One context in which it is a bad omen to hear of magic is in the cafeteria in reference to the food. And yet, that is exactly what the chef said when I went to grab the special of the day, a buffalo chicken wrap, that he was going to work some magic. In a restaurant context, that usually means an awesome meal. In the cafeteria, that can mean anything from making something inedible look edible to having food that surprisingly is pretty good.
Posted by Justice at 8:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This isn't really a big thing, since trackbacks aren't used much, but the trackback system has been shut off to end a massive flow of spam. When I have a chance to upgrade the spam blockers, I'll turn it back on.
Comments are still enabled.
Posted by Justice at 2:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
I know I have been told, and have been of the opinion, that the 1962 Missal was never actually suppressed by the Church. There is, however, a document in our textbook, Conferentiarum Episcopalium, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship, dated 28 October 1974, that states:
With regard to the Roman Missal: when an episcopal conference has determined that a vernacular version of the Roman Missal - or a part of it, such as the Order of Mass - must be used in its territory, from then on Mass may not be celebrated, whether in Latin or in the vernacular, save according to the rite of the Roman Missal promulgated by the authority of Paul VI on 7 April, 1969.With regard to the regulations issued by this sacred congregation in favor of priests who, on account of advanced years or infirm health, find it difficult to use the new Order of the Roman Missal or the Mass Lectionary: it is clear that an ordinary may grant permission to use, in whole or in part, the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, with the changes introduced by the Decrees of 1965 and 1967. But this permission can only be granted for Masses celebrated without a congregation. Ordinaries may not grant it for Masses celebrated with a congregation. ...
Update: The Latin text of this document was published in the November 1974 edition of Notitiae, the Congregation for Divine Worship's official publication.
Update 9/12: In the extended entry, I have added the relevant citations from Notitiae, both in English and in Latin in full.
Summary in English
Notification from the Congregation for Divine Worship
It is still stated in some quarters that the adoption of the Missal promulgated by the Holy Father Paul VI on April the third 1969 is not obligatory for various reasons. This notice is to re-affirm the principle already laid down: when Episcopal Conferences decide that the translated version of the new Missal must be introduced, the Latin Missal also becomes obligatory. The continued use of the Missal promulgated by Pius V with the modifications of subsequent Popes is not permitted for any reason. Use of the Missal of Pius V is permitted only to priests who either for reason of their age or for other reasons have obtained the permission of their Ordinary to use it. In such cases it may only be used at Mass "sine populo".
Latin Original (p. 353, Nov. 1974 edition of Notitiae)
SACRA CONGREGATIO PRO CULTU DIVINO
NOTIFICATIO
Conferentiarum Episcopalium munera de conficiendis popularibus interpretationibus librorum liturgicorum necnon normae de earundem confirmatione a Sede Apostolica debite exquirenda antea ab hac S. Congregatione definita sunt, approbante Summo Pontifice, per Notificationem diei 14 iunii 1971. Quae quidem gradatim ubique terrarum ita in usum sunt deducta, ut, sufficienti temporis spatio transacto, id operis iam fere perfectum esse constet. Quod autem ad Missale Romanum attinet, quoties Conferentia Episcoplais statuit Missale Romanum in lingua vernacula, vel etiam quandam eius partem, v. gr. Ordo Missae, in sua regione assumi debere, tunc sive lingua latina sive lingua vernacula Missam celebrare licet tantummodo iuxta ritum Missalis Romani auctoritate Pauli VI promulgati, die 3 mensis aprilis 1969.
Circa normas vero, quae ab hac S. Congregatione editae sunt in bonum sacerdotum, qui ob provectam aetatem vel infirmitatem graves experiantur difficultates in novo Ordine Missalis Romani vel Lectionarii Missae servando, patet facultatem ab Ordinario concedi posse Missale Romanum iuxta editionem typicam anni 1962, per Decreta annorum 1965 et 1967 accommodatum, sive ex parte sive ex toto retinendi, sed tantummodo pro celebratione Missae sine populo. Nequeunt tamen Ordinarii huiusmodi facultatem tribuere pro celebratione Missae cum populo. Invigilent potius iidem Ordinarii, tum locorum tum religiosorum, ut, salvis ritibus liturgicis non Romanis, ab Ecclesia legitime agnitis, et nonobstante praetextu cuiusvis conseutudinis etiam immemorabilis, Ordo Missae novi Missalis Romani ab omnibus ritus Romani sacerdotibus et fidelibus recte accipiatur et maiore usque studio ac pietate comprehendatur in iis, quos continet, thesauris sive divinorum Verborum sive liturgicae pastoralisque doctrinae.
