Thanksgiving and Communion

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! What great privilege we have to be aware of God's gifts to us that take many forms, in our own existence and the possibility of salvation that we have in Christ Jesus, and in our talents and family and friends.

After a cold and rainy day yesterday, the icy winds that picked up in the evening blew the storminess away and we have perfectly clear skies in Boston today! The "air waves" are full of Christmas music and everyone is busy preparing food and cleaning house for their guests; it is no different at St. Clement's! We host the combined communities of St. Clement's and St. Joseph's retreat house for our turkey-feast, and so by the team effort of the seminarians here, we cleaned the large refectory, not normally used for dining, and set all the tables; this morning, an army of potato-peelers and carrot- and cheese-slicers invaded the kitchen to prepare all of those items for our festivities today.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks, not only interiorly, but in the presence of one another and indeed for one another. Communion is not only the term that commonly refers to the Holy Eucharist, but it literally means "with union" and almost "of one essence." Communion refers to a relationship that is so close that the participants in that relationship are intimately aware of the inner dispositions of each other and, possibly absent specific actions toward this goal, support each other merely by their being present. The communion of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the perfect communion - these three persons in one God are in a perfectly simple (that is, without extraneous details) relationship with one another that is totally self-giving so that all that each Person is constantly flows into the other Persons - concisely stated "circumincession." For us on earth, we are called to image that communion, and to aspire to it, to let Christ live in us and abandon ourselves to him, as John the Baptist says: "He must increase, I must decrease" (John 3:30) and St. Paul: "no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20)

In our formation meetings over the last three weeks, we have discussed the idea presented in John Paul II's Vita Consecrata ("Consecrated life") that religious life is an image of the communion of the Trinity on earth. We have taken that more concretely into our formation process, discussing how it is that we can open ourselves to grow in this communion within our community of seminarians, within our religious congregation, within our local church in Boston, and in the Church as a whole. Amongst ourselves, this yielded the sharing that we had last week. Based upon the Trinity's Communion of self-giving, and building upon our material cooperation in sustaining the operations of our own house, we sat down to share with one another some stories of our childhood and our families, then to express our current state with respect to the various duties and obligations that we have and how we are doing in general, and then we reflected on the passage of Matthew 18 that speaks about little children, and reflected on our pastoral assignments (teaching Confirmation and RCIA) in light of that Word of God. We closed by sharing how that very experience of sharing our deeper feelings with one another affected us and drew us closer together.

What was fascinating about this experience is that we so often, as men, hide our feelings and struggles, but at the same time, we had the understanding that, having been called to this life, we are all in this together, and that in this sharing, we do not expect to be a burden to others but rather to draw closer to one another so that we may face the human and spiritual challenges that confront us not alone, but together, with our brothers. This was an important element of the night that we needed to establish before entering into that space. And that understanding helped us to grow in our communion with one another, something for which each of us is very thankful!

So enjoy your turkey (or ham? lobster?!) and be thankful for one another. Lift up also those who feel alone in the world; send them your guardian angel and pray that our good God will send someone to bring them His love, comfort them and build them up.

Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca

Missale Romanum: Editio Typica Tertia

The Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal, promulgated by John Paul II in 2002, has been translated into English (finally) and will replace its predecessor in just two short weeks with the beginning of the new liturgical year. This translation restores many older liturgical texts in a translation that is more literarily faithful to the Latin original and that carries greater theological weight.

Br. Stephen Fahrig, OMV has recorded a two-part discussion of the changes and the additional meanings that are brought out. Fr. John Wykes, OMV, Director of Communications for our province, made the videos which are posted on the OMVUSA YouTube channel. I just learned this morning that today's workshop on the new translation at my home parish, staffed by the Oblates, St. Peter Chanel in Hawaiian Gardens, CA, will show Br. Steve's talk as part of the day's activities. Here is the first part of his talk:

My favorite new text from the Mass is the prayer just before Communion. Currently, it reads, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." The Spanish, "Señor, no soy digno de que entres en mi casa, pero una palabra tuya bastará para sanarme." and this translates: "Lord, I am not worthy that you enter into my house, but a word of yours will suffice to heal me." The Latin, which reads, "Domine, non sum dignus ut entres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea" and this is now translated: "Lord, I am not worthy that you enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed."

As you can see, the imagery of entering "into my house" or "under my roof" is more clear and conveys a more precise image than simply that I "receive you." It also makes clearer the primacy of spiritual healing upon reception of the Most Blessed Sacrament in saying not just that "I shall be healed" but "my soul."

The common response "And also with you," now replaced by the more accurate "and with your spirit" (from the Latin "et cum spiritu tuo") has far-reaching theological ramifications. Whereas the current wording could indicate that the priest has given us something that we should wish him to have also, the new wording indicates that, acting "in persona Christi" (in the Person of Christ), he is granting us peace or the Lord's presence, and precisely because of the sacramental character that the priest has received, the people acknowledge that he does have that presence of Christ in his soul. In a very careful way, the priest is able to recognize both his humanity and the gift of the sacramental power of priest, by Christ's own choosing him for this ministry. Aware of this great and unmerited gift, he can humbly serve the people with the full power of Christ.

This week has been so busy for me, and continues to be very busy as I prepare to write my term paper in Contemporary Philosophy. The weather in Boston has been up and down, and as suddenly as the peak of the Fall colors came, it was gone. We now descend into the New England winter, with temperatures falling to highs in the low 30s and teens to zero overnight - let's see how many Nor' Easters we get this year to spice things up!

But now, it's time to get back to work. More soon!

Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca