Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Te Deum



Te Deum laudamus, Gregoriano, T. Simplex; SCHOLA GREGORIANA MEDIOLANENSIS, Giovanni Vianini, Milano.It.

"The Te Deum. PLENARY INDULGENCE when recited publicly on the last day of the year. Otherwise partial. (Enchiridion indulgentiarum, 60)"

Do some Catholics mistakenly hold to a Pelagian mindset? (I'm not addressing Pope Francis on this question.) A mentality of
"works righteousness"? Does an extreme focus on indulgences in some forms of popular spirituality help us grow in charity? Or does it lead us to wrongly focus on subjective rewards instead? A truncated Christian spirituality... Orthodox/Eastern Catholics are puzzled by talk about indulgences; some even think the doctrine erroneous. How do we properly motivate people to prayer and acts of charity?


Tick Tock

VN, CMT, and PT - here to stay? Or has the realization of irrelevance not hit us yet? It may take a generation or two for a certain Uhmerican mindset to go away.

Orthodox Georgian Psaltic Chant



Derived from Byzantine chant, I think.

Monday, December 30, 2013

More on Icon "Writing"

A Symptom of Modern Blindness – Further Thoughts on the Phrase “To Write an Icon” by Andrew Gould
The Guardian: Peter Geach obituary by Jane O'Grady
Prominent Catholic philosopher admired for his mastery of logic and work on ethics

Martyrdom

Saints Cyril & Athanasius of Alexandria Institute for Orthodox Studies
February 2014 Symposium: Martyrdom - Past, Present and Future
San Francisco: February 15-16 (there is also an event in Riverside, CA)

Early registration ends on December 31. ($20 discount)


This has been making the rounds on Facebook, a talk by Cardinal Burke on the call to martyrdom.

Antiphon Articles on Bouyer

In 16.2 of Antiphon: Keith Lemna, “The Liturgical and Ascetical Heart of Louis Bouyer’s Trinitarian Theology” - Should see if I can find this article somewhere.

In 16.1: Alcuin Reid, “The Reformed Liturgy: A ‘Cadaver Decomposed’? Louis Bouyer and Liturgical Ressourcement”

Fr. Gabriel Bunge Explains His Journey to Orthodoxy

Pravoslavie: "WE HAVE TO RETURN TO OUR ROOTS." A CONVERSATION WITH FR. GABRIEL BUNGE

He recounts reading various history books and how he came to see what were the exaggerated claims of the papacy. Do such claims destroy its credibility or authority? What is official teaching? What is affirmation or interpretation of the Tradition? Can problematic statements be reconciled with a more 'moderate' understanding of the primacy of Rome?

What is the proper use of history in this case? What is its relation to the theological virtue of Faith? (That is a problem, how is the teaching authority of the Church to be understood with respect to the pope?) A historical study is necessary for us to understand how the papal office was exercised in the first millennium, what claims were made by bishops of Rome and what was accepted by other bishops.


Position of the Moscow Patriarchate on the problem of primacy in the Universal Church

Updated
FIRST WITHOUT EQUALS
The Russian Veto Against Francis and Bartholomew
Thinking a question through to a tentative answer... who doesn't enjoy doing that? There are days when I miss "doing philosophy."

Divine Personhood and the Critique of Substance Metaphysics - Fr. Dominic Holtz OP

Friday, December 27, 2013

Rev. Fr. James Cox

A Shepherd of the Jobless by Mark Barrett
First Things: Celibacy as Political Resistance by Grant Kaplan
Explaining Johann Möhler’s political theology to subvert state domination.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

God is With Us!

Bread, A Substance?

Or an aggregate/mixture, even if it is one made through human skill? Of what relevance is the question? Transubstantiation. A doctrine of the Latin churches, or a theologoumenon given much weight? If bread is not a substance, I would think that Trent's teaching would need to be reconsidered, as the 'physics' is inaccurate, or "substance" as applied to bread would need to be understood analogously, as referring more properly to the components of bread that are substances in themselves.

The Antiquity of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Καλά Χριστούγεννα!

χριστός γεννάται! δοξάσατε! Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Monday, December 23, 2013

An affirmation of the possibility of Peter Faber being a relevant example today - St. Peter Faber: Model for a New Reformation by William Doino Jr.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Jesuit Favoritism?

