Some Novenas

The Catholic Church has a deep history and profound heritage of formal prayer. One form of prayer that is particularly common is that of a novena, which is essentially a nine-day prayer. Quoth The Catholic Encyclopedia:

A nine days' private or public devotion in the Catholic Church to obtain special graces. The octave [eight days] has more of the festal character; to the novena belongs that of hopeful mourning, of yearning, of prayer. "The number nine in Holy Writ is indicative of suffering and grief" (St. Jerome, in Ezech., vii, 24; — P.L., XXV, 238, cf. XXV, 1473). The novena is permitted and even recommended by ecclesiastical authority, but still has no proper and fully set place in the liturgy of the Church. It has, however, more and more been prized and utilized by the faithful. Four kinds of novenas can be distinguished: novenas of mourning, of preparation, of prayer, and the indulgenced novenas, though this distinction is not exclusive.

We bring this to your attention, O Reader, for today, Nov. 30 traditionally begins two interesting novenas: that of St. Andrew, and that of the Immaculate Conception. Since the feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception is celebrated December 8th, many have begun the novena today, so that the ninth and final day of prayer corresponds with the feast day (a holy day of obligation, we must recall). The prayers of this novena can be found here.

The Christmas Novena of St. Andrew is of a slightly different nature. It is not a novena, per se, because it lasts longer than nine days. It begins today, the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, and ends on Christmas. The form of the novena is the recitation of the prayer below fifteen times each day:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

We understand that doing anything fifteen times a day seems like a lot to ask, but, we are positive there are many among us who check Facebook and Twitter much more than this per day. And, really, the prayer is no longer than your garden variety Hail Mary. Incorporating prayers such as these into our daily life can help us to conform our prayer to the mind of the Church and tune us in to the desires God has for us. Advent formerly had more of a penitential character, and in the Eastern Churches it is still observed as a time for fasting in anticipation of Christ's birth. Praying a novena - a regular, disciplined prayer - can be a bit of a small penance to help us on our way toward Christmas. And, any prayer whatsoever during this busy time of passing things can help to keep us grounded in eternal things.

So, we encourage all of you out there to copy and paste the Christmas Novena of St. Andrew (or any other prayer you like) to a little sticky note - or some similar application - and keep it on your desktop of your computer for the whole of Advent. If you are not technologically inclined, write it out on a real sticky note and put it on your real desktop in your room - somewhere you will see it. Rest assured, I will be keeping all of you in my intentions. Best wishes to you for a prayerful and joyous Advent!

Eero Saarinen's Religious Masterpiece

Should any reader of these pages also have the misfortune of following me on Twitter, you may have noticed our rantings to the wee hours of the night about the writing of a certain paper for a certain class that shall remain nameless. The subject of this paper, by our own choosing, was Eero Saarinen's design for the campus and chapel of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Readers may recognize Eero Saarinen as the architect of the St. Louis Arch. Anyhow, Saarinen's design for the chapel has grown on me a great deal since beginning the paper. It is unabashedly modern, all of Saarinen's works were, but it has a certain artfulness about it. Light is controlled successfully, and the traditional liturgical layout is respected. In some ways, it reminds me of the simplicity of a Carthusian monastery.

Thanksgiving Diary

Of all of our peculiarities as Americans, the celebration of Thanksgiving is by far my favorite. Though we must forgive its Puritanical origins, the holiday always forms such a nice kickoff to the commercial pre-Christmas mania, and is perhaps the only thing that keeps us from being inundated with Christmas ads immediately after Halloween (though, of course, Hobby Lobby always seems to be about three holidays ahead in what they display on their floor). The irony, I suppose, is that the Puritans wouldn't have celebrated Christmas, and would, I gather, cast a characteristically dour gaze toward our overblown Black Friday hullaballoo - or any hullaballoo, for that matter.

