From the Pastor

Letter from the Pastor

New Roman Missal • Part III  (10.24.10)

Last week we explored the development of the Mass during the middle ages. We saw how after continuous and vigorous development of the prayers and rituals during the time of the Church fathers, up to the 6th century, the liturgy settled down into a stable, not to say a static form. The Council of Trent in the late 1500s cemented this stability, and because of the invention of printed books and the energy of the Counter-Reformation that stability spread everywhere in the Church. For four hundred years there was practically no change in the Mass rites or prayers, save for prayers for newly minted saints. In the early 1960s all that changed because of Vatican Council II.

Vatican II and the liturgical changes it brought forth did not spring up overnight like mushrooms on the lawn. The roots of the “liturgical movement” go back at least to Dom Jean Mabillon, the French Benedictine scholar who already in the 17th century began an historical and scientific study of the sources of the Roman Liturgy. Things really took off in the 19th century. Dom Prosper Gueranger at the re-founded abbey of Solesmes in France began a study of Gregorian Chant and wrote a multi-volume explanation of the liturgical year. The object of this work was to recover, if possible, the purest form of the Roman liturgy, thought to be that of the high middle ages. Gueranger was influenced by the 19^th century Romantic movement and the fascination with all things Gothic. It wasn’t until the turn of the 20^th century that the liturgical movement was given a broader theological and pastoral vision. Dom Lambert Beauduin, a monk of the Belgian Abbey of Mont César in Louvain realized that the importance of the liturgy was not merely an infatuation with its ethereal beauty, but that the texts themselves, and the celebrations which animate the church year are the primary source for Christian spirituality. This orientation was seconded by Pope Pius X whose most famous quote is: “The primary and indispensible source of obtaining the Christian spirit is active participation in the Christian mysteries.” That meant the faithful taking their part in the liturgy was the normal means of making Catholic Christians holy.

From Beauduin forward the Liturgical Movement became more pastoral. There was a greater emphasis in teaching the laity to understand and follow the Mass. One example of this was the hand missal in English (or Latin and English) in which people could follow along, synchronizing their reading with the little icons of the posture of the priest at the altar. It’s hard to believe today that in the 19^th century vernacular translations of the Mass were on the Index of Forbidden Books! But that is absolutely true. Another development was the “dialogue Mass,” most popular in Germany along with singing hymns in place of the Latin antiphons. All these were attempts to bring the liturgy closer to the people. I remember that for many years the Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota sold a pamphlet called My Nameday: Come for Dessert. It tried to teach about the church year and the saints by connecting it with the idea of saints feast days. More serious journals were published for clergy and educated laity including Orate Fratres (subsequently Worship); La Maison Dieu in France; and others in other countries. There were also the Annual Liturgical Weeks which were held to spread the ideas of the Liturgical Movement. I remember as a high school seminarian (imagine it!) taking the proceedings of these meetings off the library shelf so I could learn about the great figures and ideas of the movement. It was powerfully attractive to me and probably had not a little to do with nurturing my vocation to the priesthood.

With all of this as background the Second Vatican Council opened the door to much change. Here are some features of that change. Much of what was introduced was not in fact new but very old. There was a return to the sources. It was admitted that worship in the vernacular could really assist people in drawing closer to the spirit of the liturgy. The Mass came to be seen not as a ritual the priest celebrated while the people watched, but that the people had a role—indeed several roles—vital roles in it.

There is much, much more that could be said and perhaps we will come back to it. But now let us turn our attention to the question of translation, because it is the appearance next year of a new translation which is the trigger for this series of reflections. Sacrosanctum Concillium, better known to us as the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was the first document discussed and voted at the Council. The story of its rebirth after the coup worked by the leading bishops outside the Roman Curia, who would not accept the draft which the old guard had made, is well told in John O’Malley’s What Happened at Vatican II. It’s better than a spy novel to read about the backroom finagling and maneuvering. The Liturgy Constitution was passed by a vote of 2147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 4 December 1963. Within a matter of days, Archbishop Dennis Hurley of Durban, South Africa had called together representatives of the various Bishops Conferences around the world where English was spoken and proposed to them that they should work together to prepare translations of the forthcoming rites for Mass, the sacraments, and the Liturgy of the Hours. The “mixed commission” which they formed then began the work of translating the flood of new liturgical texts which were to come into the Catholic world very shortly after. This translating body was to be called ICEL (International Commission on English in the Liturgy). The translations it prepared and the bishops approved are the translations that are now being revised. And that is where we will take up the story next time.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Time is running out. We have until October 31^st to complete this year’s Gallup survey, Membership Engagement 25. If you want to do it manually, it’s in the bulletin, just take it home and fill it out. Copies are available. Return it in the collection or drop it at the office and your data will be put into the computer. Those who prefer the convenience of the computer should go to the parish home page (http://www.mht-eh.org) and click the link in the gray bar on the home page. It is easy and quick to do.

New Roman Missal • Part II  (10.17.10)

Last time we took a supersonic tour of the development of the Mass from the Last Supper till the end of the age of the Church Fathers. We saw how the venue for Mass changed from an “at home” setting between the time of Jesus and the Apostles to the end of the persecutions in the 4^th century. We saw how the language changed from Aramaic/Hebrew to Greek to Latin. We saw how the prayer forms developed from Jewish style prayers to distinctly Christian forms, and how the ritual gradually developed into a highly symbolic language of its own. This is all by way of introducing further changes in language which we will begin a year from this Advent. We take up the story today at the beginning of the Middle Ages.

