post #111

Topics: A Visit to Clear Creek: Br. Stephan, O.Cist....St. Anthony: 200,000 Visit Relics....

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Please pardon me: I failed to see a comment that was submitted for publication in last week's post. It has now been posted. i will post all comments unless they are vulgar or point to vulgarity (spam).

Please pray for Brody Flavin, his family and his grandmother Xrepha Wanda Flavin who passed away quietly on Sunday, February 21st in Newton. May God receive her with mercy and in the most expedient way. Brody and his wife Melissa were married in the EFLR at St. Anthony a few years back and are the latest young couple to join the parish. Brody also serves on the altar.

...and now the Necessaries

Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churchs celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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A Visit to Clear Creek

Br. Stephan, O.Cist

Subtuum

Life seen from Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank

http://subtuum.blogspot.com/2010/02/visit-to-clear-creek.html

There seems to be a good bit of interest in my impressions of Clear Creek Abbey from my confreres and I expect they are not alone, so I will jump sequence a bit and say what I saw.

Driving west to Oklahoma, I wasn’t certain what to expect and as the sun was sinking and I snaked onto smaller and smaller back roads following the directions to the monastery, I found myself laughing as I thought of the verse, “What did you come into the wilderness to see?” Spring Bank is in the country, but the monks of Clear Creek have found themselves a location whose seclusion in the clay and scrub oak hills of Eastern Oklahoma would please the Cistercian Fathers.

I made it to the Abbey halfway through Tuesday vespers, slipping into the nave of the crypt church among about fifteen guests and regulars. It was good to hear the chant after being out of choir for a week. The subprior welcomed me and got me settled and after supper showed me where to go in choir and went over the books with me, which are much the same as our own but with more notes and longer preces. I hadn’t expected to be in choir, so my cappa was back in Wisconsin on its peg, but I made due, even if I felt conspicuously naked, remembering our own house joke on the subject about no one being admitted to the feast without his wedding garment.

As many of you know, the Benedictine chant tones and hymn tunes differ strikingly from our simpler music. I am generally familiar with the Benedictine chant from my visits to St. Mary’s at Petersham, but I wasn’t going to raise my voice above a pious murmur in a Solesmes choir. Frankly, it’s debatable whether I should sing full-voice in a Cistercian choir. The sound at Compline was soft and restrained. These are monks who listen to their cantors and to one another. I went to bed happy and edified and slept well until Matins.

The highlight of my visit came after Lauds, when the priests fanned out to the side altars to say their Low Masses for the day. With local attenders, there were perhaps 40 of us in the nave assisting at the Mass being said at the High Altar as eight or nine priests said Mass at the side altars. Following the Mass through its silent progress and occasionally catching a glimpse of another out of the corner of my eye or hearing the rustle of a priest’s alb or server’s cowl to my left or right was strongly moving in its sense of its rightness, with each priest and server offering the Holy Sacrifice on behalf of the living and the dead as an individual unit and yet together creating some larger effect.

The High Mass of the Day was sung with recollection and monastic straightforwardness with the newly elected abbot, Dom Philip, celebrating. Here, as in other houses I have visited, the Mass and Office had a matter-of-fact ease that comes with people simply doing what they do every day with little worry or distraction. Practice may not always make perfect, but it gives ease and comfort to the proceedings that, in turn, most always convey a certain sense of peace to the visitor.

Dinner was simple and good with potato soup, lentils with carrots, and good bread. Afterwards, Father Bethel, the prior, showed some of us around and told us how things were progressing. Monks are once again living in temporary cells as the community, which now numbers 32, continues to grow. The former oratory is being erected as a parish church to accommodate those who have moved to the area to be near the monks.

After None, I helped one of the brothers prep the soil for the herb garden, something I won’t be thinking about for another two months here. Later I saw another working on a section of fence. Here habits and work tunics are appropriately faded and frayed and the abbey rises in good part from sweat equity. There is nothing precious about work here. Cistercians often find the black monks a bit formal while they often find us a little earthy, but the life at Clear Creek shortens that distance.

By vespers, I was finding my way through the choir ceremonial and books a bit more easily and by supper, I was looking forward to hearing the next installment of the Solzhenitsyn biography that the community was hearing for its evening table reading. I have to say that I was surprised, even at Clear Creek, to find the refectory reading is still recited, by which I mean it is read in monotone.

Thursday brought the morning run of offices and Low Mass and packing up. Between Prime and the High Mass, I drove around the bounds of the property and took a look at the cattle and horses and checked the gift shop in the porter’s lodge, where there are some lovely ironwork crosses made by the monks. I bought a copy of John Senior’s The Death of Christian Culture. It was Professor Senior whose teaching and encouragement make him the intellectual father of Clear Creek and, to paraphrase Richard Weaver, I can never pass up yet another book about the decline of the West.

The High Mass of the Day was not unlike home with the celebrant assisted by one server in an alb. Even at Clear Creek, there are what one might call organic elements of change—the epistle and gospel are read facing the people and the entire choir joins in the singing of the Pater. I did my best to listen closely to the schola as our own cantor, Fr. Joseph, had told me I should.

I waited in the narthex for a bit after Mass hoping to thank Fr. Bethel for the community’s hospitality, but a prior who is also guest master of a growing community is a busy fellow, so after a minute or two, I went out to the car, which was packed and ready, and headed north for my own cell and stall.

So what did I come into the wilderness to see? I saw good monks living a good life. I think Clear Creek, like many other houses and institutes, gets a bit distorted through the filters applied by admirers and skeptics alike. The liturgy, the chant, and the building of a new abbey are all ancillary to vocation—to living out the monastic calling and living it well, to reshaping the one who knocks at the door into something closer to the image of Christ.

What I saw at Clear Creek were devotion, care, and quiet persistence—those elements that add up to make a fruitful observance of the Holy Rule and let it do its work on the individual soul. Whether it was in the singing of the neumes, the work of the servers in the refectory, or the care with which topsoil was being placed in the herb garden, the quality of that observance was apparent. I’m sure that there are difficulties and tensions as there are in every abbey, but it was clear that this was a special place, not just for liturgists, musicians, and architects, but for the whole of Christ’s Church and the world. May God continue to bless them.

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200,000 Visit St. Anthony's Relics

Diocesan Vicar Reflects on Consolation From Communion of Saints

Zenit

http://www.zenit.org/article-28447?l=english

Padua, Italy, Feb. 23, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Some 200,000 people took advantage of the special showing of St. Anthony's relics that occurred at the basilica in Padua last week.

"What is amazing is that all those people -- it was an interminable procession -- had the clear perception not of being before someone who was dead, a skeleton or some bones, but before a person who is, and who is alive," the vicar-general of the Diocese of Padua, Monsignor Paolo Doni told Vatican Radio.

St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi, is "one of the most popular saints in the whole Catholic Church, venerated not only in Padua [...] but in the whole world," Benedict XVI said at a general audience earlier this month.

This popularity was reflected in the large numbers of pilgrims who came during the 80 hours of the special display of the relics.

Monsignor Doni said it was a "spontaneous movement on the part of very many people, not only of the city and of the diocese, but also of many other places of Italy and also from abroad."

Communion of saints

The vicar said the large turnout shows that "people have a great need to have a spiritual reference point, a person."

The pilgrimages to Padua, he proposed, were due to "the presence of a person -- in this case Anthony -- who is not of the past but of the present," according to "the great truth that is the communion of saints," which "transcends time and space."

Furthermore, the monsignor continued, St. Anthony continues to represent today love of the poor, justice and the law.

"This presence of Anthony, with the values he proposed and continues to propose, has been as though renewed these days," he said.

A preacher

Last week's display marked the liturgical feast of the transfer of St. Anthony, also known as the feast of the tongue. The Feb. 15 feast commemorates the first time his remains were moved, April 8, 1263, under the direction of St. Bonaventure, and the final transfer, Feb. 15, 1350.

When St. Anthony's coffin was opened at the first transfer, some 30 years after his burial, most of his body was found to have returned to dust. However his tongue remained fresh, seen as a sign of his gift of preaching. Anthony's relics were last displayed in 1981, marking the 750th anniversary of his death.

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Pontiff Reflects on a Pillar of Franciscan History
Notes Contribution of St. Anthony of Padua
Zenit
http://www.zenit.org/article-28317?l=english

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 10, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI today considered the spiritual contribution to history of a saint he characterized as one of the most popular in the whole Catholic Church.

Following his reflections last week and the week before on Sts. Francis and Dominic, the Pope today considered one of the key cofounders of the Franciscans, St. Anthony of Padua.

