Schmemann’s Critique of the West (Part 1): The Accusations

Alexander Schmemann (1921–83) was a highly influential Russian Orthodox priest and author who left a major mark on the renewal of Byzantine liturgical and sacramental theology, and on the thinking of some Roman Catholic liturgists as well. He was famous (infamous?) for his intense attacks on Western theology, which he believed to be thoroughly contaminated with a rationalism and a reductionism inimical to mystery. (It should not be forgotten that he also rather sharply criticized many aspects of modern Eastern Orthodoxy.) It would be tempting for traditionalists to give ear to these arguments because, if they are correct, they would seem to demonstrate a broader liturgical crisis in the West that is rooted in a false Thomistic distinction, which, over the centuries, changed how Christians understood and received the sacraments and liturgy.

My goal in this new series of articles is to summarize his major objections (part 1) and then respond to them in a way that is both sympathetic to whatever is legitimate in his concerns, and sharply critical of his misunderstanding (at times extreme) of Western theology (parts 2 and subsequent).

One of Schmemann’s most important books, For the Life of the World, expounds how the Church is a sacrament/epiphany of Christ, and how the Church is her liturgy. After meditating on the Church’s liturgy as the work of Christ extended in time, Fr. Schmemann addresses secularism, which he defines as “above all a negation of worship” (p. 146), because its core doctrine is a negation of “the sacramentality of man and world. A secularist views the world as containing within itself its meaning and the principles of knowledge and action” (p. 147). He then cites the Lateran council of 1215 and St. Thomas Aquinas as watershed moments in the origin of secularism as a post-Patristic and anti-Patristic way of conceiving the world and its relation to God.

Here is a key passage:

At the end of the twelfth century a Latin theologian, Berengarius of Tours, was condemned for his teaching on the Eucharist. He maintained that because the presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements is “mystical” or “symbolic,” it is not real. The Lateran Council which condemned him … simply reversed the formula. It proclaimed that since Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is real, it is not “mystical.” What is truly decisive here is precisely the disconnection and the opposition of the two terms verum and mystice, the acceptance, on both sides, that they are mutually exclusive. (p. 152)

Aquinas, starting from this point, introduced the dichotomy characteristic of secularism:

And since then, Christian thought, in scholasticism and beyond it, never ceased to oppose these terms … it is indeed implied already in Thomism, with its basic epistemological distinction between causa prima and causae secundae. Here is the real cause of secularism, which is ultimately nothing else but the affirmation of the world’s autonomy, of its self-sufficiency in terms of reason, knowledge, and action. The downfall of Christian symbolism led to the dichotomy of the “natural” and “supernatural” as the only framework of Christian thought and experience. (p. 153)

(Note that Schmemann, in effect, is summarizing DeLubac’s argument in Surnaturel.) It follows that, Aquinas—the theologian par excellence of the Latin West—has, according to Schmemann, a different metaphysics or ontology than the Church Fathers do.

Later on, Fr. Schmemann explains further by explicating the relationship between sacrament and liturgy. He explains that the Church Fathers related these two in an ontologically different manner than Aquinas and Scholasticism:

In the early Church, in the writings of the Fathers, sacraments, inasmuch as they are given any systematic interpretation, are always explained in the context of their actual liturgical celebration, the explanation being, in fact, an exegesis of the liturgy itself in all its ritual complexity and concreteness. The medieval De Sacramentis, however, tends from its very inception to isolate the “sacrament” from liturgical context, to find and to define in terms as precise as possible its essence i.e., that which distinguishes it from the “non-sacrament.” Sacrament in a way begins to be opposed to liturgy. It has, of course, ritual expression, its “signum” which belongs to its essence, but this sign is viewed now as ontologically different from all other signs, symbols, and rites of the Church. And because of this difference, the precise sacramental sign alone is considered, to the exclusion of all other “liturgy,” the proper object of theological attention. One can for example read and reread the elaborate treatment given in St. Thomas’ Summa to sacraments without yet knowing much about their liturgical celebration. (p. 163)

Again:

St. Maximus the Confessor, the sacramental theologian par excellence of the patristic age, calls the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist symbols (“symbola”), images (“apeikonismata”), and mysteries (“mysteria”). “Symbolical” here is not only not opposed to “real,” but embodies it as its very expression and mode of manifestation. Historians of theology, in their ardent desire to maintain the myth of theological continuity and orderly “evolution,” here again find their explanation in the “imprecision” of patristic terminology. They do not seem to realize that the Fathers’ use of “symbolon” (and related terms) is not “vague” or “imprecise” but simply different from that of the later theologians, and that the subsequent transformation of these terms constitutes indeed the source of one of the greatest theological tragedies. (p. 165)

And driving home his argument:

In the early tradition . . . the relationship between the sign in the symbol (A) and that which it “signifies” (B) is neither a merely semantic one (A means B), nor causal (A is the cause of B), nor representative (A represents B). We called this relationship an epiphany. “A is B” means that the whole of A expresses, communicates, reveals, manifests, the “reality” of B (although not necessarily the whole of it) without, however, losing its own ontological reality, without being dissolved in another “res.” But it was precisely this relationship between the A and the B, between the sign and the signified, that was changed. Because of the reduction of knowledge to rational or discursive knowledge, there appears between A and B a hiatus. The symbol may still be a means of knowledge but, as all knowledge, it is knowledge about and not knowledge of. It can be a revelation about the “res,” but not the epiphany of the “res” itself. A can mean B, or represent it, or even, in certain instances, be the “cause” of its presence; but A is no longer viewed as the very means of “participation” in B. Knowledge and participation are now two different realities, two different orders. (p. 168)

It is this kind of reasoning that leads Fr. Schmemann to conclude: “The doctrine of transubstantiation, in its Tridentine form, is truly the collapse, or rather the suicide, of sacramental theology” (p. 170). One may certainly sympathize with this line of argument, inasmuch as we see conventional Thomists teaching about sacraments in isolation or abstraction from liturgy and exaggerating the principle of magisterial authority to the denigration and effective cancelation of tradition.

Next week, I will begin my response by answering this question: Did the Lateran Council give a bad and unpatristic definition of “real” as opposed to “mystical”?
 

with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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A Glimpse into Catholic Life in Ireland in the Early Sixties

Some weeks ago, a priest friend alerted me to the online archives of Radharc, “one of Ireland’s most important independent documentary production companies,” founded in 1959 and the producer of “over 400 documentaries which were screened on RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, between 1961 and 1996.” My correspondent was particularly interested in the short films made from 1961 to 1966, with two priests, Fr Peter Dunn and Fr Desmond Forristal, as the hosts. It should be noted—and this is a matter of surprise especially for Americans—that it did  not seem strange in any way for a public film project to be run by priests and to center so closely on religious and cultural matters (which were often the same).

Several of these films would be fascinating to NLM readers, so I shall comment on my favorites. There are many more worth exploring at the Irish Film Institute Radharc archive. (As the videos are not on YouTube, only still shots can be inserted here.)

The New Ritual

For an absolutely fascinating glimpse into Catholic life at the time of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, watch the seven-minute film from 1962 about “The New Ritual.” “New,” at this time, refers to the Tridentine sacramental rites done partly in Latin and partly in English. The film speaks as if this modest step is a sufficient response to modern needs.

