Brick by Brick (or... God is pretty bright!)

Looking at the way The Church is changing, and reflecting on how it is all unfolding, gives me cause to see clearly the hand of God in all the various facets of the situation as it exists now.

Most every day Catholics have been isolated (intentionally or not) from their heritage for 40 years. For years, the frame of reference has stopped at about 1964 - as if to discount everything before then. This attitude has permeated everything and most everyone. Think of the way the term "the council" is used! It (Vatican 2) is referred to as "The Council" - implying that said council constitues some sort of Omniscient and Omnipotent Force which exists as a prima facie Magisterium in and of itself. The typical context brings to mind once popular bumper-sticker cliche - "Jesus Said it, I Believe it, That Settles it". Substitute "The Council" for Jesus, and you get the idea.

But now, The Church is in the process of a renaissance. An awakening to the idea that we, as 21st century Catholics, are just the latest generation. The latest of hundreds. That we are the heirs to a tradition spanning many centuries. The being Catholic means something. And that that heritage carries with it the responsibility of treasuring it and passing it on.

There are numerous aspects of this unfolding as we watch:

Summorum Pontificum has awakened - even in the non-traditional - a certain awareness of tradition. Even those uninterested see it in the news (both secualar and Catholic) and bit-by-bit become aware of it's significance. And they get to see what Mass should look (and sound) like.

The Holy Father, with his kind and pointed guidance and example, is constantly reminding us of who we are. And I believe that his example of leadership, and selection of Bishops has over the past few years allowed Priests to explore more confidently (and thus rediscover) a more Catholic way of celebrating the sacraments. Slowly, the cabinet doors are opening and vestments and prayers and thuribles nearly forgotten are seeing the light of day.

The new (corrected) translation is coming up in only a few months. And the dignified prayers therein will also, slowly, permeate the way people experience Catholicism. Lex Orandi Lex Credendi indeed!

NOW, back to my first point... Any of the changes mentioned above, happening at any other time, would have been a flop. Summorum Pontificum would have been in the dead-letter file (just like Ecclesia Dei Adflicta). The Papal trend toward tradition (if even allowed by the likes of Piero Marini) would have been ignored completely as the eccentricities of "some old man in Rome". The new translation would have been killed in the womb by the likes of those who tried so hard (and unsuccessfully) to kill it by infanticide.

BUT, THAT DID NOT HAPPEN! God Himself has seen that each step is happening at EXACTLY the right time and in EXACTLY the right order.

The Extraordinary form is attracting people who never even heard of it, and is being experienced (even unintentionally) by those who looked upon it as something akin to snake-handling. The slow trend to more traditional practices is becoming "normalized". And the new translation is not only being seen for what it is (the chance to hear and say the prayers of the mass as intended), but seen as an opportunity to connect up to our catholic foundations!!!

I Thank God it's all happening. And I Thank God I am here to see it.

In Praise of Smokestacks

Tough Times, these are. Tougher in some ways than those of the past. Yes, the thirties were awful, and in a pure economic sense, I cannot compare my situation to those my grandparents faced. I, for instance, have a stable job - as does my wife. But I am also aware, due to my personal contacts, that there are MANY people who are lacking. Lacking less in strict material terms, but far more spiritually.

Back then, there was at least hope - the prospect that some day, the factory would reopen, the smoke would start pouring out of the smokestacks, and they would be back to work. Here in 2010, only the most ignorant or naive think that that will ever ever happen. This time, the fires were doused - permanently. To be replaced by new fires far over the sea. When things (or IF things) get rolling economically, it will be the Chinese smokestacks that will again be showing the telltale smoke of economic prosperity. Here in the USA we will remain (barring unforseen circumstances) in the backwater of economic activity. A once proud nation of honest, hard working people trying to create an economy by doing each others' laundry. You don't need a PhD in Economics to see that that simply will not work. That PhD may in fact preclude you from seeing that simple reality. The whole gospel of the "modern, service-based" economy is now and in fact always was an illusion - pure bulls**t is more like it. Someone, somewhere ultimately has to produce a good of some kind or the whole system grinds to a halt.

