.::Firmum Est::. - - My Heart is Steadfast

As part of the celebrations of the weekend, Deacon Ralf’s Mass of Thanksgiving was in the Crypt of the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. I was honored to join them for the celebrations. The celebration of the Holy Family was also at the Altar of the Holy Crib. Below is an article about the relics and their degradation.

The relics venerated as the crib the baby Jesus used in a Bethlehem grotto are in an alarming state of degradation, some church officials said.

The remains have become so fragile that officials at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major, where the crib is located, decided to suspend this year’s annual Christmas Eve tradition when the relics are carried from the crypt beneath the main altar in a procession around the basilica and displayed in front of the altar all Christmas Day.

Two of the five wooden slats are showing signs of “troublesome deterioration,” Msgr. Emilio Silvestrini, a priest at the basilica has said.

He said Dec. 28 that “for years” they had noticed the crib’s fragile condition had worsened.

The small wooden boards are protected inside an elegant silver and glass cradle-shaped reliquary in a little chapel under the basilica’s main altar.

The relics were brought to Rome from Palestine after Pope Theodore I was elected pontiff in 642, said Bishop Franco Gualdrini, prefect of the basilica’s sacristy, in an interview with Vatican Radio Dec. 28.

The bishop said the pope sent the relics to be housed in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, which was called St. Mary of the Crib after it obtained the relics.

Bishop Gualdrini said that early next year they will set up “a commission of experts to take a look at the crib, examine it and say what the appropriate thing to do” will be.

He said the crib and the 19th-century reliquary need “urgent restoration.”

In a Dec. 28 interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, Bishop Gualdrini said it is too early to tell if the damage is being caused by woodworms or other parasites, but that “there seems to be fine wood dust near the relics.”

Msgr. Granito Tavanti, another priest at the basilica, said Dec. 28 they are waiting to hear from the Vatican, which oversees the crib and will suggest which “competent experts” can best preserve the relics.

Made from the wood of a sycamore tree, two of the crib’s planks are nearly a yard long. According to Catholic encyclopedias, studies suggest the wood planks were supports for the manger which may have been made out of clay or limestone.

Msgr. Silvestrini said they need “a new way to preserve the relic and for carrying it (so they will) be able to display it again next Christmas.”

This past weekend, I was honored to participate in the Diaconate Ordination of two brothers from the Religious Family of the Missionaries of Charity. Brother Ralf and Brother Jacob are now Deacon Ralf and Deacon Jacob. The weekend was full of joy and celebration of the gift of these two men to the Christ, to his Church and to the poorest of the poor.

I thought it would be proper share a poem of Mother and her message of Love.

Poem by Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see in the final analysis. it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Tomorrow on December 17th, the Church’s Advent liturgy begins to focus in a particular way on the Nativity of the Lord.  The prayers, readings, and preface at Mass as well as the readings, antiphons for the Gospel canticles, intercessions, and prayers at the Liturgy of the Hours concentrate more resolutely than during the preceding days of Advent on the coming feast of the Nativity of the Lord.

The great “O Antiphons” have a particular role in these days as they have been used for centuries as the antiphons for the Magnificat.  Each antiphon, always sung in a very similar melody, begins with a title of Christ, usually taken from the Old Testament, and followed by the petition that he come to us (veni) and act on our behalf:

December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Iesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Daystar) [after this date, the days begin to get longer]
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O God-with-Us)

When taken together from the last title to the first, the first letters of each title form the wonderful Latin acrostic:
Emmanuel
Rex
Oriens

Clavis
Radix
Adonai
Sapientia

They form the Lord’s response to the Church’s ardent petition that he come (veni):

Ero cras (I will be there tomorrow)!

Best wishes for God’s choicest blessings during the remaining days of Advent.

An update from University of Maryland Catholic Student Center

Students at the Catholic Student Center are trying to infuse the present-day Mass with some customs from the past.

For the past two months, students at the CSC have gathered each Wednesday before the evening Mass, or the Catholic worship service, to learn prayers and portions of the service in Latin, the formal language of the Catholic Church. During the same time period, four students learned the traditional songs and chants of the church as part of the Schola Cantorum, an all-male choir with a name that means “school of song” in Latin.

The semester’s work culminated in an extra Mass celebrated Nov. 30 in Latin with music provided by the schola. Approximately 25 students attended that Mass, said the center’s chaplain, the Rev. Kyle Ingels.

Ingels, who taught the Latin translations for the service, said he decided to start the informal classes because he wanted the students to learn the official language of the church. Teaching the Latin traditions is also a way to diversify the activities offered at the center, he said, which helps the center reach out to a wider variety of students.

“There is a lot of interest these days in learning about some of the more traditional aspects of the faith, Latin being one of them,” Ingels said. “Latin is a beautiful language, a beautiful tradition, and it is still the official language of the Catholic Church throughout the world.”

The students are learning the modern Mass translated into Latin and accompanied by the traditional Gregorian chants rather than the older regimented Tridentine Mass, Ingels said. The Tridentine Mass, celebrated entirely in Latin, was discontinued in the mid-1960s after Catholics expressed concern that it had become too impersonal. Some churches have added Tridentine Masses since September, when Pope Benedict XVI decreed that they could be celebrated once more.

The schola was taught by Dominican Brother Louis Senzig, who has long had an interest in traditional music, Ingels said.

Students who learned the Mass in Latin said they have benefited from it.

“It is a return to tradition,” said sophomore government and politics major Martino Choi. “It is a way to praise God in a vocal manner, which appealed to me.”

Learning the ancient language is a way to separate everyday life from spiritual life, senior philosophy major Josh Guenther said.

“The saints talk about how spirituality is separate from the world, and Latin is separate from our everyday conversation, and I think that makes the Mass said in Latin all the more special,” he said.

Benedict XVI’s general prayer intention for December is: “That human society may be solicitous in the care of all those stricken with AIDS, especially children and women, and that the Church may make them feel the Lord’s love.” His mission intention is: “That the incarnation of the Son of God, which the Church celebrates solemnly at Christmas, may help the peoples of the Asiatic Continent to recognize God’s Envoy, the only Savior of the world, in Jesus.”