Catholic Metanarrative

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Wednesday Liturgy: New Priests Blessing Bishops

ROME, APRIL 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.


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G.C. from Dhaka, Bangladesh, asked several questions on diverse liturgical topics. I will try to briefly answer each question one by one.

Q1: Almost every year we have a good number of priestly ordinations. In some dioceses I noticed that after the priestly ordination some masters of ceremonies asked the newly ordained priest to bless first the bishops present, then the priests, and then other lay participants. When the bishops come, they kneel in front of the altar, then the newly ordained priest blesses the bishops; then the priests come and also kneel before the altar, and the newly ordained priest blesses them. When I asked them where they found this custom, they answered that they saw it somewhere in Europe. Is it the right rites or is there any instruction regarding this?

A: There are certainly some bishops who of their own initiative request the first blessing of priests they have just ordained. This is a question of personal devotion and an expression of his spiritual paternity. It does not form part of the rites, and I am not aware of its being an established custom in any European country.

At an ordination Mass it is the presiding bishop who imparts the final blessing. The newly ordained begin to impart blessings after Mass is over. Many new priests prefer to reserve their first blessings for their parents, so I think this practice of formalized first blessings should not be encouraged.

Q2: On major occasions such as diaconate or priestly ordination, blessing of a new church, or reception of a bishop or a papal nuncio, there are three or four concelebrant bishops at the Eucharistic celebration. Of course there are a lot of priests also. At the celebration, when all the bishops are around the altar, then we do not have space for deacons next to bishop. Also, when the bishop who is the main celebrant sits, there is also no room for deacons to sit next to the bishop, because all the concelebrant bishops sit next to the bishop. Would you please give me your remarks? Second, in big occasions when more bishops are present, at the end of the Mass the main celebrant bishop asks all other bishops to join him in the final blessing and then all the bishops bless together. Is this liturgical?

A: Having the principal concelebrant accompanied by deacons is a means of emphasizing his presiding role, although their seats are near the bishop but not necessarily flanking him. Other concelebrating bishops should not ordinarily sit next to the presiding bishop, although they should have a prominent place with respect to other concelebrants.

During the Eucharistic Prayer the deacons stand slightly behind the concelebrants. However, these concelebrants, even if they are bishops, should not obstruct the deacon when he has to approach the altar to perform his duties. If space is tight, then it is enough for one deacon to serve at the altar.

At his Wednesday audiences the Holy Father usually invites all bishops present to join him in the blessing, but this is never done at Mass. The practice of inviting all bishops to share the blessing at Mass is not a proper liturgical practice as this falls on the presiding celebrant.

Q3: At the Liturgy of the Hours: when someone reads the short reading, in some places they say at the beginning, "Scripture reading," and at the end, "This is the Word of the Lord." Of course, in the introduction it clearly says that the Word of God should be proclaimed. In many places, someone goes to the lectern, reads, and comes back, saying nothing. Which one is the right way according to the instruction? Since nothing is very clearly mentioned, it sometimes creates a little confusion.

A: No greeting is indicated for the short reading because it is customary in this office to simply proclaim or chant the reading. The short responsory constitutes the response to the short reading so the reader also says nothing at the end.

Q4: In the Mass: In the Italian lectionary after the Gospel reading it says, "Parola del Cristo." Some of our priests studied in Italy. After coming back to our country, Bangladesh, they are also introducing the same. Even Italian priests here say the same. At the end of the Gospel reading they also say, "Word of Christ." Would you please clarify which one is correct: "Word of God" or "Word of Christ"? Our laypeople are sometimes confused.

A: Actually, the Italian lectionary says, "Parola del Signore," or "The Word of the Lord," after the Gospel and the equivalent of "the Word of God" for the other readings. At no time is "Word of Christ" used. This diversified translation brings out the double meaning of the Latin "Verbum Domini" that is testified by the people's different responses at the end of the readings. It should be clarified, however, that nobody should change approved liturgical translations on his own initiative, no matter where he has studied.

Q5: Incensing: In the General Instruction of the Roman Mass [GIRM] it is clearly said where to give incense at the reading. In our country we do not have the Book of the Gospels. We have the Bible and Bengali lectionary. So when we make the Bible procession before the reading, we take incense with us and incense at the beginning of the first reading. In fact, we incense the whole Bible or lectionary and not always before the Gospel reading. Once we do it at the beginning of the reading, we do not incense at the Gospel reading. If we do not incense at the beginning, then we do it at the Gospel reading according to the GIRM. What is your opinion?

A: Only the Book of the Gospels is brought in procession and placed on the altar at the beginning of Mass. But this could be any decent version of the Book of the Gospels, even in another language. If necessary, a photocopy of the day's reading can be inserted into this book. At the same time, if there is no Book of the Gospels, the lectionary may be incensed at the time of the Gospel reading in the usual manner. In this case the lectionary is at the ambo from the beginning of Mass and is not carried in at the entrance procession. Since these alternatives exist, I see no reason not to follow the Catholic practice that reserves the incense to the moment of reading the Gospel.

Q6: As far as I know, the deacon can bless at Benediction. If priests and bishops are present at a holy hour, would it be correct for a deacon to give the blessing? If not, then who would be the right person to give the blessing, the bishop or the priest?

A: Except when there is some legitimate impediment, a bishop should preside before a priest, and a priest before a deacon. A deacon should not normally give any blessing when a priest is present and available.

Q7: During the Eucharistic Prayer we mention the name of local ordinary. If there is/are auxiliary bishop(s), is it then proper to add his/their name(s)?

A: As indicated in the missal itself, this is a possibility but not an obligation. If there are several auxiliaries, then a general form such as "Our Bishop N. and his assistant bishops" may be used.

Q8: Our present archbishop received his pallium from the apostolic nuncio at his installation ceremony. He uses his pallium in all the major occasions in the diocese: parish feasts, ordinations, jubilee celebrations, etc. Is there any provision when it has to be used? Or is it optional or obligatory?

A: The pallium (a circular white wool band with pendants) is used by residential archbishops when they preside at any solemn Mass within their own ecclesiastical province. It may not be worn outside of the province. Present law basically leaves it up to the archbishop himself to determine the occasions for its use.

Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Deacons and the Passion Narrative

ROME, APRIL 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.


In the wake of our April 7 comments on reading the Passion narrative, several readers asked further questions.

An Ohio reader asked: "I would like to know if it is appropriate to play background music (on organ or piano) during the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday/Good Friday. If it is not appropriate, please cite the rule that defines this. I have read through various sections of the Roman Missal, and I cannot find any specific rule prohibiting this practice."

I would first comment on a question of liturgical interpretation. Usually the missal and other liturgical documents say what is to be done and not the reverse. Therefore the fact that nothing is written against a practice does not mean that it is automatically permitted. Indeed, since Church law generally follows the principles of Roman law, and not Anglo-Saxon common law, the presumption is that what is not expressly permitted is forbidden.

Explicit prohibitions usually arise as the result of people initiating practices that are not contemplated in the norms and that are perceived as going against the letter or the spirit of the liturgical norm.

That said, I would reply that the playing of instrumental music during the Passion reading, and indeed during any readings except the psalms, does not correspond to Catholic tradition which emphasizes the priority of the Word. Throughout the history of the Latin liturgy the readings have been chanted according to simple tones without musical accompaniment.

If this is true of all readings, It is especially so during the proclamation of the Passion in which habitual liturgical solemnities such as incense are left aside.

Finally, on Good Friday the use of all musical instruments is excluded — hence, also during the Passion narrative.

Another American reader asked: "What is the official stance of the Church regarding members of the assembly, the people in the pews, reading the chorus parts of the Gospel during the proclamation of the Passion on Palm Sunday and Good Friday?"

As far as I know, there is no official position on this. I once held the opinion that this was possible, deducing that since a choir can take the part of the multitude, the people could substitute a choir. Both reflection and pastoral experience led me to change my opinion. The proclamation of God's word is best assimilated in silence. I found that when the people were asked to take an active part in this reading, many were so attentive to intervening at the right moment that they lost track of the whole reading. Therefore, based on the legal principle mentioned above and on personal experience, I would not recommend this practice.

