Adoremus Bulletin - September 2015

Vol. XXI, No.3

Accipe Signaculum Doni Spiritus Sancti: On the Sacrament of Confirmation and the New Translation of the Ritual

by Father John Grant — page 3

What Confirmation is All About

by Chris Stefanick — page 5

Planning for the Pope: Preparing Liturgies for the Holy Father’s Philadelphia Visit An interview with Father Dennis Gill — page 6

Creation, Grace, and the Liturgy Featuring Dom Virgil Michel, OSB — page 9

Departments News and Views — page 2 Letters and Readers’ Forum — page 10 Donors and Memorials— page 11 Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought these your servants to new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, freeing them from sin: send upon them, O Lord, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; fill them with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

Through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

Excerpts from the English translation of The Order of Confirmation © 2013, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation.

All rights reserved. Published with the approval of the Committee on Divine Worship, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The Holy Spirit descends upon the baptismal font at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Acknowledgment: Tom Kessler and EverGreene Architectural Arts, New York.

SEPTEMBER 2015

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015

NEWS & VIEWS

Reconciliation, Abortion, and the Year of Mercy In his April 11, 2015 (Divine Mercy Sunday) “Bull of Indiction” announcing the upcoming “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy,” the Holy Father spoke of “Missionaries of Mercy,” priest confessors dedicated to celebrating the Sacrament of Confession. They will be, Pope Francis says, “a sign of the Church’s maternal solicitude for the People of God, enabling them to enter the profound richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith. There will be priests to whom I will grant the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as confessors will be even clearer. They will be, above all, living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon. They will be missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming obstacles and taking up the

new life of Baptism again” (Misericordiae Vultus, n.18).

One instance of the Holy Father’s giving authority to pardon a reserved penalty is his recent granting of faculties to priests around the world to lift the penalty of those who have procured an abortion or assisted others for such an act.

Monsignor Michael J. Gorman, Canon Lawyer and a Vicar General for the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., explains: Canon 1398 of the Code of Canon Law states: “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae [i.e., ‘automatic’] excommunication.” The remission of such a penalty is reserved to “an ordinary” in canon 1355, §2. An ordinary is a diocesan bishop, vicar general, or episcopal vicar, according to canon 134, §1. It is the faculty to remit this penalty that Pope Francis is extending to all confes-

sors during the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The absolution of the sin of procuring an abortion is not reserved and can be imparted by any legitimate confessor.

In most or even all of the dioceses of the United States, the diocesan bishop has granted to any confessor within the confines of his particular diocese the faculty to absolve from the “automatic” excommunication that is presumed to have been incurred (see canon 1321, §3; canon 1323 for exceptions). In the context of the Sacrament of Penance, both the sin of procuring a completed abortion and the latae sententiae excommunication are absolved by imparting the formula for sacramental absolution as long as the confessor intends to absolve the censure (see Rite of Penance, Appendix I, n. 1). During the Jubilee of Mercy Pope Francis is extending this faculty to all confessors with no restriction regarding rank or location.

First Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation Celebrated Pope Francis, in an August 10 letter to Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, announced his desire to establish September 1 as “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” in the Church, both at the Vatican and around the world.

The annual celebration will “offer individual believers and communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their

personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” To address any ecological crises, he continued, Christians “must first rediscover in our own rich spiritual patrimony the deepest motivations for our concern for the care of creation. We need always to keep in mind that, for believers in Jesus Christ,

the Word of God who became man for our sake, ‘the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us’ (Laudato Si’, n.216).”

The Vatican celebration on September 1 took the form of a Liturgy of the Word in St. Peter Basilica with Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household, delivering the homily.

On a related note, see “City of Farm” on page 9 of the present issue.

According to the Secretariat of the Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, the new Order contains a number of significant changes. The Introduction, for example, now contains 44 paragraphs of theological, pastoral, and practical introduction, compared with just 18 paragraphs in the first edition.

Rubrics and texts for the Introductory rites, all but absent in the first edition, are provided in a clear format. Two forms for the entrance are described: the first, where ministers, including couple and witnesses, process together to the sanctuary; and the second, where the presiding priest or deacon meets

P

ope Francis, in a late August address, spoke of the beauty and importance of family prayer.

Among his comments was the admonition of parents to teach prayer to their children: “There is something that I have very much at heart and that I have seen in the city: there are children who have not learned to make the Sign of the Cross! But you, mother, father, teach your child to pray, to make the Sign of the Cross: this is a lovely task of mothers and fathers!” (General Audience, August 26).

Any who have taken on the “lovely task” of teaching children the Sign of

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the Cross—parents, grandparents, CCD teachers, pastors—know how it goes.

“No, no: use the right hand.” “Be sure as you cross your chest to touch your left shoulder first.” And apart from this simple and profound gesture (which sometimes seems, if my own children are any indication, a next-to-impossible gesture), are the names: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

“How many Gods do we have?” one of my children asked once at our night prayers. She knew that the Father was God and that Jesus, the Son, was God. In characteristic Western fashion, she had her suspicions about the more abstract notion of the Holy Spirit—but we straightened that out.

Adoremus Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy

Christopher Carstens

Managing Editor:

the couple near the altar. Texts are also provided after the Sign of the Cross and greeting to introduce the Rite. As in the first edition, the presiding minister may obtain the couple’s consent either by question and answer or by letting them repeat his words, but he now has two options of texts rather than one. Also, an acclamation, “Let us bless the Lord.

R/. Thanks be to God” follows the expression of the couple’s consent.

Other adaptations proper to the United States, as well as what may be considered more minor details also exist, and these will be treated in future editions of the Adoremus Bulletin.

Joseph O’Brien

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PO BOX 385 - La Crosse, WI 54602-0385

Phone: 608-521-0385 Editorial E-mail: editor@adoremus.org

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All in the Family Editorial by: Christopher Carstens

The Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake (USML)/ Mundelein Seminary has announced workshops for the Fall.

The first workshop for priests and deacons, “St. Augustine’s Preaching for Today,” features Father Andrew Hoffer . This annual workshop will be held Friday, October 30, 2015, at the USML Conference Center, and will include discussions on St. Augustine and the renewal of preaching today, biblical interpretation, and love of God and neighbor. Registration fee is $75; meals and lodging are an additional cost. Visit liturgicalinstitute.org or call (847) 8374542 for registration or further information.

The second set of workshops on November 6 invites participants to examine new English chant settings for the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Directed by musician and composer Adam Bartlett, these workshops are intended for priests, musicians and all the faithful.

Visit liturgicalinstitute.com for complete details.

Editor - publisher:

Order of Marriage, Second Edition The Order of Celebrating Matrimony, Second Edition, was given its recognitio on June 29, 2015, by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Following the customary review by the Secretariat for Divine Worship of the United States Conference of Catholic (USCCB) and subsequent decree for publication of USCCB President, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the Order will be implemented. This second edition in English has been a number of years in the making, as it is the translation of the second typical (Latin) edition published 25 years ago.

Workshops Offered at the Liturgical Institute

How does one explain the Sign of the Cross—a key element of which is the Trinity—to a child, even after the gesture and words are accurate? This is no easy task, whether it is an eight-yearold child or an 88-year-old adult. The Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God. And the three of them together make one God. Yet this Triune God is, as our formation teaches us, the core of our faith.

The Catechism puts it this way: “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself.

It is therefore the source of all the other Continued on Page 3

Adoremus Executive Committee: The Rev. Jerry Pokorsky ✝ Helen Hull Hitchcock The Rev. Joseph Fessio, SJ Contents copyright © 2015 by ADOREMUS. All rights reserved.

Adoremus Bulletin (ISSN 1088-8233) is published six times a year by ADOREMUS—SOCIETY FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE SACRED LITURGY, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. ADOREMUS is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation of the State of California. Non-profit periodicals postage paid at various US mailing offices.

Change service requested.

ADOREMUS—SOCIETY FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE SACRED LITURGY was established in June 1995 to promote authentic reform of the Liturgy of the Roman Rite in accordance with the Second Vatican Council’s decree on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015 mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’” (n.234). Consequently, the more we understand about the Trinity, the more we appreciate other mysteries of faith. This is especially true of one of today’s greatest “mysteries” of faith: family life.

