Adoremus Bulletin
SEPTEMBER 2017
Pope Francis Sees the Liturgical Reform as “Irreversible”
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ATICAN CITY (CNA/ EWTN News)—Pope Francis told a group of Italian liturgists that, while the process of implementing the liturgical reform following Vatican II has been a long and at times bumpy task, the reform is “irreversible.” “After this magisterium, after this long journey we can affirm with certainty and with magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible,” the Pope said Aug. 24 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to participants in the Italian National Liturgical Week. The week, which this year is exploring the theme “A living liturgy for a living Church,” is organized by the Center for Liturgical Action. “There are two directly related events, the Council and the reform, which did not blossom suddenly, but after long preparation,” Francis said. He referenced steps taken both by St. Pius X, who aimed to restore Gregorian chant with his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini and who formed a commission on liturgical renewal ten years later; and by Venerable Pius XII, who introduced a revised psalter, attenuated the Eucharistic fast, allowed some use of the vernacular in the Ritual, and reformed Holy Week. Francis also referred to Pius XII’s 1947 encyclical on the sacred liturgy, Mediator Dei. In that document the late Pope had said, among other things, that “one would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive Please see REFORM on next page
Vol. XXIII, No. 2
Daniel Mitsui’s Rescue Mission: How Religious Art Can Restore the Balance between Beauty and Sacred Tradition By Joseph O’Brien, Managing Editor
D
aniel Mitsui is an artist on the move—although for a while it felt like he was stuck between things, a situation less than ideal for a Catholic artist who depends on the permanent and eternal to make his living. Last May, when Mitsui spoke with Adoremus, his living room was full of moving boxes stacked against the wall. Apologetic for the clutter, Mitsui’s wife Michelle explained that they had never quite moved in because they were already preparing to move out. With their four children, the Mitsuis were renting a two-story house tucked behind downtown Des Plaines, IL. From this temporary in-between place, the Mitsuis were hoping to find more permanent digs outside Chicago’s suburbs. In the meantime, in his Des Plaines rental, Mitsui had established an ad-hoc garret-like studio, eked out of a spare attic room. Other than Mitsui’s drawing desk, the room held a few bookcases half-filled with reference books and a collection of cardboard boxes containing ink, paper, and other art supplies. A Dartmouth College graduate and latecomer to the faith, Mitsui was baptized the year he graduated from the prestigious New Hampshire school in 2004. Today, at the ripe young age of 35, Mitsui is attempting to re-conquer the art world for the Catholic faith. A master of precision ink drawing, Mitsui has produced a deluge of finelined pen-and-ink liturgical and devotional art and drawings that celebrate God’s creation. He executes a butterfly or a scarab beetle with the same styledefining passion for meticulous detail that many prize in his rendering of, say, the Crucifixion of Christ or a portrait of St. Patrick. His artistic efforts have come also to the attention of the Vatican, which commissioned Mitsui in 2011 to illustrate a new version of the Roman Pontifical—the book of rites used by bishops. He also has a small collection of religious-themed coloring books published through Ave Maria Press, while his homegrown Millefleur Press also provides the public with a high-end publishing outlet—producing broadsides, bookplates and books that are, as his website notes, “works of art in their
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Adoremus Bulletin SEPTEMBER 2017
AB/Joseph O'Brien
News & Views
For the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy
A master of precision ink drawing, Mitsui’s output includes fine-lined pen-and-ink liturgical and devotional art and drawings that celebrate God’s creation, especially his new creation, the saints.
own right.” Having developed his craft over the past 15 years, Mitsui—who originally hails from Georgia and was raised in Chicago—finds himself in transition, not only geographically, but also artistically, as he recently announced the launch of his most ambitious project to date: “Summa Pictoria: A Little Summary of the Old and New Testaments.” As preparation for this project, each step in Mitsui’s artistic journey—beginning with his childhood fascination with art to his formal study of art as a young adult and his successful efforts as a Catholic artist today—has also brought Mitsui to a deeper faith
in Christ. This love for God and his Church has allowed Mitsui in turn to remain faithful to his craft and take on a mission to harmonize the beauty of the artistic tradition and the tradition of artistic beauty for a world out of harmony with both. Looking around the makeshift studio, Mitsui spoke about the need for more space—both for his art and for his family. Since that conversation in the temporary studio in Des Plaines, the Mitsuis have found a place in northwestern Indiana to call home and serve as headquarters for Mitsui’s artistic production company. Please see Mitsui on page 4
Drawn to God The Holy Spirit, who is Artisan of God’s Masterpieces, inspires artist Daniel Mitsui to illuminate Christ and his saints with pen, ink, and radiant color........................1
FOCUS on Beauty University campuses cannot forego the beauty of truth, who is Christ. Musician Leah Sedlacek forms missionaries to create living works of art with today’s college scholar.............................................8
I AM the Liturgy The burning bush’s Voice and the sacred liturgy’s Word belong to the same source: I AM. But how attuned are our ears to hear it?...............................3 Creative Liturgy The recent rededication of St. Turibius Chapel at Josephinum College and Seminary, Father Douglas Martis shows, created new life in the heart of the campus and of its students.............6
Cardinal Rule Silence is of God, says Cardinal Sarah in his book, The Power of Silence. Author Brian Kranick reviews and applies the book’s quiet counsels...............................12 News & Views.............................................2 The Rite Questions...................................10 Donors & Memorials...............................11
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017
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Continued from REFORM, page 1 tableform” and that the assertion that priests cannot offer Mass at different altars at the same time is among “certain exaggerations and overPHOTO statements which are not in agreement with the true teaching of the Church.” These previous documents on the liturgy culminated, Francis argued, in Vatican II’s constitution on the sacred liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, “whose lines of general reform respond to real needs and to the concrete hope of a renewal; it desired a living liturgy for a Church completely vivified by the mysteries celebrated.” He asserted that the direction traced by the Second Vatican Council “took form according to the principle of respect for sound tradition and legitimate progress in the liturgical books promulgated by Blessed Paul VI.” The application of these changes is a lengthy process and is still ongoing, he said, noting that this is in part because “it is not enough to reform the liturgical books; the mentality of the people must be reformed as well.” Seeming to acknowledge the varied reception of the liturgical reforms which followed Vatican II, he quoted from a 1977 address of Bl. Paul VI to a consistory of cardinals declaring that “The time has now come definitely to leave aside divisive ferments.” “And today, there is still work to do in this direction, in particular rediscovering the reasons for the decisions made with the liturgical reform, overcoming unfounded and superficial readings, partial receptions, and practices that disfigure it,” he declared. “It is not a matter of rethinking the reform by reviewing its choices, but of knowing better the underlying reasons, even through historical documentation, of internalizing its inspirational principles and of observing the discipline that governs it.” Having iterated the irreversibility of the liturgical reform, Pope Francis then turned to the theme of the liturgical week, “A living liturgy for a living Church”. The Church sought a liturgy that was “alive” and helped the Church to become “fully enlivened by the celebrated mysteries,” he said. Quoting Sacrosanctum Concilium, he said the faithful shouldn’t go to the liturgy “as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration.” Pope Francis then outlined three key points to living the liturgy, which he said is centered on Christ, involves the entire people of God, and serves as a school of Christian life. The liturgy “is alive” thanks to the sacrifice of Christ, who through his death and resurrection gave us new life, the Pope said, explaining that without “the real presence of the mystery of Christ, there is no liturgical vitality.” “As without a heartbeat there is no human life, so without the beating heart of Christ no liturgical action exists,” he said. Going on, Francis said the liturgy is also a source of life “for the entire people of the Church,” and because of this, her nature is in fact “popular” and not “clerical,” since it’s ultimately an action “for the people, but also by the people.” The Church, he said, gathers together all those whose heart is open to hearing the Gospel, including “the small and the great, the rich and the poor, children and elderly, healthy and sick, the just and sinners.” Thus, in Christ the liturgical assembly surpasses “every boundary of age, race, language and nation.” Finally, Francis said the liturgy serves as a “school of Christian life,” which initiates a process of “transforming the way of thinking and acting, and not filling a bag of its own ideas about God.” “The liturgy is life and not an idea to understand,” he said. Nor is it “a doctrine to understand or a rite to complete.” Pope Francis closed his address by telling attendees that the Church is only truly alive if she “brings life, is mother and is missionary, going out to meet the other, urging to service without pursuing worldly powers that make it sterile.” Catholic News Agency’s Elise Harris contributed to this report.
NEWS & VIEWS
Rome Reiterates Rules about Bread and Wine Used at Mass Through the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Pope Francis recently issued to diocesan bishops a reminder about the bread and wine in Mass, addressing in particular how bishops ought to oversee their production and ensure that proper guidelines are followed to maintain the products’ quality. The complete text of this clarification follows. Circular letter to Bishops on the bread and wine for the Eucharist 1. At the request of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is writing to Diocesan Bishops (and to those who are their equivalents in law) to remind them that it falls to them above all to duly provide for all that is required for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (cf. Lk 22: 8,13). It is for the Bishop as principal dispenser of the mysteries of God, moderator, promoter and guardian of the liturgical life in the Church entrusted to his care (Cf. CIC can. 835 § 1), to watch over the quality of the bread and wine to be used at the Eucharist and also those who prepare these materials. In order to be of assistance we recall the existing regulations and offer some practical suggestions. 2. Until recently it was certain religious communities who took care of baking the bread and making the wine for the celebration of the Eucharist. Today, however, these materials are also sold in supermarkets and other stores and even over the internet. In order to remove any doubt about the validity of the matter for the Eucharist, this Dicastery suggests that Ordinaries should give guidance in this regard by, for example, guaranteeing the Eucharistic matter through special certification. The Ordinary is bound to remind priests, especially parish priests and rectors of churches, of their responsibility to verify those who provide the bread and wine for the celebration and the worthiness of the material. It is also for the Ordinary to provide information to the producers of the bread and wine for the Eucharist and to remind them of the absolute respect that is due to the norms. 3. The norms about the Eucharistic matter are given in can. 924 of the CIC and in numbers 319 – 323 of the Institutio generalis Missalis Romani and have already been explained in the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum issued by this Congregation (25 March 2004): a) “The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition. It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament. It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist. Hosts should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools” (n. 48). b) “The wine that is used in the most sacred celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice must be natural, from the fruit of the grape, pure and incorrupt, not mixed with other substances. […] Great care should be taken so that the wine intended for the celebration of the Eucharist is well conserved and has not soured. It is altogether forbidden to use wine of doubtful authenticity or provenance, for the Church requires certainty regarding the conditions necessary for the validity of the sacraments. Nor are other drinks of any kind to be
Adoremus Bulletin
Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy
Adoremus Bulletin (ISSN 1088-8233) is published six times a year by Adoremus— Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Adoremus is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation of the State of California. Nonprofit periodicals postage paid at various US mailing offices. Change service requested. Adoremus—Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy was established in June 1995 to promote authentic reform of the Liturgy of the Roman Rite in accordance with the Second Vatican Council’s decree on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. Adoremus Bulletin is sent on request to members of Adoremus. Suggested donation: $40 per year, US; $45 foreign.