As regular readers will know, I’m opposed to having so much vernacular in the traditional rites of the Church of Rome, but no one can deny that if what the video shows had been the only step taken towards liturgical reform, the faithful wouldn’t have been thrown into disarray and there would be a great deal more peace and unity in the Church today. The traditional movement as we know it would not exist were it not for the flagrant overreaching of the Consilium and the accompanying absolutism of Paul VI.

Most interesting to me is the interview at the end with an Irish liturgist who says: “Some people want the Foremass [Mass of Catechumens] in English, but the rest of the Mass—especially the Canon, the heart of the Mass—will remain in Latin.” He seems quite sincere in his assertion. How many, at this time, could have imagined what would be happening only a few short years later? (On this point, I recommend William Riccio’s fine article “Back to the Future? No Thanks, I’ve Been There,” in which he recounts, inter alia: “We were told the Canon, that most untranslatable prayer, would never be in the vernacular because it is too steeped in meaning. In 1967, it was put in the vernacular.”)

Sick Calls

This four-minute video was made in 1962, when the traditional rite of the sacrament of extreme unction was still being used by everyone. Today it is used by communities like the FSSP and the ICRSS, and, I would suppose, by individual diocesan priests who are familiar with it.

What a remarkable glimpse into how sick calls used to be done — and, please God, how they can and should still be done today!

Blessing the Airplane Fleet

Made in 1962, this film tells the viewer about Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline. Each plane is named after an Irish saint—and after showing us lots of examples, the film gives a quick history of Irish missionaries of old. (As far as I know, the Aer Lingus airplanes have retained their saint names to the present.) We get a tour of the primitive instrumentation panel of a Boeing. We see a priest blessing the fleet with holy water, and a Sunday Mass conducted in the hangar. We get to see the prayer card (I’m not kidding) that used to be included in every seat of an Aer Lingus plane, and a view of nuns wearing habits one would never see today.

In general, the people flying on the planes as well as those seeing them off are dressed impeccably. One would not have dreamed of going out in public any other way.

The Village with the Most Vocations

Another remarkable film concerns a village in rural Ireland that had a long history of high numbers of priestly and religious vocations. A fascinating glimpse into Irish village life in 1962: there’s not even a hint of the collapse that would come later.

All the explanations given about why this village’s vocations flourished are quite similar to the reasons we might give today for the greater number of vocations among traditional Catholics: hard-working family life, the family Rosary, the cheerfulness of the sisters, and a relatively simple life. The sisters don’t put pressure on the girls; certainly no “vocations office,” “discernment retreats,” or baby-faced agents.

The sisters depicted in this 1962 film left for good in 2016, after 151 years. Seduced by the “spirit of the Council,” they had become “Eucharistic ministers” and Lord only knows what else. Corruptio optimi pessima.

People often say to traditionalists: “If Catholicism was so great before the Council, why did it fall apart so quickly?” And I reply: “How well do you know yourself? There but for the grace of God go I…” We don't have to pretend that there were no problems before the Council (and Ireland surely had its problems too) to know that things were a far sight better than they were afterwards, when the spirit of rebellion had taken hold and churchmen couldn't throw off the shackles of commandments, customs, and cultural heritage quickly enough. Things can fall apart rapidly when we let fallen human nature take the driver’s seat. Look at the history of Israel, God’s chosen people. Look at the Church in various periods of her checkered history. It’s not as if we should be shocked. Greatness is a daily moral and spiritual conquest, and it can fall to pieces in a matter of years, months, even days. These objectors might as well pose their question to Our Lord: “If you are the Son of God, why did one of your Apostles betray you, and the others run away?” It was not the fault of Our Lord; and neither was the (post)conciliar apostasy the fault of the Catholic tradition built up over the ages by the Holy Spirit, sent to the God-loving disciples in the one and only Pentecost of the Church, which lasts until the end of the ages.

Correlations between the Sacraments and the Readings for the Octave of Pentecost

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

If I had a perfect memory, I would be able to remember where, in the vast forest of online postings, someone first pointed out this beautiful correlation. Whoever you are, thank you for sharing it to begin with, and giving me the opportunity to flesh it out here.

In the traditional Latin rite’s Octave of Pentecost — present since at least the late sixth century but tragically excised by a liturgical reform bent on hypersimplification, in spite of a professed love of ancient things — we find a sequence of readings that, by the sweet arrangement of the Holy Ghost, bring to mind each of the seven sacraments of the Church, through which, in this “Age of the Spirit” that stretches from Pentecost until the Parousia, the members of Christ are sanctified. Each year, the “Time after Pentecost” reminds us of the gifts and opportunities of our present condition, suspended, as it were, between creation ex nihilo, when only God’s righteousness reigned, and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home (cf. 2 Pet 3:13).

During the week of Whitsuntide, the Mass readings exalt the sacraments. In fact, multiple sacraments are exalted each day, in an intertwined manner that I will not here be able to expound fully (see Guéranger, Parsch, and Schuster).

In Monday’s Epistle (Acts 10:42–48), the Holy Spirit falls on all who heard Peter, and he commands that they receive baptism. The Gospel (John 3:16–21) is taken from the discourse where Jesus speaks to Nicodemus. the offertory antiphon continues the theme: “The Lord thundered from Heaven, and the Highest gave His voice; and the fountains of waters appeared, alleluia” (Ps 17:14,16).

Tuesday’s Lesson shows Peter and John laying hands on the baptized, strenghtening them in the Holy Ghost: confirmation. “In those days, when the apostles that were in Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John; who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for He was not as yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost” (Acts 8:14–17).

Pentecost Ember Wednesday’s Gospel gives us part of the Bread of Life discourse (John 6:44–52), highlighting the Eucharist: “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is My flesh for the life of the world.”

Thursday’s Gospel (Luke 9:1–6) describes the authority of the priesthood to cast out devils, cure the sick, and to preach the Gospel: “At that time, Jesus calling together the twelve apostles gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.”

In the Gospel of Pentecost Ember Friday, Christ forgives the sins of the man lowered down on a pallet (Luke 5:17–26), a power exercised in Confession. The verse of the Introit highlights the liberation won through the sacrament of penance: “In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be put to confusion: deliver me in Thy justice, and rescue me” (Ps 70:23).

In the Gospel of Pentecost Ember Saturday, Christ is shown healing the sick (Luke 4:38–44), reminding us of the power of extreme unction. “At that time, Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, went into Simon's house: and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought Him for her. And standing over her He commanded the fever, and it left her: and, immediately rising, she ministered to them. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them to Him: but He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them.” The offertory antiphon begins with the words: Domine, Deus salutis meae… O Lord, the God of my health/salvation.

But where is holy matrimony?

We might offer a practical and a speculative reason why marriage is not featured in this series. The practical reason is that there are only six days to work with: Monday through Saturday. The next Sunday is the feast of the Most Holy Trinity and, as it were, the octave day of Pentecost. (It is, however, interesting to note parallels between the Introit and Communion antiphons from Tobias on Trinity Sunday and the Introit from Tobias of the Nuptial Mass.)