The Holy Trinity is a communion of loving and life-giving persons, and for this reason the human family is characterized in much the same way. St. John Paul II (relying in part on the Second Vatican Council’s Guadium et Spes) makes this connection: “God created man in his own image and likeness: calling him to existence through love, he called him at the same time for love. God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion” (Familiaris Consortio, n.11).

If the human family is an image of the Trinitarian family, what ought this kind of human union look like? What should it reveal or—as a liturgist would have it— what should it sacramentalize?

First, the members of a human family, and principally its mother and father, are united to each other forever – and this, at bottom, because the persons of the Trinity share eternally a unity of substance (they are, in the words of the Nicene Creed, “consubstantial”). Indissolubility are marks of both the human and Trinitarian family.

Second, husband and wife are faithful, one to the other, forever united to each other. While there are plenty of reasons why fidelity is recognized as a good, its root is Trinitarian, in whose image man and wife and family are called to reflect, where Father, Son, and Spirit give all to the other for eternity.

As a result of indissolubility and fidelity, then, human families are also sources of life—life lived to the full in the

midst of the world and, most especially, by the openness to new life of children.

Is the Trinity itself not the source of all life, as stated in Acts 17:28, the God in whom “we live and move and have our being?”

Indissolubility, faithfulness, and openness to life are known in the Church as three “goods” or “blessings” of marriage, and these goods connect many of the articles in the present issue.

The USCCB’s announcement that the second edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony has been confirmed by the Holy See is the first such feature is the USCCB’s announcement. The new edition (like the old) echoes marriage’s three goods: a free commitment to a union that is forever, faithful to one another, and open to life. Or in still other words: committing to a family that is an icon of the Trinity. (See entry in “News and Views,” page 2.)

A newly-translated Order of Confirmation has been approved for use in the dioceses of the United States, one which must be implemented no later than Pentecost 2016. While there are very few ritual changes (most are linguistic changes as occasioned by Liturgicam Authenticam), the new order makes for an opportune time to review the theology and celebration of the sacrament, which Father John Grant of the Diocese of Tulsa does on pages 3-5, and to recall the beauty and power of the sacrament, especially for the young, as Real Life Catholic’s Christopher Stefanick writes. The Holy Spirit, who is the love of Father and Son, unites those who receive him more closely to the family of the Church.

Finally, September’s World Meeting of Families and visit of Pope Francis in Philadelphia from the 22nd to the 27th, followed by the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family from October 4-25 in another story echoing the family—Trinitarian or human. These are important events which should impact all Christian families for the good and for which we have

Trinity, by Andrei Rublev (d. circa 1428)

been asked to pray (see the Holy Father’s prayer on page 12). But there are other concerns surrounding the Holy Father’s visit—especially if you are Father Dennis Gill, the Director of the Office for Divine Worship for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and principle coordinator of the Papal liturgies during the visit.

What’s it like to prepare the Pope’s liturgies on such a grand scale? Read Adoremus’ three-page interview with Father Gill, beginning on page 6.

The “lovely task” of teaching the Sign of the Cross in the family, especially in its full weight and depth, is awesome indeed. Not only is it a lesson about the Trinity, but is also a reminder of the indissoluble, faithful, and life-giving human family. Living in such a family is a source of joy now and in the eternity to come. Our liturgies— in particular, confirmation and marriage—express this truth and form us for human and divine family life.

Accipe Signaculum Doni Spiritus Sancti:

T

On the Sacrament of Confirmation and the New Translation of the Ritual

he newly-translated English edition of the Order of Confirmation is currently in publication, and goes into effect for the dioceses of the United States beginning Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2016, and may be used before. This occasion grants us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the sacrament itself fifty years after the Second Vatican Council, and forty-four years after the promulgation of its revised ritual. Not that the sacrament itself has changed during this time. However, the same cannot be said of its pastoral practice or the faithful’s understanding of its purpose. For many Catholics, the sacrament of confirmation is seen as the opportunity for adolescents, who were baptized as infants, to publicly accept the faith by their own volition. And while this is a necessary – even daily – commitment in every Christian’s life, God certainly has no need to sacramentalize our assent. Rather, this sacrament, like every other one, bestows grace. It is a sacrament of initiation, the second one to be precise. It is also not “a sacrament in search of a theology,” as is sometimes claimed. It has a theology and a purpose in initiating every Christian into the mission of the Church (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1316).

Unity in Sacraments To comprehend properly the lex credendi of confirmation, we must recognize that the paradigm for sacramental initiation is the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. In the RCIA, catechumens are fully initiated: baptized, confirmed, and receive their first holy communion; this is the archetype for sacramental initiation, even if the sacraments are separated in time when bestowed upon children. This process has its roots in the events of the first day that the Church received her breath: Pentecost. After the marvelous events of the Holy Spirit’s descent, the apostles courageously preached in tongues, and moved by St. Peter’s exhortation the first catechumens asked, “What shall we do?” Peter’s response outlines the first Christian initiation in the age of the Church: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’…

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts

2:38, 41-42).

As each age reflected upon the apostolic tradition, the structure of initiation became more concrete. So by the fourth century, it is clearly delineated in various mystagogical catecheses. For instance, St. Ambrose describes that after baptism, “Next comes the spiritual sealing…. For after what took place at the font it remains to perfect all that has been done. This happens when the Holy Spirit is poured forth at the invocation by the bishop: ‘the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, the spirit of holy fear’” (Ambrose, De Sacramentis, Bk. III, ch.

2, 8).

The sacraments of initiation eventually became separated because of infant baptism and lack of access to the bishop (it was impossible for the bishop to baptize or initiate every soul), but they have always been intended to be understood in reference to each other as a unity. “Baptism incorporates us into Christ and forms us into God’s people…. By signing us with the gift of the Spirit, confirmation makes us more completely the image of the Lord and fills us with the Holy Spirit, so that we may bear witness to him before all the

world…. Finally, coming to the table of the Eucharist, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man so that we may have eternal life and show forth the unity of God’s people…. Thus the three sacraments of Christian initiation closely combine to bring us, the faithful of Christ, to his full stature and to enable us to carry out the mission of the entire people of God in the Church and in the world” (RCIA, General Introduction, 2). This unity is so, because Christian initiation sacramentally inserts the neophyte into the Paschal Mystery of Christ: his life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. In baptism, the catechumen dies and rises with Christ in the waters of new birth. In confirmation, the Holy Spirit strengthens him for the messianic mission as Christ himself was after his baptism in the Jordan, and the apostles at Pentecost. Then in the Eucharist, “which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11), the initiate is substantially united to Christ’s obedient sacrifice to the Father and the glory of the Son’s resurrection.

The Order of Confirmation preserves this unity, for it connects the celebration Continued on Page 4

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015 Continued from Page 4

of confirmation to its antecedent sacrament of baptism by means of renewing the confirmand’s baptismal vows. Furthermore, it understands confirmation as being oriented toward the consummation of initiation in the Eucharist: “As a rule, Confirmation takes place within Mass so that the fundamental connection of this Sacrament with all of Christian Initiation, which reaches its culmination in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, may stand out in a clearer light. The newly confirmed therefore participate in the Eucharist, which completes their Christian Initiation” (Order of Confirmation, 13).

And yet completion of initiation does not mean completion in an unqualified sense. This is why the final sacrament of initiation, the Eucharist, is not received only once but continuously from initiation throughout life, since the faithful continue to be ever perfected by grace which was given to them in initiation, but which has still yet to be brought to completion.

Spirit Within and Throughout If confirmation is an integral part of Christian initiation understood as a unity, then how does it differ from the other two sacraments? After all, is not the Holy Spirit granted to each Christian in baptism? Certainly! But we may say that as the Holy Spirit is given in baptism, he imparts a character of receptivity (ad intra) to the neophyte, whereas in confirmation he is given for the purpose of strengthening the Christian’s character for evangelization (ad extra). “[B]y the sacrament of Confirmation man is given a spiritual power in respect of sacred actions other than those in respect of which he receives power in Baptism. For in Baptism he receives power to do those things which pertain to his own salvation, forasmuch as he lives to himself: whereas in Confirmation he receives power to do those things which pertain to the spiritual combat with the enemies of the Faith” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III, q. 72, a. 5). This is why “it must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace” (CCC, 1285). In baptism the catechumen receives the Spirit of adoption, which allows him to cry out, “Abba!” (Romans 8:15). Here the Holy Spirit regenerates, cleanses from sin, and makes the neophyte an adopted child of God. These are the ad intra effects of the Holy Spirit at work in

baptism. However, in confirmation the recipient receives the Gift of the Spirit himself in a more intimate way. It is a special ad extra strengthening of the messianic Spirit, which binds the baptized to a more perfect union with Christ and his Church for the purpose of being his witnesses in the world, “obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed” (Paul VI, Divinae Consortium Naturae; cf. Lumen Gentium, 11).