As the Roman world became exhausted and the Barbarian invasions swept over Europe the Church became missionary once again and more and more spent its energy north of the Alps. Under the influence of “Christian” rulers like Pepin and Charlemagne and their successors the Roman Rite began to be co-opted as an instrument for uniting very diverse nations and peoples. The English deacon Alcuin, Charlemagne’s executive officer, sent to Rome to obtain manuscripts of the papal liturgy so that they could in turn be copied and spread throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Having a single rite in a single language, Latin, served the imperial need for unity.

A word now about the texts of the liturgy in the early medieval period. All the texts were manuscripts—written by hand—there being as yet no printing. What Alcuin got back from Rome were copies of collections of prayers from various sources. They were called sacramentaries, and also libelli (pamphlets), perhaps not unlike our missalettes in that they were incomplete and gave texts for a few Masses and even then were often incomplete. These texts from Rome were added to texts which had grown up in Gaul (modern day Spain, France and Germany) and represented a local “Gallican” tradition. Each monastery, cathedral, and diocese had to make do with the texts they had. Moreover the rituals were often different from those at Rome. Already in the 4^th century St. Ambrose in Milan acknowledges that they don’t have foot washing on Holy Thursday in Rome but that they don’t know everything at Rome. Some of the most colorful rites had come into Gaul via trade routes from the Holy Land, e.g., kissing the cross on Good Friday, the Lucernarium or light service which begins the Easter vigil.

Moreover this hodge-podge of manuscripts continued on into the high middle ages. What we know today as the missal, a compendium of texts all in one place did not really come about until the age of the begging friars, the Franciscans and Dominicans, who travelled from place to place and needed a compact book to throw in their saddlebags as they went about preaching the gospel. True uniformity in texts had to wait even longer, to the end of the sixteenth century for the Council of Trent and the new technology of movable type. Pope Pius V’s Missal of 1570 was the first time in 1500 years that the whole western church began to pray from the same prayer book.

The Council of Trent did a very effective job at reforming the liturgy despite resistance from bishops in France who wished to maintain their ancient Gallican traditions. What followed was four hundred years of virtually no change in the liturgy. That is an overstatement. Of course the liturgy continued to evolve but very slowly. New saints came into the calendar for whom texts needed to be provided. Directions were made more precise. The most ambitious attempt at change was the reform of the Easter Vigil by Pope Pius XII in 1951. This was the fruit of historical studies dating back a century, the rediscovery of ancient texts, and a movement to make the liturgy the animator of pastoral spiritual life. To name but one “radical” change introduced by Pius, henceforth the Easter Vigil was no longer to be celebrated at 9.00 am on Holy Saturday morning but in the dark of night as it had originally been celebrated.

The liturgical reform of Vatican II was in its way as comprehensive as that of Trent. But this time it was prepared by careful study, access to the fonts of the liturgy, the rassourcement (re-rooting) of which Pope John had spoken. Among the most significant change which the Liturgy Constitution endorsed was that the vernacular, the spoken language of the people, could be a tremendous advantage to the spiritual formation and growth of God’s people. And that is where we will pick it up next time.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Don’t forget to complete this year’s Gallup survey, Membership Engagement 25. If you want to do it manually, just take it home and fill it out. Copies are available. Return it in the collection or drop it at the office and your data will be put into the computer. Those who prefer the convenience of the computer should go to the parish home page (http://www.mht-eh.org) and click the link in the gray bar on the home page. It is easy and quick to do.

New Roman Missal • Part I   (10.10.2010)

First a correction. In last week’s bulletin I said that the new translation of the Missal would come into effect in Advent 2012. It is Advent 2011, or about 14 months from now. I am going to write a series of letters explaining what this is, why it is being done, and what will be different in the texts we say at Mass. Later on there will be leaflets and I will teach a course on the Mass for people who would like to know more. The coming new translation is an opportunity for us to deepen our understanding of the Mass and our “full, active, and conscious participation” in it, as the Constitution on the Liturgy said.

With that in mind let’s go back to the beginning. I mean the very beginning. We Catholics regard the Last Supper which Jesus took with his apostles on the night before he died as the origin of our Mass. To say it was the first Mass may be slightly anachronistic, but it (together with the crucifixion and resurrection) are the archetypes which generated what we call the Mass. Jesus said “do this in memory of me” and Christians have been doing just that ever since. Now the Last Supper was not in English or even Latin. It was probably in Aramaic with portions in Hebrew. No vestments were worn. The only ritual that was enacted was the domestic ritual of the Seder meal of the Jewish feast of Pesach (Passover). So externally it looked different from what we know today but the essentials were already in place.

