Other bloggers have picked up on this extract from Pope Benedict's sermon at the Christmas Mass:For most people, the things of God are not given priority, they do not impose themselves on us directly And so the great majority of us tend to postpone them. First we do what seems urgent here and now. In the list of priorities God is often more or less at the end. We can always deal with that later, we tend to think. The Gospel tells us: God is the highest priority. If anything in our life deserves haste without delay, then, it is God's work alone. The Rule of Saint Benedict contains this teaching: "Place nothing at all before the work of God (i.e. the divine office)". For monks, the Liturgy is the first priority. Everything else comes later. In its essence, though, this saying applies to everyone. God is important, by far the most important thing in our lives. The shepherds teach us this priority. From them we should learn not to be crushed by all the pressing matters in our daily lives. From them we should learn the inner freedom to put other tasks in second place however important they may be so as to make our way towards GodSome years ago, I was responsible for the theological formation of permanent deacons. At a planning meeting, an eminent ecclesiastic said that he was concerned that some might be too fond of prancing round in liturgical finery and not devoted enough to works of charity. My response - and I still maintain this - is that all of the permanent deacons that I know give sterling service in pastoral charity but the one area in which some need a little extra help and formation is in the Sacred Liturgy which they might, in genuine humility, shy away from.
We need to get away from the false dichotomy that sets Liturgy against pastoral work and charity. Didn't Vatican II say that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the source and summit of the activity of the Church? (Sacrosanctum Concilium n.10)
18 comments:
I just read those words on my own blog & went over to yours & voila..great minds! but spose yrs & the Pope's are greater!
I agree completely, Father. In fact, I think it's one of the things that puts many men off the idea of pursuing the deaconate, precisely because they are able to do create a better liturgical life for themselves than will be permitted them under the current usages of deacons. They can pursue their personal liturgy privately, and perform charitable works of their choosing.
For me, the liturgy IS a charitable work. The liturgical office is the apostolate of my lay association, and by pursuing it we are accused of being uncharitable. I fail to see the prioritization. A kind bishop once tried to engineer an apostolate for us to a group of gay, homeless men with HIV, which they turned out not to want. We tried repeatedly, but met with no response. QED.
We must help the poor, but they are also always with us. The mass and the liturgical office are transient, coming and going throughout the day, but feed the spirit first, without which the body will eventually die.
So we do the work as outcasts in our own diocese. The permanent deaconate is not to be despised, but it is as misused as much of the priesthood at present. The liturgical mass (as opposed to the distinctly un-liturgical one), the liturgical office, and the liturgical life must be cultivated. If deacons are encouraged in this apostolate, many will follow.
In your meditation upon the virtue of humility what reflections do you have upon stating your opinions and relating your experiences in your blogging?
Father writes: "We need to get away from the false dichotomy that sets Liturgy against pastoral work and charity."
I agree whole heartedly. I was just thinking about this the other day.
Since I got a proper perspective of worship, which should be unconditional and God-centered, I have never donated so much time and money to charitable works.
Also, how do we classify what counts as charitable works. For some, it doesn't count unless it is for some big organization or spending time at a soup kitchen. But, charity indeed starts at home, and in the parish.
Mother Teresa said as much - that we don't have to travel far to find the poor and the needy. They are all around us - our family and our neighbors.
However, a proper sense of worship also gives one a proper sense of charity. Charity isn't loading up family members and friends with excessive gifts for Christmas. It's recognizing excess and distributing it among those who have nothing, or too little. There probably isn't a parish around that doesn't have a few families on the verge of losing their home due to unemployment.
I concede, that what Pope Benedict says is a temptation for all of us. That is, to get so caught up in the charitable works, and in ordinary works for God, that we forget prayer.
One more thought comes to mind....
How many of us will spend a couple of hours online every day reading about and discussing Catholic matters, yet spend a mere 10-15 minutes in prayer, if that?
How many of us have time off between Christmas and New Years and are willing to go to daily Mass or to an adoration chapel, even a few of those days?
Happy Christmas Fr Tim
I totally agree with you, I am a permanent Deacon and the emphasis in the training in my experience is this element of charity and service with liturgy given a backseat, with very little practical skills work. I have in my ministry done a lot more of the liturgical work of a deacon than many of my colleagues. This mainly was beacuse of illness of my parish priest and his absence for 6 mnths. In that case it fell to me to keep the liturgical life of thhe parish going day to day as generally a priest was only available for Sunday and 1 weekday mass. I am firmly with you on liturgy being the expression of everything else that the deacon does behind the scenes. Sadly not everyone including some priests feel the same and I know of deacons who are prevented by their pp's of assisting as deacons at mass, and of priests who discourage deacons from vesting and doing public liturgy.
On an interesting note I had the priveldge of being asked to preach by my PP at all the Christmas masses and for Midnight I took as my theme the song of the angels and concluded that the best way we could live our lives was to use their message of "JOY" as our watchhword by ordering our lives in the following way 1 ) Jesus 2 ) Others 3 ) Yourself - I read with interest what the Holy Father said and was rather pleased we found ourselves in tune!!!
Keep up the blogging its a daily read for me !
You wrote: We need to get away from the false dichotomy that sets Liturgy against pastoral work and charity.
I say: Amen and amen.
I watched the service live up until I had to leave for Midnight Mass myself, and that is the part of HH's homily that stood out. I was wandering around the living room, listening, picking stuff up, tidying, polishing, fussing, checking on the fridge etc., and when he spoke those words, even though I wasn't really focusing properly, it did make me stop in my tracks at about 10.20 on Christmas Eve.
He talked about Monastic tradition as food for the journey. It made me sit up and take note. And I saw the shepherds in a very different light.