admitted for any reason, as they do not constitute valid matter” (n. 50). 4. In its Circular Letter to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences regarding legitimate variations in the use of bread with a small quantity of gluten and the use of mustum as Eucharistic matter (24 July 2003, Prot. N. 89/78 – 17498), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the norms for the celebration of the Eucharist by persons who, for varying and grave reasons, cannot consume bread made in the usual manner nor wine fermented in the normal manner: a) “Hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist. Low-gluten hosts (partially gluten-free) are valid matter, provided they contain a sufficient amount of gluten to obtain the confection of bread without the addition of foreign materials and without the use of procedures that would alter the nature of bread” (A. 1-2). b) “Mustum, which is grape juice that is either fresh or preserved by methods that suspend its fermentation without altering its nature (for example, freezing), is valid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist” (A. 3). c) “The Ordinary is competent to give permission for an individual priest or layperson to use low-gluten hosts or mustum for the celebration of the Eucharist. Permission can be granted habitually, for as long as the situation continues which occasioned the granting of permission” (C. 1). 5. The same Congregation also decided that Eucharistic matter made with genetically modified organisms can be considered valid matter (cf. Letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 9 December 2013, Prot. N. 89/78 – 44897). 6. Those who make bread and produce wine for use in the Mass must be aware that their work is directed towards the Eucharistic Sacrifice and that this demands their honesty, responsibility and competence. 7. In order to facilitate the observance of the general norms Ordinaries can usefully reach agreement at the level of the Episcopal Conference by establishing concrete regulations. Given the complexity of situations and circumstances, such as a decrease in respect for the sacred, it may be useful to mandate a competent authority to have oversight in actually guaranteeing the genuineness of the Eucharistic matter by producers as well as those responsible for its distribution and sale. It is suggested, for example, that an Episcopal Conference could mandate one or more Religious Congregations or another body capable of carrying out the necessary checks on production, conservation and sale of the Eucharistic bread and wine in a given country and for other countries to which they are exported. It is recommended that the bread and wine to be used in the Eucharist be treated accordingly in the places where they are sold. From the offices of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 15 June 2017, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Robert Card. Sarah Prefect +Arthur Roche Archbishop Secretary
Pope Francis Introduces New Criterion for Beatification Now there’s another way for individuals to be considered candidates for beatifaction, thanks to a new criterion that Pope Francis introduced to accompany the three current criteria for beatification. In a July 11 story for Zenit, Anne Kurian reports that Pope Francis has issued the motu proprio Maijorem hac dilectionem, published July 11, which adds the criterion “the Please see NEWS & VIEWS page 10
Editor - Publisher: Christopher Carstens Managing Editor: Joseph O’Brien Graphic Designer: Danelle Bjornson Office Manager: Elizabeth Gallagher Phone: 608.521.0385 Website: www.adoremus.org Membership Requests & Change Of Address: info@adoremus.org Letters to the Editor Executive committee P.O. Box 385 The Rev. Jerry Pokorsky ✝ La Crosse, WI 54602-0385 Helen Hull Hitchcock The Rev. Joseph Fessio, SJ editor@adoremus.org Contents copyright © 2017 by ADOREMUS. All rights reserved.
Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017
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By Christopher Carstens, Editor
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t’s true that the logic of “professional liturgists” (among which I am numbered) isn’t universally appreciated. On account of this fact, liturgists have even merited their own corner on the joke circuit. Many are familiar with the gag that suggests liturgists and terrorists are equally unreasonable. I heard a good one the other day that described a liturgist as one who doesn’t care who the persons of the Trinity are, as long as they stand in the right place during Mass! With the above stigma for liturgical illogic in mind, I’m nevertheless confident to assert that “I am” what is right with the liturgy. I understand the claim sounds egotistical and self-assured. And given that my July editorial confessed that “I am” what’s wrong with the liturgy, I fear I may be perpetuating the stereotype of the obtuse liturgist. But let me explain. A famous optical illusion presents to the viewer two women in a single image, one young and beautiful, the other old and ugly. Both images are present within the lines and shades of the single sketch, but depending on how the eyes see the image, only one possibility shows up at a time. A similar phenomenon has presented itself to me. When I asked last issue, “What’s wrong with the liturgy?”, I responded “I am,” by which I meant the individual Catholic liturgical participant. But as any scripturally-informed Catholic is aware, “I am” can name someone far greater than Joe Pew Catholic. Immediately before being sent to Pharaoh to command the release of the Chosen People, Moses asks God who he should say gave this command, were any to inquire. “God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). Some 1,400 years later, I AM would come himself, in the flesh, to ransom his people. In the Gospel account of the apostles’ boat being tossed upon the Sea of Galilee by the wind and waves, Jesus walks upon the water to them, telling them, “I AM, do not be afraid.” (Mark 6:50, Matthew 14:27, John 6:20). When teaching in the Temple area, Jesus announces that “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me” (John 8:28). And later, when the soldiers seek to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells them that he himself, Jesus the Nazorean, is “I AM,” the one they look for (John 18:4-8). Less explicitly, yet nonetheless really, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), “I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7), “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11), “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). Finally, St. John hears the victorious Lamb say, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). In the prefigurement of the Old Covenant, in the incarnate work of the Son of God, and in the future feast of heaven, I AM is at the center. The same is true today: I AM is what is right with the liturgy. That Jesus is at the center of the sacred liturgy may seem an obvious point, especially to regular readers of Adoremus Bulletin. But this most basic of liturgical truths (Is there any truth more fundamental than this?) is too often forgotten, or at least not appreciated as clearly as it ought. Consider again the Chosen People af-
ter their miraculous escape from Egypt: they had just witnessed God passing over their homes and striking down each of the first-born in the land, then passed through the Red Sea unscathed, and then felt Mount Sinai shake when the Lord spoke to Moses. Yet they soon displaced I AM and made themselves another god. Pope Benedict sees a liturgical lesson in the episode: “When Moses stays away for too long, and God himself becomes inaccessible, the people just fetch him back. Worship becomes a feast that the community gives itself, a festival of self-affirmation. Instead of being worship of God, it becomes a circle closed in on itself: eating, drinking, and making merry. “The dance around the golden calf is an image of this self-seeking worship. It is a kind of banal self-gratification. The narrative of the golden calf is a warning about any kind of self-initiated and self-seeking worship. Ultimately, it is no longer concerned with God but with giving oneself a nice little alternative world, manufactured from one’s own resources. The liturgy really does become pointless, just fooling around” (The Spirit of the Liturgy, 23). Like the Chosen People nearly 3,500 years ago, we today can be tempted to forget the “I AM” at the center of our liturgical lives. Cardinal Sarah, in fact, speaks regularly these days about restoring God to the heart of the liturgy, calling us to step aside and give I AM his rightful place in the liturgy: “Hence it is necessary to recognize that the serious, profound crisis that has affected the liturgy and the Church itself since the Council is due to the fact that its CENTER is no longer God and the adoration of Him, but rather men and their alleged ability to ‘do’ something to keep themselves busy during the Eucharistic celebrations” (March 29 address on the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum). The “profound crisis”—what’s wrong—with the liturgy is that too often its substance has been replaced by substitutes. The cure for what’s ailing the liturgy is, in part, two-fold. First, it requires constant commitment to seeing God as the liturgy’s reality. However deficient “I am,” the plenitude of I AM encountered in the Mass, sacraments, sacramentals, and Divine Office gives meaning, healing, and salvation. Parishes and institutions with God-centered liturgy brim with life; those that rely on the ephemeral and fickle moods and fashions of man sooner or later “become pointless,” as Pope Benedict explains. But beyond a consistent awareness that God is at the liturgical center, a second antidote to a man-centered celebration includes a sacramental and mystagogical approach to liturgical understanding and participation. Related to the “profound crisis that has affected the liturgy,” as Cardinal Sarah puts it, is the “crisis of the sacramental idea in modern consciousness,” spoken of by then-Cardinal Ratzinger. A geometrician cannot comprehend his field without understanding the essence of angles and lines, or a writer cannot succeed without a proper understanding of grammar and syntax; so a Catholic cannot fully understand or participate in the Church’s ritual celebrations, ignorant of the sacramental idea: Jesus is the content of everything liturgical. The most laconic expression of the sacramental idea comes from St. Leo the Great: “What was visible in our Savior, has passed over into his sacraments.” Part Two of the Catechism of the Catholic Church develops this idea further: “In this age of the Church, Christ now lives and acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts
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What’s Right with the Liturgy? I am.
What’s right with the liturgy? I AM!
through the sacraments…” (1076). The sacramental principle finds Jesus in all things liturgical, obviously in the Sacraments but also in every ritual element, from the vestibule of the church to the vestments of the priest, from the words of the Eucharistic Prayer to the windows adorning the side aisles. True, Christ’s presence is not the same in each case (the tabernacle is not itself the Blessed Sacrament), but I AM is the reality of each of these ritual elements. The present issue of Adoremus Bulletin highlights three artists, each of whom let I AM animate their work and radiate his beauty to liturgical participants. Illustrator Daniel Mitsui of Chicago knows the meaning of the maxim, “God is in the details,” and his finely drawn penand-ink renderings burst with divine beauty. Leah Sedlacek of Denver’s Fellowship of Catholic University Students, known as FOCUS, manages the youth
apostolate’s liturgical music program, which places I AM’s beauty at the source and fount of missionary evangelization on today’s college campuses. A team of artists, architects, and craftsmen collaborate in Father Douglas Martis’s story on the magnificent renovation of St. Turibius Chapel at the Pontifical College of the Josephinum in Columbus, OH. The building shaped by the Josephinum team will shape seminarians. And since St. Turibius Chapel is an image of the Heavenly Church, the glorified Mystical Body of I AM, each of those praying within its gates is formed to serve as alter Christus. While “I am” what’s wrong with the liturgy, I AM is what is right with the liturgy. But fear not: until the former adequately decreases so that the latter may increase, we have the professional liturgist to fix what’s wrong in the meantime. And that’s a joke worth laughing at.
ADDENDUM to “The Mother of Our Love for Christ: Our Lady of Fatima and The Holy Eucharist” By Father Frederick L. Miller
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fter the publication of my article on Our Lady of Fatima and the Holy Eucharist in the July 2017 issue of Adoremus Bulletin, I discovered that I had made an error that I wish to correct. I wrote that the “Angel of Peace” had given the seers of Fatima, Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco, their First Holy Communion in the course of his third apparition to them. In fact, Lucia had already received her first Holy Communion approximately four years before the apparitions of the Angel and Our Lady. The parish priest allowed her to receive the Eucharist at the age of 6 (the normal age then was 10) because of her precocious ability to articulate the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This spiritual understanding was evident in the mystagogic catechesis she gave Jacinta and Francisco after their first Holy Communion from the hands of the Angel. Surely that reception of the Eucharist from the Angel had special significance in Lucia’s spiritual formation. Lucia’s ability to explain the mystery to her younger cousins confirms my point
that Lucia will someday be recognized as the catechist of the Fatima Message in all of its dimensions. In the same article, I opined that the three children might have received the Sacrament of confirmation before their first Holy Communion. When I wrote the article, I did not have the resources available to prove or disprove this hypothesis. Shortly after the article was submitted, I spent two grace-filled weeks in Fatima and had a chance to speak to one of the officials of the sanctuary. He told me that there are records attesting to the confirmation of Lucia several years after the apparitions. He also said that there are no records indicating that Jacinta or Francisco had ever received Confirmation. My point, though, stands secure: the three children’s fortitude and witness to the truth indicate that they received a grace analogous to the grace of Confirmation through their reception of the Body and Blood of Christ and their adoration of the mystery. In the six apparitions at the Cova d’Iria, the Blessed Mother helped the children to allow the Eucharistic grace to permeate every facet of their spiritual lives.