We know from the first letter to the Corinthians that early Christians still conducted their Eucharist in the context of a fellowship meal because St. Paul takes them to task for gluttony and letting the poorer members of the congregation go hungry. This service would have been prayed in Greek, the common language of the New Testament world and of the New Testament itself. We don’t know very much about the rituals that were practiced but Paul, in the same letter, hands over his “tradition” of the Eucharist and it compares with the account of the last supper found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

After the New Testament period, that is, after the death of the apostles, we begin to see evidence of how what started as a Jewish Seder with a changed meaning evolved into the ancestor of the Mass rite we know today. In a document entitled the First Apology (150 CE), the Christian writer Justin Martyr describes to the Roman Emperor (perhaps Marcus Aurelius) what Christians get up to on Sunday morning, and that is nothing subversive or dangerous. He describes the outline of our Mass right down to the prayer of the faithful and the collection. “The memoirs of the Apostles are read and the president encourages us to imitate these things” (Liturgy of the Word and Homily). “Afterward he gives thanks [over bread and wine] and all receive from the holy gifts.” [Liturgy of the Eucharist and communion.

In the period of the great Fathers of the Church, that is, the teaching bishops of the third, fourth and fifth centuries, we learn more about the worship of the early church. By the fourth century, and with the peace of Constantine (313 CE) the persecutions end and the church emerges from underground. The setting for the liturgy becomes the basilica, a form of architecture characterized by a hall with aisles and a half-round raised apse attached to one end. In this setting the ritual of the Mass becomes more formal. Processions are introduced and more elaborate singing. Distinct vestments, although derived from ordinary clothing, become common. Distinct rites (or ways of doing Mass) emerge in the four great centers of Christianity: Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and later Constantinople. These will become what we know as the Latin Rite and the various Eastern Rites (Byzantine West Syrian, Coptic, East Syrian Chaldean).

As you can see the basic meaning of the Mass remains the same but the language, setting, and ritual of its celebration continue to change and evolve over many centuries. But that is about to change. During the Middle Ages in the West (in Europe) these elements coalesce into a liturgical shape that would be recognizable to us seniors even today. But that is where we begin next time…

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Valerie Scorsone who has served as our sacristan for more than ten years has decided to retire. She deserves it because she has worked very hard over these years to develop one of the best sacristy ministries I have ever experienced. And that includes the Cathedral and the seminaries in which I taught. From the first minute I showed up for my first Mass in the parish that was immediately evident. Thank you Valerie for your long and effective service as our sacristan. The work of a sacristan is tough. You set up everything and make it nice and then stand back and let a herd of elephants tramp over it. Then you go back and start all over again, a largely thankless task. Valerie has been succeeded by Loretta Walker who has much experience working alongside Valerie. Her sewing skills alone make her an apt successor. Welcome Loretta.

We are still about $10,000 short of making our goal in this year’s Catholic Ministry Appeal. The good news is that we are over 80% of the way to goal. That means that what we take in from here will virtually all come back to us. Our gifts to the CMA help not only Catholic Charities and the seminary; they help Most Holy Trinity through parish sharing.

Today’s bulletin contains the paper version of this year’s Gallup survey, Membership Engagement 25. If you want to do it manually, just take it home and fill it out. Return it in the collection or drop it at the office and your data will be put into the computer. Those who prefer the convenience of the computer should go to the parish home page (http://www.mht-eh.org) and click the link in the gray bar on the home page. It is easy and quick to do.

Of many things    10.3.2010

Great Expectations   I received a good response to my query re future changes in view of the aging of clergy. There were 21 email messages and two mailed letters. In addition a number of people took the time to speak to me one on one. That is more response than I typically get. Overwhelmingly they were thoughtful, constructive and helpful. I should say that there is no change imminent but we should definitely start thinking about this. Some people seemed surprised that the crisis of priest shortage is near, which is partly why I raised the question. I report below the major themes.

People were, on the whole, willing to live with a schedule change if it were the only way forward but most preferred having a priest whose first language was not English to cutting the Masses. Comments about a foreign-born priest were varied. Some pointed to foreign priests whom they knew and loved and were willing to “listen harder” if that was the outcome. Others pointed out the cultural context and felt that some foreign priests—even if their English is good—do not have the cultural context of America to preach meaningfully in our situation. Several mentioned that they were happy to be asked to give their opinion.

A number of people expressed satisfaction with the direction of the parish. Three expressed criticism. One of these enumerated the many ways in which I was a inept pastor; another thought there was no reason why I should not say all the Masses personally since it amounted to only four hours in a 48 hour weekend.

Membership Engagement²⁵   We are going to do the survey again this year. You will find elsewhere in this bulletin instructions for completing the survey online on your own computer. This is our fourth foray into measuring membership engagement so you pretty much know the drill. This measurement tool gives us a snapshot of whether the members of the parish are becoming more engaged or not, and indicates some things we can do to grow engagement. Engagement in this context means a connection to the parish on a “feeling level.” Engagement drives discipleship, community, volunteering, and stewardship. Next week the survey questions will appear in print in the bulletin for those who prefer paper and pen to electronic means. Geeks can start this Sunday.

Some things to remember: The survey is anonymous and the data is private. The parish does not know what any individual said; nor will the data be sold. Anyone 18 or older can take part; every adult in the family. The demographic questions at the end are not part of the survey but help Gallup cross reference the statistics. Call the office with problems or questions.