A reader from Birmingham, England, asked: "Can a deacon officiate as the only minister at the solemn Commemoration of the Passion on Good Friday afternoon? In our parish, we now have two churches but with only one priest. Our priest celebrates the solemn liturgy in one church at 3 p.m., whilst our deacon celebrates the same solemn liturgy simultaneously in the other church. (Both churches enjoy a full congregation for this particular service.) The deacon even wears his red dalmatic Mass vestments. I have been told that the solemn liturgy on Good Friday can only be celebrated by a priest. Please let me know which is correct."

Effectively, this rite is reserved to the priest, although not necessarily the same priest. Moreover, since the Mass of the Lord's Supper and the Celebration of the Passion are intimately connected, the norms are explicit that both must be celebrated in the same church. It is forbidden to reserve or transfer the Blessed Sacrament to another church for the purpose of adoration or distribution of holy Communion.

Consequentially for there to be two celebrations of the Passion, there would necessarily have to be two separate Masses of the Lord's Supper, one in each church. This is certainly allowable, but the priest would also have to celebrate two rites of the Passion, perhaps one at 3 p.m. and the other at 6.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Glendon's Letter to Notre Dame President

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, APRIL 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the letter Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, sent today to the president of Notre Dame, Father John Jenkins, in which she declines the university's offer to give her the Laetare Medal at this year's commencement.


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Dear Father Jenkins,

When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame's most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.

Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors.

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops' express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" and that such persons "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution's freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.

Then I learned that "talking points" issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:

• "President Obama won't be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal."

• "We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about."

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame's decision -- in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops -- to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church's position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops' guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame's example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.

It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.

In order to avoid the inevitable speculation about the reasons for my decision, I will release this letter to the press, but I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.

Yours Very Truly,

Mary Ann Glendon

Friday, April 24, 2009

Benedict XVI's Easter Vigil Homily: "The Church Sings the Song of Thanksgiving of the Saved"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered Holy Saturday at the Mass of the Easter Vigil, celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Saint Mark tells us in his Gospel that as the disciples came down from the Mount of the Transfiguration, they were discussing among themselves what "rising from the dead" could mean (cf. Mk 9:10). A little earlier, the Lord had foretold his passion and his resurrection after three days. Peter had protested against this prediction of death. But now, they were wondering what could be meant by the word "resurrection". Could it be that we find ourselves in a similar situation? Christmas, the birth of the divine Infant, we can somehow immediately comprehend. We can love the child, we can imagine that night in Bethlehem, Mary's joy, the joy of Saint Joseph and the shepherds, the exultation of the angels. But what is resurrection? It does not form part of our experience, and so the message often remains to some degree beyond our understanding, a thing of the past. The Church tries to help us understand it, by expressing this mysterious event in the language of symbols in which we can
somehow contemplate this astonishing event. During the Easter Vigil, the Church points out the significance of this day principally through three symbols: light, water, and the new song the Alleluia.

First of all, there is light. God's creation which has just been proclaimed to us in the Biblical narrative begins with the command: "Let there be light!" (Gen 1:3). Where there is light, life is born, chaos can be transformed into cosmos. In the Biblical message, light is the most immediate image of God: He is total Radiance, Life, Truth, Light. During the Easter Vigil, the Church reads the account of creation as a prophecy. In the resurrection, we see the most sublime fulfilment of what this text describes as the beginning of all things. God says once again: "Let there be light!" The resurrection of Jesus is an eruption of light. Death is conquered, the tomb is thrown open. The Risen One himself is Light, the Light of the world. With the resurrection, the Lord's day enters the nights of history. Beginning with the resurrection, God's light spreads throughout the world and throughout history. Day dawns. This Light alone Jesus Christ is the true light, something more than the
physical phenomenon of light. He is pure Light: God himself, who causes a new creation to be born in the midst of the old, transforming chaos into cosmos.

Let us try to understand this a little better. Why is Christ Light? In the Old Testament, the Torah was considered to be like the light coming from God for the world and for humanity. The Torah separates light from darkness within creation, that is to say, good from evil. It points out to humanity the right path to true life. It points out the good, it demonstrates the truth and it leads us towards love, which is the deepest meaning contained in the Torah. It is a "lamp" for our steps and a "light" for our path (cf. Ps 119:105). Christians, then, knew that in Christ, the Torah is present, the Word of God is present in him as Person. The Word of God is the true light that humanity needs. This Word is present in him, in the Son. Psalm 19 had compared the Torah to the sun which manifests God's glory as it rises, for all the world to see. Christians understand: yes indeed, in the resurrection, the Son of God has emerged as the Light of the world. Christ is the great Light from which all
life originates. He enables us to recognize the glory of God from one end of the earth to the other. He points out our path. He is the Lord's day which, as it grows, is gradually spreading throughout the earth. Now, living with him and for him, we can live in the light.

At the Easter Vigil, the Church represents the mystery of the light of Christ in the sign of the Paschal candle, whose flame is both light and heat. The symbolism of light is connected with that of fire: radiance and heat, radiance and the transforming energy contained in the fire truth and love go together. The Paschal candle burns, and is thereby consumed: Cross and resurrection are inseparable. From the Cross, from the Son's self-giving, light is born, true radiance comes into the world. From the Paschal candle we all light our own candles, especially the newly baptized, for whom the light of Christ enters deeply into their hearts in this Sacrament. The early Church described Baptism as fotismos, as the Sacrament of illumination, as a communication of light, and linked it inseparably with the resurrection of Christ. In Baptism, God says to the candidate: "Let there be light!" The candidate is brought into the light of Christ. Christ now divides the light from the darkness. In him
we recognize what is true and what is false, what is radiance and what is darkness. With him, there wells up within us the light of truth, and we begin to understand. On one occasion when Christ looked upon the people who had come to listen to him, seeking some guidance from him, he felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (cf. Mk 6:34). Amid the contradictory messages of that time, they did not know which way to turn. What great compassion he must feel in our own time too on account of all the endless talk that people hide behind, while in reality they are totally confused. Where must we go? What are the values by which we can order our lives? The values by which we can educate our young, without giving them norms they may be unable to resist, or demanding of them things that perhaps should not be imposed upon them? He is the Light. The baptismal candle is the symbol of enlightenment that is given to us in Baptism. Thus at this hour, Saint Paul
speaks to us with great immediacy. In the Letter to the Philippians, he says that, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, Christians should shine as lights in the world (cf. Phil 2:15). Let us pray to the Lord that the fragile flame of the candle he has lit in us, the delicate light of his word and his love amid the confusions of this age, will not be extinguished in us, but will become ever stronger and brighter, so that we, with him, can be people of the day, bright stars lighting up our time.

The second symbol of the Easter Vigil the night of Baptism is water. It appears in Sacred Scripture, and hence also in the inner structure of the Sacrament of Baptism, with two opposed meanings. On the one hand there is the sea, which appears as a force antagonistic to life on earth, continually threatening it; yet God has placed a limit upon it. Hence the book of Revelation says that in God's new world, the sea will be no more (cf. 21:1). It is the element of death. And so it becomes the symbolic representation of Jesus' death on the Cross: Christ descended into the sea, into the waters of death, as Israel did into the Red Sea. Having risen from death, he gives us life. This means that Baptism is not only a cleansing, but a new birth: with Christ we, as it were, descend into the sea of death, so as to rise up again as new creatures.