Ex aedibus Sacrae Congregationis pro Cultu Divino, die 28 octobris 1974.
IACOBUS ROBERTUS Card. KNOX
Praefectus
A. BUGNINI
Archiep. tit. Diocletianen.
a Secretis
Posted by Justice at 10:35 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Today is the 5-year anniversary of 9-11. I don't tend to be very good with memorials (last year's effort is still an unpublished entry), but an idea has come to mind, so I am going to run with it and hope that it turns out well. This entry is not going to take the form of a memorial but a confession. I hope it will in the end be a worthy tribute to those who died. It is also made a bit late in the day, but better late than never.
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti...
Five years ago, on Tuesday morning, I left my dorm room to attend a recitation, scheduled for 9 am. At the time I left, there had been no word of anything out of the ordinary. The class itself was a sort of shelter, as there were no cell-phones, windows, or news reports that were able to reach us. By the time the recitation was over, toward 10, everything had already taken place, and one of the towers was down prior to my first hearing of the news. The concept of one of those buildings collapsing, as told on the radio, was unable to match in any way what was being shown on television. Most of the rest of the day consisted of watching the news, surfing the internet, and attending a hastily arranged memorial service at the University parish that evening.
Beatae Mariae semper Virgini...
I would like to say that 9/11 was in some way a personal milestone, something with life-changing influence. But this is not the case...aside from the aforementioned memorial service, where some of the hymns were particularly haunting, there was very little effect on a personal level. The only direct impact that it had on me, in hindsight, was purely passive, in that some things being planned prior to that day were postponed and never pursued further afterward. While that is a net benefit in the long-run, it's not one in which I had an active hand.
So why would the defining event of this generation leave so little impact? Partly, this was because I knew no one who had been killed or injured or even there on that day, nor was anyone to whom I was close. The other side of the coin was a distinct inability to empathize with those who had actually lost someone or were otherwise affected.
Beato Michaeli Archangelo, beato Ioanni Baptistae, sanctis Apostolis Petro et Paulo, et omnibus Sanctis...
This coldness of heart was not a new thing at that time. Someone reading between the lines of some of my english papers during middle and high school would notice the theme is present more than a few times. Occasionally it was explicit when a poem was required. It is hard to say exactly when this hardness of heart began, only that I know on introspection it extends back a long time, with traces at least as far back as 16 years in memory, and is the result of a long accumulation of psychological wounds that were never treated and which to some extent have never healed. Faith might have helped, had it been in any way actively lived at the time. As it was, the wounds of those years were simply absorbed and kept to myself. A situation ripe for the tempter, who bided his time well, looking for an opportunity.
His chance came one day, some seven or eight years ago. The circumstances, objectively, were innocent enough. Two people were simply doing their job as best and as fairly as they could. And yet, despite their efforts, they unknowingly inflicted an injustice that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, a betrayal by one of the last pillars of support I had at the time. Though trivial in nature, I was unable to deal with or accept what had happened. And somewhere in the internal chaos that followed, Satan found his way in, and had plenty to work with.
Quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...
The most deadly of the seven sins is pride, for good reason. It was the vehicle by which Satan fell, and as I have recently discovered, the driving force behind my own sins as well. Dietrich von Hildebrand writes of a sort of pride he calls Satanic, a pride characterized by a personality “lacerated by a deep disharmony; a corrosive venom pervades [its] entire life; and all the gratification [it] derives from whatever flatters [its] pride is unable to provide…with any genuine inner happiness, any blissful peace.” I would also characterize it as having a consuming hatred that desires to destroy others when offended, even if it destroys itself in the process. It also happens to be paired with another unfortunate quality, that of the self-righteous desire to see redress for wrongs aimed at oneself.