In any event, your humble and obedient scribe was home for the holiday in Grand Rapids. Time was well spent with family, friends, and food, though not necessarily in that order of importance. A grave number of calories was ingested on several different occasions over the Thanksgiving reprieve. And, a similarly obscene number of hours were spent lying in bed - a delightful occupation for those of us who are so often deprived of our sleep due to the demands of architectural instruction. So, what have we got - gluttony and sloth? Our cardinal sinning was decidedly confined to these two vices, which seems permissible, since Dante's punishments for the gluttonous and slothful are not terribly vile.

Also accomplished was the annual Schmalzelian dispersal of Christmas knick-knacks throughout the house. I say dispersal because once the giant rubbermaid tubs are hauled up out of the crawlspace, the various Christmas accouterments seem to automatically find their respective ways to their traditional posts throughout our home - much as we wish that the confounded garland that goes over the mantle would somehow disappear quietly in the night. In due course, the house was Christmasified, which was followed  with a celebratory ingestion of even more turkey, reinvigorated in the form of turkey Manhattans - the most agreeable way to deal with Thanksgiving leftovers.

The chief event of Saturday was the implementation of the new translation of the mass, which I have detailed extensively in the previous post. After our sacred language adjustment, dinner at Salvatore's commenced. Salvatore's is one of those staple West Side eateries that always sounds good, no matter what one's disposition happens to be at the time. Though, we must report regret in not making a pilgrimage to the laudable Red Jet Cafe on the Northeast end of town.

Sunday was chiefly a day of trial, in the form of driving back to Muncie. It rained abominably the whole drive, which apparently aggravated certain drivers from Illinois enough to encourage them into the ditches off the interstate - which caused quite a spectacle (read: traffic jam). We seldom mention persons from Illinois, for our mother taught us that if one does not have anything good to say, one should not say it. This also goes for Ohio, though mention must be made of the University of Michigan finally triumphing over the barbaric oafs of Ohio State. Deo Gratias! All's well that ends well, as they say, and we finally returned to Muncie in good health, well-rested, and prepared to handle the final three weeks of this semester.

It is Right and Just

The world should have ended this weekend. Or so some one would have thought from all of the thousands of words written on the changes that occurred in the translation of the mass. Catholics everywhere were supposed to have experienced "ritual whiplash" and "gross discomfort" with the changes and revisions that went into full effect this weekend. However, in my personal experience, none of this predicted chaos occurred. For as opposed as Catholics are to change, no babies cried, no women wept in the streets, no one was mangled, dismembered, or otherwise hurt. Things were a bit bumpy in spots (a few reflexive "And also with you's" instead of the new "And with your spirit"), but when isn't there going to be a bit of an adjustment when you change something that holds millions of English-speaking Catholics together. On the whole, things went rather smoothly.

A bit of background for those readers who are utterly baffled at what the above paragraph means. In 1970, in the wake of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Pope Paul VI issued texts for a revised mass for the Roman Rite (approximately 99% of the world's Catholics). These texts were promulgated in Latin, the official language of the Church, and were subsequently translated into vernacular languages. To cut straight to the chase, the translation of the Mass of Paul VI into English was rushed and a bit shoddy. Phrases and responses that had been a part of the Church's liturgical worship for centuries were mistranslated or mangled beyond recognition, scriptural allusions which provide a direct link to God's word were clouded, and so forth. The original English texts were supposed to be a temporary holdover until better translations could be implemented. As we now realize, this temporary holdover ended up being about forty years. This weekend marked the first time that the revised Roman Missal was put into use around the English-speaking world.

I am of the firm belief that the revised and properly translated mass will ultimately be a good thing for the Church in the English-speaking world. The way in which we worship communally is tremendously important - it is in the context of this worship that God Himself becomes present in the Most Holy Sacrament. Subsequently, the words that we use in the context of our liturgy must be proper to this miracle. The revised translation is much more proper, even elegant and poetic, than the now outdated texts. I was previously a fan of the Roman Canon (the oldest of the four Eucharistic prayers) because it was the most reverent in my opinion. This past weekend, our priest said Eucharistic Prayer IV and I was blown away at the change! It has become quite an elegant prayer, to say the least.

