The 2006 Catholic Blog Awards

Well, the 2006 Catholic Blog Awards are being made again. I've voted for The Pontificator, myself, for Most Theological Weblog. I recommend that you all do the same.

Five guides to the Divine Liturgy

In the course of my reading of other peoples’ weblogs, I have often found much food for thought. One case in point has been Fr. Philip N. Powell’s Give Me That Water. Although he is a Westerner, we won’t hold that against him, as he has written a good number of cogent articles on preaching and on listening to preaching, which is altogether appropriate for one who is a member of the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum).

But the article which has impressed me the most has been his entry regarding suggestions for those who listen to sermons or homilies. He has five suggestions: 1) Put down the missalette; 2) Pay attention to key words, images, phrases, ideas; 3) Repeat every word in your head; 4) Listen now, argue later; 5) Pray. I recommend that you read his entry, as it is worth reading by itself. You can find it here.

What has given me food for thought, however, is that the advice that he has given is of equal value, not just for listening to sermons, but for our participation in the Divine Liturgy. I think that with a few minor modifications, his advice could be used to assist in that “conscious, intentional, and active participation” in the Liturgy which the Council Fathers had intended in their magnificent statement on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

And so, by filing off the serial numbers, changing the body lines a bit, and trotting it out as my own (and with apologies to Fr. Powell), I would like to offer these suggestions for participation in the liturgy:

1) Take home the missalette (or the Prayer Book)

I entirely agree with Fr. Powell that the church is no place for a missalette, although I would not go quite as far as him in tearing up a book. My reverence for the written and the printed word prevent such a stance. Nonetheless, I will repeat: the church is no place for a missalette, particularly in an Orthodox church. As Fr. Sergei Glagolev, a remarkable Orthodox priest and musician once said, the Church is the last oral culture left on earth. The Apostle Paul did not say that “faith comes by reading the word of God” but “faith comes by hearing the word of God.” All of the prayers of the priest, the deacon, the cantors (or choir) and the congregation are meant to be said aloud, and to be heard. The people cannot respond with “Lord, have mercy” or “Grant it, O Lord”, or “Amen” to the prayers if they cannot hear them. And so often, at the liturgy at St. Andrew’s, I have seen people with the prayer books in front of their faces, blocking their view of the divine drama which is unfolding before them, and deafening them to the chant going on around them.

But there is a place for the missalette, or the Prayer Book: buy a copy of the Missal, or whatever prayer book you use, and take it home with you. Don’t hide it away in your library, or put it under your pillow, or on your coffee table. Read it. Even better, pray with it. Let the words of the hymns in that book gradually become a part of you. And bring that prayer back with you to the Liturgy.

When the hymns of the liturgy become a part of what C.S. Lewis called “the furniture of one’s mind”, then one can go on to start reading the epistle, psalm, gospel and other readings for the day. For the Westerners among you, there is also a wealth of chant and propers available. Even if the local church does not use it, you can read and chant it yourselves. Perhaps it might even prompt you to start a schola cantorum for the benefit of yourselves and others in the church.

The point, though, is that if the hymns and readings are a part of you, it is easier to you to participate in the Liturgy, to see when it is going wrong, and to help it to go right.

2) Pay attention to the language, the hymnography, and the iconography of the Liturgy

When some liturgicide in the clergy or the academy proposes something like a clown liturgy, or distributing teddy bears during Pascha, or altering the altar, or moving the reserved Host out of any place of reverence, among many other sins, a lot of us in the pews or choir lofts get rather the impression that, in addition to talking a great deal of rot, the offending souls have stopped speaking the common language of the Liturgy, if they ever knew it to begin with.

For there is a language of liturgy, a language spoken not only with words, but with music, with images, and with the common elements of life: water, fire, air, earth. Even with such simple things as bread and wine. But this is a language which can only be learned by speaking it, that is, by praying, and by attending when important things are going on.

For us in the East, it is a bit easier: We still have the great blessing of the waters for Theophany; we have the yearly miracle of the lighting of candles, and of the great procession around the church before the Matins of Pascha; we have the blessing of the earth and the fruits of the earth on the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord; and we have the weekly blessing and incensing of our churches by our priests or deacons before the Divine Liturgy. And we have our deacons ever reminding us: This is wisdom: pay attention.