A gifted preacher, this saint initiated one of the "specific features of Franciscan theology," the Holy Father said, namely "the role given to divine love, which enters in the sphere of affection, of the will, of the heart and which is also the source from which springs a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all knowledge."

In fact, the Pontiff affirmed, "Anthony contributed in a significant way to the development of Franciscan spirituality, with his outstanding gifts of intelligence, balance, apostolic zeal and, mainly, mystical fervor."

Born in 1195, and given the name Fernando, the future Franciscan initially joined the Canons of St. Augustine. In 1220, when he learned of the first five Franciscan missionaries who had gone to Morocco and were martyred, Fernando decided to join the Franciscans and took the name Anthony.

He would later serve as the provincial superior of the Franciscans of northern Italy. Toward the end of his life, he dedicated himself to writing two collections of sermons.

"The wealth of the spiritual teachings contained in the 'Sermons' is such that, in 1946, the Venerable Pope Pius XII proclaimed Anthony a doctor of the Church, attributing to him the title of 'Evangelic Doctor,' because from these writings arises the freshness and beauty of the Gospel; even today we can read them with great spiritual profit," Benedict XVI said.

Prayer

The Holy Father highlighted Anthony's teaching on prayer found in the Sermons: "He speaks of prayer as a relationship of love, which drives man to converse sweetly with the Lord, creating an ineffable joy, which gently envelops the soul in prayer.

"Anthony reminds us that prayer needs an atmosphere of silence, which is not the same as withdrawal from external noise, but is an interior experience, which seeks to remove the distractions caused by the soul's preoccupations. According to the teaching of this distinguished Franciscan doctor, prayer is made up of four indispensable attitudes which, in Anthony's Latin, are described as: obsecratio, oratio, postulatio, gratiarum actio. We could translate them thus: to open one's heart confidently to God, to speak affectionately with him, to present to him our needs, to praise him and to thank him."

The Pontiff noted Anthony's teaching that prayer is a requisite for progress in the spiritual life.

"Anthony many times invites the faithful to think of true wealth, that of the heart, which, making them good and merciful, makes them accumulate treasures for Heaven," the Pontiff said. And he added, "Is not this perhaps, dear friends, a very important teaching also today, when the financial crisis and the serious economic imbalances impoverish not a few persons and create conditions of misery?"

In his English-language summary of the audience address, the Holy Father invited the faithful to pray with Anthony's intercession: "In this Year for Priests, let us ask St. Anthony to pray that all preachers will communicate a burning love for Christ, a thirst for closeness to the Lord in prayer, and a deeper appreciation of the truth and beauty of God's word."

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Post #110

Topics: Vatican: Clarifies Freedom to Celebrate EFLR....Clear Creek Abbey: Fr Bethel's Sermon, Feast of St. Scholastica....Bishop William E. Lori: Loving the Eucharist....Inside Catholic: All Your Church Are Belong to Us....Introduction of New Missal:Female Lay-Preaching Proponent to Assist....Our Lady: Of La Salette

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I keep forgetting to thank the anonymous donor who, at Christmas, sent to the sacristy Quick Trip gift cards for all the servers. Thank you so very much....I have said prayers for you whoever you are. You are generous and beautiful. Sorry for the belated thanks.

Please pray for Brody Flavin, his family and his grandmother who is on deaths threshold. May God receive her with mercy and in the most expedient way. Brody and his wife Melissa were married in the EFLR at St. Anthony a few years back and are the latest young couple to join the parish. Brody also serves on the altar.

Comments at the end of posts have been enabled again though with moderator permission. I will publish all comments except for the jerk who was spamming the blog with very bad stuff...you know who you are.

Warning! Angry Language

Given the fact that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has again clarified the freedom of priests and the people to request, have and celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite where ever and whenever they choose (see posting below) I find it troubling that there are still rumblings in the Diocese of Wichita over holy-day masses held in the form of the ancient liturgy...or should I say..the lack of masses.

Quite frankly I am damn angry that we did not have an Ash Wednesday mass. Is it not bad enough that we are forced to hurdle headlong, full throttle, feverishly praying on Sunday mornings for the ridiculous reason that we have to make our time restraint for the next celebration?...leaving us with precious little time for reflection and prayer after mass before the altar is stripped bare? Frankly folks...that makes me mad as hell...tip toeing around the Diocese so as not to wake the sleeping giant in the room...whoever and whatever you perceive the sleeping giant to be.

The Latin Mass community in Wichita gets no notice or mention in The Advance, not much mention in the bulletin, barely a passing nod in our advertisement in the Advance ("the mass in Latin" describes nothing). Why does it seem like the EFLR community is the unwanted stepchild in this diocese? Someone correct me if I am wrong here...if I am off base let me know....but from where I stand, regarding his Holiness' as our staunchest advocate, it looks like we don't have to kowtow to anyone anymore for our RITE and our RIGHT to celebrate what is our spiritual nourishment.

...and now the Necessaries

Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churchs celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Vatican Confirms Freedom of Priests to Celebrate Extraordinary Form

by Damian Thompson

Blogs Editor of the Telegraph Media Group

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100026178/vatican-confirms-freedom-of-priests-to-celebrate-extraordinary-form-whenever-they-like-–-no-need-for-stable-group/

Good news from Rome: the Vatican has further underlined the freedom of priests to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form whenever they choose. Two important points have been clarified by Ecclesia Dei, which will make it more difficult for the English, Welsh and above all Scottish bishops to stall the implementation of Summorum Pontificum:

1. A priest does NOT have to be approached by a “stable group” of the faithful in order to schedule a PUBLIC celebration of the Extraordinary Form – he may choose to do so, for example, in order to introduce his parishioners to this ancient form of the Roman Rite. Or because it’s his aunt’s birthday. Any reason, really.

2. A Mass in the Extraordinary Form may replace a regularly scheduled Mass in the Ordinary Form.

You can find more details of the Ecclesia Dei ruling here, on the excellent New Liturgical Movement blog. I do hope that priests will be encouraged by this document to exercise their full rights under Summorum Pontificum. I know of several instances in which British bishops are trying to undermine the Pope’s wishes, though I’m not going to go public where it would make the situation worse. But it is common knowledge that the situation is particularly serious is Scotland, where EF Masses are extremely rare and official claims that there is no demand for them need to be scrutinised very carefully, shall we say. More on that later.

Meanwhile, traditionalist priests and seminarians should take heart. Your hour is coming.

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Ciuseppe Maria Crespi
(1665-1747)
Galleria Sabauda, Turin Italy


















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Fr Bethel's Sermon at Clear Creek Abbey
St Scholastica, 2010
Submitted by Larry bethel

St. Scholastica is a wonderful little monastic feast; its celebration is traditionally reserved to the Priorof the monastery. The feast may be especially weighty todayat Clear Creek.

St Scholastica is of course the sister of our Blessed Father St Benedict. As a young girl she was consecrated to God. Her consecration probably inspired St. Benedict to become a monk. St. Benedict's biographer, St. Gregory the Great, said the brother and sister were always of one spirit in God. Once a year St. Scholastica would visit her brother so they could speak together about the things of God for a day. Everyone knows how the last time she went to Monte Cassino, St. Benedict met her in a little house away from the monastery and as the day was coming to an end, she begged him to stay longer and when he refused she prayed our Lord to start such a storm that St Benedict could not get back to Monte Cassino. As they say, woman's will is God's will and right away a downpour started. So the two passed the night speaking of the joys of heaven, St. Gregory wrote, and in praise of God until the next day when each went back to their respective monasteries.

As you know we have new beautiful bells which were given to us by a monastery in France. They were already blessed and anointed and are ready to go in their temporary little bell tower. However, we did not ring them for Holy mass today because we wanted to save the first ringing for a big event that may take place today. Indeed, rumor has it that Clear Creek priory will very, very soon be erected as an abbey. This, by the way, would be the fourth monastery that Father Abbot has brought—quite a feat.

What does that mean to become an abbey? As a dependent priory, our superior, our abbot is the abbot of Fontgombault, the monks are all members of the Abbey of Fontgombault. When, the Lord willing, Clear Creek becomes an abbey, we will be autonomous in the sense that this monastery will be on equal footing with all the abbeys of our congregation, including Fontgombault and Solesmes, but of course submitted to the Holy Rule of St. Benedict, the constituions of our Congregation, to the General Chapter of the Abbots of our Congregation and the Holy See. Indeed, let me hasten to say: Don't be afraid, we only want to be all the more faithful to our great heritage from Solesmes and Fontgombault; we only to realize that great, realistic, so balanced, so strong and pure monastic, spiritual, and liturgical tradition on American soil.