Although the nickname Justice was not picked on the basis of the virtue itself, it is reflective of a desire within to redress certain wrongs of the past. But while the virtue itself deals with the idea of rendering to each their due, it has been corrupted within to more of a desire for vengeance and retribution, a problem that still remains.
Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem, beatum Michaelem Archangelum, beatum Ioannem Baptistam, sanctos Apostolos Petrum et Paulum, et omnes Sanctos...
So where am I going with all of this? There is a similarity this problem shares with the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks five years ago. They also were involved with the death of others, to the point of destroying themselves as well. The point? The Satanic characteristic behind both instances.
Whenever there is a situation where hatred is so strong as to will the destruction of others, the demonic element is there, mirroring the will of the one who chose to suffer an eternity of loss and compounds it daily by trying to drag as many men as he can with him to the abyss. Islamic terrorists, in my opinion anyway, mirror in a lot of ways the same basic faults listed above - the hatred of the West, the self-righteous opinion of themselves and their view of Islam, and their willingness to be judge and executioner, even if they kill themselves in the process.
But like Satan himself, this sort of thing does not like to let the mask slip too often. Rarely, if ever, does the evil within get revealed in the direct presence of others. It has only really come off when alone or when I have the cloak of anonymity. Even so with others who actually carry out their dark plots - few saw it coming, and not infrequently do you hear people saying the perpetrator was a "good guy." No, we are not, though the façade can be rather convincing at times. While mental insanity can be a cause at times, I do not think either those terrorists or myself suffer from the inability to know what we are doing. Even though we may have cast reason aside, as I often do when racked by these internal demons, the will is pointed in the wrong direction, and in this lies both sin and moral culpability.
This is a lesson in human nature to take from this attack. There can be no peace with those who are driven by this sort of destructive pride. I know from personal experience - even though I have not and likely will not ever attempt to destroy someone in deed, in thought, within the darkest corners of the mind, friend and foe, stranger and closest friend have been subjected to a hatred that would put some of the world's worst men to shame. It is only by the grace of God that a barrier exists within, a last restraint against bringing any of them into reality. Even so, I strongly suspect it was given on the spot when that line was in danger of being crossed, as it was on several occasions.
When that barrier is not present, you have a ticking time bomb, something waiting to explode when the opportunity presents itself. Reason, peace, and diplomacy are unlikely to provide any help in the matter. Reason is often not in charge internally, or if it is, only to the extent that it can further along the plans of pride. It cannot be pacified, as even I can attest sometimes it only makes the situation worse, as a weakness is exposed that is then all-out attacked.
So how best to deal with someone like this? A good first step is to take them seriously while not being intimidated by anything they might happen to say. This might be called simultaneously calling a bluff and communicating that even if it’s not a bluff, you’re not going to be pushed around. In the end, there's really only three ways to stop someone who is committed to carrying his plan into reality - he changes his mind, his plans are thwarted, or he is stopped altogether, whether by imprisonment or death. Refusing to be intimidated, or by the same token, making a show of strength, can work toward changing their mind directly. Thwarting the plans consists of keeping careful tabs on suspicious activity and making every effort to disrupt their plans - in other words, a concerted, consistent, and active defense. Stopping them - admittedly I have death more in mind here than imprisonment - is the offensive side of the response, and is what should be the intended goal of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. As crass as the remark is, I sort of have to agree with a line found in the online comic 8-Bit Theater - "corpses are remarkably non-violent."
The last thing in the world to do though is to try and give the impression of weakness in the face of such evil. Evil loves weak targets because they are so much easier to overrun. Every action that undermines the response to terrorism, be it pacifism, the myth of Islam being a religion of peace, leaking of classified anti-terror programs, refusing to fight the war that is already being fought against the West, slanted news coverage, Bush hatred, propping up corrupt leaders abroad, half-hearted measures, or whatever, the only thing that will result is the enemy gaining strength and confidence from the show of weakness.
Orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum. Amen.