The other way in which we encounter water is in the form of the fresh spring that gives life, or the great river from which life comes forth. According to the earliest practice of the Church, Baptism had to be administered with water from a fresh spring. Without water there is no life. It is striking how much importance is attached to wells in Sacred Scripture. They are places from which life rises forth. Beside Jacob's well, Christ spoke to the Samaritan woman of the new well, the water of true life. He reveals himself to her as the new, definitive Jacob, who opens up for humanity the well that is awaited: the inexhaustible source of life-giving water (cf. Jn 4:5-15). Saint John tells us that a soldier with a lance struck the side of Jesus, and from his open side from his pierced heart there came out blood and water (cf. Jn 19:34). The early Church saw in this a symbol of Baptism and Eucharist flowing from the pierced heart of Jesus. In his death, Jesus himself became the spring.
The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of the new Temple from which a spring issues forth that becomes a great life-giving river (cf. Ezek 47:1-12). In a land which constantly suffered from drought and water shortage, this was a great vision of hope. Nascent Christianity understood: in Christ, this vision was fulfilled. He is the true, living Temple of God. He is the spring of living water. From him, the great river pours forth, which in Baptism renews the world and makes it fruitful; the great river of living water, his Gospel which makes the earth fertile. In a discourse during the Feast of Tabernacles, though, Jesus prophesied something still greater: "Whoever believes in me out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water" (Jn 7:38). In Baptism, the Lord makes us not only persons of light, but also sources from which living water bursts forth. We all know people like that, who leave us somehow refreshed and renewed; people who are like a fountain of fresh spring water. We do not
necessarily have to think of great saints like Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and so on, people through whom rivers of living water truly entered into human history. Thanks be to God, we find them constantly even in our daily lives: people who are like a spring. Certainly, we also know the opposite: people who spread around themselves an atmosphere like a stagnant pool of stale, or even poisoned water. Let us ask the Lord, who has given us the grace of Baptism, for the gift always to be sources of pure, fresh water, bubbling up from the fountain of his truth and his love!

The third great symbol of the Easter Vigil is something rather different; it has to do with man himself. It is the singing of the new song the alleluia. When a person experiences great joy, he cannot keep it to himself. He has to express it, to pass it on. But what happens when a person is touched by the light of the resurrection, and thus comes into contact with Life itself, with Truth and Love? He cannot merely speak about it. Speech is no longer adequate. He has to sing. The first reference to singing in the Bible comes after the crossing of the Red Sea. Israel has risen out of slavery. It has climbed up from the threatening depths of the sea. It is as it were reborn. It lives and it is free. The Bible describes the people's reaction to this great event of salvation with the verse: "The people believed in the Lord and in Moses his servant" (Ex 14:31). Then comes the second reaction which, with a kind of inner necessity, follows from the first one: "Then Moses and the Israelites
sang this song to the Lord " At the Easter Vigil, year after year, we Christians intone this song after the third reading, we sing it as our song, because we too, through God's power, have been drawn forth from the water and liberated for true life.

There is a surprising parallel to the story of Moses' song after Israel's liberation from Egypt upon emerging from the Red Sea, namely in the Book of Revelation of Saint John. Before the beginning of the seven last plagues imposed upon the earth, the seer has a vision of something "like a sea of glass mingled with fire; and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb " (Rev 15:2f.). This image describes the situation of the disciples of Jesus Christ in every age, the situation of the Church in the history of this world. Humanly speaking, it is self-contradictory. On the one hand, the community is located at the Exodus, in the midst of the Red Sea, in a sea which is paradoxically ice and fire at the same time. And must not the Church, so to speak, always walk on the sea, through the fire and the cold? Humanly
speaking, she ought to sink. But while she is still walking in the midst of this Red Sea, she sings she intones the song of praise of the just: the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in which the Old and New Covenants blend into harmony. While, strictly speaking, she ought to be sinking, the Church sings the song of thanksgiving of the saved. She is standing on history's waters of death and yet she has already risen. Singing, she grasps at the Lord's hand, which holds her above the waters. And she knows that she is thereby raised outside the force of gravity of death and evil a force from which otherwise there would be no way of escape raised and drawn into the new gravitational force of God, of truth and of love. At present she is still between the two gravitational fields. But once Christ is risen, the gravitational pull of love is stronger than that of hatred; the force of gravity of life is stronger than that of death. Perhaps this is actually the situation of the Church in every
age? It always seems as if she ought to be sinking, and yet she is always already saved. Saint Paul illustrated this situation with the words: "We are as dying, and behold we live" (2 Cor 6:9). The Lord's saving hand holds us up, and thus we can already sing the song of the saved, the new song of the risen ones: alleluia! Amen.

[Translation distributed by the Holy See]

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Pope's Homily for Easter Sunday: Christ "Is Our Hope, He Is the True Peace of the World"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the homily Benedict XVI gave at Easter Mass today in St. Peter's Basilica.


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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

"Christ, our Paschal lamb, has been sacrificed!" (1 Cor 5:7). On this day, Saint Paul's triumphant words ring forth, words that we have just heard in the second reading, taken from his First Letter to the Corinthians. It is a text which originated barely twenty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and yet like many Pauline passages it already contains, in an impressive synthesis, a full awareness of the newness of life in Christ. The central symbol of salvation history the Paschal lamb is here identified with Jesus, who is called "our Paschal lamb". The Hebrew Passover, commemorating the liberation from slavery in Egypt, provided for the ritual sacrifice of a lamb every year, one for each family, as prescribed by the Mosaic Law. In his passion and death, Jesus reveals himself as the Lamb of God, "sacrificed" on the Cross, to take away the sins of the world. He was killed at the very hour when it was customary to sacrifice the lambs in the Temple of Jerusalem. The meaning
of his sacrifice he himself had anticipated during the Last Supper, substituting himself under the signs of bread and wine for the ritual food of the Hebrew Passover meal. Thus we can truly say that Jesus brought to fulfilment the tradition of the ancient Passover, and transformed it into his Passover.

On the basis of this new meaning of the Paschal feast, we can also understand Saint Paul's interpretation of the "leaven". The Apostle is referring to an ancient Hebrew usage: according to which, on the occasion of the Passover, it was necessary to remove from the household every tiny scrap of leavened bread. On the one hand, this served to recall what had happened to their forefathers at the time of the flight from Egypt: leaving the country in haste, they had brought with them only unleavened bread. At the same time, though, the "unleavened bread" was a symbol of purification: removing the old to make space for the new. Now, Saint Paul explains, this ancient tradition likewise acquires a new meaning, once more derived from the new "Exodus", which is Jesus' passage from death to eternal life. And since Christ, as the true Lamb, sacrificed himself for us, we too, his disciples thanks to him and through him can and must be the "new dough", the "unleavened bread", liberated from every
residual element of the old yeast of sin: no more evil and wickedness in our heart.

"Let us celebrate the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". This exhortation from Saint Paul, which concludes the short reading that was proclaimed a few moments ago, resounds even more powerfully in the context of the Pauline Year. Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the Apostle's invitation; let us open our spirit to Christ, who has died and is risen in order to renew us, in order to remove from our hearts the poison of sin and death, and to pour in the life-blood of the Holy Spirit: divine and eternal life. In the Easter Sequence, in what seems almost like a response to the Apostle's words, we sang: "Scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere" we know that Christ has truly risen from the dead. Yes, indeed! This is the fundamental core of our profession of faith; this is the cry of victory that unites us all today. And if Jesus is risen, and is therefore alive, who will ever be able to separate us from him? Who will ever be able to deprive us of the love of
him who has conquered hatred and overcome death?

The Easter proclamation spreads throughout the world with the joyful song of the Alleluia. Let us sing it with our lips, and let us sing it above all with our hearts and our lives, with a manner of life that is "unleavened", that is to say, simple, humble, and fruitful in good works. "Surrexit Christus spes mea: precedet suos in Galileam" Christ my hope is risen, and he goes before you into Galilee. The Risen One goes before us and he accompanies us along the paths of the world. He is our hope, He is the true peace of the world. Amen!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Article: Pope Urges Christians to Be "New Dough"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Just as Jews remove unleavened bread from their households at Passover to signify a new beginning, Christians should remove from their hearts the "yeast of old sin," says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this in his homily for Easter Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, in which he reflected on a passage of 1 Corinthians: "Christ, our Paschal lamb, has been sacrificed." He said the passage "contains, in an impressive synthesis, a full awareness of the newness of life in Christ."

"The central symbol of salvation history -- the Paschal lamb -- is here identified with Jesus, who is called 'our Paschal lamb,'" the Pontiff explained. He noted the Jewish practice of sacrificing a lamb each year at Passover, "commemorating the liberation from slavery in Egypt."

"In his passion and death, Jesus reveals himself as the Lamb of God, 'sacrificed' on the Cross, to take away the sins of the world," said the Holy Father. "He was killed at the very hour when it was customary to sacrifice the lambs in the Temple of Jerusalem.