So, pray for us monks here that we live up to this dignity, that is, basically to be true monks who seek God as Benedicinte monks, that is, according to the three major criteria St Benedict set forward, that we be zealous for obedience, prayer, and humility. That we be authentic sons of Fontgombault and the Holy Mother Church. That nothing before the love of Christ.

About a day or so after the erection as an abbey, Father Abbot of Fontgombault as founder of this monastery will name Clear Creek's first abbot—of course there is no suspense who will be chosen. An abbatial nomination is a momentous thing, and will have to be confirmed the Abbot of Solesme in the name of the Holy See. That is quickly done in these days of email. All this will have been accomplished privately in the chapter-room, but after confirmation, there will be a public ceremony in the church—with a solemen entry, the new Father Abbot will kneel a moment before the entrance, be incensed, then we will sing the Te Deum as he is escorted to his throne. The new abbot then makes a profession of faith and an oath of fidelity, and automatically receives full jurisdiction over the monastery—over the monks and in a way over guests—something like a bishop, although an abbot does not have episcopal order, he cannot ordain priests for example. He will then receive some insignia like those of the bishop-- the pectoral cross and skull-cap. After the profession of faith, there will be a little ceremony where the monks will make an act of obedience—of allegiance, of fealty really--in the hands of the new abbot. And that's it for now. Our constitutions require that the abbatial blessing take place within three months. That will be a big, big ceremony. The new Father Abbot, once again, will already have his jurisdiction, he will be abbot already but will at the blessing will receive the fullness of his paternal graces, the rest of the insignia of his office--the ring that represents the Abbot's alliance with the monastery, the crozier and mitre that mark him as its shepherd. In the meantime he will choose, again like a bishop, his blazon and his motto. The new abbey also must be provided with blazon and motto.

So that is the big change is in fact: we will have our own abbot. It will mainly be a big change for him, or at least a tremendous responsibility because the Abbot represents Christ for his monks. A Benedictine monastery turns around its abbot. The Abbot is its father, its head and heart. He is like a sacrament of Christ in our midst, an efficient presence and sign of Christ. He will continue to consult Father Abbot of course, but still, he makes the decisions. The buck now stops there.

We monks must make an act of faith, and no longer look on the new Abbot simply as a man. A Benedictine monk exercises his filial relationship with God through his Abbot. According to Dom Delatte, a monk normally is in the relationship with God according to the one he has with his abbot. He wrote: “we shall respect all prelates [all bishops and abbots], but he who is the father of our monastic family and our soul's father, has a special title to our affection.”

So, we are filled with a great joy, of course, at this great event, but here below no joy is without pain. We are all thinking of the Snyman ladies and their injuries. And we think of Fr. de Feydeau who is certainly very close to us on these days. And if it is a great thing to come of age as a monastery, the event has its sadness also, like a boy or a girl going off to found their own home must leave the home they love. Some of us were novices of Fr Abbot way back when we were 22 and he was 42; he guided our first wobbling steps. We won't have continual contacts with him now. He probably won't come here anymore except for the abbatial blessing and hopefully one day for the consecration of church. Like Scholastica we want to say: “don't leave us!” But it's time to grow up. That is the Lord's will, so that is the good. It's full of graces. St Benedict also did eventually have to go back to his monastery and leave St. Scholastica.

This is a big event for all of you also of course. The new Father Abbot will have his full paternal graces for all of you, especially the oblates among you. Let's all work together to make this monastery as well as the community that has formed around us--the parish, the families, the sisters' community--something beautiful for God.

As I said, we did not ring the new bells yet. But a chapter meeting has been announced for noon. So, if you hear them ringing a little after noon, you will know that Clear Creek monastery has become an abbey. The new abbot will be chosen and enthroned later. We will tell you ahead of time so you can be present. Let's go forward under the auspices of on St Scholastic and Our Lady of Lourdes. Deo gratias.

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Loving the Eucharist
by Supreme Chaplain Bishop William E. Lori (Knights of Columbus)
Columbia: The Online Edition
http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/publications/columbia/detail/549073.html#3

We Must Grow in Understanding of and Reverence for the Gift of the Holy Eucharist

The 23rd installment of Supreme Chaplain Bishop William E. Lori’s faith formation program addresses questions 271-294 of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Not long ago, a parishioner said to me that she just didn’t see the need to go to Mass every Sunday. “I go to Mass once in a while, when I think it will help me,” she said. Unfortunately, many people who consider themselves faithful Catholics share this attitude, an attitude that is not proportionate to the gift and mystery of the Eucharist.

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a brief summary of this great mystery of faith: “The Eucharist is the very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus….” It is not merely a reminder that Christ offered his Body and Blood for our sake; rather, it is that offering. Jesus himself instituted the Eucharist “to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until his return in glory” (271). The Eucharist, the heart of the Church’s life, is the banquet and living memorial of Christ’s sacrifice. When we worthily partake of the Eucharist, we participate even now in God’s own life.

THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION

Gathered with his Apostles, Jesus entrusted the Eucharist to the Church at the Last Supper. At every Mass, the priest repeats and reenacts the words by which the Lord instituted the Eucharist: “Take this and eat it, all of you; this is my Body which will be given for you. … Take this and drink of this, all of you. This is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me” (273).

We hear these words so often, but do we realize their significance?

Since the Eucharist re-presents (makes present again) the death and resurrection of Christ, it contains the entire spiritual wealth of the Church. It brings us into union (communion) with the Trinity and with one another. It puts us in touch with the great liturgy of heaven, that utterly joyous and eternal worship of God for which we were made and for which our hearts long (274, 287).

The more we think about what the Eucharist actually is, the less “optional” it seems! The very names used to describe the Eucharist remind us of its centrality. For example, the word “Eucharist” refers to the thanksgiving we owe to God. The phrase “Holy Mass” speaks to our mission to bring Christ into our daily lives. The Scriptures refer to the Eucharist as the “Breaking of Bread” — a sharing in the Body of the Lord that makes us one. Lastly, “Holy Communion” tells us that the Eucharist unites us to the Trinity, to the saints and angels in heaven, and to one another in the Church here on earth (275).

In this Year for Priests, let us remember that the Eucharist is at the very heart of the priesthood. Only a validly ordained priest or bishop who acts in the person of Christ and in the name of the Church can offer the Eucharist (278). Through ordination, the priest is conformed to Christ — the great high priest — so that he can reenact Christ’s words and deeds.

We also should not forget that the Eucharist was prefigured in the Passover. When Jesus gathered with his Apostles in the Upper Room, they celebrated a Passover meal that commemorated the deliverance of the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. This deliverance foreshadowed the great deliverance we experience at the Eucharist: from the slavery of sin to the freedom of the new life of grace that Christ won for us.

THE REAL PRESENCE

Each time the Eucharist is celebrated, Jesus’ sacrifice is truly made present: “The sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one and the same sacrifice” (280). Christ is both the priest and the victim. While his sacrifice on the cross occurred in a bloody manner, the Eucharist is offered in an unbloody manner, through the signs of bread and wine (279).

Jesus makes his sacrifice of love available to us so we can offer our lives — our joys, sorrows and daily work — in union with him to the Father as an acceptable sacrifice of praise. It is the most perfect prayer that we can offer for our loved ones and for all the living and the dead.

We can understand our need for the Eucharist by focusing on how Christ is present “in a true, real, and substantial way, with his Body and his Blood, his Soul and his Divinity” (282). Indeed, the Church has coined a word to describe the complete transformation of bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood: “transubstantiation” (283).

This leads us to reflect on the respect we owe the eucharistic species, the bread and wine transformed into Christ’s Body and Blood. Christ is present whole and entire in each particle of the host and in each drop of the Precious Blood. The eucharistic species should therefore be treated with reverence and great care. Since Christ is truly and substantially present, we worship the Eucharist both during Mass and outside of Mass.

Given the beauty and centrality of this sublime gift, the Church rightly obliges us to take part in Mass each Sunday. While we are obliged to receive Communion at least once a year, during the Easter season, the Church encourages frequent reception (289, 290). To receive worthily, we must be members of the Catholic Church and be in the state of grace. If we are aware of any mortal sins we have committed, we should first receive the sacrament of penance. We should also prepare our hearts to receive our Lord in the Eucharist by prayerful recollection and by fasting one hour before Mass. Finally, we should show respect for the Eucharist by our prayerful demeanor and appropriate dress when attending Mass. In each of these ways, let us embrace in love this great mystery of faith.