The past cannot be undone, but the present offers the constant opportunity to change course. A quote in a book of meditation today provides a useful last remark for this post. The quote is taken from the Talmud (showing that even ecumenism by the Jesuits bears fruit now and then): "God says to us: by thy very wounds I will heal thee." A broken spirit is an offering acceptable to God, says the 51st Psalm, one that consoles me often. But I am also reminded by the recalling of Matthew 5:23-24 today that I cannot make that offering unless I have first forgiven all that has been done against me.
It is amazing how much the memory retains of such things. But hopefully, in letting go of them, I can finally be freed of an evil that has so long held me fast and which, but for the grace of God, is not so very far from the evil present in those who 5 years ago believed that the murder of some 3000 people was, in their twisted minds, a good and righteous act.
Posted by Justice at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sometimes, caution just isn't enough. You would think, after taking an absentee ballot in person to the student mailroom and double-checking whether it would be post-marked on the same day (the deadline), and receiving assurance that it would be, that would be what actually happens. Instead, it was not postmarked until the following morning. What's annoying is that it was still possible at that point to get it to the main post office, even if it was a big inconvenience to head downtown to do so.
In any case, the result is I cannot vote in the Republican Primary, although fortunately, the application for the General election's absentee ballot was more than in time, so I will be able to vote in November.
Posted by Justice at 2:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Today is the 5-year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, and I have switched the template colors accordingly for the day. I hope to put up my attempt at a meaningful post later in the day, but it may not happen.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Posted by Justice at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
One of the readings for the Vatican II class is Fr. Ralph Wiltgen's The Rhine Flows into the Tiber. On pages 89-90, there is recounted an interview he conducted with Lefebvre during the second session in 1963. Excerpting the key parts:
...Archbishop Lefebvre told me that he saw no threat to the papacy in powerful episcopal conferences, but that he did regard them as a threat to the teaching authority and pastoral responsibility of individual bishops. ...It was easy to conceive, said the Archbishop, that "three, four, or five bishops in a national episcopal conference will have more influence than the rest and take over leadership." ... Referring specifically to the conference of archbishops of France, he said that at times this conference would issue a joint statement on social or pastoral questions. "It is then very difficult for an individual bishop to disagree with the public stand that has been taken, and he is simply reduced to silence." ...
...An individual bishop might contradict a national episcopal conference, "but then his clergy and laity would be in a quandary, not knowing whether to follow their own bishop or the conference."
Posted by Justice at 6:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
When I first came to Steubenville last August, gas was selling at around $2.49 per gallon. In the time since then, it has zoomed as high as $3.09 in the wake of Katrina and been as low as $1.99 briefly during the later parts of winter. The current price is $2.39, having dipped 30 cents in the last 2 weeks.
I'm not exactly sure why we have some of the cheapest gas in the country, but a lot of out-of-state students appreciate the fact.
Posted by Justice at 6:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Finally, the civil authorities, which rightly regard the well-being of the citizens as their concern, are also bound to ensure, equitably and vigilantly, that public morality and social progress are not gravely endangered through the misuse of these media. This they can achieve by promulgating laws and tirelessly enforcing them. The liberty of individuals and groups is not in the least compromised by such vigilance, especially where serious guarantees cannot be given by those who use these media professionally.- Inter Mirifica 12
That would certainly give civil liberterians a fit, and yet logically, this makes a lot of sense. Legally, there is the implication that liberty extends only to what is not illegal. While you may be able to do illegal things, there isn't liberty or freedom to do them, since criminal prosecution follows. The Church is simply applying that concept of liberty to the true moral law to say that the prohibition of those things that are not morally permissible - things which can be found on many shows today - is not a limit on liberty.
Posted by Justice at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Only 2 students came into the computer labs during my 4-hour shift today. In fact, our logs have only 5 people showing up to the main lab all day. The professors must have given them an easy first week, though Sr. Johanna, who happened to drop by, assured me she has already moved proactively to fix that.
More will likely show up as the semester progresses. Until then, it's an excellent block of time to do work.
Posted by Justice at 8:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Real Name: Rob
Age: 23
E-mail: justice (at) justiceknight (dot) com
AIM: StBlogsCrusader
Residence: Steubenville, Ohio
Currently: Studying for an MA in Theology
Welcome to my blog! My posting is often erratic and unpredictable, but I hope you find something worth reading here. Feel free to leave me comments.
