Abp. Di Noia OP speaking on the uptick of vocations

this is a very interesting article worth reading. Here's an excerpt:

"New Vocations in the Province of Saint Joseph: Ecclesial, Historical and Cultural Perspectives"
A Talk by Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, O.P.

In the end, God is sending us these vocations because the Dominican charism is urgently needed in the Church today. [] Our tradition is constituted by a unique convergence of qualities: optimism about the rationality and fundamental goodness of the natural order; an abiding certitude that divine grace and mercy are sheer gifts, unmerited and otherwise unattainable; a healthy realism about the peril of the human condition apart from this grace and mercy; a determination to maintain a God's-eye-view of everything that exists and everything that happens; an appreciation of the inner intelligibility of everything that God has revealed about himself and us; a wholly admirable resistance to all purely moralistic accounts of the Catholic faith; an unfailing devotion to the Eucharist and the Passion, combined with an unshakable confidence in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary; a zealous willingness to preach and teach about all this, in season and out, because we are convinced that the world is dying to hear it and dying from not hearing it; and, internally, a commitment to liturgical prayer, to study for the sake of the salvation of souls, and to a capitular mode of governance in a common life consecrated to God by poverty, chastity and obedience. This is a powerful combination, and the Church really does need us to be true to it now more than ever.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Today is the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In today's Office of Readings, by St. Lawrence Justinian, we find:

"God places more value on good will in all we do than on the works themselves. Therefore, whether we give ourselves to God in the work of contemplation or whether we serve the needs of our neighbor by good works, we accomplish these things because the love of Christ urges us on. The acceptable offering of the spiritual purification is accomplished not in a man-made temple but in the recesses of the heart where the Lord Jesus freely enters."

There is an important key contained here, which GK Chesterton alluede to in "Platituded Undone," where he said (in so many words) "It is said that 'If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well.' Whereas actually, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly!"

Faith hope, and charity; the theological, supernatural virtues. Faith and hope will pass away, but charity endures forever. Charity is an act of the will. Thus, "will to love", be it in the execution of the duties of our state, which is justice, or in those things which go beyond our duties. Worry not about the results, those are in His hands.

These thoughts are helpful in climbing the ladders of our faith; we crawl before we walk and run, we drink milk before we eat meat; stay the course and do not be discouraged, for the Way is none other than Jesus our Lord...

Pilgrimage experience

This one video from inside the Basilica of Pius X at Lourdes turned out better than I thought; I should have done more, since still pictures didn't work at all. Yes, that's the Irish again...




Contrast that with the Benedictine Nuns of Ars singing Compline. Again, apologies for the horid camera work, but if you listen carefully, you can hear them! It amazes me the many ways in which God is praised by man, for that is how it should be, the creature giving thanks to the Creator.

Fr. Francisco Torres' first mass

I love you O My God and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life. I love You, O My infinitely lovable God and I would rather die loving You than live without loving You. I love You Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally. My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath.
-St. John Vianney

Hat tip to Deanette Pease OPL for the quote

Veni Creator Spiritus

Here's a video of the area at Lourdes were the water is available to pilgrims to drink and to fill their containers. The music is intermittent and non-stop all day (and starts around the 30 second mark in this video).



Veni Creator Spiritus, along with the Te Deum, are two of the fine selections for the ordination which took place last tonight at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Five young men received the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Holy Orders and were marked forever as priests; Thanks be to God! pray for them and all priests!

Fr. Franisco Humberto Godinez Torres
Fr. Chase Raymond Hasenoehrl
Fr. Brian Thomas Gregory May
Fr. Germán Osorio-Hernández
Fr. José Trinidad Ramírez Pérez

52nd International Military Pilgrimage

These are a couple videos I took with my dinky electronic camera. Apologies for the poor quality in advance.

The Irish Military band came to our floor looking for Paul O'Leary, and treated us to a rousing concert in the elevator foyer!

The things you learn

At Lourdes while we were preparing for the group photo, I scored a picture of Archbishop Broglio of the Military Archdiocese:



and just shot one down the line; here's my USMC escort Lloyd...



...not realizing that I captured a picture of the statue of St. Hyacinth overlooking the rosary Basilica.



St. Hyacinth, apostle of Poland, is holding the Eucharist and a statue of our Lady which he rescued from a fire; the statue miraculously as it was huge!

