Some fourth year students from our school Colegio San Agustin-Binan has initalised an outreach program entitled “Aksyon Augustino” for the benefit of those who were affected and left desolate by Typhoon Ondoy which hit the Philippines two days ago. H/t and a million thanks to IV-St. Augustine students Ms. Ara Basbas (for the note), and the posters courtesy of Ms. Rose Gopez and Ms. Chelsea Oray respectively.

For those who wish to send their donations or pledges through us, Colegio San Agustin-Binan is located in Juana Complex 1, Brgy. San Francisco, Binan, Laguna (near the Southwoods Interchange)

Aksyon Agustino

AUGUSTINIANS!

What: AKSYON AGUSTINO
When: September 30, 2009 8AM – 1130AM
Where: CSA Biñan Lobby

Please bring donations:
-canned goods, mineral water,medicine, shoes&slippers, toothbrush, blankets&towels, old clothes, plastic bags, ready-to-eat donations like biscuits, or anything that you think might help.

Start the Change. Take the initiative. Do your Part.

SPONSORED BY: SEÑORES

*All the organizers/facilitators (a.k.a IV – ST. AUGUSTINE), please wear the SEÑORES shirt tomorrow. Para alam nila kung sino ang lalapitan.*

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US! AS ONE WE CAN! MABUHAY ANG MGA AGUSTINO!

See you there! =)

In behalf of our students, a million thanks to all who shall definitely be one with us in this advocacy. Deus est in omnia!!

Let us pray to the Almighty, the God of all in the Name of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints:

That all who have been affected by the recent storm that ravaged the Philippine Islands be comforted by His Mercies and Love.

Graciously hear us, O Lord, when we call upon You,
and grant unto our supplications a calm atmosphere,
that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins,
may, by Your protecting mercy, experience pardon.
Through Christ our Lord. AMEN.

…THIS?

THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND INCULTURATION
13th Asian Liturgy Forum (ALF)
South-East Asian Region,
September 16-20, 2009
Bahay Pari, San Carlos Pastoral Formation Complex, Edsa, Makati City

We, the delegates to the 13th Asian Liturgy Forum of South-East Asia, met from September 16-19, 2009 to discuss the timely and urgent topic of Liturgical Year and Inculturation. The meeting was held in Bahay-Pari of San Carlos Pastoral Formation Complex, Makati City, Philippines, under the auspices of His Eminence Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila to whom we express profound gratitude. The delegates to the meeting came from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. We are now pleased to share the result of our three-day meeting.

1. The history of the liturgical year shows that the calendar of feasts has been constantly adjusting itself to political, cultural, and religious environment of local Churches. This should serve as a guiding principle in our work of inculturating the liturgical year.
2. We note that inculturation normally takes place within the framework of approved liturgical books, whereby the substantial unity of the Roman Rite is preserved. Hence, the inculturation of the liturgical calendar does not result in a totally new calendar that is an alternative to the typical edition of the Roman Rite.

3. However, we acknowledge that inculturation might not always be sufficient to address certain local needs. We would not preclude the creation of particular liturgical calendars while retaining the register of feasts of the Roman Rite.

4. Roman traditional liturgical symbols may need to be adjusted in accord with the seasons of the year in the local Church. This would be applicable, for example, to liturgical feasts like Christmas and Easter whose original symbols do not correspond to existing seasons of the year in a particular Church.

5. Inspired by liturgical history, we recognize the role of local cultural and social traditions in the institution of some liturgical feasts like the Chair of St. Peter in Rome, which originated in the ancestral feast of ancient Rome called parentalia. In accord with liturgical norms, local Churches could institute feasts derived from their traditional and other established practices.

6. Likewise, the cycle of human work has shaped some liturgical celebrations like Rogation and Ember days. We believe that in the industrial world marked by the rhythm of work and rest, production and consumption, and strikes and negotiations, the Church should similarly establish pertinent liturgical feasts.

7. In regions where popular pious exercises abound and continue to be meaningful to the faithful the liturgical calendar can be enriched by the integration of popular religious practices with the liturgical feasts.

8. Sometimes political situations have left their mark on the liturgical calendar as witnessed by the institution of the feasts of Christ the King and St. Joseph the Worker. Local Churches may propose similar feasts to accompany the faithful across political systems.

In conclusion, given that time is relative, that situations are provisional, and that culture and traditions are in constant evolution, the Church should continue to revise, reinvent, and create liturgical feasts that meet the actual needs of the faithful.

That in all things God may be glorified.