Youth Ministry   I am very pleased to announce that Deacon Larry and Mrs. Christina Faulkenberry are going to begin a Youth Ministry here in our parish. This is something which many people have desired and we are finally going to be able to make our first steps. More information will be forthcoming. We are targeting post-Confirmation youth so please encourage your young people. Christina and Larry have developed a very successful Pre-Cana program and I am very confident that our future youth program will also be excellent.

Roman Missal – Third Edition   In the week before last I journeyed to Boston for a workshop on the third edition of the Roman Missal and the new translation of the Mass which we will start to use a year from this Advent, December 2012. That is still a long time away but we were encouraged to start preparing our parishes early. Some parts of the most common Mass prayers will change, for example the response to “The Lord be with you” will no longer be “And also with you.” We will return to “And with your spirit.” I will write about the whats, whys, and wherefores in the near future. There will be colorful bulletin inserts to educate us, and I am planning to offer a course on the Mass, perhaps next Lent. Also there will be new Mass music to learn because, among other things, “Christ has died…” is going to go away. But all of this later.

St. Vincent de Paul    9.26.2010

This Sunday the Vincentian Fathers who serve the north and south forks of Long Island are celebrating the 350^th anniversary of the death of their founder St. Vincent de Paul. The feast day falls on Monday. They are having a celebration at the 7.00 pm Mass tonight, at which I intend to join them, and then a reception afterwards. As last week I paid tribute to Cardinal Newman on his beatification this week I will ask Who is St. Vincent de Paul?

Vincent was born of a peasant family in 1581 in the south of France. As a young man he had some adventures including being kidnapped and sold into slavery in Tunisia. He went to the University of Toulouse and studied theology. After additional time in Rome he was ordained a priest. At this stage of his life Vincent was a bit of a climber. He was pastor of a parish in Clichy outside of Paris and attached himself to the de Gondi family, becoming their chaplain. His motivation seems to have been to have an income suitable to support his poor parents in their old age.

Some experiences led to a conversion in his life. He had contact with the peasant tenants on the de Gondi estate and began to minister to their spiritual and physical needs. This was an eye-opener for him. So too was his ministrations to prisoners condemned to the galleys which M. de Gondi had jurisdiction over. Together with other like-minded priests he began a ministry to prisoners and the sick. The state of these people was truly abominable; it took a strong stomach even to see it.

Vincent founded a religious community called the Congregation of the Mission, whose focus was ministry among the poor and the rural peasantry. Together with Louise de Marillac he founded the Daughters of Charity. We know Vincent’s community as the Vincentians, after his name. In Europe they are often known as Lazarists, which comes from today’s gospel about the rich man and Lazarus who was all but invisible to his better off neighbor. In our part of the world we probably associate the Vincentians first with St. John’s University in Jamaica. Education is certainly one of their important ministries. But if I may say it, the work which the Vincentian Fathers do on the south fork is probably closer to St. Vincent’s original charism. And they do it surpassingly well. Finally let me just mention the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. As it says on their trucks which go around to collect used clothing for the needy: “We help people.” That is an apostolic organization, independent of the Vincentians, but inspired by the mission of their founder.

Happy feast day Fathers: Marty, Steve, and Hugo.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

This Sunday our Outreach Director Doreen Quaranto will speak at all Masses about Virtus. Virtus, meaning virtue in Latin, is the program the American Catholic Church has adopted to protect children and young people and to provide a safe environment in our parishes and schools. Everyone who serves in any ministerial capacity in the parish has to take the two hour Virtus orientation. We will shortly have additional training sessions and we are strongly encouraging parents, and indeed all parishioners to sign up for Virtus. It helps us raise our awareness and equips us to recognize the signs of abuse and to get help in time of need.

Blessed John Henry Newman   9.19.10

Today (Sunday, September 19^th 2010) in Birmingham, England Pope Benedict will declare that John Henry Cardinal Newman is henceforth to be called Blessed. His “beatification” is the next to last step toward his being declared a saint. Who was John Henry Newman? and why is he blessed?

Newman was born in 1801 into an Evangelical Anglican household. He studied at Oxford, became a fellow of Oriel College, and took orders as a priest in the Church of England. In 1828 he was appointed Vicar of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin where his preaching began to draw large crowds of students. He was drawn to the “Oxford Movement” which was a group of young dons trying to recover the Catholic spirit of the Anglican Church. He participated in the writing of the Tracts for the Times which interpreted the Anglican tradition in a Catholic way. In this Newman was much influenced by his studies of the Fathers of the ancient church. These belonged to the time before the spilt between West and East, and Protestant and Catholic. He proposed that the Anglican church held a middle position, a Via Media, between both Catholics and Protestants.

Eventually Newman began to doubt this position. His writing, especially of the famous Tract 90, caused division and he was silenced. Withdrawing to the chapel of Littlemore and living a quasi-monastic life he preached his final sermon as an Anglican “The Parting of Friends.” He was received into the Catholic Church and was ordained a priest. He established the Oratorian order of clerics in Birmingham and continued to write. A number of his ideas anticipated Vatican II including his teaching on liberty of conscience, the nature of biblical inspiration, and the role of the episcopate in the magisterium of the Church. Despite his foundation in the Church Fathers and dependence on the Scholasticism of Aquinas he brought a psychological interest into the discussion of religious experience. He resisted the Ultramontane (lit. “beyond the mountains,” v.g., the Alps; meaning a papal centered ecclesiology) pressure of the times and the pope’s secular power in Italy which was on the wane because of Italian nationalism and the revolutionary spirit. This did not win him friends within the Catholic church and he was “delated” (reported, denounced) to Rome. Nonetheless he defended the teaching on papal infallibility within its circumscribed boundaries.

