Friday morning

I recall once before being in Rome in August - and I remember that the heat is pretty unbearable. When I arrived back here earlier in the week the heat was the first thing I noticed. It had been hot in Chicago as well - but much more humid.

Many of the Rome locals head for the hills (or other cooler places) for much of August. Even the pope has left town - for his summer house at Castel Gandolfo.

My room does not have air conditioning so I keep the shutters down. There are some air conditioned lounges in the house so I have started to spend more time reading there.

Vatican gardens

It is only six weeks since I left Italy to begin the Chicago studies at the Liturgical Institute. A lot has happened in that time. To be honest I have found it difficult to re-adjust to life here with at the de la Salle brothers community. The intensity of the study, the prayer, and the community life of Mundelein University is past and it has been difficult to start reading on my own again.

However the Liturgical Institute has left me with some great books to read. I spent much of today on one reflecting on the implementation on the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium). Sadly most Catholics know little of the beauty of this document and all that it calls us to in the celebration of the Mass. Most Catholic's think that Vatican II made a couple of changes: 1. the priest faces the people and 2. the Mass is in English (our vernacular). Well there are sixteen documents of the Council, and these two changes are 'options' from ONE of the sixteen documents. There is a wealth of treasure in all the Conciliar documents, especially in the liturgy document. More on this later.

I treated myself yesterday to a tour of the Vatican gardens. It was a wonderful experience and we must make it a part of any future OLV pilgrimage to Rome. A happy side-effect of the tour is that you can skip the queue to the museum, and when the garden tour finishes they leave you in the museum.

A few photos from the visit. First some great and rare views of the dome:

and the pagoda given to Pope John XXIII by the Chinese people - a favourite stopping place for him on his walks.

I imagine that he is sitting here writing bits of Sacrosanctum Concilium:

Below is the Lourdes grotto. It was gifted to John XXIII by the diocese of Lourdes in 1958 - the year of his election and the 100th anniversary of the Lourdes apparitions. It is an exact replica of the Lourdes grotto where the OLV pilgrimage celebrated Mass early one May morning in 2008. The altar in this grotto was from the original Lourdes Church where Bernadette prayed and was a part of the gift to the pope.

The guide told us that the Lourdes grotto is a favourite place for Pope Benedict XVI. She mentioned that he walks here and then through the French garden back to his car around 5 most afternoons.

and the Italian Garden

they say that a real Italian garden should only have different shades and shapes of green so I'm not sure what the red flowers are doing in there.

And a final favourite corner. After studying architecture and art over the past few weeks I have a new appreciation of the ability that these have to speak to us of divine realities. I liked the way the baroque dome of St Peters was reflected in the rose arches in this photo.

and finally finally - there are plants from all over the world growing in these gardens, from cacti to ferns and everything in between. Even trees from Australia:

and finally finally finally - I thought you might like to see the pope's heliport:

but that's a pretty dull picture to leave you with so here is another of the dome through the trees:

back in Italy

Late this morning I arrived back in Rome after the ten hour flight from Chicago. It is good to be back with the de la Salle brothers. A lot has happened since I was here last. There is a lot to be said for the intensive courses of the Liturgical Institute Summer. The daily four hours of class with an active community and prayer life was very good for me. Already I miss much of the rhythm of life that the forty of us shared together for those six week.

On the last night a few of us stayed in Chicago city. It was a great night and a chance to celebrate the satisfactory completion of the courses. Yesterday morning as we prepared to head to the airport a storm overwhelmed the city. As a result there were many hold-ups especially at security as crowds of people tried to get through to their flights. I remembered the first time I left NZ, flying was easy. No real security and no queues. Things are very different now and flying is no longer the pleasure it once was.

It's been a long day. I'm off to bed.

last day

Today is the last day of this session of the Liturgical Institute. I have been here for six weeks and completed four papers studying different aspects of liturgy: Liturgical sources and methods, The Liturgical Movement from the 19th century to the present, Liturgical Art and Architecture, and Liturgy and Inculturation.

The quality of the every aspect of this programme has been much better than I had expected or even hoped. The community life has been great and focussed soundly on study and prayer together.

The last few days has been full with an exam and two more papers due. This morning I have been reading for the last class this morning and around midday this great group of people will head in many different directions to their homes all over the US, Canada and Australia.

I will head back to Italy for a further month with some great reading, and plans for a lot more sleep than I have managed in these Chicago weeks.

It has been especially good to have the opportunity for this study in the months before we in NZ begin to use the Revised Order of the Mass. As we have studied these texts I realise again what a great gift this new Missal is for the Church. Yes, it will be a challenge to implement this, but as intelligent people, eager to be fully active in the Mass, we are up to the task.

