Palm Sunday

Exam Study

http://www.catholicmemes.com

Please Pray for Australia

or Deo Gratias!

This article from the Australian says it all.

The Literal Wealth of the Catholic Church

I was asked over on my tumblr the follow question. My response is posted below.

Let me tell you a story.
There once was this Italian guy called Lorenzo (or, in English, Lawrence) who lived in Rome and happened to be a Catholic. Now, this was back in the day when it was unpopular to be Catholic - much less a practicing one - in Rome. What was more, he worked for the Church.
The dude in charge of Rome at the time, a man called Valerian demanded that Lorenzo bring him all the riches of the Church - something he’d been made aware that our friend could do for him. He also demanded that Lorenzo give up the True Faith or die in the same way that seven of his friends did four days before.
So Lorenzo rocked up for his execution accompanied by all of Rome’s poor, crippled, diseased, blind and undignified people.

Another story for you: there once was this great King who decided to visit is subjects. He wasn’t particularly well received, so they did what they could to send him away.
However, in three days, he returned again and has never left his people since.
He is the source and summit of their life.
He dwells in his tent in every one of his palaces on Earth at all times.
His name means God-will-save and he is called God-with-us.
You probably know him as Jesus.
His dwelling place is usually called a Tabernacle and it is here that He reposes, loving His people and waiting for their love so that He can shower on them gifts that we call graces.
The poor that St Lawrence brought to the Emperor Valerian are the Face of Christ, who said that in being kind to the poor, the outcast and the downtrodden, we were being kind to Him: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.” (source)
The Eucharist and the least among us are the literal wealth of the Catholic Church.

Do they weigh on my conscience? Yes.
I do not have a great love for either of them, though I very much desire to.
I have a feeling, anon, that what you meant was “Does the material wealth of the Catholic Church weigh on your conscience?”
I’ve a question for you in return. And the answer to that question.
Do you know what the entire art collection of the Holy See is insured for?
It’s not.
Do you know how much the Vatican values each of the art pieces for accounting purposes?
One Euro.
The value of the art and architecture of the Catholic Church is not found in it’s material worth. It is found in its ability to lead people to God, and to worship Him.
tl;dr
The literal wealth of the Catholic Church is Christ Himself.
The material wealth of the Church only has value insofar as it points to the first.

Formation of Lectors

Last night's Mass was, unfortunately, not the Vigil Mass for Pentecost, but a Mass of Pentecost Day without the Sequence. That's fine.
What was more unfortunate was the obvious lack of formation for the Lector. Please note that I am not decrying her, or her reading but using this as an example for why Lectors must recieve proper formation. Or, at the very least, they must practice in front of someone who has been formed and who has clear knowledge of the meaning and pronounciation of the words.

An excerpt from text of the First Reading for today's Mass:

'Surely,' they said, 'all thses men speaking are Galileans? How doesit happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontious and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome - Jews and proselytes alike - Cretans and Arabs; we hear them all preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.'

 Last night, I listened to it as it was rendered (by someone who speaks english fluently and whose accent is Australian) as:

'Surely,' they said, 'all thses men speaking are Galileos? How doesit happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Partyians, Meds and Eel-lam-ites; people from Meso-pota-mia, Judaea and Kappadotchia, Ponus and Asia, Fi-yi-ga and Pam-py-la, Egypt and the parts of Lib-ya round Kine; as well as visitors from Rome - Jews and pro-styles alike - Creations and Ara-bins; we hear them all preaching in our own language around the morals of God.'

Granted, these are somewhat difficult place names, but what struck me was Creations (usually, if it's mangled, it comes out as cretins) and around the morals of God.
These two mangalings showed, more than the others, that she had not practiced and did not know the meaning of the passage.
At the best of times, it is difficult to proclaim the Readings: when you have not read the passage before, it is often a reading and not a proclaimation. When you do not understand what you are reading, it is that much harder.


One upon a time, the Latin Rite had a Order [as in Holy Orders] called the Subdiaconate. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"The duties of a subdeacon are to serve the deacon at Mass; to prepare the bread and wine and sacred vessels for the Holy Sacrifice; to present the chalice and paten at the Offertory, and pour water into the wine for the Eucharist; to chant the Epistles solemnly; to wash the sacred linen."

His role was similar to modern forma ordinaria Acolyte and,  had to have formation before having recieved the Order, and taken his duties. He was also olbliged (under the 1917 Code of Canon Law) to pray all the Canonical Hours.

The Motu Proprio of Pope Paul VI Ministeria Quaedam that became effective of January 1st, 1973 split the role of the subdiaconate into two ministries. Since ministries are open to lay people, these roles were no longer restricted to those hoping to recieve Holy Orders.

3.     Two ministries, adapted to present-day needs, are to be preserved in the whole Latin Church, namely, those of reader [lector] and acolyte. The functions heretofore assigned to the subdeacon are entrusted to the reader [lector] and the acolyte; consequently, the major order of subdiaconate no longer exists in the Latin Church. There is, however, no reason why the acolyte cannot be called a subdeacon in some places, at the discretion of the conference of bishops.
4.     The reader [lector] is appointed for a function proper to him, that of reading the word of God in the liturgical assembly. Accordingly, he is to proclaim the readings from sacred Scripture, except for the gospel in the Mass and other sacred celebrations; he is to recite the psalm between the readings when there is no psalmist; he is to present the intentions for the general intercessions in the absence of a deacon or cantor; he is to direct the singing and the participation by the faithful; he is to instruct the faithful for the worthy reception of the sacraments. He may also, insofar as may be necessary, take care of preparing other faithful who are appointed on a temporary basis to read the Scriptures in liturgical celebrations. That he may more fittingly and perfectly fulfill these functions, he is to meditate assiduously on sacred Scripture. [He has to know what he's saying, what it means. Moreover, he has to meditate assiduously on, not just the Readings that he is to proclaim that week, but on the whole of sacred Scripture.]

***

Interestingly,

7.     In accordance with the ancient tradition of the Church, institution to the ministries of reader [lector] and acolyte is reserved to men.

To any reader with information on when women were allowed to start proclaiming the readings, please share this informaiton in the comment box below. References to specific documents would be great.

Quote of the Now.

"The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they're not always accurate."

- Abraham Lincoln.