Benedictus Deus

Today is the Vigil of the Nativity of John the Baptist.  This feast has become one of my favorites.  This will be my families third year making a big celebration of it.  In former times it was often celebrated as a “Summer Christmas” and was generally a joyous occasion.  It’s another feast that was a common holiday in many countries.  I really don’t have much to add from past posts about this feast day, so I will just give a rundown of the plan for this year’s celebration.

This our first year in our own house since learning about this feast, so it is the first year we can actually make a bonfire in the backyard.  We have a sizable fire pit, and a ton of yard debris to burn off, so if the weather cooperates we should have a nice big fire going this year.  The goal is to have the bonfire tonight, but if the weather is bad I’ll do it any day in (what used to be) the octave.  Customarily the fire is tended well into the night, but with young children that isn’t usually practical.  But, the kids have been bugging to camp out in the backyard, so I may get the tent out, and I’ll keep the fire going long after they go to bed.

The fire will be “blessed” with prayers based on the blessing in the Roman Ritual (see FishEaters for the blessing) but adapted to be appropriate for a layman.  I think we will also try to do our family rosary out by the fire before bed.

In addition to the bonfire we will have (our now customary) strawberry shortcake for desert after dinner.  And since it is a little Christmas, I have started getting the kids each one modest present.  This year I focused on outdoor games for the backyard, which are really for everyone.  I spent a little more than I normally would, but I have been planning to get some backyard games anyway.  And of course I will tell story of St. John’s nativity and the events leading up to it.

The children make paper chains and some other simple decorations for the house, and I usually get out some of the Christmas greenery.  We put the decorations away on the octave day.

I was thinking of having a party this year with other families from my parish, but the timing didn’t really work out.  But next year I hope to make quite a bash out of it.  This is a feast day you can really have a lot of fun with, and I hope other Catholic families incorporate it more into their own devotions.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every 24th of June, people driving along the roads in the vicinity of Catholic parishes would find it common to see bright columns of fire burning in the backyards they pass  on their way?

I have added one new blog category for each liturgical season and sorted all of my Liturgical Year posts into their appropriate category. So now instead of just one big category you can look for post by season. Saints feasts days are their respective season, and if it falls at a time that could shift I tired to put in the season it is mostly likely to occur in. I may also add categories for Embertide and Rogationtide so all my posts on those can be easily found.

Speaking of Embertide, it’s that time of year again. For an interesting post on ember days during the Octave of Pentecost see John R’s post at his blog. He also as a good one about the fate of Vigils during the 1955-1962 reforms (it parallels octaves). A good topic I didn’t know anything about.

Happy Pentecost!

Tomorrow is the (unofficial) octave of the Ascension.  The St. Andrew Missal has brief meditations for each day of the octave and I especially like the one for today.

The Feast of the Ascension, by recalling to mind the glorious entry of Jesus and the Just of the Old Law into the kingdom of heaven, makes s realize that the Liturgy is but a prelude to and an echo of the festivals celebrated in heaven.  It is through Christ that the Angels praise the Divine Majesty, that the dominions worship it, that the Powers are in awe.  It is with Him that the Heavens, the heavenly  Hosts and the blessed Seraphim are joined together in singing this common hymn of praise.  And it is while beseeching our Lord to join our own suppliant voices with their that we say: Holy. holy. holy. Hosanna in the highest.  Let us cherish this liturgical prayer, which makes us imitators of that which is done in heaven.

The parts in bold are worth remembering during any liturgical observance.  I love the imagery of the liturgy as an echo of the festivals in heaven.  That is why liturgical feasts are so much more than mere holidays.  They are not just commemorations of past events, but an actual participation in them and an echo of heaven.  Each year the Liturgy brings before us the most significant moments of history, not as memorials, but as actual events our souls can assist at, and receive the same graces that were available to those who were present historically.  We are not separated from the events of our Lord’s life by 2000 years.  On the contrary, we are never farther removed from them than one year.

A few months ago we took a family vacation to Colonial Williamsburg. In preparation for the trip we got a few CDs of colonial music. One of them has a song about smoking tobacco. The lyrics describe various analogies about smoking. For example, “it shows our decay, we are made out of clay”, and how the pipe is fragile and can be easily broken like out lives, and again how the pipe is stained like our soul which needs to be purged by fire. And my favorite is one about the ashes reminding us that we will return to dust. There are a couple others too. I knew that there was some anti-tobacco sentiment back in colonial times, so I thought it was interesting that here was a sample of a pro-smoking song. After all, a song describing all the spiritual meditations smoking can and should lead to, must be promoting smoking right? Apparently not. My wife informed me that she read in the booklet that came with the CD (it was a library CD so I don’t have it anymore) that this was in fact an anti-smoking song.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe. But assuming the historian is correct (rather than reading their own assumptions into the song) then the conclusion is that colonials would have viewed anything as negative, that directed their attention to mans fragility and need of help in spiritual matters. It’s hard to imagine how even puritan/iconoclast protestants would come to that conclusion. In any case I found it interesting (and quite funny) that the difference in my world view, informed by Catholicism, and the colonial world view, obviously informed by Protestantism, would lead us to draw exactly opposite conclusions from listening to the exact same song.

