Author: Bryan Baldwin

Retreat!

Last weekend, I attended, for the third time, a retreat for men conducted by Opus Dei. (I would be remiss to fail to mention that these retreats were subsidized by my generous and kind father-in-law.) I don’t see much reference to Opus Dei on this blog. You should be aware that Opus Dei is a personal prelature whose founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, was canonized in 2002. The priests of Opus Dei, among other things, conduct monthly Evenings of Recollection for men and women as well as weekend retreats. If you have never heard of the prelature, or if you have only heard negative things said about the Work, you should investigate their website. The mission is to live one’s faith in everyday obligations and to sanctify one’s work. The priests are good, holy men, and Opus Dei is worth checking out.

Why do I listen?

To NPR, that is. My wife, who is smarter than I am, listens to other things early in the morning, but I grew up in a rural area with few options. Morning Edition seemed like a good idea when I was in high school, but nearly every day I’ve listened for the past seven or eight years, I’ve been annoyed by some slant to some story. To wit:

On Wednesday, there was a conversion story, of sorts, by a woman who had been a raging feminist pro-abort but had experienced a change of heart. This was encouraging to hear on NPR. I was impressed.

Today, there was, during the same time slot, a commentary by Laura Nowak, who works in a neonatal ward in a California hospital. She talked about babies with severe birth defects. She believes that it is a mercy to end the life of a child who will be born with severe birth defects. She has a son who has crippling heart problems. She and her husband, she implies, wish they had chosen the “merciful” way out since they can’t do it now (at least she’s saner than Prof. Singer). This woman continues to talk about abandoned babies, unwanted babies, and, especially, babies who will die anyway. Here’s where her logic skews.

Since babies born with awful diseases, malformed organs, etc., are destined to die within a few months of birth, it’s a mercy to kill them in the womb, she avers.

The problem with this is, of course, that every child is going to die. You were a child once, and so was I, and we all must face death. Mrs. Nowak does not seem to understand this, because she makes sweeping statements about the quality of life and whether it is cruel to expose a child to hospital stays, surgeries, etc., before an inevitable death.

My response to that: Is it cruel to raise a child up, lavish money and time on him, and watch as he becomes alcoholic and dies early of liver problems? How about the same child who becomes a dirt farmer, custodian, trash-man? Teacher? (Yes, that one’s really pushing it.) Should everyone who is not destined to be a billionaire playboy be euthanized? Can you judge the quality of another man’s life?

Suffering brings grace. We, as Catholics, understand that. Life is a gift from God. We also understand that.

Thank God.

WELCOME!!

John’s post below about cantors who make large gestures brings to mind what annoys me the most in the behavior of the cantor: the introductory remarks. This happens in my parish, along with every other parish I have visited in the US. Orthodox, heterodox, it makes no difference. There is always a welcome speech. I realize that the pastors have control (one hopes) over what happens during the liturgy, and I am NOT complaining about cantors who are merely following directions. My point is that this formal welcoming should be abolished by every pastor in the country.

Here is a sample welcome address, with my thoughts about what is going on in the cantor’s mind in italics:

Welcome to Pope Saint Gregory the Great Catholic Church. I see a lot of stoned people who may not have any idea they’re in a Catholic Church. Today we celebrate Mass for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our parishioners are both illiterate and lazy, since they could easily know this if they would look up the readings in the missalette provided in the pew (Heaven forbid they actually own a missal!) or they could have asked someone to help them with this beforehand, if they cared at all, which they probably don’t, so I don’t know why I’m bothering to say it out loud. Father Sheen is our celebrant for this Mass, so if you expected Father Feelgood, you still have time to leave and come back at 12:30which is being offered for the people of the parish. We especially welcome any visitors or guests today. We’re the Friendly Parish! Please join in singing our entrance processional, Hymn? Antiphon? found in the Adoremus hymnal on page 324: All Creatures of Our God and King. Yep, they’re illiterate and our public address system is so bad the public can’t understand me when I call numbers. What we really need is for someone to come up with a large board with movable numbers we could use for this. That would be quite an invention. Of course, then we’d have to teach our parishioners to read. We will sing stanzas one, three, four, seven, and eight, then repeat stanzas three and then one, followed by stanza nine. Crazy choir director…That’s number 324 in the Adoremus hymnal. Illiterate and stupid.

