This is another issue that pops up during Lent. It’s become a popular practice in some places to empty the holy water stoups (or fonts) and replace the water with sand. As one priest put it: “Christ spent 40 days in the desert tempted by the devil, and we spend 40 days [during Lent] on our own desert journey,” said Rev. Thomas Krupa, pastor. “The sand reminds us of the desert.” On Easter weekend, the fonts will be emptied of... Read more
With Passover approaching, the question comes up: Is this sort of thing appropriate? Is it even allowed? Joe Paprocki wrote about this on his blog a few years back: There are some serious concerns about Catholics re-enacting the Seder Meal. First and foremost, the Seder Meal is a sacred Jewish ritual. For Catholics to re-enact this sacred ritual is disrespectful of the Jewish tradition. (Imagine Jewish or Muslim children re-enacting a Catholic Mass, complete with the giggling and awkward moments that are part... Read more
Mustafa Akyol in The New York Times has this insight: The antigovernment protests that erupted in Iran in the last days of 2017 showed that millions of Iranians are now disillusioned with the Islamic Republic. Moreover, there are signs that quite a few Iranians are now also disenchanted with Islam itself. Often silently and secretly, they are abandoning their faith. Some opt for other faiths, often Christianity. This trend is being observed and reported, with understandable excitement, by Christian news... Read more
Details: The two stone churches near the foot of Broadway, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, have seen fire and calamity and the sweep of American history, and through it all have kept their doors wide open. But in a sign of the times, Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel both installed metal detectors this month. Visitors on their way to see Alexander Hamilton’s tomb in Trinity’s historic graveyard, or who want to sit in the pews at... Read more
That’s the question they’re asking right now in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The bishop is asking for another class of deacons to begin formation—and so the diaconate office is putting out into the deep, seeking inquirers. Part of the search involves this video. (H/T to Deacon Stephen Byers, Director of Pittsburgh’s diaconate office, who sent this my way.) Check it out. Is God calling you? Read more
From the Holy See’s website: The texts of the meditations on the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis rite of this year were written by fifteen young people, aged between 16 and 27 years. Therefore, there are two main innovations: the first has no evidence of past editions and concerns the age of authors, young people and adolescents (nine of them are students of the Rome high school Pilo Albertelli); the second consists of the “choral” dimension of this work,... Read more
Here’s one woman’s perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times. She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never been Christmas-and-Easter-only Christians. My husband and I grew up in the church and raised our children there. Even during the hardest years, when mobilizing three young sons and various configurations of elderly parents felt like running the Iditarod every Sunday morning — even then, we didn’t miss Mass. But the 2016 presidential election changed... Read more
From The Catholic Herald, a story of heroism and abiding love: The police officer who died after taking the place of a hostage in France was a practicing Catholic who had “experienced a genuine conversion” around 2008. Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame died on Saturday after volunteering to replace a female hostage during a terrorist attack on the Super U supermarket in Trèbes, southern France, on Friday. Beltrame left his phone on so that police could hear his conversations with the gunman.... Read more
This weekend, I was asked to offer a reflection and blessing at a marriage enrichment day at my parish, organized by our local Marriage Encounter. We had very solid turnout—I’m guessing about 50 people—and the facilitators, Bob and Melinda Nobbs, did a superb job. At the conclusion of my talk, I shared with the group what I think is a lost treasure of the pre-Vatican II marriage rite, the Exhortation Before Marriage. This was customarily read by the priest in... Read more
This is a triumphant piece of choral music, and a perennial feature at my parish on Palm Sunday. The composer, Jean-Baptiste Faure, was an acclaimed opera singer in the 19th century, who also happened to write music: Faure composed several enduring songs, including a “Sancta Maria”, “Les Rameaux” (“The Palms”) and “Crucifix”. (These latter two songs were recorded by Enrico Caruso, among others.) In 1876 he dedicated his valse-légende “Stella” to his sometime leading lady at the Paris Opéra, Gabrielle Krauss. An avid collector... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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