Letter from Fr. Allen: Septuagesima - February 14, 2019

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Dear Friends,

This Sunday begins the little season of Pre-Lent or "Shrovetide." These three Sundays with the funny names - Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima - provide a kind of warm-up leading to Ash Wednesday and Lent. The names themselves just refer to number of days (approximately and in round numbers) until Easter - 70, 60, and 50, respectively - but they urge us by their countdown and liturgical symbolism to begin thinking about and preparing for a holy Lent, and that so we may celebrate a joyful Easter. (This year, Sexagesima will be superseded by the Solemnity of the Chair of St. Peter, our Ordinariate's Feast of Title). 

So, beginning this Sunday, Septuagesima, the liturgical color changes to penitential purple, the Gloria in excelsis is not sung, and the Alleluias drop out of the Mass - in hymns, at the Gospel (the Alleluia is replaced by a "Tract"), and in the fraction anthem ("Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia.").

The point of these changes and of Pre-Lent itself for us to thing about how we will keep Lent. What disciplines will we undertake? How will our prayer, fasting, and alms giving - which after all are normal, year-round elements of the Christian life - be intensified? There is more to say about all of that, but that is what this season is for. In the meantime, I will leave you with a hymn that well expresses the meaning and hope of this little Shrovetide season, "Alleluia, song of gladness," which is traditionally sung in the week before Septuagesima as "Alleluias" are buried (which we did at Wednesday School last night!) to be "resurrected" at Easter:

Alleluia, song of gladness, voice of joy that cannot die;
Alleluia is the anthem ever dear to choirs on high;
In the house of God abiding thus they sing eternally.

Alleluia thou resoundest, true Jerusalem and free;
Alleluia, joyful mother, all thy children sing with thee;
But by Babylon’s sad waters mourning exiles now are we.

Alleluia we deserve not here to chant forevermore;
Alleluia our transgressions make us for a while give o’er;
For the holy time is coming bidding us our sins deplore.

Therefore in our hymns we pray Thee, grant us, blessèd Trinity,
At the last to keep Thine Easter in our home beyond the sky;
There to Thee forever singing Alleluia joyfully.

(Latin, 11th century, tr by John Mason Neale, 1861)

God bless you,
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen: Kids at Mass - February 7, 2019

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Dear Friends,

There was a bit of a kerfuffle on Twitter last week (it's what Twitter is for) regarding an article by a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who argued that young children shouldn't be in Mass, because they can't understand what's going on - especially the homily - and they make noise, which makes it harder both the preach and to hear the homily.

This is not a point of view I'm at all sympathetic with. The Mass is about Jesus. Jesus present with us in the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood is what Mass is for. And Jesus said to his disciples, "suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." The Mass is for children (and all the rest of us, too).

I know that on some Sundays some of the little ones in our midst are particularly vocal, but for me - well, to be honest, first of all, I hardly ever notice it. Really. But sometimes I do, and sometimes parents will apologize after Mass because their children, they felt, were excessively loud. But for me, the sound of children crying, shouting, and singing in our pews is the sound of life, of growth, of God's abundant blessing on our little newborn community of Catholics. It fills me with gratitude.

Of course we want our children to grow and mature in their understanding of and participation in the Mass, but parents, who know their children best, are the ones best to determine how that happens. Ashley has generally sat up in the galleries with our children (who are of course impeccably well behaved), and I know a lot of art gets created up there during the homily. Other parents find their children engage better when they sit right up front and can watch the action around the altar. Some may do better where they can see the choir and organ. Some little ones need to be walked around, some taken outside to let a little steam out. Whatever! 

So this is simply meant to be a word a of encouragement and gratitude - to all of you, and not least to the little ones who perfect our praise with their coos and shouts. Keep it up!

[Here] you will see an article by Notre Dame theologian Timothy O'Malley, "Mass is for Kids," written in response to the Twitter kerfuffle, and which lays out a "kid friendly" theology of the liturgy and of our liturgical life together. I urge you to click through to read the whole thing. You will find your own experience of the liturgy enriched, and you will also notice it tracks well with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd model of children's formation we embrace at Corpus Christi.

