Abbey-Roads2

Because my parish does not have a morning Mass on Saturday, I keep the First Saturday request of Our Lady of Fatima at the vigil Mass for Sunday.  This afternoon the Mass was to celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.  I told Our Lady I would keep her company in my thanksgiving after Holy Communion in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, which I would receive for her intentions.

My very first impulse, after returning to my place, was to thank the Blessed Trinity for the miracle of the Incarnation…  Afterwards, on my way home, I imagined the image, portrayed in icons of the Virgin’s Dormition, how Our Lord grasps the soul of the Holy Virgin and transports her to the Bosom of the Blessed Trinity.  I think, on some level, this is what happens at Communion, although, I may be wrong.

I’m coming out. 

I rarely, if ever, post anything on politics - especially mine.  I love to vote, but hate the politics, not to mention the very early campaign circus we have all been living through for the past 6 months.  If anyone reads Abbey-Roads 1, they have gotten the hint that Mr. Bush drives me nuts.  (I honestly believe he is our punishment for the sin of abortion, despite the fact that he has appointed pro-life judges.  Just as war is a punishment for sin, bad political leaders can be as well.)

Nevertheless, I’m no longer afraid to “come out of the closet” with my unhappiness in the  way this Administration has been handling the country.  More and more conservatives are indeed fed up, as Wall Street Journal contributing writer, Peggy Noonan, in her insightful editorial (along with numerous other blogs) tells us.  It’s safe to come out now - not to be a Bush hater (I’m not), but to call a spade a spade.  Here is a snippet from Ms. Noonan’s terrific critique of the “Too bad if you disagree with us.”  Bush Administration domestic and foreign policy attitude:

“What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker–”At this point the break became final.” That’s not what’s happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.”

Further on in the editorial, Ms. Noonan tells us the point wherein she began to have misgivings about this Administration:

The beginning of my own sense of separation from the Bush administration came in January 2005, when the president declared that it is now the policy of the United States to eradicate tyranny in the world, and that the survival of American liberty is dependent on the liberty of every other nation. This was at once so utopian and so aggressive that it shocked me. For others the beginning of distance might have been Katrina and the incompetence it revealed, or the depth of the mishandling and misjudgments of Iraq.”  - Peggy Noonan; read the rest here. 

He lost me with his Social Security reform package proposals and the neo-imperialist image of the United States which he sometimes arrogantly conveys to the world.

He drives me nuts. 

More than just a Roman collar. 

Didn’t someone write a book a few years back called “The New Faithful”?  Well, some of them are becoming the new priests.  Having worked in a Catholic religious goods store, I was privileged to meet several seminarians who now have persevered to ordination and have become our newly ordained priests.  (There are even more high calibre seminarians like these guys on their way to ordination in the years ahead.)   

Yesterday I attended Mass at Assumption Catholic Church in Downtown St. Paul, and I noticed a young priest, kneeling very straight, dressed in clerics, praying his office.  It was midday, so I assumed he was praying one of the little hours.  (I know older priests who say they only do Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer.)  He was kneeling.  When he left, his reverence in genuflecting towards the tabernacle was just as edifying.

The seminarians I knew in college who acted like that, were the exception - and were made fun of, but now they are the norm - once again.  Our newly ordained are so well trained, so prayerful, and so devoted to the Church and the Holy Father, that I really believe we are going to be just fine as a Church.  (Archbishop Flynn, who has fostered and encouraged these vocations, deserves some credit for this, to be sure!)

By contrast, the priest who celebrated Mass (not my friend Fr. M.), came out in an alb and a stole, shortened the penitential prayers - he just said the absolution prayer after asking us to call to mind our sins, and he also skipped the washing of the hands.  During the readings, he ‘lounged’ in the presider’s chair - he was rather relaxed and nonchalant in other words.

The new priests are not at all like that.  They approach the sacred mysteries with reverence and awe.  Many of them do not even need to speak a homily, because their celebration of Mass is so edifying and spiritually vivid.

So why was that young priest in Church in the first place?  It is safe to assume he just concluded hospital calls, since Assumption is right across the street from St. Joseph’s Hospital. 

Praise God for our seminarians and new priests.  There is much hope that vocations are steadily increasing as well, check out this report: Number of New Priests To Rise.

It’s a good thing!