While the Christian mission belongs to all the baptized, it is amplified and perfected by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in confirmation. Like baptism, confirmation imparts a sacramental character or seal which cannot be removed or repeated and consecrates the Christian to both service and worship. Confirmation perfects and consummates baptism, but it is also subsequently directed toward its own consummation in the Eucharist which is the “center and goal of all sacramental life” (Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritas, 17).

Ancient and New When the ritual for confirmation was revised by the Consilium after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI clarified the sacramental form and matter.

Catholic tradition has always regarded the apostolic practice of laying on of hands as described in Acts 8 as the origin of the sacramental practice of confirmation (CCC, 1288, 1315). But since Christ means “anointed one,” a Christian is also one who has been anointed (CCC,436, 1289). Recognizing that there had been a variety of traditions for the conferral of confirmation throughout the history of the Church, Pope Paul VI exercised his apostolic authority to assert the anointing with chrism as the essential matter (Paul VI, Divinae Consortium Naturae). This decision was not arbitrary, but clearly rooted in holy tradition and provided an ecumenical accord with the Eastern practice. He likewise appropriated the Byzantine form of the sacrament which is derived from scripture: “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit” (cf. 2Cor 1:21-22; Eph 1:13-14, 4:30; 1Jn 2:20, 27). Thus, the pope definitively promulgated: “The sacrament of confirmation is conferred through the anointing with chrism on the forehead, which is done by the laying on of the hand, and through the words: Accipe Signaculum Doni Spiritus Sancti” (Paul VI, Divinae Consortium Naturae). The new translation has not changed this formula – it remains: “N., be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit” (Order of Confirmation, 9, 27).

When considering the effects of the sacrament of confirmation, the most pressing concern is whether or not it is necessary for salvation. Strictly speaking, it is not. But the Church does require both in teaching and in law that her members be confirmed.

The Catechism insists: “Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the ‘sacraments of Christian initiation,’ whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the

Holy Spirit medallion, Whitney Cox and EverGreene Studies. Installed 2014 at the St. Joseph Co-Cathedral, Brooklyn, NY

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Pentecost, by Jan Joest (d.1519)

reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace.” (CCC, 1285, emphasis added). Canon Law adds, “The faithful are obliged to receive this sacrament at the proper time. Parents and pastors of souls, especially pastors of parishes, are to take care that the faithful are properly instructed to receive the sacrament and come to it at the appropriate time” (1983 Code of Canon Law, 890.). In fact, the Church sees this sacrament as so necessary that she not only allows, but requires, priests to administer it to all who are in danger of death, whether infant or adult (cf. 1983 Code of Canon Law, 883, 891).

The fact that the Church extends this duty to priests, who (at least in the Latin Church) may be considered extraordinary ministers of confirmation, signifies just how seriously the Church holds the necessity of this sacrament, since ordinarily it is rightly reserved to bishops.

Chapter IV of the Order of Confirmation provides the rite for “Confirmation to be Administered to a Sick Person in Danger of Death.” However, in pastoral practice the rite for “Christian Initiation for the Dying,” which comes from the RCIA, but has been included in the Pastoral Care of the Sick, is probably more often used since it is a continuous rite for administering all three sacraments of initiation to either a catechumen or an infant in danger of death.

And while there is a stated disapprobation that confirmation not be celebrated with anointing of the sick (Order of Confirmation, 52), the “Continuous Rite of Penance, Anointing, and Viaticum” in the Pastoral Care of the Sick does allow for the possibility of confir-

mation to be conferred upon a Catholic adult who has not received it (Pastoral Care of the Sick, 238, 246).

However, if the purpose of confirmation, which has already been stated, is to strengthen Christians “to spread and defend the faith” (Lumen Gentium, 11), how can it do so in the case of infants who are unable to evangelize or for those who are near death? In these cases confirmation is bestowed not as a strengthening for the ecclesial mission of evangelization, but for the perfection of the Christian person, for a greater share in the sanctifying grace bestowed by the sacraments, for the sacramental character that conforms the dying Christian more closely to Christ, and a fuller participation in the divine life of the Son through the Holy Spirit. And these are worthy reasons to facilitate the reception of this sacrament to any and all Christians before they depart this world. Yet, it also reinforces the great dignity and responsibility this sacrament confers to those who do live out of its graces.

Rites and Texts Turning our attention now to the ritual celebration, the lex orandi of the newly translated Order, the first thing to note is that there are very few changes.

Of course, all of the people’s responses have been brought into conformity with the Roman Missal, as have those rubrics which are echoed from the Missal, such as “Bow down for the blessing.” Titles have also been brought into consistency, with the intercessions being named “The Universal Prayer,” and even the title of Chapter I, “The Order for the Conferral of Confirmation Within Mass” (emphasis added), since that Continued on Page 5

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015 Continued from Page 4

is how the Roman Missal titles the corresponding ritual Mass. All of the texts from this ritual Mass, according to the 2011 translation, have been incorporated into the new Order without change, including inserts for Eucharistic Prayers II and III, which were additions to the editio typica tertia. The invitation and prayer at “The Laying on of Hands” has been retranslated, borrowing much of its verbiage from the Roman Missal’s translation of similar phrases in other prayers, as have the petitions of “The Universal Prayer.” Finally, the Gloria is now prescribed for all confirmation Masses in accordance with the rubrics of the Roman Missal (cf. Ritual Masses, I.4).

But the Missal is not the only Church document to affect the new translation of the Order for Confirmation. Two others which did not exist at the time the Order was originally revised are the Catechism and the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Each of these have also introduced small but significant changes into the Order to establish conformity and compliance. The Order for Confirmation’s “Introduction” at n. 5 had to be adapted to reflect canons 874§1.5 and 893, which prohibit parents from acting as sponsors. Likewise, the instruction in n. 18 was changed, which now calls the bishop the “ordinary minister,” (versus “original minister” in the first edition) to reflect the understanding of canon 882 and the Catechism’s paragraph n. 1313, which call the bishop the “ordinary minister of confirmation in the Latin Church.” Finally, when enumerated in the prayer at “The Laying on of Hands,” the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been named according to the Catechism’s denominations: “wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord” (CCC,1831).

The prayers that are most revealing of what we believe about the sacrament of confirmation are the priestly prayers from the ritual Mass. These prayers are clear that confirmation perfects our conformity to Christ, but for the purpose of witnessing to him by this identification: “…grant that, being conformed more perfectly to your Son, they may grow steadily in bearing witness to him…”

(Order of Confirmation, 58, “Prayer over the Offerings”); “…that they may constantly show to the world the freedom of your adopted children and, by the holiness of their lives, exercise the prophetic mission of your people” (Or-

What It’s All About

by Chris Stefanick

Confirmation left an indelible mark on me as a teenager: not just the grace of the sacrament, but on another level the experience of the liturgy as well. As I wrote in the confirmation program I co-authored, Chosen (note that the target audience of the reflection is teens…but you get the gist): In general grace isn’t something we “feel.” We can smell flowers, taste burgers, shiver from a cold wind, but grace isn’t physical so sometimes it’s not even accompanied by strong feelings—but we can know it’s there because Jesus told us so. When we feel it, that’s a gift to us, often to teach us something or to strengthen us. When we don’t feel any consolation in prayer or from sacraments, God’s asking us not to get caught up in emotion, to deepen in faith, and to prove our love for him by seeking him for his own sake, not just for the positive feelings faith can bring. All that being stated, God let me feel the grace when I was confirmed.

I remember when the bishop anointed my forehead. As he pulled his thumb away from my head I felt the grace hit

der of Confirmation, 59, “Prayer after Communion”). The missionary Spirit of the Church is an exitus into the world, but for the purpose of gathering all nations in a reditus back to God. The sacrament of confirmation participates in this movement, for by its grace every Christian is given the missionary mandate to bring others into contact with the living Christ, through cooperation with the Holy Spirit, so that they too may become other Christs.