"The meaning of his sacrifice he himself had anticipated during the Last Supper, substituting himself -- under the signs of bread and wine -- for the ritual food of the Hebrew Passover meal. Thus we can truly say that Jesus brought to fulfillment the tradition of the ancient Passover, and transformed it into his Passover."

Room for the new

Basing himself on this interpretation of the Paschal feast, Benedict XVI then continued to reflect on St. Paul's interpretation of the "leaven."

He explained that during Passover the Jewish custom is to remove every scrap of leavened bread from the household, which serves as a reminder of when their forefathers left Egypt, taking with them only unleavened bread.

"At the same time, though," the Pope added, "the 'unleavened bread' was a symbol of purification: removing the old to make space for the new."

The Holy Father said that St. Paul explains that the ancient tradition acquires a new meaning with Christ, "once more derived from the new 'Exodus,' which is Jesus' passage from death to eternal life."

"Since Christ, as the true Lamb, sacrificed himself for us, we too, his disciples -- thanks to him and through him -- can and must be the 'new dough,' the 'unleavened bread,' liberated from every residual element of the old yeast of sin: no more evil and wickedness in our heart," he said.

"Let us open our spirit to Christ, who has died and is risen in order to renew us," Benedict XVI urged," in order to remove from our hearts the poison of sin and death, and to pour in the life-blood of the Holy Spirit: divine and eternal life."

Papal Message for Easter: "The Resurrection Is Not a Theory, but a Historical Reality"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's Easter message delivered today at midday before he imparted his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city of Rome and the world).


* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,

From the depths of my heart, I wish all of you a blessed Easter. To quote Saint Augustine, "Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra the resurrection of the Lord is our hope" (Sermon 261:1). With these words, the great Bishop explained to the faithful that Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life is completely finished; Christ is risen to give us hope (cf. ibid.).

Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after death? To this mystery today's solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end. This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. This proclamation is at the heart of the Gospel message. As Saint Paul vigorously declares: "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." He goes on to say: "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied" (1 Cor 15:14,19). Ever since the dawn of Easter a new Spring of hope has filled the world; from that day forward our resurrection has begun, because Easter does not simply signal a moment in history, but the beginning of a new
condition: Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of his disciples, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already savour the joy of eternal life.

The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his "Passover", his "passage", that has opened a "new way" between heaven and earth (cf. Heb 10:20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb. In fact, at dawn on the first day after the Sabbath, Peter and John found the tomb empty. Mary Magdalene and the other women encountered the risen Jesus. On the way to Emmaus the two disciples recognized him at the breaking of the bread. The Risen One appeared to the Apostles that evening in the Upper Room and then to many other disciples in Galilee.

The proclamation of the Lord's Resurrection lightens up the dark regions of the world in which we live. I am referring particularly to materialism and nihilism, to a vision of the world that is unable to move beyond what is scientifically verifiable, and retreats cheerlessly into a sense of emptiness which is thought to be the definitive destiny of human life. It is a fact that if Christ had not risen, the "emptiness" would be set to prevail. If we take away Christ and his resurrection, there is no escape for man, and every one of his hopes remains an illusion. Yet today is the day when the proclamation of the Lord's resurrection vigorously bursts forth, and it is the answer to the recurring question of the sceptics, that we also find in the book of Ecclesiastes: "Is there a thing of which it is said, 'See, this is new'?" (Ec 1:10). We answer, yes: on Easter morning, everything was renewed. "Mors et vita, duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus Death and life have
come face to face in a tremendous duel: the Lord of life was dead, but now he lives triumphant." This is what is new! A newness that changes the lives of those who accept it, as in the case of the saints. This, for example, is what happened to Saint Paul.

Many times, in the context of the Pauline year, we have had occasion to meditate on the experience of the great Apostle. Saul of Tarsus, the relentless persecutor of Christians, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and was "conquered" by him. The rest we know. In Paul there occurred what he would later write about to the Christians of Corinth: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come" (2 Cor 5:17). Let us look at this great evangelizer, who with bold enthusiasm and apostolic zeal brought the Gospel to many different peoples in the world of that time. Let his teaching and example inspire us to go in search of the Lord Jesus. Let them encourage us to trust him, because that sense of emptiness, which tends to intoxicate humanity, has been overcome by the light and the hope that emanate from the resurrection. The words of the Psalm have truly been fulfilled: "Darkness is not darkness for you, and the night is as
clear as the day" (Ps 139 [138]:12). It is no longer emptiness that envelops all things, but the loving presence of God. The very reign of death has been set free, because the Word of life has even reached the "underworld", carried by the breath of the Spirit (v. 8).

If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world, there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion. Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of men and women in every time and place who help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love. This is the message which, during my recent Apostolic Visit to Cameroon and Angola, I wanted to convey to the entire African continent, where I was welcomed with such great enthusiasm and readiness to listen. Africa suffers disproportionately from the cruel and unending conflicts, often forgotten, that are causing so much bloodshed and destruction in several of her nations, and from the growing number of her sons and daughters who fall prey to hunger, poverty and disease. I shall repeat the same message emphatically in the Holy Land, to which I shall have the joy of travelling in a
few weeks from now. Reconciliation difficult, but indispensable is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence, and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My thoughts move outwards from the Holy Land to neighbouring countries, to the Middle East, to the whole world. At a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and deprivation which force many to leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever-present threat of terrorism, of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope. Let no one draw back from this peaceful battle that has been launched by Christ's Resurrection. For as I said earlier, Christ is looking for men and women who will help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy,
forgiveness and love.

Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra! The resurrection of Christ is our hope! This the Church proclaims today with joy. She announces the hope that is now firm and invincible because God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. She communicates the hope that she carries in her heart and wishes to share with all people in every place, especially where Christians suffer persecution because of their faith and their commitment to justice and peace. She invokes the hope that can call forth the courage to do good, even when it costs, especially when it costs. Today the Church sings "the day that the Lord has made", and she summons people to joy. Today the Church calls in prayer upon Mary, Star of Hope, asking her to guide humanity towards the safe haven of salvation which is the heart of Christ, the paschal Victim, the Lamb who has "redeemed the world", the Innocent one who has "reconciled us sinners with the Father". To him, our victorious King, to him who is crucified and risen, we sing out
with joy our Alleluia!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Article: Christ's Resurrection Not a Fairy Tale, Says Pontiff

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Easter is not based on a myth, a theory or a fairy tale, but rather on the very real historical event of Christ's death and resurrection, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today during the Easter message he delivered from St. Peter's balcony at midday before he imparted his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city of Rome and the world). He began with the question: "What is there after death?"

The message of Easter, he explained to 200,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square, is that "death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end."

"This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning," the Pontiff continued, "but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body."

He continued: "Ever since the dawn of Easter, a new Spring of hope has filled the world; from that day forward our resurrection has begun, because Easter does not simply signal a moment in history, but the beginning of a new condition.

"Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of his disciples, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already savor the joy of eternal life."

The Holy Father affirmed that the Resurrection "is not a theory, but a historical reality": "It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb."

Light in darkness

"The proclamation of the Lord's resurrection lightens up the dark regions of the world in which we live," Benedict XVI reflected. "I am referring particularly to materialism and nihilism, to a vision of the world that is unable to move beyond what is scientifically verifiable, and retreats cheerlessly into a sense of emptiness which is thought to be the definitive destiny of human life."

"It is a fact," he continued, "that if Christ had not risen, the 'emptiness' would be set to prevail. If we take away Christ and his resurrection, there is no escape for man, and every one of his hopes remains an illusion."

The Pope said Easter Sunday is the day when "the proclamation of the Lord's resurrection vigorously bursts forth," and it is the answer to the question put forth in the Book of Ecclesiastes: "Is there a thing of which it is said, 'See, this is new?'"

On this day, he said, Christians answer "yes": "On Easter morning, everything was renewed. "

The Pontiff lamented, however, that in the world today "there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of [death's] former dominion."

Helpers needed

"Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of men and women in every time and place who help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love," he said."

The Holy Father said that this was his message he carried to Africa last month during his visit to Cameroon and Angola, and the message he wishes to carry to the Holy Land in May.

"Africa suffers disproportionately from the cruel and unending conflicts, often forgotten, that are causing so much bloodshed and destruction in several of her nations, and from the growing number of her sons and daughters who fall prey to hunger, poverty and disease," he said.