The speculative reason is that marriage, uniquely among the sacraments, is already a natural institution existing from the time of creation, which Christ elevated to the dignity of a sacred sign that effects in the spouses what it signifies, namely, the union of Christ and His Church. Unlike matrimony, the other six sacraments, while they had prefigurations in the Old Law, had no proper existence before their institution by the Lord. They are altogether new — like the newness of the atonement that canceled out our debt, like the newness of the resurrection of Christ that abolished death in the new supernatural Head of the human race, the second Adam. The Pentecost octave stresses the newness of the gifts of Christ: His six “ex nihilo” sacraments, through which the grace and charity of the Holy Spirit is poured out into our hearts.

I had almost said: May we never take these sacraments for granted. But the strange Coronatide though which we have passed, and from which we are still suffering, has purged many Catholics of this fault: we do not take for granted what is taken away from us for a time. May that deprivation come to an end, and may our longing for these ineffable mysteries never end until we draw our last breath.

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A little humor, courtesy of Dom Hubert van Zeller

How the Seven Sacraments “Christianize” Us

Rogier van der Weyden's Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (c. 1450)

In this month of July, dedicated to the mystery of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, I wish to reflect on sacramental realism. For indeed the sacraments are as real, as tangible, as powerful, as cleansing, as the very lifeblood of the Savior pouring forth from His body, nailed to the Cross and opened with a lance.

For Aquinas the most basic function of the sacraments is to place man in vital contact with the crucified and risen Lord [1]; they are, in the words of Romanus Cessario, “graced instruments for restoring the image of God” [2] through assimilation to God’s Son, who is the Father’s perfect image and man’s formative exemplar. By virtue of the God-man’s sacrifice, each sacrament has power to originate, deepen, or repair a direct relationship between man and God, a communion of like-minded friends having a shared beatitude for its goal.

Each sacrament configures one to Christ in a specific way, according to a certain grace in the soul of Christ, connected with His deeds and sufferings on earth. This reference to the past may be seen in the sacraments as follows:

• The Eucharist brings us into contact with Christ in the state of bloody immolation, though the mode is unbloody. [3]
• Baptism unites us with Christ dying and rising.
• Confirmation unites us with Christ as descended upon by the Holy Spirit.
• Holy Orders fuses the candidate with Christ offering sacrifice.
• Matrimony conjoins spouses to Christ in the act of uniting to himself mankind and the Church.
• When the sick are anointed, it is Christ strengthening those who are struggling, he is the angel who visits them in their Gethsemane.
• The penitent sinner is made one with Christ efficaciously making satisfaction for us — the sinner is nailed to an invisible Cross where the Savior meets him, and breathes out peace upon him. [4]

In every case, it is Christ Himself, in His sacred humanity, in His eternal divinity, who acts directly upon the recipient; it is He who bestows the healing and elevating effects of grace through the sacramental signs administered by others. “The man who baptizes provides only exterior ministry,” writes Thomas, “but it is Christ who baptizes interiorly, who is able to use all men for whatever He wills” (ST III, q. 67, a. 5, ad 1). In another text the point is made quite forcefully:

It is evident that Christ Himself accomplishes all the Church’s sacraments: He it is who baptizes; He it is who forgives sins; He is the true priest, who offered Himself on the altar of the Cross, and by whose power His own Body is consecrated daily on the altar. And yet, because he was not to remain bodily present to all the faithful, He chose ministers, that through them He might give that same Body to the faithful. (SCG IV, ch. 76)

Thus, in and through the seven sacraments, Christians re-live mystically the life Christ lived when He dwelt among us full of grace and truth, and the risen life He is now living forever: we enter into His earthly ministry, His passion and death, His resurrection and ascension.

The sacraments derive their efficacy from the Word-made-flesh; each has its power and operation immediately from Jesus Christ, whose glorified humanity is the inseparable instrument, the predestined channel, through which the divine Word pours out grace into souls. When a human being, properly disposed, receives one of the seven sacraments, he is at that moment in mystical contact with the Person of the Savior, who pours out as much grace as the soul is ready to receive.

This mystical contact attains an incomparable fullness and immediacy in the Eucharist, which both symbolizes and accomplishes the intimate communion of the Savior with the members of his body. Here the sacramental encounter is no mere contact, but the context for an unreserved, mutual gift of self that can attain a unity and fecundity only distantly hinted at in human marriage.

Thomas’s uncompromising sacramental realism is in many ways astonishing. Without denying that they are social, symbolic celebrations for calling to mind important truths, Aquinas holds the sacraments to be, first and foremost, a real participation in Christ’s own actions, sufferings, and glory, for the sake of receiving into one’s being the effect of those actions, the fruit of those sufferings, the vision of that glory. As Gilles Emery phrases it: “They bear the historical event of the Passion of Jesus, whence they procure the fruit of grace in the present moment, while announcing the fulfillment whose seed they possess.” [5] For example, when asking whether a man is freed from all guilt through baptism, Aquinas responds:

Through baptism one is incorporated into Christ’s passion and death, according to Romans 6:8, “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Christ.” From which it is clear that Christ’s passion is communicated to every baptized person as a remedy, as though he himself had suffered and had died. Now Christ’s passion . . . is sufficient satisfaction for all the sins of all men. And so the one who is baptized is freed from the debt of all the punishment due to him for sins, as though he himself had sufficiently satisfied for his own sins. (ST III, q. 69, a. 2, emphasis added)

In baptism the death and resurrection of Christ becomes ours; it becomes our paschal mystery, the origin of a new life with Him. The effect is the same as if we, become unblemished victims, had hung on the Cross; as if we had suffered and died, though guiltless of all crime; as if we had risen again, forever beyond the reach of death and decay.

So much is this the case, believes Thomas, that it even dissolves the obligation of rendering the marriage debt in a certain case:

Now he who goes over to the religious life dies only a spiritual death, not a bodily death; and so, if the marriage be consummated, the husband cannot go over to religious life without his wife’s consent (whereas he can do so prior to there being a carnal joining, when there is only a spiritual joining).  But the one who undergoes baptism is even corporeally buried with Christ in death; and therefore he is freed from paying the marriage debt even after the marriage has been consummated. (In IV Sent. d. 39, q. 1, a. 4, ad 2)

This “as if” is not the als ob of Kantian philosophy — we must behave as if there is a God; we must view nature as if there is teleology; we must approach the beautiful as if beauty is an objective trait.  It is the mystical “as if” that means: we have really done and suffered these things because we have been joined, even identified, with the One who really did and suffered them. Being true man, Christ could act and undergo as a creature acts and undergoes; being true God, he can, in the power of the Spirit, make his accomplishments ours.  The phrase “as if” merely preserves the reverent distance of participant to source.

