Catholic and Loving it!

If you like Vikings (and let's face it, they are up there with Pirates and Ninjas) then you might like this Viking Ice-Slicing Game.

I did.

When a person becomes a Catholic, people often talk about them as "coming home" - in the sense that the Catholic Church is everybody's spiritual home. Being a Catholic in England today is like coming home to find your house has been burgled.

Then you realise the house wasn't burgled at all. Your parents just decided it would be a good idea to smash everything and throw it out on the street. Being a young Catholic family in Britain in 2009 is largely a matter of picking around in the wreckage and seeing what you can find.

Word on the street says it's been a custom since the Middle Ages for people to have their homes blessed at Epiphany (which is news to me). It's not practical to have the priest go to every home in one day (unless he is Father Christmas) so a tradition arose whereby the priest would bless chalk at Epiphany and people would use the chalk to bless their homes.

The blessing (which is in the 1964 roman ritual) goes like this...

P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: May He also be with you.

Bless, + O Lord God, this creature, chalk, and let it be a help to mankind. Grant that those who will use it with faith in your most holy name, and with it inscribe on the doors of their homes the names of your saints, Casper, Melchior, and Baltassar, may through their merits and intercession enjoy health in body and protection of soul; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.

You then use the chalk to write the year and the initials of the three Magi (Yes, we all know the Bible doesn't mention any names or numbers of Magi, you're very smart, shut up) on the lintel of your door. Like this:

20 + C + M + B + 09

If you're one of those folks who hates fun and likes to stress about names (we don't have any) and numbers (we don't know) of "kings" (the Bible says wise men) then you can take comfort in the fact that CMB may also stand for "Christus Mansionem Benedicat" which even a fool like me can see is Latin for "Christ Bless this Mansion". Fr Z suspects that's just a clever backronym though he was too cool to actually use the word backronym.

I hope our Bishop will turn out to be the kind of guy who says no to the Bishops Conference and puts Epiphany back on the 6th where it belongs instead of the nearest Sunday. He can do that sort of thing in his own diocese and I would seriously urge him to do so - I dare say I'm not the only one.

That would be awesome. Then we could go to Mass on the feast of Epiphany and have some chalk blessed and take it home and write above our doors. These days of course Bishop Drainey would also need to apply for an indult to allow the blessing of dry markers for use on UPVC.

Anyway, I can't help feeling like I should have found out about all this before I was twenty-six and married with a child. It's too late this year - Epiphany (whichever day it was on) is pretty much over. It's been a bit of a non-event to be honest.

I hope that next year (whether Bishop Drainey turns out to be a hero or not) we will make it a bit less rubbish with an Epiphany cake. Oh yes! There is a cake for everything...

Fr Tim Finigan writes about the way we help people to 'participate' in the Sacred Liturgy by having something other than the Sacred Liturgy instead...

To take just one example: what is meant to be sung at the beginning of Mass is the Introit; and Vatican II gave pride of place to Gregorian Chant for liturgical music. Most people will only ever hear the Introit sung at Mass celebrated according to the usus antiquior. At English Masses, they will not hear the Introit in English set to Gregorian Chant or even in some modern musical form. Instead, they will get an "Entrance hymn" chosen to suit the "theme" of the Mass or the season, or because it is one that people know and enjoy.

Imagine suggesting that the Entrance hymn be replaced by the Introit - perhaps sung in English according to one of the psalm tones to start with. One of the most likely objections will be that the people cannot participate.

This leads to a deeper question concerning the nature of liturgical participation. From Pope St Pius X onwards, there have been calls for active participation - culminating in the call of Sacrosanctum Concilium for the full, conscious and active participation of the people.

Notice, however, that "participation" implies that we are participating in something. What we are meant to be participating in is the Sacred Liturgy. The hymn "Holy God we praise thy name", or "Colours of Day" - take your pick - is not a part of the Sacred Liturgy. If such a hymn is chosen in preference to the Introit, nobody is actually participating in the Sacred Liturgy: people are simply singing a hymn that they like (or at least that somebody likes or thinks that other people should like.)

Has not "active participation" given way to mere activity?

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"Imagine suggesting that the Entrance hymn be replaced by the Introit"

Imagine! I don't have to imagine it - I've done it. The introit is very definitely on the list of things I am excluded from by the modern Church in the name of inclusion.

It's the same story as the Latin. Eleven year olds in England are routinely taught to say "Hello, Pleased to meet you, My name is Jack, How old are you? Where is the hotel?" in French (to help them feel in touch with Europe or something) but oh mercy won't somebody think of the children if anybody suggests they might learn five lines of Pater Noster and so speak in one voice with Catholics around the world and through the centuries... So we are excluded from Latin.

I hope someday we will be able to partake in these things from which we have been excluded in the name of inclusion. In the meantime, the madness continues.

Isn't an atheist anymore.

See here and here.

I only mention it because I used to follow his blog a few years ago and didn't see it coming at all.

Good news.

He is now The Raving Theist

Bishop Terry's invitation to Young People...