And in the Holy Land, he said, "reconciliation -- difficult, but indispensable -- is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence, and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

"My thoughts move outward from the Holy Land to neighboring countries, to the Middle East, to the whole world," Benedict XVI continued. "At a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and deprivation which force many to leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever-present threat of terrorism, of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope.

"Let no one draw back from this peaceful battle that has been launched by Christ's resurrection."

He added, "Christ is looking for men and women who will help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love."

Article: Pontiff: Church Will Never Sink

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- While many think the Church is dying, or ought to be dead already, it continues on, held up by the hands of Christ, says Benedict XVI.

The Pontiff said this as he reflected during his homily Saturday at the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica on the three main symbols used at the Easter Vigil: light, water, and the new song -- the Alleluia. During the Mass he baptized five adults: three Italians men, a woman from China and a woman from the United States.

"First of all," he said, "there is light": "Where there is light, life is born, chaos can be transformed into cosmos."

"The resurrection of Jesus is an eruption of light," he explained. "Death is conquered, the tomb is thrown open. The Risen One himself is Light, the Light of the world. With the resurrection, the Lord's day enters the nights of history.

"Beginning with the resurrection, God's light spreads throughout the world and throughout history. Day dawns. This Light alone -- Jesus Christ -- is the true light, something more than the physical phenomenon of light. He is pure Light: God himself, who causes a new creation to be born in the midst of the old, transforming chaos into cosmos."

"At the Easter Vigil," the Pontiff said, "the Church represents the mystery of the light of Christ in the sign of the Paschal candle, whose flame is both light and heat. The symbolism of light is connected with that of fire: radiance and heat, radiance and the transforming energy contained in the fire -- truth and love go together. The Paschal candle burns, and is thereby consumed: The cross and the resurrection are inseparable."

Life and death

Benedict XVI said that the second symbol, water, has "two opposed meanings": "On the one hand there is the sea, which appears as a force antagonistic to life on earth, continually threatening it; yet God has placed a limit upon it. Hence the book of Revelation says that in God's new world, the sea will be no more.

"It is the element of death. And so it becomes the symbolic representation of Jesus' death on the Cross: Christ descended into the sea, into the waters of death, as Israel did into the Red Sea. Having risen from death, he gives us life.

"This means that baptism is not only a cleansing, but a new birth: with Christ we, as it were, descend into the sea of death, so as to rise up again as new creatures."

He said the other "way in which we encounter water is in the form of the fresh spring that gives life, or the great river from which life comes forth."

"Without water there is no life," the Pontiff affirmed. "It is striking how much importance is attached to wells in sacred Scripture. They are places from which life rises forth. Beside Jacob's well, Christ spoke to the Samaritan woman of the new well, the water of true life."

Benedict XVI then reflected on the third symbol, "the singing of the new song -- the alleluia."

"When a person experiences great joy, he cannot keep it to himself," he explained. "He has to express it, to pass it on. But what happens when a person is touched by the light of the resurrection, and thus comes into contact with Life itself, with Truth and Love? He cannot merely speak about it. Speech is no longer adequate. He has to sing."

"At the Easter Vigil, year after year, we Christians intone this song after the third reading, we sing it as our song, because we too, through God's power, have been drawn forth from the water and liberated for true life," he said.

A new song

Recalling the story from the Bible when Moses sang a song after Israel's liberation from Egypt, the Pope said the "image describes the situation of the disciples of Jesus Christ in every age, the situation of the Church in the history of this world."

"Humanly speaking, it is self-contradictory," he explained. "On the one hand, the community is located at the Exodus, in the midst of the Red Sea, in a sea which is paradoxically ice and fire at the same time.

"And must not the Church, so to speak, always walk on the sea, through the fire and the cold? Humanly speaking, she ought to sink. But while she is still walking in the midst of this Red Sea, she sings she intones the song of praise of the just: the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in which the Old and New Covenants blend into harmony.

"While, strictly speaking, she ought to be sinking, the Church sings the song of thanksgiving of the saved. She is standing on history's waters of death and yet she has already risen. Singing, she grasps at the Lord's hand, which holds her above the waters.

"And she knows that she is thereby raised outside the force of gravity of death and evil -- a force from which otherwise there would be no way of escape -- raised and drawn into the new gravitational force of God, of truth and of love."

"At present she is still between the two gravitational fields," Benedict XVI reflected. "But once Christ is risen, the gravitational pull of love is stronger than that of hatred; the force of gravity of life is stronger than that of death. Perhaps this is actually the situation of the Church in every age?"

"It always seems as if she ought to be sinking, and yet she is always already saved," he said. "St. Paul illustrated this situation with the words: 'We are as dying, and behold we live.' The Lord's saving hand holds us up, and thus we can already sing the song of the saved, the new song of the risen ones: Alleluia!"

Article: Maximizing the Power of Character through the Integration of Excellence and Ethics

MATT DAVIDSON AND TOM LICKONA

All schools face challenges in two critical areas: academic performance and ethical behavior.

Performance challenges include:

  • Motivating all students to do their best and care about the quality of their work.
  • Improving performance on standardized tests
  • Reducing dropouts
  • Preparing students for college and/or the workplace.

Ethical challenges include:

  • Teaching students to respect legitimate authority, rules, and the rights of others
  • Preventing peer cruelty
  • Promoting academic honesty
  • Reducing risky behaviors
  • Helping students become responsible citizens.

These performance and ethical challenges can be reduced to two: How can we get students to do their best work? How can we teach them to treat other people with respect and care?

Where can schools find the "power" to meet these challenges? Booker T. Washington said, "Character is power." What is the power of character, and how can schools -- and other key social groups (families, businesses, religious institutions, and the wider community) -- maximize the power of character to meet the performance and ethical challenges facing schools and society?

Character and Excellence

What do the following quotations tell us about the power of character?

You must discover what you are made for, and you must work indefatigably to achieve excellence in your field of endeavor. If you are called to be a street sweeper, you should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

The secret joy in work is excellence - Pearl Buck

The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work superbly well. - William Osler

I challenge you to find one single solitary individual who has achieved his or her personal greatness without lots of hard work. - John Wooden

There is no such thing as failure. There is only giving up too soon. - Jonas Salk

These quotes tell us that the experience of excellence is a central part of human fulfillment, and that character -- working hard, doing our best, and persevering -- is essential for realizing excellence. Excellence matters, and character matters in our pursuit of excellence. It follows that educating for character must be about developing ethics and excellence.

If the character education movement has had a motto, it's been Theodore Roosevelt's famous observation: "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." However, the reverse of Roosevelt's maxim is also true: To educate a person in morals and not in mind is to educate, if not a menace, at least a detriment to society. Who wants a mechanic, lawyer, or doctor who's caring and honest, but incompetent?

Character's Two Parts: Performance Character and Moral Character

To maximize the power of character is to define it to include the quest for excellence as well as the quest for ethics. Conceived in this way, character has two parts: (1) performance character and (2) moral character.

Performance character is a mastery orientation. It consists of those qualities -- such as diligence, determination, a strong work ethic, confidence, resourcefulness, resilience, adaptability, and self-discipline -- needed to achieve our highest potential in any performance environment (academics, cocurricular activities, the workplace, etc.).

Performance character is not the same as performance. Performance is the outcome (the grade, the honor, the achievement), whereas performance character consists of the character strengths, such as best effort, that enable us to pursue our personal best -- whether the outcome is realized or not. In the long run, performance character does maximize performance because it brings to bear the strengths and strategies by which we get the most from our natural talent.

Moral character is a relational orientation. It consists of those qualities -- such as honesty, respect, fairness, caring, cooperation, and moral courage -- needed for successful relationships and ethical behavior. Moral character enables us to treat others -- and ourselves -- with respect and care and to act with integrity in our ethical lives. Moral character also ensures that we do not violate moral values such as fairness, honesty, and caring in the pursuit of high performance. Without strong moral character, performance character can easily run amuck -- as when a student cheats to get good grades or a team plays dirty to win a game.