This “incorporation,” begun at baptism, is perfected by a man’s being united in the power of the Spirit to the Body of Christ — engrafted into His Mystical Body by way of His glorified Body shared in the Eucharist — that we may no longer live for ourselves, but for Him. The Eucharist is “the consummation of spiritual life, and the end of all the sacraments” (ST III, q. 73, a. 3), containing substantially the common spiritual good of the whole Church. It is “the sacrament of Christ’s passion in so far as a man is perfected in union with the Christ-who-suffered” (ST III, q. 73, a. 3, ad 3). [6]

The sacraments in fact simply Christianize us. Contrary to the heresy of Karl Rahner, no soul is “naturally” or “anonymously” Christian, as if one could be a Christian and not even know it. We need to receive, in faith, the gift of Christ’s life, His grace, His charity. The sacraments find us more or less pagan, more or less self-centered, and they evangelize and convert us to be centered on Christ, to have our center in Him. This means that a sacramental life, so far as the recipient’s experience is concerned, will not consist of satisfying (one might say, flattering) encounters between a well-defined self or subject and a securely-apprehended object. [7] Rather, it will be a mirror, at times bright, at times blurry, in which I am able to glimpse the Face of the One who seeks me out in love, and the unfolding of my life in relation to Him, in union with Him. “Sacraments are proportionate to faith, through which the truth is seen in a mirror and in an enigma” (ST III, q. 80, a. 2, ad 2).

When we come before the Lord at the end of our lives, may He recognize in us the beauty of His own features.

Johannes Hopffe, Distribution of Divine Graces by Means of the Catholic Church and the Sacraments (before 1615)

NOTES

[1] See Joseph J. Sikora, S.J., “Sacraments and Encounter,” in Theological Reflections of a Christian Philosopher (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970), 213–33.

[2] From his essay “Aquinas on Christian Salvation,” in Aquinas on Doctrine: A Critical Introduction, ed. T. Weinandy, D. Keating, and J. Yocum (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 129. See also the same author’s “The Sacramental Mediation of Divine Friendship and Communion,” Faith & Reason 27 (2002): 7–41.

[3] The Eucharist occupies so unique a place and enjoys such a primacy among the seven sacraments of the New Law that even the very term “sacrament” has to be regarded as analogous, with the Eucharist being the very locus of divinization and communion with the Savior, and the other sacraments streaming out from it and leading back to it.

[4] The phrases in quotation marks are taken from André-Charles Gigon, O.P., De Sacramentis in communi (Fribourg: Typographia Canisiana, 1945).

[5] Gilles Emery, O.P., “The Ecclesial Fruit of the Eucharist,” Nova et Vetera [English] 2 (2004): 43–60.

[6] For more on the Eucharist as containing Christus passus, see my article last week: “‘The Application of the Lord’s Passion to Us’: St Thomas on the Blessed Sacrament.”

[7] The experience, as such, may be empty and dry, or overfull and beyond words — like bodily intimacy, like evanescent recollection. But this is not the crux of the matter. The desire to equate faith or love with a subjective “experience” of God, and the consequent tendency to spurn a God who eludes experience, is one of the chief temptations a Christian has to overcome if he is to get beyond “self-cultivationism” into the maturity of spiritual marriage.

Visit www.peterkwasniewski.com for events, articles, sacred music, and classics reprinted by Os Justi Press (e.g., Benson, Scheeben, Parsch, Guardini, Chaignon, Leen).

The Incomparable Perfection and Beauty of (Traditional) Catholic Worship

Not too long ago, I brought back into print an old catechetical textbook, The Life of Worship: Grace, Prayer, Sacraments, and the Sacred Liturgy [original title: Exposition of Christian Doctrine, Part III: Worship], written by an anonymous seminary professor of the Christian Brothers in France in the late nineteenth century, and published in English in the early twentieth.

It is a classic of its genre. Although written in a question-and-answer format, the well-formulated, wide-ranging questions and thorough answers — including frequent references to Scripture, Church Fathers, and scholastic doctors — puts to shame any of the catechetical materials produced in the past half-century, the supposed new springtime of the Church. I would wager to say, on the contrary, that a new springtime will only start blooming if we take up materials like this textbook and humbly put them to good use again, building on the truly substantial accomplishments of our predecessors.

In any case, there is a particular section of this book that I would like to share with NLM’s readers, both for its inherent interest, and because it gives a sense of the confidence and clarity typical of Catholic writers of the past. It could serve as a model for us today, who are at last finding our way out of self-doubt, ecumenical relativism, aesthetic brutalism, and millimeter-thin religious content. The author is speaking about why Catholic worship is “of incomparable perfection and beauty.” May it once again become so! May it remain so where tradition has been retained or recovered; may it spread across the world and reclaim it for Christ, on whom aggiornamental churchmen have turned their backs.

The worship rendered to God outside the true religion, consists for the most part either of puerile ceremonies, gross rites, cruel and obscene practices, as among the pagans of old, and the followers of Brahmanism [Hinduism] and Buddhism of to-day; or of innumerable prescriptions and prohibitions, many of which are totally wanting in religious character, as among the Mahometans [Moslems]. Even within the Christian fold, the sects that took private judgment for their rule of faith have so mutilated dogma that they have ended by impoverishing worship and drying up its sources, to such an extent that nothing in their temples and their ceremonies recalls the infinite greatness and the unspeakable goodness of God.
          In the Catholic Church alone, the worship given is of incomparable perfection and beauty. Now these qualities manifestly indicate the presence of divine revelation in its essential elements, and when they are found in the work proper to the Church, they give testimony also to the assistance of the Holy Ghost.
          The first perfection of Catholic worship is to be at one and the same time a means both of honoring God and of obtaining His grace. In it the glory of God and the salvation of man are inseparable. God wills to place all His glory in saving us, and we shall be saved only by glorifying God. All the practices of worship, prayers, the sacraments, the celebration of Sundays and festivals, correspond to this double end. They are so many acts of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving, and at the same time, so many appeals for God’s mercy, that He may forgive us our sins and grant us the spiritual or temporal favors of which we stand in need in our short and painful journey to our heavenly country.
          Another perfection of Catholic worship is its intimate union with dogma and morals. There is not a ceremony, not a word, not all outward sign, that does not embody the idea of a mystery or a precept of our religion. Thence comes that admirable unity, that harmony of parts, which is the seal of God’s works. To illustrate: prayer supposes the dogmas of the existence of God, of His providence, of grace, and of free will; and at the same time, it implies the command to adore Him, and indeed all the rules of morality. The celebration of feasts lifts our hearts above the perishable things of this life and attaches them to the blessings of life everlasting. Here too faith teaches that we were created by God for a life that will never end, and the moral law forbids us to make the miserable pleasures of this world the last end of our actions. The holy sacrifice of the Mass, the representation and renewal of that of the cross, is founded on the very dogma of redemption and on the law of atonement. The sacrament of baptism is inseparable from the dogma of original sin and from the precept which God imposed on the first man after his fall, of earning his bread by the sweat of his brow. The sacrament of penance supposes a transgression of the moral law, and consequently it implies the dogma of reparation. Indeed, in all the sacraments without exception, in all the sacred rites of Catholic worship, may be found the like intimate relation with both dogma and moral; for there is neither rite nor sacrament that does not remind us of some truth to believe and some duty to fulfill.
          A third perfection of worship is its admirable unity. Every thing in it converges to the one centre, the adorable sacrament of the altar. The Eucharist contains the Very Author of divine grace, who is communicated to us through prayer and the sacraments. Moreover, this sacrament is the end for which all the others exist, it is the very motive of sacred orders, the principal object of all feasts, the most excellent means of fulfilling all our duties to God and of obtaining His graces and blessings.
          It is to honor the holy Eucharist and to give sensible testimony to its adoration and gratitude, that Christian genius has created those magnificent temples, in which architecture, sculpture, and painting have rivaled one another in their efforts to reproduce, in the most brilliant and most touching forms, all that is majestic and ravishing in this august mystery. It is to celebrate the God of the Eucharist that so many masterpieces of poetry and eloquence have been composed, and so many melodies have been written, now joyous, now sad, according as the Church contemplates, on the one hand, the glory and the triumph of her divine Spouse, or, on the other, His sufferings and death. The altars and their ornaments, the vestments and the sacred vessels, the ceremonies of the holy sacrifice with their symbolic signification, the divine office, processions and pilgrimages, the whole liturgical year with its feasts for every day—everything in worship has for its object Jesus Christ reigning in heaven and residing among us; and, through Jesus Christ, the most holy and adorable Trinity. (pp. 809–11)

Link to this book at Amazon.