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017 “The first time I recall being in a Gothic structure, I was visiting the University of Chicago and visiting the chapels there,” he says. “I also remember having a fascination with certain churches surrounding the library where my mother worked—noting these towering spires and wondering what was inside them.” Immediately apparent to the discerning eye, this love for all things Gothic carries over into Mitsui’s work. “Gothic art is not as abstract as Coptic or Byzantine iconography, but neither does it present a natural and mundane view; the presence of haloes alone makes that obvious,” Mitsui notes in “Heavenly Outlook,” a lecture he delivered on Gothic art during an exhibition of his work this past August at St. John Cantius Church, Chicago. In Gothic art, Mitsui notes, “[t]here are no cast shadows. The size of figures is determined by their importance, their placement by the demands of symbolism, hierarchy, and symmetry.”
“ To find artistic order and discipline, Mitsui would plumb the heart of the Church’s culture— the liturgy.”
The famous confrontation between St. Ambrose of Milan and the Emperor Theodosius is recounted in the Golden Legend of James of Voragine: “The citizens of Thessalonica had aroused the Emperor’s wrath, but at Ambrose’s request he had pardoned them. Later the ruler, secretly influenced by some malicious courtiers, ordered the execution of a huge number of those he had pardoned. Ambrose knew nothing of this at the time, but when he learned what had happened, he refused to allow the Emperor to enter the church. Theodosius pointed out that David had committed adultery and homicide, and Ambrose responded: You followed David in wrongdoing, follow him in repentance. The most clement Emperor accepted the order gracefully and did not refuse to do public penance.... Being thus reconciled, he went into the church and stood inside the gates of the chancel. Ambrose asked him why he was waiting there. He said that he was waiting to take part in the sacred mysteries, to which Ambrose replied: O Emperor, the space inside the chancel is reserved for priests. Go outside therefore, and participate with the rest of the people. The purple makes emperors, not priests. The Emperor promptly obeyed.” Says Mitsui: In depicting this event, I wanted to give emphasis to the ideas of repentance and forgiveness; in a quatrefoil above the door of the church, I drew King David confronted by the Prophet Nathan (whose parable appears in a smaller quatrefoil). The postures, clothing, and positions of these figures relate them to those of St. Ambrose and Theodosius below. The beginning of the psalm expressing King David’s repentance I wrote on the lintel. On the door is a sanctuary knocker (in the form of a green man, similar to that knocker on Durham Cathedral) which suggests again the idea of a church as a place for the repentant. Both St. Ambrose and the Emperor wear purple vestments; the color is a symbol both of repentance and of imperiality.
Continued from Mitsui, page 1
Past Sketches While at Dartmouth, Mitsui received training in oil painting, charcoal drawing, animation, etching, lithography, and animation—although according to Mitsui it was his natural talent for precision handiwork that drew him to pen-and-ink as his chosen medium. His mother’s love of books—she was a librarian—had influenced Mitsui’s love of art and research. “It was a bookish kind of household. There was a lot of reading in our family and certainly my penchant for drawing was encouraged.” “Ink drawing was something I had done more of before college,” he says. “Then I tried these other media and that’s when I realized my particular skills are best applied in ink.” While his parents were Christian and his mother raised Catholic, Mitsui did not have a strong formation in the faith by the time he reached college. “I had not
been baptized as an infant and as a family we mostly attended Christmas and Easter Mass,” he says. Something from those childhood Christmas and Easter liturgical excursions for the Mitsui family also must have had an effect, Mitsui says. “Even though I didn’t have any real religious formation or catechism that endured, there was some exposure to the Mass—not regular but some exposure and I had the idea that the Catholic faith was the one true faith,” he says. “That experience of the liturgy also formed a connection in my mind between medieval art and the Catholic faith. Those were strongly associated which maybe wouldn’t have been if I had more of a typical parochial upbringing in the 1980s and 1990s.” At age 14, Mitsui says, he also received valuable lessons in liturgical aesthetics by poring over illuminated manuscripts and by gazing at Gothic architecture at the University of Chicago.
In Gothic art, Mitsui says, “[c]hronologically separate events are depicted together in the same scene. Nothing important is hidden behind another object, or cut off by the edges of the picture.” While the innocence of wonder in Gothic forms inspired Mitsui to pursue an art career, he says that the unpleasant experience of the art world led him to turn his back on opportunities in the mainstream secular market. According to Mitsui, art should not be a pricey commodity for the few but an accessible patrimony for all—and he wants to reach as many people as he can to share that patrimony. “I like to sell directly to people and price my art in such a way that I can attract patronage from ordinary people,” he says. “I like to see my work in homes and I don’t want to play the games where I get gallery representation, set my prices at an unbelievably high level, and expect to sell one or two pieces a year—if I’m lucky.” Rescuing the Sacred Concerned that sacred images are being lost in the modern tendency to turn the venerable and sacred into kitsch, Mitsui uses a popular approach to art not to democratize it but to provide a sort of aesthetical evangelization of the world through sacred images. In “Invention and Exaltation,” a 2015 lecture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, Mitsui says that sacred art must rise above the “superabundance of information” in which “holy images are not lost, but reduced to triviality.” “Just about anyone in the world can download a high-quality digital photograph of the Chi-Rho page from the Lindisfarne Gospels, or the Incarnation Window at Chartres, or the Ghent Altarpiece,” he says in the 2015 lecture and exhibit. “He can print it to hang on his wall; or he can print it on a t-shirt, a coffee mug or the case of his smart phone. He can ‘like’ it on Facebook or ‘tweet’ it or ‘pin’ it without even taking a good close look at it. He can crop it and type the name of his ‘blog’ over it to make a cute title banner.” In trivializing sacred art, Mitsui continues, modern culture has torn it away from its original purpose and meaning. “At that point, religious art ceases to be about God and His angels and His
saints,” he says. “It is not even about the artist who made it; it is about the person who chooses to like it. It is like a relic of the Holy Cross placed on a table to the right of a king’s throne: not destroyed, not forgotten, but not exalted either. It is set beside, rather than above, him.” To accomplish this rescue mission, religious artists have two primary duties, Mitsui notes in his 2015 Franciscan lecture: invention and exaltation. “Invention here has the older definition of the word; it does not mean creating from nothing, but rather finding,” he says. “If the artistic traditions have been buried, his task is to discover them; if they have been stolen, his task is to retake them. Once they are found or retaken, his task is to bring them to their proper place and give them honor as high as his abilities make possible; that is, to exalt them.” Drawing from Liturgy Mitsui’s desire to rescue and restore was inspired in large part by his own spiritual journey. In Mitsui’s junior year at Dartmouth he embraced the Catholic faith, received the sacraments of initiation and thereby sharpened the focus of his art. “From that point,” he says, “I settled that I wanted to make religious art and go back to these medieval things that have always fascinated me.” Referring to his first attempts at religious art as “bad convert art,” Mitsui found himself “overwhelmed by the history and possibilities.” “I wanted to do everything,” he recalls, “and throw it together without order or discipline.” To find this order and discipline, Mitsui would plumb the heart of the Church’s culture—the liturgy. “It took a while to get a sense of the liturgical order in art,” he says, “and also of realizing how much the disciplined intellectual approach which went into Gothic art was what I wanted to use as a basis for my own art.” Finding his faith through the liturgy, Mitsui continues to grow artistically through it as well, finding in it a veritable goldmine. “When I go to Mass, I take note of how the various readings and chants correspond to each other,” he says. “Sometimes I notice something in a liturgical text which I realize I should give an expression to in artwork which I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”
“ But art must be a part of worship, Mitsui insists, and must participate in that same sacramental reality which turns earthly things grasped by the senses—water, bread, oil—into divine instruments of grace— baptism, communion, confirmation.” While Mitsui admits that most of his work is not ostensibly liturgical—“Some of it gets hung in churches or some of it goes into books that are used at the altar, but most of it is things people are going to be putting on their home shrines or used devotionally”—nonetheless, Mitsui finds the liturgical tradition foundational and indispensible to artistic composition. “Whether art is used for private devotion or in a church itself, sacred art follows a tradition and principles that don’t come from the artist,” he says. “If art is
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Jokingly referring to himself as a “Spirit of Nicea II Catholic,” Daniel Mitsui shares the mind of these eighth-century council fathers, who taught: “The Tradition does not belong to the painter; the art alone is his. True arrangement and disposition belong to the holy fathers.”
sacred, it has to follow a tradition that is informed by the Church fathers, the liturgy and what was done in the past.” Like all elements of liturgy, Mitsui says, his work should encourage the faithful to prayer even as it serves as an intimate part of prayer. “Going back a while in history, there is this idea that to pray or worship means that you quietly think pious thoughts to yourself,” he says, “and anything artistic, any artistic form that makes it harder to think pious thoughts to yourself is a distraction and therefore not prayerful.” But art must be a part of worship, Mitsui insists, and must participate in that same sacramental reality which turns earthly things grasped by the senses— water, bread, oil—into divine instruments of grace—baptism, communion, confirmation. “The idea that worshiping would involve sacred art, architecture and music as part of the act of worship has become foreign to us,” he says. “But I’m trying to create images that have enough significant and symbolic detail that by looking at them for a longer time and concentrating on them, they become prayerful rather than being easy to ignore.” “Your senses are a part of your Christian life as much as anything,” he adds. “I think that’s mostly forgotten these days.” Tradition and the Individual Artist Throughout history, the Church has always underscored the importance of the senses in worship, Mitsui says. For example, in 787 the Second Council of Nicea responded to the Byzantine Iconoclasm that followed from the imperial edict of Leo III and supported by the Council of Hieria (754), which called for the suppression of sacred images. At Nicea, the Church restored the use of icons as a means of devotion. In his 2015 Franciscan University lecture, Mitsui notes that the Nicean fathers assert that “The Tradition does not belong to the painter; the art alone is his. True arrangement and disposition belong to the holy fathers.” For Mitsui, artistry and tradition must work in harmony: “Artistry without tradition is like an empty reliquary; beauti-
“ Artistry without tradition is like an empty reliquary; beautiful, perhaps, but unworthy of veneration. Tradition without artistry is like a relic kept in a cardboard box; worthy of veneration, but deserving of better treatment.” ful, perhaps, but unworthy of veneration. Tradition without artistry is like a relic kept in a cardboard box; worthy of veneration, but deserving of better treatment.” By comparison, Mitsui says, religious art should not be confused with imaginative art. “It’s as different as Adam of St. Victor writing a liturgical sequence for the Feast of St. Michael and a novelist writing a Catholic novel about St. Michael,” he says. “It’s a different approach, a different form of art and it has a different purpose.” As a religious artist, Mitsui sees his efforts firmly planted within the tradition. “I want to make things that have this liturgical, traditional, patristic order,” he says. “I want to be able to say that this work of art would be approved of by the council fathers who laid down these principles in the Council of Nicea.” Taking the Second Council of Nicea as his north star, Mitsui refers to himself as “a Spirit of Nicea II Catholic.” “That is a joke,” he says. “Its point being that I keep that ecumenical council at the forefront of my mind, living as I do in a time similar to the iconoclastic crises. I do not seek to interpret its doctrine regarding art and tradition beyond what its words actually say; indeed, what they actually say is bold enough.” “Little” Picture Book Having discovered such a deep foundation in the craft and tradition of religious art, Mitsui was emboldened with equal
parts humility and confidence to launch his newest project, the Summula Pictoria, as an attempt to illustrate these same aesthetic and theological principles—literally—in what he hopes will be the definitive reference work on religious art in the 21st century. “I hope to undertake this task in the spirit of a medieval encyclopedist, who gathers as much traditional wisdom as he can find and faithfully puts it into order,” he says in a statement at his website. “I want every detail of these pictures, whether great or small, to be thoroughly considered and significant.” As for the arc and expanse of the project, Mitsui says he hopes to accomplish the work in about 15 years. “Over fourteen years, from Easter 2017 to Easter 2031, I plan to draw an iconographic summary of the Old and New Testaments, illustrating those events that are most prominent in sacred liturgy and patristic exegesis,” he notes. “The things that I plan to depict are the very raw stuff of Christian belief and Christian art; no other subjects offer an artist such inexhaustible wealth of beauty and symbolism.” The name for the project, Summula Pictoria, communicates the effort’s breadth and modesty: 235 full-colored, double-sided pictures—each no bigger than a page in a book—drawn with metal-tipped dip pens, paintbrushes, and pigment-based inks, on calfskin vellum. The project, Matsui says, while ambitious, seeks to embody everything he wants to say about religious art. “When I look back on my career, I want to be able to say, I drew the life of Christ and the scenes of the Old Testament that I think are the most important liturgically and, in the Old Testament pictures, as prefigurements for the most important liturgically and theologically significant events of the Bible.” Mirroring the liturgy, the pictures will be drawn with the same telltale Gothic economy of detail that has informed all Mitsui’s work. “I want to make everything that goes into each picture significant and don’t want it to be merely ornament,” he says.
