Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – In his homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christ 2009, the Holy Father Benedict XVI once again warned the whole Church of the danger of “secularisation” among the Catholic faithful, even among the clergy, and he reaffirmed that in the Eucharist, sacrifice and banquet are co-existential .

The Pope said: “celebrating the Passover with his disciples, in the mystery the Lord the brought forward the sacrifice which would be consumed the next day on the cross. The Institution of the Eucharist appears to us then as the anticipation and acceptance on the part of Jesus of his death. In this regard St Ephrem the Syrian: ‘At the Supper Jesus immolated himself; on the cross He was immolated by others.“

Today it is more than ever urgent, also in view of a rediscovery of the sacred dimension so necessary in Europe, to help the faithful understand, or re-understand the universal sacrificial dimension of the Eucharistic liturgy. Not ceding to pre-Christian “pagan” religiosity but fostering correct understanding of the expiatory sacrifice of Christ Our Lord, who gave Himself for us and for our salvation.

Those who reduce the Holy Mass to a banquet, should recall that the Banquet is the consequence of the Sacrifice. Without Christ’s death on the Cross, it would be impossible for man to ’sit at God’s table’ , or share in physical communion with Him through Eucharistic Communion, a foretaste of the condition of risen humanity, beyond time and space. In this sense should be no contrast between the sacrificial dimension and the ‘Lord’s supper’ since the former is the very condition for the latter. There can be no “supper” without the Sacrifice!

The Holy Father went on to say: “Today there is a risk that insidious secularisation, even within the Church, might lead to formal and empty Eucharistic worship, in Liturgies lacking that involvement of the heart expressed in veneration and respect. There is always a strong temptation to reduce prayer to superficial and hurried moments and let earthly activities and concerns take precedence ”.

A proper understanding of the Eucharist as a Sacrifice will avoid any superficial interpretation and, what is more, the desired reciprocal enrichment of the ordinary form and the extraordinary form in the same Latin Rite will, in time, promote also at the liturgical level, that “theological recovery” more than every necessary today. Because “With the Eucharist heaven comes down to earth, God’s tomorrow descends into the present and time is, as it were, embraced by divine eternity”.
(Agenzia Fides 12/6/2009; righe 31, parole 411)

http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=24460&lan=eng

“…Furthermore, I invite you, dear Brothers, to send to the Holy See an account of your experiences, three years after this Motu Proprio has taken effect. If truly serious difficulties come to light, ways to remedy them can be sought…
I entrust these norms to the powerful intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, and I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to you, dear Brothers, to the parish priests of your dioceses, and to all the priests, your co-workers, as well as to all your faithful.

Given at Saint Peter’s, 7 July 2007
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI”

Questions that need to be addressed:
What “truly serious difficulties come to light” ?
What “ways to remedy them can be sought” ?

A recent concern has been a matter raised by EDSNZ as a Resolution at the 2009 FIUV Convocation, Rome.
This Resolution dealt with the prohibition of Holy Communion on the tongue even in the Extraordinary Form.
Details below:
Recent statement from Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei
21st June 2010
From Kreuz.net:
Translation:

Dear Mr. XXXX

In reference to your letter of 15. June, this papal commission would like to point out that the celebration of Holy Mass in the extraordinary form envisages the reception of Holy Communion while kneeling, as the Holy Host is laid directly on the tongue of the communicant. There is no provision for the distribution of Holy Communion on the hand in this form of the Holy Mass.

With blessings,

http://www.kreuz.net/article/article.11473.attachment1.jpg

It is hoped that a member of FSSP will be the celebrant but more details to follow.

Fr. Clement [Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer] is the priest for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem Wanganui 17th to 20th of September 2010.

Cost is $185 [previous price had to be amended to include EDSNZ costs! Editor] for accomodation and meals at Mother Aubert’s historic convent [comfortable and beautifully renovated]

Limited places available – further inquiries and reservations to Secretary or Chairman asap.

