Boże, któryś w sercu sługi Twego, błg. Wawrzyńca patryarchy zapalił miłość do cnót wszelakich, prosimy Cię, zapal serca nasze miłością ku Tobie i ku bliźnim naszym, abyśmy pełniąc uczynki miłosierdzia, wyprosili sobie miłosierdzie u Ciebie.
Father Chandler Holder Jones at Philorthodox had a post on Roman Catholic Acceptance of ‘Womenpriests’.
Quite a few bloggers have been posting on this issue since the alleged ordination of a group of women outside Pittsburgh.
A caveat, Father Jones is a Continuing Anglican priest in the Episcopal Church so his post may be is colored by his watching experience of the headlong slide into wherever it is the Episcopalians are going.
What struck me about the post was not the issue itself, but the way the conclusion was drawn. The conclusion over-reached the facts as they were stated. This is one of the primary problems in the blogosphere. It is a problem I have – so this hits home with me.
On to dissecting the content:
The first issue that needs to be addressed on this whole woman as priests issue is the whole concept of the priesthood.
All sacraments require proper matter and form as well as a proper minister. It’s all very well and good that these women thought they were being made priests, but you can’t make a priest out of a material that cannot become a priest (i.e., a woman). It’s like trying to make the Precious Blood out of water. It’s kind of wet like wine, it goes in a chalice like wine, you can consume it like wine, but it is not wine… It cannot be made into the Precious Blood. The same for women, they are human beings like men, they can wear clerical garb like men, but they are not men… They cannot be made into priests. If there were a valid Bishop presiding at the ordination (I doubt it), in seventy-five layers of the most traditional vestments, the ordination would still be invalid. No Holy Spirit, nothing happening.
Calling oneself a priest, and actually being a priest, outside of the Faith and Tradition of the Church, are two different things.
OK, so these women aren’t priests, and any properly catechized Catholic would know that anyway (and as such making a big deal out of it is basically a lot of smoke and no fire – see the Young Fogey’s comment on the issue and on the posting).
The post goes on to infer that a Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is going to sponsor a ‘mass’ by one of these women. Thus the Roman Catholic stance against this sort of nonsense is crumbling and the R.C. Church is on the same greasy slide as the Episcopalians.
Fr. Jones states (emphasis mine):
Saint Joan of Arc parish of Minneapolis Minnesota, a parish ostensibly in full communion with Pope Benedict XVI, is sponsoring a ‘Eucharistic Celebration’ offered by Ms. Regina Nicolosi
and he concludes by saying:
Is this the beginning of a new revolution in the American branch of the Roman Communion? The echoes of the simulacrum which transpired in the Church of the Advocate Philadelphia on 29 July 1974, and subsequent events in the Episcopal Church leading up to 1976 and 2003, are ominously unmistakable.
Now, checking out the website for St. Joan of Arc (which the diocese does not link to) reveals the parish to be on the far outer edges of Catholicism. They wallow in some kind of sci-fi weird flower power religion that vaguely resembles Catholicism. However, nowhere in last week’s bulletin did it state that the ‘mass’ would be in their church or that they were sponsoring the event. They were advertising an event at which one of their parishioners was to speak (maybe they thought it was going to be a bratwurst dinner – yeah, right).
In this week’s bulletin Fr. Jim DeBruycker, the Pastor (do a Google on this fellow – you will be incredulous), quasi-apologizes for the bulletin insert. From what I’ve read, in two weeks of checking out their stuff, the good Father has a real problem with being patriarchal – perhaps he’s a father that doesn’t want to be a father?
The funniest line in last week’s bulletin (beside the phony mass thing – and I don’t mean ha-ha funny) was this from the good Father:
In another e-mail someone suggested I was returning St. Joan’s to archaic times. I’m pretty sure that is the controversy over the ‘lord I am not worthy’ phrase before communion. I know to some people that sounds like a surrender to power based on a fear of abusive dominance. I admit if it was me saying this to the church governance I would be reticent to say it, but to me it is admitting am not perfect before God. I can be the abuser, the breaker of the community. I need the help of God. It heartens me to know the pope, the cardinals and the archbishops have to say it too.
It’s almost good catechesis for his lost flock, if only he would have focused on sin and being a “breaker of community.” Instead, he took a teaching moment and used it to denigrate others. Shame shame, patriarchal and judgmental in sheep’s clothing.