Rendering Character Relevant to Teaching and Learning

There are encouraging signs that the character education movement is beginning to embrace a concept of character education that integrates the pursuit of excellence (the task of performance character) and the pursuit of ethical behavior (the task of moral character).

Conceptualizing character to include both performance character and moral character makes character education more relevant to the academic mission of schools. In this new paradigm, character is integral to academic instruction, since it is needed for, and potentially developed from, every academic activity:

  • Students need performance character (initiative, organization, goal-setting, perseverance, etc.) in order to do their best academic work.

  • Students develop their performance character, including the ability to take satisfaction in a job well done, as they rise to the challenges of their schoolwork.

  • Students need moral character (respect, fairness, kindness, honesty, etc.) in order to build the positive relationships that make for a supportive learning environment.

  • Students develop their moral character by participating in collaborative learning; eliciting other students' best work through guided critique; examining ethical issues in literature, history, science, and current events; and carrying out service learning projects.

There are encouraging signs that the character education movement is beginning to embrace a concept of character education that integrates the pursuit of excellence (the task of performance character) and the pursuit of ethical behavior (the task of moral character). The Character Education Partnership recently released a position paper, Performance Values (www.character.org), recognizing the mutually supportive roles of moral and performance character. Educators are beginning to pay more attention to the seminal work of former teacher Ron Berger, whose book An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools describes how to foster moral and performance character through project-based learning. (See Berger's article in the winter 2006 issue of The Fourth and Fifth Rs, www.cortland.edu/character/newsletters.asp.)

Historically, education has had two great goals: to help students become smart and to help them become good. They need performance character to become smart, moral character to become good. Only if we educate for character in this full sense, integrating excellence and ethics, will our students be prepared to flourish -- in school and beyond.




ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thomas Lickona & Matt Davidson. "Maximizing the Power of Character through the Integration of Excellence and Ethics." excellence & ethics (Fall, 2008): 1-2.

Reprinted with permission. excellence & ethics is the Education Letter of the Smart & Good Schools Initiative, a joint project of the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs and the Institute for Excellence & Ethics (IEE). excellence & ethics features essays, research, and K-12 best practices that help school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and community members do their best work (performance character) and do the right thing (moral character).

excellence & ethics is published three times a year and may be subscribed to, without cost, here.

THE AUTHORS

Thomas Lickona is a professor of education and the director of the Center for the 4th and 5th R's (Respect and Responsibility) at the State University of New York at Cortland. He is the author of Character Matters: How to Help Our Children Develop Good Judgment, Integrity, and Other Essential Virtues (Touchstone, 2004) and the Christopher Award-winning book Educating for Character (Bantam Books, 1992). He has also written Raising Good Children (Bantam Doubleday 1994) and co-authored Sex, Love and You (Ave Maria Press, March 2003). He is on the Advisory Board of the Catholic Education Resource Center.

Dr. Matt Davidson is president and director of education at the Institute for Excellence & Ethics. Together they are co-authors of Smart & Good High Schools (www.cortland.edu/character), Character Quotations and Character Education Evaluation Toolkit. Matt Davidson and Thomas Lickona co-direct the Smart & Good Schools Initiative, dedicated to maximizing the power of character for success in school, work, and beyond.

The full "Smart & Good High Schools" report can be downloaded here.

Copyright © 2008 excellence & ethics

Article: Even Atheists Can See Good Things in Christianity

DONALD DEMARCO

For several years now, Catholicism has been under severe attack by a wide assortment of groups and for a wide variety of reasons.

Radical feminists do not like the Church's stand against abortion; homosexuals decry Her teaching on marriage and sexuality; euthanasiasts object to Her opposition to mercy killing; bioethicists deplore the Church's prohibition of human cloning, in vitro fertilization, and many other forms of reproductive technology.

Even within the Church, there is much criticism. Many married couples want to use contraception or sterilization; single people want the Church to loosen Her stand on chastity; there are liberals who demand the ordination of women to the priesthood; there are priests who want the Church to change Her teaching on priestly celibacy.

Judging from the torrent of criticism leveled against the Church, one might get the impression that there is nothing left standing that is positive, and all that is left is to bury an out-of-date religion and commit oneself to some form of secular humanism in a post-Christian world. It becomes clear that for many in our present world, Christ is not easy to accept. But it is a dangerous thing to look at Christ with the eyes of the world.

In Sign of Contradiction, which is based on a private retreat that Bishop Karol Wojtyla gave to Pope Paul VI, we find a most interesting and even heartening reference to an article that appeared in a 1965 issue of a paper published by the Polish association of atheists and freethinkers. The author of the article is Leszek Kolakowski, a Marxist atheist. The article is entitled, "Jesus Christ, prophet and reformer."

Kolakowski maintains that there are a number if fundamental values and meanings that derive solely from Christianity. Among these Christian values for which world culture is indebted are the following: 1) the supplanting of law in favour of love; 2) the ideal of an end to arrogance in human relationships; 3) the truth that man does not live by bread alone; 4) the abolition of the idea of the chosen people [affirming the truly "catholic' or universal notion of human society]; 5) that the world suffers from an organic imperfection.

How much worse the world would be today if these five values never came into being? Would it not be utterly foolish to disparage the source of one's prized heritage? It is most encouraging, then, to note that a non-believer writing for an atheist publication is willing to acknowledge the inestimable moral indebtedness the modern world has to Christ and His Church. We find a similar phenomenon at the present in a 2006 book, Without Roots, written by Benedict XVI and Marcello Pera, illustrating how the two authors, one a Pope, the other an atheist, have much in common with regard to their respect for the Catholic heritage.

Our question, as Catholics, is how to bring these, and other Christian values, to fruition. Christ's words, "I am with you to the end of the world," are both consoling and invigorating. Christ did not tell us that following Him would be easy and supported by the world at large. Rather, He offered us His Cross. In the words of John Paul II, "It is not enough to say just once in life: I will believe! One has to go on saying it again and again, whenever things get difficult. Difficulties do arise, times when one has to take up the cross daily. And then Christ is not easy to accept, but he is truer than ever. … When I bow to this truth I feel myself a pupil of a really wonderful Master."

Rather, He offered us His Cross. In the words of John Paul II, "It is not enough to say just once in life: I will believe! One has to go on saying it again and again, whenever things get difficult.

Daily prayer opens the door to grace. Through prayer we realize more clearly that Christ has a wisdom that the world cannot provide. Surely, and this is true for most, the world is too much with us. It surrounds and suffocates us as it attempts to enclose us in the moment. It is omnipresent: in the Media, in commerce and advertising, in the workplace, in entertainment, education, politics, and public ceremony. But Christ is liberating, valid for all time and for all people. He is never passé, out-of-date, or morally irrelevant. He is as present to us as we are willing to allow Him to be present, through prayer, the sacraments, and through love.

It is good to meditate, at an hour when dark clouds hang over the world, that the human and cultural value of Christianity is not hidden from an atheist who is willing to acknowledge certain irrefutable facts of history. We should not allow ourselves, therefore, to be unduly enchanted by the world. It is, in fact, the world that is constantly offering us things that are going out of fashion as we realize, only too clearly, that their charm has no lasting power. We must make Christ the center of our kaleidoscopic world, that world in which we are dazzled by change while we continue to hunger for truth and meaning.

Finally, as the Bishop of Cracow, who later became Pope John Paul II, reminded his retreatant, Pope Paul VI, "Often I think that the two thousand years that have gone by are an insuperable barrier, and I forget that God is not bound by time but comes at all times, and always comes in search of his creature -- man. That having once come he comes all the time, even today."



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Donald DeMarco. "Even Atheists Can See Good Things in Christianity." Social Justice Review. (January/February, 2009): 9-10.

This article is reprinted with permission from Social Justice Review: A Pioneer Journal of Catholic Social Action and Donald DeMarco.

Social Justice Review was founded by the Catholic Central Verein of America in 1908:

  • To advocate and foster the restoration of society on the basis of Christian principles in conformity with the social teachings of the Popes;
  • To protect and support the honor, dignity and essential importance of Christian marriage and family life, and to defend the rights of parents in the education of their children;
  • In short, to promote a true Christian Humanism with respect for the dignity and rights of all human beings.

To subscribe to the Social Justice Review go here.

