The liturgical year is over.
What a year it has been.
So much for all that.
Let us begin again.

With vespers this evening, it’s the start of a new liturgical year.

Always a great time to make some spiritual resolutions – and liturgical ones, Fathers! Read Redemptionis Sacramentum. Read St. Pius V’s De Defectibus. Reflect upon the truth that the rubrics of the liturgy are morally preceptive unless otherwise evident. It’s a cross, to which you conform yourself, in order to have the freedom of the spirit… interior creativity… So. Always wear a chasuble as celebrant – even if you are alone, you are not alone. Wear that amice stuffed away in the back drawer in the sacristy. Heck, wear a maniple. Even a biretta. Yes, it is allowed, during the Novus Ordo. (There is a proper way to use the biretta, of course – you don’t just wear it the whole time… obviously.) People notice these things. They will ask you about it. You will create interest. It will create opportunities for conversations about the liturgy. You can catechize, evangelize, and disciple-ize. Will you create controversy? Sure. “Father is rigid. Father likes to play dress up. Father is an enemy of the Pope. Father makes it all about himself. Father likes novelties. Father loves 1950’s Catholic nostalgia more than he wants to serve The People™.” Okay. It’s the same crowd of 6 or 7 individuals who keep you from preaching that homily you dreamed about giving while in seminary about some hard moral truths that plenty of pewsitters on Sunday would be moved by. It’s what St. Thomas calls “Pharisaical scandal.” Let them go complain about it and write nasty letters to the Bishop about you – they’ve already been doing that anyway! So just resign to it. Try something new this year. Be brave.

Good Stuff in Rome will be sporadic from now on. Sundays I think I will do something a little different.

A domani…
-Eamonn