Mantilla on Altar Dressings

You know hon, when I was studying Ecclesiastical Haberdashery at the University of Salamanca this was not just, you know, "When is the right occasion for a parish priest to wear a ferraiola?" or "Does a Monsignor get to wear purple socks?" or "Should a canon regular be allowed to wear scarlet trim on his pajamas?" No, hon. Listen. We had to write papers on very important subjects you know? Like once I had to write this whole term paper on the historical development of the papal tiara.

Anyway, one of the things is not just what the priest should wear, but what the chalice should wear. You know? So I go into Fr. Elvis' church and what do I see? Nothing on the altar at all. Instead, there is this pottery chalice on the credence table and nothing else. Then this woman comes in who I think is maybe the parish sister. I don't know, but she belongs to one of these orders called, Sisters of the Parakeet maybe. Anyway, this woman has a haircut that looks like she put a bowl on her head and trimmed around the edges and she is wearing a long brown skirt and sandals with socks on. Is this part of her religious habit? I don't think so. She is standing up in the chancel during the whole Mass, and then at the offertory she comes and prepares the altar. This is not good. This is for the deacon to do, (I got to tell you something about how deacons should dress later)

So this Sister Mabel or whatever she is called, just plops the pottery chalice on the altar with a couple of badly folded table napkins and walks off again, and I am watching her and I think maybe she is a little bit huffy you know? Well, then she stands there with her arms crossed and Fr Elvis makes this long prayer which is nowhere in the liturgy about 'justice for women' and then I get it. Sister Mabel and Fr Elvis are both huffy because she can't be a priest. So now I'm getting pretty huffy too.

OK. I'm getting off track. But maybe not. Anyway, sorry about that hon. What I was really going to say is this. Listen. You know how it is when you dress good you feel good? You know? Like if you go shopping you would never just go out in your housecoat and slippers with your hair in curlers would you? No. I don't think so. Even to go for a gallon of milk you are going to put on some good shoes and maybe a hat you know?

And what if you are going to visit someone important or maybe go to a wedding? Do you wear flip flops and a T-shirt? No you do not. You dress up you know? Well, it is the same thing with what you do with the chalice on the altar. You should make it beautiful, after all, you know the Mass is a kind of wedding banquet. It's the marriage supper of the Lamb. So you put the purificator over the chalice, and then the paten on top with the priest's host, and then the veil on top of that and then the burse with the corporal inside.

Why do you use the veil? Because in the temple of the Jews there was a veil that covered the Holy of Holies, and do you remember that story in the Old Testament about Moses when we went up the mountain to see God? You know, he comes down and he is wearing this veil because his face was shining. So there is this tradition to veil the holy things. But I'm thinking that Sister Mabel doesn't understand any of this. Maybe she never even did Ecclesiastical Haberdashery 101, or maybe hon, she never even read the Old Testament.

Anyway, just because I am an ecclesiasticl fashionista doesn't mean I don't have a brain. Believe me hon, there's more than a hair do underneath the mantilla. You know, the chalice with the veil and the burse on top--when I see it on the altar before Mass I think how beautiful these little things are. Let me tell you something. People think Mantilla is maybe, you know, sometimes a little bit hasty, a little bit harsh. OK, there was that time I hit Sister Daphne with my fan, but I'm sorry. OK. Let's forget about that. The truth of the matter is that sometimes I get a little bit, you know, misty when I see something beautiful. I have to dab my eyes you know?

'Cause when I see the chalice on the altar dressed in the veil and with the burse on top it reminds me of a little tent; and I remember how one time at Christmas my old priest, Monsignor Quixote is telling us about that gospel, you know the one, about 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us', and Monsignor says that the word for 'dwelt among us' is really, 'pitched his tent among us' and he says that Jesus Christ God's Son was sort of like camping here for those few years. His physical body was like an old tent that he lived in while he was here, but underneath was the Son of God, but that precious Son of God was dressed up in human form. That's nice. A fashionista likes homilies about being dressed up. Anyway, Monsignor says Jesus lived in a human body like the tents the Hebrew children lived in when they were in the wilderness and that made me think it was something very beautiful.

