Questionable Apparitions

As Catholics, we believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ and His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, have regularly appeared to various saints throughout the world. Many of those apparitions have been approved by the Church and continue to feed and strengthen the faith in Our Lord throughout the world.

Sadly, there are also supposed apparitions which have been either discouraged or outright discredited. Recently, one such "apparition" was declared by the bishop of Cleveland, OH, to be without supernatural origin. In response, the "seer" of this "apparition" (and yes, I'm putting them in scare quotes on purpose) published a message which speaks of disobeying the local ordinary.

If you want to know whether an apparition is valid or not, look at how the visionaries respond to criticism from their bishops. In every legitimate apparition where this has occurred, Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary have counseled the visionary to remain faithful and obedient to the legitimate Church authority. In fact, obedience to local ecclesiastical authority is a requirement for approval of an apparition. It becomes 100% crystal clear that this is a fraud when a "visionary" reports that he or she has been told by Our Lord or Mary to disobey the bishop or pastor. Our Lord would never ask for disobedience against the authority of bishops which comes from Him, and Mary would never go against the will of her Son.

As a priest, my advice would be to avoid any apparitions which have been disapproved by their local ordinary, even if there's some question to whether the bishop's decision was the appropriate one. Devotion to approved apparitions is a good and laudable action, and I would highly encourage all Catholics to learn about the legitimate apparitions, such as Our Lady in Lourdes and Fatima, the Our Lady of Guadalupe image, and the Divine Mercy. In these apparitions, among many others, Our Lord and Mary encouraged the visionaries to obedience. May we be willing to be obedient as well.

Update: Patrick Madrid answers on EWTN's Open Line radio program regarding the "good fruits" at Medjugorje.

Update 2: More on Medjugorje: Note the position of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the last three paragraphs.

Favorite Blessing -- Use only in Moderation

Fr. Cranky comments on the blessings provided in the Book of Blessings. As part of the conversation, my favorite blessing from the Rituale Romanum was brought to mind:

Bless, + O Lord, this creature, ale which by thy power has been produced from kernels of grain. May it be a healthful beverage to mankind, and grant that through the invoking of thy holy name all who drink thereof may find it a help in body and protection in soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (English translation by Rev. Weller)

Of course, this should only be used in moderation.

(Edited to remove links to Fr. Cranky's blog, which is currently locked.)

The Simplicity of the Gospel

As I reflected on today's readings, I was really struck* by how simple the Gospel really is. In the readings today, Our Lord sums up the Gospel message in one sentence: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mt 4:17) Likewise, St. John sums up how to live as the Gospel demands in one sentence in his First Letter: “we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” (1 John 3:23) That's it. Everything else that we believe as Christians builds on those two sentences. Our prayers, devotions, liturgies, doctrines, and dogmas come out of those brief statements.

So, why is the Catechism of the Catholic Church so big? Simple, we keep finding ways to screw up this simple message, and need to be corrected. If we all repented of our sins, did as Our Lord commanded, and loved our neighbors as ourselves, the Catechism would be about as long as this blog post. Since we keep trying to find loopholes or exceptions to the rule, we need more guidance. Hence the 900+ pages in the Catechism.

* NB: I never start a homily like this. It's bad homiletics, as it should be implied in your preparation. For a blog post, one needs to set the scene that brought up the post.

Great Catholic Reformers

While I'm in a Blogging mood, I want to throw out a pitch for an excellent book written by one of my professors at Mundelein Seminary. Dr. C. Colt Anderson, who has since moved on from the seminary to a better job elsewhere, is the author of The Great Catholic Reformers: From Gregory the Great to Dorothy Day, a discussion of major reformers within the Catholic Church.

In his introduction, Dr. Anderson notes that the Church is constantly in need of reform, and all of us are called to be a part of that reform. To this end, he offers ten major reformers within the history of the Church who were able to accomplish much in the way of reform while still remaining in unity with the Church.

In my opinion, for a reform movement to be valid, it must remain within the unity of the Church, and must not enter into dissent. A danger in any reform movement is to consider its opinions and positions as above the Church. We can see this operating in many of the reform movements like Call to Action or FutureChurch, but is also prevalent in more "radical traditionalist" movements that are sedevacantist.

I'm only about 20 pages into Great Catholic Reformers, but I've already found it to be an inspiring and interesting read. Dr. Anderson is a great professor, willing to challenge much of what we held as seminarians, and is also a great author who is willing to do the same for his readers.

Memorial of St. Bruno

Today is the feast of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusians. The Carthusians are said to be one of the most ascetical monastic orders, with much of the monks' lives spent under the Grand Silence. Chanting the Divine Office is a very important part of their daily life, as well as daily celebration of the Holy Mass. They live a simple life, filled with prayer and work (ora et labora, as St. Benedict put it).

A good way to celebrate St. Bruno's life and work might be to watch Into Great Silence, a documentary about life in the Grande Chartreuse, St. Bruno's original monastery. It was very highly regarded when it first came out, and even won several awards. I've not yet had the opportunity to watch it, but I plan on doing so this afternoon in honor of St. Bruno and his Carthusian monks.

New Translation of the Ordinary of the Mass

Last week, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) formally approved the new translation of the Ordinary of the Mass. This has been a long time coming, as I remember seeing a early draft almost five years ago. Today, the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship released the recently approved parts of the order of the Mass. In my opinion, the new translation will be well worth waiting for. The language is far more poetic, while also maintaining consistency with the original Latin. The imagery within the prayers is far more vivid. The Roman Canon almost looks like a completely different prayer, with a translation that seems to flow better and connects more evenly as a whole.

One example of the improved imagery within the prayers comes in Eucharistic Prayer II. In the Sacramentary, the epiclesis is translated, "Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ." In the new translation, the same line is translated, "Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ." I love the imagery of the Holy Spirit coming upon the gifts like the dew on the grass, very gently and peacefully.

I'm looking forward to being able to celebrate Mass using this translation. It's very much worthy of the dignity and beauty of the Mass, and I pray that the rest of the translations are as beautiful as this one is!

Spreading the Gospel through mission statements

Over the last couple of years, I've become increasingly uneasy with a lot of mission statements that parishes and diocese have adopted. Most of these statements sound good, talking about walking the Gospel walk and talking the social justice talk, but there always seems to be something missing. For a while I couldn't figure out what it was, but I realized this weekend what seemed to be missing: many of these mission statements don't have any sort of evangelization aspect. These statements are often filled with statements like: "We are committed to living the Gospel values", "We will work for justice and peace", and so on. What these statements often don't have is a clear indication of any desire to spread the Gospel: "We commit to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world, both in our words and actions." Here's a rough draft of how I think a truly Catholic mission statement should be written:

As members of the Catholic Church, we believe in all that has been revealed to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, whether through Scripture or Tradition. We are committed to fulfilling Our Lord's commands by spreading the Gospel to the whole world, inviting all peoples to receive Our Lord's gift of salvation, both within the Church and outside of her. We do this by gathering as a community for worship through the Holy Mass and regular devotions, through our commitment to social justice, and by living the Gospel values in our daily lives.

Now, this probably needs a lot of work, but I hope this draft can be a starting point for further discussion on a framework on a truly Catholic mission statement. Then again, maybe we can just use Mark 16:15 as mission statement: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." (RSV:CE)