In the world of physics -You CAN"T use an electric generator to run an electric motor which turns the axle of the generator. You need to have an outside power source somewhere to get the whole thing started and to keep it moving.

That power source in economic terms is PRODUCTION. Even in, as in an agricultural society, the product is just food and related products, there is still something being produced which was not there before. And ultimately, the producer of that product is the one who generates the economic (directly of indirectly) need for every other good or service. We are no longer a purely agricultural economy - we are an industrial one. An that is where the smokestacks come in to play. The smokestack is the classic symbol of economic production. That smoke means that someone inside is producing something. Which means that you can start to run an economy. Smoke = Work, No Smoke = No Work .. for ANYBODY!

Which leads to a (true) story I heard once of a family during the darkest depths of the depression. The father had made a good living for his family running an upscale clothing store in New York City in the 1920's, selling suits to the "investor class". When the crash of '29 more or less eliminated his customer base, he sold all of his assets, and he and his family boarded a steamer to Florida. Disembarking, he bought an old car, packed the family in, and began to work their way throughout the southeast - on the road, looking for work, like east coast "okies". For months they moved from city to city, looking for any place wit any sort of promise - to no avail. Then one afternoon, they saw the city of Winston Salem, NC - home of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company - far off in the distance. And there was SMOKE coming out of the smokestacks. Seeing this, he turned to his wife and children and said "see that smoke!?! there's work here". A few weeks later, he had opened a small store, selling work clothes to the factory workers. And that is where they remained.

So bring on the Smokestacks, because I - we all - need what they meant then, and still mean today - there's WORK here.

SLACKNESS INDICATOR

YEARS AGO I came up with one of my rules-of-thumb for life. It was based on many years of careful observation, and has served me well over the years. It stated, simply, "Never trust a man who wears flip-flops."

It is important to note the gender-related factor here - women go by a different set of rules when it comes to footwear (that's fodder for another post). And there is the factor of context - beach or poolside use.

But by and large, my rule has served me well over the years. Naturally, there are exceptions - a former client who was nicknamed "flip-flop". Flip Flop was in fact a great guy and fantastic client. In fact, he stands out as the one true exception that comes to mind.

Though times and styles may change, some basic principals are timeless. And one of these is that ones attire (footwear or otherwise) should render one ready to do at least some productive activity. Flip-flops, by their nature, scream BEACH PARTY, and are more appropriate for spring break and a keg than for any real productive work. Any footwear that does not attach securely to one's feet is wholly unsuited to productive activity. (Sandals, by comparison, are pretty handy and comfortable and offer all of the comfort of flip-flops without any of the slackiness. Or the annoying sound effects.)

I also know that for the gen X or Y er, that these ubiquitous but annoying contraptions are considered to render them ready for "work". The only problem being that work for them is seen as some activity for which they are paid large sums of money based entirely on the fact that they managed to land a job as a computer geek or something. Thus rendering themselves worthy of such rewards even though their chief accomplishment in life is the total lack of accomplishment - he looks like a slacker-geek, therefore he must be BRILLIANT!!! God forbid someone should hire a 30-year old! Everyone knows that "these kids are soooo smart nowadays"!!

And lest we forget (or you haven't noticed) most peoples feet are just ugly as hell. No two ways about it. I don't really want to see that. Nobody does. Add to that the aforemetioned annoying sound effect, and the only conclusion possible is that the flip-flopping of our nation must stop NOW!!!!

New Translation of Vatican II in the offing???

My faithful Google Alert sent me a link to a post on this blog by a retired priest in the UK. Included as part of this post about Cardinal Hoyos and the status of the SSPX is this little nugget:

Cardinal Levada the Holy Father's head of the Doctrine office has indicated he wants "new and authoritative translations of major council documents"

This is the first I have heard of this, and a quick Google search turned up no mention of it anywhere. I don't have the time or resources to investigate (I'm posting this during a 10 minute class break), but it sure seems like it would be worth looking into!
So I would hope that someone will read this and look into this possibility, because it is very very exciting to me, and I'm sure many others.