Considering the dramatic difference in such a small matter, it is fascinating to also consider what differences would fall out in larger matters, like politics, art, and industry. Actually on second thought, it’s more depressing than fascinating.

As you probably know the three days before Ascension Thursday are rogation days (you can do a search for ‘rogation’ and find several older posts on the topic).  This is the first time since I have been aware of Rogationtide that I have had a garden, or even a yard.  So, after dinner we gathered around the family shrine and started up an mp3 of the Litany of Saints.  I gave the older children candles (the tall kind in the glass jars) and I gave a cross to my youngest daughter to carry since I didn’t think she would be safe with a candle.  After the “Miserere Nobis” part we processed out into the yard.  When we couldn’t hear the Litany playing inside anymore we started singing our own shorter family version with all of our patron saints.  I had a bottle of Easter water which I blessed stuff with as we went.

After a short procession around the yard we stopped at the gardens.  We prayed psalm 69 and sprinkled them with holy water too.  Then we buried a couple old Palm Sunday palms in the garden.  Then we processed back in (and no it was not a particularly orderly procession) and finished listening to the Litany.

The children apparently felt that we didn’t bless enough stuff in the yard, so they organized their own follow up procession around the yard, and used up most of a bottle of holy water.  Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out The Lion and the Cardinal to see Daniel Mitsui’s drawing of the crucifixion. Very impressive, and he includes an explanation of the various parts. Of course there is lots of other good stuff to check out over there too.

Happy Easter to all!  A bit late, but still within the Octave, so I’ll take that.  It occurred to me the other day, that all during Lent we put a lot of emphasis on extra religious observances.  But after Easter Sunday, that tends to dwindle.  But the Octave of Easter is at least is important Holy Week.  Indeed the whole season of Easter is the richest of the Liturgical year, the crown if you will.

In ancient times the faithful voluntarily assisted at mass every day this week and at many of the offices.  Eventually this pious custom passed into the law of the Church (around the 6th century).  It remained so until the mid-late Middle Ages when the laws were gradually relaxed until we are to the point were there is no obligation during this week at all (most of that comes from Abbot Gueranger’s entry in the Liturgical Year on the history of Easter, volume vii).  But looking at in terms of obligations is too legalistic anyway.  If we had just a fraction of the fervor of the ancient Fathers or even the medievals, a team of horses wouldn’t be able to pull us away from church this week.  Of course it would help if we had wise laws in our land like those given by Emperor Theodosius in the late 4th century:

Omnes dies iubemus esse iuridicos. Illos tantum manere feriarum dies fas erit, quos geminis mensibus ad requiem laboris indulgentior annus accepit, aestivis fervoribus mitigandis et autumnis foetibus decerpendis…

Sacros quoque paschae dies, qui septeno vel praecedunt numero vel sequuntur, in eadem observatione numeramus, nec non et dies solis, qui repetito in se calculo revolvuntur.

From the Codex Theodosianus 2.8.19.  I can’t really translate it, but the gist is that Holy Week and Easter Week were made legal holidays and people had to abstain from servile labor.

But since that is not possible for most of us, I still think it behooves  everyone to do what they can to keep up the  fervor of Lent, but now applied to the joyful celebration of Easter!

It’s that time of year again. When mostly well meaning Catholics will host/participate in some variety of Seder Meal in order to learn more about the Jewish roots of Christianity, or to get closer to Our Lord. Or something. Having recently engaged in a conversation about this, I thought would put together all the info I found and put it together here.

At first I didn’t think too much about these Seders, assuming it was framed mostly as a kind of history lesson (which it really isn’t but more on that below). But it seems that some folks were hyping these things up as some kind religious observation which would be flat out inappropriate, and most likely offensive to God. To be clear not every Catholic who does a Seder meal is doing the same thing. Some do try to do it strictly as a historical/cultural event. Some try to stick to the exact Jewish custom including observing it with religious intentions. Some try to hold a “Christianized” Seder with Christian prayers replace some or all of the Jewish prayers. So here is what I found regarding the appropriateness of Catholics participating in Seder meals.

As noted above there are basically two types of Catholic Seders. History lesson Seders, and religious events. A Seder as a religious observance is an act of false worship, is prohibited by the Church, and is sinful to attend (false worship is a sin against the first commandment). The Seder as a history lesson is pointless because, as I recently learned, the modern Jewish Seder probably does not much resemble the Seder meals of the first century, particularly before the Temple was destroyed. The current Jewish ceremony was probably codified around third or fourth century.