Pope Francis Set to Declare Jesuit Priest a Saint

He should be honored for his tireless apostolic work during the Catholic Counter-Reformation, but is there any local or universal cult to him? The age of the Protestant Reformation (and the Catholic Counter-Reformation) is gone and one might think that the reforms needed then are not complete still. He might still be relevant, an example for us now?

Cathen
NCR Blog
Ignatian Spirituality

Edit. Vatican News

Fr. Z Pope approves canonization of St. Peter Faber, waiving the usual process

RR


RR

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Mathematical Models...

Nature: Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram by Ron Cowen
A ten-dimensional theory of gravity makes the same predictions as standard quantum physics in fewer dimensions.

A book
The Holographic Principle

Friday, December 13, 2013

Pravmir: Contextual and Pastoral by Archpriest Michael Oleksa
An Essay on the 30th Anniversary of the Repose of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Pravmir: The 30th Anniversary of the Repose of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann



His last homily.
How can there be "decentralization" within the Western patriarchate (the model being used here for convenience, not because it necessarily corresponds to ecclesial reality - we could just say the Roman-rite churches) if the metropolitans and bishops don't do what they can now, with the authority they've always had, to reform their dioceses first (and if necessary, to create new dioceses from within old ones)? How can members of a national conference of bishops discuss "national" questions if they do not even properly understand the problems besetting the local church?

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Rorate Caeli: For the record: The stunning situation of the Franciscans of the Immaculate
Apostolic Commissioner: problem with FI is its "crypto-lefebvrian and definitely traditionalist drift"
* Seminary closed * no ordinations for one year * ordinands must take an oath accepting the Novus Ordo

Bishop of Rome as Universal Teacher?

A proof text which applies not only to the apostles collectively but to Peter singularly? Matthew 28: 19-20 Euntes ergo docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, docentes eos servare omnia, quaecumque mandavi vobis. Et ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi.

Greek

Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir Presents "Blessed are the Peacemakers" - November 30, 2013

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

CNA: Focolare Movement asks that founder's cause be opened
Chiesa: Liturgical Reform, a History to Rewrite
Half a century after “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” all of the preparatory texts are being made available to the general public for the first time. For a new comparison with the ways in which that document has been put into practice

The Federalist Option of the Bishop of Rome
More autonomy for the national episcopal conferences. And more room for different cultures. The two points on which “Evangelii Gaudium" most distinguishes itself from the magisterium of the previous popes

The Good Shepherd


Friday, December 06, 2013

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Consecration of Bishop Kurt R. Burnette



Video streaming by Ustream

Eparchy of Passaic
New Byzantine Catholic bishop in Passaic continues 1,000-year tradition
Fr. Kurt Burnette made head of Ruthenian Eparchy of Passaic

50 Years After Sacrosanctum Concilium

The Liturgy, Fifty Years after Sacrosanctum Concilium by Dom Alcuin Reid
NLM: Is Your Liturgy Like What Vatican II Intended? by Peter Kwasniewski
Fr. Z: 50 years ago today: BUGNINICARE!
A Council Not Yet Fully Realized by Kathleen Pluth
Sacrosanctum Concilium Turns 50

Then you get the stuff over at a certain blog...
V2-50th Anniversary III: “A Reflection on the Ecumenical Impact of Sacrosanctum Concilium“
Pray Tell Live – Massimo Faggioli Interview

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Sound Bites, Even From 'Ecclesial' Sources, Are Annoying

Vatican Radio: Laity called to more formation, greater responsibility
“The lack of formation among the laity is a real serious issue because lay people are not equipped to take their full responsibility in the Church and in the world,” said Donna Orsuto, professor of theology and lay spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Parishes have a big responsibility to form the laity, she said, not only for service in the Church but also in civil society.

“The first thing is that we need a change of mindset,” she said. “When people come to church on Sunday, the primary commitment is to help them to be equipped to go out and share the Gospel in social, political and economic sectors and in their families. Even parish life and homilies... need to be constantly inviting lay people to be nourished by parish life but then to go out into the world and to share the Good News.”