New English Translation of Msgr. Nicola Bux’s Introduction to the Sacraments

Angelico Press, which has earned a reputation as one of the finest Catholic publishers today for its wide selection of books on traditional Catholic doctrine and worship, has just released two books that will be of great interest to NLM readers: a revised and expanded edition of the (hitherto out of print) classic by Martin Mosebach, The Heresy of Formlessness, and the English translation of a fine “primer” on the sacraments, No Trifling Matter: Taking the Sacraments Seriously Again (Italian original: Con i sacramenti non si scherza) by Msgr. Nicola Bux, a professor of sacramental theology and a close collaborator of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.

English readers looking for a description of the content and endorsements of Bux and Mosebach will find them at the links above. Here, with the permission of the author and publisher, we reproduce the Foreword by Christopher J. Malloy of the University of Dallas, who blogs at theologicalflint.com.

FOREWORD

Dr. Christopher J. Malloy

An Italian priest and liturgical theologian, Msgr. Nicola Bux, has written a book on the sacraments quite popular in Italy, now available in English translation. This remarkable book is chock full of pithy insights, noble exhortations, and keen criticisms. Its unifying theme, the perennial sacramentality of the Church in the context of contemporary obstacles and difficulties, allows its scope to be quite vast and sprawling. No Trifling Matter is not intended as a textbook. Rather, its sundry edifying observations and notes of wisdom make for good reading in small portions. There is much food for thought here. The anonymous translator offers notes with helpful theological clarifications and background insight on Italian culture.

Fr. Bux presents a thoroughly Catholic view, touching on East and West, the spiritual and the physical, the Ancient and the New, the natural and the supernatural, sin and grace, predestination and free will, Church and world. Among the dominant sub-themes is the sacred and the profane. “Sacred” means holy, dedicated to God. “Profane” has several meanings. It first signifies what lies “before” or “outside” the temple. It also signifies what is natural, not yet consecrated. Finally, it can signify what is crass, tasteless, or even opposed to God. As Bux reminds the reader, what is earthly and ordinary, but not crass, is called to be taken up and ordered to God. The Church is called to consecrate the world to God.

This beautiful vision has been effaced from the Catholic imagination in the wake of an errant theology that obscures the distinction between sacred and profane. Under a semblance of mysticism, some (e.g., Karl Rahner, Vorgrimler, Martos) claim in various ways that the world is already sacred from the beginning. They mock a caricature of the Tradition, as though the Tradition denied that any grace exists outside of church buildings. The Tradition, including official Church doctrine, never made such a ridiculous claim. The Church teaches (a) that there are graces outside of her visible boundaries and action, (b) that such grace objectively leads back to the Catholic Church, (c) that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, and (d) that only those who are invincibly ignorant of this truth are not condemned for not entering the Church (while even these are deprived of many helps). In short, the Tradition has by no means a simpleton’s position.

Having dismissed the Tradition, the revolutionaries substitute errors in its stead. Claiming that grace is already in the world, they hold that the sacraments only express this fact with correct words and gestures. Understandably, some faithful Catholics too quickly critique this notion as reducing sacraments to merely indicative “signs.” The revolutionaries have a ready response: They claim that the grace in the world “inclines” to become sacramental, “inclines” to express itself. In this way, they assert, the sacraments contain grace. They call the sacraments, thus understood, “Real Symbols.”

In fact, the Real Symbol notion falls short of Catholic dogma. The revolutionaries are more straightforward when they describe their notion as a “Copernican revolution” in sacramental thinking. As they say, the Tradition (dogma) holds that sacraments are causes of grace, that sacraments convey grace otherwise not present. They reject this teaching. For them, the grace is already there but is in the sacramental act given the correct linguistic and gestural expression. Further, the revolutionaries have lost the sense of the supernatural and of sin and the need for repentance and sacramental grace to escape eternal damnation. If not many people are unfortunate enough to read this ruinous line of thought, many suffer in parishes because of its influence.

For those looking for a thoughtful antidote, Bux’s book is a fine option. Bux recognizes the importance and necessity of catechesis, but he urges us to appreciate the noble work of the sacraments and not to let explanations dominate rationalistically. With the assistance of words, we should live and contemplate the signs, which point to and convey what is higher and deeper. To appreciate signs, Bux reminds us, is a basic human task. All of being is significant.

Hand-in-hand with the loss of the sacred goes loss of the sense of God, as Bux notes with Ratzinger. Many current celebrations of Mass fail to draw the mind to God. They fail to encourage us to lay aside earthly cares and attend to the heavenly banquet. His transcendent aim obscured, man becomes the center of attention. Although Vatican II did not ask for it, the tabernacle is often banished to the outskirts, making the Blessed Sacrament “homeless.” The liturgy then becomes a field of human entertainment, not entry into the divine work.

In addition to this macroscopic view of things, Bux also hones in on particular, pressing issues. He points out, for instance, that Vatican II did not cast Latin into a dungeon. Sadly, Latin languishes despite having many reasons to be retained. In a globalized world, Latin offers an unexpected promise of unity not yoked to any current political regime. More importantly, Latin is a spiritual treasure of the Church, part of the living Tradition of handing on the faith. A simple return to Latin is not enough, however. Even the Latin of the Ordinary Form of the Mass, Bux notes, mutes expression of such elements of the faith as the existence of the devil, the darkness of sin, etc. The Ordinary Form of baptism retains no exorcisms, only prayers of liberation. This privation is a mark of discontinuity.

Bux also recalls the centrality of sacrifice in the Mass. Although also a banquet at the table of nourishment, the Mass is firstly a sacrifice of the altar, a sacrifice of right worship to God effective as propitiation for sins. We need to retain both aspects. Attention to the Real Presence also makes clear that the Mass is a divine work. The Eucharistic presence of Christ does not evolve gradually through the work of human hands but is achieved instantaneously by the power of Christ in heaven, working through the hierarchical priest on earth. How appropriate to ring the bells at this solemn moment!

In order to be fit to receive the Eucharist, one must be in the state of grace. Among today’s great errors is flight from the Gospel’s exhortation, echoed at the Council, to become holy. Not everyone may receive the Eucharist, for not everyone is in the state of grace. Many people today have left a marriage and attempted to become “remarried,” without having received an official judgment from the Church that the first marriage was from its inception null. Those who have done this and are engaged in sexual relations are in a state of sin and may not receive the Eucharist. They must repent, which requires firm purpose of amendment, and receive absolution in Confession. Only false mercy would attempt to override or reinterpret these life-giving elements of divine law.

