The Hermeneutic of Continuity

One of life's little challenges is when you need to put the heating on in the Hall - and it doesn't work. Fortunately, we have a very good central heating engineer in the parish who runs his own firm. It turns out that the boiler - installed 5 years ago and replaced soon after - has some sort of boiler version of gut rot. It could be repaired at some cost and labour time but we decided to call it a day and put in a new one. Apparently this is a "condensing boiler" which is more efficient too. And has a five year warranty: probably a good sign. My boiler guru tells me that he is onto the supplier with the whole story and is emphasising the very public nature of such works to Church premises. This should have some effect on our discount. I said that if it would help, I would be happy to post a photo of the shot innards of the old one on my blog with a link to the website of the manufacturer and supplier. I told him that we could even do something on YouTube :-) I'm ...

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .

The comment of Emma (17) on my last post reminds me of an episode from my time 13 years ago as parochial administrator of St John Fisher, Thamesmead South. I enjoyed my time there - I had a nice little town house on the estate, got permission to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in the downstairs chapel and introduced daily Mass there on an eastward-facing altar I built myself. It was a small community in a "Local Ecumenical Project" (I did not opt to celebrate the "simultaneous eucharist".) The collection was about £100 per week so I used the skills learnt from my father and did all the repairs to the house myself (plumbing, electrical, flooring, etc.) Stood me in good stead when looking for builders later. One year, two girls came and asked me if they could join the Confirmation class. At 16, they were four years older than the others but joined in with good spirit and came regularly to Mass. They were called Nicky and Tracy. South Thamesmead is widely regarded as a ...

Damien Thompson has been making people cry with his remarks about the composers of "contemporary" liturgical music. The reader who said that Holy Smoke was the first blog he had read which ever made him cry was writing on the Society of St Gregory Forum . The discussion there was somewhat prophetic since it took place in advance of Damien's post which included the comment that a better name for the SSG would be the "Society for Composers of Gruesome Seventies Ditties that Make You Want to Run Screaming for the Exit." You are invited to make your own mind up by listening to some of the selections (try the Kyrie from the Mass for Easter) from " Baptised with Fire " - described by Damien as "a good choice of title, since judging by the extracts I’d rather be burned alive than listen to the whole album." Now generally on the blogosphere, this kind of comment will spark off a good old flame war and heads are metaphorically broken on both sides....

A year ago, I wrote about Washing altar linens in response to an enquiry. Beth has just enquired there about the suitable material for purificators. Apparently, her parish is intending to purchase purificators made of polyester and cotton. She asks whether this is right and whether linen should always be used. I suspected that there would be no concrete directive in the new books and I have not been able to find anything in the General Instruction. However there is an instruction from the US Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, " Care and Cleansing of Altar Linens ". It says that "The material of purificators should be absorbent and easily laundered. The purificator should never be made of paper or any other disposable material." So it does not say definitely that polyester-cotton may not be used. Nevertheless, having occasionally been given a polyester-cotton purificator when visiting a Church or shrine, I would say that they are generally not "absorbent...

I mentioned on Saturday ( New papal MC to be announced? ) the speculation of Andrea Tornielli that this week, probably Monday, the announcement would be made of the replacement of Archbishop Piero Marini, papal MC, by Mgr Guido Marini. Seems he was right. See today's VIS and fuller announcement in the Italian version of the Rinunce e Nomine in today's Vatican Daily Bulletin . You may notice that Tornielli is now on the blogroll.

The Bishop of Rockville Centre, Rt Rev William Murphy, sent a letter to a parish priest after Confirmation, thanking him for the welcome her received etc. but also pointing out that he was very concerned about the behaviour of the faithful prior to Mass. The good Bishop then said that in his view a major reason for this was that the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in a chapel separate from the main body of the Church. He directs the parish priest to return the Blessed Sacrament to the main body of the Church and suggests that the obvious place would be in the centre of the reredos in the place which is clearly set up to have a tabernacle. He also asks the parish priest to educate the people in reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. Nowadays, the behaviour of people before major celebrations such as Confirmation and first Communion can be a challenge to the parish priest. It is certainly helpful to explain that the Blessed Sacrament is present in the Church and that we believe that this is...

And to accompany it, a photo found on the Papa Ratzinger Forum for the beginning of the month of the Holy Rosary. From Fr Z ( WDTPRS ) I once asked Joseph Card. Ratzinger how he dealt with all the negative press all the time. He responded that if he didn’t read something awful about himself every week, he’d have to examine his conscience. By the way, if you want some papal wallpaper, try this collection from a Russian site.

Sorry posting has been a bit sparse the last few days. I felt very tired on Friday, then realised that this was my body telling me that I had a cold. Some women in the parish unkindly refer to this as "man 'flu", suggesting that men make too much of minor ailments. As if! Well by Sunday it had me well and truly knocked flat. I was intending to drive to central London to meet with Bishop Peter Elliott at St Patrick's, Soho Square, and then go on to Wonersh afterwards. By mid afternoon, I had changed my plans to driving round to Wonersh and having an early night. By the time it came to leave, I felt that although I could probably teach in the morning, the state I was in would make me a danger to myself and anyone else unlucky enough to cross my path on the M25 so I threw in the towel and actually called in sick - not something I have done for a long time. A loooong sleep has helped a bit and I intend to have another early night tonight in the hope that my immune system ...

I just came across Antagonistic Pots and Pans who lists occupation as "Faccio la Mamma". Only started last month, there are some good posts there on living a devout life in the world while looking after a family. I had to laugh along at her observations on St Francis de Sales' advice about spending some time in prayer in the hour before dinner "while it is being prepared."

Fr Paul Harrison has just posted the news of an announcement from Bishop O'Donoghue of Lancaster Diocese: "Given the enormous emphasis in the Diocese on mission and planning for the future I thought it important that my successor be in place as early as possible. It was for this reason, and after much advice, I wrote to Pope Benedict asking for a co-adjutor bishop. Much to my delight he accepted the request and the search for successor has already begun." As Fr Paul hints, this is a thoughtful and pastoral decision. Bishop O'Donoghue reaches the canonical age in 2009. Nowadays it can take a considerable time to find a new diocesan Bishop and a long interregnum can be difficult for a diocese. His provision for his diocese is to be welcomed - we had a similar arrangement in Southwark when Archbishop Bowen offered his resignation " nunc pro tunc " - now, but to come into effect as soon as a successor was appointed.