“ When I look back on my career, I want to be able to say, I drew the life of Christ and the scenes of the Old Testament that I think are the most important liturgically.” “I won’t put something in because this backdrop would look nice with sunflowers in it. I want every element to convey something—to place it in its actual location.” The project will also strive for the same popular appeal that has been a hallmark of Mitsui’s style. “My hope is that [the Summula Pictoria] will be useful to anyone who wants to make religious art, or to understand it,” he states on his website. “My idea is not to make a scholarly text or a university course; it is to offer, free of charge, something more accessible, comparable perhaps to a cookbook in which a professional chef shares his recipes.” Setting up a website to chronicle this cookbook-in-the-making, Mitsui invites the public to visit his blog, www.danielmitsui.blogspot.com. At Home—Yet Not Home Yet Having found a place to call home in rural Indiana, Mitsui knows that his geographical identity is not nearly as important as his artistic identity and, ultimately, his supernatural destiny. “Sacred art,” he notes in his August lecture at St. John Cantius Church, “does not have a geographic or chronological center; it has, rather, two foci, like a planetary orbit. These correspond to tradition and to beauty; one is the foot of the Cross; the other is the Garden of Eden.” For more information about Mitsui’s artwork or to contact Daniel Mitsui, visit his website: www.danielmitsui.com.
St. Hugh of Lincoln was a 12th-century Carthusian hermit who became the Bishop of Lincoln in England. He oversaw the rebuilding of the city’s cathedral choir after an earthquake in 1185; his efforts led to one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic architecture in England. In this depiction of St. Hugh by Daniel Mitsui, the artist follows the medieval artistic tradition of presenting the saint holding a crosier and a chalice in which the Christ Child sits, with a swan nearby. This swan befriended the bishop, ate from his hand and guarded him while he slept.
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The Pontifical College Josephinum was constructed in the late 1920s by Dutch-born architect Frank A. Ludewig (1863-1940). Artist Gerhard Lamers (1871-1964) created the mural of Christ the High Priest in the early 1930s.
Dedicated and Restored: St. Turibius Chapel at the Pontifical College Josephinum
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he St. Turibius Chapel at the Pontifical College Josephinum was constructed in the early 1930s with the two-fold aim of providing a worthy place for the worship of God (Holy Mass and Divine Office) and for the spiritual, theological, and pastoral formation of future priests. When submitting his proposal for the construction of the Seminary, architect F.A. Ludewig noted in particular, “The Chapel has been given infinite study, that all Liturgical Essentials might be observed in its planning and furnishing. The result is one of simple splendor and refinement, as commodious as necessity demands yet in no way overstepping the limitations prescribed by economy.” The Chapel speaks not empty chatter but a deep resonating dialogue. Whether through its architecture, windows or artwork, it presents symbols we must engage and to which we must respond. Refinements were undertaken not long after the chapel was first opened. Reacting to the assessment of celebrated American architect Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), who suggested that the apsidal windows were disproportionate and out of place, a new program for the apse was undertaken that included the suppression of the windows. The seminary engaged artist Gerhard Lamers (1871-1964) to create an enormous mural of Christ the High Priest. In the view of the earliest witnesses, the result was breath-taking, as a Josephinum seminarian from 1936 notes, “Upon entering the chapel we thought for a moment that we had accidentally stumbled into paradise…. We saw Christ in all his glory, surrounded by the hosts of angels.” The Second Vatican Council reiterated the profound insight in this anonymous seminarian’s reaction noting, “The practice of placing sacred images in churches so that they may be venerated by the faithful is to be maintained. Nevertheless their number should be moderate and their relative positions should reflect right order. For otherwise they may create confusion among the Christian people and foster devotion of doubtful orthodoxy” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 125). The physical weakening of brick and mortar over time, the resulting deterioration of the fresco, and a wave of iconoclasm led to a renovation in the 1980s that included the suppression of the mural. Recently, under the direction of the Josephinum’s seminary administration, the architectural firm of William Heyer, and New York-based EverGreene Architectural Arts, a new vision, a growing appreciation for the place of art in sacred liturgy, and advances in technology have enabled the restoration of the chapel and the rec-
reation of Lamers’s mural. The extensive work, including new walls, sanctuary, flooring and altar, necessitated the chapel’s rededication. On April 24, the Rite of Dedication was celebrated by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States and Chancellor of the Pontifical College Josephinum. That celebration inspired the remarks that follow. A Symphony of Sacramental Signs Catholic spirituality is inextricably bound up with sacramentality. Rooted in the doctrine of the incarnation, sacramental expression depends both on the ritual presentation of sensible signs, and the engagement of the intellect to associate the signs with their deeper, hidden meaning. (We do not discount faith, of course, which is the acknowledgement of our confidence that God does indeed communicate himself to his people in these mysteries.) Incarnation depends on a material creation. Thus, St. John of Damascus, the great Syrian Doctor of the Church, can point out, “Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God…and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.”1 The Eternal Word, taking on human flesh is a visible representation of the invisible God; thus, the mystery of the Incarnation is the pattern followed in other aspects of the sacramental mystery. The phenomenon is noted by St. Justin in the miracle of Holy Communion: “Some see common bread; we see the Lord; some see common wine; we drink the blood of Christ.”2 Catholic liturgy is awash with similar themes, a most exquisite rendering of which is presented as the Church celebrates the Nativity of Christ: “For in the mystery of the Word made flesh a new light of your glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that, as we recognize in him God made visible, we may be caught up through him in love of things invisible.”3 It is through the visible, perceptible world, that we come to know the mysterious love of the God that we cannot see. What is required, however, is not simply the presentation of signs. There must be an initiation into these mysteries, so that participants learn how to recognize and read the signs. Those who do not know how to enter in may have an intuition, but they are limited in their capacity to benefit more fully from the sacramental exchange. One is reminded of an episode in the story Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen in
“ Catholic spirituality is inextricably bound up with sacramentality. Rooted in the doctrine of the incarnation, sacramental expression depends both on the ritual presentation of sensible signs, and the engagement of the intellect to associate the signs with their deeper, hidden meaning. “
By Father Douglas Martis
which one of the invitées to the great supper is presented a flute of champagne: “This is good,” she says. “Must be some kind of lemonade.” On one level she knows the beverage is tasty; she has the correct intuition, but she misses the great value of her degustation! Seated also at table is the seasoned participant General Löwenhielm. He discerns not lemonade, but the drink in its rich complexity: the famous Veuve Cliquot 1860! Not only can he name the vintner he can also name the vintage. Intelligent participation gives us access to the treasure contained therein. Explaining how such access is possible in the liturgy, the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, “A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the divine pedagogy of salvation, their meaning is rooted in the work of creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the person and work of Christ” (1145). Behind liturgical intelligence is a narrative that links what we see, smell, hear, taste and touch to what we believe. That narrative, most appropriately (but not exclusively), is drawn from the sacred scriptures. The dedication of a church is one of the most exquisite examples of this dynamic at work. Symbols are by nature multivalent, which means that there is rarely one-toone correspondence between the visible sign and what it conveys. In baptism, for example, water means cleansing, but it also means death. These notions are woven together and co-exist serenely in the ritual prayer over the waters of baptism. The Catechism is quick to point to these different elements in the liturgy: “A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through ac-
tions and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but the Word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to them, so that the seed of the Kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. The liturgical actions signify what the Word of God expresses: both his free initiative and his people’s response of faith” (1153). Likewise, in the rite of the dedication of a church, the different images (and there are many of them!) convey a variety of meanings without tension. While a treatment of the sacramental signs cannot be exhaustive, an introduction to some of them can whet the liturgical appetite and stimulate intellectual curiosity. A Liturgical Context The “Common of the Dedication of a Church” is the first of all Commons arranged in the Roman Missal and in the Liturgy of Hours. It precedes all others. This is not a coincidence. It is no slight to the Blessed Virgin Mary (whose common prayers are arranged in the second place), it does not compromise the value of the Apostles and Martyrs and Pastors who follow. They are all members of Christ’s own Body. The Blessed Mother is herself tabernacle and member of this Body. The church building is the sacramental sign of Christ’s mystical body. There is no fluke in the Liturgical Calendar; therefore, it should come as no surprise that the anniversary of the dedication of a church is celebrated annually in each church as a solemnity. This church building is the visible sign of Christ’s continuing presence in the world, as the members of his mystical body are his hands and feet. This insight inspires St. Theresa of Avila, doctor of the Church, to her profound reflection of the mission of each Christian in the world: Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ’s compassion to the world; Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now. At the promulgation of the Rite for the Dedication of a Church and Altar in 1977, then Prefect for Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Cardinal James R. Knox, noted that the rite “should be considered among the most solemn liturgical actions. For the place where the Christian community is gathered to hear the Word of God, to offer prayers of intercession and praise to God, and above all to celebrate the sacred mysteries and where the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is reserved is a special image of the Church, which is God’s temple built from living stones.” The rite itself goes on to teach that because the church is a visible building, it is sign both of the pilgrim Church on earth and an image of the Church dwelling in heaven. In this place, in a deliberate and profound way, heaven and earth are joined. A Community. A Place. A Body The dedication of a church is a momentous event in the life of a community. Because it is so significant and can be so powerful, this ritual is one that the Church has arranged with exceptional care. The rite is comprised of simple yet evocative signs informed by the sacred texts that accompany them. The community meets at a certain time, in a pre-arranged place. There is a procession. It is not an aimless wandering, but a determined march to a destination. The procession forms. The cross of Christ is in the lead. No candles take part save those that honor the relics: the silent witness of the martyrs and saints. The ministers follow, then all the faithful. They sing “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.” It is
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And the Rock was Christ Attention now moves intently to the altar. The first action at this point is the deposition of the relics. The relics are placed beneath the altar to signify that the sacrifice of the members has drawn its origin from the Sacrifice of the Head. St. Ambrose reminds the Church, “Let the triumphant victims occupy the place where Christ is victim: he, however, who suffered for all, upon the altar; they who have been redeemed by his sufferings, under the altar.” The short Psalm 15 (14) is intoned, “Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain?” The answer is here: the blameless ones, the saints whose intercession we seek in the accompanying antiphon. “Beneath the altar of God you have been placed, O Saints of God: intercede for us before the Lord Jesus Christ.” Tertullian reminds us, too, “the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord: ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?’”5 The Sacred Chrism is poured out in five places on the altar, in a kind of quincunx pattern: in the center and on each of the four corners. With a surgeon’s precision and care, the Bishop anoints the surface of the mensa. The rite teaches us that “by the anointing with Chrism the altar is made a symbol of Christ.” He is the Anointed One, and like the anointed Christian at
which by our ministry we anoint, so that as visible signs they may express the mystery of Christ and the Church.7 And then with Psalm 84 (83)—“How lovely is your dwelling place!”—the antiphon reminds us that by this anointing the church building, as the heart of the Christian, becomes a tabernacle where God takes up his abode: Behold God’s dwelling (tabernaculum) with the human race. He will live with them and they will be his people and God himself with them will be their God. Then incense is burned on the altar. Perhaps in a brazier, but the rite also allows for the burning of incense directly on the surface of the altar, as if to suggest the inseparable connection between the offering of incense and the immolation of Sacred Victim. Incense carries a variety of meanings: this complete offering of the victim, our prayers rising to heaven, and also the veil that shrouds the ineffable mystery. The Rite itself teaches that “Incense is burned on the altar to signify that the Sacrifice of Christ, which is there perpetuated in mystery, ascends to God as an odor of sweetness; this is also a sign that the pleasing and acceptable prayers of the faithful rise up to the throne of God.”8 The intervention of the bishop at this point draws from both the Old and New
The relics of Sts. Turibius, Cosmas, and Damian, and Blessed Miguel Pro are placed beneath the altar to signify that the sacrifice of the members has drawn its origin from the Sacrifice of Christ their Head. The Book of Revelation recounts St. John’s vision: “I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God” (6:9).