Today’s loss of the sense of sin goes hand-in-hand with the false notion that the world is already holy. Common sense tells us this notion is false. If it is holy, why are so many so spiritually sad, so misled, so confused, so distraught? Missionaries, who don’t just think about loving others but do something about it, first exorcise new territories and then they lay their foundations. Similarly, church buildings are solemnly consecrated, set aside solely for divine use. The profane is not the sacred, although what had been profane can be consecrated and brought into the sacred. Alas, Bux cries, nowadays churches are treated as venues for mundane, even shameful events. How can the mind’s eye rise to God when the house of the holy is just another theater?

Perhaps most timely is Bux’s chapter on marriage. He nicely treats the differing theologies of the minister of marriage in East and West. He stresses the centrality of fecundity and the complementarity of male and female in the sacrament. As Bux relates, the homosexual ideology of its essence violates sexual difference, all the while pleading in legal contexts recognition of “difference.” The argument is disingenuous because it (a) abolishes truth by demanding acceptance of error and (b) abolishes the loveliest of differences, male and female. Although respect is due to everyone as persons, human “rights” require reference to human nature and hence to God’s law.

Not least, Bux reflects on the sacramentals. His narration of the organic development that led to building and consecrating churches is splendid. We are once again reminded of the sacred and the profane, of the natural and the supernatural. In reading, I was reminded of T.S. Eliot’s line, “You are here to kneel, where prayer has been valid.” Use of the sacred space for profane events, even if these be tolerable in themselves, is a “very serious phenomenon,” even a “desolation.” Similarly, the cavalier way priests carry on at Mass, with gym shoes and jokes, high fives, calling for applause, etc., represents “not a sacred order, but a profane and secularized disorder.”

This book would make a fine gift for a priest who has an open mind to a call to return to the beauty and truth of Tradition. It might be seen as a bridge, inviting one to contemplate the disorders of today’s liturgical experiences as reason to reconsider the timeless wisdom of the Church. Practicing lay Catholics without theological training will also enjoy it. May it be widely read!

The Angelico page for this book is here; the Amazon.com page is here.

Holy Matrimony, Sanctified Bodies, and Sacramental Grace

In our times we have seen the important work of Pope John Paul II on the “theology of the body” misunderstood and applied in a superficial and, at times, morally problematic way. One example is a claim I once heard, namely, that the very bodies of spouses are causes of grace, such that when they come together in the marital act, and assuming no moral impediment such as contraception, an increase of sanctifying grace is bestowed on each or both spouses. This claim, as it stands, is false—although something like it is true.

The only signs that effect or bring about the sanctifying grace they signify are the seven Sacraments of the New Law. In this sense, it is impossible that the spouse’s bodies, as such, should be causes of grace in a proper sense, such that when the cause (bodily action) is posited, the effect (increase of grace) follows. Rather, the bodily mutual self-giving, open to new life, is the outward sign of the Sacrament of Matrimony itself, which, present and operative in a mysterious way in the souls of the spouses, is the cause of an increase in sanctifying grace. Put more simply, the efficacious sign is not the bodily action but the sacramental union and state, which is represented and furthered by the bodily action.

On the other hand, any bodily act done out of charity is a cause of grace in the sense of being a moral cause of meriting an increase of such grace. In this way, the nuptial act is like an act of almsgiving, or clothing the poor, or instructing the ignorant—all of these are acts of a will animated by charity, performed with the help of the body and meriting an increase of grace.

We find many profound and inspiring passages in the writings of Pope John Paul II on these matters, such as the following, from the encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae:

Within this same [contemporary] cultural climate, the body is no longer perceived as a properly personal reality, a sign and place of relations with others, with God and with the world. It is reduced to pure materiality: it is simply a complex of organs, functions and energies to be used according to the sole criteria of pleasure and efficiency. Consequently, sexuality too is depersonalized and exploited: from being the sign, place and language of love, that is, of the gift of self and acceptance of another, in all the other’s richness as a person, it increasingly becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and instincts. Thus the original import of human sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the two meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent in the very nature of the conjugal act, are artificially separated: in this way the marriage union is betrayed and its fruitfulness is subjected to the caprice of the couple. Procreation then becomes the “enemy” to be avoided in sexual activity: if it is welcomed, this is only because it expresses a desire, or indeed the intention, to have a child “at all costs,” and not because it signifies the complete acceptance of the other and therefore an openness to the richness of life which the child represents. (n. 23)

The Pope chooses his words with care: the body is a “sign,” a sign of self-giving, a “place” and a “language,” but in and of itself it does not expressly signify sanctifying grace, nor directly confer it. This is what the Sacrament of Marriage or Matrimony is and does. If the spouse’s body were a cause of grace just by being what it is, namely, a sign of self-giving, it would follow that the body or the nuptial act is an eighth sacrament, a claim certainly contrary to the dogma of the Faith. I know a priest (he was married as an Anglican curate and was later ordained a Catholic priest) who refers to this kind of loose talk as “gamolatry,” that is, a sort of worship of things pertaining to marriage.

In our times, so given to vapid pseudo-mysticism, we do well to remember that Our Lord instituted the seven sacraments as the ordinary means of conferring His supernatural life and charity upon us. It is through the sacraments that we become “sons in the Son” and receive all that we need to grow in our sonship until the day of glory. (I do not engage here in the centuries-old debate over what precisely it means to say that Jesus Himself instituted all and each of the seven sacraments; various more or less convincing hypotheses have been proffered. In any case, Catholics are obliged to believe that which the Council of Trent defined as de fide dogma, namely, that Christ Himself instituted the seven sacraments of the New Law.)

Thus, even that which theologians have taken to calling the “primordial sacrament,” the very humanity of Christ, is effective among us in this world precisely through the seven Sacraments of the Church, and not somehow over and above and apart from them, as if it were an eighth sacrament that could be numbered alongside the other seven. The Church, too, may be called a “sacrament,” but in an analogous sense—for she, too, is built up from the seven sacraments, from which she derives her very existence and activity, as the Second Vatican Council teaches. The Eucharist, especially, is the root and the constant origin of the Church in this world. Without the Eucharistic Body, there would be no Mystical Body. This is why St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the “reality” of the sacrament of the Eucharist is nothing other than the unity, or charity, of the Mystical Body itself (cf. Summa theologiae III, q. 61, a. 2).

How beautiful it is that spouses receive in marriage a new participation in the love of God and the Passion of Christ, as well as a new power to participate in creation and redemption by begetting children and offering them to God in baptism! The quasi-character imprinted in their souls by the marriage vows remains throughout their life as a constant claim before God of all the graces each needs to fulfil the duties of his or her state in life; it is a permanent mark of their mutual surrender to and “ownership” of one another; it is a likeness of the relationship that unites Christ to His Bride, and the Church in turn to her Bridegroom, in an unbreakable union of eternal fecundity.