But although that voice is fainter in the West, it still speaks in the baptisms, in the blessings of pious priests, and in the mystery of the Eucharist. Those who wish to be true theologians, that is, those who wish to pray well, will listen attentively whenever they hear that voice.

3) Repeat every word in your head. I’d put that another way myself: Learn how to be inwardly silent, and devote one’s self to listening and to prayer. Of course, one of the best ways to learn that silence is first to attend fully to what is going on around you, as Fr. Powell quite wisely suggests. Another useful way of learning silence is the Prayer of the Heart, which I have mentioned before. The point though, is first to recognize that which Plato taught us, in one of the first thought experiments on record in The Republic: the human mind is for most of us a battlefield, in which our angers and fears, our desires and disgusts, and the internal dialogue rage on endlessly. It is only by emptying ourselves of ourselves first that we may be filled with the good things of the Lord, chief among which is the Divine Liturgy, and the grace which it gives us.

4) Listen first, argue later This is almost a continuation of the last point. So often, our internal dialogue argues with whatever is being presented. This is all very well in the marketplace, the courts, or in the sports hall, but not in church.

Unfortunately, it is also the case that many churches are filled with priests or people who seem to like to replace the words of the liturgy with their own words, or to replace the language of the liturgy with the language of newscasts, or situation comedies, or MTV. In addition to being a violation of the canons of both East and West, this also interferes with our hearing the language of the liturgy, which is simply the language of Holy Tradition.

And so it is necessary first to find a church where the priest and the people are attempting to speak the language of the liturgy. This may take some doing, and one may have to go to some distance to find it. But as the Proverbist says, better a morsel eaten in peace, than a feast served in contention.

But when one has found a peaceful church, it still may come about that something may be said or done poorly. If that happens, it is best simply to listen to what is being said or done (if only to be a better witness). Take it home with you, and think about it afterwards. If you believe that it is wrong, take it quietly and privately to the offending party, and attempt to resolve matters in peace.

5) Pray I can only second what Fr. Powell has to say here. If you are upset with the ones who are serving the Liturgy, pray for them that they may repent. If you are happy with the beauty of the Liturgy, pray that it may continue, and pray for those who are serving it well. More than anything else, though, pray through the Liturgy with the priest and deacon, servers and cantors. Unite your minds and hearts with the prayer, ask that it may be done, and respond with your Amen. This is after all what we will be doing in the Kingdom of Heaven. Contention, distraction, hatred and suffering will be found only in that other horrible Kingdom, of which it is better that we speak no further.

Why don’t you try doing something, instead of just giving something up for Lent?

As yesterday was the Sunday of Zacchaeus at St. Andrew’s, thoughts of Great and Holy Lent are not far off.

Oh, let me explain: In the East, we do Lent a bit differently than youze guyz in the West. We don’t start preparing for Lent on Mardi Gras or Carnivale by a big feasting blowout, then (maybe) have a meatless Ash Wednesday, think about giving up something, and then (maybe) have another meatless Good Friday.

No, we start with the Sunday of Zacchaeus, where we remember the man who, in the hopes of meeting the Lord, was willing to repent and to entirely change his life, and who was given the great honor of having the Lord Himself dine with him. Then, the next week, we have the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican, where we are reminded that inward conversion and contrition are more important than outward displays of piety (particularly including such matters as fasting). And then, the next week, we have the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, where we are reminded of the foolish one who had wasted his inheritance –his life in short— on extravagances, but who was honored by the Father by his repentance and his return to his Father’s house.

Then we start doing outward things as well: The next Sunday is the Sunday of the Last Judgment, where we remember that in the Kingdom, it is not those who have boasted of their service of the Lord, or their preaching, or their miracles, who will enter into the Kingdom, but those who have given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, or comfort to the poor and unfortunate. On the Sunday night, those of us who are healthy and of reasonable age are also asked to put aside meat until that Feast of Feasts, Pascha.