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All Your Church Are Belong to Us
by John Zmirak
Inside Catholic

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7688&Itemid=48

Blogger's note: "All your base are belong to us" (from which the title of this article is taken) is a broken English phrase that was central to an Internet phenomenon, or meme in the early 2000's. The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the video game Zero Wing[1] by Toaplan, which was poorly translated.

"Why do you people care so much about externals?" my non-Trad friends sometimes ask me. And they deserve an answer. A few weeks back, my delightfully contentious colleague here, Mark Shea, waded into the conflict between those who describe themselves simply as "orthodox" Catholics, and those who consider themselves "traditionalists." (Just to save space in the comments box, I mean by this term people who favor the traditional liturgy -- not those who associate with organizations under ecclesiastical suspension.)This line has begun to blur more and more in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum, which we Trads greeted as a kind of Emancipation Proclamation -- even as many of our bishops answered it with liturgical Jim Crow.

Still, the division is palpable. It was lying right there on the table, for any who cared to palpate it, last week when I went to dinner with a Trad-minded colleague and a visiting author who'd come to speak at our college on G. K. Chesterton. (The presentation was riveting, and I highly recommend Dale Ahlquist's talks and books.) Like the good Mr. Shea, our speaker is a convert, and he shared with Mark a puzzlement at the apparent fixation traditionalists have on restoring former elements of the liturgy and other Catholic practices that are not essential, and resisting innovations that are not inherently evil. Having come from churches that didn't have the Eucharist, and remaining through God's grace flush with gratitude for the sacraments, many converts really don't understand what the rest of us are nattering on about. We who grew up privileged may seem like sulky, spoiled kids. We owe these good people an explanation.

Sometimes they think we just care about aesthetics. One visit to a Sunday Latin Low Mass without music, recited soundlessly into a marble altar, should put that idea to flight. Compared to a Novus Ordo liturgy in the vernacular, and from a purely human point of view, attending Low Mass can be dull. You feel like you are eavesdropping. If you follow along in the missal, you can feel that you are watching a very solemn foreign film without any subtitles, except that you have the screenplay. There's a reason the old rubrics relegated Low Mass to weekdays, and called (though they were rarely answered) for sung Solemn Mass on Sundays and holy days. Pope Pius X wasn't kidding when he asked for parishes to revive Gregorian chant and teach it to the laity. Nor is there any good reason why Latin Mass congregations don't give the responses along with the servers -- except perhaps the fear that this is somehow the first step down a long road that leads to clown Mass. Get over it, fratres.

Other people think that we are a band of Latin scholars, desperate to put our dusty declensions to practical use. Again, one conversation with the congregants at the coffee hour will dash that infant theory against the rocks. Most of us studied Latin, if at all, as part of vocabulary practice for the SATs, and follow the English side of the missal. I don't know a single Traditionalist who wouldn't prefer the old Mass, facing the altar, said in English, to the Novus Ordo chanted in Latin facing the people. While the universal language of the Church is still to be revered for all the reasons that Vatican II prescribed in Sacrosanctum Concilium, it isn't Why We Fight.

Still more people think that we cling to the ancient liturgy as a piece of nostalgia for a Church that we vaguely remember, or heard about from our parents, whose schools drummed a stark, simplistic orthodoxy into hordes of dutiful children; whose religious orders and seminaries weren't riddled with rank heresy and extensive networks of secret homosexuals; whose bishops manfully echoed the traditional teachings of centuries without constant goading from Rome; whose buildings and services at least strove for dignity and austerity, even if they sometimes descended into tedium and kitsch.


I'm tempted to say at this point: That's right. That's exactly what we want. Or at least what we'd settle for. What faithful Catholic wouldn't, if he could right now, wave a magic wand and swap the American church of 2010 for that of 1940 -- with all its acknowledged abuses and hidden worldliness? I'll take the blustering Cardinal Spellman over the scheming Archbishop Weakland any day.

But, of course, things never work like that. You can't bring back the Habsburgs by hanging their banners in your apartment (trust me, I've tried), and we cannot undo the catastrophic "renewal" launched in the name of the Second Vatican Council (often in plain defiance of its documents) by clicking our heels and reciting, "There's no place like Rome" -- even in ecclesiastical Latin. Some confrontation between the Church and late Western modernity was inevitable, and if it hadn't happened at the Council, it would have occurred some other way. The Eastern churches didn't vandalize their liturgy; have they been spared the ravages of secularization? Not according to my Greek Orthodox friends, who show up for the last ten minutes of liturgy each week to pick up blessed bread and join their friends for baklava and gossip. The liturgy is miraculous, but it doesn't work like magic: Rev. Teilhard de Chardin had said the Tridentine Mass for decades even as he invented Catholic Scientology; conversely, his sometime housemate at New York’s St. Ignatius Loyola, the holy Rev. John Hardon, obediently switched missals with every tinkering that came to him from the bishops.

Of course, there's something to be said for a liturgy whose very nature resists and defeats abuses. The Ordinary Form can be extraordinarily reverent when said by a holy priest. I've been to such liturgies hundreds of times, and I'm grateful for every one. On the other hand, the new liturgy, with all its Build-a-Bear options, is terribly easy to abuse. The old Mass reminds me of what they used to say about the Catholic Church and the U.S. Navy: "It's a machine built by geniuses so it can be operated safely by idiots." The old liturgy was crafted by saints, and can be said by schlubs without risk of sacrilege. The new rite was patched together by bureaucrats, and should only be safely celebrated by the saintly.

There are plenty of theological arguments by men more learned than I -- such as Michael Davies and, er, the current pope -- for the superiority of various elements in the traditional liturgy, such as the priest facing the altar instead of the audience. (I use that word advisedly, given the theatrical quality that took over so many parishes since the 1970s.) There are serious objections to many of the changes made in the prayers of the Novus Ordo -- and they were made by the man who used to hold the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's job at the Vatican, Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, who presented them to Pope Paul VI, begging him not to issue the Novus Ordo. (Imagine Cardinal Ratzinger begging Pope John Paul II not to impose altar girls. Who knows -- maybe he did!) Although I recommend reading these arguments, I won't rehearse them here, since all of them are prudential. Adopting Lutheran or Anglican language in the Mass probably didn't cause the current crisis of belief in the Real Presence, and cutting such language by eliminating all but the First Eucharistic Prayer might not do much to resolve it. (Still, it's worth a try!)


So what is the practical motivation that drives us Trads to schlep to distant or dangerous parishes, to irritate our spouses and incommode our pastors, to detach from local churches our grandparents scrimped to build? Why insist on external things, like kneeling for communion on the tongue, male altar servers, and the priest facing the altar? None of these, I'll admit for the 5,000th time, is essential for sacramental validity or credal orthodoxy; isn't being a stickler on such issues a wee bit pharisaical, even prissy? (I have encountered the odd Trad activist with an unnatural attachment to silk and lace -- pastors wearily call them "daughters of Trent" -- but they aren't the norm. Weary fathers of six or seven pack most Latin Mass pews.)

Here's what we Trads have realized, that the merely orthodox haven’t: Inessential things have power, which is why we bother with them in the first place. In every revolution, the first thing you change is the flag. Once that has been replaced, in the public mind all bets are off -- which is why the Commies and Nazis filled every available space with their Satanic banners. Imagine, for a moment, that a newly elected president replaced the Stars and Stripes with the Confederate battle flag. Or that he replaced our 50 stars with the flag of Mexico. Let's say he got away with doing this, and wasn't carried off by the Secret Service to an "undisclosed location." What would that signify for his administration? If people accepted the change, what else would they be likely to accept?

It's no accident that the incessant tinkerings with the liturgy came at the same time as the chaos surrounding the Church's teaching on birth control. As Anne Roche Muggeridge pointed out in her indispensable history The Desolate City, the Church's position on contraception was "under consideration" for almost a decade -- which led pastors to tell troubled couples that they could follow their consciences. If the Church could change the Mass, ordinary Catholics concluded, the nuances of marital theology were surely up for grabs. No wonder that when Paul VI reluctantly issued Humanae Vitae, people felt betrayed. (It didn't help when the Vatican refused to back a cardinal who tried to enforce the document, which made it seem like the pope was winking.)