God bless you,
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen - January 31, 2019

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Dear Friends,

I sometimes get called upon to tell my conversion story, but technically, it's a "reversion" story. I was born into a Catholic family, but my parents began attending a (very fine) Presbyterian church when I was about eleven years old. I have quite a few memories of Mass in those days, but one that particularly stands out is having my throat blessed on St Blase's Day. I don't know why that should be, except that perhaps we had been told the story of the holy martyr Blase having healed a boy who had a fish bone stuck in his throat, and that I loved to fish and eat my catch, and so having St Blase on my side seemed like a particularly good idea. 

In truth, we know very little about St Blase. He was certainly bishop of Sebaste (in Armenia) and martyred in 316. The story of the boy with the fish bone stuck in his throat comes some 400 years later. However, as early as the end of the fifth century, the intercession of St Blase was already being invoked for ailments of the throat. In time it became a custom throughout the Church to bless the throats of the faithful on St. Blase's Day, which is February 3rd. Candles are always used in this blessing, evidently due to the close proximity to Candlemas (also known as the Feast of the Presentation) the day before, with its blessing of candles for liturgical and devotional use.

This year, St Blase's Day falls on Sunday, which of course takes precedence, but we will indeed keep the tradition of blessing throats immediately following Mass. Following the final hymn, Deacon Rosenblum and I will make our way to the Sacred Heart Altar and bless the throats of those who present themselves.

This blessing of throats on St Blase's Day, brown scapulars, miraculous medals, holy water, and even homilies are "sacramentals;" that is, "sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments...they signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church... by them, men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy" (CCCC 1667). Sacramentals do not communicate grace as sacraments do, but, properly and prayerfully used, they dispose us to receive that grace.

Well, at the intercession of St Blase, bishop and martyr, may we be disposed to receive all those graces of love and mercy and healing which flow from the wounded side of Christ. See you Sunday!

God bless you,
Fr Allen

image credit: Zvonimir Atletic, Shutterstock

Letter from Fr. Allen - January 24, 2019

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Dear Friends,

My family and I have taken a quick vacation to Florida to visit my family and the Mouse. Please join me in continuing to pray for the Johnson family (see below) as they anticipate the birth of their girls at any time. Also, we have several federal employees in our community - please do pray for them as this government shutdown stretches on, paychecks stop arriving, and stress and anxiety build. Pray also for our government leaders, "that they may be led to wise decisions and right actions," and "right soon" at that. See you Sunday!
 

God bless you,
Fr Allen

[Editor’s note: Read more about the Johnson family, including recent updates, on Caring Bridge. You may help provide meals for them while they are in Charleston, signing up via Meal Train for the Johnson Family, and they are accepting monetary donations to help cover their expenses via their Go Fund Me page. Thank you for your generosity.]

Letter from Fr. Allen - January 18, 2019

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Dear Friends,

In the Gospel for this Sunday we hear again the account of our Lord's "first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galilee," when he turned water into finest wine. It's instructive that the Lord revealed himself, "manifested his glory," in context of a celebration, and that he did so precisely by augmenting the joy of that celebration, with the result that "his disciples believed in him." 

There is, of course, a proper and necessary place for mourning and penitence in the Christian life, and, sure enough, Ash Wednesday and Lent will soon be upon us. But Lent leads to Easter. The dominant note, even in our penitence, is joy. 

The faith of the Apostles, the apostolic faith, was born in joy and is transmitted in joy and for the sake of joy. And joy, and with it celebration, should be the measure of our own faith and of our community’s health and life. 

Hillaire Belloc, an Anglo-French writer and historian and devout Catholic of the early part of the 20th century, summed it up well in a famous little poem:

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,

There’s always laughter and good red wine.

At least I’ve always found it so.

Benedicamus Domino!

God bless you,
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen - January 10, 2019

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Dear Friends,

Like everything else involving the Church's liturgy, there are disagreements about when the proper ending of the Christmas season ought to be, and of course throughout both the history and the broad geographical and cultural expanse of the Church, there are differing traditions on that matter: does it conclude with the Epiphany on 6 January? With Candlemas on 2 February? Why not extend it to 24 March and then start the whole process over again on the following day, the Solemnity of the Annunciation? Well, as an official liturgical matter, in the Western Rite of the Church, the Christmas season now ends this Sunday, the Baptism of the Lord. So, one last time: Merry Christmas!