New Reprints of Three Theological Classics

People who enjoy reading theological books quickly discover, in the vaults of university libraries, at used bookstores, or by lucky links online, a lot of hidden gems out there — books that were first published 50, 75, 100 years ago or even more, which have long since fallen out of print and yet very much deserve to be back in print for new readers. This seems all the more true now that there is a real appetite among conservative and traditional-leaning Catholics for substantial, reliable, and profound writing after decades of featherweight pablum and heavyweight heresy. Moreover, a lot of people still prefer, if they can get it, a real printed book to a clunky PDF or a messy etext. Finally, in spite of the ongoing digitization of texts, a vast number of books are still unavailable from any source, whether a used bookseller or an online database.

For all these reasons, I am happy to announce that I have just republished three extremely interesting theological books, all of which have helped me a great deal in my own studies. For each, I shall offer photos and a brief summary.

The Life of Worship: Grace, Prayer, Sacraments, and the Sacred Liturgy. By a Seminary Professor. Originally published in French in 1895; this English version from 1920. xvi + 814 pp. $29.95. Available at Amazon.com or its affiliates.

This book is a fascinating glimpse into what catechetical training was once like before the meltdown of modernism and the onset of postconciliar dementia. Originally entitled Exposition of Christian Doctrine, Part III: Worship but retitled here The Life of Worship the better to convey its content, this hefty volume is part of a series produced in 19th-century France by anonymous seminary professors for the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The English version was published in Philadelphia in 1920 (this seventh edition is from 1927).

An exemplar of catechetical literature, The Life of Worship, laid out in question and answer format, is amazingly comprehensive in its treatment of grace, prayer, sacraments, sacramentals, liturgy, and liturgical places, objects, vestments, ceremonies, feasts, and devotions. The questions are well considered and logical in order, with answers that are precise, clear, and eloquent, full of scriptural quotations and valuable spiritual considerations.  When I first came across this book last summer, found myself thinking: "I wish someone had handed me this book two decades ago; it would have filled in so many gaps in my religious training!" Most delightful of all (at least to me, a scholastic at heart), every chapter ends with a schematic diagram of the entire content of that chapter, with all the pertinent distinctions and subdivisions. These charts are just brilliant.

The Life of Worship is an excellent book for personal study, homeschool or private school religion class, a parish study group, or a book club.

St. Thomas Aquinas: Papers from the 1924 Summer School of Catholic Studies at Cambridge. Ed. Cuthbert Lattey. xii + 311 pp. $19.95. Available at Amazon.com or its affiliates.

This collection of papers given at a summer school at Cambridge in 1924 includes the following:

• Rt. Rev. H. L. Janssens, "The Study of the Summa theologica"
• Rev. Peter Paul Mackey, "The Autograph of St. Thomas"
• Rev. Richard Downey, "St. Thomas and Aristotle"
• Rev. Francis Aveling, "St. Thomas and Modern Thought"
• Rev. Michael Cronin, "The Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy of St. Thomas"
• Rev. A. B. Sharpe, "The Ascetical and Mystical Teaching of St. Thomas"
• Very Rev. Bede Jarrett, "St. Thomas and the Reunion of Christendom"
• Edward Bullough, "Dante, the Poet of St. Thomas"
• Rt. Rev. G. A. Burton, "The Liturgical Poetry of St. Thomas"
• (plus several appendices and indices)

I learned of this book when researching my doctoral dissertation on ecstasy and rapture in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. My pursuit led me to Fr. Sharpe's contribution to this volume, which I recommend as one of the finest summaries of the saint's ascetical-mystical doctrine to be found anywhere.

The Incarnation: Papers from the 1925 Summer School of Catholic Studies at Cambridge. Ed. Cuthbert Lattey. xviii + 261 pp. $18.95. Available at Amazon.com or its affiliates.

The year after the papers gathered in the preceding volume, another conference was held, this time on Christology, yielding a collection of exceptionally fine papers from biblical, historical, and scholastic angles on the defining mystery of the Christian Faith: the Incarnation of the Son of God. The contents:

• Rev. Patrick Boylan, "Messianic Expectations in the Old Testament"
• Rev. J. P. Arendzen, "The Preparation of Jewry"
• Rev. C. C. Martindale, "The Preparation of the Gentiles" and "The Gospel of John"
• Rev. Hugh Pope, "The Synoptic Gospels"
• Rev. Christopher Lattey, "Saint Paul"
• Rev. Canon Myers, "The Fathers and Councils"
• Rev. Maurice de la Taille, "The Schoolmen"
• Rev. Thomas Garde, "Our Lady in the Early Church"
• Msgr. Ronald Knox, "Kenotic Theories"
• Rev. Richard Downey, "Rationalist Criticism." 

The writings in this volume are deserving of praise above all for their wonderful readability.  Christology is no easy area to discuss accurately without quickly descending into a morass of linguistic and philosophical issues. These authors, with great mastery of their material, give us a feast of reflections on the Incarnation as it was dimly anticipated by Jews and pagans, as it is unfolded in the Gospels and in the Epistles of Paul, as it was fought over and clarified in the patristic age and in the first seven Councils, as it was refined and systematized by the medieval scholastics, how it relates to the Blessed Virgin, and finally, how it is threatened by certain modern theories. Most of these chapters could serve as ideal introductions to their subjects and would enrich any private study or academic course -- above all Canon Myers on "The Fathers and Councils," who furnishes one of the best and most succinct accounts of the Christological controversies I have yet found.

St. Thomas’ Earliest Treatment of the Sacraments Now in Print — and a 50% Sale on Other Volumes

As we have covered in the past (e.g., here and here), The Aquinas Institute has undertaken the project of publishing a Latin/English Opera Omnia of the Angelic Doctor in approximately 60 hardcover volumes. The progress has been impressive so far: the Summa Theologiae; the Pauline Commentaries; the Matthew and John Commentaries; the Job Commentary. All of these books, due to their high-quality texts and bindings and their comparatively low cost, have now become standard go-to editions for teachers, students, theologians, philosophers, and general readers.

After years of work under an NEH grant, The Aquinas Institute is happy to announce that the edition of Book IV of St. Thomas's early masterpiece, the Scriptum super Sententiarum or Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, is starting to be available in print, with volume 1, distinctions 1-13, just released. If you order this book directly from The Aquinas Institute, you can get it at a 50% discount (more on that below).

This past July I had the privilege of teaching the Albertus Magnus Summer Program in Norcia, devoted to the subjects of sacraments in general, baptism, and the Eucharist, using a preliminary copy of this volume. It was a great experience getting into the youthful Aquinas's wrestling with major questions of his day (and of ours, such as his treatment of whether and when sinners, and what kind of sinners, should be admitted to holy communion!). Once again, as with my own collection of parts of the Scriptum on love and charity, I found that reading the Scriptum on sacraments significantly enriched and enhanced my understanding not only of Aquinas's process of thinking and maturation, but, more importantly, of the sacred realities themselves, which are the end of all theology. It was a true intellectual banquet, and one that I highly recommend to readers with a serious interest in scholastic theology. (Earlier at NLM, I published a portion of text from this volume: St. Thomas's "division" of the Mass into its parts.)