Today I had the opportunity to touch one of the first copies of the Missal for use in the United States. (photo below - there are only 22 copies of this US Missal in existence at present. While we will begin to use the new Missal in NZ in Advent this year, the US is probably a further twelve months from their start.

I will blog again on Monday from Rome.

Monday morning

It is Monday morning, the last week of classes. Both papers are almost complete ( a couple of hours this afternoon will finish them. On Thursday I have the final exam and on Friday we depart.

It is 6.30am and I am just back from a stroll around the campus. This has become a regular pattern of these study days - and (despite holy hours) I have been waking without an alarm soon after 5 every morning. The three hours before classes gives good time for prayer and some study.

The bells still ring (ref an earlier blog) calling us to prayer every fifteen minutes. Throughout these weeks I have associated this call to prayer with three groups of people and whenever I hear the bell I remember these groups in prayer: the parishioners of St Therese of Lisieux Chatham Islands, Our Lady of Victories Sockburn, and all readers of this blog. Every Sunday I offer Mass for both parishes, and this afternoon (Tuesday 10am NZ time I will offer Mass as I often do for the intentions of all readers of the blog). You can help by becoming aware of your prayer intention. God will make the link with me and my prayer is then for your intention.

NZ Bishop's Letter

The letter below was read at all Masses in NZ this weekend.

New Zealand Catholic Bishops

Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on introduction of Roman Missal

18 July 2010

Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops of New Zealand written on the occasion of the introduction to Aotearoa New Zealand of the Roman Missal (Third Edition)

“New Words. Deeper Meaning. Same Mass.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We are a priestly people. Christ’s work has made us so, through the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. It is our vocation to gather Sunday after Sunday in the presence of God, on behalf of the world, to celebrate Mass, the treasure at the heart of our life as Church.

The ritual text that draws us into this liturgy and our participation in the paschal mystery is the Roman Missal. On 30 April 2010, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments gave its final approval (recognitio) to the Third Edition of the Roman Missal, the new English translation of the Prayers of the Mass. Now we are working towards the printing of this new liturgical book for the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand.

It is our desire that we will be able to pray these new texts on the First Sunday of Advent, 28 November 2010.

We are ‘a community of memory’1, a people who has become deeply familiar with the texts of the Mass we have prayed with for almost forty years now. It is rare for ritual language to change. It will not be easy to let go of the words that we have said, heard, and sung at Mass and receive the words that are changing. Bishops, priests and people alike will need to learn again how to use these words for our prayer - ‘to praise, bless and thank God, to ask for God’s help in our need’2.

In the months that precede the publication of these new texts, we invite you to join us in making use of the different opportunities that will be offered in each diocese to look once again at how Eucharist is being celebrated in our parishes, schools and communities; to give prayerful and thoughtful consideration towards our liturgical practices; and above all, to make time to explore the new texts. We are convinced that by paying close attention to both the demands and the delights these new texts will place upon us, we will inevitably be drawn “more fully into the beauty of liturgical prayer.”3

It is fitting that such a new and significant unfolding of the prayer life of our Church begins with the Season of Advent, in the company of Mary, the Mother of God. For God will surely make present amongst us a new birth in our liturgical life and grace us in the weeks and months ahead with a new way of Becoming One Body, One Spirit in Christ.

In Christ.

+ John Dew

Archbishop of Wellington

President

+ Pat Dunn

Bishop of Auckland

Secretary

+ Denis Browne

Bishop of Hamilton

+ Colin Campbell

Bishop of Dunedin

+ Peter Cullinane

Bishop of Palmerston North

+ Barry Jones

Bishop of Christchurch

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

18 July 2010

1 Mark Searle, Barabara Searle and Anne Y. Koester, Editors. Called to Participate. The Liturgical Press 2006 .

2 Fr Tom Elich. “The new translation: Dread or Delight?” Liturgy News. March 2010.

3 ibid.

piety & skepticism

learning with food and drink

Almost every class here gives rise to much conversation and discussion. It is rare that the meal table and 'holy hours' (note these hours are still plural!) are not filled with talk of the reading or the lecturer's morning presentation. This is a great way to learn - while the seeds of the learning are sown in class, the process of real education happens when these seeds are tossed around over food and drink.

pious skepticism

This morning I heard the term 'pious skepticism' used. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first. It it a good thing or not? While most of us have a common idea of what it is to be skeptical of a thing a thought or a person, I suspect we might have a greater range of views on what it is to be 'pious'. There is even a broad range of definition in different dictionaries.