Newman’s writings are still studied and read, and it is known that Pope Benedict is particularly fond of them. In college we had a study group on his Idea of a University under my predecessor and teacher Msgr. Chris Huntington, but I enjoyed far more his Apologia pro Vita Sua, an autobiographical account of his move toward Rome. The Parochial and Plain Sermons, written while he was still vicar in Oxford are also in my library and I have recently picked up a short biography of him in connection with his beatification. Most of all Newman was a man of prayer and a man of faith. His human struggles make him all the more attractive to me.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

If you voted in the primaries last week you will already know that the venerable lever voting machines are gone. Although I would be classed as an early adopter of technology the lever machines’ disappearance makes me sad. Here’s how we will vote in the future. After signing in at the table in the poling station you will be given a paper ballot which you take to a “privacy booth.” There you mark it with a special marker. It’s like those standardized tests we took in school…fill in the little ovals for the candidates of your choice. When you are ready you go to a machine which looks like a copier and slide your ballot in. They also give you a “privacy sleeve” so no one can see your ballot. After swallowing your ballot the screen tells you whether everything went OK. The Board of Elections has a little video which shows all of this. You will find a link to it on the parish website http://www.mht-eh.org or go straight to http://suffolkvotes.com.

How life imitates the Tour de France   9.12.10

[With the holiday Monday I’ve lost a day. What to write? I’ve covered a lot of heavy stuff lately so here is something lighter. An end of summer re-run, written before I came to MHT. It’s about bicycle racing—written also before cycling became known as a dirty sport.]

Nobody would accuse me of being a sports fanatic, but occasionally a sporting event will catch and hold my interest. Such was the recent Tour de France. Bicycle racing came into my field of consciousness while I was living in Belgium, the home of the incomparable Eddie Merckx. Before Lance Armstrong there was Eddie Merckx, and he was not only a multiple winner of the Tour de France but champion of all the other major bike races. I started watching bicycle races on TV on Sunday afternoons while in Belgium. These were one-day affairs over a shorter course so you had a complete experience of seeing it from start to finish in a couple of hours. There was also a small race— the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens—run in Leuven, the town I lived in. The circuit ran through the streets and from a vantage point in the Great Market where St. Peter’s, the main town church, and the Town Hall anchored the civil and religious life of Leuven, you could get a good view of the peloton (pack) as it whizzed by.

Then too I remember coming back from a wonderful Sunday lunch at the brew pub where Hoegaarden “white beer” is brewed when my colleague Rick Friedrichs’ car was pulled over by the police. This was at a place called Beauvechain where the Belgian Air Force conducts its flight school. Often enough you would be buzzed by a jet fighter making the turn on final approach to the airdrome. The road bowed around the near end of the runway. So the police pulled us over but it was not for any infraction of the traffic code. Nor was it for security reasons concerning the Air Force. No, they were clearing the way ahead of a bicycle race. We got out of the car and stood by the wayside waiting for the pack. Sure enough they came through all-a-blur and continued on out of sight. It was exciting to be a spectator like the crowds you saw on TV.

If you watched any of the Tour de France you were caught up in the drama of it. The mythical character of the athletes striving against the limits of endurance, battling for position, knocked out of competition by accidents—all of this was painted on a large canvas and magnified by the TV commentators. Man against machine. Man against self. Courage, daring, pain. The battle of champions. All of these contribute to a heroic portrait, to a sense that the Tour is the struggle of life writ large. Sometimes in life we have a speedy and effortless journey. sometimes we must scale steep mountains. Sometimes we fight with demons. Sometimes we contend with giants. There are the lucky breaks and the unseen pitfalls. We are let down by the team; or they buoy us up and break the trail before us. At points we crash and suffer scrapes and burns. We ride through the pain, resisting the doubt about why we are in the race. Life does imitate the Tour de France. Or rather, we see in the Tour the daily stages of our everyday struggles and striving. Through it we learn to aspire, to fly high, to overcome, to win the race. “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 NRSV.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Thank you for responding to my query in last week’s bulletin. As of Tuesday night I had received about a dozen. I will give an analysis later. Right now I can tell you happily that the majority of parishioners are quite willing to receive a foreign priest, if we could get one. They hope his English will be good but even if not it is OK. More to follow.

Great Expectations   9.5.10

This is not a book report even though it has a book title. Rather the Gallup research shows us that expectations are the first and most important factor which drives engagement. Remember the first question we do on the annual survey: “In my parish I know what is expected of me.” In today’s letter I want to think about another aspect of expectations. Your expectations of me, your pastor.