Why is any of this necessary? The Catholics know they’re supposed to be there on Sundays (no matter what the state of their souls). They know that they’re welcome in any Catholic church anywhere. There is no need for this to be said aloud. Most people who are unfamiliar with the liturgy will not be made to feel better because someone “officially” welcomes them to the parish. Protestants aren’t wandering in off of the streets (unless they’re escorted by Catholics, usually), so there’s no reason to make the beginning of Mass sound like the generic Protestant service. Yes, I hope they ALL convert, and soon, and I want all prospective converts to be comfortable in a Catholic church, but those interested in conversion will not attend a worship service of another congregation without doing some kind of research first, but this is a topic for another post.

And what about hymn-boards? If the churches were built according to a pleasing model and were not big barns with arena seating (Today, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; tomorrow, the FFA livestock show), hymn-boards could be used. Also, why not sing all of the verses? 10:30 Mass on Sunday takes us about 70 minutes, including all of the ordinary and the Eucharistic Prayer sung in Latin. Two more verses in the hymns would increase that to 73 minutes. What’s the rush?

This, in short, is a noisy, noisome, inauspicious way to begin communal worship. These long introductions stress the COMMUNAL aspect; I think we’d do better to stress the WORSHIP. This is easier to do in a quiet and calm church.

My own vision for the beginning of Mass (since it’s all about doing things as we want them):

A bell signaling the congregants to rise. The organist playing the introduction to the hymn, the corresponding number of which is posted on the board for all to see (and maybe read through beforehand!). In parishes with multiple hymnals and/or missalettes, abbreviations being used to indicate which hymnal is being used. Calm. Worshipful.

Can someone tell me why this won’t work? Didn’t this very process work for hundreds and hundreds of years?

Cantores taceant in ecclesium!

Choice on Earth

This from Al Gore’s least favorite newspaper:

Concerned Women for America railed this week against “shameful” holiday cards sold by Planned Parenthood that read, “Choice on Earth,” instead of “Peace on Earth,” saying the cards were offensive to Christians.

“Planned Parenthood, a giant organization that receives hundreds of millions of tax dollars, has chosen to profit from a day sacred to Christians by offending them,” said Wendy Wright, senior policy director for CWA. “The group twists a well-known Scripture in which God offers peace on Earth — not abortion — through the birth of His Son Jesus Christ.”

The front of the holiday card reads “Choice on Earth,” the inside message reads “Warmest wishes for a peaceful holiday season” and the back reads “Planned Parenthood.”

It strikes me as a supreme piece of illogic to equate peace with our post-modern slaughter of the innocents. Maybe they mean “peace and quiet,” which is what one gets with dead people.

The BSA and Vegetarianism

During NPR’s afternoon news show All Things Considered yesterday, Robert Siegel interviewed a young Eagle Scout, Darrell Lambert, who happens to be an atheist. The young man in question is in danger of losing his membership in the Boy Scouts because of his refusal to acknowledge belief in a Supreme Being. Of course, he objects to this. He says, “…telling me I can’t pick and choose which parts of the Scout Oath that I abide by, well, the Scout Oath, if you read into it more, says that you’re supposed to be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight, and, um, you know, you’re supposed to avoid the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other narcotics. Well, you know, are they going to start kicking out people for not exercising regularly, and for, um, people that may smoke and drink on their own accord? They have a legal right to smoke, if they’re over eighteen, but are Boy Scouts going to start kicking them out ‘cause it dosen’t go by the Oath?”

IS ANYONE ELSE ANNOYED THAT THIS FELLOW IS MISSING THE POINT? The BSA can set their own rules, and force members to abide by said rules. If every Boy Scout is supposed to wear pea-green knee socks on Wednesday, the BSA has every right to exclude boys who do not do so. Much like the Augusta National golf club, the BSA is a private, self-governing organization.

A “Catholic” who rejects one small part of the teachings of the Church is not a Catholic in good standing. (Pick and choose? Like the teachings on contraception? Abortion? Divorce vs. Annulment? &c, &c.) Likewise, a “vegetarian” who eats double cheeseburgers is no vegetarian just because he claims to be. What has this to do with the BSA? MEMBERSHIP IS VOLUNTARY. This boy is not required to be a Boy Scout. If he chooses to join the group, one would think he would embrace the beliefs of the group, or else find someone else to teach him to build fires and tie knots.

Someone else can blog about whether or not the BSA’s policy is moral or Christian, and whether opportunities for conversion are missed because of the policy…