Ordination in Freiburg

Last Saturday, 2nd October, a former member of the Godzdogz team, fr Martin Grandinger, was ordained to the diaconate in Freiburg-im-Breisgau.

The photograph shows fr Martin (on the left) with Most Rev Dr Paul Wehrle, auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of Freiburg, and two other Dominicans who were also ordained deacons, fr Markus Fischer OP and fr Jörg Wegscheider OP. Please remember them in your prayers. They will work as deacons in various parishes during the coming months before proceeding, God willing, to their ordination as priests.

Our Lady of the Rosary

Due to the recent Battle of Britain commemorations the speeches of Winston Churchill have entered the album charts. One speech given by Churchill in the Commons, on June 18 1940, and recorded later that day for broadcast, stated that "upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation". This sentiment was echoed by Pope Benedict on his state visit to Britain, when he praised Britain's stand "against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society". Of course Hitler's war machine was not the first, nor sadly the last, threat to Christian society.

In the late sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire was on the point of breaking into Western Europe. In 1570 the island of Cyprus was occupied by Ottoman forces. The Christian Mediterranean powers formed a Holy League, to aid the Venetian defenders of Cyprus. Alas the the fleet was not assembled in time to save Cyprus. Nevertheless a naval showdown in the western Mediterranean between the forces of Christendom and the Turks was inevitable. On October 7th the battle took place. A victory for the Ottomans, who had been invincible at sea for over a century, would give them access to Western Europe and a clear road to invade Rome. The stakes were very high for the people of Europe. Pope Pius V, a Dominican and devotee of the Holy Rosary, turned to the intercession of Our Lady and arranged a rosary procession in St. Peter's Square on the day of the battle. Before the Christian forces engaged, the sailors recited the Rosary with the Papal Legate. Five hours later the Turkish fleet had been defeated and the threat of Muslim forces over-running Western Europe subsided. Pope Pius became miraculously aware of the victory and ordered a solemn Te Deum to be sung at St. Peter's. This victory changed the geopolitical balance. It stopped the Muslim advance into Western Europe and has often been seen as the beginning of the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire.

The Pope instituted "The Feast of Our Lady of Victory" to commemorate the success of the Holy League's naval victory. Over time the name of the feast has been changed to Our Lady of the Rosary. This seems rather apt. Whilst the victory is a good thing, what is more important is the faith that brought it about. The use of the rosary was not and is not a superstitious magical ritual. It is an act of faith. It is entering into the life of Mary and pondering on the Incarnate Word. The rosary is Marian prayer but only because it focuses on Christ. The mysteries of the Rosary allow us to kneel at the manger, hear the Kingdom proclaimed, stand and the foot of the Cross and see the risen Lord. Once again Christian civilization is under attack, not now from a military threat but from indifference. We have forgotten the Christian roots of our civilization and instead replaced them with idols such as liberalism, consumerism, nationalism, socialism, and gaiaism. May we pray through the intercession of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary that Europe may once again turn it eyes to Truth and to the Christian faith .

Our Lady of the Rosary,

Pray for Us

A-Z of the Mass: Conclusion

For theologians such as Pope Benedict XVI the mystery of the Eucharist is intimately bound up with the mystery of our union with Christ. Participation in the Mass, then, should have a positive impact on an individual's subjective response to grace. The whole point of worship is to be raised up in Christ and transformed toward His level. Yet somehow our everyday experiences of liturgy can seem far removed from such elevated claims. We do not often feel like we have shared in the eternal and infinite love of the Trinity. We rarely get a 'kick' out of going to Mass.

In God Still Matters, Herbert McCabe OP points out that to call a Mass dull is not necessarily a criticism. He contrasts the immediate pleasure of drinking good Irish whiskey with the more sustained satisfaction of living in a comfortable and tastefully furnished room. For McCabe, good liturgy is more like this second kind of satisfaction. Sunday Mass rarely takes one's breath away, but if one is deprived of decent liturgy for a sustained period of time one begins to notice an important gap in one's emotional and spiritual life.

This summer we have tried through our A-Z of the Mass to draw attention to some of the dimensions and symbols of the Mass that perhaps go unnoticed. We have tried to offer some fresh perspectives on our 'well furnished room' in the hope that it might aid a deeper participation in the Eucharistic mystery. This mystery is 'the source and summit of Christian life' (Lumen gentium §11). Paying close attention to what we do and say on a Sunday morning is not navel gazing. Our communion with Christ is what vivifies and sustains our mission to the world. As Presbyterorum ordinis, Vatican II's decree on the ministry and life of priests, puts it:

The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with the Eucharist and are orientated towards it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch (PO §5).

A-Z of the Mass: Z - The Eschaton

In the Book of Revelation, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega, is symbolic of the end of the universe, understood as the consummation of history and the second, definitive coming of Christ. So, as we come to the end of the (admittedly, Latin) alphabet, it can remind us to consider the ways in which the Mass relates to the end of time, the eschaton.

St Thomas Aquinas teaches us that the sacraments, as signs, have a triple function, pointing to the past, the present, and the future. Pointing back to the mysteries of Christ’s human life, and especially to his Passion, they make present the sanctifying grace, that sharing in the life of God, which Jesus won for us through those mysteries and gives to us now in the sacraments. Past and present are very closely linked, because it is through his Passion – his sharing in human realities even unto death – that Jesus won for us a share of his divine reality, something we receive through outward, physical signs appropriate to our human nature (a unity of soul and body). Present and future, though, are also very tightly bound, for the grace we receive in the sacraments is but a foretaste of that fullness of sharing in God’s life to which we are all called after this earthly life. Indeed it is the pledge of that fulness and the means Jesus freely gives to us that we might obtain it.