All in all, yes it will take time to adjust to some of the new phrases, yes there may be a few missteps along the way, but this is change we can truly believe in (to borrow and adapt that soiled phrase). And, to borrow from the mass itself, it is truly right and just.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best wishes for a happy and blessed Thanksgiving among family and friends! Enjoy the turkey!

The Crystal Cathedral is Converting

There is perhaps no greater symbol of American Evangelical mega-churchmanship than the bombastic Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. It is interesting to note, then, the recent news that the Crystal Cathedral has been sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, for eventual use as the diocese's new cathedral. It seems that the operator of the building, Crystal Cathedral Ministries, had gone bankrupt and needed to sell their property and building. At the same time, the Diocese of Orange was in great need for a larger cathedral. So, the acquisition of the property is fortuitous for both parties involved.

As a student of architecture and a critic of modernism, I tend to dislike the building itself. It is impressive structurally, and the spire is quite nice, but it will take a lot of work (and apparently several million dollars) to renovate the cavernous, auditorium-like space into something appropriate for Catholic worship. But, if the Church can turn the pagan Pantheon into a suitable place for the mass, I have no doubt that a temple to modernism and Evangelicalism can likewise be converted.

Rule Britannia!

Fun discovery today: that little musical bit they always play in movies when the scene cuts to something British has words. The sound bit in question comes from the chorus of the British patriotic song Rule Britannia which reads, "Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves! Britons never shall be slaves." Have a listen to the fantastic (and slightly humorous) version above.

Christ the King, an Inconvenient Truth

Today is the solemnity of Christ the King, the final Sunday of the liturgical year. This feast is an agreeable time to meditate on what it means to be the subjects of the king of the universe, Jesus Christ. In some sense, especially to us emancipated moderns, the notion of Christ as a king is a bit of an inconvenient truth, if I may use that overwrought phrase. We can deal with Christ the Good Man, Christ the Mystic, Christ the Liberator, Christ the Nonviolent, Christ the Fill in the Blank. And, to some extent, Christ was all of these things. Yet, he is and will always be a king. And we tend to cringe at that. Kings mean authority, law, and obedience - words that are not particularly well-liked in our culture of libertinism.

Christ, however, gives us a perfect model for all three. He is perfect authority himself. He is the Word of the Father made flesh and given authority over all things. He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and perfectly merciful and just. Imagine if an earthly king possessed each of these characteristics! His kingdom would be overflowing with people. Christ is also the perfect lawgiver, the new Moses, who has seen God face to face. His law is true and extends over the whole world. It is neither an oppressive nor an easy law, but truth is never either of these things. And, finally, Christ is obedient. Obedience requires humility, of which Jesus is the paramount example. The qualities I have described above are true qualities of Our Lord, and they speak to his majesty and power. Yet, he also possessed the even stronger power to humble himself of these qualities and become a man, and suffer, and die as a finite man in a historical world - just like the rest of us. This is a king that I can follow.

As members of Christ's Body, we are each called through the virtue of our baptism to be loyal subjects to our King. Each day we are given the opportunity to respect and obey His authority and law, so that we might someday be called home to reign with him in his everlasting kingdom.

As I hinted before, these are inconvenient pills for us prideful moderns to swallow. We prefer lawlessness. We like to set ourselves up as our own kings in our own lives. As I read in a recent New York Times article concerning the recent troubles at Penn State, the reason we were so outraged with the persons in power there is that we are all "convinced of our own interior wonderfulness." We get so absorbed in how awesome we all are, fed by a culture that is hesitant to reprimand anyone, that we lose sight of the fact that each of us is a sinful person, capable of falling - and falling hard. Once we reject the idea that we are God's gift to mankind, we can get back on track following God's true gift to mankind - Himself.

Victorian Zebra Carriage

It is one of the true tragedies of history that such a form of locomotion has been lost to us. Victorian persons, for all of their tight-lipped moral scruples, somehow often managed to get away with such tomfoolery.