It made me re-prioritise one or two things, and I would quite like to be a lot less busy.
Off-topic bad news: David Taylor MP has died.
Taylor was one of the staunchest Pro Life members in the house as well as being a leftwinger and associate of the Labour Party Campaign Group.
A few years ago, Taylor, who in 2007 was voted backbencher of the year tabled an EDM calling for the release of Chen Guangcheng and an end to government subsidies to population-control groups involved in forced abortion.
David Taylor was a remarkable parliamentarian. Requiescat in pace.
Amen. Father F.
This "false dichotomy" is very present in the Catholic Church in the USA.
There is no rupture between service at the altar and service to the people of God when a proper spirituality is formed and deepened.
As to the "work of God" of the monastics; it is a constant challenge here, anyway, because of our small numbers. But we try to put the "opus Dei" first; the Mass absolutely first, Eucharistic Adoration and the praying of the Divine Office over all other works.
It is a struggle, but God be praised, we have been successful in making these priorities over the past twenty-some years. Please, all of you, pray for us to be continually faithful!
Excellent point by the Holy Father and adverted to by you, Father. With all of the distractions and cares of the modern world we do tend to forget what is important. Not so our parents and those brought up in ‘simpler’ times or those ‘closer to the land’ – the ‘simple faith’ that is so often derided today.
While the Church in Ireland is going through much travail today, I remember an Ireland where the faith was strong, where there was rarely a hint of scandal among the clergy and where people had their priorities right. Things were not taken for granted. Wishes and hopes for the future were prefaced by “…with the help of God” or “…please God”. Letters referring to future events invariably were littered with “D.V.” – Deo volente.
These were not casual expressions tossed about, but reflected a deeply-held faith that everything we had came from God and that, come what may, He was in charge. You did not presume on the future nor be too cast down by the present. It was all in God’s hands and we were but temporary residents in this world. Whatever we had to endure was God’s will for us. If we had good fortune, it came from God. If we suffered misfortune, that too was to be accepted with resignation. We always knew a better world awaited us and where true happiness lay.
Too often today we feel we can or should be able to control everything, that we “have the technology” to do anything – leading to a lack of faith and trust in God. We need to recover that faith or else we’re just living in a fool’s paradise.
Thanks very much for this post. the pooh poohing of litugical prayer has had a very destructive effect on people's faith. It certainly had such an effect on my own, because it at one time had the effect of my neglecting what was first and most important in forming my soul to doing God's work, namely offering the best of my self, and all of myself, to him in worship.
Didn't Vatican II say that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the source and summit of the activity of the Church? (Sacrosanctum Concilium n.10)
Well no, actually, Father. Sacrosanctum Concilium n.10 says 'the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed'. The 'source and summit' quote comes originally from Lumen Gentium n.11: the 'Eucharistic Sacrifice, the source and summit of the Christian life'. It was modified in Presbyterorum Ordinis no.5 to refer to 'all evangelization' (and more recently modified again by the bishops' synod in Rome) but draws its inspiration perhaps from the Mediator Dei of Pius XII, who speaks of the Holy Eucharist as the 'source and origin of true Christian piety'. (I have translated from Documentation Catholique, which was translated directly from the Latin).
"The second priority": are we going to hear about Parkminster?
Well said, Father! I think the Second Vatican Council is sometimes unfairly blamed for the changes in the Mass - it's good to see the balance being redressed.
Yes ...but first we need to fix the Elephant in the room....The "Liturgy". I live minutes away from our parish church, I can hardly drag my self there.
Not one single thing has been done to implement Summorum Pontificum, despite repeated requests, in writing, e-mails, talking to the priests, the Bishops and even Cardinal Murphy O'Conner. Nearly three years, and they will go to Rome bleating to the Pope that no one showed any interest.
Lie, Lie, Lie, we showed interest up here in the frozen wastes of North Cumbria. There are 6 Billion People on this planet and only one uses the phrase "The frozen Wastes of North Cumbria"...Me. Every single priest in the diocese of Lancaster, I'd like to bet has heard of that phrase, even if only second or third hand. Yet only a couple of Brave Fathers have showed even the tiniest bit of interest in what the Pope is trying to do with the ....lets be charitable....."Liturgy"....I worked in Norwich last summer and had to get up and walk out of the Cathedral during ...."The Liturgy"...on a Sunday Morning, so pathetic was the..."Liturgy"...I'd have blew my top had I sat another second.
Lets not beat around the bush, most "Liturgies" in the vast, vast majority of parishes are nothing more than an opportunity for the priests to improvise some emotive 60's Lurve Bucket Scraping Rubbish.
How many priests in this country, and how many, three years after Summorum Pontificum have even bothered to equip themselves with a Traditional Missal.
And no, Archbishop Nichols hybrid Latin / English new mass as said at midnight Christmas will not do.
Get the Traditional Mass in every parish ASAP.
Fr TM - I couldn't find an enail address; if you look over at my blog, I've started a new "feature" and have put this post 6th down. I hope it's ok to do this - please tell me if not - FD
In my home diocese the permanent diaconate is a recent thing so my unfamiliarity (there are none in my parish) prompts me to make this genuine enquiry (it is not a shot at deacons): We often hear that the permanent diaconate is a partial solution to the current (and, please God, temporary) shortage of priests. But how can this be? I know they may baptise, read the Gospel and conduct marriages and funerals. However, as most of the foregoing are generally preceded by or are part of the Mass, of what use is the deacon since he cannot function without the priest?
Frugal Dougal - many thanks for the link and for your kind words.
Crux Fidelis - you are quite right. the Deacon cannot be an answer to the shortage of priests; nor indeed is the shortage of priests a good reason for becoming a permanent Deacon. It should be a vocation in its own right.
Post a Comment