The perception that the Church was in a constant state of doctrinal flux was confirmed by the reality that her most central, sacred mystery was being monkeyed with -- almost every year. I remember being in grammar school when they told us, "The pope wants us to receive Communion in the hand now." (He didn't; it was an abuse that was forced on the Vatican through relentless disobedience until it became a local norm, but never mind.) Then, a few years later, "The pope wants us to stand for Communion." A few more grades, and we heard, "The pope wants us to go to Confession face to face." What had seemed a solid bulwark of formality and seriousness was suddenly shifting with every year's hemlines -- which is precisely what the heretics conspiring to change the Church's teaching had in mind. That is why they pushed for these futile, pastorally destructive changes of "inessentials" -- as a way of beating down resistance to changing essentials. And, in a worldly sense, they almost succeeded.

The campaign of dissenting priests, nuns, and (let's be honest) bishops culminated, in America, with the Call to Action Conference, which its leading advocate John Francis Cardinal Dearden described in 1977 as "an assembly of the American Catholic community ." This gathering of 2,400 radical Catholic activists was composed of "people deeply involved with the life of the institutional Church and appointed by their bishops" (emphasis added). The Conference approved "progressive resolutions, ones calling for, among other things, the ordination of women and married men, female altar servers, and the right and responsibility of married couples to form their own consciences on the issue of artificial birth control." This is the mess made by the bishops appointed by the author of Humanae Vitae, which his rightly beloved successor John Paul II spent much of his pontificate trying to clean up. What we Trads feel compelled to point out is that he couldn't quite finish the job, and that the deformations of the Roman liturgy enacted by (you guessed it) appointees of Paul VI helped enable all these doctrinal abuses. They changed the flag.


At this point in my discussion of the gravest theological issues that threatened the faith of Catholics in this country, I wish to call your attention to a stupid YouTube video, which gave this essay its willfully illiterate title: "All Your Base Are Belong to Us."

For those of you too young to have experienced the incessant assault upon the sacred that was the liturgical "reform," or grateful converts who don't understand all the fuss, I beg of you: Please watch this video. In fact, stop reading and watch the video first, then come back to finish this essay. I can wait.

The film takes the Pidgin English from a cheesy Japanese computer game and places it everywhere: on street signs, in Budweiser ads, on cigarette packs. At first, the effect is funny, and you wonder about the geeks who spent their time doing all this Photoshop. But keep watching. Savor the effect as the same mindless, meaningless slogan is plastered everywhere, on every blessed thing. Pretty quickly, it starts to be creepy. By the end, you might feel like Japanese anime aliens have in fact taken over. You can see their fingerprints everywhere . . .

That is how it felt to be young and Catholic in the 1970s. Every sacred thing had to be changed, every old thing replaced with a new one, every complicated beauty plastered over by the cheap and the easy. The message was almost subliminal, but by that means all the more powerful: All Your Church Are Belong to Us.

And by changing back the flag, by taking back our Mass, we are saying: Go back to Hell. Our Church belongs to Christ.

John Zmirak is the author, most recently, of the graphic novel The Grand Inquisitor and is Writer-in-Residence at Thomas More College in New Hampshire. He writes weekly for InsideCatholic.com.

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Female Lay-Preaching Proponent to Help Introduce New Missal to US Priests

Catholic World News

February 19, 2010

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5494

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced on February 18 that it will hold a series of 22 workshops across the nation to help introduce priests and diocesan leaders to the new Roman Missal. At its November meeting, the bishops’ conference completed its approval of the new translation, whose language is more faithful to the content and eloquence of the original Latin text than the current translation is.

“Seminar attendees will study the historical and theological context of the new Missal and will look at some of the new translations to deepen understanding of their depth and richness,” according to the USCCB. The seminars will be cosponsored by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.

Two speakers will address each workshop. Among the pool of five speakers from whom the two will be drawn is Dr. Dolly Sokol, director of development of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, who serves on the board of directors of Partners In Preaching, an organization devoted to training the laity to preach during the sacred liturgy.

Citing the Code of Canon Law and other Vatican documents, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal notes that “the Homily should ordinarily be given by the priest celebrant himself. He may entrust it to a concelebrating priest or occasionally, according to circumstances, to the deacon, but never to a lay person.”

Partners In Preaching, on the other hand, believes that lay preaching should become part of the life of every parish. “The vision of Partners In Preaching is that every local faith community would have competent, diverse and empowered lay and ordained voices for ritual preaching,” according to its web site. To further this end, the organization offers “a Training and Formation Program for the ministry of lectionary-based, liturgical preaching, offered to beginning preaching candidates.”

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Our Lady of La Salette
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_La_Salette

Two shepherd children - Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat - reported a vision of the Virgin Mary on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, on September 19, 1846 around 3.00 p.m. during their cowherding. They were eleven and fourteen years old at the time and had received only a very limited education.

The apparition consisted of three different stages. Firstly, the children beheld in a resplendent light a beautiful lady clad in a strange costume. She was seated on a rock and in tears, with her face resting in her hands. This took place at the ravine called ravin de la Sezia

Secondly, she stood upright and talked to the children, speaking alternately in French and in the regional patois. She charged them with a message which they were to deliver to all her people. This also took place in the ravin de la Sezia. After complaining of the impiety and sinfulness of men, and threatening them with dreadful chastisements in case they should persevere in evil, she promised them the Divine mercy if they would amend. Finally, she communicated to each of the children a special secret, before disappearing into the sky. This happened on the plateau called Mont-sous-les-Baisses.

They told of their experience to their employers, Baptiste Pra and Pierre Selme. These wrote the account down September 20, 1846, the day after the apparition, in a letter.[2]

Maximin Giraud was questioned upon his story by the mayor of the village, Pierre Peytard September 21, 1846.

Pra and Selme informed Louis Perrin, the parish priest of La Salette, who himself informed the archpriest of Corps, Pierre Mélin. Impressed by the account, Perrin preached about it at Holy Mass. The bishop of Grenoble, Philibert de Bruillard, was officially informed by Mélin on October 4, 1846.

The news of the apparition spread like wildfire. Maximin's father, Jean-Maximin Giraud, not being religious at all, converted on November 8, 1846. This was the first of many conversions. Soon several miraculous cures took place on the mountain of La Salette, and pilgrimages to the place were begun. The first pilgrimage took place on November 24, 1846, with both children participating. On May 31 about 5,000 pilgrims participated in another pilgrimage, on the occasion of the planting of a crossway up the mountain.

In October 1846 Mélanie and Maximin were questioned by Mathieu Cat, a diocesan priest. In February 1847 both seers were questioned by François Lagier, a French priest who spoke the local patois fluently. On April 16, 1847 both children were interrogated by a city magistrate of Grenoble, the local juge de paix Fréderic-Joseph Long. They were reinterrogated by Pierre Lambert, another diocesan priest on the apparition May 29, 1847.[3]

The first miraculous cure that was recognised as such was that of Claire Pierron S.S.J., known as Sister Saint-Charles, of Avignon on April 16, 1847. The second was that of Mélanie Gamon, of Corps, on August 15, 1847.

On July 22, 1847 Clément Cardinal Villecourt, bishop of La Rochelle made a personal pilgrimage to La Salette. He met both children and questioned them.

One year after the apparition, September 19, 1847, over 50,000 pilgrims came to La Salette to celebrate the anniversary.

Post # 110

Topics: Clear Creek Monastery: Elevated to Abbey....Photo: Mass During War...His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI: Message for Lent....There Will be a Quiz After Mass: Latin Grammar....Pope Reflects: St. Anthony of Padua....Hitler Rails Against Pope Benedict: YouTube

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Dear Readers,

What? No comments on the new header? I thought is was groovy, the bees knees, "da bomb", the cat's meow........

There will be a written quiz and oral exams after mass on the basic Latin pronunciations of vowels and consonants that are listed in this week's post. Don't be nervous, just study hard.

...and now the Necessaries

Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churchs celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Clear Creek Elevated to Status of Abbey

The Diocese of Tulsa Website

http:////www.dioceseoftulsa.org/article.asp?nID=1361

2/12/2010 - EOC Staff

The 33 monks of Clear Creek Monastery near Hulbert received the happy news that their priory has been elevated to the status of a self-governing Abbey. Dom Antoine Forgeot, O.S.B., Abbot of Clear Creek Monastery’s motherhouse in France, announced the change in status to the community on February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

At the same time, Father Phillip Anderson, one of the original 12 monks who came from the Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault in France to help found Clear Creek has been named Abbot of what will now be known as Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey. Father Anderson has served the monastic community since its foundation as its prior.

“It’s a moment of perfection and the moment you become fully what you were meant to be. To become an Abbey is to reach a certain point of maturity,” said Abbot Anderson.