The lighting of the church has been delayed to this moment. The majority of the dedication rites having been completed, the Bishop passes a lighted taper to the Deacon, instructing him to light all the candles of the altar and church: Let the light of Christ shine brightly in the Church, that all nations may attain the fullness of truth. The Church is explicit in what she means to symbolize by the lighting of candles: “The lighting of the altar, which is followed by the lighting of the church, reminds us that Christ is ‘a light for revelation to the Gentiles,’ whose brightness shines out in the Church and through her upon the whole human family.”9 Meanwhile, all the lights in the church are illuminated and the choir sings the
“ The prayer for the blessing of the holy water calls this sprinkling a cleansing with ‘the dew of charity.’” baptism, the anointed altar becomes “another Christ.” In a reflection on Psalm 26, Augustine recalls the anointing that Christ and Christians share: “But not only was our Head anointed; his body was too, we ourselves. He is king because he reigns over us and leads us; priest because he intercedes on our behalf. What is more, he alone is priest in such a way as to be also the sacrifice. He offered to God a sacrifice that was nothing other than himself. He could not find a totally pure victim, endowed with reason, apart from himself. He is like a spotless lamb who redeemed us by his own spilt blood, uniting us into one body with himself and making us his members, so that in him we too are Christ. This is why anointing is proper to all Christians, even though in earlier times under the Old Covenant it was given to two kinds of persons only. For this it is obvious that we are the body of Christ, being all anointed. In him all of us belong to Christ, but we are Christ too, because in some sense the whole Christ is Head and body.”6 The prayer that accompanies the anointing of the altar and the walls of the church (with the sign of the cross in 12 or four places) clearly indicates what these visible signs symbolize: May the Lord by his power sanctify this altar and this house,
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interspersed with other verses from Psalm 122 (121), a psalm of David, a psalm of ascent to the encounter with God. Arriving at the entrance of the church, the procession “halts” at the threshold. The doors are locked. The lights are out. The place is empty. Then there is a ceremonial opening of the doors, the handing over of the keys, a filing in of the members, two-by-two. The greatest authority in the local community, the Bishop, invites the assembly to cross the threshold: “Enter the gates of the Lord with thanksgiving, his courts with songs of praise.” Again the faithful join their voices. The Scriptures inspire the chant: “Grow higher, ancient doors, let him enter, the king of glory!” (Psalm 24). All is still inside. The only sound emanates from the naked human voices pushing through the doors. The only movement is that of the members assembling in their places. The altar–if it can be called an altar at this point–is bare. Naked. Inanimate. The altar is ignored. (Just this one time.) The ministers walk by it without gesture, without sign of reverence, as if it were only a chunk of stone. (Just three months ago, this stone was entombed in the earth. Now, the natural stone resurrected and shaped by sweat and the skill of human hands will receive a supernatural status.) It will become, as Cardinal Knox notes, “a sign of Christ, who is the Priest, the Victim, and the Altar of his own Sacrifice.” The Bishop gives the greeting of the Risen Christ: “Peace be with you.” The Sprinkling of Holy Water follows. The prayer for the blessing of the holy water calls this sprinkling a cleansing with “the dew of charity.” The bishop passes through the church, sprinkling the people and the walls of the building: living stones and their image. He concludes this procession at the great stone (like the memorial stone in Israel’s desert, it is marker of the meeting with God), the altar. The bishop begins cleansing it with waters reminiscent of Baptism, the first part of a process that will initiate it into the symbol of Christ. (Washing now. Anointing, clothing, lighting, and Eucharistizing later.) Meanwhile, the choir weaves together passages from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation, images of the life-giving water of creation and of the Passion of Christ, the true Temple. “I saw water flowing from the Temple, from its right-hand side, alleluia; and all to whom this water came we saved and shall say: Alleluia, alleluia.” The Christian temple is a New Eden. As Margaret Barker suggests, from this temple flows a “river which [brings] supernatural fertility.”4 The scripture that inaugurates a newly constructed church is always taken from the Book of Nehemiah, chapter 8. It recounts how Ezra the scribe mounted a wooden platform “in the square in front of the Water Gate” to read to all the people from the Book of Moses. Then the Psalm, the Epistle and the Gospel. Still no lights. Still no incense. A homily. The Creed. And then the great Litany of Intercession that implores God and begs the intercession of the Saints that this building will be “a house of salvation and grace,” as the prayer of dedication says.
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Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, sprinkles the altar with holy water and then anoints it with Sacred Chrism. Only later, “after it receives the body of Christ” (in the words of St. John Chrysostom), will the altar attain its full status and nature as a Christian altar.
The newly-dedicated Chapel of St. Turibius is an image of the community of the church, which in turn, is Christ’s Mystical Body.
Testaments: first from Psalm 141 (140)—
that our prayers rise like incense—and Second Corinthians, chapter 2, where St. Paul insists that we are the aroma of Christ. Let our prayers rise, O Lord, like incense in your sight; and as this house is filled with a pleasing fragrance so let your Church be fragrant with the aroma of Christ.
Cleaned and Clothed and Lighted When the anointing and the burning of incense have been accomplished, the altar is wiped clean and clothed with a white linen. Nothing is said during this time. Perhaps we are meant simply to marvel at the parallel between the washing, anointing and clothing of the altar and the same ritual gestures that occur in the sacrament of Baptism.
Canticle of Tobit (chapter 13), which both praises God for his glory, but also sings of the new and ideal Jerusalem, of which the Church is the image. Give thanks to the Lord with righteousness, and bless the King of the ages, so that your tabernacle may be rebuilt in you with joy. Jerusalem, city of God, you will shine with splendid light.[…] A bright light will shine to the limits of the earth. The Mass of Dedication continues with the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and while there are few additions to this part of the Mass, the Order of Dedication makes it clear that the only real essential rite for dedication is the celebration of the Eucharist itself: “The celebration of the Eucharist is the most important rite, and the only necessary one, for the dedication of a church. Nevertheless, in accordance with Please see CHAPEL on page 11
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017
AB/FOCUS
FOCUS on Beauty: the Liturgical Heart of Missionary Zeal
“We understand that the Sacred Liturgy is the source and summit of all our efforts in the work of the New Evangelization,” says Leah Sedlacek. “FOCUS is not a parish or a movement, but Mass and Eucharistic adoration are central to our missionaries’ lives.”
Adam Bartlett (AB): What has inspired FOCUS’s recent journey to explore more deeply the liturgical documents put forth by the Church? Leah Sedlacek (LS): The liturgy and music have always been an integral part of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students’ mission to know Christ Jesus and fulfill His Great Commission. Our music team was founded in 2009 to provide high-quality and appropriate music for events in FOCUS. Our most prominent events are our national conferences, where thousands of young people seek to grow in their understanding of their faith. We are continually striving to respond to the Church’s call in every aspect of our lives, with the celebration of the liturgy being at the center. In 2010, we were inspired to take a deeper look at sacred music after some members of our music team were invited to Birmingham, AL, by the Sisters of the Eternal Word to discuss music within the liturgy after they had attended one of our FOCUS national conferences. Up to this point, we had been choosing hymns for Mass that corresponded to the readings of the day and were easily sung by the congregation. At this gathering, we were introduced in a profound way to the word “antiphon.” It was a life-changing word. My teammate Shaun Garrison and I had heard of the antiphons before, but we had never realized their importance in the celebration of the liturgy. With others present, we started to discuss the liturgical documents and what the Church was asking of her musicians in the sacred liturgy. These discussions were the beginning of what has become a beautiful journey toward a more
complete understanding of our role as musicians in the Church, and especially the role of beauty and its connection to the New Evangelization.
AB: How is FOCUS employing beauty in its efforts to evangelize? LS: In an effort to respond to the Church’s call for a New Evangelization, FOCUS invests in college students and equips them for lifelong Catholic mission through “spiritual multiplication.” Spiritual multiplication refers to a way of evangelizing in which we not only teach others the faith, but we teach
repeating the process through multiple generations. Within FOCUS, we are exploring new means of evangelization through authentic beauty to aid our current missionary efforts to spiritually multiply. This new project is called “a beauty initiative within FOCUS.” This effort has enriched our conviction of the central importance of the liturgy as the primary source of grace and of all true beauty, which animates our efforts in evangelization. One of the greatest challenges we have found is that the world, and par-
AB: Every pope since the Second Vatican Council has spoken of the importance of the via pulchritudinis, or the Way of Beauty, in the Church’s efforts to evangelize the world. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of it as a “privileged path” for the New Evangelization, and Pope Francis recommends it to all in Evangelii Gaudium. What are beauty’s greatest benefits in the work of evangelization on college campuses today? LS: People in today’s world—and especially college students—do not want to be told how to act or behave, or what to believe, but they do not have these defenses up against beauty. It has a unique power to bypass the head and speak directly to the heart. St. Thomas Aquinas called beauty the “radiance of truth,”
AB/FOCUS
Editor’s note: Leah Sedlacek serves as Music and Worship Program Manager for Fellowship of Catholic University Students, or FOCUS, a youth-driven evangelization apostolate on college campuses. One of the American Church’s most vibrant missions today, FOCUS finds the liturgy at the heart of its work. Adam Bartlett, President and Editor of Illuminare Publications and a regular contributor to Adoremus Bulletin, spoke recently to Sedlacek about the place of liturgy, music, and beauty in FOCUS’s mission.
and not as the expression of objective reality. This misguided formation unfortunately leaves millennial artists believing that they must choose between their faith and their art form, that beauty and truth are at odds with each other. This demonic twisting of beauty is tragic because if we as a Church abandon the call to create authentic beauty, the culture will be led by our artists into deeper relativism. In response to this challenge, we are answering Pope John Paul II’s call in his 1999 “Letter to Artists” for creative people to rise up and become missionaries of beauty. This call was not only to encourage artists to authentically participate in the creative action of God, but also to become saints. As John Paul II wrote, “All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.” The Holy Father points out that the highest call for any person is to be a witness to the person of Jesus Christ through the beauty of his or her own life of holiness.
