For keen seminarians and priests in Rome, Lent is a great opportunity to visit many Churches of the City for the daily Station Masses. In some cases, the Churches are not easy to visit on weekdays and they are shown off well at these major annual celebrations.
Fr Avram, a priest from the diocese of Sacramento, studying in Rome, writes a blog called
Peregrinus and has been posting regularly with some great photos. Here is one of the interior of San Vitale, St John Fisher's titular Church:
Fr David Barrett at
Hilariter has some photos of his own. He has one of the interior of SS Marcellinus and Peter which features the suitcase in which he brought the requisites for Mass.
That he had to bring things tells you that this is one of those countless gems in Rome that is scarcely used. [
Zadok corrected me here. The Church is well-used. Those organising the station Masses bring the requisites each day.] Since the photo was posted in high resolution, I hope he won't mind that I have chopped out most of the suitcase and enhanced the photo a little:
6 comments:
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2008
Tridentine Judaism
The blog titled The Hermeneutics of Continuity authored by a Fr. Tim Finigan utilizes curious terminology which I have recently witnessed in use by other nominally Catholic authors. Fr. Finigan publishes a lovely image of a High Mass with incense wafting through the sanctuary with the following caption:
"... The first [image] is of the sanctuary during the Canon of the Mass. The incense is a fitting symbol of the shekinah, the cloud of the presence and the glory of God."
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2007/05/press-photos-from-birmingham-oratory.html
One wonders where Fr. Finigan picked up the feminine noun "Shekinah" and the association of this feminine noun with God. I do know that he has not found it in the Bible, New Testament or Old. I also know he has not found it anywhere in the traditional Church canon. I can offer a few suggestions as to where the use of that rabbi-fabricated feminine noun may have been picked up--the rabbinic texts; Midrash, Talmud, Zohar, etc., perhaps some Masonic handbook, or perhaps it was some silly Judaizing pop-culture source such as The Da Vinci Code. In any case, it is sad, but not surprising to see this ridiculous rabbinic concept in use by a traditionalist priest.
The "Shekinah" is the female aspect of the dualistic male/female god of Judaism and Masonry:
Shekhinah is feminine, and She is a part of Masonry whether we want to admit it or not, if for no other reason than she represents LIGHT. In Hebrew tradition, Shekhinah is the Feminine face/aspect of god. She was the ancient Hebrew Goddess of wisdom and joy, the feminine part of Yahweh, and the light that dwelt within everything. She lived at the root of the Tree of Life, residing within the acacia, the tree that produces gum arabic, the glue that holds the world together. Her foundations can be traced back to the early Goddess imagery of Asherah and Astarte.
http://www.americanmason.com/articlemain.ihtml?ID=152
More on the rabbi-fabricated "Shekinah" here:
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/02/vatican-lesson-on-shekinah.html
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/06/vatican-instills-double-mind.html
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/06/777.html
He has one of the interior of SS Marcellinus and Peter which features the suitcase in which he brought the requisites for Mass. That he had to bring things tells you that this is one of those countless gems in Rome that is scarcely used.
I beg to differ - it's actually quite an active church. The organisers of the morning station masses bring the requisites for Mass to all the station churches - one presumes that this is simply because it makes it easier to organise things uniformly every day.
Zadok - many thanks for the clarification. I'll correct the entry.
Diego - shekinah is derived from a Hebrew verb used frequently in the Old Testament meaning "to dwell, inhabit or settle". Exodus 40.35 is a good example of its use referring to the cloud of the presence of God. The idea of the feminine gender of the chaldean variant "shekinah" denoting some sort of "feminine" attribute of God is entirely modern. The idea of the cloud of the presence of God is an ancient one.
But thank you for alerting me to this wholly unexpected misinterpretation of my entirely innocent use of the expression. It consoles me to find from the blog entries you refer that I am in reasonably good company as an object of these diatribes (Scott Hahn, the Vatican...)
Sending this in the combox only as the quickest, most convenient way to pass you this link. In this interview Fr. Fessio discusses the two hermeneutics and the program of Pope Benedict.
http://soberinebriation.blogspot.com/2008/02/interview-with-fr-joseph-fessio-sj.html
I don't need attribution, so you can just delete this as far as I am concerned.
Thanks, Lee.
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