Perhaps the most beautiful of the things that we do is in the next week, on the Sunday of Forgiveness, where we are reminded in the hymns and in the readings for the Epistle and the Gospel that the measure of God’s forgiveness to us is the same forgiveness which we show to those near to us. At the end of that service, it has been our custom (as I believe it is in many Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches) for the priest and deacon to ask forgiveness of each person there, and for each person to also ask the forgiveness of all the others there. And on that Sunday night, those who are able are also asked to put aside all dairy, eggs, and (at least for the Greek and Arab East) fish, for the next six weeks until Pascha.

And for those six weeks, we fast. But we are not asked to put aside those things that we think are good, like chocolate or whatever. Rather, we are asked for that brief time to simplify the ways and the things that we eat, and for a time to be like our ancestors before the Flood, who ate only fruits and vegetables, grains, beans and nuts (and perhaps, fish without backbones, like shrimp and crab). It is true that we are also asked from Monday to Friday to put aside wine and olive oil, as those were drink and foods that came into use after the Flood, but for Saturdays and Sundays during Great Lent, they are allowed, because the day of the Resurrection should never be one of anything but rejoicing.

Some among us will also restrict the amount that we eat, and some among us will put aside music or idle entertainments, or things of that sort, but this putting aside is so that we can devote ourselves to the three things that our Lord has taught and asked us to do: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

During Great Lent, we are also given the opportunity of prayer: Through the reading of Genesis and Proverbs, through the Akathists and through the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, and most importantly, through the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. In the canons of the East, we were forbidden to consecrate the Eucharist during weekdays in Lent, but due to the greater need of God’s grace, Pope St. Gregory the Great (revered by true Christians in both the East and the West), decreed and helped to form the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, where at a vesper-like service, the Holy Gifts of Christ’s Body and Blood (which had been sanctified the previous Sunday) are given to the Faithful, usually on Wednesdays and Fridays. These Lenten services are among the most beautiful of our Church year.

Finally, during Great Lent, we are asked to pay particular mind to almsgiving: to helping the poor and unfortunate. Many among us have put aside the money which would have been spent on more expensive foods, and have devoted that instead to charities, or better, to giving to the poor who like Lazarus are always near at hand, in spite of attempts by overbusy police and local politicians to silence and separate them from “decent people”. If one is fearful that they might misuse money, one can give food and drink and clothes to them instead.

The point of all this writing is that in years past, I have seen so many go on about what they were planning on “giving up” for Lent, like chocolate or weblogging or whatever. I suppose that this is harmless. But wouldn’t you rather be doing something that Our Lord has specifically asked us to do instead? In the same vein, there has been so much talk about WWJD “What would Jesus do?” Isn’t it more important to remind ourselves of, and maybe even to attempt, that which our Lord has specifically asked us to do?

And our Lord has asked us to fast (without grumbling, boasting or comparing, thank you), to pray, and to help the needy. Our Lord has also made the suggestion (through the parable of the Servant sacked by his Master) that we be as inventive in ways of doing good as the children of this world are in inventing ways of gratifying themselves. Perhaps one could try buying or using the cookbook Diet for a Small Planet, or praying the Prayer of the Heart, or the Western Liturgy of the Hours or Book of Common Prayer (depending on one’s flavor of Christianity), or even just ways of making the life of someone a little easier than it was before they met you. Who knows, it might just even start to be a habit for one’s life outside of Lent.

I would be curious to see how inventive you all could be.

Housekeeping

As I have previously promised, I have finally updated my weblist to include those weblogistas who have linked to my weblog, or who have otherwise made reference to my weblog. At the top of my list are Ian (who has been waiting most patiently; thank you), Deacon's Weblog, Et in Arcadia Ego, Garland, Man on a Quest, Memoirs of a Catachumen, and Vatican Watcher. Thank you all for assisting my (no doubt temporary) rise to the status of "Crawly Amphibian" in the TTLB Ecosystem.

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch strikes yet again

As I had threatened, I had planned to inflict, er, award the Order of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch on yet another unfortunate sod worthy individual.