It is a long standing teaching of the Church that ceremonies of the Old Covenant have been abrogated by the New Covenant and cannot be observed without sin since the promulgation of the Gospels. The reason is that the disposition of the old ceremonies was one of anticipation of the coming Messiah. But the Messiah has already come and the old ceremonies have been replaced with ones that reflect that truth. Participating in an old covenant ritual is tantamount to saying that the Messiah has not yet come. St. Thomas Aquinas lays this out for us (Summa 1, 2, quest. 103, art. 4):

All ceremonies are professions of faith, in which the interior worship of God consists. Now man can make profession of his inward faith, by deeds as well as by words: and in either profession, if he make a false declaration, he sins mortally. Now, though our faith in Christ is the same as that of the fathers of old; yet, since they came before Christ, whereas we come after Him, the same faith is expressed in different words, by us and by them. For by them was it said: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” where the verbs are in the future tense: whereas we express the same by means of verbs in the past tense, and say that she “conceived and bore.” In like manner the ceremonies of the Old Law betokened Christ as having yet to be born and to suffer: whereas our sacraments signify Him as already born and having suffered. Consequently, just as it would be a mortal sin now for anyone, in making a profession of faith, to say that Christ is yet to be born, which the fathers of old said devoutly and truthfully; so too it would be a mortal sin now to observe those ceremonies which the fathers of old fulfilled with devotion and fidelity. Such is the teaching Augustine (Contra Faust. xix, 16), who says: “It is no longer promised that He shall be born, shall suffer and rise again, truths of which their sacraments were a kind of image: but it is declared that He is already born, has suffered and risen again; of which our sacraments, in which Christians share, are the actual representation.”

I have seen it asserted that Pope Benedict XIV indicated in his encyclical letter Ex Quo (1765) that the Old Covenant practices can be observed without sin if one does them for Christian purposes. It does not seem to me that the actual document says anything of the kind. I believe the relevant passage is this one (third paragraph of section 67):

Certain schismatics have tried to calumniate the Latin church by saying that it judaizes by consecrating unleavened bread, observing the Sabbath, and retaining the anointing of kings among the sacred rites. But Leo Allatius counters their rash claim in his splendid work de perpetua consensione Ecclesiae Occidentalis et Orientalis, bk. 3, chap. 4. He refutes them particularly by arguing as follows: “Since Jews observe Sabbaths, a man who observes Sabbaths acts in Jewish fashion: therefore the man who does not eat the flesh of strangled animals acts in Jewish fashion since the Jews are forbidden by the Law to eat such food: but the Greeks do not eat such food: therefore, the Greek judaize” (loc. cit. n. 4). Then to Our purpose he concludes (n. 9) that it cannot be absolutely asserted that that man judaizes who does something in the Church which corresponds to the ceremonies of the old Law. “If a man should perform acts for a different end and purpose (even with the intention of worship and as religious ceremonies), not in the spirit of that Law nor on the basis of it, but either from personal decision, from human custom, or on the instruction of the Church, he would not sin, nor could he be said to judaize. So when a man does something in the Church which resembles the ceremonies of the old Law, he must not always be said to judaize.”

It’s really a stretch to say this authorizes Seder meals. First of all, it seems to me that these Seder meals, Christianized or not, are “on the basis of the Old Law.” The whole point is to explore how the Jews worshiped God. And to a lesser or greater extent depending what the participants actually do, they are imbued with the spirit of the old law. Again, the purpose of these Seders is to do what the Jews did. In any case, you would be hard pressed to make the case that this passage refers at all to ceremonies of worship like a Seder. The context I think, is acts such as circumcision and abstaining from the meat of strangled animals, both of which can be done with no regard for the Old Law at all. A little further down from the St. Thomas excerpt above he mentions that a man could be circumcised for health reasons and that would not be sinning. But it is very difficult to see how Seder meal could be totally divorced from the spirit and basis of the Old covenant, even if the “end and purpose” is indeed different.

Also consider these other quotes from Ex Quo:

61: The first consideration is that the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and that they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel.

63: … nevertheless the Church of Christ has the power of renewing the obligation to observe some of the old precepts for just and serious reasons, despite their abrogation by the new Law. However, precepts whose main function was to foreshadow the coming Messiah should not be restored, for example, circumcision and the sacrifice of animals…

At this point I think it is clear that participating in a Jewish Seder religiously is flat out sinful. Further, It is hard to see how a Christianized Seder could be sufficiently “not in the spirit, or on the basis of” the Old Law. Besides that, it is still going to retain its character of anticipating the Messiah (especially the lamb part) which, as St. Thomas explains, makes it a false profession of faith. If the ceremony required the participants to affirm out loud that they look forward to the coming of the Christ, doubtless all Catholics would omit that part. But St. Thomas is saying that the actions of the ceremonies make that very statement. To escape that consequence, you would have to alter the Seder so much that it would no longer remotely resemble a Seder. In fact you would probably end up with the Holy Mass. For more on how the Old Covenant Passover ceremonies foreshadow (and therefore anticipate) the Messiah, Scott Hahn’s book the Lamb’s Supper does good job exploring and explain that.

