Ed Peters reports. I think he's about right. The law as it stands is not very good, and women should be allowed in the rite. But it's also not very good to just ignore laws that we disagree with. It's also odd that the Pope could rather easily change the law himself, but hasn't bothered to do so.

Labels: catholic, liturgy

Nice. I have been there quite a few times but not in a while.

Labels: liturgy, New York

Where can you pray your Divine Office together with the faithful in NYC? I know of a few places:

1) St. Frances de Chantal in the Bronx
Location: 190 Hollywood Ave., Bronx, NY 10465
Available: Morning Prayer (Lauds) 8:40 am - (Preceding 9 AM mass)

2) Notre Dame in Morningside Heights - Manhattan
Location: 405 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10025
Available: Morning Prayer (Lauds) - daily following 8 am mass. Evening Prayer (Vespers): Monday - Friday following 5:30 mass.

3) Church of the Holy Innocents, Midtown Manhattan
Location: 128 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018
Available: Midday Prayer: Mondays & Fridays at 12:05 pm

4) Saint Jean Baptiste - Upper East Side of Manhattan
Location: 184 E. 76th St., New York, NY 10021
Available: Morning Prayer: Monday through Friday at 8 am. Evening Prayer: Monday-Friday, and Sunday, all at 5 pm!

5) Various religious communities. For example the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have Eucharistic adoration on Fridays from 2 pm to 6 pm at St. Adalbert's, 420 E. 156th St., Bronx, NY 10455. If I recall correctly, they close with vespers and benediction.

6) Some Catholic schools: St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx, at least two years ago when I taught there, had morning prayer and mass Tuesday through Thursday in their chapel at 8 am. This is really for the school community though.

6) The environs: It's not the Bronx, but St. Joseph in Bronxville has morning prayer preceding the 9 am mass, Monday through Friday.

Any other good places to pray the Liturgy of the Hours? Not all churches advertise this kind of thing on Masstimes.org, so I would appreciate any further listings. Also, what places offer singing with the office, such as the practice of singing a hymn to open the prayers? Anybody chant the psalms? Any small groups starting this up in your parish? Let us know!

Labels: church, liturgy, New York, prayer

But apparently not from text on the internet. Jewish readers may not want to click the above link.

This change dates back to 2008, but I was not made aware of it until I was picking out songs for my father's funeral. One of his favorite songs employed the tetragrammaton in lyrics and the organist kindly told me that it was forbidden to use such songs any more in Catholic liturgies, as decreed by the Vatican! Who knew?! But actually I welcome the change. I was always uncomfortable saying the name of God after I learned about the significance of it and had a Jewish friend patiently explain to me the serious matter of this blasphemy in some circles.

Labels: jewish, liturgy

A post by my friend Rita Ferrone.

Labels: liturgy, mass

Sometimes different than you remember!

The part that I find funny in all of this is that when you inform people of these things (and it doesn't match with their childhood memories of Holy Week) they immediately inquire if this is something "new" or recently enacted by "the American bishops" (as though we aren't subject to the Conference of Bishops of our own country). Well, no, actually. Pope Pius XII got the ball rolling on changing the face of Holy Week when he issued "De Solemni Vigilia Paschali Instauranda" in 1951. That's right...1951.

Labels: catholic, liturgical calendar, liturgy

Midnight.

I still don't understand why Evening Prayer I of Sunday is on Saturday night if the liturgical day starts at midnight, though. That seems a bit like saying that all payments are due by midnight, except you better have them in by 6pm.

Labels: catholic, liturgy

I'm honestly shocked that the New York Times would put a piece like this in their op-ed section! I'm speechless! (And quite pleased.)

Labels: liturgy

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, announced the new Vatican "directives on the use of 'the name of God' in the sacred liturgy" in an Aug. 8 letter to his fellow bishops.


. . .

Kelly Dobbs-Mickus, senior editor at GIA Publications, told CNS Aug. 11 that the policy, which dates to 1986, was based not on Vatican directives but on sensitivity to concerns among observant Jews about pronouncing the name of God. As an example, she cited Heinrich Schutz's "Thanks Be to Yahweh," which appears in a GIA hymnal under the title "Thanks Be to God."

