This, that, and the other

A long post, but there's lots to choose from.

More Catholic tradition is being forsaken in our parish. Were you aware that the young people being confirmed next week will not have the opportunity to choose confirmation names? I asked around about this and was given an answer: 

At baptism we are claimed for Christ through our name, we are called by name and it is the first question asked of the parents “what name do you give this child,” so liturgists suggest that there is no need to choose another name since Confirmation is a deepening of the Spirit we receive at baptism for strengthening for service and mission.  

However, it has been a long tradition in the Catholic faith to choose a saint to help us in our baptismal call to serve.  It is a great opportunity to learn about a saint and have your own personal cheerleader in heaven.  Many times candidates will choose a patron of an occupation they want to go into or a gift they have (like Cecilia for music) to be their guide.  

The diocese recommends candidates don’t choose a name but keep their baptismal name.  However, a candidate can do whatever they choose and no one can stop them. 

If you have a confirmation candidate next Sunday, let them know they may choose a confirmation name. 

Also, the writers at Cleansing Fire have posted about the availability of funeral masses in our parish: You Might Not Get a Funeral Mass When You Die. 

And then Cardinal Burke opines on the tendency to humanize the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is commonly done in our parish via lay homilies, films during mass, and so on. A snippet: 

Cardinal Raymond L. Burke delivered a lecture on what he calls a nearly 50-year trend of self-centered liturgy last week at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, D.C.

“In the time since the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, but certainly not because of the teaching of the council, there has been exaggerated attention on the human aspect of the sacred liturgy,” said the high ranking Vatican official in his May 11 address.

To segue off that, here's a priest's take on the mass as a sacrifice: How the Mass is a sacrifice, and why so many deny this doctrine. 

A snippet: 

With utmost clarity, Trent taught that the Mass is a sacrifice, against the protestant heresy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is truly the Catechism of Vatican II, likewise insists that the Mass is a sacrifice and one with the Sacrifice of Calvary. 

Nevertheless, the fact remains that many people (and even some Catholics) deny this truth. Either through direct rejection of this doctrine (as in the case of heretics) or through an implicit and indirect rejection manifested by external actions during the Liturgy (as in the case of countless Catholics and even some priests), many people deny that the Mass is a true sacrifice.

Lastly, Pope Leo XIII wrote a largely-ignored encyclical that has proven to be prophetic. It is Sapientiae Christianae. A tip of the hat to Todd Hartch's article Born for Combat at The Catholic Thing.

Here's more from Pope Leo's encylical: We are bound, then, to love dearly the country whence we have received the means of enjoyment this mortal life affords, but we have a much more urgent obligation to love, with ardent love, the Church to which we owe the life of the soul, a life that will endure forever. For fitting it is to prefer the good of the soul to the well-being of the body, inasmuch as duties toward God are of a far more hallowed character than those toward men.