Time and Age As a conclusion, a word is necessary about the age at which confirmation may or ought to be conferred—a topic that has been more frequently discussed as of late. Canon 891 states, “The sacrament of confirmation is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion unless the conference of bishops has determined another age…”. For the dioceses of the United States the complementary norm governing this can now clearly be found in the front of the new Order of Confirmation. This United States Conference of Catholic Bishops “Decree of Proclamation” from 2001 states that confirmation may be “conferred between the age of discretion and

about sixteen years of age, within the limits determined by the diocesan bishop…”, allowing each diocesan bishop to determine the age or ages in which confirmation may be bestowed within his own diocese.

So far, ten dioceses in the United States have restored the order of the sacraments of initiation so that confirmation is conferred before the Eucharist is received, the most recent being the Archdiocese of Denver and the Diocese of Honolulu earlier this year. Besides the theological precedent for such a change, there is also magisterial latitude found in Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 document, Sacramentum Caritatis: “…these variations [of the order of the sacraments] are not properly of the dogmatic order, but are pastoral in character. Concretely, it needs to be seen which practice better enables the faithful to put the sacrament of the Eucharist at the center, as the goal of the whole process of initiation…. Bishops’ Conferences should examine the effectiveness of current approaches to Christian initiation, so that the faithful can be helped both to mature through the formation received in our communities and to give their lives an authentically eucharistic direction, so that they can offer a reason for the hope

within them in a way suited to our times” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 18).

Even though the new translation of the sacramental ritual for confirmation does not present any major changes, it is always opportune to mystagogically reflect on the graces of this and every sacrament. At this moment in our lives and the life of the Church, the new Order of Confirmation gives us pause to do precisely that as we reread these prayers and begin to use it in our dioceses to share with another generation the unceasing mission of the Church: “‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘accipite Spiritum Sanctum’” (Jn 20:21-22).

me like a ton of bricks. I remember it distinctly because it wasn’t a feeling I’ve had any other time before or since.

It was the sense of getting hit with an enormous zap of power. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry. I just stood there speechless. I was supposed to say “Amen” in response to his words, “Be sealed with the Holy Spirit,” but I could barely utter a sound.

The months after I received that sacrament I noticed an undeniable change in the way I lived out my Catholic faith.

The happiness, love, purpose, and peace I had from my faith became contagious.

In my junior year of high school I made it my goal to share my faith or a Saint story with one person per day. “Give me someone to tell about you, Lord,” was my constant prayer. I helped to start a prayer and faith sharing group, recruited people to youth ministry at my parish, godfathered a peer who was baptized, stood up for the dignity of women in the locker room, stood by those being mocked, went to pro-life marches, and, by the grace of God, I did it all in a way that was strangely “cool.” Picture a longhaired teen guitarist in the 90s with baggy shorts talking to potheads about

Jesus, with a rosary hanging from his belt. That was me.

My faith was no longer hidden from the world in the “upper room” of my heart. I wore it on my shirtsleeve. My friends who could get so drunk they could run through walls without feeling it were forgotten soon after they left my high school. They’re a dime a dozen. I was remembered years after I left. I had been a shining light of faith.

Such is the impact of confirmation. Even though my life was changed through youth ministry, I never dreamt of doing youth ministry. After surviving teenager-hood myself I had no urge to go back! God had other plans. I’ve given much of my life to youth ministry, and more specifically, to preparing kids for confirmation. I did this as a youth minister in East LA, then by giving countless retreats around the country for confirmandi and parents, and finally by writing Chosen with Ascension Press, which, thank God, is being used by thousands of parishes and with great effect.

Here’s what I’ve learned: Confirmation prep is one of the greatest opportunities for evangelization in the Church today. Teens in confirmation class are

there because they “have to be there.”

They don’t want to be there. They’re not all that interested in God. Sometimes they’re even a little angry.

Do you know how hard our evangelical brothers and sisters have to work to find people like that? We have a captive audience right under our noses! While it can be difficult to work with them, I’ve seen countless lives change. I’ve seen teens with no interest in God end up bringing parents back to the fold. I’ve seen young punks become young apostles – just like me – because their parents “made them go.”

Lives changed by sacramental grace, liturgical encounters with Jesus Christ, and effective catechesis.

That’s what it’s all about.

Fr. John Grant is the parochial vicar of Holy Family Cathedral in the Diocese of Tulsa, OK, and the assistant Director of Worship and Master of Ceremonies for the diocese. As a graduate of St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, Colo, he was ordained in 2012, and more recently earned his Master’s degree from The Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill, last May.

Chris Stefancik is an internationally acclaimed author and speaker. He has devoted his life to inspiring people to live a bold, contagious faith. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap, calls Chris, “one of the most engaging young defenders of the Christian faith on the scene today.” Chris is the author of what is being welcomed as the best Confirmation program in the English language: Chosen. page 5

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015

“I wanted to do everything I could to highlight… the act of Jesus in the Mass” – An Interview with Father Dennis Gill

By Joseph O’Brien Managing Editor

W

hen Pope Francis comes to Philadelphia, Sept. 25-27, he will meet with families from around the world at the conclusion of the World Meeting of Families.

He will also be celebrating two Masses.

The first will be celebrated on Sept. 26 at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, and the second on Sept. 27 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Mass on Saturday will be a commemoration of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, while the Sunday Mass will be the Mass celebrated on the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Organizing the liturgy for these two celebrations of the Mass has been the work of archdiocesan liturgist Father Dennis Gill – who has accomplished what some might consider a superhuman feat.

Father Gill is rector and pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, the Mother Church of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and Director of the Office for Divine Worship, for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He was ordained a priest on May 21, 1983 for the archdiocese and served as parochial vicar at Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Warminster, Penn., and Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Southampton, Penn.

Completing graduate studies in Sacred Liturgy at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of St. Anselmo, Rome, Father Gill served as Director of Liturgy at the Pontifical North American College, Rome. He is a professor of Sacred Liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, and lectures regularly around the country on sacred liturgy. He is the author of the book Music in Catholic Liturgy: A Pastoral and Theological Companion

Father Dennis Gill, the rector of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul and head of the committees planning the liturgies for the World Meeting of Families and Pope Francis’s visit to Philadelphia in September, holds the chalice of St. John Neumann, which the pope will use for Mass. (Sarah Webb for Catholic Philly)

to Sing to the Lord, and is working on his next book, Ars Celebrandi: An Artful and Careful Celebration of the Eucharist, for Hillenbrand Books.

Adoremus Bulletin interviewed Father Gill by telephone from his home in Philadelphia to find out how he organized the two papal Masses and to find out what he learned in the process of organizing this “once in a lifetime” visit.

Adoremus Bulletin: When did you first hear the pope was coming?

Father Dennis Gill: I don’t remember

Homily from the Order of Confirmation, Second Edition, that may be used during the rite.

The Apostles, who had received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in fulfillment of the Lord’s promise, had power to complete the work of Baptism by the giving of the Holy Spirit, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. When Saint Paul had laid his hands on certain people who had been baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

The Bishops, as successors of the Apostles, possess the same power and, either in their own right or through Priests lawfully appointed to fulfill this ministry, they confer the Holy Spirit on those who have already been born again in Baptism.

Even if today the coming of the Holy Spirit is no longer widely made manifest by the gift of tongues, we know by faith that the Spirit, through whom the love of God has been poured into our hearts and through whom we are gathered in unity of faith and in diversity of callings, is received by us and is working invisibly to make the Church holy and one.

Dearly beloved, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which you are about to receive, will be a spiritual seal, by which you will be conformed to Christ and will be made more fully members of his Church.

For Christ himself, anointed by the Holy Spirit in the baptism he received from

page 6

John, was sent forth for the work of his ministry, to pour out on the earth the fire of the same Spirit.

Therefore, you who are already baptized will now receive the power of his Spirit and be signed with his Cross on your foreheads. And so, you must always bear witness to his Passion and Resurrection before the world, so that your manner of life, as the Apostle says, may be in every place the pleasing fragrance of Christ. His Mystical Body, which is the Church, the People of God, receives from him diverse graces, which the same Holy Spirit distributes to individuals for the building up of that Body in unity and love.