THE AUTHOR

Donald DeMarco is adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut and Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario. He also continues to work as a corresponding member of the Pontifical Acadmy for Life. Donald DeMarco has written hundreds of articles for various scholarly and popular journals, and is the author of twenty books, including The Heart of Virtue, The Many Faces of Virtue, Virtue's Alphabet: From Amiability to Zeal and Architects Of The Culture Of Death. Donald DeMarco is on the Advisory Board of The Catholic Education Resource Center.

Copyright © 2009 Social Justice Review


Article: The Eucharist and Sanctity

FATHER JOHN A. HARDON , S.J.

The Eucharist as the Real Presence is the touchstone of sanctity.

As evidence of this fact we have the witness of the saints who, when they speak or write about the power of the Blessed Sacrament to sanctify, seem to be positively extreme in their claims about what the Real Presence can achieve in making a sinful person holy.

Notice we are concentrating on the Holy Eucharist as the Real Presence. We could also speak of the sanctifying power of the Mass and of Holy Communion, but that is not our focus of reflection here. Why not? Because it is the Real Presence in the Mass and in Communion that finally explains their efficacy, too. No Real Presence, no Mass; no Real Presence, no Communion. So that, in dwelling on the Real Presence, we are in effect talking about the Holy Eucharist - Presence, Sacrifice and Sacrament.

In order to appreciate the value of the Real Presence in the spiritual life, we must go back in spirit to the event described by St. John when our Lord, after He had worked the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, made the solemn promise of the Eucharist.

"I am the Bread of Life," Christ declared on that occasion. "He who comes to me will never be hungry. He who believes in me will never thirst. But, as I have told you, you can see me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I shall not turn him away because I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me. Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me and that I should raise it up on the last day. Yes, it is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and that I shall raise him up on the last day."

By now we have read and heard and meditated on these words many times, but they deserve further reflection because they contain so much mystery that after nineteen centuries of the Church's existence she has not begun to exhaust the richness of their meaning.

Every time we go back, every time we go back to Christ's words of revelation, we always discover something new. Always! The key word in Christ's discourse on the Eucharist is the word believe. In fact, after He promised the Blessed Sacrament many of the Jews who heard Him did not believe. "This is intolerable language," they said. "How could anyone (meaning themselves) accept it?"

"After this," we are told, "many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him." And the evangelist further explains that, "Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe and who it was that would betray him." We might add that when we are told that the Savior knew who did not believe, that was not only contemporary, but all future knowledge. He foresaw who would and who would not believe, and let us make sure that the evangelist's juxtaposition of those who did not believe and those who would betray Him is the relationship of cause and effect. All the traitors of Christ have been those who, having believed, stopped believing.

There are, at this point, three questions we should ask ourselves about the Holy Eucharist as Real Presence. And on the answer to these questions depends in large measure whether we shall only know about sanctity or also attain it, whether holiness will remain only an idea or whether we shall actually become holy. What a difference! The questions are these:

  1. Why do we believe when we believe in the Real Presence?
  2. Why should we believe it? And,
  3. How should we put our belief into practice?


What Do We Believe?

The simplest way to express what Christ asks us to believe about the Real Presence is that the Eucharist is really He. The Real Presence is the real Jesus. We are to believe that the Eucharist began in the womb of the Virgin Mary; that the flesh which the Son of God received from His Mother at the Incarnation is the same flesh into which He changed bread at the Last Supper; that the blood He received from His Mother is the same blood into which He changed wine at the Last Supper. Had she not given Him His flesh and blood there could not be a Eucharist.

Those who believe deeply in the Real Presence will benefit greatly from the Real Presence; those who believe weakly will also benefit accordingly. The Eucharist is capable of working miracles in our lives. So it can -- after all, the Eucharist is Jesus. He worked -- change the tense -- He works miracles, but as it depended then (remember, Christ could not work miracles in certain places for lack of faith), the same now. It depends on the depth and degree of our faith.

We are to believe that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ -- simply, without qualification. It is God become man in the fullness of His divine nature, in the fullness of His human nature, in the fullness of His body and soul, in the fullness of everything that makes Jesus Jesus. He is in the Eucharist with His human mind and will united with the Divinity, with His hands and feet, His face and features, with His eyes and lips and ears and nostrils, with His affections and emotions and, with emphasis, with His living, pulsating, physical Sacred Heart. That is what our Catholic Faith demands of us that we believe. If we believe this, we are Catholic. If we do not, we are not, no matter what people may think we are.

Our faith is belief because we do not see what we believe. We accept on Christ's words that all of this is there, or rather, here in the Holy Eucharist. Faith must supply what, as the Tantum Ergo sings, "the senses do not perceive." And faith must reveal what the mind by itself cannot see. Let us never forget this phrase, first in Latin, lumen fidei, the light of faith. Faith reveals, faith discloses, faith enlightens, faith empowers the mind to see what the mind without faith cannot see.

Strange as it may sound, when we believe in the Real Presence, we believe in things twice unseen. We see only what looks like bread and wine, tastes and smells like bread and wine, and yet we are to believe that behind these physical appearances is a man. Faith number one. And we are further to believe that behind the unseen man is God. Faith number two.

Is it any wonder the Church calls the Eucharist, Mysterium Fidei, the Mystery of Faith? Those who accept the Real Presence accept by implication all the cardinal mysteries of Christianity. They believe in the Trinity, in the Father who sent the Son and in the Son who sent the Holy Spirit. They believe in the Incarnation, that the Son of God became man like one of us. They believe in Christ's divinity since no one but God could change bread and wine into His own body and blood. They believe in the Holy Catholic Church which Christ founded and in which through successive generations is communicated to bishops and priests the incredible power of making Christ continually present among us in the Blessed Sacrament. They believe, against all the betrayals by the Judases of history and all the skepticism of Christ's first disciples, in an unbroken chain of faith ever since Peter replied to Christ's question whether he and his companions also wanted to leave the Master. What a chance Christ took. "Lord," Peter looked around, "whom shall we go to?" (And he spoke for all of us.)" You have the message of eternal life, and we believe, we know, that you are the holy one of God."

There is a prayer in the Coptic Liturgy that I think perfectly answers the first question we are asking. "What do I believe when I believe in the Real Presence?" The prayer goes as follows, a little long, but worth it:

"I believe and I will confess to my last breath that this is the living bread which Your only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, took from our Lady and the Queen of Mankind, the holy, sinless Virgin Mary, Mother of God. He made it one with His Godhead without confusion or change. He witnessed before Pontius Pilate and was of His own free will condemned in our place to the holy tree. Truly I believe that His Godhead was not separated from His manhood for a moment, not even for the twinkle of an eye. He gave His body for the remission of our sins and for eternal life to those who partake of this body. I believe, I believe, I believe that this is in very truth that body. Amen."
That is your faith and mine.


Why Do We Believe?

Why do we believe that the selfsame body that Christ had in His visible stay on earth is the body, now glorified, we now worship and receive invisibly on earth today? You see, Christ is on earth! The final reason is, of course, because this is what He told us. What He said must be true because Christ who is God cannot lie.

But why do we believe in terms of the promises He made? What blessings and benefits did He assure those who believe in this Eucharistic Mystery? All the blessings that Christ promised to those who believe in the Holy Eucharist are summed up in His own masterful promise of life. Those who believe will receive life and the life that He promised was zoé -- the kind of life that belongs to God, the kind of life that Father, Son and Holy Spirit shared and interchanged from all eternity. Those who believe will receive this life. Those who do not believe will die. What kind of life was Christ talking about? It must have been the supernatural life of grace in our souls, of partaking or participation in His own divine life.

Suppose we go on asking a series of questions where the answer can be yes or no:

- Is it possible for a person to be physically alive, but spiritually dead? Yes or no?


YES.

- Is it possible for a person to be just barely alive? Yes or no?


YES.

- Is it possible for a person to be more alive than just scarcely breathing supernaturally? Yes or no?


YES

- Is it finally possible for a person to be very alive with divine grace, vitally alive, brimming, tingling, vibrating, bursting with God's life in his soul? Yes or no?


