Monday, December 31, 2012

From CWR: What Archbishop Müller Said About the SSPX and “Continuity”


The publication of the latest volume of Ratzinger’s Collected Works fuels debate about the Council.
Volume VII of Joseph Ratzinger’s Collected Works, an anthology of his writings on the Second Vatican Council, was recently published in German. On November 28, 2012, the editor of the Opera Omnia, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who is now also prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented this latest volume in the series at the Teutonic College of Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome. This was the place where German and Austrian Council Fathers used to confer regularly with theologians and periti, including then-Father Ratzinger, at special meetings organized by Cardinal Frings of Cologne. An Italian version of Archbishop Müller’s speech appeared in the edition of L’Osservatore Romano dated November 29. 
Although the speech ostensibly outlined the contents of Volume VII and quoted a few familiar passages from a Vatican II document, it elicited several sharply critical responses from traditional Catholics, including an unsigned, six-part analysis by a theologian from the Society of St. Pius X and an essay by historian Roberto de Mattei. What under other circumstances might have been a routine publishing event proved to be an informal but revealing moment in the ongoing theological discussions between the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Society of St. Pius X. 

Friday, December 21, 2012

THE HOURS OF OUR LADY #26 [Continued]



It's been a while but,
We continue with our posting of the Introduction to The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary:


(The translation of the Psalms and the brief introductory comments on the Psalms of this Little Office of the Blessed Virgin are taken largely from: The Psalms and Canticles by George O'Neill, S.J. [Bruce Publishing Co. 1937.] The late Father O'Neill's work has long been out of print.)
[Continued]
INTRODUCTION

"Nothing different in kind is expected of us. It is enough that we accommodate the sacred language of the Psalms to our own personal needs, and express them through its medium. Our individual devotional sentiments are not suppressed, but handed over, as it were, to the guidance of divine expression. Such a practice repays us by its education in praise and prayer. Growing familiarity with words of sacred origin as repeatedly applied to ourselves, gradually enriches and elevates our habitual ideas of praising God and praying to Him more acceptably. With the constant aid of Divine grace, such experience will in time prove to be its own reward." (W. H. McClellan, S.J., The Psalms)

Through original sin we have lost the art of talking to God as we ought. One has only to consider the model prayer that our Lord gave us (the Our Father) and note how different is its way of talking to God from that which we should have followed if we had not been taught. Even when we come to speak to God of our own needs we must even then be thinking mostly of His interests. The Psalms teach us how to pray -- the sentiments that should animate us when we raise our minds and hearts to God. "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself pleads for us with unutterable groanings." (Romans 8, 26)
 

[To be continued]

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Betrothal of the Virgin Mary & St JosephImage by Lawrence OP via Flickr

FERIAL DAY
[Mass from preceding Sunday]

VIGIL OF SAINT THOMAS
[Apostle]