I try to maintain a high standard of personal professional service and have always tried to do so. Of course I know that I don’t always achieve it. I disappoint myself and disappoint my parishioners from time to time. That has, I trust, more to do with human weakness than bad will. One of the things that is most disappointing to me is when I learn that someone is or was expecting something of me about which I was completely unaware and so could not fulfill. I learn, usually later and usually second or third hand that I have disappointed someone. I had no idea that something was expected of me. Perhaps if I knew I could have done something to meet the expectation. This is very dismaying to me. I don’t like to let people down. But I feel really frustrated when I am told after the fact about it. By then there is usually nothing I can do. It feels unfair to me that I have been found wanting because the person who expected something from me did not tell me. They may have told a third party but often that person was sworn to silence or did not do me the favor of giving me a heads up.

Please! I beg you. Don’t presume I know everything. Only God does. If something is bugging you tell me. If there is something you need from me let me know. It does no good to stew and be disappointed and hurt because I am not responding to your need. If you tell me what you need from me I may still not be able to fulfill your expectation, but at least I will have a fair shot. I am not a mind reader. I am only a human being. Help me out by communicating with me. To paraphrase the NYPD: If you need something say something.

Now here is Part II of this reflection which is institutional rather than personal. Most Holy Trinity parish once had two priests assigned to it. That ended about twenty-five years ago. Today the parish is probably three times bigger than it was back then. And yet people’s expectations remain high. Take a simple case. During the summer here in East Hampton and Amagansett we have six scheduled weekend Masses. Yes, six. I have not miscounted. How many resident priests are assigned to the parish? One. Me. The parish is able to maintain that ambitious Mass schedule only because of the generosity of other priests: Fr. Marty and his Vincentian colleagues who minister with the Spanish speaking community each Sunday at 7.00 pm.; Fr. Ron Ciaravolo who says the Mass in Amagansett even at times he should be taking it easy and looking after his health; Msgrs. Feldhaus and Deas who have helped out with the Sunday Masses for years during the summer. Did I mention that the three last-named gentlemen are in their 80s?

What I am leading up to, if you have not already guessed, is that your expectations of service can no longer be met, starting sooner than you think. God bless my priestly helpers. May they live long and prosper but we need to be honest with ourselves here. We are not going to have their services for ever. What should we expect? You need to know up front that the priest shortage is real and that it is not a future reality but a present one. Be prepared for change. We will have to re-scale in the future. As I see it the options are two.

One is that the Mass schedule will have to change. There will not be as many Masses as before. Can we keep covering Amagansett? If there is only one priest certainly not at 9.00 am. Nothing has been decided and you will be consulted when the time comes. I had to face that in my last parish when we lost a priest Sunday helper and couldn’t find another. This was in central Nassau where priests from universities and religious communities are easier to come by. I consulted the parish and took a survey. Guess what the results showed? Everyone wanted their Mass to be the one that was not cut. Guess what? That is not what happened because that was a refusal to deal with the problem. Time was when two Jesuits got on a train at Penn Station and came out to help Msgr. Huntington for the weekend. That ended long ago and will not happen again. Even finding retired priests on the East End is tough; you can be sure nobody is coming out from the city.

The second alternative is that we extend hospitality to a foreign born priest. Most likely he would be a young man who is studying for a doctorate in one of the Catholic universities in the city. He will have finished his classes and will be writing his dissertation. English will not be his first language. He most likely will come from Nigeria, Ghana, or India. What would you think of that? Are you willing to accept such a priest as an alternative to cutting Masses. Think hard about it because that is one of the options that will present itself. Given that we will most likely not be able to maintain the frequency and intensity of our sacramental celebrations in the future, what are the values that as a parish community we had best preserve? My email is: pastor@mht-eh.org. I would seriously like to know your thoughts. This is a challenge for us but it is also an opportunity to grow, an opportunity for you to take more ownership in our parish. Help me and our pastoral council to strategize.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Three wishes  If a genie were to suddenly appear to me out of a bottle and offer me three wishes, here is what I would wish for:

1.       I wish that all the people would get to church in time for the beginning of Mass.

2.       I wish the people who come to Mass early and stake out the aisle end of the pew would either slide in or cheerfully stand aside to let late-comers in.

3.       I wish people would return to their pews at the end of communion and not make a break for the parking lot.

I know that people feel embarrassed about these things, especially when I “catch them” going out or coming in. But that doesn’t ever seem to motivate them to change. Think about it.

Happy Labor Day  Boy did the summer go fast. After this weekend the town will begin to shrink. Our Mass attendance will shrink, though many home owners who live further West will continue to be present at weekends. They know the secret that the absolutely best weather on the East End is September and October. Whether you are staying or going I hope you had a good summer and Most Holy Trinity was a good host to you during your time with us.

On the Road Again (with apologies to Willie Nelson)   8.29.10

You may think that you have in hand the Most Holy Trinity bulletin but this week it is the MHT Sunday Book Review section. (And it’s so much lighter than the real thing!) Today I am writing you about a book I’ve just finished: To the Field of Stars: A Pilgrim’s Journey to Santiago de Compostella by Kevin Codd (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008). Transparency alert: Kevin Codd is a friend of mine. He is the former rector of The American College of Louvain, Belgium where I served as Vice Rector and taught liturgy and homiletics.