St. Sabbas



† Our Venerable, Godbearing Father Sabbas the Sanctified (533)
DSPT: Dominican Colloquia in Berkeley: Philosophers & Theologians in Conversation
What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem?
DSPT - Philosophy and Theology Colloquium
Dialogue between Philosophy and Theology in the 21st Century

July 16-20, 2014, Berkeley, California

Registration to begin January, 2014

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

St. John Damascene

The LAST Church Father: 7 things to know and share

† Our Righteous Father John of Damascus (760)

Byzantine Concert at Balamand Monastery P3: Hymns for St John of Damascus

St. John of Damascus, Doctor of Christian Art

Random:


The Counter-Attack?

Continuing the revolution started by the Consilium.

From Liturgical Press (what else?):
Beyond Pius V: Conflicting Interpretations of the Liturgical Reform by Andrea Grillo

It reminds me of Piero Marini's memoirs and his being a disciple of Bugnini - Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975 - the old guard of the Pauline (and Pian?) reform.

This might be a more even-handed treatment of the current state of affairs in the Roman rite (and Pope Benedict XVI's efforts):
Care for the Church and Its Liturgy: A Study of Summorum Pontificum and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite by William H. Johnston

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

The 450th Anniversary of the Council of Trent

NCR: Church Marks the 450th Anniversary of Council of Trent
The Reformation-era council has shaped the life of the Church for nearly half a millennium.

The Tridentine Masterpiece by Donald S. Prudlo

Too Romanocentric a pov? What would an Byzantine or Eastern Christian say of Trent and its response to the Protestants?

From 2011: Amateur Photographer Shoots Largest Ever True Color Photo of the Night Sky
Zenit: Council of Cardinals Begins 2nd Set of Meetings in Rome
Continues Examination of the Roman Curia, Congregation of Divine Worship

Monday, December 02, 2013

Visually Depicting God the Father?

via ByzTx

What Is It to Think With the Church? - DSPT 2014 Convocation of the College of Fellows

Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, CA - Saturday, February 1, 2014 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm

AVAILABLE VIA LIVE-STREAMING
"We should not even think,” Pope Francis has said, “that ‘thinking with the church’ means only thinking with the hierarchy of the church.” What then, does it mean?
Join us in person or via live-streaming for a conversation exploring this question. Speakers include DSPT Fellows:
- Michael Naughton, Director of John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought and Alan W. Moss Endowed Chair in Catholic Social Thought at University of St. Thomas;
- Gregory Wolfe, publisher and editor-in-chief of the journal Image, writer in residence at Seattle Pacific University, where he teaches English literature and creative writing; Founder and Director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at SPU;
- Richard Gallagher, Emeritus Scientist of Cancer Control Research at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and Clinical Professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.

RSVP

FB event

Sunday, December 01, 2013

Cantori Gregoriani

Chiesa: Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant / A New Release in Six Tracks
The introits of the Sundays of Advent, Christmas, and the Epiphany presented on www.chiesa in a brand-new performance by one of the most distinguished choirs in the world

Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant / "Ad te levavi"
It is the introit of the first Sunday of Advent. In a brand-new performance presented to us by the "Cantori Gregoriani" and their Maestro
Faith in the Year of Faith: The Early Proposal of Joseph Ratzinger by Fr. Pablo Sarto (via Insight Scoop)

Feast of St. Andrew... Yesterday


Saint Andrew the Apostle
Pope's message to Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew trusts Francis’ visit to Jerusalem will herald a new season of ecumenical dialogue

A Greek Summa

I have not looked at De Fide Orthodoxa by St. John Damascene for some time. If a Thomistic summa were reworked so that the Trinity is covered first, then the Oneness of God, would Latin scholasticism be more palatable for the Greeks? How do the manuals of Byzantine scholasticism differ in their order of exposition from Latin scholastic manuals? What if one were to attempt to harmonize Latin theology (medieval or otherwise) with Byzantine theology in Latin and in Greek?

In a new summa, it seems that the question of scriptural interpretation would have to come in the beginning, in the treatment of Divine Revelation. And a discussion of liturgical theology would come under Divine Revelation or sources of Tradition? As well as under the topic of theology itself = theologia prima vs. theologia secunda. One of the questions at the very beginning...