday afternoon ready for the beginning of the second semester on Monday morning.

It will also be good to leave the computer for the weekend so there won't be a blog from me till Monday evening NZ time.

I am amazed at the number of people who are following the blog. Thank you for your emails and responses. It is certainly helpful to me to continue to journey, reflect and pray alongside the parishioners of Chatham Islands and Our Lady of Victories.

Blessings

John

a new month

A lot has happened for me this month. The same will be true for you. We are not the same people as we were just four weeks ago. Today has the added significance of being the half-way point of the year.

A lot has happened for each of us in this first half of 2010.

When I began this year my Dad was on the road to recovery after two months in hospital. Just six weeks into the year we buried him. As we all know that everything that happens has its effects. Every circumstance brings us joy or takes its toll. We can easily fall into the trap of hanging out till Friday for a break, or just surviving until the burden passes or the task is complete. Perhaps it is Christmas that we long for with a couple of weeks when we can take things a little more easily. For me at the moment I just want to be free of the two exams I have in the next two days.

Every time we meet the first day of a new month I am aware of the new beginning. Kind of a little opportunity for a 'new-month's-resolution.' Life is full of such new beginnings if I am prepared to see and embrace them. The struggles and perceptions of last month do not have to carry over into the new month. The difficulties of last week do not have to stay with me past the Sunday Mass. The worries of yesterday are ready to leave me as I go to bed, if I am willing to let them go. Tomorrow is a new day.

But the reality is that worry, struggle, anxiety and sin often do cling to us into the next day or month, or even into new years. There is a reason for this. Humans do not have the capacity to let go, or to be free of struggle and sin in response to a simple human decision or a change of date. Something more is needed.

This is where the Sacrament of Reconciliation is needed. The Church encourages us to make regular use of this Sacrament. Not simply because it is a 'condition of membership', but because every healthy human person needs this encounter with God coming into their place of greatest weakness, sin and shame.

You may not have celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation for many weeks or years. This is not a problem for God. Just make contact with a priest anytime. Every priest is happy to be approached, even when he seems most busy. Making the Sacraments available is the heart of the life of the priest. The Sacraments (and especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation) give us a new start any day of any month.

At OLV there are several opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation every week:

Saturday morning 9.30 - 10.00am

Saturday evening 5.15 - 5.30

Sunday morning 9.15-9.30

Sunday evening 4.15 - 4.30

Wednesday evening 6.30 - 6.45

and anytime by appointment.

Father Kevin or Father Steve Lowe (in residence for a couple of weeks at OLV and whenever he is at a break from Holy Cross Seminary in Auckland), are happy to hear from you anytime. Just phone or email for a priest at olv@paradise.net.nz

more exams

This morning I am not sure if it is study or prayer I need. I have an exam this afternoon and another on Friday. There is still some reading I have to do for the exam and some key points that I need to grasp.

I have decided to to both - and since you (the readers of blog) can't study for me ( or sit the exams) how about you pray for me.

I will continue to do the same for you.

GPS and God

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it here before, but when I was in Italy last month, with a friend, I rented a car. We picked it up from Termini (train station) in Rome. Our plan was, over three days, to enjoy Tuscany and Umbria.

I have never driven in Italy before. They drive on the wrong side of the road. The way the Italians drive is also proof that they believe in God. I hired the car only because it had GPS. The woman at the rental counter assured me that the GPS voice was in English. She added that this little box would be happy to tell me where to go.

As we drove away from Termini it was the job of my passenger to operate the navigation system. We got it working only after a couple of hours of confusion (including one particularly difficult half hour when we drove through the same motor-way toll three times).

Within a few hours the GPS was talking to us (in English) and giving us clear directions exactly when we needed them. In the three days we managed to enjoy several small Italian towns: Assisi, Gubbio, San Gimignano, Siena and Florence among other wonderful towns and roads.

There is much to write about in each of these places, but this story is about the GPS.

For the first day we obediently followed every direction of the GPS lady. But it didn't take too long for us to realise that if we accidentally, or even deliberately misunderstood, ignored or disobeyed her instruction, she would (after a few moments of apparent confusion) re-route us. This meant that if we drove a few miles down the wrong road, she would note that the quickest route to our destination was not to return to the point of deviation, but to move ahead by a new route.

We realised that it was impossible for us to ever be lost! Our lady in the little box knew how to find us, and was very enthusiastic about leading us from wherever we were to wherever we wanted to go.

That is the theological point.

With God, we are never lost. The people we love are never lost. In every moment God knows where we are. It is true that (as with the GPS) I might be in a place that I did not want to be. I could end up in a destination that promised all kinds of beauty and pleasure, but did not deliver at all. But the moment I decide that I want to get back on the road, God will lead me.

To be honest it does get a bit tiresome playing at disobeying the GPS. It is fun for a while to be re-found and re-directed, but in the end I want to be on the road to where I am going.

The voice of God speaking to us through the scripture and Tradition of the Church offers us clear direction. If we follow the voice we are saved a lot of hassle and dead ends. We find that we are less tired. We feel as though we are living more intentionally. We can be more confident about reaching our destinations on time.