Clear Creek Monastery was established in 1999 at the invitation of Bishop Edward J. Slattery. While the following 10 years were a time of decline for monasteries nation-wide and world-wide, Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey has grown from the original 12 monks to its current population of 18 professed monks (12 priests-monks and six lay brothers), with seven junior monks (under their first vows) and another eight novices and postulants.

Abbot Anderson explained that following its initial foundation, a monastery must achieve a certain level of stability, manifested in both its ability to attract vocations and in its ability to become financially secure before it can be named an Abbey. In the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes, to which Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey belongs, this stability must be met within its first 13 years of existence. When those conditions were met, Dom Antoine Forgeot, Abbot of the Abbey of Notre Dame de Fontgombault, recommended the change in status to the Abbot of St. Pierre de Solesmes.

While final approval technically comes from the Holy See, that final approval has been delegated to the Abbey of Solesmes.

Clear Creek is the fourth daughterhouse of Fontgombault to be raised to the level of an Abbey and is the twentieth Abbey in the Congregation of Solesmes

Abbot Anderson said there will be very few changes in day to day life at Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, although his role will change dramatically in liturgical and governmental terms. The new Abbey will operate independently of the former Mother House and he will assume a role in the community which is similar to the role a bishop exercises in the diocese, that is, the three-fold role of sanctifying, teaching and governing.

“Abbot Forgeot hopes we maintain a close relationship with Fontgombault and so do we,” Abbot Anderson said. “Our spiritual roots are in France.”

The public is invited to attend the blessing of Abbot Anderson at Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey on Saturday, April 10.

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Photo of Army Chaplain Celebrating Mass During War

U.S. Army Museum at Fort DeRussy

Waikiki Hawaii

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His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's Message for Lent

Zenit

http://www.zenit.org/article-28253?l=english

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is Benedict XVI's message for Lent, which was published today by the Vatican press office. The message has as its theme: "The Justice of God Has Been Manifested Through Faith in Jesus Christ."

Lent begins Feb. 17.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning from the Pauline affirmation: "The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ" (cf. Rm 3, 21-22).

Justice: "dare cuique suum"

First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term "justice," which in common usage implies "to render to every man his due," according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what "due" is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet "distributive" justice does not render to the human being the totality of his "due." Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine notes: if "justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?" (De civitate Dei, XIX, 21).

What is the Cause of Injustice?

The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: "There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts" (Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep down have this presupposition: since injustice comes "from outside," in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking – Jesus warns – is ingenuous and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises this: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other.

By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan’s lie, snatching the mysterious fruit against the divine command, replaced the logic of trusting in Love with that of suspicion and competition; the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting from the Other with anxiously seizing and doing on one’s own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6), experiencing, as a consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can man free himself from this selfish influence and open himself to love?

Justice and Sedaqah

At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith in God who "lifts the needy from the ash heap" (Ps 113,7) and justice towards one’s neighbor. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of justice, sedaqah, expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbour (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It was not by chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes faith in God who first "heard the cry" of His people and "came down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians" (cf. Ex 3,8). God is attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex 22,20), the slave (cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is needed is an even deeper "exodus" than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize. Does man have any hope of justice then?

Christ, the Justice of God

The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: "But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (3, 21-25).

What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that "expiation" flows from the "blood" of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the "curse" due to man so as to give in return the "blessing" due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his "due"? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from "what is mine," to give me gratuitously "what is His." This happens especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the "greatest" justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected.

Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.

Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal Triduum, in which this year, too, we shall celebrate divine justice – the fullness of charity, gift, salvation. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 30 October 2009

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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Latin Grammar

http://bumpy187.googlepages.com/latingrammar

From the book Latin Grammar

by Cora Carroll Scanlon A.M. and Charles L. Scanlon A.M.

Tan Books and Publishers, Inc.

Here are some basic Latin pronunciations of vowels and consonants. More to follow next week. Study hard!! If the image below is to hard to read (or you folks that subscribe in email don't see it) go to this page. http://bumpy187.googlepages.com/latingrammar

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Pontiff Reflects on a Pillar of Franciscan History

Tip o' the Hat to Larry Bethel

Zenit

http://www.zenit.org/article-28317?l=english

Notes Contribution of St. Anthony of Padua

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 10, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI today considered the spiritual contribution to history of a saint he characterized as one of the most popular in the whole Catholic Church.

Following his reflections last week and the week before on Sts. Francis and Dominic, the Pope today considered one of the key cofounders of the Franciscans, St. Anthony of Padua.

A gifted preacher, this saint initiated one of the "specific features of Franciscan theology," the Holy Father said, namely "the role given to divine love, which enters in the sphere of affection, of the will, of the heart and which is also the source from which springs a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all knowledge."

In fact, the Pontiff affirmed, "Anthony contributed in a significant way to the development of Franciscan spirituality, with his outstanding gifts of intelligence, balance, apostolic zeal and, mainly, mystical fervor."

Born in 1195, and given the name Fernando, the future Franciscan initially joined the Canons of St. Augustine. In 1220, when he learned of the first five Franciscan missionaries who had gone to Morocco and were martyred, Fernando decided to join the Franciscans and took the name Anthony.

He would later serve as the provincial superior of the Franciscans of northern Italy. Toward the end of his life, he dedicated himself to writing two collections of sermons.

"The wealth of the spiritual teachings contained in the 'Sermons' is such that, in 1946, the Venerable Pope Pius XII proclaimed Anthony a doctor of the Church, attributing to him the title of 'Evangelic Doctor,' because from these writings arises the freshness and beauty of the Gospel; even today we can read them with great spiritual profit," Benedict XVI said.

Prayer

The Holy Father highlighted Anthony's teaching on prayer found in the Sermons: "He speaks of prayer as a relationship of love, which drives man to converse sweetly with the Lord, creating an ineffable joy, which gently envelops the soul in prayer.

"Anthony reminds us that prayer needs an atmosphere of silence, which is not the same as withdrawal from external noise, but is an interior experience, which seeks to remove the distractions caused by the soul's preoccupations. According to the teaching of this distinguished Franciscan doctor, prayer is made up of four indispensable attitudes which, in Anthony's Latin, are described as: obsecratio, oratio, postulatio, gratiarum actio. We could translate them thus: to open one's heart confidently to God, to speak affectionately with him, to present to him our needs, to praise him and to thank him."

The Pontiff noted Anthony's teaching that prayer is a requisite for progress in the spiritual life.

"Anthony many times invites the faithful to think of true wealth, that of the heart, which, making them good and merciful, makes them accumulate treasures for Heaven," the Pontiff said. And he added, "Is not this perhaps, dear friends, a very important teaching also today, when the financial crisis and the serious economic imbalances impoverish not a few persons and create conditions of misery?"

In his English-language summary of the audience address, the Holy Father invited the faithful to pray with Anthony's intercession: "In this Year for Priests, let us ask St. Anthony to pray that all preachers will communicate a burning love for Christ, a thirst for closeness to the Lord in prayer, and a deeper appreciation of the truth and beauty of God's word."

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Hitler Rails Against Pope Benedict

You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b12aglwd8QY&feature=player_embedded

Post #109

Topics: The Latin Mass Society: Free 2010 Ordo...National Shrine: First Traditional Mass in 45 Years....Mary Daly: Dissident Theologian....Catholic Scholars: Who Aren't Catholic ....Fire at St. Joseph Church in Ost: Side Altar Destroyed....Prayer to St. Michael: Oratio ad Sanctum Michael...What It's Like: Assisting on the Altar

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Dearest readers. Long time no write! The Christmas break turned into a month long vacation, a much need vacation but now life is back to the usual predictable grind. This is actually very good for me as I am prone to daydreaming and contemplation (youngest of the family syndrome?) and I always do better with a routine.

That being said, I am going to try really hard to continue this blog and cover the people and events that are important to readers, namely those of the parish of St. Anthony, Wichita. However, there are times when my busy school and work schedule take up entire days from sunup to bedtime and there have been times where I have considered letting this blog end.

I have often wondered if the original intent of this blog has been fulfilled, mainly attracting more people to the Extraordinary Form of Mass and bringing those involved closer. I fear that neither of these mission statements have been met.

My proposal to you good readers is this: I will try to keep this blog limping along with no guarantees that I will have the time and/or perhaps one or more of you fine folks will want to take it and run with it. This blog has great potential but as I prepare to enter my 3rd year of school at WSU, I may have to drop this blog in favor of realizing my own potential.