If you enjoy travel writing and sagas about quests you will enjoy this first person account of a pilgrim’s journey on foot across Northern Spain from the Pyrenees to the ancient shrine of Santiago de Compostella in Galicia. Tradition holds that the Apostle James’s body made its way from Jerusalem to Spain in a stone boat and were discovered in the 9^th century. Santiago has been a place of pilgrimage ever since. The pilgrim route is heavily travelled even today despite the doubtful history of the originating legend. Some who go are traditional religious pilgrims who embark on the journey for deeply spiritual reasons. Some, including many young people, are searchers who do not know exactly why they walk but the experience enriches them and quite often turns out to be intensely spiritual even if not recognized as such. Others are vocational long distance hikers or people spending their long, legally enforced European vacations in a healthy and inexpensive way.

What made To the Field of Stars fascinating for me, beyond my acquaintance with the author, is his candid description not only of the physical challenges of the journey but his own inner reaction to his experiences. This is not a pious book with a polished and shiny veneer. We see Kevin in all his humanness and all his virtues and flaws. Beside that are the pictures he paints of the lands and towns he walks through, but above all of the people he meets. How they bond over simple kindnesses, share their stories, hopes and dreams is what really enlivens the book. We feel that we know these people, so different and yet so alike, thrown together in a common challenge, who become friends for the space of a summer month. It is The Amazing Race for grownups. This is real reality if I may use a tautology.

So if you would like to end your summer with a fast, compelling travel tale—both physically and interiorly—then try To the Field of Stars.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Today our parish trustee Jack Emptage will give an update on our financial condition. We’ve come a long way but there is more work ahead of us.

The other day at Mass we read the story of the rich young man who came up to Jesus and announced that he has kept the commandments from childhood and then asked what else should he do to be perfect (Mt. 19.16-22). You remember this story I’m sure. Anyway you have the verses if want to refresh your memory.

The first thing is I have never been sure whether this fellow is just tooting his own horn, showing off in front of Jesus, or whether he is a sincere (if somewhat too intense) soul who is truly looking to be perfect. In my latter years I prefer to believe that he is on the level. Just the same this story, which has the ring of truth, shows something important about the difference between belonging to the kingdom of God and just being good. There is a very clear difference and the story illustrates it.

In order to explain it I need to reference a most important philosopher, the late Canadian Jesuit Bernard J.F. Lonergan. Lonergan wrote that human fulfillment and spiritual growth are cadenced by a series of conversions. First is an intellectual conversion, followed by a moral and a religious or spiritual conversion. Lonergan followed a philosophical tradition called critical realism which held that we can know the truth, overcoming our prejudices and really apprehending it. After we have come to a conversion toward a true knowledge of the real, a reflective appreciation of what is and its moral value, we may pass on to the second conversion, which is a moral conversion. Understanding reality, understanding truth I am free to choose it and do choose it, becoming a moral person, one who seeks the good and does the good. The third conversion or path of self-transcendence is a spiritual one. Seeing and knowing the good (intellectual conversion) and doing it (moral conversion) I now desire it, give my will over to it (spiritual conversion).

The rich young man in the gospel aspired to spiritual conversion but was stuck at the moral level. He did what was good. He kept all the commandments. Give him credit. That is a big accomplishment. But when Jesus invited him to sell all his possessions and give to the poor and then follow him (Jesus), he (the rich man) became scared. That was asking too much. And the difference is this. Up till now all the striving had been within his control. It is quite extraordinary really how moral he has been. He has chosen to keep the commandments and has in fact kept them. What Jesus asks him now is way, way beyond that. Jesus is asking him to give up control, to give the steering wheel to God, to abandon himself to God’s loving care. He is asked not only to give away his possessions, but also in a sense to give away his virtue (or at least his claim on it). He is to give away the pride he has in all his many good works. He is to become poor for God and that always means allowing God to be in charge. And that, my friends, is what separates the saints from the merely good, or in Lonergan’s terms the spiritually converted from the morally converted. Or in Jesus’ terms the difference between being naturally good and belonging to the kingdom of God.

Belonging to the kingdom is a gospel value, it cannot be gained by dint of effort. It is grace, a pure gift of God. And God gives it freely to all who are able to open their hearts to receive it. At the same time it is very scary to give up our possessions, whether it is money, power, a good name, persuasiveness, or being our own boss. The invitation to embrace that causes the rich young man to balk. His horse won’t jump. He doesn’t want to let go. Who will catch him if he falls. He is still more dependent on himself than on God…and he likes it that way. He does not trust God as much as he trusts himself. Self-reliance is his false god. He still needs to make the leap of faith, to empty himself and become poor as Jesus has done (Philippians 1), to trust God utterly.

Sometimes this state of affairs is described as the difference between religion and faith. Religion is conventional, a well marked and well-trodden path. It has rules, and keeping them brings a sense of security. Faith is uncharted, more risky, less secure. Faith lived in humility and submission to God is the final transcendence. It brings us to a place we could never reach all by ourselves. When we get to the faith level the Beatitudes all of a sudden make sense to us. Martyrdom, about which I wrote last week, ceases to be mere tragedy. When we belong to the kingdom of God everything changes and we become truly free. Fear ceases to rule our hearts; we can find joy in suffering. That is because God lives in us and we live in God.

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

This week Mrs. Jane FitzGerald Peters will briefly address the congregation after communion about our Catholic Regional School, Stella Maris.

The following Sunday, parish trustee Jack Emptage will speak about our current parish financial situation.

