CAPPELLA
DI SAN GIROLAMO
IN SAN MAURO TORINESE
The CatholiCity Message
"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
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