...and now the Necessaries

Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churchs celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Free 2010 EFLR Ordo

Mr. James Spencer informed me by email that a free 2010 EFLR ordo is available in PDF file format from The Latin Mass Society compiled by Gordon Dimon Principal Master of Ceremonies

ssisted by William Tomlinson.

Go to http://saiden.page.ph/fidem/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Extraordinary-Form-Ordo-2010.pdf adn do a File > Save As.

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Pope Benedict's Anniversary to be Marked at America's Largest Catholic Church by a“Traditional” Latin Mass

Vatican’s Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos Will Celebrate the
First Traditional Mass at the National Shrine’s High Altar in 45 Years

Washington, DC- The Paulus Institute announced today that on Saturday, April 24, 2010, at 1 p.m., the fifth anniversary of inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI will be commemorated in the Great Upper Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC, by a Pontifical Solemn High Mass in the “Extraordinary form”—commonly known as the “Traditional Latin Mass” or “Tridentine Mass”—celebrated by the Vatican prelate Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos of Colombia.

This will be the first such Mass said at the Shrine’s High Altar in nearly 45 years. All Catholics are invited, many of whom may never have another opportunity to attend such a Mass. Cardinal Castrillón is the President Emeritus of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (Church of God), where he assisted Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in facilitating this form of the Mass.

In July of 2007 Pope Benedict issued the apostolic (papal) Summorum Pontificum (of the Supreme Pontiff), in which he confirmed the permissibility this Mass. It is one of the two uses of the same rite of the Eucharistic Liturgy, along with the Missal of Pope Paul VI in 1970 (the “Ordinary” form). Evolving since the early days of the Christian Church, the Mass was essentially in place by the 6th Century during the papacy of Pope St. Gregory the Great and codified by Pope St. Pius V in the 16th Century. It was last changed by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and so used during the Second Vatican Council. In 1984 Pope John Paul II permitted use of the Missal of John XXIII, and further facilitated it in 1988 and 1992. Pope Benedict noted that the Latin liturgy of the Church in each century of the Christian era “has been a spur to the spiritual life of many saints and reinforced many peoples in the virtue of religion and [facilitated] their piety,” adding, “What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred for us too.”

Writing that since this Mass “must be given due honor for its venerable and ancient usage ... let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith allows.” The pope noted in an accompanying letter that “young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction, and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Sacrifice particularly suited to them.”

The Paulus Institute in Washington DC is sponsoring the Mass. “We are honored that His Eminence Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos will be celebrating this Mass at our invitation, especially on the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s inauguration and at the High Altar of the National Shrine,” said Institute President Paul King. “It is a privilege to recognize the Pope on this auspicious occasion and assist his call to give due honor to the 1500-year old Mass for its ‘venerable and ancient usage.’”

“We are inviting all Catholics to this Mass for the unity of the entire Catholic community, including those unfamiliar with it and particularly young adults and families.”

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As the Flame of Catholic Dissent Dies Out
By Charlotte Allen
The Wall Street Journal
January 14, 2010

Mary Daly, a retired professor at Boston College who was probably the most outré of all the dissident theologians who came to the fore of Catholic intellectual life in the years right after the Second Vatican Council, died on Jan. 3 at age 81. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, which might be called the golden age of Catholic dissidence, theologians who took positions challenging traditional church teachings—ranging from the authority of the pope to bans on birth control, premarital sex, and women's ordination—dominated Catholic intellectual life in America and Europe. They seemed to represent a tide that would overwhelm the old restrictions and their hidebound adherents.

Now, 45 years after Vatican II concluded in 1965, most of those bright lights of dissident Catholicism—from the theologian Hans Küng of the University of Tübingen to Charles Curran, the priest dismissed from the Catholic University of America's theology faculty in 1987 for his advocacy of contraception and acceptance of homosexual relationships—seem dimmed with advanced age, if not extinguished. They have left no coherent second generation of dissident Catholic intellectuals to follow them.

Prof. Daly certainly pushed the envelope. In 1968, she published "The Church and the Second Sex," a book that accused the Catholic Church of oppressing and "humiliating" women by excluding them from its "patriarchal" hierarchy. The title of her most famous work, "Beyond God the Father" (1973), is self-explanatory. At some point afterward, Prof. Daly, despite being raised Catholic and earning degrees in theology and literature from three different Catholic colleges plus the University of Fribourg, left the church to embrace ever more belligerent brands of feminism.

She got into trouble with Boston College, the Jesuit institution where she had taught since 1966, for barring men from her advanced classes in women's studies. In the wake of a sex-discrimination complaint launched by a male student, Prof. Daly and her employer engaged in a round of litigation during the late 1990s that culminated in her voluntary retirement in 2001. She spent her last years promoting vegetarianism, antifur activism, a protest of Condoleezza Rice's 2006 commencement speech at Boston College, and the coining of male-baiting neologisms (an example: "mister-ectomy").

The trajectory of her life story is not unusual among Catholic dissidents. The Young Turk of Vatican II—and pet of the progressive Catholic media of the time—was Hans Küng. A Swiss-born, movie-star-handsome priest whom Pope John XXIII had made a peritus, or theological adviser, to the council, Father Küng swept through a tour of U.S. Catholic universities to accolades in 1963. And his 1971 book questioning papal infallibility—which got him stripped of his license to teach Catholic theology in 1979—turned him into a living martyr among progressives. He is still at Tübingen (last heard from in October blasting Pope Benedict XVI's overtures to conservative Anglicans as "angling in the waters of the extreme religious right"), but he's 81.

The Belgian Dominican priest Edward Schillebeeckx, who had worked unsuccessfully to persuade the assembled bishops of the Second Vatican Council to downgrade the authority of the pope—and who was condemned in 1986 for holding that there was no biblical support for the ordaining of Catholic priests—died in December at age 95. The Rev. Charles Curran, who was a controversial figure at Catholic University as early as 1967, when he was temporarily removed from his tenured position over his views on birth control, and who moved to Southern Methodist University after his final dismissal from Catholic two decades later, is now 75.

Another prominent figure in liberal Catholic intellectual circles is Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, who is famous for her assertions that Jesus was a feminist and that God should be referred to as "she" as well as "he," as well as for her advice that progressive orders of nuns treat representatives of a planned Vatican investigation like "uninvited guests." She is also past retirement age and is listed as "professor emerita" at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.

So where is the second generation of brilliant progressive Catholic theologians? There are plenty of liberal lay Catholics. The church's ban on artificial birth control is nearly a dead letter, a majority of Catholics say they believe their church should ordain women, and 40% have no moral objections to abortion, according to a 2009 Gallup poll. But dissident Catholicism seems to have lost steam as an intellectual movement, and not only because the issues relating to sex and papal authority that originally sparked Catholic dissidents have not changed in nearly 50 years.

The first-generation dissidents were products of a strong and confident traditional Catholic culture against which they rebelled, one whose intellectual standards grounded them in the faith they later came to question. Sister Schneiders, for example, earned four degrees from Catholic institutions, including the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Yet most Catholics of her generation have not passed on the tenets of their faith to their children—the offspring of the Vatican II generation tend either to be churchless or not to go to church—or, in the case of academics, to their students. It's hard to rebel when you don't even know what you are rebelling against.

Not that conservative Catholicism is in any better straits; it's a vibrant but niche branch of the religion, and its leading intellectuals—Robert George, Mary Ann Glendon—aren't theologians. But it is fair to note that when Prof. Daly died, she left behind no young Mary Dalys to continue waging her quixotic war against the faith that shaped her, whether she liked it or not.

Ms. Allen is a contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute's Minding the Campus Web site.

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Catholic Scholars Who Aren't Catholic
By Phil Lawler
Catholic Culture
January 15, 2010

http://www.catholicculture.org/comme...otn.cfm?id=597

In an editorial eulogizing the late Mary Daly, the Boston Globe lets the cat out of the bag. Daly “came to describe herself as a ‘radical lesbian feminist’ and a ‘post-Christian,’” the Globe notes. How, then, did she justify her position in the theology department at Boston College: a nominally Catholic school? The Globe has its answer:

Daly was one of many scholars who, through their efforts to use their positions at Catholic universities to pull the church leftward, tacitly acknowledged its central role in the lives of the faithful, and its vast influence in society at large.

Exactly. Like all too many of her colleagues in Catholic theological circles, Daly used her academic post not to build up the faith but to tear it down—or, to be more accurate, to exploit it for other purposes. At a time when St. Josemaria Escriva was urging his followers in Opus Dei to turn the ordinary work of the secular world to the purposes of the Church (that is, their sanctification), leftist professors were encouraging students to turn the work of the Church to the purposes of the secular world (that is, their politicization). The Globe editorial puts it differently, but the message is recognizably the same:

Daly was in the thick of a vibrant debate within the Catholic world over how to respond to the social changes of the era.