Be living members of this Church, therefore, and, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, seek to serve all people like Christ, who came not to be served but to serve.

And now, before you receive the Spirit, call to mind the faith which you professed in Baptism or which your parents and godparents professed with the Church.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Order of Confirmation © 2015, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.

Published with the approval of the Committee on Divine Worship, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

where I was, but we had a little bit of advance warning before Benedict XVI went to Milan for the last World Meeting of Families in June 2012. Archbishop [Charles J. Chaput] was there because Philadelphia was named as the next city for the World Meeting of Families….We had a little confusion here when Benedict XVI named Philadelphia as the next location. He pledged to come, but then when he resigned Pope Francis was a little slow in letting us know he was coming. I can’t remember exactly when he confirmed his coming...

AB: As the Director of the Office of Divine Worship, what were your responsibilities for preparing for the papal visit?

FG: My office takes care of everything concerning the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy from beginning to end, with guidance from the Holy See, especially from Monsignor Guido Marini, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations. In early September, Monsignor Marini came to visit us to review everything and he was quite pleased with our plans from beginning to end, and with the work of the local Church. He will also be serving as Master of Ceremonies for both Masses.

AB: What sort of guidance did you receive from the Vatican in planning for the papal Masses?

FG: Early on in the planning stages, the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff sent guidelines and norms for liturgical celebrations presided by the Holy Father. It’s about 11 pages, and it’s rather complete in describing how to prepare sacred vessels, sacred vestments, liturgical music, and the sanctuary. It’s quite detailed, and it covers everything from the responsibilities of the person in charge (that is, my duties) to how to assess the site, and looking at the place, the vestments and all other items needed for Mass. It also looks at concelebrants, servers and choir, and the preparation of texts. It

was very complete in what it covered.

Basically we take what’s given in the missal itself and prepare what the missal describes and put these instructions from the Holy See on top of that initial layer of planning.

AB: What part did Archbishop Chaput play in the liturgical preparations?

FG: The archbishop wanted the celebrations of the Sacred Liturgy to be the most memorable occasions of the Papal Visit. He basically entrusted this task to me. I would meet with him regularly to give him an update and ask his opinion on questions. He expressed relatively few preferences overall.

AB: Is it usual for the local diocesan Church to organize the liturgy for a papal visit?

FG: Since the World Meeting of Families was scheduled to take place here in Philadelphia, it becomes a celebration of the local Church here to do that – the Holy See would not be in a position to do it because they don’t have people on the ground here. For me, it’s the natural way to do it. It was a lot of work and I had fine people working with me, thank God. AB: Who besides the archdiocese and the Holy See are involved in the planning process?

FG: There are three groups working together, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Holy See and the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). While we would do all the work here, we send our work off to the USCCB and the conference sends it to Monsignor Marini for him to sign off on it. The collaboration has been excellent, especially with Monsignor Marini; he has been really fantastic. Because his collaboration is so good, when he met with us, it was more a matter of review. He made very few adjustments because his instruction was very clear and we’re following the General InContinued on Page 7

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015 Continued from Page 6

struction of the Roman Missal…as it is supposed to be celebrated, so there are no surprises.

AB: What was the division of labor among those from the archdiocese who worked with you in the planning process?

FG: We have a planning committee which consists of two people who work on sacred music, two on furnishings and appointments, two taking care of the sacristies, two taking care of the liturgical volunteers, and two secretarial members of the committee. The committee is a good mixture of priests and lay people and I have a team of priests associated with me who are going to be masters of ceremonies for the various liturgies for the World Meeting of Families and other non-papal events. We have I’d say 1,500 liturgical volunteers, ushering and greeting in various ways on various days. Then we have the liturgical minsters, servers, readers, and gift bearers.

AB: How many people do you expect at each Mass?

FG: Our cathedral holds about 1,200 and a chapel next door which holds about 500 – so there will be about 2,000 faithful at the cathedral Mass. It’s hard to say for the Mass on Sunday, maybe up to a million – maybe less; maybe more.

Mass during the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II to Philadelphia. Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center: Robert and Theresa Halvey Photograph Collection

celebrated by me tomorrow or a couple Sundays from now, when the pope celebrates it. That was a happy thing to be reminded of, because it allows the faith to stand out. These two celebrations of the Mass are not so much a celebration of a personality or an event – but of the Catholic faith.

AB: Did Pope Francis make any personal requests regarding the liturgical planning for the Mass?

FG: Everything was happily as we would want and expect it to be. There were no surprises, nothing unusual. In fact I was pleased with just the opposite. It was a clear presentation of the liturgy as the Church describes it, both for the cathedral and for the Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

AB: How will the music be provided at these two Masses?

FG: Both celebrations will be stational [normative] Masses with a full complement of concelebrants. At the same time, the music for both occasions will be a little fuller than usual. The Mass on Saturday will be sung with a 100-voice archdiocesan choir and on Sunday it will be sung with a 500 voice choir (which we put together for this occasion) [with accompaniment by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra].

AB: Besides the “universal language” of music present at the Mass, what other languages will be used?

FG: What’s interesting is that the Creed will be sung in Latin at the Sunday Mass on the Parkway. It’s an international occasion and Latin is the international language of the Church; it just seems right….The Eucharistic Prayer will also be prayed in Latin, while the two largest groups of people coming beside English speaking people are Spanish and Vietnamese. So one scriptural reading will be in Spanish and one will be in Vietnamese.

AB: Why did you choose the particular locations – the cathedral and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway – for the two papal Masses?

FG: The Mass on Saturday was specifically designated a Mass for the local Church, and since it is for the local Church, it should be in the cathedral, the Mother Church of the archdiocese. And the Mass on Sunday is on the Parkway in part because in 1979 when John Paul

AB: What talents and skills did you bring to the planning process?

FG: One of the gifts I have, people mention this to me, is that I’m a highly organized person. You need that type of organization to pull something like this off, and I’m usually collaborative too.

Those two things – organization and collaboration – working together have helped me bring together a nice coterie of people who have worked well together. So here we are in early September and we can say we’re in good shape with our liturgical celebrations for the World Meeting of Families and for the papal Masses. There are still many things to do but the bulk of the work is done and we just have to live with the anxiety of these next two weeks…

1979 Papal Visit of John Paul II to Philadelphia. Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center

II came to Philadelphia we celebrated on the Parkway as well – although at the other end of the parkway. For John Paul II’s celebration of the Mass, the altar area was directly in front of the cathedral, but this time the altar area is in front of [the Philadelphia Museum of Art]. The location is central, it can accommodate a lot of the people, and it lends it self to a beautiful setting for a Mass outdoors.

AB: Did you learn anything about how to prepare Philadelphia for a papal visit from Pope John Paul II’s visit to Philadelphia in October 1979?

FG: I happened to see the notes from the previous visit, and for the visit of Pope Francis, things are more detailed, clearer and more specified for such a huge event. I can see from the development of the notes from when John Paul II was here to these notes with Pope Francis’s visit, that the Holy See has learned what works best in these large scale celebrations. That’s why in 1979 the notes are rather sparse but in 2015

they’re rather complete.

AB: I imagine you will have quite a treasure trove of details and notes for the next papal visit to the City of Brotherly Love…

FG: Our plan book is about 400 pages so the next person who is in my position when a pope comes to visit might not be able to use it but they’re welcomed to it.

AB: What insights did you discover in the planning process?

FG: I was reminded over and over again in my preparations that this was the Mass, and the Mass has a certain stability regardless of the place or circumstance of the celebration. That was the context and guiding point. It was a challenge though, because we had to constantly keep in mind that we have a very unusual celebrant at the Mass and a very large congregation. Even though the pope is celebrant and several hundred thousand – perhaps even a million – people attending, the order of Mass is going to be the same if the Mass is

AB: Did you feel prepared for the job – or did you find that there was some on the job training?

FG: The entire process was on the job training! [Laughter] I don’t see how anything can prepare you for this – it’s a once in a lifetime event, and so you have to pool your resources and collaborate with assigned people to make it happened. This isn’t the type of thing that could have provided much in the way of advanced training.

AB: Had you ever worked on a project this large before?