I’m dying to know.

A rather old but straightforward piece from Fr Zuhlsdorf, it tackles how we as Catholics who dare champion Tradition must approach many of today’s assertions that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is not in any way “vital to every Christian’s spiritual life, as regarding its antiquated status.” A nice read, indeed.

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1) Rejoice because our liturgical life has been enriched, not because “we win”.  Everyone wins when the Church’s life is enriched.  This is not a “zero sum game”.

2) Do not strut.  Let us be gracious to those who have in the past not been gracious in regard to our “legitimate aspirations”.

3) Show genuine Christian joy.  If you want to attract people to what gives you so much consolation and happiness, be inviting and be joyful.  Avoid the sourness some of the more traditional stamp have sadly worn for so long.

4) Be engaged in the whole life of your parishes, especially in works of mercy organized by the same.  If you want the whole Church to benefit from the use of the older liturgy, then you who are shaped by the older form of Mass should be of benefit to the whole Church in concrete terms.

5) If the document doesn’t say everything we might hope for, don’t bitch about it like a whiner.  Speak less of our rights and what we deserve, or what it ought to have been, as if we were our own little popes, and more about our gratitude, gratitude, gratitude for what God gives us.

For many of us Filipinos who have been accustomed to archbishops and the religious sector inching every nook and cranny of politics in the name of liberation theology (which I figure is not intrinsically untoward, but emphasising it more above every aspect of Church doctrine that may be detrimental), the following is a sort of breather perhaps especially that it concerns a drawing forth of metanoia not by engaging in radical deeds but by fostering Eucharistic ardour amongst the faithful: just as the Church wills and teaches.

H/t to my friend Mr. Carlos Palad for this wonderful Rorate Caeli post.

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Communion kneeling and on the tongue made mandatory in the Cathedral of Lima

A reader from Lima, Peru has informed Rorate that to receive holy communion at the Cathedral-Basilica of Lima, Perú, the faithful must now kneel in addition to receiving only on the tongue. For that purpose, two kneelers are now put before the steps of the high altar at the moment of Communion, just like in Papal Masses.

In his sermon on September 20, 2009 in the Cathedral, Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima, made the following statement:

“The most respectful way of receiving the Eucharist is kneeling and on the tongue. We must recover a sense of respect and reverence due to the Eucharist, because the love to Jesus is the center of our Christian lives. Our souls are at stake.”

One of the latter pieces of wisdom from the late Monsignor Moises Andrade, H.P. before his demise last year.

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Care of Supreme Pontiffs: Stability of Roman Liturgy as God’s Gift

By the late Msgr. Moises Andrade, Jr. H.P., at the University of Santo Tomas last January 7, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI offered his care for the Roman Liturgy in his motu proprio letter of July 7, 2007. Here, he conveyed his support for the maintenance of sacredness, reverence for God’s presence, and the participant’s awareness of sinfulness during the celebration of the Roman Liturgy.

1. Awareness of Sinfulness.

Keeping the hands joined, kneeled and bowing low in prayer, and the striking of the breast are bodily gestures expressing fidelity to God’s gift of Sacred Liturgy. They are occuring in various moments of the Holy Mass primarily. They instill to every officiating priest and all participants in Sacred Liturgy the readiness to welcome God’s gift of forgiveness and remission of sins.

2. Reverence for God’s Presence.

The Divine Presence in the Word of God and in the Mystery of the Eucharist are experienced in the epistles and gospels of a one year cycle of the 1570 Roman Missal and in the Roman Canon, conveniently articulated by the rubrics, when faithfully implemented. Rather than require the ability of so many trained ministers, servers, singers and other assistants, the availability of at least one ordained priest and his acolyte always makes accessible the sacraments in their solemn prayerfulness.

3. Maintenance of Sacredness

Focus on the salvific grace of Christ’s holy cross through ritual gestures and its sacred image at the central place at the altar will yield the harvest of piety and clear signal of the role of the priest – not so much as presider, but as a servant to facilitate the encounter of the living God with the praying people including the priest as well.

Conclusion

The awareness of the Roman Liturgy’s sacredness, reverence of God’s presence, and the consciousness of human sinfulness yet graced by God’s self-giving are constantly transmitted through the various historical periods of the Church’s liturgy and are especially expected through the exposure of the faithful to the ritual celebration elaborated extraordinarily in the 1962 Roman Missal (the 7th retouching of the 1570 mass book) and ordinarily, in the 1970 Roman Missal (the 8th retouching of tthe roman liturgical text).