Migration

The Western Tanagers have not moved on yet. They normally only stay a couple days but it's been a month since the first sighting. Of course, I haven't quite completely "returned" from Lourdes yet either...



They are beautiful birds but their call is, well, not as pretty. Yesterday I heard the most bizzare bird sound I think I've ever heard; a starling immitating a croaking frog! Pretty good immitation, but really now...

Thursday evening five new priests will be ordained at the Cathedral for the diocese, and I'll be singing some of the material with the Chancel Choir. As some of that OCP music gets sung, forgive me if I'm thinking of that starling... very distracting! These are excellent young men and thanks be to God for their offering of their lives in service, and may He grant them great unending patience for all the croaking frogs they will have to put up with for the next 50 years; may the Lord send them refreshment in the form of faithful parishoners to sooth their hearts.

A few more pictures

Lloyd Miller (USMC retired) sent me a few pictures from the Lourdes pilgrimage. That's Lloyd on the left with the Stuttgart contingent, picture taken in Nevers at the convent of St. Bernadette:




This is the "North American Lourdes Volunteers" group the first morning (without the Steubenville kids):



And this one is a copy of a print of a professional photo taken by VIRON of Lourdes; it is at the exchange of the peace at the Mass for English pilgrims at the grotto, Saturday May 22. That is my dear new friend, Sr. Catherine Trtek of Portland, Oregon.



Thanks to Anita (V-For Victory) for "photoshopping" the above picture, and this one too!

And the two shall be one flesh

My trip to Germany, Lourdes, and London started with the invitation to serve as best man at the wedding of Lt. Col. Paul O'Leary OPL and Alane Cleven. The wedding took place on Ascension Thursday in the chapel at Patch Barracks, Stuttgart Germany. I introduce to you Mr. and Mrs Paul O'Leary. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.



Fr. Stanley was the priest celebrant of the marriage;



but because he was 45 minutes late (due to being stuck in an elevator) Paul asked for 20 pushups in reparation. Apparently, even jokes are serious in the military!



"For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church (Eph 5:31-32)

Today is Corpus Christi; we celebrate the presence of Christ in the most Blessed Sarament of the Altar, the Eucharist. Christ has never left us, as he promised.

To borrow from St. Thomas Aquinas and Fulton Sheen, the mineral kingdom only has the attribute of "being," whereas the plant kindom adds to being the attribute of life and reproduction. The animal kingdom adds to these the attributes of motion and sense perception. In Man we find added to these the attributes of intellect, will, and reason.

The higher converts the lower into itself.

Now the plant reaches its roots into the earth and takes up minerals which it converts into living tissue, something water and minerals could never do by themselves. The animal eats the plants and converts the plant tissue into itself, no plant walks the earth in search of new feeding grounds. Man eats the animal, and converts the animal flesh into his own self; no animal has ever said "why."

Now since the eucharist is Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity, nature is not offended in that the higher still converts the lower into itself, the eucharist converts man into a part of the body of Christ.

Two thousand years ago God became incarnate in a single individual, Jesus Christ who walked among men and was rejected by the majority of men. Today and till the end of time He has chosen to be incarnated through His mystical body the Church; and in this body He continues to live out his life as chronicled in the pages of Scripture; growing in stature and wisdom, healing the sick, teaching the doubtful, scorned and rejected, and finally betrayed by men, crucified and burried, only to rise from the dead.

September Gregorian Chant workshop

Below follows a letter from Bill Costa of Dallas Texas who has offered to conduct a Gregorian Chant workshop for those who are interested. The Sacred Heart Parish Schola will be attending.

I would like to confirm the place, the dates and times for the September, 2010, Gregorian Chant Workshop.

The Workshop will be held at St. Bridget of Kildare Catholic Church in Nyssa. Oregon.

The dates and times:

1. September 16, 2010, starting at 6:30 PM unti18:00 PM, followed by a Missa Cantata of the Extraordinary Form for those who wish to attend a sung Mass.

2. September 17,2010, starting at 6:30 PM until 8:00 PM, followed by a Missa Cantata of the Extraordinary Form for those who wish to attend a sung Mass.

4. September 18, 2010, starting at 4:00 PM unti16:00 PM, followed by a High Mass of the Extraordinary Form to be sung by the participants of the workshop.