FG: I had the good fortune of working on two of the jubilee events in Rome with [the late] Cardinal John Patrick Foley, [President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications (1984-2007)], the Jubilee for Journalists [June 4, 2000] and the Jubilee for the Entertainment World [Dec. 17, 2000]. They were very large events, not as large as this, but they required a great deal of organization with a great number of people. I was in Rome for ten years so I had those two opportuniContinued to Page 8

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015 Continued from Page 7

ties during the Jubilee Year…. You learn that after a while an event attended by a hundred thousand people and one attended by a million become the same if you organize them well.

AB: With such a large congregation, how will you safeguard the Blessed Sacrament against abuse and desecration during the distribution of Communion?

FG: The order of the procession and the training by instruction of the priests and deacons distributing Communion will facilitate a very reverent and careful distribution of the Body and Blood of our Lord. At Communion, the deacons and priests will be accompanied by ushers who will each be carrying a yellow and white umbrella, and they will lead the priests and deacons to the Communion stations. The priests and deacons will also have received instructions as to the proper distribution.

We’re hoping to have up to a thousand clergy distributing Holy Communion (and we won’t have extraordinary ministers because we’ll obviously have sufficient priests and deacons). The clergy have been instructed not to distribute more than one host per person and have been given other precautions like that, so that Holy Communion as much as

Participants during the 1979 papal Mass. Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center: Robert and Theresa Halvey Photograph Collection

Papal Visits to the US Four popes have visited the United States:

Pope Paul VI - 1965 Pope John Paul II – 1979; 1981; 1984; 1987; 1993; 1995; 1999 Pope Benedict XVI – 2008 Pope Francis – 2015

possible will be guaranteed to be a very reverent distribution of the Body and Blood of the Lord. We have been working very hard on this and answering letters from people who have the same concern. There should be a very reverent and careful distribution of communion – there must be.

AB: Will there be indulgences provided for those who attend these papal Masses?

FG: While it hasn’t arrived yet, we do expect indulgences to be provided.

Typically, there is an indulgence in participating in an international liturgical event like this one – with the proper features of the indulgence in place, such as no attachment to sin, praying for the Holy Father, and receiving Communion and the sacrament of penance within the framework of the event. The indulgence comes by participation in the World Meeting of Families and under the usual conditions, but we’re waiting for an official announcement of the indulgence.

It usually comes a week or two before the event.

AB: Why are indulgences such an important part of these two papal Masses?

FG: Indulgences are provided so that page 8

people might benefit from this particular work of the Church in terms of their own salvation and the souls in purgatory. Like every good work of the Church, it has an effect outside of ourselves – and also for ourselves into the next life.

It’s another way of demonstrating that this is an ecclesial event that has a real impact on our Christian lives and obtaining the promise of heaven.

AB: What has been the most rewarding aspect of the planning process?

FG: Working with people so committed to the celebration of the sacred liturgy. I’ve really enjoyed that. I’m someone who is passionate about the liturgy and its authentic celebration and when all of a sudden you run into another person with the same zeal, it’s very encouraging. Sometimes you think you’re alone.

AB: And the most challenging?

FG: The most challenging aspect has been keeping the focus on Christ.

AB: What sort of advice would you give your counterpart in another diocese about preparation for a visit from the pope?

FG: There are three things you need

to have in place. The first is faith. This Mass has to be an event of faith. It could very easily become just a very large event, but it’s more than that. It’s the coming together of Catholics for a reason, to reflect on the Christian family, what it is and its renewal. So faith is a very important point and it needs to be at the beginning and end of everything that is going to be done. Second, there needs to be excellent communication among everyone who is involved.

Third, there has also has got to be great organization.

AB: How is this “event of faith” also an opportunity for catechesis and evangelization?

FG: All the work we’re doing reminds me that there’s still so much more to do as far as helping people understand the Eucharist, what the Mass is, and how everything is directed toward it and flows from it. We say that about the Eucharist (and people in general don’t have a felt sense of the Eucharist in that way) – and I found that understanding of the Mass necessary in planning and preparing for such a large Eucharist.

For many Catholics in general, there’s a superficial understanding of the Mass.

In preparing for the Holy Eucharist on

both these occasions, I wanted to do everything I could to highlight the Mass, the Eucharistic prayer, the act of Jesus in the Mass, for Catholics and in a sense for non-Catholics, but especially for Catholics.

AB: How does the liturgy – these two papal Masses – differ from everything else accompanying the pope’s visit later this month?

FG: There are so many parts of this visit that are wonderful, exciting and enjoyable, but the liturgy is the only event that has a divine power within it and is associated with it. The Mass is the event of our Lord’s death and resurrection, and that is why the role of the liturgy is so significant, for any event, really. I do get a little annoyed that there’s so much “papolotry” going on – everything is about the pope. But it’s not. We love and respect the pope, but the pope is not the Savior. I find that hard to get across to some people sometimes. It’s great that he’s coming; he’s the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of Peter, but what he’s celebrating on that Sunday a few weeks from now, we celebrate on the altar as well this Sunday, next Sunday and every other Sunday of the year everywhere throughout the world – namely, Christ.

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015

Creation, Grace, and the Liturgy The Editors

I

n perhaps one of his most memorable lines to date, the Holy Father encouraged pastors to “smell like their sheep.” But what does a sheep smell like? Jesus was called the “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist. Long before Jesus, and by way of foreshadowing his coming, Abel offered a lamb; the life of Isaac was rescued by a ram; the firstborn of the Chosen People were ransomed by a lamb.

Would it make any difference to faith whether one had ever seen (or smelled) a lamb up close? Would liturgical participation in the Mass—also known as the “wedding feast of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9)—be changed with a greater familiarity with these creatures?

Lambs, it must be said, are not the only creatures of nature that have some bearing on the life of faith. As the Catechism says, “God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man’s intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness. Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God” (nn.1147-8).

The Church’s liturgy recognizes creation’s role in worship, how nature speaks of God and, with us, to God. The liturgical hymn Te Deum, for example, sung at the conclusion of the Office of Readings on Sundays, Solemnities, and Feasts, begins, “You are God: we praise you; you are the Lord: we acclaim you; you are the eternal Father: all creation worships you.” Similarly, the Canticle of Daniel sung at Morning Prayer on Sundays (weeks I and III, especially), commands all of creation—sun and moon, stars of heaven, shower and dew, ice and snow, birds of the air, beasts wild and tame—to bless the Lord.

In her sacraments, the Church likewise recognizes the natural basis of her supernatural actions. Long before water does its supernatural duty in baptism, it has natural reality and purpose, cleansing and giving natural life, for example. So, too, with many other elements. Again, from the Catechism: “The sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos…” (n.1152).

There exists, then, a legitimate liturgical concern about nature and creation, for upon these foundations are built the supernatural realities of the new creation in Christ. As liturgical scholar Aidan Kavanagh once quipped, the baptismal font “contains what is called ‘living water’ not because things grow in it but because it moves to give life to those who lie in death’s bonds.”

With these reflections in mind, brought to the fore by the Holy Father’s encyclical Laudato Si and the recent “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation,” another appropriate and oftcited piece (at least in liturgical circles) deserves revisiting. Virgil Michel, pioneer of the liturgical movement in the United States, was the founder of the liturgical periodical Orate Fratres in 1926 (the same publication exists today under the title of Worship). It is noteworthy, too, that he and other liturgical figures of the last century were also interested in rural, “natural” living: Virgil Michel was a great supporter of the National Rural Life Conference which

began in 1923. (Another proponent of life—Father Paul Marx, OSB, founder of Human Life International and fellow Collegeville Benedictine—wrote the biography of Virgil Michel in 1957).

In 1938, Father Michel penned the following piece, “City of Farm” (excerpts, below) not only for its own relevance to the life of grace generally, but as a topic supremely relevant to the celebration of and participation in the Church’s sacred liturgy. Even though Father Michel will, as you will read, answer for the farm, it must be acknowledged at the same time that the city is also a key locus for the Christian faith.

It is toward the heavenly city of Jerusalem that we journey (Rev. 21:2). Also, while Vigil Michel’s American city of 1938 has many similarities to the city of 2015, it was, admittedly, a city at the end of the Great Depression. Still, even if historically Christianity flourished first in the cities, Christian liturgy “is rooted” (CCC, n.1145) in the rural areas: grace builds upon nature, where cult and agriculture share the same soil.

Do not some of Dom Virgil’s (and Pope Francis’s) reflections on nature have some significance to our liturgical understanding today?