If Christmastide is ending, then school must be beginning. Wednesday School resumes next week, on 16 January. Catechesis will continue for young people, and the adults will start a new study, "The Prayers of the Mass," in which we will look at the proper "orations" - Collect of the Day, Prayer over the Offerings, and Postcommunion - for the coming Sunday, with the hope of informing and increasing our "active participation" in Mass. And not only will we talk about praying, but we will actually pray Compline together each week. There's a notice [here], and please be sure to RSVP for supper.

There will be a meeting for parents of children anticipating First Communion or Confirmation during Wednesday School on 30 January.

I also commend to your attention and charity and prayer Josh and Katie Johnson and their children, born and unborn - a beautiful Ordinariate family from Greenville. Please read about their plight [here] and give prayerful consideration to how you might support them.

God bless you,
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen - January 3, 2019

+JMJ+

Dear Friends,

While more personal notes are forthcoming, I want here to express my gratitude to all of you who made this such a lovely Christmas for me and my family. You all love us well, and we are very grateful! (My children are particularly grateful to the anonymous giver of two Harry & David Cinnamon Swirls...)

Of course Christmas is not yet over, and I hope your celebrations continue. And speaking of celebrations, I hope you will join us for the great feast of the Epiphany this Sunday, not only for Mass in the morning, but for also Evensong and Benediction at 4.30PM, which will be followed by a reception featuring King Cake - y'all come! [Update Saturday morning, 5 January: Evensong is cancelled due to illness. The King Cake reception will now take place immediately after 11.00AM Sunday Mass.]

The Epiphany is rich and symbolism and mystery: there are the "wise men from the east," the star that guided them, Herod's rage. There are Epiphany traditions: the blessing of chalk and marking of doorways (see [here]) and King cakes. But at its heart Epiphany is the story of a God who is not silent but reveals himself to those who earnestly and diligently seek him. Let us take the magi, these mysterious strangers, as our model, and never turn back from the path on which God is leading us, till at last we see the Lord face to face, and like the wise men, fall down and worship.

Pope Benedict put it this way:
"Let us return to the Wise Men from the East. These were also, and above all, men of courage, the courage and humility born of faith. Courage was needed to grasp the meaning of the star as a sign to set out, to go forth – towards the unknown, the uncertain, on paths filled with hidden dangers. We can imagine that their decision was met with derision: the scorn of those realists who could only mock the reveries of such men. Anyone who took off on the basis of such uncertain promises, risking everything, could only appear ridiculous. But for these men, inwardly seized by God, the way which he pointed out was more important than what other people thought. For them, seeking the truth meant more than the taunts of the world, so apparently clever."

God bless you,
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen - December 20, 2018

+JMJ+

Dear Friends,

The waiting is almost over and Christmas is almost here. On this fourth Sunday of Advent we will hear again of Our Lady's reaction to the Angel Gabriel's message, which is active love. She goes "in haste" to her kinswoman Elizabeth, bearing a child in her old age, to help and console her, and also to share her joy. In this Christmas season, let us also respond to the glad tidings of the Lord's nativity with active love, seeking out the poor, the sick, the lonely with help and comfort.

I hope by now your preparations are nearly complete for Christmas in your own homes, and that with at least some measure of peace and quietness you will be able to enter in to the mystery of this Child in the manger who is Emmanuel, God-with-us. You will see [here] a schedule of Christmas Masses for St. Mary's (Roman Missal) and Corpus Christi (Divine Worship). I want especially to encourage you to attend, if you are able, our own "Midnight Mass" on Christmas Eve, which will begin at 11PM and have us adoring our Eucharistic Emmanuel, God-with-us on the altar just at midnight. I know (trust me!) that Midnight Mass is difficult, but I believe you will find it more than worth the sacrifice as, with the shepherds of old to whom the angels first announced the birth of the Lord, we keep watch by night, and then rejoice to find "this most holy night to shine with the brightness of the Light of life," as we will pray in the collect. (By the way, as part of our candlelight adoration, we will sing "Silent Night"; did you know this Christmas marks the carol's 200th anniversary?)

Do you need further aesthetic or more mundane encouragement? Well, on the one hand, the music will be beautiful, and on the other, the parking will be easy. So come, let us adore him!