Since in the sacraments we are already given a share in the life of God, which is what is promised to us at the consummation of all things when God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28), it is not untrue to say that the Eschaton, as well as the Cross, becomes present for us at Mass. The Body and Blood of Christ, which demonstrate his humanity and his suffering, and which we receive at Mass, are now glorified in heaven: indeed, the Christian tradition sees the whole celebration of the Divine Liturgy as a participation in the heavenly liturgy. In the Eucharist we 'taste on earth the gifts of the world to come'. And each of the acclamations after the Consecration includes a reference to past, present and future, for example, 'Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again'.

So at Mass time in a sense stops. We are participating in the eternal worship of God, the inner life of the Trinity in which the Son eternally offers himself in love to the Father, bringing together and going beyond every moment in the existence of the universe. Aware, as best we are able, of this quite literally awesome gift of God, as we take part in the Mass, ‘let us,’ in the words of the Byzantine liturgy, ‘who mystically represent the cherubim ... lay aside all cares of life, that we may receive the King of all, escorted invisibly by ranks of angels. Alleluia!’

Two Professions and a Jubilee

Over the last week the Province of England has had much to celebrate. On the 22nd of September, fr. Robert Verrill made solemn profession at Blackfriars, Oxford. In his homily the provincial, fresh from the General Chapter in Rome, reminded Robert and all present that making profession was an act of freedom, a response to the call of Christ, and a blossoming of our baptismal promises. It was a truly joyful day for the order and family and friends of fr. Robert.

On Saturday at Blackfriars, Cambridge, fr. Andrew Brookes made simple profession for three years.

On Monday 27th September fr. Richard Conrad, the Vice-Regent, celebrated his silver jubilee of ordination with Father Robert Letellier. The jubilee Mass allowed the community and the many friends of Frs. Richard and Robert to give thanks to God for their 25 years of service and to wish them many more fruitful years.

A-Z of the Mass: Year, Liturgical

Just as the world has the natural cycle of the seasons throughout the year, so the Church also celebrates with quiet, deliberate rhythm the seasons of the liturgical year. Unlike the endless cycle of pagans, the Church's year regards time as linear. It has a beginning and will have an end. Whilst we may represent the calendar as a circle, it is better to think of it as a spiral. The passing hours allow us time to meditate on sacred things as we await the return of the Lord. Throughout the year our minds are raised to the sacred mysteries through the tones of the Church's liturgy, the seasonal changes and the decor of our sacred places

The focus is the year is Christ and the salvation he brings. Therefore the year begins with the season of Advent, a season where we remember the world's waiting for a saviour. This is a penitential season, reflecting the fallen pre-incarnation world. The liturgical colour is violet and the Gloria is omitted from the Mass. During this period we ourselves prepare to receive Christ and look towards His second coming. During Christmastide we rejoice in the Word made Flesh. The penitential seasons of Lent and Passiontide turn our minds to the Cross. Again the liturgical colour is violet, the Gloria is omitted and now even the joyful acclamation of 'Alleluia' is silenced.

The Easter Triduum is the most sacred period in the Church's year. Beginning with the celebration of the Lord's Supper and the institution of the Eucharist, the Church is then physically stripped of all decoration and the Blessed Sacrament is removed, as we begin to follow Jesus to Calvary. No Mass is celebrated on Good Friday or Holy Saturday as we commemorate the death of the Lord and await his resurrection.

The Easter Vigil is a liturgical explosion as we celebrate the resurrection. As the Gloria resounds, the darkness of the Church is expelled, the veils removed and the bells ring to herald Christ's victory over death and sin.

We of course celebrate the other mysteries of our faith throughout the year: the Ascension and Pentecost; the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary; and all the Church's feasts, but we must remember that our celebrations are not dry commemorations. The liturgical year allows us to celebrate and understand more fully the entire mystery of Jesus Christ, from his incarnation and birth until his ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and the expectation of his return in glory. During the course of a year, the paschal mystery of Jesus — his passion and death, his resurrection and ascension, his sitting at the right hand of the Father and sending of the Spirit with the Father — is viewed from different angles, in different lights.All these moments make up one unified mystery which cannot be divided.

A-Z of the Mass: Exit

Following the Prayer after Communion and the blessing, we come to the dismissal, which is given by the deacon or, in his absence, by the priest. The familiar Latin dismissal Ite Missa Est to which the people respond Deo Gratias, ‘thanks be to God’, is an ancient formula. The exact translation is often disputed because of the significance the word missa came to have as the technical name of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Roman Rite. If, however, we interpret missa as dismissal, we end with something akin to ‘Go, it is the dismissal’. When Mass is celebrated in the vernacular there are a number of options available but what is perhaps more interesting is what the dismissal has come to signify, what it really means to those present.

Many have come to regard dismissal as implying mission, as not simply an ending but a starting point. As such, we should be struck by the power of this instruction as we are duly sent forth, as disciples of Christ, to bear witness to the faith in the wider world, to share the gifts and blessings which have been bestowed upon us in the Mass, and in doing so to draw others to the truth of the faith. We are, all of us, called to share in this mission, in many and various ways under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In this way the Mass can, for each of us, mark a new departure where public worship leads definitively into Christian mission as we seek to live out our faith in our homes, workplaces and communities, and encourage others to do the same.