Inter Mirifica: Witnessing the Burial of the Old Sacramentaries, Via Facebook

Our parish priests are taking Pope Benedict XVI up on his invitation:
 
"I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life. The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness."

A case in point: This morning I didn't go to daily Mass; instead my family walked over to the high school and watched alumni men and women play their annual soccer games. It's a glorious day. When I returned home, these photos were posted on my parish's facebook page with this note: "Stay tuned for the Blessing of the New Roman Missals, at all Sunday Masses this weekend."

A Fond Farewell to the old Sacramentary

One of the things about religion is we can get caught up in intellectual and aesthetic debates about many things: what people should wear to Mass; what songs should be sung; whether the Latin Mass is more reverent than the one in English and on and on. These debates, which play out all over the Catholic blogosphere, distract me from my relationship with the Infinite.

The various debates over the third edition of the Roman Missal in English are a case in point. Just google "new Roman Missal debates" and to see what I mean. This morning at Mass I began to tear up  when the celebrant, Father Jeff Calia, C.O. ,shared in his homily his personal relationship with the old Roman Missal, how the prayers and the liturgy had drawn him, raised without belief, into the Church and eventually the priesthood. I was moved because he wasn't speaking in abstractions, he was sharing pieces of his life.