Times of Life

For years, many years, all of my adult life, that is, I always thought that I was born 50 years too late. I have said so on many occasions. I felt that way (and still do to some extent) because, as a student of history, I had the feeling that the world would have fit my personality, interests, and quirks just perfectly.
Being born in 1909 rather than 1959 would have had me grow up during the 'teens and the twenties, during the emergence of the United States as what would come to be know as a superpower. Also, the fashion, the music, just the culture in general, was just - well, just ME.

Above all - the trains....The 1920's was the pinnacle of American railroading. Real trains, Real people, Steam Locomotives - everywhere. On top that - streetcars everywhere!!!! Oh how I dream of it!

Of course, I would have turned 20 just as the stock market crashed, and had to live through the Great Depression. That would have been tough. Being 32 on December 7th, 1941 would have probably made me too old to fight in the war, but not too old to play some part in that historic conflict. My children would have grown up before the cesspool of the 1960's and thus avoided contamination, and my grandchildren would be born some time around my real date of birth. All that and I'd still be 60 when we landed on the moon - the pinnacle of American accomplishment. God willing, I'd live long enough to see the dismal 1970's through and live to see Reagan years and the fall of the Soviet Union.

What a life that would be!!!!!!

But that was then - and this is now.

Having children, watching them grow up, has made me think differently of my real times and the life I've had. Now, I think back to my childhood, what I had and what I saw, and I feel like the luckiest man that had ever been born.

Being born at the very end of the 1950's let me be raised in a small-town environment unpolluted by too much modern culture. Surrounded by strong nuclear families, including being raised alongside my cousins, let me grow up safe, secure, and free in a way that no child nowadays gets to be. I remember the times when TV wasn't on! Not THE TV in our house, but TV period, those times, back then in the middle of the day, when the stations would stop broadcasting altogether and go off the air. Instead of staring at the tube, as my children do, we were with our friends - playing.

But NOT just playing, we were learning. Learning about each other and learning how to be members of a society. Also, learning how to behave in a real, adult world. When we were out and about, we were expected to behave and interact and learn. We went to a restaurant and walked in with our heads held high, greeting and acknowledging the world around us - not ignoring that world with our face glued to a Game Boy. Children in those days grew up in the adult world, not pandered to in a child world of their own.

The day-to day things I have seen growing up were so unique too. I went tho a Catholic school (St. Mary's, in Avoca Pa.) at a time when all the classes were taught by nuns, real nuns with habits and yeardsticks and a real convent next door to the school. I went to Mass every day before school and marched in ranks across the street to our school - no matter what the weather. We had our lunchtime milk in glass bottles, at least for the first few years I was there. I walked home from school - sometimes by "shortcuts" which were in retrospect far longer that the "regular" route, but went through mysterious alleys and backyards and graveyards and even down the railroad tracks. Now I freely admit that the idea of one of my daughters, at age 8, walking through alleys and graveyards and along (busy) railroad tracks scares makes me shudder, but the world was different back then. And I would give anything - ANYTHING - to get my children to experience it.

Then, as an adult, I survived the 1970's (I hated the 70's), and got to see the amazing techological changes that we have today. And above all else - ALL ELSE, I was at the right age and right place and right time to meet and marry the most amazing, wonderful female who has lived on this earth since probably the Assumption. I got to see my daughters be born, and to see the blessings of the medical technology we have today help them out a few critical situations.

And now, I am blessed to be witnessing the revolution in the church which is going to pull us back from the brink of extinction, or worse, apathy. And I pray that I will live to see the day when the last tambouring banging, handclapping, Haugen singing mass is celebrated and the mass returns to the world of adults. And the day when the last table altar is decomissioned and sent to the junk pile. Somehow I get the feeling that, years on, we will all look back on the last 40 years of litugical history the same way people look at old photos of themselves wearing outlandish, trendy clothes or hairstyles and think "WHAT the HELL was I THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?"