For six weeks in the summer, more than 500 missionaries gather for New Staff Training, held at Ave Maria University in Florida, for prayer, formation, and fellowship to prepare for the upcoming year’s mission. The FOCUS music team arranged a progressive solemnity schema for use throughout the summer, an element of which was chanting the entrance and communion antiphons at every Mass.
them how to teach others (2 Tim. 2:2). Jesus evangelized to large crowds, but the plan he gave for reaching the whole world was to do so through his disciples (Mt. 28:19-20). He invested deeply in 12 men, and more specifically in three: Peter, James and John. These disciples then invested their lives into others, who then did the same with others,
ticularly our college student audience,
is confused about the word “beauty.” Many people today reduce it to a mere and hollow aestheticism or twist it into a cult of the ugly. On the college campus, students at large suffer from these reductions, but artists and creative types especially suffer from the presentation of beauty as mere self-expression
and when a person encounters authentic beauty, goodness is formed within his soul. If beauty is truly present in the world, goodness will be present and people will be more open to the explicit proclamation of the gospel. John Paul II reminds us that not only artists but all Christians are called to bring this beauty of Christ into the world through
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Adoremus Bulletin,September 2017
Adam Bartlett directs the choir at the SEEK2017 conference sponsored by the youth apostolate FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). “I cannot describe the joy and blessing,” writes Music and Worship Program Manager, Leah Sedlacek, “of hearing the power of 13,000 college students singing in unison a communion antiphon.”
AB: What are your hopes and goals for the Beauty Initiative within FOCUS? LS: Understanding the challenge, the call and the impact of beauty, our goal is twofold: Through study, collaborative projects and creative apprenticeship, we aim to craft a community that inspires artists and creative types to take their unique place in the Church and inspire everyone to live a beautiful life, ultimately to be a saint. Our first collaborative project, released in January 2016, was an album entitled “Origin,” recorded by the FOCUS Collective and produced by Papercastle Records. The goal was to explore how beauty can inspire people to know Jesus Christ, who is the source of all beauty. Our hope is that “Origin” inspires people to create art that allows others to encounter Christ through the power of beauty, as the Church has done through her rich tradition in promoting the arts. Ultimately, our hope for the beauty initiative is to engage two audiences: artists and Catholics at the same time, helping both groups to see that beauty is about our salvation and the salvation of the world. This is why “a beauty initiative within FOCUS” has started with the liturgy, because it is the source and summit of all of our missionary efforts and our lives of faith. It is in the liturgy that we encounter Christ most fully and are formed into himself. Having encountered Beauty Himself, we can then be witnesses of his beauty to the world. For more information about “Origin” and the Beauty Initiative, visit http://focusoncampus.org/beauty. AB: In recent years, how has FOCUS implemented the vision and principles proposed by the Church as it relates to the liturgy? LS: We understand that the sacred liturgy is the source and summit of all our efforts in the work of the New Evangelization. FOCUS is not a parish or a movement, but Mass and Eucharistic adoration are central to our missionaries’ lives. In light of Musicam Sacram, we strive to celebrate Mass following a model of progressive solemnity [choosing which parts of the liturgy to sing
AB/Catholic News Agency
our very lives. And so, we see the Way of Beauty as a powerful way of evangelization on college campuses and in our parishes.
“All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece,” wrote Pope St. John Paul II in his “Letter to Artists.” The apostolate’s “Beauty initiative within FOCUS” inspires artists “to rise up and become missionaries of beauty.”
based upon their individual importance and according to the celebration’s overall significance] so that the form of celebration of the Mass each day reflects the character and solemnity of the day. Our first effort to implement this model began at our national conference in 2013 when we included sung entrance and communion antiphons in the celebration of the Mass. We encounter many different pastoral situations, so depending on location and particular circumstances, we follow some type of progressive solemnity and try to sing the Mass to the fullest extent that we are able. Our fullest expression of progressive solemnity can be found at our New Staff Training (NST), held at Ave Maria University in Florida. For six weeks in the summer, more than 500 FOCUS missionaries gather together for prayer, formation, and fellowship to prepare for the upcoming year’s mission. Before training, our music team arranges a progressive solemnity schema for use throughout NST. One element of the schema is the chanting of the entrance and communion antiphons at every Mass, with less solemn Masses using a simple psalm tone method and with feasts using a fuller, through-composed setting. On feast days, the congregation sings the full antiphon or a simple response derived from it in alternation with verses from a psalm. Our staff sings the antiphons with the help of a custom
liturgical resource that we created in collaboration with Illuminare Publications, specifically for our staff training event. This resource helps everyone in the liturgical assembly to visually see the antiphons and the different parts of the Mass, which I believe encourages them to participate more fully in sung prayer. We continue to take steps to follow more closely the vision and principles proposed by the Church. And we hope to equip our missionaries and staff with a deep liturgical formation and with resources to help them encounter the beauty of Jesus Christ in the liturgy, who is the source of all our efforts to evangelize on college campuses and in parishes. AB: How have you balanced the use of sacred music in the liturgy with the music that many college students respond so powerfully to in times of conversion and in the formation of their relationship with Christ? LS: We understand that devotion is an important element in our spiritual lives, and the praise and worship music of today helps foster powerful devotion in our millennial students, just as more traditional hymns and songs have helped others to pray devotionally at different times. The introduction to Guardini’s The Spirit of the Liturgy states that “it is from personal ‘private devotion’…that ‘liturgical prayer’ in its turn derives warmth and local color.”
In a time where students feel a disconnection between life and faith, this “warmth” brought about through devotion is often a critical experience for them to encounter Christ. Time and time again, we hear stories of students responding powerfully to praise and worship music. The response is usually a moment of surrender during an important juncture in their spiritual life or an understanding that they are personally loved by the Lord. I, personally, had this moment of giving my own “yes” to the Lord while singing a praise and worship song during a high school retreat. This “yes” 15 years ago was the beginning of my intentional discipleship with the Lord, which has led me to be a full-time missionary for him. Devotional music has had a great impact in our ministry to millennials. We also know that sacred music draws us deeper into the prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father in the sacred liturgy. It is our desire that liturgies at FOCUS events help participants move from devotion to the truly transcendent, public prayer of the Church. Our national conferences are a time of encounter with a wide variety of our students from across the country. They may never have experienced chant in their lives, and we need to meet them where they are devotionally and then lead them deeper into the prayer of the Church. To foster this experience, we provide devotional hymns at appropriate times during the Mass which relate to the proper celebration and then move seamlessly into the proper chant given for that Mass. For example, a typical FOCUS liturgy begins with a carefully selected hymn followed by the antiphon of the day and the appropriate verses when the priest and servers arrive at the altar. A simple response is often added and the words are projected on a screen so that the congregation can easily participate in singing the antiphon. Former FOCUS Board Member Monsignor John Cihak is a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland and papal master of ceremonies. Monsignor Cihak describes this model well, which incidentally is also used in the Papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica. “It works rather well,” Monsignor Cihak says, “because the chant has a way of quieting and forming the heart for prayer.” The Communion chant is sung similarly. The antiphon is sung first, after the priest celebrant receives communion, and then a hymn follows the singing of the communion antiphon with its psalm. We typically alternate between schola and “worship team” for each Mass, though the basic musical structure remains the same at all Masses. We take exceptional care to play all instruments in a style that does not drive the music rhythmically or percussively, but rather uplifts our minds and heart to the Lord. Our aim for instrumentation is not to overwhelm the voices. People notice this special attention to detail regarding how things are played. The way that the worship team approaches instrumentation in the Mass takes as its model the flowing nature of chant. We are grateful for your assistance, Adam Bartlett, in helping us introduce sung antiphons in our conference Masses. The resources made available by Illuminare Publications have been invaluable, especially in helping the congregation join in this form of sung prayer. (Adoremus readers should also know that Bartlett has offered formation and training for FOCUS’s cantors and has opened for FOCUS the theological richness of the chant tradition as FOCUS’s music team learns to sing the chants of the Mass.) Please see FOCUS on page 11
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017
LETTERS
Kudos for Carstens
Supreme Thanks
Continued from page 2
NEWS & VIEWS
Great article on Summorum Pontificum. —Kenneth Solak, California
AB/Sophia Press
Century of Blessings
As an example of a person who could fulfill the new criterion for beatification issued by Pope Francis, Chiara Corbella Petrillo was diagnosed with cancer in the midst of her third pregnancy. Declining treatment, Chiara “offered her life” for her son, Francesco. Chiara died in June 2015, and her cause was opened earlier this year. Her story and that of her husband, Enrico, is chronicled in Chiara Corbella Petrillo: A Witness to Joy, available from Sophia Institute Press.
offering of life” to the beatification process. According to Kurian, this criterion is fulfilled when a “baptized person accepted a premature death for the service of others.” In the motu proprio, Kurian reports, “the Holy Father sets out the norms of this new way, which calls for the recognition of a miracle to make a Beatification possible.” Taking the motu proprio’s title from our Lord’s words in John 15:13—“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”—Pope Francis declares in the document, Kurian writes, that “Christians who have ‘voluntarily and freely offered their life for others and persevered to death in this regard’ are ‘worthy of consideration and honor,’” and therefore merit Beatification. With this new criterion, Kurian writes, Pope Francis makes explicit the Christian charity inherent in such an act of self-sacrifice. Quoting Pope Francis’s motu proprio, Kurian writes that “the offering of a heroic life, suggested and sustained by charity, expresses a true and exemplary imitation of Christ.” Until now, Kurian notes in her report, the Church had established three criteria to beatification: martyrdom, the demonstration of heroic Christian virtue, and equivalency – whereby “the pope confirms an already ancient devotion.” As requirements to fulfill this new criterion, Kurian writes, quoting from the motu proprio, “there must be ‘a link between the offering of life and a premature death,’ the exercise of virtues ‘at least in an ordinary measure’ before the offering, a reputation for sanctity ‘at least after death’ and a miracle due to the intercession of the Servant of God.” For the complete text of the motu proprio, visit the Vatican website page that contains Pope Francis’s documents.