Each week during Lent I will come to Hull, York and Middlesbrough. I hope to meet you there. If you are open to what the Lord is saying, life will never be the same again. I promise. Together, I want us to begin to answer Jesus' challenging question: "Who do you say I am?"

St Mark's Gospel: Who do you say I am?

The demons recognised at once who Jesus is: "We know who you are, the Holy One of God." But Jesus silenced them.

Jesus tried to show his disciples - through his teaching and his miracles. He thought they were beginning to understand. "You are the Christ," Peter said, "the Son of God". But when the going got tough, when the way lead to the cross, they ran.

What about you? Who do you say that he is?

Come and find out for yourself.

Mark's Gospel: Who do you say I am?

Mark is sure he knows who Jesus is. "The Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God" is the first line of his gospel. Jesus tries to show his disciples by his teaching and his miracles who he is. "You are the Christ" Peter said, "the Son of God". What about you? Who do you say he is?

[Source: Middlesbrough Catholic Voice]

I would encourage all young people in Middlesbrough Diocese to get themselves along to their nearest meeting with the Bishop.

York people need to get themselves to English Martyrs on Tuesdays in March (the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th) Hull people need to get themselves to The Endsleigh Centre on Wednesdays in March (the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th) and Middlesbrough people need to get themselves to St Thomas More on Thursdays in March (5th, 12th, 19th and 26th)

This is your opportunity to find out what this religion stuff is all about.

"Talk to Your Daughter Before the Beauty Industry Does"

Joanna Bogle on the history of English Catholic architecture...

If you haven't yet seen... ...the superb DVD A glimpse of Heaven, rush and get one NOW. It tells the story of some of the most glorious Catholic churches in Britain - fabulous buildings by Pugin and Gilbert Scott, great abbeys and magnificent spires soaring over northern cities, gems of beautiful art and stained glass and superb craftmanship...and it also shows some of the ghastly destruction wrought in the 1960s and 70s in the name of "renovation" and "updating" and also the ravages of time with much-loved churches now threatened by closure and abandonment...please, please watch it and then in the campaign to restore beauty and cherish our heritage. The DVD was a Christmas gift to a family member and we watched it this evening, by turns awestruck, fascinated, thrilled and saddened.

[link]

Secular people pay to get in to York Minster, Lincoln Cathedral and Rievaulx Abbey. When are we going to start building Churches people would pay to see instead of ugly monstrosities? How many people will be paying to see this in a few hundred years time?

In the news this week...

Married couples are thousands of pounds worse off than parents who do not live together under the tax and benefits system, according to a report by an influential think tank.

Despite Gordon Brown's pledge to support "hard working families", those who marry or set up home together and establish a stable family are up to 20 per cent poorer, the Civitas study shows.

...

Campaigners warned last night that the situation "punishes" families trying to do the right thing. A senior MP said it was "insane".

The findings will lead to further allegations that the system of benefits and tax is fuelling "Broken Britain".

...

The report also found that so-called "pushy, middle-class parents" who provide a supportive home and try to find the best education for their children improved schools and communities.

It said such people were "vital to the success of any society" and accused Labour of failing them.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The current benefits system has huge inbuilt biases against socially responsible behaviour and the tax system punishes families who try to do the right thing.

"Not only is this situation completely unfair, but it also undermines the creation of a better, more socially just society."

The report, Individualists Who Co-Operate, said the system "penalises" couples who live together, adding to accusations that Labour's taxes and handouts are encouraging the death of traditional family structures.

It found, in one case, that where a lone mother earned £10,000 a year, and her partner earned £25,000, they were £5,473 worse off if they decided to live together. If the lone mother did not work, they were £4,522 worse off for cohabiting.

...

Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "Britain suffers massively from the problems caused by family breakdown.

"It is little short of insane that we have a tax and benefits system that encourages couples to live apart rather than together. This is something the Conservatives are committed to changing."

...

Research last year, from the Millennium Cohort Study, found that married parents are more than twice as likely to stay together as those who are unwed.

[link]

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, I think an unemployed single mother should get government support because she needs government support to stop herself and her children from ending up on the street.

On the other hand, if she has a boyfriend who earns as much as I do (which isn't very much) then it seems crazy for her to get funded so they can have two homes between them. That's what happens at the moment. Unmarried parents where one stays at home and one works get government support so that none of his wages have to be spent on her children or accommodation.

If the boyfriend is the father of the children they are worse off because he will have to pay some kind of maintenance. That means a stay at home mum is most financially well off if she leaves the father of her children and starts going out with man number two.

That's why the kids with unmarried mums and two dads are getting a new mobile, ipod and PS3 for Christmas while the kids with married parents are lucky to get a satsuma. I'm not envious though, because unmarried step-ish-father-ish man number two is the person most likely to hit his unmarried single mum and sexually abuse her child. Full stop.

Idiots like my wife and I get married. Married parents where one stays at home and the other works do not get government support so that none of his wages have to be spent on their children and accommodation. So we are poor.

On the other hand, our relationship has been raised to the level of a Sacrament in which we become a living icon of the trinity and partake in God's creation of new life. I reckon that's worth a few grand a year.

It had better be, because that's what we're paying.