The best definition I have heard defines piety as an openness to inherited wisdom; a readiness to learn from the experience of others across the centuries; a willingness to take the wisdom of the ages seriously. A skeptic will reject much of (even all of) what came before.

These sabbatical weeks have been for me a time of learning much more of the Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Tradition. My use of capitals is intentional - these are capital words that point us to the answer to life's deepest desires.

A pious skeptic therefore will receive gladly the treasures of the past (from family, culture and faith) and examine these afresh in the light of a new era. As people of faith we lean towards a presumption (at very least) that what nourished the faith of our Catholic ancestors, will also provide the food that we need today.

I suspect that like me (when I began to think about this thismorning) you will now be trying to work out if you are pious or skeptical! It might be helpful to consider the extremes of each position.

danger of both extremes

The person who takes piety to the extreme is one who is attached to anything that is old, simply because the mists of antiquity provide a fog to enshroud their present struggles. This person might long for the Tridentine Mass as the norm in every parish simply because it is old. They remember the silence and incense. These people may be more nostalgic than faith-filled.

The one who lives in extreme skepticism rejects the wisdom and learning of the past. For them Tradition (capital intented ... ie the unchangeable wisdom and practice handed through the generations), and the traditions (note small 't' meaning all the important and helpful but not absolutely essential wisdom of the past), belong in a museum under lock and key. The skeptic might visit this museum to look and leave saying - thank God (actually a real skeptic would not thank God since God belongs in the past for the skeptic), we are past needing those relics.

the beauty of Tradition

I find it interesting that in an age when traditions in families and traditions are being revived, many people do not have the same openness to the treasures of two thousand years of Catholic faith. It is significant that some Catholic parishes and schools are enthusiastic about celebrating a Jewish seder meal (on Holy Thursday) from the third century AD, they might not have the same desire to rediscover the formality and dignity of the third century Catholic Mass.

If your six year old nephew were learn a Celtic folk song at school, and stand and sing it at a family party because he knew it was his Irish Great-Grandmothers favourite song, we would be moved to tears. But if the same boy came home from school having learnt the Pater Noster (Our Father in Latin), we might well call the school with a concern (or complaint?) that the teacher was trying to resuccitate a dead language, or promote outdated forms of faith.

Such a skeptical position is irrational since it is usually held by people who have benefitted from the wisdom of the past in many ways particularly in a classical education. These skeptics have managed to compartmentalise their religion. In matters of faith they see skepticism as the ideal. Whereas in other areas of life they enjoy the fruits of their ancestors' labour and wisdom.

irrational?

Such irrationality does not belong in an otherwise intelligent Catholic adult. I recall one intelligent person involved in education complaining to me that we were wrong to sing the Kyrie (not Latin but Greek) at OLV, and proof of this was that people had decided to leave the parish in protest at this move. When we began to sing the Our Father (in English) to the ancient Gregorian tone a couple of years ago, another person thought I was treating people as children because the melody “only had three notes”.

into the future, with the benefit of our Catholic past

This weekend at all Masses in New Zealand a letter from the Catholic Bishops is to be read. This letter reminds NZ Catholics that later in the year we will welcome the Revised form of the Mass. This is a wonderful opportunity for us all to receive anew the liturgical treasures of our past, in a way that carries us into the future, that is into our eternal heavenly future.

essay writing

I am aware I have not written for a couple of days. Two more papers are due early next week - one on church architecture and art, the second on the inculturation of the Rites of the Church into particular cultures. I am enjoying both of the papers which is part the problem. I am at the stage where the writing of the essays would have begun - but the background reading is so interesting I keep getting distracted.

It is now Saturday afternoon. Once again I am aware that on the Chatham Islands (where Sr. Deirdre and Sr Cora still are), and at OLV, people will be gathering for for Sunday Worship: Service of the Word with Communion at St Therese of Lisieux, and Mass at OLV.

It is hard to believe that on Friday of next week the programme at the Liturgy Institute finishes and we all head off. Next Saturday I return to Italy.

I have a few thoughts for my next blog entry. I will use that as an escape from work tomorrow and will publish it then (Monday morning NZ time).

Mass for the community

Today it is my turn once again to lead Morning and Evening Prayer and to celebrate Mass for the community. It is the feast day of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 - 1680). Blessed Kateri is the first American Indian woman to be named Blessed.

Her life was lived in an extraordinarily difficult time. Apart from the difficulty of living as an indiginous woman in a land filling with European settlers, there were considerable tensions between local American Indian tribes. When she was four her family (and many others) were inflicted with smallpox. Her parents and brother died. Kateri was left with severe facial scarring and limited sight. She was raised by an uncle and encountered the witness of Jesuit missionaries when she was eleven. From that moment she gave her life to living with and for God. At 20 she was baptised and she died at 24.