“City or Farm”

By Virgil Michel, OSB

I

n the idealism of my high school days I attempted poetry, like every enterprising youth. All I remember at present of these attempts is the following stanza: O’er the hills and through the meadows Sparkling in the dewy morn Softly stood a gurgling brooklet Near the place where I was born.

The reason why I remember these lines is that older persons took them literally and thought I had been born in the country. Alas, I was not so fortunate, for I was born in a population center Virgil Michel, of several hundred Courtesy of St. John’s Abbey Archives thousand: There was no pastoral brook about, only a dirty river and dirtier gutters and muddy pre-pavement streets. […]

Mystic Lamb, detail from the Ghent Altarpice, by Jan van Eyck (d.1441)

Now the general atmosphere of the large city is not one of natural or spontaneous life but rather of artificial and mechanical conformities. One gets along best in it if one becomes most completely a cog in the large machine of city ways. And so one absorbs a general outlook and approach to things that is quite contrary to that of Christianity which functions through and through on the concept of life, of natural life reborn and nurtured in a supernatural life.

Insofar as a man lives close to the soil he is in all his contacts governed by and cooperating with the functions of life.

Insofar as a man lives in a modern city he is quite removed from the more common phenomena of life. Is not that why it was found necessary last year [1937] to drive a cow through a congested city streets on a truck in order that many citizens might get at least a fleeting glimpse of that animal? And as to other animals and plants and trees, the large-city dwellers of little means (i.e., the great majority) come in contact with them only through isolated parks or botanical or zoological gardens.

In other words, these abundant phenomena of life are something quite special in a year’s existence, something removed from the conditions of home and home activity. They are to a city man’s home life what art is to it when seen only in museums. They form no part of his daily contacts, they are experienced only in artificial surroundings.

Under such circumstances, how can

Photo by Joseph O’Brien

The true Christian life, the liturgical life, is not something contrary to human nature, or to nature in general, but rather something in full harmony with nature at its best, including human nature. The truth that grace presupposes nature is almost too trite to mention in this regard.

there be an easy intelligent appreciation and understanding of the liturgical or Christian supernatural life, when the God-given basis of this life in the domain of nature is absent? It is for such reasons that we must look upon the lives of so many Christian children in the artificial

and mechanical atmosphere of the large city as a real calamity. Where in their lives is the opportunity for abundant exercise of the natural virtues of justice and love, of tender cooperation with living things? […]

The children of such city congestion have no opportunity of exercising the legitimate domination of man over his environment, except by acts of destruction, by breaking both laws and things, or else by bullying their fellows. Compare this with the opportunities of the land, where children from youngest days up can do many a contributory family chore, can exercise all the Christian virtues through the tender care of life, of young plants and animals. Thus youthful goodness in the city must consist chiefly of mechanical conformity or almost unlimited restriction, while in the country it proceeds creatively as a growth from within through voluntary and pleasurable exercise of positive responsibilities in the development or other betterment of different forms of life.

Herein, we can see the immense importance of every “back to the land” movement, such as is sponsored, e.g., by the Catholic Rural Life Conference and the distributist-agrarian movement already mentioned in these pages. There is no questions primarily of turning as many city dwellers as possible into “dirt” farmers, much less of promoting and increasing what is known and criticized as commercial or industrialized farming. The question is first of all one of decentralization of the present artificial city congestions, of bringing people back closer to nature, regardless of their professions in life. It is not first of all a question of city or farm, but of unnatural life as against a normal life close to nature.

The back-to-the-land movement is therefore not at all merely an economic question, even if this aspect of it is highly important in our depression era. Much more significant is its importance and meaning for Christian life and for a genuine Catholic revival. The latter is necessarily a revival in terms of an intelligent participation in the corporate supernatural life of Christ, and for this a more truly natural life is indispensable. And so the question of city or farm is really a question of restoring the natural basis of Christian living for the greater flourishing of the supernatural Christ-life among men. (Orate Fratres, Vol.12, 1937-38, pp.367-9. This entry is reprinted here with the kind permission of Liturgical Press.) page 9

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015

LETTERS Hymns for the Liturgy of the Hours Revisited

Thank you for Adam Bartlett’s most informative article on hymns in the Liturgy of the Hours (LOH) in the July 2015 Adoremus Bulletin.

Let me mention also the useful resource Exsultemus: Rejoicing with God in the Hymns of the Roman Breviary (2002) by Martin D. O’Keefe, SJ, that is published by and available from the Institute of Jesuit Sources (jesuitsources.bc.edu).

For each of the almost 300 Latin hymns in the 1974 Liturgia Horarum, Father O’Keefe provides a dignified and reverent translation that is both suitable for recitation in English and sufficiently accurate to serve as a reliable guide to understanding for one who wishes to recite these office hymn-prayers in the original Latin but is not adequately versed in classical Latin poetry to do so without such assistance for comprehension.

The Latin and English versions of each hymn are attractively printed in parallel columns to facilitate visual correspondence between them.

Pending the projected 2020 availability of the new English translation of the Liturgy of the Hours – which for some time seems to have remained on the horizon a steady five years in the future – there may not be another comparable source that includes in a single handy Latin-English volume the totality of LOH hymns for all seven hours of the divine office – the Office of Readings and Night Prayer as well as Morning and Evening Prayer and the three daytime hours.

Henry Edwards Alcoa, Tenn.

Adam Bartlett Responds: Dear Henry, Thank you for the kind note, and l’m glad that you enjoyed the article. And thank you also for bringing the book Exultemus to my attention. I had not seen it before, but after looking into it I can see that it would make a wonderful companion to the Liber Hymnarius, especially for those who are in need of help in comprehending the Latin poetic texts. I will gladly add this to my library!

Further thoughts on the Liturgy of the Hours translation To the Editor: In your Letter section of the July issue of the Bulletin you treat the matter of the new translation of the Liturgy of the Hours. Is it also planned to correct some strange theology?

The following two certainly need revision:

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From the Intercessions in Evening Prayer, Wednesday, Week III: “Be merciful to the faithful departed, keep them from the power of the Evil One.” From the Intercessions in Evening Prayer, Friday, the same week: “You opened Paradise to the thief who believed in you, do not close the gates of heaven to the faithful departed.”

Are these really what the original Latin expresses? I hope not.

And while the revisers are at it, a grammarian could help them. In English, collective nouns take singular verbs. The Te Deum needs this correction.

Father David Welter Houston, Minn.

Adoremus responds: The relationship between prayer and belief, while always in the Church’s mind, is a truth emphasized today, especially in light of the unique challenge of liturgical inculturation. Pius XII spoke of the relationship between the law or prayer and the law of belief in his 1947 Encyclical Mediator Dei (nos.

46-48), and today’s Catechism likewise reminds us of the maxim, Legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi: “Let the law of prayer establish the law of belief” (CCC, n.1124). In short, it matters how one prays, especially liturgically, for these words express and foster the Church’s belief.

Are the petitions to “keep [the faithful departed] from the power of the Evil One” and to “not close the gates of heaven to the faithful departed” a clear orandi of the Church’s credendi? Do they adequately expresses the Paschal character of death and the Church’s duty to “ask [God] to purify his child of his sins and their consequences, and to admit him to the Paschal fullness of the table of the Kingdom” (CCC, n.1689)?

Whether these translations do or do not do justice to the Church’s belief about praying for the dead, this much is certain: both texts – neque in potestatem maligni spiritus tradas eos and noli defunctis nostris caeli claudere portas – will be translated anew using the principles of Liturgiam Authenticam and will be different.

Liturgiam Authenticam also speaks of the translation of nouns, although briefly. To be avoided, it says, “is the systematic resort to imprudent solutions such as a mechanical substitution of words, the transition from the singular to the plural, the splitting of a unitary collective term into masculine and feminine parts, or the introduction of impersonal or abstract words” (n.31). The Ratio translationis, the accompanying document that applies Liturgiam Authenticam’s principles to the English language, may have further principles on this point.

R E A D E R S ’ F O RU M

Replenishing Holy Water

In our parish I was told if I get holy water from the holy water tank in the back of the church, I am to get only about 1/4 of holy water in my container and fill the rest up with water from the tap and it will all be holy water. Also I was to put the same amount of water from the tap into the holy water tank to replace what I have taken so it won’t go empty. What would it be like in time? Holy Water?