Father Andrew is extending an invitation to all of the participants of the Workshop to sing the Ordinary of the Mass on Sunday morning -that is the Asperges, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo I, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Ite Missa Est of Mass XI, Orbis Factor- at St. Bridget's on Sunday morning, 9:00 AM, September 19, 2010.

I am enclosing three (3) packets of printed material and an envelope containing a CD:

1. The complete music for the Ordinary of the Mass on Sunday- Mass XI, Orbis Factor:

a. Asperges Me

b. Kyrie

c. Gloria

d. Credo I

e. Sanctus

f. Agnus Dei

g. Ite Missa Est

1. The complete music for the Propers of the Mass for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass on the 17th

2. Sunday after Pentecost:

a. Introit

b. Gradual

c. Alleluia

d. Offertory

e. Communion

3. Handouts for the Workshop itself and for the participants to keep at the conclusion of the Workshop.

4. The CD in the envelope is a recording of a men's schola singing the Ordinary of the Mass as mentioned in number 1 above.

It would be OK to start to learn the Ordinary parts of the Mass, if you would like. Use the recording to help you learn the music.

The participants will learn only the Introit, Offertory and Communion of the Propers of the Mass. I have included them for their information. I would be willing to spend some extra time outside of the Workshop to teach the Gradual and Alleluia to those who would be interested.

I hope that all of this material will be of help to you during the Workshop.

Sincerely yours,

William F. Costa, Jr.

Dallas, TX

At the door

Sunday, May 16.

This is the front door of the Dominican Novitiate for the Province of France in Strasbourg. No one opened at my knock....



But the church door was open, so we went in



Oh yeah, this is the place!



OH YEAH, now that's a tabernacle!



Had to follow with a visit to the Cathedral. Oh my, they don't build them like this in Idaho!



BTW, that's local chapter member Paul O'Leary OPL, who is currently living in Stuttgart German, and recent partaker of the sacrament of marriage. yeah, that's a nice smile, Paul!

wandering across France

The vineyards were a reminder of work yet undone here in Idaho!



as far as the eye could see...



But after a day's drive, why not stop in Nevers, and stay the night at the convent where Bernadette spent the remainder of her life? Behind these doors she lies, incorrupt. There we held mass in her presence, a remarkable experience.



I did not take this picture, but this is what we saw. exactly.



This is the Novitiate room where Bernadette, on entering the convent, under obedience ascended the podium and narated the events at Lourdes to the sisters, and then never spoke of it again to them.



The replica grotto was a nice preview of things to come

Liturgical conference in Cork

I received the following from Maria Turner, who will be attending the conference

St Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy

Third International Liturgy Conference

“Psallite sapienter: Benedict XVI on Sacred Music”

Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork

10-12 July 2010

Prior to his election as Pope, Joseph Ratzinger frequently addressed the question of sacred music in various writings, especially in his liturgical trilogy, “The Feast of Faith”, “A New Song for the Lord” and “The Spirit of the Liturgy”. Indicating the principles which underlie its historical development, he describes the qualities which should characterise all forms of liturgical music and proposes a way forward, which is in line with the Church’s musical tradition, while encouraging genuine creativity.

A key to Ratzinger’s understanding of the nature of sacred music is found in the expression “Psallite sapienter”, literally translated “Sing ye wisely”, which is drawn from Psalm 46 of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible. For him this text synthesises what Sacred Scripture has to say about the kind of music that befits worship. Such music must be in accordance with wisdom, and therefore with reason and, ultimately, with the revealed word that comes from God, with the Word made flesh. In this way, it becomes capable of touching the human heart and raising it to communion with God, as it did so dramatically in the case of St Augustine: “Greatly did I weep at the beauty of your hymns and canticles, moved deeply by the sweet chants of your Church’s music. The voices flowed into my ears and truth was poured forth into my heart, from which the emotion of my devotion overflowed: tears ran from my eyes and I was blessed in them” (Confessions, IX, 6, 14).