Dear Friends at Adoremus, I just celebrated by birthday on July 15th. I was born in 1917 so I am now 100 years old. God has blessed me in so many ways. My mind is still as clear as can be. Thank you Jesus! I love reading the Adoremus Bulletin. I received a recent monetary gift and I want to give this to you in appreciation for sending me this marvelous paper every time you publish it. I also pass it on to the pastor of the Cathedral here in St. Augustine. God bless you all. —Sister St. Margaret Zapf, Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Augustine, FL
Charitable Response Dear Folks at Adoremus, Please accept our gift to you, as a meager offering for all the good your work does. We have been blessed for years to receive your publication. It has always been a vital and instructive part of our family’s faith formation—becoming ever more necessary as our children grew. There have been long periods of time when we have not reciprocated your steady mailings to us—that kindness is a tribute to your publication’s charity. We resolve to be more reliable benefactors. —Greg and Annette Boyle Poughkeepsie, NY
Q A
Dear Mr. Carstens, You have really done a great job with Adoremus Bulletin and I commend you wholeheartedly. It is a tribute to Helen Hitchcock, a very faithful founder. May the Lord be with you and your assistants. —Herman Belz Rockville, MD
Letters from Nigeria I: Continental Bridge Dear Adoremus, I am a Catholic priest from Nigeria about to complete my doctoral studies here in the U.S., and hopefully returning home in no distant time to teach in the seminary and/or work in my diocese. Coming to the U.S. has offered me a lot of learning and academic opportunities which a majority of my brother priests never enjoy and some do not even know that it is possible. I have been thinking about how to help bridge this gap. More recently I have been focused on establishing a functional library to be at their disposal for better pastoral ministry. To this end I have been buying and collecting books, CDs/ DVDs and other reading materials to stock the library within my limited power as a student. I know yours is not a charity organization, but I was wondering if there is any way you can gift us with some books and materials, in the form of a donation, especially publications in the areas of theology, liturgy, philosophy, ecclesiology, liberal arts,
etc., to help us set up this library. If it will be possible I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks, —Father Peter O.
Letters from Nigeria II: Seminal Work Dear Christopher, Permit me to begin by introducing myself. I am Father Alfred Emeka Okakpu, one of the Formator/lecturers at the Blessed Iwene Tansi Major Seminary in Onitsha Nigeria. We were glad when Father Dennis Gill proposed to arrange with you to send us copies of the Adoremus Bulletin for our seminarians. We cannot thank you and Father Dennis enough. May the good Lord continue to bless and guide you all. Should you need some more information about the seminarians (about 300 of them), such would be provided. So, feel very free to ask me for whatever information you will be needing. With high esteem and prayerful best wishes, —Rev. Alfred Emeka Okakpu Blessed Iwene Tansi Major Seminary Onitsha, Nigeria Adoremus replies: We are grateful to our many benefactors who give to the Bulletin for precisely this reason, to help form seminarians, as well as clergy and the faithful, according to the liturgical mind of the Church. We are especially pleased to know Adoremus’s reach extends more and more often beyond our North American borders.
THE RITE QUESTION
: Is using both a hymn and antiphon together, at the entrance, offertory, or
communion processions, an appropriate liturgical and musical option?
: Strictly speaking, the rubrics found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) 48, 74 and 87 only envision that a single musical piece is to be sung during the entrance, offertory and communion processions. In the dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for what may be sung: • The antiphon from the Missal or the antiphon with its Psalm from the Graduale Romanum. • The antiphon and psalm of the Graduale Simplex. • A chant from another collection of psalms and antiphons. • Another liturgical chant that is suited to the sacred action, the day, or the time of year, similarly approved by the conference of bishops or the diocesan bishop.1 This order of options reflects the priorities given in Sacrosanctum Concilium, Musicam Sacram, and the GIRM, namely that Gregorian chant should be given the main place in the liturgy.2 The normal form of the sung liturgy is found in the Church’s liturgical books, although a parish’s pastoral circumstances or available resources might require it to employ other options lower on the list for legitimate reasons. Many parishes over the past decade, however, have had great success in introducing the processional antiphons of the Mass in conjunction with a hymn.
This method allows for the introduction of the sung antiphons without necessarily “taking away” the hymns that many of our parishioners know and love. This practice is not without precedent. The extraordinary form High Mass requires that the proper antiphons be sung in Latin, either in their Gregorian chant settings found in the Graduale Romanum or set to a simple psalm tone or in polyphony. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, it was customary during the entrance for some music—whether an organ processional or motet—to accompany the ministers to the prayers at the foot of the altar, at which time the Entrance Antiphon would begin. Similarly, at the offertory, it was customary for the choir to sing the Offertory Antiphon once, without any verses, followed by a Latin hymn or motet. At communion, the choir similarly sang the prescribed antiphon only once, without any verses, and then proceeded to a motet or hymn, or both, during the remainder of the Communion procession. The pre-conciliar books did not make provision for the singing of verses with the Offertory and Communion Antiphons until 1958, and so it was practically necessary for something else to be sung in order to cover lengthy processions.3 And so, the hybrid hymn-antiphon model during the Mass processions follows established conventions, even though it is clear that the Missal of Paul VI favors processions accompanied only
by the antiphons and psalms found in the liturgical books themselves. Further, nothing prohibits a parish from singing a hymn before Mass begins (i.e., prior to the procession) or after Mass ends (after the dismissal). The GIRM provides for a hymn of praise that can follow the communion procession, and says nothing about adding additional music if a procession becomes particularly lengthy. While exemplary liturgies—such as cathedral celebrations, and perhaps a parish’s principal Sunday Mass—might model the normal form where the processional antiphons alone are sung, the practice of pairing antiphons with hymns or other instrumental music, especially as a transitional measure, is on solid ground from the standpoint of tradition, legislation, and sound pastoral practice alike. —Answered by Adam Bartlett, a composer and conductor of Catholic liturgical music and President and Editor of Illuminare Publications. He is composer and editor of Simple English Propers, and editor of the Lumen Christi Missal, Lumen Christi Simple Gradual, and Lumen Christi Hymnal.
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1. These options vary from conference to conference, but in general, the options essentially follow an order beginning with the Graduale Romanum, followed by the Graduale Simplex, and then some other approved antiphon and psalm. 2. See GIRM 41. 3. See De Musica Sacra et Sacra Liturgia no. 27.
Want to learn more about liturgical translations? Visit: Adoremus.org
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017 Continued from FOCUS, page 9 Our efforts to introduce sacred music gradually into the liturgy has not only been successful, but has also been well received. I cannot describe the joy and blessing of hearing the power of 13,000 college students singing in unison a communion antiphon at our SEEK2017 conference. I am especially grateful to be part of these liturgies because, for these students, this singing is truly prayer and is a participation in a prayer that is bigger than this time and place, reaching into eternity. AB: How are millennials responding to these initiatives? LS: Our efforts to celebrate the liturgy according to the documents put forth by the Church have prompted millennials to start asking important questions about music in the liturgy. Whether they are inclined to immediately agree or to resist, they ultimately are seeking the truth, which leads them directly to the Church’s teaching on the liturgy. Introducing the sung liturgy to our apostolate has been a gradual process that is gaining more acceptance and enthusiasm from our millennial audience. Through discussion and teaching, our staff, and especially our musicians, were moved and spiritually uplifted by the depth of prayer found in the sung liturgy. They shared that praying with the antiphons helped them participate more deeply in the Mass. Our national conference participants have had similar reactions. Many of the
young clergy in attendance have asked about ways to use our music model for their parishes and Newman Centers, and we are seeing the influence we are having in the way that the liturgy is being celebrated in other Catholic conferences across the country as well. This past February, the FOCUS Collective provided music for the Mount 2000 high school retreat at Mount St. Mary’s University, MD, following the FOCUS national conference musical model. Without hesitation, the congregation of millennials sang the antiphons right back after hearing them only once. Their voices were so strong and prayerful that we could feel the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was a very powerful experience. After the weekend was over, many seminarians of different liturgical backgrounds and experiences thanked us for our musical witness. It was a very powerful moment of unity and unification. Overall, the millennial response to our initiatives has been positive. And, more significantly, it has shown that the beauty of the sacred liturgy has the power to inspire lives of missionary discipleship, both on college campuses and in our parishes.
Leah Sedlacek serves as Music and Worship Program Manager out of the FOCUS Denver Support Center, which serves as the ‘supply line’ to FOCUS missionaries on campus. Sedlacek is also spearheading the new “Beauty Initiative within FOCUS.”
Adoremus Thanks Sustaining ($200+) Mrs. Eunice Brown Milwaukee, Wisconsin Rev. Msgr. Patrick E. Dempsey Washington, DC Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Elder Annandale, Virginia Mr. Jerome C. Fritz Bay Village, Ohio Mr. John F. Mc Laughlin Delran, New Jersey Deacon Joseph Reid Palm Harbor, Florida Hank Sanna Freeport, New York Mr. Richard P. Smith Arcadia, California 2 Anonymous
Continued from CHAPEL, page 7 the common tradition of the Church, both East and West, a special Prayer of Dedication is also said, by which the intention of dedicating the church to the Lord for all time is signified and his blessing is implored.”10 The rite of dedication gives a further reflection, calling on the Tradition of the Church Fathers, especially St. John Chrysostom: “The Eucharist, which sanctifies the hearts of those who receive it, in a sense consecrates the altar and the place of celebration, as the early Fathers of the Church assert more than once: ‘This altar is an object of wonder: by nature it is stone, but it is made holy after it receives the Body of Christ.’”11 St. Augustine thinks of the Lord’s house not as a building, but rather as a company of people, those united with the Lord in faith and charity. Thus in his commentary on Psalm 26 he says, “one single petition I have made to the Lord, and that one I shall pursue: to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, so that as long as I am in this life, no adversity may estrange me from the company of those who uphold the unity and truth of faith in the Lord, all the world over.”12 For Augustine, the Christian becomes the Lord’s temple: “When death has been swallowed up in victory I shall be clothed in immortality, being made his temple.”13 The Order of the Dedication of a Church brings together the various images and presents to the Christian faithful a series of images that demonstrate how the church building is an image of the community of the church, which in turn, as Christ’s Mystical Body, denotes
Dr. Theodore J. Dubuque, Jr. St. Louis, Missouri
Dr. Elke U. O’Donnell Cambridge, Massachusetts
Mr. William E. Duffy El Sobrante, California
Fr. Richard O’Rourke Harker Heights, Texas
Mr. C. Henry Edwards Alcoa, Tennessee
Mr. Matthew Peoples Sandy Springs, Georgia
Fr. Thomas Flowers Lewes, Delaware
Mr. William Ross Lakeside, Texas
Mr. & Mrs. Dan Gieske Sauk Centre, Minnesota
Patricia & James Schaaf Cupertino, California
Mrs. Penelope C. Greene Somerset, Pennsylvania
Mr. Ray Schwartz Rochelle, Illinois
Hans Grote Camlachie, Ontario
Mrs. Calvert Shenk Ann Arbor, Michigan
Mr. Dwight D. Johnson Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Mr. Herman J. Belz Rockville, Maryland
Eugene Kempland Florissant, Missouri
Mr. Gregory K. Boyle Poughkeepsie, New York
Dr. Arthur M. Kunath Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mr. Eugene Burke Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Anna M. Marques Flushing, New York
John Carrig Garfield Heights, Ohio
Mr. Joseph Marrantino Wappingers Falls, New York
Mr. Hubert F. Johnson Louisville, Kentucky
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Father Douglas Martis is a priest of the Diocese of Joliet-in-Illinois. He holds doctoral degrees in Sacred Theology and History of Religions and Religious Anthropology. He is director of Sacred Liturgy and professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, OH. 1. St. John Damascene, De imag. 1, 16: PG 96: 1245-1248. 2. Justin, I Apol. 66. 3. Roman Missal, Preface I of the Nativity of the Lord. 4. Margaret Barker, The Gate of Heaven. The History and Symbolism of the Temple in Jerusalem, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008, p. 69. 5. Tertullian, De orat. 5: PL 1,1159A. 6. Augustine, Expostitions of the Psalms, vol, III/15, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000, p. 274-275. 7. This and all other excerpts from the Order of the Dedication of a Church are prepared by ICEL and taken from the future second edition, presently still in draft form. 8. Order of the Dedication of a Church, 16. 9. Order of the Dedication of a Church, 16. 10. Order of the Dedication of a Church, 15. 11. Order of the Dedication of a Church, 16. 12. Augustine, Expostitions of the Psalms, vol, III/15, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000, p. 271. 13. Augustine, Expostitions of the Psalms, vol, III/15, Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000, p. 271.
deeply grateful for your financial support of the work of Adoremus. Mr. C. Kenneth Miles Mobile, Alabama
Patron ($100+) Miss Rubena E. Abraham Lakefield, Ontario
The Church Building is Christ The future publication of a new translation of the Order of the Dedication of a Church gives us an opportunity to explore the richness of the liturgical rites and texts. In every instance, they reinforce Prosper of Aquitaine’s maxim: lex orandi, lex credendi. If you want to know what the Church believes, pay attention to what she says when she prays.
our donors for special gifts received in the past months. We are
Mr. & Mrs. Myles Crowe Glen, New Hampshire
Rev. Msgr. George E. Highberger Peoria, Arizona
his visible presence on earth. These images are summarized in the great prayer of dedication: “Here is reflected the mystery of the Church.”
Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist Independence, Missouri Mr. Kenneth Solak San Francisco, California Mr. William G. Stoops, Jr. Richmond, Virginia Mr. & Mrs. Louis A. Terrenzio, Jr. Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania Mary Thorton Annandale, Virginia Mrs. Mary Wendel Clayton, Missouri Rev. Mr. Raymond Zolandz Wilmington, Delaware 3 Anonymous
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2017
In Cardinal Sarah’s New Book, the Power of Silence Breaks in on the Noise of the World By Brian Kranick
with an afterword by pope emeritus benedict xvi
The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise by Robert Cardinal Sarah (Ignatius Press, San Francisco), 248 pages
ROBERT CARDINAL SARAH WITH NICOLAS DIAT
The
POWER OF
SILENCE AGAINST THE DICTATORSHIP OF NOISE
I G N AT I U S
AB/Ignatius Press
S
aint John tells us in the Book of Revelation, “when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Rev. 8:1). The silence of heaven rests above the great din of the world. Before the immensity of the Infinite, there are no words, only wonder, adoration, and silence. We have a foretaste of this eternal silence in the Divine Liturgy, which is the liturgy of the Church. Rivers of living water and sanctifying grace flow not only about the heavenly throne, but also into the sacramental confines of hearts and flesh. Yet, as Cardinal Sarah says in his book The Power of Silence, if we, who are made in the image of God, are to approach him, “the great Silent One,” we must first quiet ourselves and enter into his silence. But the world today is raging against the silence of eternity. “Modern society,” Cardinal Sarah tells us, “can no longer do without the dictatorship of noise.” Postmodern man engages with hellish noise in “an ongoing offense and aggression against the divine silence.” Humanity has lost its sense of sin, and no longer tolerates the silence of God. He poignantly describes the current sad state of man: “He gets drunk on all sorts of noises so as to forget who he is. Postmodern man seeks to anesthetize his own atheism.” Even within the Church there is a noisy undercurrent of idolatrous activism. In this wonderfully written book with so many striking passages, the African cardinal seeks to re-proselytize the increasingly secularized and debased West; the new evangelization rises from south to north. Why silence? Silence is the chief means that enables a spirit of prayer. “Developing a taste for prayer,” he confides, “is probably the first and foremost battle of our age.” In modern techno-parlance, if our “interior cell phone” is always busy, how can God “call us”? Without silence, there is no prayer; and without prayer, there is no supernatural life in God. Silence is not necessarily refraining from speech; rather, it is an interior condition of the soul. “God is a reality,” Cardinal Sarah tells us, “that is profoundly interior to man.” God resides within the heart of man. The path to God is a path of interiority. At the Carthusian monastery of La Grande Chartreux in the French Alps, where the monks observe the vow of silence, interiority is a way of life. But, as wonderful and as holy as an exterior vow of silence is, it is not really an option for most people. Most lay people live amidst the noise of the world. Cardinal Sarah understands this, and recommends a solution: “each person ought to create and build for himself an interior cloister, a ‘wall and bulwark’, a private desert, so as to meet God there in solitude and silence.” Man must learn to live in an interior silence, ‘an interior cloister,’ which we can bring with us wherever we go. This silent interiority lends itself to a sacramental vision of the world. The silent and invisible Spirit of God dwells within the physicality of our bodies. We are a temple of God. Cardinal Sarah tells us that God gave us three mysteries to sanctify and grow our interior life with Jesus, namely: the Cross, the Host, and the Virgin. We are to contemplate these continually in silence. They are incarnational and sacramental by nature, where the heavenly is mingled with the mundane, and the divine lies hidden within the ordinary. So it is with our interior cloister, where the divine comes to rest silently in our human nature. In this sacramental vision of reality we participate directly in the mystery of God and impart it to the world. Our primary focus should always return to the silence of Jesus. The divine silence entered the world as the “all-powerful word leaped from heaven” (Wis. 18:14-16) to be conceived and born of a woman, the Virgin. Mary is nearly silent in scripture, though she echoes over the ages, “Do whatever he tells you.” Few words are recorded from the Holy Family, including not one word from St. Joseph—his silence reflecting his saintliness. Divine silence and humility came first as a baby in Bethlehem. Cardinal Sarah reminds us of this first scandal as he writes, “God hid himself behind the face of a little infant.” No stage of human life is deemed unworthy of Christ. Then, for thirty years, Jesus lived a hidden and silent life in Nazareth. So much so that his neighbors ques-
The Power of Silence by Cardinal Robert Sarah encourages us to remain firmly grounded in our interior cloister, adoring God in silence, before venturing out into the noise of the world.
tion at the beginning of his public ministry, “Where did this man get all this?” His divinity was veiled in everyday life, even though his mission of redemption had already begun from the ordinary woodworking in the carpenter’s shop to the mundane sweeping of its floors. Our interior silence is of upmost importance because it allows us to imitate the Son of God’s thirty years of silence in Nazareth. Jesus recapitulated within his “holy and sanctifying humanity” all the ordinariness of our human natures and vocations. By doing so, “the hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life” (CCC 533). Our interior cloister should be animated with the knowledge that, no matter where we are or what we are doing, Christ is there with us in the silence of Nazareth. In the Cross, Cardinal Sarah reminds us that “the mystery of evil, the mystery of suffering, and the mystery of silence are intimately connected.” This trinity of mysteries is summed up in Jesus’ cry from the Cross, quoting from Psalm 22: “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” “ Each person ought Modern man likes to see the silence to create and build of God in the face of horrible, tragic for himself an events as proof of his non-existence: interior cloister, a “If evil and suffering ‘wall and bulwark,’ exist, there can be no God.” Yet, as Cara private desert, dinal Sarah points out, the infinite and so as to meet God absolute love of God there in solitude does not impose itself on anyone. “His and silence.” respect and his tact disconcert us. Precisely because he is present everywhere, he hides himself all the more carefully so as not to impose himself.” In creating man and the world, God had to, in effect, “withdrawal into himself so that man can exist.” In allowing for human freedom and freewill, God would necessarily appear silent. Man’s freedom, and ultimately his sin, would leave God disappointed in man, and make God himself vulnerable to suffering, as a Father suffers for his child. The suffering of man leads to the suffering of God. But the good news is that God is with us in our suffering. The mystery of suffering and God’s silence will never be fully understood in this life, but must be viewed from the lens of eternity. God’s time is not like our own where “a thousand years are like one day.” Our brief sufferings on earth disappear forever like drops of water into the immense ocean of eternity. Even now, the person who prays often can “grasp the silent signs of affection that God sends him” as noticeable
only by those who are lovers. Jesus has revealed, however, that bearing our crosses and silent sufferings can be redemptive and sanctifying. We can complete what is “lacking in Christ’s afflictions” for the sake of the Church. Our interior cloister should be united with the redemptive sufferings of Christ in his Passion and Crucifixion. Jesus remains with us now—most silent and most humble and most small in the Eucharist. As the bread and wine become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, Cardinal Sarah notes, “the miracle of transubstantiation comes about imperceptibly, like all the greatest works of God.” There is no extravagant burst of light and power at each Eucharistic consecration, only silence before the Real Presence of God in the Host and the Mass. Cardinal Sarah laments the lack of silence and adoration in much of the modern liturgy, declaring bluntly, “The liturgy is sick.” He continues: “The liturgy today exhibits a sort of secularization that aims to ban the liturgical sign par excellence: silence.” Rather, the cardinal writes, reception of Holy Communion should be a moment of intimacy with the Lord, when we “receive the Lord of the Universe in the depths of our hearts!” Our interior cloister should be continually fortified by the words of Jesus: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn. 6:56). In every manner and in every mode of everyday life, silence is necessary. Silence is necessary because it predisposes us to a life of prayer, a life of interiority, and a sacramental vision of reality. Through the seven sacraments, the channels of Jesus Christ’s divine grace to the world, we are recapitulated within Christ—a holy priesthood making spiritual sacrifices. We are spiritualized and divinized, made into children of God. Jesus adjures us not to leave the way of the sacramental life, for “apart from me you can do nothing.” Our prayers and sacrifices “like the “ Without silence, there are fragrance of is no prayer; and without incense that ascends to prayer, there is no super- God’s Throne.” Each of us can natural life in God.” become, as St. John Paul called, a “contemplative in action.” Our practice in the virtues of silence and prayer are “an apprenticeship in what the citizens of heaven will experience eternally.” Silence is needed most urgently now, even for those in the Church who would place social activism ahead of the worship of God. For all members of the faithful, Cardinal Sarah proposes “a spiritual pedagogy” as illustrated by Mary and Martha in the gospel. Jesus does not rebuke Martha for being busy in the kitchen, but rather for “her inattentive interior attitude” towards his presence, as shown in her complaint about the “silence” of Mary. Mary remained at the feet of Jesus in silent contemplation and adoration. Cardinal Sarah warns, “All activity must be preceded by an intense life of prayer, contemplation, seeking and listening to God’s will.” We should be Mary before becoming Martha. Man can encounter God only in interior silence. The active life must be harmonized with the contemplative life. Silence must precede activity. Silence is a form of resistance to the noise of the world. There is a danger today of being lost in “unbridled activism,” where our interior attitudes are diverted from Jesus towards social justice and politics simply. In the field hospital of the Church, the social aspect does have its place, but as Cardinal Sarah says, “the salvation of souls is more important than any other work.” This vital effort entails evangelization, prayer, faith, repentance, mortification, and embracing the sacramental life, in short, living a liturgical existence. Before venturing out into the noise of the world, The Power of Silence by Cardinal Robert Sarah encourages us to remain firmly grounded in our interior cloister, adoring God in silence.
_____________________________________ Brian Kranick is a freelance writer focusing on all things Catholic. In addition to other studies, he has a master’s degree in Systematic Theology from Christendom College. He has spent years working as an analyst in the Intelligence Community, and currently resides with his wife and three children in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the blog: sacramentallife.com.