Anyway hon, so when I see this chalice with the veil and the burse, and underneath it is a chalice and paten of precious metal and gemstones, it reminds me of that little tent and I think of old Monsignor Quixote and the way he use to preach with love in his heart and sometimes his eyes welled up too, for the beauty of it and so maybe if I get mad at that Sister with her pottery chalice, and no burse and no veil it's because there was something beautiful there which she never understood and never took the trouble to understand and she destroyed something beautiful because she did not understand it and that is just as bad as someone hitting the Pieta with a hammer because they were crazy.

You know hon?

Homily on Marriage - 3

Sunday's homily is my third on marriage in my series on the seven sacraments. The first was on the mystery of marriage. The second on multiplication in marriage (the church's teaching on artificial contraception and abortion) and the third is on monogamy in marriage (the requirements for a valid Catholic marriage and the evils of divorce.

Pope St Gregory the Great

Yesterday I did not have time to post on Pope St Gregory the Great. New Liturgical Movement posts the Holy Father's teaching on St Gregory here. He puts it better than I can.

The Catholic Via Media

Anglicans are fond of the term 'via media' or 'the middle way' to describe their church. The theory is that the Anglican Church steers a middle course between Catholicism and Protestantism. This middle way is inclusive. There is room for everyone, and differences of doctrine and moral principles need to be tolerated so that this broad 'middle way' will be able to accommodate everyone. Cardinal Newman observed that the famed 'via media' was never more than a theory. In fact the Anglican Church is not so much a middle way as it's own way, and that way, to be sure, is broad and accommodating. It includes Christians who believe and behave in a Catholic manner. It includes Christians who believe and behave in a Protestant manner. It includes Christians who believe and behave in a Liberal manner. But we mustn't imagine this is a broad way in which they all travel together. They really exist as self contained groups within the larger group. The Anglican Communion is more of a confederation of contradictions than it is a community of faith.

The other evening I was telling my conversion story to a parish group and I explained how I grew up in sectarian Christianity. The Protestant Evangelicalism I grew up in was fissiparous and full of independent denominations, independent congregations and independent Christians who didn't really belong to any group. Within this sectarianism you usually found unity of belief within any one congregation or denomination, but you did not find unity of form. That is to say, each group was an independent and autonomous collection of individuals.

When I became an Anglican I left sectarian religion and was looking for the ancient apostolic Church. The Church of England seemed a good bet. They had the old buildings, the ancient spirituality, the liturgy and the history to back them up. Furthermore, they were not split off into countless independent congregations and denominations. They seemed to have a center that would hold. However, what I discovered was that I had gone from the sectarian error to the latitudinarian error. Latitudinarianism is that heresy that allows members of the group to believe whatever they like (and behave however they like) because they do not want to be exclusive.

As Newman observes, one either falls into the sectarian error and sacrifices unity of form for unity of doctrine or one falls into the latitudinarian error and sacrifices unity of doctrine for unity of form. Both of these are extremes. So where is the true via media between them?

Only with an infallible authority can one maintain both unity of form and unity of doctrine. The via media between them is actually found within the Catholic faith. With an infallible authority one has the teaching authority that can maintain unity of doctrine, and with an infallible authority as the figurehead the church can also maintain unity of form.

The critic will say, "Ah yes, but you Catholics are also divided among yourselves. You have traditionalists and liberals and charismatics and Franciscans and Jesuits and Benedictines and the list goes on and on and on." Yes and no. Yes, we have many differences of opinion and sadly, we do not always enjoy unity of doctrine with every Catholic. However, that is not the point. The point is that with an infallible authority we have the resource and focus for unity of form and unity of doctrine.

This unity is not the same thing as uniformity. Catholics may disagree with the infallible authority, but the authority is still there. They may disobey and dissent, but there is something to disagree with and dissent from. In the Catholic Church the authority that is there provides a rock on which to build.

As current events are showing, all the other houses are built on shifting sand.

My Alter Egos

OK, maybe I need to make a confession. I mean not a real sacramental one. I need that too of course, but you know what I mean.

I've always enjoyed acting, and I've always wanted to write a play or a screenplay, so maybe The Vicar, Todd Unctuous, Mantilla the Hon and Caitlin O'Rourke are just the actor in me coming out.

I think there are a few people out there who read the blog who actually remember me from college days. I did a lot of acting back then, and I always enjoyed directing plays.