Bauakademie by Schinkel

Karl Friedrich Schinkel was the chief proponents of the Neoclassical style in Germany. His most active period of designing was during between the 1810s and the 1820s, when he oversaw the transformation of Berlin into the showplace of the Kingdom of Prussia. In the latter half of his career, Schinkel would turn from the Neoclassical to a stripped-down version of the Gothic (as can be seen in his design for the Friedrichswerder Church). Another landmark commission of this later era was the Bauakademie in Berlin, a building for an architectural and technical school. It is a building that I rather enjoy. It has the simplicity and harmony of the modernism that would eventually be perfected in Germany, while still employing traditional construction materials and decorative elements. Sadly, the building was demolished in 1962. Plans to rebuild are currently under study.

Our Pope on Our Liturgy

Our dear pontiff Benedict XVI is a man whose intellectual capacity is a true marvel to me. I believe he truly has a fantastically analytical mind, which is in constant conversation with a gentle, humble heart - it is this synthesis that makes many of his statements so profound. Below is a small portion of a talk our current pope gave in 2000, before he was elected to the Chair of Peter. The overarching theme of the entire speech concerned the New Evangelization, and how the Church might go about fulfilling its missionary mandate in the postmodern landscape. The snippet below is his thoughts on how the liturgy must reflect our message (emphases mine).

While on this subject, may I be allowed to make a general observation on the liturgical question. Our way of celebrating the liturgy is very often too rationalistic. The liturgy becomes teaching, whose criteria is: making ourselves understood—often the consequence of this is making the mystery a banality, the prevalence of our words, the repetition of phrases that might seem more accessible and more pleasant for the people.

But this is not only a theological error but also a psychological and pastoral one. The wave of esoterism, the spreading of Asian techniques of relaxation and self-emptying demonstrate that something is lacking in our liturgies. It is in our world of today that we are in need of silence, of the super-individual mystery, of beauty.

The liturgy is not an invention of the celebrating priest or of a group of specialists; the liturgy (the "rite") came about via an organic process throughout the centuries, it bears with it the fruit of the experience of faith of all the generations.

Even if the participants do not perhaps understand each single word, they perceive the profound meaning, the presence of the mystery, which transcends all words. The celebrant is not the center of liturgical action; the celebrant is not in front of the people in his own name—he does not speak by himself or for himself, but in persona Christi. The personal abilities of the celebrant do not count, only his faith counts, by which Christ becomes transparent. "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

I feel keeping these four short paragraphs in mind will help Catholics understand the reasons behind the revisions coming to the mass in two short weeks. We need to restore and revive the mystery and beauty of our worship.

A Bit of Heraldry

One of the lesser things lost with the abolition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 was its spectacular heritage of heraldry. Very few current monarchies (excepting the United Kingdom) have any such heraldry worth boasting about. For those unaware of the subject, a cursory introduction is in order. Heraldry is the art pertaining to a person's coat of arms. Now, the coat-of-arms originated in Medieval Europe, when knights would cover their armor with cloth of a particular pattern and/or color (hence, the arms or armor, was being coated). This practice allowed the knights to be easily identified upon the battlefield. Eventually, arms became hereditary and a complex array of rules were drawn up to govern the awarding of arms to a person of a subsequent generation. A highly intricate system of symbols and colors also developed, often pertaining to a person's geographical origins or personality traits (a fleur-de-lys for France, or a dog for loyalty, for example).

In the arms of Austria-Hungary as they were immediately prior to its dismemberment by the Allies, we see a pictoral microcosm of the empire and of the ruling house of Habsburg. To the left, we see the arms of Austrian portion of the empire, with the black double-headed eagle supporting the minor arms of the constituent Austrian regions. On the right are the arms of the Kingdom of Hungary, surmounted by the sacred crown of St. Stephen with its characteristic bent cross. In the center are the arms of the house of Habsburg, whose members were of course both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary simultaneously. Thus, by looking at the entire composition, we can visually understand the government of the realm. We can add a layer of insight by translating the motto "Indivisibiliter ac Inseparabiliter" which means "Indivisible and Inseparable" which underscores the union of the disparate ethnicities under a single monarch.