As a matter of historical interest the Seder meal also falls short. We simply don’t know how first century Jews celebrated the Passover. The Jewish Seder in place today is not at all the same as what the Jews did before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. From the Jewish Encyclopedia:

The destruction of the Temple, while reducing the Passover-night service into little more than a survival or memorial of its old self, again brought husbands, wives, and children together around the same table…

The book used by Jews for the Seder is called the Haggadah. The earliest it was written was 170 AD, but more likely between the late 3rd century and mid 4th century. So, as a historical experience, these Seder meals are dubious at best. Unless you are studying how Jews of late antiquity observed Passover.

I want to emphasis that I believe an understanding the Jewish roots of our own religion is important, and certainly worthwhile to study. It would deepen any Catholic’s faith to learn how the rites of the Old Covenant foreshadowed the Christ and the rites of the New Covenant. I am all for that. I will teach my children about these things. I just don’t see that Seders help with that.

Besides all that, there are so many worthwhile Catholic devotions, public and private during this holy season, who has time to mess around with Seders? I wish I had more time just for regular old Catholic practices, the Divine Office, more masses, more frequent Stations of the Cross, novenas, rosaries, devotions to various aspects of the passion, spiritual reading, and on and on. And that is where we should keep our focus.

Passiontide is upon us. It is a good time to rededicate ourselves to Lenten prayer, fasting, and alms giving to finish strong and be prepared for Easter. Here are some quotes that I find helpful.

One of my favorite quotes on fasting, from Pope Benedict XIV (Non Ambigimus):

“The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the cross of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.”

Also note that the fasting rules were more strict in his day than even the rules in place in the early 20th centruy. But having said that, from Fr. Francis X. Weiser S.J., Religious Customs in the Home (slightly paraphrased):

“It [penance] does not mean sacrifice and self denial in the first place, but a “change of heart,” a victory over sin and a striving for holiness.  The sacrifices of fasting and self-denial are only means and signs of this spiritual penance.  If people understand this well, they will not put the main effort in Lent on technical feats of abstaining from pleasures (which sometimes make them proud or vain), but in sincere contrition, prayer and humble fight against their faults.”

I can’t list quotes without something from Abbot Gueranger (from Thursday of the second week of Lent):

“[W]hen we sinned we lost sight of our last end and the threefold concupiscence blinded us.  Let us loose no time, but return to the Lord our God; a delay might bring upon us that curse, which our prophet says overtakes the unrepenting sinner; he shall not see good, when good shall come*.  The holy season of Lent is fast advancing; the choicest graces are being daily offered us; woe to the man whose mind is distracted by the fashion of this world that passeth away,  and takes no thought for eternity and heaven, and, even in this of grace, is like tamarick, a worthless weed of the desert.  Oh how numerous is this class! and how terrible is their spiritual indifference! Pray for them, O ye faithful children of the CHurch, pray for them without ceasing.  Offer up you penances and your almsgivings for them.  Despair not; and remember that, each year, many straying sheep are brought to the fold by such intercession as this.”

Fasting is important but don’t forget the alms giving, from Pope Leo the Great (on Lent II):

Let works of piety, therefore, be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their hardships, by the orphans in their destitution, and by solitary widows in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one’s income is small, whose heart is big: and the measure of one’s mercy and goodness does not depend on the size of one’s means. Wealth of goodwill is never rightly lacking, even in a slender purse. Doubtless the expenditure of the rich is greater, and that of the poor smaller, but there is no difference in the fruit of their works, where the purpose of the workers is the same.

For those doing well with their Lenten practice, a warning from the same pontiff (on Lent IV):

“But, dearly-beloved, doubt not that the devil, who is the opponent of all virtues, is jealous of these good desires, to which we are confident you are prompted of your own selves, and that to this end he is arming the force of his malice in order to make your very piety its own snare, and endeavoring to overcome by boastfulness those whom he could not defeat by distrustfulness. For the vice of pride is a near neighbor to good deeds, and arrogance ever lies in wait hard by virtue.”

And from Saint Benedict, simple and to the point as usual (The Rule, chapter 4):

“Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ; discipline your body; do not pamper yourself, but love fasting.”

* The lesson for that day was from Jeremiah ch 17.

Another feast that should be a holy day of obligation.

Lots of good info at Fisheaters.