It's an outlet. I have fun writing them. I hope you enjoy them. They are an entertaining way to make a sometimes serious point.

Just so you all remember, they're pretend. You mustn't even imagine that everything they say are what I believe or think.

The scary thing it that I keep thinking of more. What about Mrs Brady the Scary Old Lady or Father Randy the Trendy Priest? Maybe I should start a new blog totally dedicated to alter egos.

One reader has commented that she (or he) like Caitlin O'Rourke the best and Mantilla the Hon next best. What do you think?

Podcast on Marriage

This homily from Sunday continues my series on the seven sacraments, here is the second homily on marriage. The first was on the Mystery of Marriage. However, I forgot to take my recorder gadget to church, so I will have to re-record it and post it later. This second of three is on Marriage - Man and Woman Multiply. In it the church's teaching on contraception is expounded.

On the Road

I'm on the road a fair bit this month. On Friday I head off for Winnipeg to speak at a Marian Conference on my book Praying the Rosary for Inner Healing. Then on Sunday I go to North Carolina to speak on the same subject to a Communion & Liberation family group.

The next weekend we're off to Orlando to attend the Catholic Leadership Conference, where I hope to meet Thomas Peters the American Papist blogger, and get a chance to discuss evangelization and the new media.

Following weekend I'm off to Vandalia, Illinois to lead another retreat for the folks at Our Sorrowful Mothers' Ministry. Phew!

Prayers please!

Caitlin O'Rourke on Nuns

Guest blogger Caitlin O'Rourke is a member of St Bridget's, Church, High Dudgeon, New Jersey. Caitlin is eight years old.

I went to school yesterday for the first time I mean the first time in third grade because at St Bridget's we start later than other schools and Fr. Florsheim was there and he's our new priest and I really like him because he's younger than the other one who was fat and had lots of hair in his nostrils even though he was kind of nice sometimes, but once he fell asleep in the confessional and Jimmy Pochowski was in there and when he heard father snoring he made up lots of stuff like he ran over a cat with the lawnmower and he robbed a bank and kidnapped ten babies and killed his grandmother and buried her in the backyard and Father just said your sins are forgiven go in peace anyway and Jimmy thought that was really funny and I did too until I remembered that it was a mortal sin and so I told Jimmy off and he tried to pinch me but I saw it coming anyway we have these new sisters who are different than old Sister Joan who wore a brown jumper that had a zip up the front and Aunt Margaret said it looked the uniform she once saw a woman in a mental home wear and I didn't like her much because she always told us that the pope was just an ordinary man which everybody knows isn't true anyway Sister Joan has gone into a rest home for old nuns now and we have these new Domino Sisters who wear nice long white robes and black long cloth head dresses that mom says are called wimples and they are all young and very happy and I like them a lot and one of them is my third grade teacher and they all have nice names which don't sound like real names that their parents gave them they are not called Sister Joan or Sister Tracy but Sister Mary Maximillian or Sister Benedicta Teresa or Sister Mary Elephant which I like very much and think they're very nice and holy and Flora and me both want to be nuns only I don't think I would be a very good one because sometimes I don't like to pray that much and I was picking a scab once during prayers when Sister Joan saw me and made a face at me that reminded me of a cat that I saw once when it was eating a chipmunk and Jimmy says that his sister Margaret told him that they are called Domino nuns from Nashville because they like Country Western music and because they all get their money from a man who once ran Domino's pizza and is very rich I don't know about that but my new teacher is called Sister Mary Albert and when I heard Jimmy Pochowski calling her Fat Albert I kicked him hard and I don't feel bad about it because he should learn some respect.

Gargoyle Code Podcast

Here's a podcast in which I speak about Screwtape Letters and my new book Gargoyle Code. Tell your friends to tune in please. If you have a blog, I'd love you to link to the podcast.

Just go here.

The book is available through TAN Books/St Benedict Press, and will soon be available for purchase through my website.

You can buy online from TAN Books, but if you would like a signed copy just send me an email: dlongenecker@charter.net and let me know how many copies you would like, and the address to which it should be sent. Then go to the 'Donate' button in the right sidebar of the blog and donate the amount we agree. (one book is $15.00 which includes p+p, but more than one costs less)