From that encounter with God in Catholicism Kateri wanted to be a saint. She focussed on this life firmly aware of her own difficult reality. For her (as for any saint) the life of God is not an escape from the struggles of human reality, but a way of living with ultimate purpose in the midst of human reality.

Before five o'clock these thoughts will hopefully form a brief homily!

architecture on Sunday night

It has been a good weekend. Every weekend here is a healthy balance of study and recreation. In two weeks I will finish the studies here at the Liturgical Institute and head back to Italy for the final month of Sabbatical before returning to NZ on September 4.

Much of today (Sunday) has been taken up with reading for the Art and Architecture course. Tomorrow's class is a four hour session. At the heart of the reading is the fact that a church building (and church art) is intended to be a sign that points us beyond earthly existence.

I have already introduced Denis McNamara to you in an earlier blog. This weekend I have been reading not only his book, but a selection of other articles he has presented. Earlier in the year he presented at a conference on Church architecture. You might appreciate another of his videos, this time from his lecture to the 2010 symposium "Extending and Transforming the Tradition of Catholic Sacred Architecture"

Chatham Islands

The challenge of much of what I am learning in these weeks directs me in thought back to parish life at Our Lady of Victories and Chatham Islands. The Chatham Islands has been especially in my thoughts this week. It is a challenge to be the pastor of a parish where I am not resident. For this reason I was delighted when the Holy Faith sisters in Christchurch expressed an interest in visiting the Chathams.

So last week Sr. Deirdre and Sr Cora (who live in Mairehau) made the journey down to the Chathams. They will be there for two weeks. I called them yesterday and spent some time chatting about how they have found their first days in this wonderful and unique part of the country. They were full of gratitude for the welcome that the locals have given them. Many of the conversations they have had in their first days have revealed that the Catholic faith is alive and well on the island.

As I write this note the sisters will be leading the Sunday morning Service of the Word with communion at St Therese of Lisieux Church in Waitangi. Our prayers are with them.

Te Whanga Lagoon - near the airport

10 years

Today (Wednesday) was a day of celebration for the Liturgical Institute. Ten years ago (July 2000) the Institute was founded by Cardinal George of Chicago as a place of good liturgical formation.

Instead of our regular classes today, the day was given to an experience of the Institute's programme for the introduction of the Revised Order of the Mass in the US. This programme is titled Mystical Body Mystical Voice. While NZ will introduce the revised Mass on the first Sunday of Advent this year (2010), it is expected that the United States will implement the changes to the texts of the Mass twelve months later. In Australia the changes are expected at Pentecost next year.

THere is helpful introductory material (especially the podcasts) on the Institute's Mystical Body Mystical Voice website.

At the end of the day Mass was celebrated and followed by an anniversary banquet.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the introduction of these revised texts provide an ideal opportunity for us to look at why we pray the words we pray in the way we pray them at Mass. In these months of preparation we have the opportunity to rediscover the beauty of the Mass.

This journey of rediscovery will require an intelligent participation on the part of every Catholic. I am committed to doing my part by providing (in whatever way I can ...blog at the moment) good information and teaching for the people of OLV and Chatham Islands. But this is not a task that I will do alone. Today and tomorrow Carey Haines (OLV Liturgy Co-ordinator) and Dennis Currie (OLV Director of Music) are in Auckland at a national seminar led by Fr. Paul Turner. The information they receive from this session, and the contacts they make with others from around the country, will enable them to work with me to ensure that the parish of OLV makes the most of this opportunity to rediscover the beauty of the Mass.

When you see Carey or Dennis at Mass ask them how the seminar was. Give them the chance to share something of what they have learned with you!

Fr Paul Turner will also be speaking in Christchurch next week. If you can get to hear him don't miss the chance.

The Internet gives an opportunity to learn easily at home from online dvd's and articles. The clips from Monsignor James Moroney (ref yesterday's blog) give a great introduction.

meet another of my teachers

This week we have begun the second session of studies. You have already 'met' one of my teachers, Dr. Denis McNamara who is teaching Church Art & Architecture. The second class of the session is taught by Monsignor James Moroney. For many years he has been involved in the work of preparing the Revised Order of the Mass which is to be introduced in the New Zealand Church at the end of this year. This new Missal will be received in the remainder of the English speaking world over the next two years.