Unfortunately, recent decades have witnessed an impoverishment of liturgical music in many parishes and religious communities. All too often, Church music has been reduced to the trivial and the banal, providing a poor substitute for the musical entertainment easily obtainable elsewhere and sadly failing to raise the heart and mind to God. Many factors have contributed to this situation, including an inadequate understanding of the kind of music appropriate to a liturgical setting, the banishment of the Church’s extraordinary heritage of plainchant and polyphony to concerts and recordings, a superficial interpretation of “active participation” which has effectively eliminated specialised choir music in the name of congregational singing, where such exists, and a pastoral pragmatism that has led to the adoption for worship of the mass-produced melodies of popular music.

Mindful of this situation, this Conference explores the ideas advanced in the Holy Father’s writings on liturgical music. It also provides a forum for a younger generation of liturgists and musicians, drawn from various countries, who are presently engaged in the recovery and promotion of the Church’s musical heritage for liturgical use or in composing beautiful new and uplifting works of sacred music.

The Conference will be opened by His Excellency Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis.

Provisional Programme

Saturday 10 July

10.00 Registration

11.00-13.00

Dr D. Vincent Twomey, SVD, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

Sursum corda: An Introduction to Ratzinger’s Theology of Sacred Music

Fr Uwe Michael Lang, CO, Consultor to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff

Defining Criteria for Sacred Music: From Benedict XIV to Benedict XVI

Fr Sven Leo Conrad, FSSP, Liturgical Scholar (Germany)

Joseph Ratzinger and Johannes Overath: The Intellectual Connection

15.00-18.00

Fr Stéphane Quessard, Episcopal Vicar, Archdiocese of Bourges (France)

Towards a Renewal of Sacred Music

Fr Samuel Weber, OSB, Director of the Institute for Sacred Music, Archdiocese of Saint Louis (USA)

Benedict XVI on the Psalms in the Liturgy

19.30 Pontifical Vespers

Celebrant: Archbishop Raymond L. Burke

Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

21.00 Organ Recital

Thomas Lacôte

Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

Sunday 11 July

11.30 Pontifical High Mass

for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Celebrant: Archbishop Raymond L. Burke

Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli (Lassus Scholars, Dublin)

Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

16.00-19.00

Dr Andreas Andreopoulos, Director of the Centre for Orthodox Studies, Department of Theology, University of Wales, Lampeter (Wales)

Music in the Orthodox Liturgy

Fr Alberto Donini, Lecturer in Sacred Music, Diocese of Brescia (Italy)

Gregorian Chant in the Liturgy according to Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI

Dr James MacMillan, Conductor and Composer (Scotland)

The Spirit of the Liturgy: Rejoice in Tradition and Embrace the Future

20.00 Gala Dinner

Monday 12 July

9.00-12.00

Dr Frank Lawrence, Department of Music, University College Dublin (Ireland)

The Spirit of the Liturgy: Gregorian Chant as Mystagogy and Exegesis

Thomas Lacôte, Titular Organist of St Stephen’s Cathedral, Bourges (France), Composer, Professor at the Musical Academies (Conservatoires) of Orleans and Aubervilliers, Associate Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur, Paris

Liturgical Texts, Rites and Symbols and Contemporary Musical Creation: An Example for the Feast of the Dedication of a Church

Dr Kerry R. McCarthy, Assistant Professor of Music, Duke University (USA)

Listening to William Byrd

12.30 Solemn High Mass

William Byrd, Mass for Five Voices (Lassus Scholars, Dublin)

Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

16.00-18.00

Mgr James O’Brien

Annual General Report of St Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy

Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

The New Evangelization and Sacred Music: The Unbroken Continuity of Holiness, Beauty and Universality

Ite O’Donovan, Director of the Lassus Scholars, Dublin (Ireland)

Choral Music in the Celebration of the Liturgy: A Musical Heritage of Inestimable Value, a Tradition to be Fostered and Protected …

___________

Inquiries about the Conference may be made to the Society in writing, by telephone or by e-mail:

In writing: Terry Pender, Leeview, Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland

Telephone: 021-4813445/4813636 (within Ireland); +353-21-4813445/4813636 (from outside Ireland)

e-mail: colman.liturgy@yahoo.co.uk

Crypt at Ars

Daunting, but I was determined to go down to mass! This is the entrance to the crypt where St. John Vianney was initially interred.



Michael John Poirier sets up for mass; He and his family came on the bus with us back from Lourdes to Stuttgart. Michael's web site is Prayer Breaks, we were delighted to have him along.



Father sets up for mass. Ah, such a place!