God bless you!
Fr. Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen - December 13, 2018

+JMJ+

Dear Friends,
 

Advent is a season rich in symbols and in devotions for the faithful, both ancient and new. Let me highlight just two, one briefly and the other at more length. First, this Sunday we keep the more recent tradition of blessing the Christchild figurines from our home crèches. Please bring your own Christchild to Mass; they will be collected by children of the parish who will present them to be blessed at the conclusion of Mass.

Another Advent devotion, this one more ancient, is a series of anthems for the last seven days of the season (so always 17 - 23 December) known as the "Great O Antiphons." The earliest reference I know to the "O Antiphons" is from Boethius, writing about the year 500, and they have been part of the Daily Office/Liturgy of the Hours since at least that time. The anthems are now sung or said before and after the Magnificat at Evening Prayer, and they also form the verse for the Alleluia before the Gospel at Mass on their proper days.

Each of the anthems addresses the Lord with a Messianic title taken from the Hebrew Scriptures, and then beseeches the Lord to come and redeem us with imagery more or less appropriate to the title. So, to take just one example, "O Key of David... come and bring the prisoner out of the prison house" (cf Is 22.22). Another layer of meaning is added when, working backwards from the last antiphon, the initial letter of each title is taken to form an acrostic in Latin, ERO CRAS - or, "Tomorrow, I will come."

There is one more of these antiphons not included in the Roman Missal and peculiar to our patrimony in the Ordinariates; It shows up in our missal as the Alleluia verse for the morning Mass on Christmas Eve day, O Virgo virginum: 

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be? For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after. Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me? The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

This was an eighth "O Antiphon" in medieval England, when that green and pleasant land was known as "Mary's Dowery." With this antiphon, the reverse acrostic then becomes VERO CRAS - "Verily, I shall [come]."

All of the Great O Antiphons are provided for you [here]. I encourage you to meditate on them in these latter days of Advent and to enter more deeply into the mystery of redemption that is brought to us through this Child who comes to us. You might especially make them part of your family devotions, either as you say grace at meals, or at the lighting of your Advent Wreath, or as a devotion before your home crèche.

God bless you,
Fr Allen

P.S. An update for those of you who have ordered the Divine Worship Missal: People's Edition - the missals have been ordered and are expected to ship from England this Monday. There is just this slightest chance that they may be here by Christmas Day, but more likely they will arrive a couple days after Christmas. In any case, as soon as they arrive I will let you know, and we will have them available to be picked up at Mass. And yes, there will be extra copies available for purchase if you have not pre-ordered.

Letter from Fr. Allen - December 7, 2018

+JMJ+

Dear Friends,

[Here] you will see a short video about the music of Advent featuring Dr. Sara Pecknold, a professor of sacred music at the Catholic University of America. I encourage you to watch. Advent features some of the Church's most beautiful and poignant music, songs filled with longing and expectation. This Sunday we will sing one of my own favorite Advent hymns: Conditor alme siderum. It is a Latin hymn dating back to the 7th century, and in the Breviary it is assigned to be sung at Vespers during Advent. We know it in its English translation by great Oxford Movement hymn writer John Mason Neal, "Creator of the stars of night." This ancient hymn enfolds within itself all of salvation history, from our Lord's first coming in great humility - 

Thou cam’st, the Bridegroom of the bride,

As drew the world to evening-tide;
Proceeding from a virgin shrine,
The spotless victim all divine.
 

To that great day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty - 

O Thou whose coming is with dread
 To judge and doom the quick and dead,
 Preserve us, while we dwell below,
 From every insult of the foe.
 

Advent calls us to keep both these comings of the Lord in our minds and in our hearts, so that we may, redeemed and renewed by his first coming, then "without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing" (as we pray in the Advent preface) at his second.

Saturday, of course, we take a step out of Advent to celebrate the beautiful Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This will be a special day in the life our community as we receive a new family, the Carlsons, into the full communion the Catholic Church. This Mass will also inaugurate a new ministry for girls, the Guild of St. Margaret Clitherow. This will be an opportunity for the girls to meet and grow together in their faith and love for the Lord, but the most visible manifestation of this ministry will be the girls' participation in leading Marian devotions at Mass on appropriate feast days. The collect for St Margaret Clitherow asks God to "raise up in our day women of courage and resource to care for thy household the Church," and that exactly is our hope for what God will accomplish in and through the members of this new guild. 

God bless you,
Fr Allen