When we hear and live by the leadings of God, Life has a purpose.

meet one of my teachers

I thought you might be interested in meeting one of my teachers here. Dr. Denis McNamara is a lay man who has written and lectured widely on the history and theology of ecclesiastical architecture, and had served on the Art and Architecture Commission of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He is currently Assistant Director and faculty member at the Liturgical Institute of the University of St. Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary, and serves as a liturgical design consultant.

It is inspiring to hear Denis talk about the purpose (as opposed to simply the function) of a Church building. The function of the Church building is to provide a gathering space for people who seek to worship. The functions of the building are to keep the rain out and provide enough warmth with some heating and some windows. That is simply the function, although in the last fifty years many Churches have been designed with these practical functions as their entire brief.

Much more important than these practical functions of the Church building, is the purpose of the Church building. The purpose of a Church is to serve as a sign that directs the worshipper to the reality of God. The Church will do this by pointing us beyond the limited realities of earthly existence to the beauty of the fulness of eternal life offered us by God.

You will get a sense of this beauty if you listen to some of Denis' brief interviews on youtube. His introduction the life of the Jewish Temple is a good start. Denis develops the theme of the Temple architecture in his reflections on the San Chapelle in Paris and Chartres Cathedral about an hour from Paris.

In recent months Denis has received awards for his book Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy

It is especially satisfying to know that the restored Our Lady of Victories Church meets the central requirements of not only function but also (and more importantly) the purpose of good Church architecture.

the weekend again

It is the end of the second week of the six week programme. The time is passing quickly. Tomorrow it is my turn to celebrate Mass for the community: I will offer this Mass for the parishes of St Therese of Lisieux, Chatham Islands, Our Lady of Victories Sockburn, for those whose prayer intentions we carried on the OLV pilgrimage, and for all those who visit this blog.

As you might imagine it is a bit of a challenge to celebrate the Mass, and to lead Morning and Evening prayer for a community whose sole reason for existence is to focus on the celebration of the Liturgy. I have been well prepared by our Sunday celebrations of the Mass at OLV.

Time for bed

John

Liturgy - an Archbishop's challenge

This year the Liturgical Institute celebrates its tenth anniversary. There are several events planned through the year. Next Thursday the day is given to a presentation of the Institutions catechesis for the introduction of the Revised Missal and Revised Order of the Mass.

Tonight was the occasion of the annual Hillenbrand lecture. Monsignor Reynold Hillebrand was a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, rector of this Mundelein seminary, and a significant figure in the development of the Liturgical Movement in the US Church in the years before and after the Second Vatican Council.

Tonight's lecture was presented by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver and was titled: "Glorify God by your life:evangelization and the renewal of the liturgy."

Archbishop Chaput is an intelligent and engaging speaker. You might like to read the full text of his address. It is a challenging read, but spending some time understanding what he says and reflecting on it will lead you to a deeper appreciation of the movement of the restoration of the Liturgy that we are undertaking at Our Lady of Victories.

The Archbishop begins by quoting one of the most significant minds in the Liturgical Movement of last century, Fr. Romano Guardini. Soon after the promulgation of the Vatican II document on the liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium", Guardini wrote to a gathering of liturgists. He concluded his letter by saying:

“Is not the liturgical act, and with it all that goes under the name ‘liturgy,’ so bound up with the historical background—antique or medieval or baroque— that it would be more honest to give it up altogether? Would it not be better to admit that man in this industrial and scientific age, with its new sociological structure, is no longer capable of the liturgical act?”ⁱ

The Archbishop reflects on this:

"Guardini believed that the spirit of the modern world wasundermining the beliefs that made this liturgical consciousness possible. His insight here is that our faith and worship don’t take place in a vacuum. We’re always to some extent products of our culture. Our frameworks of meaning, our perceptions of reality, are shaped by the culture in which we live – whether we like it or not.

He continues on the reasons that he thinks Guardini was accurate in his comment:

"...We’re surrounded in our daily lives by monuments to our power over nature and necessity. The trophies of our autonomy and self-sufficiency are everywhere -- buildings, machines, medicines, inventions. Everything seems to point to our capacity to provide for our every need through our own know-how and technology.

"Again the question becomes: What does this do to the central premise of our worship -- that we are creatures dependent upon our Creator, and that we owe thanksgiving to God for every good gift, beginning with the gift of life?

Archbishop Chaput then makes four points that he considers to be the steps we need to take to ensure that we are able to celebrate liturgy:

1. We need to recover the intrinsic and inseparable connection between liturgy and evangelization.

2. The liturgy is a participation in the liturgy of heaven, in which we worship in Spirit and truth with the worldwide Church and the communion of saints.

3. We need to strive to recover and live with the same vibrant liturgical and evangelical spirituality as the early Christians.

4. The liturgy is a school of sacrificial love. The law of our prayer should be the law of our life. Lex orandi, lex vivendi. We are to become the sacrifice we celebrate.

If If you are ready for a challenge - and some robust liturgical reflection, turn to the full text of the Archbishop's talk.