As I came back to my room tonight after 'holy hour' tonight I felt deep gratitude for the privilege of studying here at this particular moment in the life of the Church. Monsignor Moroney joined us for the 'holy hours' (notice that the singular has become plural!) so we had the privilege of talking informally about all aspects of the development of the liturgy. I hope we see him again at these evening 'hh' sessions.

In liturgical studies these days, the term 'reform of the reform' is commonly used. We know that there was significant 'reform' of the Liturgy of the Church in the 1960's. Unfortunately most New Zealand Catholics think that the biggest changes introduced then were to move from Latin to English for the celebration of the Mass, and to turn the priest to face the people. In fact these were considered to be relatively insignificant and even optional changes in the light of the broad reform of the Liturgy we were called to by the Second Vatican Council. The present 'reform of the reform' invites us to move deeper than the external alterations to appreciate anew the beauty of the Mass.

The past forty years has been a time of great change in the world. The Church has been enthusiastic in responding to these changing circumstances and needs. In many ways this has been a 'teen-age' era for the Church. In the same way that a teenager might have little respect for traditional boundaries and accepted norms, so too this era in the life of the Church has shown many of these same characteristics.

It is not difficult to see many positive fruits of this phase. At the same time we can see that the Church, that was so central in the life of our parents and ancestors, is not as important for our children and grandchildren. This is a great concern to us; not simply because so many of those we love are not at Mass on Sunday, but because the Church is the ultimate place of encounter between God and humans.

If people are not at Mass regularly they really are missing out on the nourishment that is essential for human life.

While God is everywhere, and God speaks and listens in every moment of every human life, if we are not at Mass and the sacraments every Sunday at least, we are taking the tough road. In the Liturgy of the Church we place ourselves within a community of openness to God. Without a doubt, those who choose to live life fully within the Church are at a great advantage.

Now we are invited to move beyond the 'teen-age' phase of liturgical movement into the richness of adult liturgical life. In this stage we will no longer be satisfied with liturgy that satisfies our feelings. Instead we allow the Liturgy of the CHurch to FORM and to REFORM us in the image and likeness of God. Rather than simply praying how and what we feel in our Liturgy, we receive anew the fulness of the Tradition of the Church's life of Liturgy. It is less important that the prayers and actions of the Mass 'pray what we mean'. Instead we grow together to mean what we pray.

This is why the texts of the prayers of the Mass are so important. This is why people like Monsignor Moroney has given his years of his life to the work of developing accurate translations of the prayers of the Mass. You will notice when you look at the website and his dvd's that the language used for some of the prayers is not the way we talk in everyday conversation. This is because the Mass is not primarily about human people talking to God. The Mass is the ultimate in God's communication with us. Instead of praying what we feel, we grow to feel what we pray.

As many of you have heard me say before, I believe that these months are a moment of tremendous opportunity for the life of the Catholic Church in New Zealand. We are invited to look deeper than the superficial changes we have made in our celebration of the Liturgy, to appreciate more deeply the treasure that awaits us within. We have peeled the fruit, now we are ready to eat and drink from our Tradition.

Some of Monsignor work is available online. You can view some of his DVD's introducing the New Translation of the Roman Missal at this link.

second semester

The 4th July weekend was a great break from study. A few of us stayed in Chicago city for the two nights enjoying the atmosphere of the city with a good opportunity for long sleep and slow meals. There hasn't been much chance for novels since I arrived here so I made up for that.

Today we begin two more courses. I am looking forward to them both. One is on Liturgical Art and architecture. I have read a bit on this in the years when we were restoring OLV church. The teacher is Denis McNamara (in the 'meet one of my teachers' blog last week you can hear him). In the reading I have done I was reminded that a church building has both a function and a purpose. The function is to keep the rain out, provide some seating, and to have lighting and heating etc. Once parishes add an Altar and Lectern etc they think they have completed the task of building a church. However they may have given no thought at all to the purpose of the church building.

A church building is to be a sign that points us beyond our earthly reality - to the fulness of life eternally with God. This is the whole purpose of having a church. It would be much cheaper for us to rent a school hall each day for Mass. But a church building stands in a community as a sign that points us to heaven.

This was very evident in New Zealand before multi-storey buildings. Back then the Church was the most substantial and tallest building on the skyline of any town. The change to malls being bigger and banks being taller than churches is relatively recent. This is problematic since the people of any age tend to follow the most visible signs in their city.

The Roman Empire began its rapid decline when the central building in Rome was no longer their places of worship but the Colosseum - a place for entertainment and sports.

How close are we to this when the most significant 'gathering places' for the people of a city are theatres and stadia. Add to this the introduction of projectors and screens to churches and the pointers become very confusing.

More later...