why I'm having trouble concentrating on my work today
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 27, 2010
No, it's not the snow. We're prepared for snow. I plowed a bit, shoveled a bit. We're fine.
No, it's not the Christmas presents. Not exactly. It's a present that arrived just a few hours after Christmas Day had ended.
To be perfectly honest, yesterday I was so busy being happy that I coudn't really hear the words of the Psalm that the choir sang at Mass. So afterward my wonderful wife Leila, who was singing in the choir, reminded me that we'd heard the same words before, on our wedding day:
May you live to see your children's children.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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Posted by: dover beachcomber -
Sep. 18, 2017 8:15 PM ET USA
Actually, I fear that Pope Francis does very much mean that "we are stuck forever with the status quo." I see no signs that he's fundamentally dissatisfied with the way the Mass is now offered, fifty years on from the end of the Council. His remarks about "unfounded and superficial interpretations" is non-specific, and the freight train of 1970's ugliness will keep on chugging through the huge gap created by such vagueness.
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Posted by: mary_conces3421 -
Aug. 26, 2017 9:26 AM ET USA
Interesting spin on his (misleading, IMHO) remark about the people & their action. Perhaps at Mass we should remember that we are participators, not inventors. I call myself traditional, not Traditionalist. (I fear the Pope rigidly opposes the latter.) At St. Mary's in Kalamazoo, we are blessed to be able to try to do both rites ad gloriam Dei.
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Posted by: feedback -
Aug. 26, 2017 2:54 AM ET USA
It needs to be established whether a liturgical reform has been taking place according to the trajectory set by "Sacrosanctum Concilium." In the Western parts of the Catholic world it seems that many priests give strong preference to their "pastoral feelings" rather than liturgical norms, in which case the 50-year old "reform" is ready for a reform: irreversible and rigid. Pope Francis invoking his magisterial authority could indicate that he expects opposition to his plans, whatever they are.
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Posted by: jackbene3651 -
Aug. 24, 2017 10:34 PM ET USA
If Pope Francis wants the faithful to respect his 'Magisterial Authority' he has to respect that of his predecessors. Questioning the infallible pronouncement by Pope St John Paul II that only men can be ordained priests is not a good way to do that.
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Posted by: rjbennett1294 -
Aug. 24, 2017 5:47 PM ET USA
You have to wonder when the reforms mandated by the Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium were ever really implemented. Many people seem to think that only the reforms mandated by the dubious "spirit" of the Council were the ones that have been implemented in the last fifty years.
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Posted by: koinonia -
Aug. 24, 2017 4:02 PM ET USA
Pope St. Pius X was dealing with Modernists in his time as his enduring encyclical, Pascendi, attests. He was not dealing with an inconsequential bunch; they continued to work. By the 1960s, Modernism was all the more potent. If one had to find a word to describe the liturgy in the second half of the 20th century, one that fits well is "departure.' Things will go awry until there can be a return. Then, moving forward well-grounded might just prove a viable endeavor. The status quo is not.
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Posted by: Te_Deum -
Dec. 30, 2010 8:50 AM ET USA
Congrats, Grandpa!
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Posted by: semperficatholic -
Dec. 28, 2010 10:06 PM ET USA
Congratulations Grandfather! That precious child will bring much joy to your lives.
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Posted by: www.petersboat.net -
Dec. 28, 2010 11:50 AM ET USA
Just wanted to thank you for sharing, Mr. Lawler, and thought that I might share with you and your readers an audio meditation that I posted recently on my site - one that I think you and they might like. http://www.petersboat.net/3/post/2010/12/the-weakest-and-the-smallest.html My point: Far from it being true that bringing children into the world will make us unhappy, it is rather quite the opposite; only by bringing children into the world will we ever be happy again.
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Posted by: -
Dec. 28, 2010 9:25 AM ET USA
Mazel tov!
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Posted by: John J Plick -
Dec. 27, 2010 7:33 PM ET USA
Pro 17:6 Grandchildren are the crown of old men, And the glory of sons is their fathers.
