On the “Practical Christian Life” mailing list (mainly populated by Protestant folks), somebody posted a book review for a very romantic literary work, and the reviewer even quotes chapter and verse!
Summary/Advisory: Song of Songs’ biggest problem is its matter-of-fact attitude toward sex…. definitely off-limits for casual dinner conversation between husband and wife….
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Father Durine, a Chaplain of the Seventh Marine regiment presides during a Catholic mass in the camp some 150 kilometers north of the town of Nassiriyah, March 31, 2003. (Reuters) |
Well, a minor one. The NCR’s John Allen (cited by Dom Bettinelli) checks out the rumor that Tony Blair, an Anglican, received Holy Communion during his February visit to the Vatican.
Aside from the Blair family, there were a few seminarians at the Mass. A colleague who has spoken with some of the seminarians reports that one saw Blair move up the communion line with his arms crossed, signaling that he wanted a blessing rather than communion, but the priest administering communion (not the pope personally) gave it to Blair anyway. As a non-Anglo-Saxon, the priest may simply not have been familiar with the gesture.
That gesture — crossing his arms on his chest — may be the source of the confusion. It does not universally mean “give me a blessing, not the Host”.
In the Byzantine-rite Catholic and Orthodox churches, that gesture is the normal thing to do when approaching to receive. In the Latin Church, too, it’s common in Eastern Europe: I’ve seen people in Poland do it.
Some overly “creative” priests here in the US — and I suppose in the UK too — being ignorant of the gesture, must have decided to “invent” a gesture non-Catholics attending Mass could use. After all, isn’t it nice to let them participate in the Communion procession and get a personal blessing? Universal niceness and inclusivity are what the trendy church is all about.
Never mind that:
Anybody got any contacts at the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy? Maybe we can ask them to remind everybody that the Communion procession is for receiving Holy Communion and not for other purposes.
Sorry for the confusion, Tony.
How else could we have maintained our reputation as the elite Catholic Light blog?
NBC: “You know her [your daughter] better than anyone. What do you think she’s doing to help her get through this?”
Eunice Johnson: “She is praying. She’s praying everyday and every time. And that’s gonna get her through. She’s asking God. I know… I know in my heart because she had a rosary with her. She forgot it. This was the day that she was being deployed. And she called me and she said, ‘I left my rosary, you know, on the dresser upstairs in my house.’ And I had to go back home and get it. So, I’m hoping that she has that rosary with her.”
NBC: “Her faith is important—”
Eunice Johnson: “Yes.”
NBC: “— to her?”
Eunice Johnson: “Yes. And I know she’s praying… When it falls night time in Iraq I think of her in a little cell by herself and it’s dark, it’s black. And there’s no kind of communication so that’s where I know that she’s communicating with God.”
