Question of the Day for Friday, July 18, 2008

Follow Along in the Missalette?

Q. Our pastor has told us that we are discouraged from following along (reading) in our missalettes while the lector is reading the scriptural passages (the Old Testament reading and the Epistle). Why would this be discouraged if it helps us concentrate more fully on the scriptural readings as opposed to just listening?

He has also told us that we should not have our own private moment of adoration immediately following reception of the Eucharist, but should wait until the moment of silence after all have received so that we more fully join in with the Communion hymn. I would think an immediate moment of adoration would always be appropriate. Is this really a mandate of the new GIRM?

D. A., via email

A. You ask two questions about participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: the first is about how best to follow the readings, and the second regards making a private act of thanksgiving after Holy Communion.

It does happen in some places that the faithful are discouraged from following the readings with the missalette, but that is perhaps due to a misinterpretation of the guidelines found in the “Introduction to the Lectionary” (2001). In the third chapter of that document we read that the faithful “are to listen to the word of God with an inward and outward reverence” that will bring them continuous spiritual growth (no. 45).

Similar references to “listen to the word of God” are found several additional times in that document. Yet there is no indication that the faithful should not follow the readings in their missalettes while the Word of God is being proclaimed. Evidently, some have concluded that you can not “read” and “listen” at the same time, and for that reason they would discourage you from using the missalette to follow along with the readings.

Nevertheless, you can read and listen at the same time. In fact, many people have the experience that if they read what they are hearing, they pay more attention, retain more knowledge, and get much more out of it. That double connection, sight and hearing, increases concentration and comprehension. So if it helps you to follow the readings, go ahead and do it.

Regarding a personal act of thanksgiving after Communion: Each of the faithful, according to the GIRM and Redemptionis Sacramentum, is free to have his own private moment of adoration immediately following reception of the Eucharist. However, you should ask yourself: If there is a Communion hymn at that time and everyone is making a silent act of thanksgiving, who will do the singing? (Of course, if you cannot sing well, the folks in the pew next to you may be glad that you are making a silent act of thanksgiving!)

Still, my suggestion to you is to be a good sport, support your local pastor, help with the singing, and then spend some time in silent thanksgiving after Mass.

Question of the Day for Thursday, July 17, 2008

A Flawed Image?

Q. If, as the Church teaches, we’re made in God’s image, why are we born into the world sinful?

 F.J., via email

A. The problem is what we call original sin.

We are truly made in God’s image (see Genesis 1:26–27). That means we are, like God himself, persons: We have a rational intellect that can think, and we have a free will that can love and make other choices.
Nevertheless, the image of God in us has been marred, like the image of a face on a coin that has become scratched and worn. Our intellects have been darkened and our wills have been bent in the wrong directions.
How did this happen?

Our first human parents used their free wills to turn against God through sin. The result was that they lost the righteousness they originally possessed. They could not pass on to their offspring what they themselves no longer possessed, so all their descendants (except for Jesus and His mother) have been born with a deficiency, a defect, that we call original sin.

This defect deforms God’s image in us, but it cannot totally erase that image. We still have the ability to think and love and choose. Yet the deformity is compounded by our actual sins — the wrong choices we make.
We can be grateful that the sacrament of baptism washes away original sin in us. Nevertheless, we are still left with a weakness called concupiscence, the tendency to sin.

How does concupiscence work? It doesn’t force us to sin. Rather, it inclines us to do so. It’s as if we walk on an incline that leaves us sliding down into sin if we don’t actively resist the slide.

We can rejoice that God’s image is not totally obliterated even in the most wicked human being. That means we can hope for a person’s salvation no matter how hopeless a cause he or she may seem. It also means that no matter how terrible we know our own sins to be, we can hope for God’s grace to save us, too.

Question of the Day for Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Our Lady of Mount Carmel?

Q. How did Our Lady come to be associated with Mount Carmel in the Holy Land? Did she visit there during her earthly life?

 L. N., via email

A. Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Carmel is a mountain ridge, about 13 miles long, stretching inland from the Mediterranean seacoast, beginning at a point about nine miles southwest of Acre. Its name in Hebrew means “Garden,” reflecting its lush vegetation.
We have no historical record of Mary visiting that area during her earthly life, though she might well have done so.