An emphatic YES

This, in homely language, is what the Savior promised those who believed in His Real Presence. He assured them and, therefore, assures us, that we shall be not only alive, but filled with His life, full to brimming and flowing over with strength and power and wisdom and peace and all manner of holiness. This is what sanctity is all about. It is the muchness of the good things of God. It is the more and more and still more of the life of God in our souls. More still, He promises that, provided that we believe in Him in the Eucharist, He will sustain this life in our souls into eternity. In other words, being alive now we shall never die. And most marvelous, He will even make this life pour from our souls into our bodies risen from the grave on the last day and glorified by the vision of God. No wonder the Eucharist is called panis vitae, the Bread of Life. It is that, and let us remind ourselves, and here is the condition, one condition, that before we eat this bread with our lips, we take it by faith into our hearts. Indeed, unless we first have faith, we shall, as Paul tells us, "eat it to our malediction." Only believers can benefit from this Bread of Life, only believers can profit from the Blessed Sacrament, and only believers can grow in spirit by partaking of the Eucharist depending always on the measure of their faith. Those who believe deeply in the Real Presence will benefit greatly from the Real Presence; those who believe weakly will also benefit accordingly. The Eucharist is capable of working miracles in our lives. So it can -- after all, the Eucharist is Jesus. He worked -- change the tense -- He works miracles, but as it depended then (remember, Christ could not work miracles in certain places for lack of faith), the same now. It depends on the depth and degree of our faith.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Father John A. Hardon. "The Eucharist and Sanctity." from Spiritual Life in the Modern World (Boston: MA Daughters of St. Paul, 1982): 74-80.

Reprinted with permission from Inter Mirifica.

THE AUTHOR

Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. (1914-2000) was a tireless apostle of the Catholic faith. The author of over twenty-five books including Spiritual Life in the Modern World, Catholic Prayer Book, The Catholic Catechism, Modern Catholic Dictionary, Pocket Catholic Dictionary, Pocket Catholi Catechism, Q & A Catholic Catechism, Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan and many other Catholic books and hundreds of articles, Father Hardon was a close associate and advisor of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. Order Father Hardon's home study courses here.

Copyright © 2008 Inter Mirifica

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wednesday Liturgy: Lighting the Easter Candle

ROME, APRIL 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.


Q: Quick question on the paschal candle: When in the sanctuary during Eastertide, is it to be lit during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction? As an altar boy some 30 or so years ago I remember the Easter candle being solemnly extinguished at the end of vespers and before adoration and solemn Benediction. Is this still correct liturgical practice? Was it ever? -- A.B., Palm Beach, Florida

A: There is very little in the way of present rules regarding the use of the Easter candle. Of the few precise norms, there is No. 99 of "Paschales Solemnitatis," a circular letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on the Easter celebrations. To wit:

"The paschal candle has its proper place either by the ambo or by the altar and should be lit at least in all the more solemn liturgical celebrations of the season until Pentecost Sunday, whether at Mass or at Morning and Evening Prayer. After the Easter season, the candle should be kept with honor in the baptistery, so that in the celebration of baptism, the candles of the baptized may be lit from them. In the celebration of funerals the paschal candle should be placed near the coffin to indicate that the death of a Christian is his own Passover. The paschal candle should not otherwise be lit nor placed in the sanctuary outside the Easter season."

The expression that it should be lit "at least in all the more solemn liturgical celebrations of the season" would seem to allow for a certain degree of flexibility. For example, a parish with numerous baptisms and funerals during the year might opt to light it only on Sundays and solemnities so that it lasts the whole year long. A religious community with few celebrations outside of Eastertide might prefer to light it for all paschal liturgies.

The present norms don't mention anything regarding lighting the Easter candle during exposition. But if we may be guided by the norms applicable to the extraordinary form, these would indicate that in general it would not be done.

According to the collection "Decreta Authentica" of the then Congregation of Rites, the Easter candle could not be lit only for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (Decree 3479,3). It would be lit, however, if vespers were celebrated before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, or Benediction followed immediately after vespers (Decree 4383,1-2).

The principle behind these decrees would appear to be that lighting the Easter candle is reserved for liturgical acts celebrated with some degree of solemnity. All the same, it is not incompatible with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament if a liturgical celebration is held during adoration.

Likewise, although the earlier decrees spoke only of vespers, the present norms include lauds and could perhaps be extended to other hours of the Liturgy of the Hours if celebrated with some solemnity.

Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Blessings at Holy Communion

ROME, APRIL 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.


Several readers commented on the question of blessings at Communion (see March 24) after we presented a letter from the Holy See expressing a fairly negative assessment of this practice.

Our readers expressed opinions both in favor and against, often outlining situations that the practice would promote or hinder.

One reader, for example, commented on the value of Mass in itself: "I have read St. Leonard's [of Port Maurice, 1676-1751] 'The Hidden Treasure' and was deeply moved at his writing about the miracle and the power of the Mass. Everyone in this world should be invited to attend Holy Mass no matter what religion or in what state of grace they find themselves. Especially fallen away Catholics who might be divorced and remarried (but they really are not married in the eyes of the Catholic Church) or Catholics who are in the state of mortal sin due to addictions of one sort or another. They try to amend their lives but fall too often, and they must sit in their pews while 'everyone' else gets up into the procession line. This is an embarrassing situation to one who is guilty of mortal sin ... [but being unable to go to confession] would not dare to compound their sins by sins by the sacrilege of receiving the holy Eucharist.

"So, if they were allowed to join the procession to receive a blessing 'by the priest or deacon' they would not stand out as one who is in a state of mortal sin. For that is the only reason they would not receive, being that the fasting rule of one hour is almost impossible to break.

"I have come to the conclusion that many Catholics just stop going to Mass for this reason.

"Many people need a reason for not receiving the Eucharist on a Sunday morning and at least a three-hour fast would allow some excuse. The good Catholics would have a deeper respect for just what they are doing and the sacrifice of fasting is a good way to inspire respect."

I agree with our reader that even those who are unable to receive Communion should attend Mass; indeed, they retain the same obligation to do so as all Catholics.

However, I would point out that St. Leonard's work was written at a time when the practice of frequent and daily Communion was quite rare, even among vowed religious and pious Catholics. Therefore it cannot be supposed that the object of his work was particularly aimed at those unable to receive Communion.

Indeed, for those in such a situation the principal grace of the Mass would be that of conversion: that is, finding the strength to remove the obstacles to their being able to approach the altar and receive the bread of life. This is true both of those who are afflicted by sin as well as those, such as a non-Catholic attending Mass with a spouse, who cannot receive Communion for other reasons.

In some cases a blessing might help such people attend Mass by avoiding an embarrassing moment. But it could also have exactly the opposite effect by singling them out for a blessing when others receive Communion. Likewise, this situation is more often that not provoked by the bad habit in many parishes of insisting on an orderly pew-by-pew communion procession when a bit of confusion would be enough to help such people pass unnoticed.

In other cases, human frailty being what it is, the possibility of receiving a blessing in lieu of Communion might actually satisfy some people so that they never actually take the plunge of regularizing their situation before God and the Church.

All in all, anecdotal evidence could probably be presented for all sides, and the question should eventually be decided by Church authorities on the basis of solid theological arguments.

There are good arguments for restoring the three-hour fast, and our reader gives some of them. Some bishops proposed this a few years ago while others objected that it would make some successful pastoral initiatives, such as lunch-hour Masses in urban centers, almost impossible.

Another reader, a priest, asked, "What if a person coming for a blessing during Communion time is living in sin and a person who knows that person and sees that person thinks that the person is about to receive Communion? Since the communicant's back is to the people in the pews, could not this situation be a source of scandal?"

I would say that if the possibility of receiving a blessing is a known option, then a person who is unable to see whether or not someone has communicated should in all charity grant them the benefit of the doubt and not cede to the temptations of rash judgment.

Even if such a person believed that the other had received Communion, then, once more in charity, they should rejoice that the sinner has found a way to make his peace with God and is now able to approach the altar rail.

Except in cases of notorious public sins, the nature of which require some form of public reconciliation, we should respect the other's conscience and refrain from making judgments as to the state of their souls. It is true that pastoral practice usually advises some people who have been reconciled to attend Mass where they are unknown so as to avoid rash judgments. But even if this advice is not followed, then our tendency should always be toward charitable thoughts.