Father, be a good patriarch, a good shepherd, and take a positive stand for something. Being against everything, except what you like, makes the Church of Christ into the church of me, myself, and I…
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Michal Urbaniak & Urbanator are presenting a concert in Warsaw, Poland
—ž9/11 For NY—
Koncert Miłości, Życia I Odrodzenia
(A Concert of Love, Life, and Rebirth)
Warszawa 11 Września 2006r godz. 19.00
(Warsaw, Poland, September 11, 2006, 7pm)
The following is the press release I received:
11 września, w piątą rocznice ataku na WTC, odbędzie się w Warszawie międzynarodowy koncert Michała Urbaniaka zatytułowany —ž9/11 For NY—. Na zaproszenie słynnego polskiego jazzmana, w jednym miejscu spotkają się artyści różnych narodowości. Wystąpią w warszawskim Parku Sowińskiego na Woli.
Wielkiemu koncertowi towarzyszy wystawa Czesława Czaplińskiego (wieloletniego przyjaciela Jerzego Kosińskiego), zobaczymy fotografie wykonane przed i po zamachu terrorystycznym 11 września 2001 roku.
Ten szczególny koncert zainaugurują, Michał Urbaniak z Orkiestrą Kameralną —žAukso— pod dyrekcją Marka Mosia. Wykonają m.in. znany utwór autorstwa Urbaniaka pt.: —Manhattan Man—. Warto wspomnieć, że już w 2002 roku —“ w pierwszą rocznicę ataku na WTC, Michał Urbaniak zagrał koncert ku czci ofiarom tragedii, transmitowany przez CNN. Po raz pierwszy wówczas artysta zadedykował wszystkim nowojorczykom, wyjątkowe wykonanie kompozycji —žManhattan Man—.
Około godz. 20.00 rozpocznie się koncert amerykańskiego zespołu —žUrbanator—.
Artyści poprzez własną muzykę pragną oddać ubolewanie, hołd i współczucie ofiarom tragedii i ich bliskim. Własną twórczością chcą udowodnić, że wciąż pamiętają o tysiącach ludzi, którzy zginęli, a także o tych, których życie rozpadło się w pył z powodu śmierci i zniszczenia, jakie przyniósł 11 września 2001.
Skład Urbanatora:
Michał Urbaniak —“violin
Ladora Knight —“ vocal
Nato – rap
Nick Morach- guitar
Tom Barney-bass
Don Blackman-keyboards
Troy Miller-drumsKoncert poprowadzi prezenter telewizyjny i radiowy Michael Moritz.
Organizatorzy planują zapalenie w finale koncertu dwóch świetlnych promieni symbolizujących dwie wieże WTC.
Warszawski koncert 11 września rozpoczyna trasę koncertową Michala Urbaniaka & URBANATORA w Polsce.
11 września, godz. 19.00 —“ Warszawa, Park Sowińskiego
[Additional concerts:]
12 września, godz. 21.00 —“ Poznań, Atrium
15 września, godz. 20.00 —“ Łódź, Manufaktura
17 września, godz. 20.00 —“ Gdynia, Klub PokładWszelkich informacji udziela Dorota Palmowska, nr tel. 0606 66 75 45
ZAPRASZAMY
Święta Rozaljo, któraś pogardzała światem, i książęcemi rozkoszami, udałaś się w góry i tam ukryta w jaskini bogomyślne prowadziłaś życie, uproś nam u Boga, abyśmy pokus świata unikali a żyjąc skromnie i pobożnie zasłużyli sobie na żywot wieczny. Przez Pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa. Amen.
I have an official seal. Darren Rowse at Problogger found an Official Seal Generator at says-it.com. I gave it a try. Check out my creation at the top of my sidebar. Cool stuff…
Anyway, let me know what you think of it. Should it stay or should it go?
Lucyna Artymiuk from Melbourne, Australia has started a blog in anticipation of her September 13 trip to Poland. At A Odyssey into Shadows she introduces her blog as follows:
In a conversation with my friend Helen I mentioned that I would maintain a diary of my trip to Europe. She suggested that I maintain a blog. So here I hope to document my feelings, and happenings on this Pilgrimage into the past and my meetings with newly discovered family members. I hope in this way to convey to my friends around the world a sense of this journey.
At the Kresy-Siberia newsgroup she writes:
On 13 September I am flying off to Warszawa. The trip will be my third but this time it will be like a family pilgrimage as I will be meeting many of the newly discovered family members. Also I have read so much more about the past and also have acquired so much more knowledge of Polish history. So my visit will be so much more richer this time.
For those unaware, the Kresy-Siberia Group is composed of Poles and Polish émigrés from eastern Poland. They, as well as their children and grandchildren, formed the group to remember those who were forcibly exiled by the Soviets from the eastern Polish borderlands (many of whom were exiled to Siberia). Kresy is a term for the Polish borderlands which are now part of the western Ukraine and Belarus.
The Group has a lot of information on-line is is a great resource for research, remembrance and recognition of those who were exiled. If you are interested in history or even family genealogy, or if you are looking to trace relatives who were deported from Poland or who fought for Poland during the Second Word War, the Group is a gem.
