The Cross-Fertilization Has Begun!

The cross-fertilization has begun! Benedict, whom God has blessed us with, ruled that the old mass, the mass celebrated according to the missal of John XXIII, can licitly be celebrated by any priest. A crucial part of his program is to encourage the reverence and spirituality of the extraordinary usage to leach into the practice of the ordinary usage while creating an opportunity for the true reforms envisioned by the council fathers of Vatican II to finally bear fruit. I have characterized this as the cross-fertilization of the old with the new usages of the mass.

It is happening!

Fr. Michael Kerper, a priest in New Hampshire, a true liberal, celebrated an old mass in response to a request of his parishioners. He appears to have been ordained in the mid 1980s and characterizes himself as a progressive. Cast into the role of a cipher, devoid of a personality and solely a role, he found this liberation. He made the shocking discovery that there is a spirituality most unlike what he knew and expected.

Read his very personal story in, of all places, America! I discovered this on "The Cafeteria Is Closed." Fr. Z. also comments on this as well as a critical article about the old mass.

Hope for the Unconscious!

CBS' 60 Minutes has discovered there is hope. You heard in it first here!

Uwe Michael Lang, Latin: vehicle of unity between peoples and cultures

Uwe Michael Lang traces the historical evolution
of the liturgical language in the Roman rite

In the Mass, "We Celebrate with all the warriors of the heavenly army"!


Gregory the Great teaches us, as does the iconography of the ancient Christian churches that when we celebrate the mass, we are joined by the angels and the saints. These angels are no dainty lasses in flowing robes so sacarinely depicted in art. They are "the warriors of the heavenly army." Those are the words of Vatican II:

"8. In the earthly Liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that Heavenly Liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a Minister of the Holies and of the true Tabernacle [
Cf. Apoc.[Rev.] 21:2; Col. 3:1; Heb. 8:2.]; we sing a hymn to the Lord's glory with all the warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ, until He, our Life, shall appear and we too will appear with Him in glory [Cf. Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:4.]." Sacrosanctum Concilium, [The Sacred Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.]

You May Love Lewis, But the Golden Compass Is No Narnia.

The first clue was that Nicole Kidman is in the movie version. The second is that Phillip Pullman, the author of the book thinks Tolkien is "infantile." Here is what I learned from ZENIT, "The film 'The Golden Compass' isn't simply about using fairy-tale magic to tell a good story, it corrupts the imagery of Lewis and Tolkien to undermine children's faith in God and the Church, says Catholic author Pete Vere.

"In this interview with ZENIT, Vere and Sandra Miesel discuss the movie adaptation of the fantasy novels written by Philip Pullman. The film, staring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, will be released in the United States in early December."

Please read the whole interview.

A tip of the hat to Paula Wierman a Catholic homeschooler in Wichita.