Lourdes and the International Military Pilgrimage

The following is from the handout brochure:






The history of the pilgrimage to Lourdes begins with Bernadette Soubirous, the eldest of nine children born to Francois Soubirous and Louise Casterot at the Boly Mill on January 7, 1844. She lived there for 10 years with her parents; they earned a decent living as millers, but were unemployed at the time of the Apparitions. During this time, they lived in an unused prison (the Cachot) in considerable poverty.

While out to collect firewood on February 11, 1858, Bernadette, who was 14 years old, paused by the river Gave. She became conscious of a wind, but noticed that the trees were not moving. At that point she saw a lady dressed in white at an adjoining cave (the Grotto). This was the first of 18 such visions, during one of which the lady identified herself as the Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception. During one of the apparitions, an underground stream was pointed out to Bernadette and she uncovered it. The message which the Blessed Mother gave to Bernadette was a call to prayer, to repentance and to pilgrimage. Bernadette passed on her experiences to the Parish Priest. Although there followed many false visionaries and some hysterical outbursts from others, Bernadette always showed an impressive dignity and forbearance. She entered the Convent of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers in 1866. She had always been a sickly girl and her asthma took a tighter hold. Bernadette described herself as "getting on with her job." When asked what her job was, she replied, "Being ill." She died on April 16, 1879 at the age of 35. She was canonized on December 8, 1933, not for her visions but for her humble simplicity and religious trustfulness.

Lourdes has been a place of pilgrimage for over a hundred years. So how did the International Military Pilgrimage (IMP) come about? According to the Historical Commission of the IMP, members of the French military started going to Lourdes during WWII (1942-1944) to give thanks to the Blessed Mother for prayers answered and to pray for peace. The actual beginning of the military pilgrimage as it is known today has been attributed to a gathering in Lourdes on December 10, 1944. On this day, French and Russian soldiers (to include soldiers wounded during the war), as well as military representatives from the British, Belgian and U.S. Armies, gathered in Lourdes for a Mass in the Rosary Basilica. In 1947, a German military chaplain, who had been a prisoner of war in France since 1944, was invited to participate discretely in a military pilgrimage held in September that year. German and Belgian soldiers participated in larger numbers for the first time in 1948 and many other countries soon followed. The official International Military Pilgrimage (IMP) was born in 1958, the year of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. In 2009 over 15,000 military and civilian personnel from 34 countries as well as a detachment of soldiers from KFOR participated in the pilgrimage. This year marks the 52d anniversary of the IMP as well as the 152d anniversary of the apparitions. The pilgrimage will be presided' over by Msgr Luc Ravel, the military bishop of France and president of the IMP, along with the military bishops and head chaplains of the various delegations. The theme of the 52d IMP is "Sign of the Cross, a Sign of Life."

Year of the priest

From Friar Blog of the Eastern Province:

"The Priest: Indispensable Vocation, Irreplaceable Gift"
Christ Speaks in the City / Special Series
Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts
12 May 2010
Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P.

"The priest is everything, after God! ... Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest, and beasts will be worshiped there." These words are those of the saint whose patronage accompanies the Year for Priests. (1) He of course is John Marie Vianney, the holy Curé of Ars (1786-1859). "Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest, and beasts will be worshiped there." Were the Curé of Ars to formulate his views today, he may have been less optimistic. The Church and the world of the twenty-first century face challenges that early nineteenth-century France did not. Today, for example, John Marie Vianney would have had to envisage the widespread self-destructive behavior that consumes those who have abandoned the true worship of the living God. In post-revolutionary France, Catholic priests continued to encounter political opposition. (2) Their place however within the ecclesial communion remained secure. Today Catholic priests not only must withstand an adversarial culture and political order, but they also must deal with opposition from within the Church. Many of our Catholic contemporaries, for reasons diverse and multiple, remain uninformed about the full truth of the Catholic priesthood and the men who, for no merits of their own, actualize it.

