Dear Parishioners:
Being away is often far more difficult than being present. The effort to arrange for all eventualities while we are on vacation, attending to the preparation of details for the times we are not going to be around is not easy. At the moment, I am working on bulletin columns in advance in order to have things set for the time I am away. If all goes well, you should be seeing me back at church “as usual” the weekend this column appears.
For the week of August 7-12, I arranged for a circuit of visiting friends following my Keeley family reunion in St. Augustine. A number of folks I know from different times in my life have settled in central Florida. I chose to take advantage of the opportunity to see them again and have worked out a “plan” for travel just to touch base. Some of these I have not seen in many years. Facebook and the Internet have allowed for contact with friends from past days that I had lost track of. Travel offers the chance to see these folks in person and in the lives they have created for themselves since we last met.
When we connect with people who knew us at an earlier time of our lives, it is a little like an experience of “time travel.” Events and circumstances once shared come to life again in memories. We also carry in ourselves reminders to our friends and family of the truth of who we are. This experience is a taste of our Eternal nature.
Monday will bring the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which reminds us of the certainty of our Eternal destiny. Mary already shares, in anticipation of the rest of the Church, This year, since it falls on a Monday, it is not considered an Obligation Day. It is a Holy Day, indeed, a Solemnity, but the Bishops have dispensed the obligation. This means that when you choose to come, it is a free and special gift to our Heavenly Mother, not something you are doing because you have to…. We will have two Masses at St. Timothy for the Feast. Let your Mother know you care!
Countdown to our Golden Jubilee: Getting to know Saint Timothy.
Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Until I arrive, attend to the reading, exhortation, and teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate. Be diligent in these matters, be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to everyone. Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. (I Timothy 4:12-16)
These words of encouragement from Paul to Timothy resonate with anyone who experiences being “in over his head” with tasks and responsibilities that are heavy to bear. Often youth have a wisdom that is beyond their years and just as often those around them who are older have a way of dismissing that wisdom. Of course, the reverse is also true. Brash youth can summarily reject the wisdom of those who came before them, many times to their own doom. A mark of the wise of any age is a capacity to listen to one another, for the ring of truth and the voice of experience. Paul and Timothy represent this mutuality of respect for the Wisdom that comes from God through human hearts. It is the elder Paul, teaching the younger Timothy, who has been appointed to the task of being an authoritative elder in the Christian community.
Paul encourages Timothy to continue his study and to take on the role entrusted to him through the imposition of hands, that is, through his ordination. The charge to attend to himself and to his responsibility is a charge that can be translated easily into any way of life.
Can we open our hearts to receive the wisdom of the generations among us – our elders and the youth and all those in between? Are we attentive to our own growth in knowledge and the exercise of the responsibility entrusted to us?
Reflections on the Liturgy:
The document that guides the Church in the Latin Rite in the celebration of the Liturgy is called “Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani,” the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. This has been published in three editions. The new Roman Missal which will be promulgated in English this November finds its norms in this Instruction. It will be helpful to offer a few notes on the principles guiding the celebration of the Liturgy as they are given in the G.I.R.M.
The G.I.R.M. is available online on the US Bishops’ website.
http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/current/revmissalisromanien.shtml
A Witness to Unchanged Faith (continued)
3. Moreover, the wondrous Mystery of the Lord's Real Presence under the Eucharistic Species, reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council [1] and other documents of the Church's Magisterium [2] in the same sense and with the same words that the Council of Trent had proposed as a matter of faith [3], is proclaimed in the celebration of Mass not only by means of the very words of consecration, by which Christ becomes present through transubstantiation, but also by that interior disposition and outward expression of supreme reverence and adoration in which the Eucharistic Liturgy is carried out. For the same reason the Christian people is drawn on Holy Thursday of the Lord's Supper, and on the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, to venerate this wonderful Sacrament by a special form of adoration.
[1] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, nos. 7, 47; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum ordinis, nos. 5, 18.
[2] Cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Humani generis, 12 August 1950: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Commentarium Officiale (Vatican City; hereafter, AAS), 42 (1950), pp. 570-571; Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium fidei, On the doctrine and worship of the Eucharist, 3 September 1965 : AAS 57(1965), pp. 762-769; Paul VI, Solemn Profession of Faith, 30 June 1968 , nos. 24-26: AAS 60 (1968), pp. 442-443; Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction Eucharisticum mysterium, On the worship of the Eucharist, 25 May 1967 , nos. 3f, 9: AAS 59 (1967), pp. 543, 547
[3] Cf. Council of Trent, session 13, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, 11 October 1551
Some wonderful Catholic words that have been filled with meaning through the centuries serve to express the Faith of the Church in the Eucharist.
“Mystery” – that is, “wondrous Mystery” – points to the fact that what we are describing is beyond our understanding.
“Real Presence” reminds us that Eucharist is not a “what” but a “Who” – the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ in His Risen Glorious State. It is not a mere symbol, but a Reality that communicates us through a symbol.
The term “Eucharistic Species” allows for the experience of a symbol that has a deeper reality behind it. We acknowledge that the Eucharist we receive is met by our senses at one level, namely the “accidents” of bread and wine.
The “Consecration” is effected by the Lord’s own words “This is My Body” and “This is the Cup (Chalice) of My Blood.”
“Transubstantiation” is a word coined precisely to describe the Mystery of the Eucharist: there is a transformation at the level of substance. By the action of the Spirit through the instrumentality of the ordained priest of Jesus Christ, what used to be bread and wine now becomes the very Body and Blood of Christ. The Substance present is the Lord Himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, the Fullness of the Person of the Word of God. This term is not meant to take away the Mystery, but rather to point to the fact that no human words can ever fully express what occurs.
The “Eucharistic Liturgy” is the locus where the faithful may express their interior disposition of Faith by the very rites and rituals that show “supreme reverence and adoration.” The Mass is the highest expression of our devotion to the Lord and the very means by which we may continue to encounter Him.
As we adapt to new English words in the form of the Mass, we must keep these principles of Faith in mind. Now is a time of deepening our Faith in the Mystery we celebrate.
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