It is somewhat of a tragedy that such emblems have, by and large, ceased to exist. We have become an extremely literal and word-oriented culture, and the ancient language of symbols is largely foreign to the modern mind.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Dear readers, I have begun updating my blog that I will be using during my time in Australia. So far, I haven't posted much, but I just thought I'd alert you to its presence, should you wish to check up on some pre-departure updates now and again.

http://mattschmalzel.tumblr.com/

In Memoriam

My grandfather was a veteran of this nation's Armed Forces. He served in Korea during the conflict there. As far as I know - and I don't know much - he was involved in the maintenance of the aircraft. I don't believe he was ever in a combat situation, but then again, I don't know. Sometimes I'm saddened by the fact that my grandpa died when I was only in eighth grade. In eighth grade, I wasn't concerned with understanding the lives of my relatives - our sense of history is so numb at that age.

Please join me this Veteran's Day in praying for the deceased souls of all of our service men and women. May God grant them a place of refreshment, light, and peace.

The photo at left is my grandfather during his tour of Korea. Once, at my aunt's house, we found a photo album that my grandpa had put together of all of his time in the war. This was one of the pictures inside. I love this picture - the mustache is definitely what seals the deal!

In 80 days...

I will be in Lennox Head, Australia. This weekend there is a big meeting where we will learn the in-depth information about studying in Australia. Classes, roommates, and sundry other things will be decided upon. Also, it will be the first time where everyone who's going will be in the same room. It will be nice to at least get acquainted with faces, if not personalities.

Soon...

The Daily Niblet: San Giovanni in Laterano

Today, November 9th, marks an interesting memorial in the Christian liturgical calendar. It is on this day that we recall the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome - the pope. Many people assume that St. Peter's in the Vatican is the cathedral of Rome. This is not the case. St. John Lateran is older and in some respects more important than St. Peter's, since it is in fact the place where the pope's cathedra - or chair - is located. Since it is the cathedral of Rome, it is the mother church of both the diocese of Rome and the entire Roman Catholic Church. The church, since it is a patriarchal basilica, is technically first and foremost dedicated as "Our Savior" which is reflected in the basilica's official name: the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Sts. John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran.

From the Roman Martyrology:
At Rome in the Lateran, the Dedication of the Basilica of the Saviour, which is the Mother and Head of all churches in the city and the world.

At left is a view of the nave toward the high altar

Does Truth Exist?

Often, in the course of my collegiate education, other persons in class (often the professor) will say something to the effect of "Well, we can't know what truth is for sure" or "What's true for x is not necessarily true for y." This attitude is so prevalent throughout academia that it takes a great deal of sorting to snap out of it and dissect it. Gradually, I've awoken to this attitude by the help of others - most notably by reading the writings our current pope, who sees this attitude as cultural suicide for the West (more on that some other time).

The logical fallacy that each of the above statement falls to is so thinly veiled that it's almost naked, yet we are so used to it that we are conditioned not to see it. The purpose of any intellectual discussion is to uncover the truth about something. In a court case, we swear to tell the truth so that justice may be administered properly. When we obscure truth, we thus distort justice. When we lie, we obscure truth.

So, when someone says "We cannot know truth for certain" we must assume that this person is telling the truth about their beliefs, and that they know that their statement is certainly true. See the error in logic here? If I say "the sky is blue," I genuinely mean that the sky is blue, and I genuinely wish to convey this truth to you. I would not claim that the sky were blue if I knew, deep down, that it was red - it would be dishonest. Thus, when someone presents the unknowability of truth, we must assume that they do not know if what they are saying is true. This is simply the extension of the logic presented.

The second statement is similar to the first. If truth is not the same between x and y, then one can claim that my truth is better than the truth of that statement. Again, the person arguing in this way is caught in an intellectual pickle.