In academic life, Daly and her allies had ample opportunity to influence the world: to “pull the Church leftward.” They not only trained the next generation in their classrooms, but by controlling the levers of academic power they determined who would be given the appropriate credentials—the PhDs—to teach the following generations as well.

For years, a fifth column has been active in Catholic academic circles. By the 1970s, the damage they had done was evident enough to a few perceptive Catholic scholars, who began founding a new generation of Catholic colleges and universities explicitly devoted to the teaching magisterium of the Church. But at established schools like Boston College, Notre Dame, and Georgetown, the subversion continues.

The influence of these “post-Catholic” scholars extends beyond academic life, too. The Boston Globe is not ordinarily interested in theology; the editorial tribute to Mary Daly was obviously written by someone who had drunk deeply from those intellectual streams. (Notice the awkward use of the adjective "vibrant," a dead giveaway that the author is a liberal Catholic.) Nancy Pelosi can cite professors at Catholic schools to justify her political stands.

The treason of Catholic scholars is not news. What is new, in the Globe editorial, is the candid acknowledgement that some Catholic theologians are motivated not by a different vision for the good of the Church, but by a cynical desire to exploit the Church for the sake of their favored social causes. They acknowledge the Church as a potential force for social change, not as the Bride of Christ, the Mater et Magistra. They are opportunists, not Catholic theologians.

Still, rest assured that they will continue cashing their paychecks, and miseducating our children, for as long as we afford them the opportunities.

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Just a Great Pic

I found this picture in a Time/Life book about WWII. The bombed church is being used to administer to the wounded English soldiers.

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The Devil Has No Knees

According to Abba Apollo, a desert father who lived about 1,700 years ago, the devil has no knees; he cannot kneel; he cannot adore; he cannot pray; he can only look down his nose in contempt. Being unwilling to bend the knee at the name of Jesus is the essence of evil. (Cf. Is 45:23, Rom 14:11) But when we kneel at Jesus’ name, when we bow down in service of others, and when we bend the knee in adoration, we are following in the footsteps of the Magi, we are imitating Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and all the saints and angels in heaven. Letter of Bishop Thomas Olmsted

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Fire at St. Joseph Church in Ost

By Luke Headley

This side altar was destroyed in a fire at St. Joseph Church in Ost, KS today. They still do not know what caused the fire. This is very sad. The bottom part of the altar from the mensa down was one of the original altar from Conception Abbey. Those that pulled the altars out of the abbey destroyed the reredos or tops of several of the altars. This top was built by parish members. A sad loss.

For a gallery of pics go the the Wichita Eagle website: http://www.kansas.com/photos/gallery/1166779.html

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Oratio Ad Sanctum Michael

Prayer to St. Michael

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio,

contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.

Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque,

Princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos,

qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute,

in infernum detrude.

Amen.

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What It's Like: Assisting on the Altar
PART 1
"As I readied for communion I wondered if I was ever really worthy to receive Him? As I knelt the altar cloth brushed by shoulder. I immediately pondered the suffering woman in Mathew 9: 20-21, upon hearing of Jesus' presence thought "If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed...."

Being the youngest of seven back in the olden days of the sixties, I often missed out on several things as a boy because life was just too hectic for my parents to include me in all the activities that were available. Two things I missed out on was serving at Holy Mass and joining the Cub Scouts. Now, obviously, at my age the Cub Scouts are out....but the opportunity to serve at Holy Mass came around and I accepted with alacrity.

To assist the priest as a server is such a great honor and privilege (by the way...if you, or your young men or boys want to serve...step forward please)...but what a daunting prospect!

Firstly Tony Strunk, Master of Ceremonies, calls up and leaves a somber Marine Corp. like message to show up in the sacristy after mass. You assist at mass along side your fellow parishioners, wait for the candles to be extinguished and make your way back into the sacristy. In your run away imagination the sacristy is a secret, dark mysterious place that no one ever ventures except the priest and servers, whispering prayers and vesting in the shadows (perhaps getting a glimpse of an angel flying overhead).

In reality the sacristy at St. Anthony consists of a room (to the right of the altar) with cabinets holding the thurible, incense, charcoal, matches and the controls to the lights and microphones. A stair way leads down into the back of the Sunshine Room. There are two, very old, wonderful pictures of St. Anthony church, one a general shot of the church complete with standing gas lamps and the other (looking very 1940's) of a first communion mass at the Gospel reading.

Passing to the back side of the church you enter the vesting room for the priest. This room is full of dark wood cabinets and drawers consisting of vestments, corporals, altar cards etc. This is the room where the priests vest for mass and you are instructed to generally pass through but not linger. This is a good size room laid out in a traditional manner with traditional vesting prayers on the walls and a sacrarium (defined here) next to the general use sink.

Following the back of the church (along the east wall) is another room where the servers vest. This too is an old room with dark wood closets filled with cassocks, surplices and cinctures. This is where the servers find vestments that fit them and study their rubrics, prayers and overall duties. This room has the back door that opens onto Second Street.

Between these two back rooms and the altar is a small hallway , or more accurately, a passage way that passes from one side of the church to other. This passageway also leads outward toward the front of the church through the curtains you see on both sides of the altar. From this vantage point you can see how the altar is put together, hodge podge style and I have heard that parts of the altar were constructed from the crates that various elements of the church came packaged in. Hanging in the middle is a light switch and a hand written note that reads "tabernacle lights...leave on". Alongside this is a ladder that leads up to statue of St. Anthony and the platform it sits on. During Easter this statue is slid to the rear and hidden behind a curtain while the risen Christ is put in it's place. Bob Wells tells me that in times past one would hug the statue to be replaced (the statues are hollow), and with feet on the ladder and back on the wall, shimmy down. (Bob is a well of great stories). On the north end of this passageway is a small room (to the left of the altar, north wall) used for storage and a small staircase that leads into the upper parts of the church including the attic (see Post #40, Random Thoughts: Human Fragility and Light Bulbs in St. Anthony’s Attic).

The whole back end of St. Anthony's rooms are steeped in wood and past memories. Memories of marriage, joy, sin, atonement, confirmations, holiness, human weakness, triumph and struggle. One thinks about these things when exploring , wondering if you are up to the task to serve at mass and whether or not your service would be pleasing to those who came before you...and when Tony hands you a booklet on how to say the mass and says "learn these prayers and I'll see you next week"...well you pretty much come to the conclusion that, ready or not, your in knee deep now brother!

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God's Great Glory
Crawling Neutrophil Chasing a Bacterium
Thomas P. Stossel (Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School),
http://www.biochemweb.org/neutrophil.shtml

This video is taken from a 16-mm movie made in the 1950s by the late David Rogers at Vanderbilt University. It was given to me via Dr. Victor Najjar, Professor Emeritus at Tufts University Medical School and a former colleague of Rogers. It depicts a human polymorphonuclear leukocyte (neutrophil) on a blood film, crawling among red blood cells, notable for their dark color and principally spherical shape. The neutrophil is "chasing" Staphylococcus aureus microorganisms, added to the film. The chemoattractant derived from the microbe is unclear but may be complement fragment C5a, generated by the interaction of antibodies in the blood serum with the complement cascade, and/or bacterial N-formyl peptides. Blood platelets adherent to the underlying glass are also visible. Notable is the characteristic asymmetric shape of the crawling neutrophil with an organelle-excluding leading lamella and a narrowing at the opposite end culminating in a "tail" that the cell appears to drag along. Contraction waves are visible along the surface of the moving cell as it moves forward in a gliding fashion. As the neutrophil relentlessly pursues the microbe it ignores the red cells and platelets. However, its leading edge is sufficiently stiff (elastic) to deform and displace the red cells it bumps into. The internal contents of the neutrophil also move, and granule motion is particularly dynamic near the leading edge. These granules only approach the cell surface membrane when the cell changes direction and redistributes its peripheral "gel." After the neutrophil has engulfed the bacterium, note that the cell's movements become somewhat more jerky, and that it begins to extend more spherical surface projections. These bleb-like protruberances resemble the blebs that form constitutively in the M2 melanoma cells missing the actin filament crosslinking protein filamin-1 (ABP-280) and may be telling us something about the mechanism of membrane protrusion.

Thomas P. Stossel (Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School), June 22, 1999