Chinese Translation of "Spirit of the Liturgy" Launched in Hong Kong

Chinese Translation of "Spirit of the Liturgy" Launched in Hong Kong

Subject: Socialism

This was sent to me by e-mail and I thought it was an interesting thought experiment.

Subject: Socialism

 

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. 

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. 

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. 

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. 

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. 

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Bishop Sample on Sacred Music

I can't wait to read the pastoral letter of Bishop Sample, who has been named as the new Archbishop of Portland, OR.

Here is the link:
http://www.dioceseofmarquette.org/UserFiles/Bishop/PastoralLetter-RejoiceInTheLordAlways.pdf




I've only skimmed through it, but from what I have read it looks great!

Lenten Propers

The sacred music of lent as given by the Church herself is incredibly moving and inspiring.  I am sometimes quite amazed that for 40 years we thought we needed to write new hymns and poetry to accomplish what was already given to us by Mother Church.  It wasn't even that the 'old' stuff was kept and the 'new' stuff was placed alongside it.  It was more of a tossing out of anything that was there and replacing it with modern substitutes.

The problem is that the Catholic faith was contained in a tried and true manner in the Sacred Music Mother Church gave us.  The new stuff was often trite, sentimental, shallow and often dismissive of the direction the ancient texts of the mass were directing our worship.  To recover a sense of the sacred and of more God-centered worship I think it is time for us to begin exploring the Sacred Music as given to us by the Church.

http://www.chantcafe.com/2013/02/complete-english-propers-for-season-of.html

Linked above is one example of what I feel should have been done 50 years ago.  These propers are in the vernacular.  They use the texts of the liturgy as given by the Church.  They respect the modal character of Gregorian chant and have a penetential sound as appropriate to the season of lent.

I would love to hear these propers incorporated into a parish music program.

Can only Cardinals become Pope?

Many people have asked me if only Cardinals can be elected Pope.  I came across the following in my recent re-reading of the document regulating Papal Elections Universi Dominici Gregis:

83. With the same insistence shown by my Predecessors, I earnestly exhort the Cardinal electors not to allow themselves to be guided, in choosing the Pope, by friendship or aversion, or to be influenced by favour or personal relationships towards anyone, or to be constrained by the interference of persons in authority or by pressure groups, by the suggestions of the mass media, or by force, fear or the pursuit of popularity. Rather, having before their eyes solely the glory of God and the good of the Church, and having prayed for divine assistance, they shall give their vote to the person, even outside the College of Cardinals, who in their judgment is most suited to govern the universal Church in a fruitful and beneficial way.

However the one elected must be capable of being ordained as the bishop of Rome:

Can. 332 §1. The Roman Pontiff obtains full and supreme power in the Church by his acceptance of legitimate election together with episcopal consecration. Therefore, a person elected to the supreme pontificate who is marked with episcopal character obtains this power from the moment of acceptance. If the person elected lacks episcopal character, however, he is to be ordained a bishop immediately.

Oremus Pro Pontifice Nostro Benedicto

Pope Benedict has just announced his resignation.  Let us pray for this successor of St. Peter!  Below is the text of his address to the college of cardinals:


Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

[00244-02.01] [Original text: Latin]