***

We find ourselves moving toward the conclusion of the Year for Priests. Throughout this year, we have pondered a longstanding tradition within the Church: to regard the priest as representing personally Jesus Christ. So strong does this representation remain that the Catholic tradition does not hesitate to announce that the priest is another Christ. Why may the Catholic priest be called another Christ-alter Christus? The answer is simple: To emphasize the central place that Christ holds in human history. Here is how Pope Benedict XVI explains the mystery:

As an alter Christus, the priest is profoundly united to the Word of the Father who, in becoming incarnate took the form of a servant, he became a servant (Phil 2: 5-11). The priest is a servant of Christ, in the sense that his existence, configured to Christ ontologically, acquires an essentially relational character: he is in Christ, for Christ and with Christ, at the service of humankind. Because he belongs to Christ, the priest is radically at the service of all people: he is the minister of their salvation, their happiness and their authentic liberation, developing, in this gradual assumption of Christ's will, in prayer, in "being heart to heart" with him. Therefore this is the indispensable condition for every proclamation, which entails participation in the sacramental offering of the Eucharist and docile obedience to the Church. (3)

Today the temporal structures that organize our world desperately require Christ's redemption. (4) Only Christ purifies and completes them. Thus, the fundamental importance of the Incarnation. In order to comprehend fully why the Catholic priest remains indispensable and irreplaceable, we must first recognize the indispensable place that Christ holds in human history. In a word, everything depends on the Incarnation of the Eternal Son, the Word of the Father.

While many consider our present circumstances unprecedentedly alien to Christian values, the Evangelist Luke points out a world that was completely unprepared to receive Christ. We can locate this period of world history by calculating the time when the Evangelist introduces the figure of John the Baptist, the Precursor of Christ. In fact, the Gospel of Luke (Lk 3: 1-6) identifies the actual time of John the Baptist's public appearance. To be precise, the Evangelist places his reader somewhere around the years 27 or 28 AD. That is, "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. . ." (Lk 3: 1). Consider the world that John the Baptist meets: Tiberius was succeeded by Caligula, the figure who represents the internecine disorders that characterized the Roman political world of the first century. Then came Claudius, "I, Claudius," and after him Nero, who, mad with grossly immoral dissipation, commits suicide in Rome in 68 AD. Herod Antipas-the Herod mentioned in the aforementioned Gospel-earlier thwarted this Nero's proposal to have a statue of his deified self erected in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is into this world shaped by urbane Roman imperialism-imagine what the barbarians were doing-that God sends John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord. Urbane Rome with her philosophers and military strategists. Seneca the Younger (3BC-65AD) taught Nero, who later required his tutor to commit suicide for plotting to overthrow him. Into this world, the Baptist is sent to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, God knew that urbanity only reaches so far into the human heart. Something else than being urbane or cosmopolitan is required. The something else is really a Someone else. He is Christ. He is also the "other Christ," the Catholic priest. Only Christ through the ministry of priests renews and elevates human life and its temporal structures.

But not without sacrifice. There is no passage from disorder to order without the shedding of blood. Not any shedding of blood. Only loving and obedient shedding of blood. Christ's blood.

***

Christ's sacrifice on Calvary was a moment in the history of the world when God "bisected" time. God split time open, and inserted a new history. The Mass is not an optional feature for human life. Religion for the devout. We either live in the new and sanctified history that God creates in Christ or we fall out of it. When we fall out of it, we worship beasts. [I am tempted to observe on the church in the Boston area that will open its services once a month to dogs and cats.] John Marie Vianney understood that the practice of true religion remains indispensable for the human creature, not just for the Catholic. In one of her official prayers, the Church prays: "Lord, we are nothing without you. As you sustain us with your mercy, receive our prayers and offerings." (5) We do not pray, "Lord, Catholics believers are nothing without you...."

At the center of the new and sacred history and of true religion, stands the Christian priest. It is difficult to estimate the extent to which the figure of the Catholic priest has suffered erosion over the past forty years. The public disclosure of sins accounts, in my view, for little of the loss. Theological distortions have contributed to the blurring of the priest's sacramental identity and his place within the Church of Christ. What else explains Pope Benedict XVI's purpose to establish a special Year for Priests? He wants the year to help priests grow toward spiritual perfection and to "enable the faithful to appreciate more fully the great gift of grace which the priesthood is." (6) The Pope recognizes that in many parts of the world, especially in the West, the faithful do not appreciate sufficiently the "great gift of grace which the priesthood is." The failure to appreciate the ministry of priests inevitably finds it correlative expression in the compromises that people make with sin. This intuition, John Marie Vianney captures when he speaks of worshiping beasts.