The feast of the Assumption is traditionally celebrated in a special way if possible by EDSNZ, as Our Lady of the Assumption is patron of New Zealand.
On 13 January 1838 as the founder of the New Zealand Catholic Church Bishop Pompallier offered his first Mass in Hokianga, he consecrated the Mission in New Zealand, Aotearoa to Our Lady of the Assumption.
The first Mass celebrated in Onehunga, Auckland was on 21st November 1847 and the Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption Onehunga was established there 1850.

Mass at Rotorua is scheduled for Saturday, 1st May, 7:30pm at St. Michael’s Church (refer. Fr Mulholland).

A sung Mass with choir will take place at Devonport, Auckland will take place Sunday, 2nd May, 12 noon at St. Francis de Sales Church (with kind permission of Bishop Dunn and parish administrator Fr. Sullivan).

Homily on Good Friday 2010 in Saint Peter’s Basilica by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, ofmcap [excerpts]

“We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God”: thus begins the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews that we heard in the second reading. In the Year for Priests, the liturgy for Good Friday enables us to go back to the historical source of the Christian priesthood. It is the source of both the realizations of the priesthood: the ministerial, of bishops and presbyters, and the universal of all the faithful. This one also, in fact, is founded on the sacrifice of Christ that, Revelation says, “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Revelation 1:5-6). Hence, it is of vital importance to understand the nature of the sacrifice and of the priesthood of Christ because it is from them that priests and laity, in a different way, must bear the stamp and seek to live the exigencies…

The sacrifice of Christ contains a formidable message for today’s world…

I received in this week the letter of a Jewish friend and, with his permission, I share here a part of it.

He said: “I am following with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the Church, the Pope and all the faithful by the whole world. The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism. Therefore I desire to express to you personally, to the Pope and to the whole Church my solidarity as Jew of dialogue and of all those that in the Jewish world (and there are many) share these sentiments of brotherhood. Our Passover and yours are undoubtedly different, but we both live with Messianic hope that surely will reunite us in the love of our common Father. I wish you and all Catholics a Good Easter.”

And also we Catholics wish our Jewish brothers a Good Passover. We do so with the words of their ancient teacher Gamaliel, entered in the Jewish Passover Seder and from there passed into the most ancient Christian liturgy:

“He made us pass
From slavery to liberty,
From sadness to joy,
From mourning to celebration,
From darkness to light,
From servitude to redemption
Because of this before him we say: Alleluia.”[5]

Acknowledgment to  Robert Moynihan reporting from Rome

The inquiry concerns the Pope’s 86 year old brother who admitted he slapped children years ago when  “the slapping of students and other forms of corporal punishment were common in Catholic schools in Germany and other countries in that era.” [as it was in most schools of most countries of the world]

“There is certainly the suspicion that there are some out there out to damage the church and the pope,” said a Vatican official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter”.

All this was happening whilst  the Holy Father was holding  his usual Wednesday General Audience [Wednesday, March 10, 2010]. in which he is reported as stating publicly the fundamental principle explaining his own papacy.

In this General Audience the Pope said that the essence of his task in governing the Church,  is to orient souls to Christ, to “win souls for Christ”.

Benedict suggested that he is guiding the Church just as Bonaventure tried to guide the Franciscan Order in the late 1200s, “not only through commands and structures, but through guiding and enlightening souls, orienting them to Christ.”

This is said to be the center of Benedict’s pontificate [which it is also claimed] that his opponents are trying to conceal, and overshadow, with allegations of scandal.The Pope also said the following  in this audience:

“We know, in fact, how after the Second Vatican Council, some were convinced that everything should be new, that there should be another Church, that the pre-conciliar Church was finished and that we would have another, totally “other” Church. An anarchic utopianism!

And thanks be to God, the wise helmsmen of Peter’s Barque, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, on one hand defended the novelty of the council and on the other, at the same time, defended the uniqueness and continuity of the Church, which is always a Church of sinners and always a place of grace…

Dear friends, let us take up the invitation addressed to us by St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, and let us enter the school of the divine Teacher: We listen to his Word of life and truth, which resounds in the depth of our soul. Let us purify our thoughts and actions, so that he can dwell in us, and we can hear his divine voice, which draws us toward true happiness.” Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Acknowledgment to Robert Moynihan of  Inside the Vatican.