Plain water? I have never heard of such a practice. What does the Church teach about this?

Betty Kovacevick Auburn, WA The 1917 Code of Canon Law allows adding ordinary water to holy water. Canon 757 §2 provides that if the blessed water in a baptismal font seems insufficient for a Baptism, unblessed water may be added, but the added water must be less than the amount of blessed water in the font.

There is a similar provision for blessed oil in Canon 734 §2. If the amount of oil is insufficient for anointing, plain olive oil may be added as long as the added amount is less than the remaining blessed oil.

These provisions are not repeated in the 1983 Code, but they seem to be still valid. In his book The Liturgical Question Box (Ignatius Press, 1998) Monsignor (now Bishop) Peter J. Elliott answers a question similar to yours: “What would you say of the old practice of adding unblessed water to holy water, which was thereby blessed if the quantity of added water was less than that already in the container?” (p.

157).

The author answers that there was general permission for this, possibly because the rite for blessing water was rather long. He believes, however, that now the practice of adding unblessed water to holy water is “redundant.” The Rite of Mass allows for the Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling of Water to be used in place of the Penitential Act at a Sunday Mass. On a day when this rite is used, a large enough quantity could be blessed to address the needs of the parish for a period of time.

It is also possible to bless water outside of Mass.

Applying this to the advice you received, it seems that adding a small amount of plain water (equal to the amount of holy water that was transferred to a small bottle) to the much larger amount in the tank would be permissible. But adding an amount of plain water which is three times the amount of holy water to the bottle would not. Keeping the tank supplied with holy water blessed by a priest (or deacon) would seem to be the preferred practice.

–Susan Benofy

Celebrating Beauty

Many thanks for your superb coverage and photos of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Lincoln, Neb. How wonderful to view such glorious stainedglass windows in a new church.

Bravo for the return of beauty to our church!

Father Richard Beligotti Venice, FL We certainly appreciated the article in your last edition about

the Newman Center complex at the University of Nebraska.

Eunice and Leon Cyr Fowler, IN

A Life of Learning

Please accept my donation for the Bulletin. I love the Adoremus Bulletin and learn a lot from it. I’m 86, a cradle-Catholic, and practice my faith. I pass on the Adoremus Bulletin when I’m through with it.

Rita Schulties Germantown, WI

Questions of Faith What does the Church legislate about using nogluten or lowgluten hosts?

The USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship, incorporating directives from the Holy See, offers the following, pastoral teaching.

Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. For those with the disease, eating gluten triggers an immune response in the small intestine. Over time, this immune reaction damages the small intestine’s lining and hinders absorption of some nutrients. The intestinal damage often causes stomach pain, diarrhea, and weight loss, and can lead to serious complications. A Mayo Clinic-led analysis published in 2012 estimates that roughly 1.8 million Americans have the disease, but around 1.4 million of them are unaware that they have it.

Given the serious health risk for those suffering gluten intolerance, it is important for pastors and other Church leaders not only to be aware of the reality, but prepared to address the situation of Catholics with celiac disease who come to parishes and seek to receive Holy Communion in a safe, sensitive, and compassionate manner….

The most recent Church teaching on the use of mustum and low-gluten hosts at Mass remains the letter from thenCardinal Joseph Ratzinger on July 24, 2003 (Prot. n. 89/7817498), which was addressed to the Presidents of Conferences of Bishops. In that letter, pastors and the faithful are reminded that for bread to be valid matter for the Eucharist, it must be made solely of wheat, contain enough gluten to effect

the confection of bread, be free of foreign materials, and unaffected by any preparation or baking methods which would alter its nature. The amount of gluten necessary for validity in such bread is not determined by minimum percentage or weight, though hosts which have no gluten are considered invalid matter for Mass. (In the Roman Rite, the bread prepared for the Eucharist must also be unleavened.)…

The lay faithful who are not able to receive Holy Communion at all under the species of bread, even of low-gluten hosts, may receive Holy Communion under the species of wine only, regardless of whether the Precious Blood is offered to the rest of the faithful present at a given celebration of Mass….

As a best practice, it is recommended that individuals with gluten and/or alcohol intolerance arrange through their parish the purchase of any low-gluten hosts or mustum.

This facilitates the oversight and good stewardship of the pastor who is responsible as mentioned above. It also “normalizes” the practice for the communicant, as well as keeping the purchase of liturgical supplies together in the parish budget.

It is also worth recalling that, through the doctrine of concomitance, the Church teaches that under either species of bread or wine, the whole Christ is received (cf. General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 282; Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1390).

Thus, the faithful may be confident in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist they receive, even under only one or the other species.

(For a fuller response, see the Committee on Divine Worship’s Celiac Disease, Alcohol Intolerance, And the Church’s Pastoral Response.)

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 3 — September 2015

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Holy Family by Juan Simon Gutierrez (d.1718)

Prayer for the Synod on the Family Pope Francis Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendor of true love, to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer,

authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic Churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth, may families never again experience violence, rejection and division: may all who have been hurt or scandalized find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth, may the approaching Synod of Bishops make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, graciously hear our prayer.

Pope Francis on the Sacrament of Confirmation

General Audience of January 29, 2014

I

n this third catechesis on the Sacraments, we pause to reflect on confirmation or “Chrismation” which must be understood in continuity with baptism, to which it is inseparably linked.

These two Sacraments, together with the Eucharist, form a single saving event — called “Christian initiation” — in which we are inserted into Jesus Christ, who died and rose, and become new creatures and members of the Church. This is why these three sacraments were originally celebrated on one occasion, at the end of the catechumenal journey, normally at the Easter Vigil. The path of formation and gradual insertion into the Christian community, which could last even up to a few years, was thus sealed. One trav-

page 12

elled step by step to reach baptism, then confirmation and the Eucharist.

We commonly speak of the sacrament of “Chrismation,” a word that signifies “anointing.” And, in effect, through the oil called “sacred Chrism” we are conformed, in the power of the Spirit, to Jesus Christ, who is the only true “anointed One,” the “Messiah,” the Holy One of God. The word “confirmation” then reminds us that this sacrament brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace: it unites us more firmly to Christ, it renders our bond with the Church more perfect, and it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith, ... to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of his Cross (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1303).

For this reason, it is important to take care that our children, our young people, receive this sacrament. We all take care that they are baptized and this is good, but perhaps we do not take so much care to ensure that they are confirmed. Thus they remain at a midpoint in their journey and do not receive the Holy Spirit, who is so important in the Christian life since he gives us the strength to go on.* Let us think a little, each one of us: do we truly care whether our children, our young people, receive confirmation?

This is important, it is important! And if you have children or adolescents at home

who have not yet received it and are at the age to do so, do everything possible to ensure that they complete their Christian initiation and receive the power of the Holy Spirit. It is important!

Naturally it is important to prepare those being confirmed well, leading them towards a personal commitment to faith in Christ and reawakening in them a sense of belonging to the Church.

Confirmation, like every sacrament, is not the work of men but of God, who cares for our lives in such a manner as to mold us in the image of his Son, to make us capable of loving like him. He does it by infusing in us his Holy Spirit, whose action pervades the whole person and his entire life, as reflected in the seven gifts that tradition, in light of the sacred scripture, has always highlighted. These seven gifts: I do not want to ask you if you remember the seven gifts. Perhaps you will all know them.... But I will say them on your behalf. What are these gifts?

Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. And these gifts have been given to us precisely with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation. I therefore intend to dedicate the catecheses that follow those on the Sacrament to these seven gifts.

When we welcome the Holy Spirit into our hearts and allow him to act, Christ makes himself present in us and takes

shape in our lives; through us, it will be he — Christ himself — who prays, forgives, gives hope and consolation, serves the brethren, draws close to the needy and to the least, creates community and sows peace. Think how important this is: by means of the Holy Spirit, Christ himself comes to do all this among us and for us. That is why it is important that children and young people receive the sacrament of confirmation.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that we have received confirmation! All of us! Let us remember it, first in order to thank the Lord for this gift, and then to ask him to help us to live as true Christians, to walk always with joy in the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. *On the place of the Holy Spirit and his gifts at confirmation, a fuller treatment is given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1285-1321, which begins: “It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For ‘by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed’” (n.1285).