Also worth of note is that the Latin edition of the Scriptum that is printed in this volume (and that will be used for all the volumes of the Scriptum) is derived from the classic Mandonnet-Moos volumes and corrected against the not-yet-released critical edition of the Leonine Commission, with whom the Aquinas Institute is collaborating. That feature makes these volumes the best Latin editions as well as the only English editions.

Please note, as well, that there is a 50% sale on all Aquinas Institute books during October only:

• Summa theologiae (8 hardcover vols.): normally $360, on sale for $180
• Commentaries on Paul (5 hardcover vols.): normally $225, on sale for $112.50
• Commentaries on Matthew and John (4 hardcover vols.): normally $180, on sale for $90
• Commentary on Job (1 hardcover): normally $45, on sale for $22.50
• Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences (4 hardcovers--the first in print, the others to follow over the coming year): each volume normally $45, on sale for $22.50

To take advantage of the sale, visit The Aquinas Institute website.

The Aquinas Institute is well under way with Books II and III, with a new NEH grant. Other works will appear from time and time. Their publication will be duly noted here and at Thomistica.net.

Here are some photos of the new volume of the Opera Omnia.

Norcia Summer Theology Program: Syllabus & Last Call for Applications

The 2017 Norcia Summer Theology Program of the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies, "Divine Power in a Hidden Way," will be starting up in a month's time: July 2-14.

We still have room for last-minute applications, so if you've been tottering on the edge about coming, now's the time to make the final decision. A full description of the program and practical details may be found at the above link.

We now have the syllabus for the seminars and would like to share the topics with NLM readers. Each seminar will be based on a reading from St. Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences IV.

1. Monday, July 3: Introduction to program, author, book, and themes
2. Monday, July 3: Definition of sacrament; whether sacraments were necessary after the fall; whether sacraments consist of words and things
3. Tuesday, July 4: Whether sacraments of the New Law are a cause of grace; whether sacraments of the Old Law confer grace
4. Tuesday, July 4: Whether sacraments are remedies for evils; why there are seven; how these ought to be ordered; why the sacraments were instituted at a certain time 
5. Wednesday, July 5: Definition of baptism; the formula of baptism; why water must be used
6. Wednesday, July 5: The sacramental character; the effects of baptism; the three kinds of baptism
7. Thursday, July 6: The Eucharist as a sacrament; its unity, names, figures, and institution
8. Thursday, July 6: The words of consecration of the host and the chalice
9. Friday, July 7: Understanding the Mass: St. Thomas’s commentary on the Roman rite
10. Friday, July 7: The reception of the Eucharist
11. Monday, July 10: The Real Presence
12. Monday, July 10: Transubstantiation
13. Tuesday, July 11: The matter of the Eucharist
14. Tuesday, July 11: The effects of the Eucharist, and how frequently it is to be received
15. Wednesday, July 12: The minister of the Eucharist

As one who has worked closely on these texts, I can assure you that they make for incredibly interesting and enlightening reading.

During the program, there will also be formal lectures by

• Fr. Martin Bernhard, OSB
• Fr. Thomas Crean, OP
• Gregory DiPippo
• Fr. Cassian Folsom, OSB
• Dr. Peter Kwasniewski
• Fr. Benedict Nivakoff, OSB, Prior
• Christopher Owens

The monks of Norcia look forward to welcoming all participants in the Summer Theology Program, especially as they open their new chapel to the public (which will be inaugurated this Pentecost Sunday). The best part of the program, in my opinion, is studying the rich readings of Aquinas in the context of attending the daily usus antiquior Masses and the chanted Divine Office. It is the sort of combination that ought to be the norm in Catholic life but is so rarely met with.

No More Christian Bar Mitzvah!

The Proper Order of Baptism, Confirmation and Communion Restored in Manchester, New Hampshire

A friend recently alerted me to a diocesan newsletter sent out by His Excellency Peter Libasci, Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire, in which he explains how he is initiating a three-year plan to reintroduce the historical order of the Rites of Initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and Communion. While this isn’t the only step necessary to a revival of the Faith, it is a hugely important one, in my opinion, one that helps to create the foundation for long term and beneficial impact on the formation of the faithful in his diocese. It is consistent with the way that the Catechism describes them. 

These three sacraments form a natural unity and each makes sense in relation to the other two which is consistent with the goal of Christian life, eternal salvation; in the traditional order, this becomes clearer and more understandable. In simple terms, and as best as I can understand it, Baptism is the dying of the old self, united to Christ on the cross; Confirmation is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the person as experienced by the Apostles at Pentecost; and the Eucharist imparts the resurrection of the new person united to the resurrection of Christ and the partaking of the divine nature.

Regarding the improvement of ongoing formation that might result from this, Bishop Libasci gives the example of the potential for the revitalization of youth ministry. One other occurs to me; to my knowledge there is no commonly accepted articulation of the basis of a schema for the art in churches of the Roman Rite. It seems to me that the visible communication of the truths of this triple sacrament should be a guiding principle for the art that is permanently in our churches. The very architecture of the church should be ordered to reveal these mysteries week on week, day on day, whenever anyone goes into the church building. Even if this were present in a church, if the order in which the sacraments are given to people is wrong, then the message conveyed by the visible aspects of the interior is at odds with what is actually happening. Confusion results.

Furthermore, in the ideal, it seems to me that the whole congregation should be engaged with the celebration of each of the rites of initiation, so that the idea that someone is coming into their community within the Body of Christ may be clearer to all. The fundamental truths of the Faith are imparted for everyone present through the harmony of art, architecture and liturgical action - not just the select few present on a quiet Saturday morning.

The Old and New testaments types that point to the Sacrament can be portrayed in pictorial arrangements that enable the congregation to engage with them at the appropriate time. For example, in a baptistery, there may be images of the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites, the crossing of the Jordan led by Joshua, scenes of the Flood and Noah’s ark, as well as the Baptism of Christ; there are many other possibilities, of course.

This is how a participation in the liturgy might more powerfully evangelize and catechize, both prior to the rites of intitiation, and as a mystagogical catechesis to all on an ongoing basis.

My education in this comes through the books The Bible and the Liturgy and Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity, in addition to the Catechism, (and now Bishop Libasci). I became aware of these books and this theme through Fr Sebastian Carnazzo's scripture and liturgy classes in Pontifex University's Masters in Sacred Arts.

Understanding of what is happening is not necessary in order for these Sacraments to be valid and effective. So, Confirmation is not a graduation ceremony that marks the completion of confirmation classes or a rite of passage for teenagers. In fact, this full three-fold initiation into the Church should be done as early as possible in life, as it opens up the person to grace and a spiritual maturity that is more likely to deepen and maintain his faith into adulthood, and keep people in churches after adolescence. The Catechism quotes St Thomas in this regard, explaining why people do not need to be aware of what they are going through in order to benefit from this triple sacrament. Salvation is as open to infants, the mentally handicapped and the uneducated as it is to the intelligent and educated:

Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood, man can attain spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: “For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years.” Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood.

Paradoxically, the ability to understand what they have been through and its importance in their lives at any subsequent point will be enhanced by this in those who receive it early and in the right order, as will the desire to do so.

Icon of the Baptism in the Jordan with the personifications of the Jordan and the Red Sea being driven back (cf Ps. 113)

Below is an image of Noah’s ark from the 12th-century Winchester Psalter.