This year, I celebrated two Masses each day from Monday to Wednesday of Holy Week so that we could offer both forms of the Roman rite. On Monday and Wednesday we had Low Mass at 7am and on Tuesday a Missa Cantata in the evening. The Chronista for St Matthew's Passion on Sunday and Synagoga for St Mark's Passion on Tuesday was a young man who is taking his GCSEs this year. His teacher was talking about St Mark's gospel on Tuesday and he mentioned that he was singing the St Mark's Passion in Latin in the evening. I think that made an impression!For the Triduum, we had Maundy Thursday in the usus antiquior and we have Good Friday and the Easter Vigil in the novus ordo. (That will keep everyone annoyed!) I hear confessions after all the services in Holy Week and the Triduum and find that this is a better option than having a "Penance Service" since it encourages people to return to the practice of regular confession in the usual manner. (If anyone is still plagued by the misleading rubric of the 1970 Missal - which has been changed - see the post Let's smash this old chestnut once and for all.) I was in the confessional until 11.15pm after the Maundy Thursday Mass and for quite some time after Stations and after the afternoon Liturgy today. It was great to see a wide range of ages in the queues.
For Good Friday this morning, I led the Stations of the Cross twice. The second one is the traditional St Alphonsus stations, but before that, I have Stations especially for children: this is one of the highlights of the devotional year. The children are invited to make a crucifix to bring along; this is something that incidentally tends to get the Dads involved. One little boy also brought along a model of a brontosaurus. I refused to be fazed by this and commented in my ferverino that Our Lord is the King of all creation. We all prayed for Pope Benedict with the intention of gaining the plenary indulgence so I hope there will be many very happy holy souls today.
Our Paschal Candle did not arrive until lunchtime on Maundy Thursday, having been ordered a month previously. When I opened it, I found that it was broken into three pieces and completely unusable. Having confidently told everyone not to worry, I was rather wondering what we might do. Then the Lord gave me a little "light" last night prompting me to ask one of our families to solve the problem. They are working hard at refurbishing and decorating last year's candle so that it looks like new. My builders have the task of getting the new fire ready. They have only recently taken the gas canisters away after laying down new felt on the roof and so I think they know a thing or two about getting a fire going.
11 comments:
We go through this confession thing every year, Father. And, every year you make it into a matter of rubrics which I really don't think it is. In addition, there are simply different customs in different countries and some of those have become particular law for those countries. As I commented on this matter before: In the USA the USCCB has indeed instructed us that it is preferable that confessions NOT be heard during the Sacred Triduum. This, it seems to me has always stemmed from the more contemporary understanding of how the Triduum is observed rather than an appeal to the past.
If you want to encourage regular confessions in the usual manner why not simply have confession every Wednesday and Friday in Lent so that people use the season of penance to prepare for the Triduum as well as for Easter? Many of my contemporaries here have done that with great results.
At my current assignment I had extra confessions (in addition to the usual DAILY hour of confessions) at the beginning of Holy Week prior to the Triduum and enlisted the help of other priests so as to have several lines going at once and a minimum of waiting for people. It worked very well and many people availed themselves of the opportunity to confess their sins prior to the Triduum so as to enter into it spiritually prepared.
Mon Père: sympathies over the Paschal Candle: having been caught similarly myself some years ago, I took to placing the order shortly after Christmas. The alternative is to pick it up from, say, Vanpoulles, yourself.
You also reminded me of an incident when I was newly ordained. I was required to lead a class 'liturgy' for the feast of All Saints. On arrival, the teacher told me that she hadn't had time to do all that stuff, so the theme for the service was to be 'Dinosaurs'. Nowadays, I would have the confidence to tell her to forget it and do something more appropriate, but being a pale young curate then, I remember struggling to make sense, somehow, of the place of the dinosaurs in Christian Revelation.
Great post.
Wishing you Easter Blessings from a fan of your blog!
Fr
We had confessions all day yesterday and are doing the same today. We've had a steady stream of people, which is justification in itself, but the fact that we are annoying the modern liturgists just adds an extra frisson of pleasure.
We also normally have a couple of Fathers in the box during the main Sunday Masses. Again it always attracts a good number of people, some of whom, no doubt, go on impulse. Obviously you're not in a position to do this, but there is no doubt that it is the easy availability of the sacrament which brings people back.
A Happy and Holy Easter to you and all your parishioners. I was going to come to your 2,000,000 party, but my driving licence has been revoked for medical reasons and I am dependant on public transport at the moment:(
Br Richard
My only comment to those who think that Confessions should not be heard during the Triduum is that Pope John Paul II used to hear public confessions in one of the ordinary boxes in S. Peter's on Good Friday : presumably not because he felt it was wrong to do so.
As for the Paschal Candle, may I suggest making your own ? That way you can never have this problem, and you save a small fortune - which all helps when you're saving for a new Minor Basilica !
(I used to make one which was 2 metres tall by 100mm diameter, which I comfortably did in an afternoon - so a standard sized one should be no problem at all; and incidentally allows you to use up all your candle ends for even bigger savings.)
Dear Fr Selvester - I am glad to hear of your ministry in the confessional and commend it. We have our different ways of encouraging confessions (I did have confessions after Stations most Fridays of Lent.)
If we move from rubrics to canon law, I'm not sure that the Bishops' conference can actually make a law saying that confessions must not be heard during the Triduum. I guess that the legally aware USCCB know this and therefore only say "preferable". Frankly, I don't think they should say that either.
But as you say, we have this thing every year and I have great respect for your ministry in the confessional and your loyalty to local custom.
Pastor in Valle - as a junior curate myself, I once arrived for a Class Mass to be told that the theme was "Castles" (the children had been looking at castles that week.)
I said that castles were very firmly built on rock, that Our Lord said we should build our house on rock, that the rock was faith, that Our Lady had the greatest faith of any human person ever, and that therefore I would celebrate a Votive Mass of Our Lady ;-)
Fr. Selvester,
May I point you to Notitiae (1977 – no. 137 (Dec) p. 602.
May I also point you to the 2002 MR which states in relevant part: "Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta, praeter Paenitentiae et Infirmorum Unctionis, penitus non celebrat..."
The Holy See has not granted to the USCCB any kind of authority to decide that the instructions within the Missale Romanum not be followed in the USA. Nor has the Holy See said that the above mentioned decree of the CDWDS does not apply in the United States.
If you could provide me with any post-2002 citations of the USCCB's stance that Confessions should not be held during this period I would be most grateful.
Blessed Easter, Father! Whenever Confession is celebrated I'm glad of it. Thanks Be to God!
Hoping that your candle restoration was successful if only until such time as you can obtain a replacement; in the meantime, methinks that "Father Finigan and the Curious Case of the Shattered Candle" might make a good addition to the, ah, canon of clerical crime novels...!
So glad that you're encouraging the practice of regular confession. These Penitential Services are a symptom of pastoral neglect. If parish priests had regular Confessions available every week (preferably on more than one day) and reminded their parishioners about the necessity of the Sacrament, these novelties would cease to be "necessary". Confessions are not just something one makes a special effort over at Easter.
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