Author: John Schultz

Right in the middle of Mass, we heard the far-off ring of a cell phone. And I was thinking, “ok – turn it off, moron!” ring, ring. “c’mon! just turn it off” ring, ring. “oh man this is nuts” RING, RING – the culprit had pulled it our of her purse: it was a member of the choir.

Teresa and I went to a parish last night that has no hymnals – just a handout that had the readings and words. Here’s one particularly helpful section.
GREAT AMEN
A – – men, a – – men, a-men, amen, amen

In Arlington we say, “Bishop Loverde has spoken – causa finita est.”
By decree, Bishop Loverde has mandated that during November all weekend homilies need to cover formation on the new General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM)
November 2-3: The Theological Vision of the General Instruction
November 9-10: The Worshipping Assembly at Mass: Postures, Gestures
November 16-17: Signs and Symbols at Mass
November 23-24: Ministries and Roles within the Mass
The Arlington Chancery has provided very detailed talking points to each parish to cover each topic.
Here’s a couple of nuggets from the talking points with their GIRM references:
The responsorial psalm must be proclaimed/chanted/sung from the Ambo.
Silence – “even before the celebration itself, it is praiseworthy for silence to be observed in the church, sacristy and adjacent areas” (GIRM 45) It also recommends brief periods of silence throughout the liturgy.
Music: Songs or Hymns may never be substituted for either the Agnus Dei or other chants of the Mass (GIRM 366.) During Advent the organ and other musical instruments may be used with moderation. During Lent organ use is permitted for accompanying sustained singing. (GIRM 313)
Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist do not participate in the entrance procession.
The blessing of children or infants should not be encouraged during communion – they are blessed with the full assembly at the end of Mass.

November 2, 2002
Cathedral of St. Thomas More, Arlington VA
Speakers:
Monsignor James Patrick Moroney, Executive Director of the Secretariat for the Liturgy of the Uinted States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Dr. J. Michael McMahon, President, National Pastoral Musicians Association
9:15am Registration
9:45am Morning Prayer
10:00am First Speaker: Mon. Moroney on the new GIRM
11:15am Second Speakers, Dr. McMahon on Liturgical Music in the new GIRM
$7 if you are not an NPM member, $5 if you are
Need more info: contact David Mathers at 703.393.2146

Mark Shea has a post today that has a couple of interesting nuggets.
One nugget has to do with with theologians and their view of the people like Mark, Karl Keating, Peter Kreeft, etc. My feeling is that too many theologians they can be so caught up in their ivory towers that they forget about the ignorant masses of Catholic who are hungering for Truth and need it to be expressed to them in a simple way. Karl Keating’s book “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” and Alan Schreck’s book “Catholic and Christian” both, literally, changed my life at a point where I had begun to wonder if the Church had made a bunch of stuff up. Without the “new apologist” approach I would probably be in a bible church and have abandoned key parts of the Truth of what the Church teaches.
Mark also mentions his experience with RCIA, I have one anecdote that to me typifies what’s wrong with some RCIA programs. I was at a Mass once where the prayers of the faithful had been drawn from what the RCIA candidates had said were sins and areas of their life where they needed the grace of God. The sins were named in the prayers: abortion was among them. So was arguing and yelling. And I thought – someone gets it, someone doesn’t. There’s a person who has been thru and repented from the sin of abortion. There’s another person who thinks that arguing and yelling were where they needed God’s grace. I don’t know their hearts and perhaps my thoughts on it were not appropriate, but I thought the juxtaposition of something so trivial and something so grave was very telling about how the program was reaching into the souls of the candidates.