History also confirms the alternative to a strong and operating Christian priesthood. Saint Peter is martyred during the persecution of Nero, who about the same time moved to place himself on the altar in Jerusalem. Nero actually establishes a pattern that repeats itself throughout the Christian era: Kill the priest, and then people can do what they want. The problem worsens when the things people want-to limit ourselves to contemporary examples-include abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, bad sex, and so forth. Nero's efforts to commit overt idolatry in Jerusalem prompted more reasonable heads to delay executing the imperial command. Today's covert idolatries proceed more or less unchallenged. Indeed, they are oftentimes abetted.

The priest who confronts these deformations of the human good is the one who fully appropriates the gifts and duties that priestly ordination imposes. The Church stipulates these munera when she instructs about the priestly office: Teaching, governing, and sanctifying. The Mass affords the priest the strength to carry out his ministry of Headship. (7) The reason the Church makes this claim flows from the special relationship that the priest enjoys to the Eucharistic sacrifice. In a word, he offers it. "Receive our prayers and offerings." In the Mass, the priest exercises in a supreme degree his sacred office. Why is the Mass indispensable and irreplaceable as an instrument of renewing and sanctifying the world? The answer lies in the special efficacy the sacramentally enacted sacrifice exercises. John Marie Vianney understood this mystery: "When men want to destroy religion," he warned, "they begin by attacking the priest, because where the priest is no more, there is no more sacrifice, and where there is no more sacrifice, there is no more religion." When true religion disappears, we are not left with a liberated humanity. That view represents the modern myth of secular philosophers. (8) When true religion disappears, we find ourselves thrown back on our own weaknesses and sins. For sin, there exists no human solution. Sin begets disorder. By definition, sinful actions fall short of the divine wisdom that governs the universe.

When there is no more sacramental sacrifice, the priest whose identity depends on sacrificing is forced willy nilly into the ranks of the professional "Do Gooders." In other words, the priest takes on the identity of one of the professions that pretend to offer secular salvation. He begins to think of himself as the religious equivalent of the counselor, of the social worker, even of the political organizer. He finds himself standing between men and men instead of occupying his rightful place between God and men. The parishioners of Ars upon seeing their new pastor on the floor before the tabernacle, remarked, "He is not like other men." There of course is nothing wrong with counseling, social work, or politics. None of these professions, however, can redeem a sinful world.

Why become a priest? The answer is simple. Because the Church and the world need priests. Priest and seminarian are obliged to take up this burden in a measure of sacred time that corresponds to God's providence for their priestly ministry. For today's seminarians as well as for those who aspire to join their ranks, this means the twenty-first century. The Year for Priests suggests that the model for the Catholic priest is not found in the anti-types of the late twentieth century, the wounded healer, the social activist, the political protester, but in the image of the saintly Curé of Ars. His dedication to catechesis, to Reconciliation, and especially to the Holy Eucharist identifies the apertures where God still "bisects" the time. Only priests instruct authentically, forgive effectively, and sacrifice pleasingly. Both priests and seminarians, affirms Pope Benedict XVI, remain indispensable and irreplaceable. The Pope learned this great mystery, one assumes, from the Curé of Ars: "Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest, and beasts will be worshiped there.

(1) See the MAGNIFICAT© Year for Priests Companion, ed. Peter John Cameron (New York: Magnificat, 2009), p. 44.

(2) I note with gratitude that the Vocation Directors of the Archdiocese of Boston, Fathers Daniel Hennessey and Michael Harrington, afford me the privilege of speaking in the historical setting of Boston's Old State House. France of course supported the independence movement of the American colonists.

(3) General Audience, Saint Peter's Square, Wednesday, 24 June 2009.

(4) St. Josemaría Escrivá adapts the expression to exhort all Christians. See his Christ is Passing By, no. 183: "We must, each of us, be alter Christus, ipse Christus: another Christ, Christ himself. Only in this way can we set about this great undertaking, this immense, unending task of sanctifying all temporal structures from within, bringing to them the leaven of Redemption."

(5) Roman Liturgy, Mass formulary for the Second Sunday of Advent: Placáre, quæsumus, Dómine, humilitátis nostræ précibus et hóstiis: et ubi nulla súppetunt suffrágia meritórum, tuis nobis succúrre præsídiis. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sæcula sæculórum. Amen.

(6) Companion, p. 3.

(7) See Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1556.

(8) Companion, p. 44.