Long story short, when someone says "Truth cannot be known for sure" ask him or her if that statement is surely true. I would be interested to hear the ensuing discussion.

The Daily Niblet: A Burial at Ornans

"A Burial at Ornans" by Gustave Courbet

We discussed this painting today in my Honors Humanities class, and how it showed an ordinary scene - a burial - on a scale that was typically reserved for grand historical paintings. This painting was completed in 1850, and marked the transition in French art from Romanticism to Realism. I rather like it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mozart's Coronation Mass is perhaps the greatest musical treasure in Western civilization. Clearly I'm biased, however. But, lest I deprive you of your own opinion on the matter, have a listen to the Gloria above. Truly sublime (both the music and the stunning visuals of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna).

The text of this portion of the mass, in Latin and English is below:

Glória in excélsis Deo et in terra pax homínibus bonae voluntátis. Laudámus te, benedícimus te, adorámus te, glorificámus te, grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam, Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis, Deus Pater omnípotens. Dómine Fili Unigénite, Iesu Christe, Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris, qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis; qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram. Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis. Quóniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dóminus, tu solus Altíssimus, Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spíritu: in glória Dei Patris. Amen.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father. Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. You are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

These Will Make Fine Ancestors

I am rather interested in the history of my own family. I am what you could call a mutt of Catholic Europe with parts French, Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Austrian. The Austrian branch is the most intriguing part of things for me, since it is the source of my surname. However, sadly, I know least about them, aside from some generalities and locations. This picture shows some of my Austrian ancestors - regrettably, I don't know their names or relation to me. I do know that this picture was taken in Sankt Michael im Burgenland, a small village in eastern present-day Austria that was under the dominion of the Kingdom of Hungary during the time of the photo. I am unsure if these persons emigrated, but their sons and daughters may have. The cause was likely Hungary's intense program of Magyarization around the turn of the century, which sought to stamp out German culture in Hungary. Interestingly, this social movement caused the bizarre inclusion of another consonant in our last name, rendering it the even-more-unpronounceable Schmalczel.

Redevelop

So, readers, you must be noticing by now that I've revamped the site! I know you must all be astonished that we who are so devoted to tradition have redone things on our little corner of the web. Well, your astonishment need not be great. This blog has evolved quite substantively since it was first launched, way back in those fabled days of aught nine. I find it refreshing to re-do things about once a year or so, oftener if I am feeling particularly spontaneous. But, generally, more change than that upsets my constitution.

I do hope you enjoy the new look. I myself enjoy the brighter, cleaner look of things. The photo, also, I rather fancy (please don't misinterpret that as conceit, I just think it's more appropriate for the blog nowadays than the other image). All that said, however, it seems a bit colder and more stark. This will take some getting used to. That's all for now. Expect posts in the near future on the French Revolution, Monarchy, and something Michigan-related.

The Daily Niblet: Memento Mori

Since it's All Souls Day, and we should be praying for all of the faithful departed, I thought I'd share this image that helps us remember that we too will eventually die and hopefully join their great company. This is the Sedlec Ossuary in Sedlec, which is in the Czech Republic. It is a small chapel that contains the skeletons of approximately 40,000 persons. The result is an eerily macabre chamber that is festooned with skulls and other bones. The chandelier contains at least one of every bone in the body. The reason for the chapel's popularity for burial was that earth from Golgotha (where Christ's crucifixion took place) was spread over the cemetery by an abbot in the Middle Ages.

Thoughts on Europe

"We were making sand castles, and now we swim in the sea that swept them away" - Rem Koolhaas

"Once abolish the God, and government becomes the God." - G.K. Chesterton

Rem Koolhaas, a Dutch architect (whose work I do not particularly enjoy), has some interesting thoughts about the future of the European Union and the European project in general. His general premise is that Europe needs to be fixed. I believe we can all agree on this point considering recent greatly destabilizing events. He goes on to say that the economic union of the EU cannot go on being viable without political union of the EU. This is something that I've suspected for awhile now. Europe has a somewhat united economy without any means of enforcing economic policy across the continent, the European Central Bank notwithstanding.

