When the custom of the stational liturgies was revived in the city of Rome in the early days of the twentieth century, the papal liturgy for Good Friday was appropriately housed in the stational church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the Holy Cross of Jerusalem. The church is off the tourist track today, but true pilgrims would never miss it. It stands on the grounds of the Sessorian Palace, the…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION It’s still months away, but parish ministers, especially if they are involved in the catechumenate, have their eyes on Lent and the Easter Triduum. Until fairly recent times, the last few days before Easter were shaped by an awareness of the Passion, but the faithful were left to their own devices about how to engage with these mysteries. A thousand years…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION As soon as Christmas ends, people begin planning for Easter! Originally, the source of our Paschal Triduum was but a single liturgy extending from Saturday sundown to sun-rise on Easter Sunday. The two days leading up to the liturgy were days of fast, not only for the elect, but for the church preparing to baptize them. A fifth-century…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION By now, the first Christmas carols are heard in the home, but usually not yet in church. What is a “carol” anyway? Originally, a carol was any kind of communal song sung at a festival such as a harvest. By the thirteenth century or so, carols were associated with household celebrations. “Carol” comes from the Old French carula, meaning a circular dance. Carols weren’t for church, since…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Before the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, Advent had a strong penitential tone, reminiscent of Lent. From as long ago as the fourth century, some Christians began a solemn fast on St. Martin’s Day, November 11. This “Saint Martin’s Lent” extended all the way to Christmas, and was widely followed in the dioceses of France and Germany, and in the Middle Ages in England.…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Among the Catholics seeking religious freedom in America were the Carrolls of Maryland, who arrived in 1649 from Ireland via England. Charles Carroll, born in Annapolis in 1737, was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Inde-pendence, and was the longest-surviving signer. As was the custom for English Catholics, he attended English schools in Belgium and later…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Imagine the frustration of bishops who work strenuously over their ad limina reports, directing study committees, assembling data, honing the texts, traveling to Rome “to the threshold,” only to have it all collapse into a fifteen-minute group meeting with the pope. More than a few have grumbled at the weight of this “treasure” from our tradition, yet from…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION This month, parishes around the country will conduct the “October count,” a measure of attendance at Sunday Mass. The measure has been taken for many centuries, and in some European dioceses it is possible to measure the level of engagement in worship by the population over the course of many centuries. Long ago, it was also the custom…