Bishop Serratelli said the Vatican decision also would provide "an opportunity to offer catechesis for the faithful as an encouragement to show reverence for the name of God in daily life, emphasizing the power of language as an act of devotion and worship."

Sounds like a win win win situation. Jews are happy, bad music goes away, people become more reverent.

Labels: catholic, jewish, liturgy

Vatican, Jul. 25, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has given formal approval to a new English translation of the central prayers of the Mass for use in the United States.

And about time. We don't even have singular v. plural right in the current translation:

In the Nicene Creed the opening word, Credo, will be correctly translated as "I believe" rather than "we believe."

A C+ effort if there ever was one.

Labels: catholic, liturgy

I went to 10 pm mass at Newman Hall at Cal Berkeley this Sunday for the Feast of the Ascension. The break from my normal routine of Tridentine Latin Mass at St. Margaret Mary's was due to the fact that I ran the Bay to Breakers that morning and was busy Saturday evening so I missed the opportunity for a vigil mass as well.

I've gone to this mass a bunch of times on similar occasions when I was busy on Sunday mornings, and some of my community members like to go to this mass. I've often had mixed feelings about it. The church itself is rather Spartan and is in a massive concrete Soviet-style building. The priests are friendly enough and I like the darkness and candle-light. The one thing that consistently bothers me however is the music. It's strange because many of the hippie-style guitar songs I actually like because I grew up going to a church with music like that. Songs like "Eagle's Wings" do make me feel a bit warm and fuzzy inside. However sometimes I worry that the music is too distracting and the focus is not on the sacrifice of the mass. Sometimes it strikes me as more of a music service with readings and prayers sandwiched in. That was one of the reasons I got turned off to Novos Ordo and began attending the traditional mass: I felt that the Eucharist was more properly celebrated in the traditional mass.

Still a lot of questions have been buzzing through my mind regarding music and its place in the mass. I navigate a diverse array of churches between the Bay Area and New York and have seen all sorts of liturgical styles, from gospel music, hippie-guitar music, to Latin Gregorian chant and Russian Orthodox Slavonic. I have enjoyed aspects of all these styles. Still often I wonder if I should be more of a purist and be more wary of music that is used more for entertainment value than meditative/inspirational value.

Lately I've taken to singing in prayer on my own. I have found this can be very helpful for meditative prayer, particularly with the psalms. I can go as slow or fast as I like, picking a tone and rhythm appropriate to the theme of the psalm. Sometimes however, as in any prayer, I can lose focus and be distracted by the singing and lose sight of the lyrics. This is especially true if I am struggling with tune.

Recently I attended a Sacred Harp singing in Berkeley for my first time. It was amazing and I wanted so badly to join in, but I struggled so much to follow the music and my voice is terrible and I am tone-deaf. I could only squeek out a few words. I wish I could sing better, so that I could cultivate my talent for an art form like that. Ironically, my inability to sing has let me to discover the joys of private singing. My praise is for God's ears alone and I do not have to be ashamed of my voice as it is God's gift given for His glory, and I will use my little sound in the universe to honor God as best as I am able.

This is sort of a rambling post, but I was wondering what others thought, particularly about the place of music, instruments, and even dancing in the liturgy. I err on the side of tradition because I have seen so much experimentation go terribly badly and I am afraid to divest the mass of any of the dignity it warrants. Sometimes I think things like Sacred Harp are good for small group private worship, but don't belong in the Church. Sometimes I think even the organ should be left out and we should lift up only our voices. Other times I have enjoyed the organ and other instrumentation.

Any thoughts? What's a Catholic to think when every church seems to be inventing their own music style and just about every option from rock concert style teen life masses to Pre-Vatican liturgies are offered in the same area. Is it all harmless experimentation and should people be free to do whatever moves them, or should we stick to some more orthodox standard?

Labels: liturgy, mass, music, singing