On Tuesday we celebrated the Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. Lawrence lived in the third century of the Christian era. He was a papal administrator who died four days after his boss, Pope Sixtus II and four fellow deacons. Tradition holds that he was killed by being roasted on a grill, rather a gruesome way to die. As a child I heard and learned all these hair-raising stories of torture and death for the sake of keeping the faith. I felt a mixture of fascination and horror. The martyrs were presented to me as heroes and I found a certain morbid fascination in the dreadful ways in which they suffered. Some were beheaded, some thrown to the beasts in the arena, some burned at the stake. It was strong stuff for a Catholic school boy. Maybe it is why I despise and never watch horror movies. I now recognize that this corner of Catholic culture played out for me against the backdrop of the Cold War. I am not a baby boomer. I came after the A bomb but just before the baby boom. I wore dog tags so that the civilian defense workers could ID my irradiated corpse. I practiced duck and cover drills in school, learning always to point my backside to the window! There were modern martyrs in my pantheon. My parents told me about Cardinals Stepinac and Mindszenty, and Bishop Walsh of Maryknoll. It was ingrained in me that this martyr stuff was not just about the old days, the ancient past. There were Catholic martyrs in the present.

I remember mixed feelings about the whole business when I imagined what I should do if I, an eight year old resident of the West Bronx, should be arrested and tortured by the Commies! On one hand I prayed that I would have strength to endure like the martyrs. I chose Michael for my Confirmation name (I was confirmed at age 8) because in my saints picture book Michael was shown slaying the dragon and was sporting the coolest set of armor I had ever seen. I was a loyal member of the church militant. On the other hand, in my innocence, I could not conceive of really evil people no matter how many stories I heard. I reckoned that I could talk them out of hurting or killing me. I planned to use my wits and appear sympathetic and work out a compromise. I thought you could negotiate with such people. The question was only: what concessions could be made without betraying the faith?

Of course it was fear of the horrific tortures and painful deaths I had learned about in Catholic school and from my parents, and in books which motivated my moderation. Later on as an adolescent I was drawn to Thomas More who used his lawyerly wits to keep King Henry at bay. And there was Erasmus of Rotterdam a paragon of moderation. If folks had listened to Erasmus the Reformation would have been unnecessary, I was convinced. These moderates were my heroes.

Well next month this pre-baby boomer is about to enroll in Medicare. What does he make of all this now? There are evil people in the world who do evil things. There is not space to enumerate them. Second, I have learned to read the literature about the martyrs with a more critical eye. All the gore and suffering which overwhelmed my imagination and seemed a little sick has a context which helps me read it differently today. The acts of the martyrs are indeed heroes tales. They are stories of courage and confidence, meant to embolden a persecuted and powerless minority. They played the same role in the ancient Catholic community as the spirituals played in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. They were to rally the spirit, help people believe in the rightness of their cause, assure them that they were on the side of the angels, persuade them that victory was assured no matter how it looked at the moment.

On Tuesday the gospel passage chosen for St. Lawrence was St. John’s tender account of Jesus’ saying “unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies it produces much fruit.” Then I recalled the prayer of St. Ignatius of Antioch, placed on his lips by his hagiographer as he is tied to the stake. “May I be ground by the teeth of the beasts so that I may become the pure bread of Christ.” Whether Ignatius said this or his biographer made it up the meaning is the same and the witness is as sparkling as a diamond: Ignatius became like Christ and his death was victory. That is why he is a martyr, which means “witness.”

Fragments (…they gathered up what was left over into twelve baskets.)

Have you considered the Catholic Ministries Appeal. All the proceeds go to programs like Catholic Charities, the Seminary, Catholic Education. If we meet our benchmark our parish also has money returned to us.

On books to read I mee delight   8.8.10

To all grammarians, the title comes from Geoffrey Chaucer. So don’t rattle my cage. My father used to quote that to me…when he wasn’t quoting Homer in Greek or Latin legal maxims such as De minimis non curat lex. The message stuck because I have been a book buyer and reader ever since. I have also spent a good deal of my professional life in libraries. Which brings me to my subject.

You may know that the East Hampton Village Zoning Board denied the application of the East Hampton Library to expand its children’s section. I consider this a very bad and unfair decision. If you go to the Library website you can read their view of the reasons for the denial (http://www.easthamptonlibrary.org/about/expansion/index.html). You may judge the merits for yourself.

What concerns me most is the process that was employed. The application process has stretched out over seven years. This is frustrating and unfair. Each time the library complied with what was asked only to be put off again and again. The process and decision was arbitrary and should be overturned. To that end the library is having a referendum on Saturday, August 14^th to ask the public’s opinion on whether the library board should appeal. I urge you to vote yes on that.

Mention is made in the library’s position paper about the approval that was given to St. Luke’s for their Parish House and ourselves for our Hall. It should be noted that neither of those processes was easy either. One member of the board did not like the composite shingles on our roof and preferred cedar, even though to build it that way would be against code. Fr. Darwin Price retired rector at St. Luke’s expressed his frustration to me when the board wanted a design more historically in keeping with the village. What history?, he asked. 1648? 1910, year of the church’s construction? The Gothic middle ages or 19^th century Gothic revival? There is too much whim involved in the process. The library should continue to fight, and I will support them publically.