As I had also threatened, I was originally planning on deleting the Rite of Investiture of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Ultimately, however, I have relented, and have chosen instead to set up links to the offending Monty Python sketches, to avoid a heavy lawsuit by infringing copywrite put the offending texts in a place where the unwary may read them at their leisure.

Seriously, though, let it be announced that Neil Dhingra of Catholic Sensibility has been honored with the Order of the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch, in honor of his charitable and truly intelligent application of Orthodox theology in his essays. Let the Orb be given him, let the Rite of Investiture be duly performed, and let all know that he has been enrolled in the Order of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

Something to hope for

Through the courtesy of Jerry Pournelle, I read a brief entry about something which, if true, would be as momentous for this century as the Wright Brothers' little escapade at Kitty Hawk was in the last century.

It seems that the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics gives an annual award to scientific or technical papers which in some way advance aeronautics or space flight. In late 2005, the AIAA gave first prize to this paper: Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device Based on Heim's Quantum Theory, by Droscher and Hauser. The two authors of the paper have made a study of the Quantum Theory of Burkhard Heim, and have proposed the following three theses in that paper:

1) Heim Quantum Theory (or HQT for short) predicts two forces or interactions in addition to the four fundamental forces (i.e., gravity, electromagnetism, weak force, and strong force) predicted by the current Standard Model of physics: These additional forces or interactions are described in HQT as gravitophotonic (or a gravity-like field), and quintessence (or a repulsive gravitic field which is the basis for phenomena such as dark energy, dark matter, and black holes);

2) By applying an electromagnetic field of approximately 13 Tesla to a torus of hydrogen, HQT also predicts that sufficient gravitophotons can be generated so as to form a gravitic field somewhat in excess of 1 G. Such a field would permit a spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity, and to accelerate indefinitely at a rate of ten meters per second per second. Translated into practical terms, such a field would permit travel from the Earth to the Moon in four hours, and from the Earth to Mars in thirty-four days;

3) By applying an electromagnetic field of approximately 30 Tesla to a torus of some other material than hydrogen, HQT predicts that a spacecraft traveling at 0.01 C (or one one-hundredth of the speed of light) would temporarily enter a dimension or alternate universe in which C greatly exceeds 300 million meters per second, and which would also accelerate the speed of the craft to the point where it could travel the distance of a lightyear in twenty-four hours. As a constant acceleration of 1 G would result in a speed of 0.01 C in thirty days, again in practical terms, a space flight of ten lightyears could be accomplished in seventy days: thirty days to accelerate to the required speed, ten days in the proposed dimensional drive (at a lightyear per day), and thirty days to decelerate.

I am told that NASA and Sandia Labs are currently testing Thesis #2. If the results of these tests are as predicted and repeatable (can everyone say "Pons and Fleischman"?), there are hopes that Thesis #3 can be tested within the next five years.

I for one hope that those experiments might achieve the results predicted by the theory.

This and That

Well, after having thrown the proverbial M-80 into the punchbowl, I suppose that I should move on to other things. It was fun, though, and I particularly have enjoyed the proceedings over at Pontifications. Thanks again, Fr. Kimel.

I've not been writing much here otherwise, however, because of so much that has been happening in my life. That will be explained by the next two entries, the first of which should be entitled "Three Funerals and a Wedding", and the second of which will be written and posted soon after this one. I've been holding off on the "Funeral" posting because one of those funerals was the funeral of my dear, late friend, Jonothon Hodge, and the father of DarwinCatholic; I wanted to wait until Darwin has had the opportunity to write first.

More later.

Versus Populum

They have lied in the chapel and schoolhall.
They have practiced a terrible fraud.
For the priests have not turned to the people:
They instead turned their backs on their God.

We were told that the past was mistaken;
That to hold with Tradition was odd;
That the East was the source of all shadow,
And the West held the Son and our God.

But the Dayspring on High was not mocked by this;
He allowed them to flirt with this baud,
And revealed that the things done in secret
Were true sins against Man and his God.

And so those in the Nave and the Choirloft
Still await the day when we may laud
The return of the prodigal Fathers,
Who will turn with us back to our God.

--Bernard Brandt