The feast originated with the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose origins are somewhat obscure and debated. (Among the most famous of the Carmelites are St. Simon Stock, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.)

 From ancient times, religious hermits, seeking to live a life devoted to God, have lived or spent time in the Carmel, which has many caves suitable for dwelling or lodging. Among them was the Old Testament prophet Elijah. After the time of Christ, Christian monks joined other hermits scattered throughout the area. Historical texts show that by the mid-twelfth century A.D., the Carmelite religious order was established there.

 About the year 1220 these monks built a chapel in honor of Our Lady, so that they came in time to be called “The Order of Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.”

 The Carmelites initially had many opponents, and it took some time to receive Rome’s approval of their work. After Pope Honorarius III formally recognized the rule of the order in 1226, the Carmelites initiated the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16, sometime between 1376 and 1386. It eventually became the principal feast of the order, whose members of course came to spread throughout the world, and the feast was extended to the universal Church in 1726.

 The Carmelites maintain a strong Marian devotion, epitomized by the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or the “brown scapular,” which is closely associated with St. Simon Stock (c. 1165-1265), a superior general of the order.

Question of the Day for Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Why 153 Fish?

Q. Could you tell me the significance of the 153 fish mentioned in the Gospel (see Jn 21:11)? I had heard it was the number of known countries at the time of Christ. Someone else said it was the number of known fish species at the time of Christ.

B. B., via e-mail

A. Here’s a reply from TCA columnist Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.:

Though Peter and the others were amazed at Jesus’ appearance on the shore, we may be sure that those professional fishermen would have counted their astonishing catch. The sacred writer doubtless reported the size of the catch accurately. No one knows with certainty whether that number has a symbolic significance.

It was St. Jerome (c. 342-420), known as the “father of biblical studies,” who wrote that 153 species of fish had been identified by Greek zoologists. If that was true, or if there were 153 known countries at that time, we can see symbolic significance in the number.

Jesus had called the apostles to be “fishers of men” (Mt 4:19), and He had given them a commission to take the Gospel to the entire world (see Mt 28:18-20). The number, then, would symbolize the universal mission of the apostles (and under their leadership, the entire membership of the Church).

Question of the Day for Monday, July 14, 2008

The “Browning” of the Catholic Church in America

Q. Is there any data available about how the surge in immigration in recent decades is affecting the Catholic Church in America?

 J. G., via email

A. Some perspectives on this subject were provided by an expert in the sociology of religion who addressed the U.S. bishops meeting in Orlando, Fla., last month. John L. Allen, Jr., a columnist for The National Catholic Reporter, recently reported on the presentation. (For Allen’s report, click here.)

The presenter was Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, who presented the results of a recent Pew study of America’s religious landscape. To summarize: He reported that the large number of Latino and Asian Catholics coming into the U.S. are “de-Europeanizing” and “browning” the Church in this country, and that this development is an indicator of things to come in Christian denominations as a whole and in society at large.

The Pew study suggests that in the U.S. there are four times as many former Catholics as there are adult Catholic converts. Yet self-identified Catholics continue to represent about 25 percent of the population. The number is holding steady because immigration, which has led to a surging Latino and Asian population in the country that’s disproportionately Catholic.

Lugo reported that among native-born Christians in the U.S., Protestants outnumber Catholics by about 2 to 1, while those numbers are reversed among those who are foreign-born. So immigration is slowly “tilting the balance in the Catholic direction.”

Twenty-three percent of American Catholic adults are foreign-born. That proportion is four times higher than among Protestants. (Counting children as well would make the figures even higher.)

By 2050, projections suggest that about 30 percent of the U.S. population will be Latino. Those figures already hold for the nation’s Catholic population. So the Church provides an indicator of things to come.
Unlike the immigration situation in Europe, which involves a much higher proportion of Muslim newcomers, immigration in the United States is strengthening rather than weakening the dominant Christian character of American society.

The effects of immigration are even more pronounced because of the differences in fertility rates between whites and Latinos. The white fertility rate in America is only 1.8 percent, below the “replacement rate” of 2.1. But the Hispanic fertility rate is 2.9.

These demographic changes will have all kinds of implications for the Catholic Church in America: in particular, the geographic distribution of Catholics; their average education and income levels; and their dominant spiritual “style.” For more about this fascinating subject, read John Allen’s insightful report.