Friday May 18, 2012
Every time a Holy Day of Obligation rolls around, the e-mails and comments start to roll in: "What right does the Church have to force me to go to Mass on a weekday?" "How can it be a mortal sin not to attend Mass?" "Why do we have all these man-made rules? Don't they just distract us from what Christ actually taught?"
The questions tend to be particularly pointed around Ascension, when Catholics in several ecclesiastical provinces in the United States don't understand why they have to go to Mass on Ascension Thursday, while, for Catholics in the rest of the United States, the celebration of the Ascension is transferred to the following Sunday.
"It's bad enough that I'm required to attend Mass on a Thursday; it's even worse that others don't have to!" From there, it's a quick jump to dismissing our Sunday Duty as just an arbitrary imposition by "old men in dresses" who have nothing better to do than to make life hard for us Catholics in the pews.
But is that really what these "man-made rules" are all about? Could it be that the Catholic Church actually has a reason for requiring us to join in the communal worship of God on Sundays and on the chief feasts of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary? Might Christ have known what He was doing when He gave Peter the power to bind and to loose (Matthew 16:19)?
You can find the answer in Why Does the Catholic Church Have So Many Man-Made Rules?
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Friday May 18, 2012
The idea of offering prayers for nine consecutive days recalls the nine days that the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles spent in prayer between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday.
When Christ ascended into Heaven, He told them He would send His Holy Spirit, and so they prayed for the coming of the Spirit.
Their prayer was granted when the Spirit descended upon them in tongues of fire on Pentecost, and thus the novena was born.
Since Ascension, the 40th day of Easter, was yesterday, there is really only one possibility for the Novena of the Week: the original Novena to the Holy Ghost.
In it, we pray to receive each of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and all of the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit.
You should begin praying the novena on Friday, the day after Ascension Thursday, so that you will complete it on the following Saturday, the eve of Pentecost. To make it easier to remember to pray the prayers each day, I have set up a convenient e-mail reminder. Simply sign up today, and each day's prayers will be e-mailed to you, along with additional information on Ascension, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and Pentecost.
(A dove perched in a hole in the wall outside the Basilica di Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mura (Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls), Rome, Italy. The dove is the traditional Christian symbol for the Holy Spirit. Photo © Scott P. Richert)
If you have a favorite novena that you'd like me to choose as Novena of the Week, or if you'd like me to suggest a novena for a particular intention, send me an e-mail, and I'll work it into the rotation.
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Thursday May 17, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012, is the 40th day of Easter.
In other words, it is Ascension Thursday, the day on which (the Bible tells us) Jesus Christ, having risen from the dead on Easter Sunday, ascended into Heaven.
Historically, the Ascension of Our Lord has been a Holy Day of Obligation--and it still is. However, in most parts of the United States today, Catholics will not attend Mass on Ascension Thursday--and they won't be violating the Precepts of the Church, which say that we have to assist at Mass on Holy Days, under pain of mortal sin. How can that be?
The answer is simple but confusing. The bishops of the United States, recognizing that attendance at Ascension Thursday Masses had dropped dramatically for years, petitioned the Vatican to allow them to transfer the celebration of Ascension to the following Sunday (the 43rd day of Easter). The Vatican agreed, but the decision was left up to each ecclesiastical province in the United States.
Several provinces continue to celebrate Ascension on Ascension Thursday, and you can find a list of them in Is Ascension a Holy Day of Obligation? Most provinces, however, transferred the celebration to the following Sunday, where it is still a Holy Day of Obligation. Since it coincides, however, with our Sunday Duty to assist at Mass, many people don't realize that they are, in fact, also fulfilling their duty to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation.
(A stained-glass window of the Ascension of Our Lord in Saint Mary's Church, Painesville, OH. Photo © Scott P. Richert)
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Tuesday May 15, 2012
At any given time, there are roughly 5,000 Catholic bishops in the world. Collectively known as the College of Bishops, these men—the heirs to the apostles—are responsible for the shepherding of souls. It's a breathtakingly awesome responsibility, and we lay Catholics all too often forget what it means to say that God has called a man to the episcopate.
There's nothing quite like an episcopal ordination to remind you.
On May 14, 2012, the Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle, my son Stephen and I had the privilege of attending the episcopal ordination and installation of Bishop David J. Malloy as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois. In the presence of somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 faithful from the diocese, 28 bishops, 200 priests, and 150 deacons gathered to confer the Sacrament of Holy Orders on Monsignor Malloy. The chief consecrator was Francis Cardinal George, metropolitan archbishop of Chicago, with Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukeee and Bishop Emeritus Thomas Doran of Rockford as co-consecrators.
The ordination and installation took place in the BMO Harris Bank Center, a sporting arena in downtown Rockford, and featured a choir of almost 400 voices. For an event its size, and given the venue, it was remarkably reverent and beautiful. The procession of clerics, led by over 100 Knights of Columbus, lasted at least 20 minutes, and perhaps closer to half an hour.
It is customary, when possible, to hold episcopal ordinations on the feast of an apostle. Among all the possible feasts, that of Saint Matthias struck me as particularly appropriate. Matthias, of course, was the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:21-26), which means that he was the first apostle to whom apostolic succession applied. Or, to put it another way, Matthias's story is the basis for the Church's doctrine of apostolic succession. For a man who is already a bishop and is simply being installed in a diocese, the feast of another apostle would work just as well; but for a man being elevated from the priesthood to the episcopacy, as Monsignor Malloy was, the Feast of Saint Matthias provides a certain symbolism that no other feast of an apostle could provide.
I cannot do the ordination and installation justice through mere words, nor properly express my deep gratitude at having been able to be present on this momentous occasion. One image will remain forever in my mind: Monsignor Malloy, prostrate before the altar for several minutes, while all of the assembled prayed for him as he prepared to receive his episcopal ordination. It is hard to imagine what joy he must have felt in those minutes, nor the burden that he must have felt descending upon his shoulders. He had entered the arena as a pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; he would leave as the shepherd of over 450,000 Catholics in 11 counties covering almost 6,500 square miles between the Fox River and the Mississippi.
The crozier—the staff that every bishop receives as a symbol of his office—is meant to signify his duty as shepherd of our souls; it is not a walking stick. Yet every bishop I have ever seen seems to lean, however slightly, on the crozier, and as he left the arena, Bishop Malloy was no exception. Is it any wonder?
May God grant Bishop David J. Malloy many happy years, as he faithfully preaches the Word of His Truth!
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