A Bang Out Links Post

of some great things that are appearing recently on this world wide interweb thingy:

First, a GEM! from Bishop Serratelli, of Paterson, NJ, on the connection between the priesthood and the Mass:

Therefore, every priest has the obligation to celebrate the Liturgy in such a way that he provides a witness of faith to the sacredness of the gift given to the Church by her Lord. He is to be faithful to the Church’s norms for the Liturgy so as to be at the service of communion, not only for the community directly taking part in the celebration, but also for the whole Church. The Mystery of the Eucharist “is too great for anyone to permit himself to treat it according to his own whim, so that its sacredness and its universal ordering would be obscured” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 52).
A swing of the thurible to Fr. Z. for the heads up on this one.


Second and third are two parts of the same article by Fr. Mike, OP, part of the Catherine of Siena Institute in Colorado. The first is on the role of the laity in the Church and the second on the role of the clergy. In the first article, he makes the follow point when discussing the Fishers of Men DVD, and this drives the rest of the very well written article:

It's a well-made video, with a stirring soundtrack, good production values, and wonderful comments from priests young and old who have joyfully embraced their vocation. It depicts priests being ordained, seminarians in the classroom and the chapel, priests engaged in pastoral counseling and presiding over celebrations of the sacraments, particularly the eucharist. But there's a crucial aspect of priesthood that's missing, and not only is it missing in the vocations video, it's missing from the ministerial lives of many, many priests.

Go read his thoughts to discover what's missing.


Fourth, a note by this very author is published in this week's Catholic Telegraph, and can now be found at the Cincinnati Seminarian Blog:

As the weather turns colder, and snow seems a not too distant possibility, most thoughts turn to the upcoming holiday season and wrapping up the calendar year with the great celebration of Christmas. But even before we reach Christmas, the season begins with the Thanksgiving Holiday, and these two feasts, one secular in origin, the other religious, form a sort of bracket to gear our year end celebrations; and I see some clear connections to the priesthood, as well.


Finally, this post from Rich Leonardi is up to 35! comments (jealous, am I!). I think I am in agreement with Archbishop Chaput on this one.