The CatholiCity Message
Volume XII, Number 1 – January 28, 2008
"A truly Catholic life is not the easiest and most satisfying, but the hardest, the least comfortable, and the most demanding. The more seriously we take Catholicism, the more tasks and obligations await us."
Romano Guardini
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Welcome to the twelfth year of the CatholiCity Message. We are humbled to be a part of your life. You're the best! Our loose theme is the Church itself. Let us begin...
1. EARLY LENT--TELL ME ABOUT IT
At a recent Sunday Mass, our priest mentioned during his homily that Ash Wednesday is on February 6th this year, making it the earliest start for Lent in nearly a century, and that it will be almost 160 more years before Lent arrives as early. We have no idea how to confirm that, but we'll take his word for it. If it feels like Lent is bearing down on you right after you took down the Christmas tree, it is because it is.
Yet Lent can never come too soon. There is something supremely wonderful about the entire Catholic world (along with a good portion of our non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters) designating a lengthy portion of the year to prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and meditation on the Passion. Since it is already sneaking up on us, it is probably best not to wait until the last day or two to commit to your particular sacrifice this year.
2. THE CHURCH OF MORE
From Elizabeth Thecla Mauro's review of Fr. Neuhaus's book, Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth, in Crisis Magazine:
Stressing G.K. Chesterton's observation that "the Catholic church is larger inside than outside," Father Neuhaus goes a step further in asserting the very egalitarian character of the Church, writing: "To be a Catholic is to refuse to hold oneself aloof from the vulgar" -- something, he suggests, cynics and "progressives" both within and without the Church might have difficulty comprehending. Staying on point, Neuhaus looks back at his own childhood and his comprehension, even as the young son of a noted Lutheran pastor, that everything about his church was derived from the church of his Catholic playmates. The Catholic Church, the young Neuhaus discovered early on, was the church of "more."
3. THE HORRIBLE STYLE
As sometimes is the case with items in the CatholiCity Message, the following item will start in one direction but end in another. At the same Sunday Mass, the lector followed the mind-numbing unwritten rules for doing the readings that has been so common in our lifetimes. For our purposes, we will call it the Horrible Style. You know the hallmarks: a sonorous monotone, an extremely slow delivery, inexplicable pauses after every three to five words (even if the actual language of the passage does not indicate a pause--which we shall dub The Extra Comma Syndrome), and an almost complete lack of emotion or worse, a misapplication of emotion in the form of misplaced or false emphasis, most often in the guise of imputing a kind of exaggerated seriousness or ersatz reverence.
The overall effect, obviously unintended but nonetheless unavoidable, is to discourage the concentration needed for active listening, and in some cases, to impart confusion. It's almost as if there was a special course lectors are required to take which teaches them how to read the Holy Scriptures in such a way as to ensure that listeners' minds will wander.
Of course, there is no course that teaches the Horrible Style. Lectors are volunteers and few are professional speakers. God bless them, truly. We imagine that lectors read in this counterproductive way simply because they are mimicing the Horrible Style they themselves have heard all their lives. It may feel like a conspiracy, but it is not. For the same reason, tens of millions of families serve cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving even though cranberry sauce tastes repugnant, is poisonous in large doses to lab animals, and was only served by the Pilgrims because they were starving.
We fear, too, that some lectors simply don't understand fully what the Scriptures are. The readings are not "magic words" that transform minds merely by being read out loud. The Bible contains a whole variety of literature from different authors (inspired and guided, of course, by God). Stories. Histories. Dialogue. Letters. Accounts. Sayings. Advice. Songs. Warnings. Parables. They should be read accordingly. The Holy Scriptures are surprisingly riveting "material" (to use the Hollywood term) when read properly. Usually all that is necessary is conversational pacing, a confident, energetic style that is not overly theatrical, along with a slight emphasis on a "key" sentence or two. As our teenage son remarked recently on the subject, "They should read the readings just like they would tell a story."
In a perfect world, lectors would practice the reading out loud several times before Mass or even the night before. Practice leads to confidence, lack of error, increased understanding of context and that elusive "smooth" quality virtually all good speakers exhibit. In fact, the best readers have practiced the passage so well that they can raise their gaze from the text and make eye-contact with the congregation at appropriate moments. The goal is to ensnare the listener with the meaning of the particular passage, and paradoxically, when it is done well, the listener barely notices the reader.
We come a place where we did not begin. For twelve years, we have adhered to the practice of not complaining about things. The point here is not to complain about Horrible Style (well, maybe a little bit), but to note that Mass is a special opportunity for grace. Yes, we "receive" Christ in the Eucharist at Mass, but we also receive Him through His Holy Scriptures. We once heard this dynamic described as the Two Tables: the Learning Desk and the Sacrificial Altar. It is absolutely critical that we receive everything the Holy Spirit desires for us during the readings and the Gospel.
In fact, the Holy Spirit has a particular lesson (or lessons) prepared just for you in the readings at every single Mass you attend. Even though the Horrible Style is commonplace, and even though our kids are distracting us; even though we are embarrassed by our appearance; even though many of must endure shoddy rubrics (or worse); and even though our equilibrium was thrown out of balance by the hustle and bustle of getting out of the house to drive to church on Sunday--despite all these things--we are obliged to succeed at receiving the wisdom prepared for us. The Horrible Style only makes achieving this realistic goal more difficult. If you're not actively paying attention, and, on a supernatural plane, are not internalizing the wisdom, it doesn't matter how well the readings are delivered.
We have found a simple solution is to remind ourselves (and our children) to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us what we need to know directly before the lector begins speaking.
4. QUOTES, YES PLEASE
"Where the Church is, there is no death."
Saint Ambrose
"The Church is universal because she is born of God, all nations are at home in her, and the arms of her crucified Master are stretched above all races, above all civilizations. She does not bring nations the 'benefits of civilization', but the blood of Christ and supernatural beatitude."
Jacques Maritain
"Whatever it is, the Church of Christ must not merely be what some of my Anglican friends used humorously to call mod. high. It must be very high, like the spire of Cologne Cathedral or the tower of Salisbury; or else it must be very low, like the catecombs or the cave of Bethlehem."
G.K. Chesterton
"Christ and the Church are two in one flesh."
Saint Augustine
"Christian is my name, and Catholic is my surname. The former qualifies me, the latter manifests me for what I am. The latter demonstrates what the former signifies. And, if finally I must explain the word Catholic and translate it from the Greek into the Roman idiom, Catholic means 'One, everywhere,' or, as the more learned think, 'obedience to all the commandments of God.'"
Saint Pacianus (4th Century)
"The greatest thing about every Catholic is that he is one."
John Ayscough
5. PRAYING TOGETHER
Let all the tens of thousands of us, from those who began in 1996 to those who began at the top of this page, join together in the following ancient prayer:
"Soul of Christ, make me holy
Body of Christ, be my salvation
Blood of Christ, let me drink your wine
Water flowing from the side of Christ, wash me clean
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
Kind Jesus, hear my prayer
Hide me within your wounds
And keep me close to you
Defend me from the evil enemy
And call me at the hour of my death
To the fellowship of your saints
That I might sing your praise with them
for all eternity. Amen."
Thank you for your faithfulness. We'll be in contact soon with our annual Lenten Evangelization initiative.
With Christ,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