However, the underlying problem with the entire European project is that it is a top-down scheme. The entire system is utterly superficial. Often we Americans look at Europe as if it were the United States: with countries that are basically the same living peacefully together. This is emphatically not the case. Europe is a fractured continent - the Greeks are a decidedly different people than the Italians. You cannot, then, foist a bureaucratic mess on to both countries and expect the same results. No number of eurocrats in Brussels will be able to make the Portuguese and the Spanish identical.

A parallel stream of thought on Europe suggests that since Europe has lost its shared Christian culture, it cannot truly unite in a meaningful way anyway. The basis of the word culture is the Latin word cultus, which means veneration. Thus, a culture is a group of people who venerate things in common. For Europe, this was Christianity, until the so-called Enlightenment and afterward. Nowadays, Europe is about as religiously arid a place as you can find. It is a sad fact, but it underscores the point that any European Union-esque project is bound to be unsuccessful because the last substantive bond among European nations - Christianity - has been egregiously eroded.

What could result is a super-national government in Europe. It's possible. However, it would likely possess only one leg of Western Civilization. It would be Roman rule of law, devoid of Athens' reason and Jerusalem's revelation. In short, European bureaucrats would be constructing a government in their own image, an image dependent, not on the cultus of Christ, but on the cultus of power.

The Festival of Your Holy City

All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation, was observed throughout the Catholic Church today. Through our celebration of the great cloud of witnesses (c.f. Hebrews 12:1) who have gone before us in faith, we can be inspired to lives of greater personal sanctity. As our priest remarked during the homily this evening, "Each saint took a unique path of holiness toward God's presence." If we take the time to learn about the lives of the saints, we can begin to understand that no path is more holy than another: we can lead holy lives in even the most ordinary circumstances.

However interesting that subject may be, it is not the focus of this post. The chief idea that struck me about the mass of All Saints was how our liturgical prayers are shaped directly by scripture. The first reading was taken from the book of Revelation and read thus:

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel. After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: "Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen." Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." - Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

In this passage we receive a glimpse of heavenly worship. The object of worship is the Lamb of God, who is seated in majesty on the throne. Around the throne are people gathered from "every tribe of Israel". Again, as we remarked in yesterday's post, we can discern the connection between God's people of Israel and the Church instituted by Christ. There are people from all over the world who had been gathered into Israel, and are worshipping in the heavenly Jerusalem.

We Catholics believe that the worship described in Revelation is the eternal liturgy of heaven. The mass, the liturgy on earth, is mystically united with the liturgy in heaven by the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, which gained salvation for humanity. Imagine my delight, then, when during mass we reached the preface of the Eucharistic prayer (the prayer that comes immediately before the "Holy, Holy, Holy" and changes with the day):

Today we keep the festival of Your holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother. Around Your throne the saints, our brothers and sisters, sing Your praise for ever. Their glory fills us with joy, and their communion with us in Your Church gives us inspiration and strength as we hasten on our pilgrimage of faith, eager to meet them.

The Church is truly universal. The saints in heaven whom we honor today are truly our brothers and sisters. Christ has but one body and it spans earth, purgatory, and heaven. This is what is meant by the phrase "communion of saints" and the concept helps us understand prayer to the saints, and prayer for those holy souls in purgatory - we are all one, and we all must pray for each other, as St. Paul recommends (c.f. 1 Timothy 2:1).

These doctrines, though taught by the Church, may not have been as apparent to me had I not connected it with how we were worshipping during mass. What we say and hear during mass aside from the Scriptures adds layers of insight to what we hear proclaimed in the Scriptures. This is why what we say and how we pray communally is important - it reinforces the revelation of God. I have heard a few complaints about the revised translation of the mass that will go into effect in a few weeks. However, it is my firm belief that this revision will make the biblical basis of our worship so much clearer, and will thus strengthen the connection between prayer and Scripture in rich and meaningful ways.