The Group’s slogan is:
“Dedicated to researching, remembering and recognising the Polish citizens deported, enslaved and killed by the Soviet Union during World War Two.”
I’ve add Lucyna’s blog to my blogroll so you can follow the progress of her journey.
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Użycz nam łaski, wszechmogący Boże, abyśmy przez zasługi św. Bronisławy otrzymali pomoc w pracy, wytrwałość w trudach, a nauczywszy się chrześcijańskiej pokory, życie pobożne i świątobliwie prowadzili. W miłosierdziu twem, Panie, mamy nadzieję, że próśb naszych wysłuchać raczysz. Przez Pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa. Amen.
—Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.—
Who are the Pharisees? Are they just the Jewish legalists that Jesus encountered? Are there Pharisees walking the earth today? Are there Pharisees who call themselves Catholic?
God has certainly laid down the Law for us. He commands us to observe the Law, to observe all of the statutes and decrees He has made. Moses put it very plainly:
—Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe…
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe God’s commands and do not make more of them. Observe God’s commands and do not denigrate them.
St. James reminds us of Jesus’ words. Recall that Jesus told those questioning Him about the Law of God that Moses passed on to them:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
St. James reiterates that when he says:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
What the Father has handed down throughout history is the truth. There is no alteration, change, or shadow of meaning in God’s truth.
Jesus is God and He did not modify His commands; He clarified them and He forces us to face them honestly.
The Pharisees Jesus encountered didn’t get what Moses told them. They altered the Law and made the Law fit their style. They added many of their own humanly devised rules and regulations to God’s law, which had the effect of misrepresenting and misapplying His Law. They were not legalists; they were corrupters of God’s Law, misusing it in ways God never intended.
It is not legalistic to obey God’s laws correctly. Obeying God’s Law is acting in spirit and truth. Jesus told us that:
The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The questions before us then are these: Do we worship God in spirit and truth? Do we corrupt what Jesus has given us? Are we the Pharisees of today?
As Catholic Christians we have the most beautiful of gifts, authentic Catholic worship of God. Moreover, we have the gift of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church, the true and faithful Traditions of Christendom as handed down to us by the Holy Church.
We are the richest people on earth, not in buildings, or gold, or personal possessions, but in what we truly and commonly possess, the faith of the Holy Church. We have before us a treasure more precious than the entirety of the universe in its splendor; we have Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity right here on this altar and in this tabernacle.
We have the immemorial festival we celebrate here, the great sacrifice and the great feast. We honor God not just with our lips, but with the entirely of our being. Would you rather be anyplace else?
The Pharisees out there see our worship of God and want to change it.
They need to fit the worship of God into their schedule and style. The Holy Mass needs to be jazzier, more modern, relevant, appealing, entertaining, or more contemporary. ‘I need to get more out of the mass.’ Others may say that the Holy Mass needs to be more ‘traditional’, but only according to their own personal recollection of tradition.
Individual tastes appeal to the individual, but we are not here for that. We are not here for a makeover or a re-do of our common worship. That would be a corruption of God’s gift. That would make us Pharisees.
We are here as a community to worship God only, worshiping in accord with the Church’s teaching and tradition as given to us by Jesus Christ and His apostles. We are here to set ourselves aside, to minimize ourselves, and to acknowledge the One who is preeminent.
How we worship God is not a matter of “personal taste.” Rather it is a total focusing of ourselves and of the whole community on being “God centered.”
We must offer our worship —in Spirit and Truth” and we must do our all to be “well pleasing unto God.” He is the only One we strive to “please” by our worship and by the way we live. We are to assure that our hearts and our lips have one focus only —“ God.
Jesus continually reminds us that it is easy to be a Pharisee and a hypocrite. That is the wide and easy path. Anyone can create church in their own image; the thousands of allegedly Christian sects out there prove that.
Jesus reminds us not only in His words, but in His very actions, including His self sacrifice on the cross; we need to repent of our self-centeredness and become “God centered.” We need to set aside our personal ideas and styles and be molded into the men and women God wants us to be.
Jesus prayed in the garden:
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.”
And again
“My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!”
Everything we do, our worship, our day-to-day lives, our business dealings, the way we relate to each other, can be an indicator of the Pharisee within us, God’s law according to me.
With Jesus’ help and the Church’s teaching we are to set that Pharisee aside and pray every minute of every day, “Your will be done.”
Focus yourselves on God and His will. Worship Him in spirit and truth. Keep your hearts and your lips of one accord.
Wszechmogący Boże, racz dać prosimy, Kościołowi Twemu za chwalebnego obrońcę w niebie błogosławionego Stefana, króla, który nad rozszerzeniem Kościoła nieustannie pracował podczas swojego panowania na ziemi. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
