The Priestly Vocation

25

Wisdom iv. i, 2.

26

Fifth Treatise, chapter vi.

27

It is not intended to deny that there are cases in which a religious has to use initiative or judgment when under orders: but it can hardly be questioned that the other is the ordinary course of things; and that while a secular priest has to use his judgment and initiative far more, he has proportionately less guidance in the way of command. He has to depend on his own judgment; yet all the time his decisions must be actuated by submission and obedience.

28

St. Matt. xii. 34.

29

The Young Priest, p. 116.

30

Cardinal Vaughan, The Young Priest, p. 119.

31

Lex Levitarum, p. 67.

32

Canon 125.

33

Canon 805.

34

"Sacerdos ne omittat ad Eucharistici Sacrificii oblationem sese piis precibus disponere, eoque expleto, gratias Deo pro tanto beneficio agere" (Canon 810).

35

The alternative answer, often given, that the priest can make his preparation and thanksgiving in his own room can hardly be taken seriously. It is possible that there are some few priests who do this; but the ordinary rule is that if the preparation and thanksgiving are not made in the church, they are either not made at all, or at least curtailed to very small dimensions.

36

Preparation for Death, Father Coffin's Edition, p. xv.

37

The Priest, etc., p. 26.

38

Preparation for Death, Father Coffin's Translation, p. xv.

39

An excellent explanation of the Jesuit and the Sulpician systems can be found in Father Faber's Growth in Holiness, chapter xv.

40

Growth, etc., p. 270.

41

Preparation for Death, Father Coffin's Translation, p. xvi.

42

Thus, for example, the Confiteor in Prime and Compline were given in the form used in choir, with no reference to how it was to be said in private recitation. This has now been supplied. And so on in other instances. Even now the choir rubrics are often given without comment—as, for example, that which prescribes the Preces at Prime to be said in Lent, "flexis genibus," which of course does not refer to private recitation.

43

Canon 969: "Nemo ex saecularibus ordinetur qui judicio proprii Episcopi non sit necessarius vel utilis ecclesiis dioecesis." Canon 128: "Quoties et quamdiu id judicio proprii Ordinarii exigat Ecclesiae necessitas, et nisi legitimum impedimentum excuset, suscipiendum est clericis ac fideliter implendum munus quod ipsis fuerit ab Episcopo commissum."

44

See also remarks on the Pastoral Office as a source of sanctification in Conference II.

45

St. John xv. 14.

46

The modern practice of giving secular names is, it need hardly be pointed out, of Protestant origin. It is to be noted that in the new Codex of Canon Law it is definitely enacted that one name at least must be that of a saint (Canon 761).

47

The Priest on the Mission, p. 87.

48

In the case of "mixed marriages" some restrictions are necessary; and it is one of the sad drawbacks of our state in England that practically a large proportion of our marriages are "mixed."

49

St. Luke v. 32.

50

St. John x. 16.

51

The Priest, etc., p. 243.

52

Gal. vi. 7.

53

That is, not as a rule. In the days of the so-called "shilling opera" at Warwick Street, some of the Italian type of masses were in vogue.

54

As an extreme example of the opposite spirit and the decay of liturgical sense may be quoted that of a church a few years ago on Palm Sunday, which fell that year on March 16, the only music being at the distribution of the Palms, when the people sang the hymn "Glorious St. Patrick." On another occasion at quite a large church, one Maundy Thursday, falling that year a few days after March 19, and within the supposed Octave of St. Joseph, when we came hoping to find Tenebræ, instead there were popular devotions before the statue of St. Joseph, which in consequence of Passiontide, was covered with a purple veil, but had lights burning before it.

55

About half a century earlier a system of English psalm-singing was introduced by some of the gentry in their chapels. Owing to the nature of its origin—for it was at a time when the laity were in opposition to their Bishops and adopted the name "Cisalpines"—these English psalms did not at that time receive Episcopal sanction; but they were not forbidden, and were in use in some chapels down to comparatively modern times. In the home of Cardinal Vaughan at Courtfield, in Herefordshire, they were in regular use. In his youth he learnt to love them, and when Bishop of Salford he introduced something similar in his Cathedral, with considerable success; and the experiment was copied elsewhere. When he came to London as Archbishop, he tried to introduce them there; but they were not taken up, and are now rarely heard anywhere. Nevertheless, the "Come let us adore"—an adaptation of the Venite exultemus—found its way into the Manual of Prayers and has thus secured a permanent place among our devotional exercises.

56

The practice in some few churches of having votive Vespers of our Lady every Sunday has little to recommend it. They are in truth private devotions, and ought to be sung as such, without any liturgical accessories. If there is, as often, a celebrant in cope, either he will be vested in a colour incongruous to the season—as, for example, a white cope in Lent or Advent, or even on a green Sunday—or, what is worse, he will be celebrating the office of our Lady in green, red or purple, which is still more incongruous. Moreover, since the reform of the Calendar under Pius X, the proper liturgical psalms at Vespers are nearly always the same, which removes the difficulty which used to drive people to votive Vespers of our Lady, in days when the liturgical Vespers were so various and complicated.

57

So the Motu Proprio of Pius X provides. In the case of children's masses the singing of English hymns seems to be sanctioned by custom.

58

P. 403. (Ed. Duffy. 1903.)

59

"Ad hanc devotionem magis magisque fovendam, vehementer optandum est ut Ecclesiae aditus vel continuo diu, vel si ruri sit, per aliquot horarum spatium fidelibus pateat; et doceantur omnes amantissimum Salvatorem in Ss. Eucharistia latentem invisere, adorare, ac fervidis precibus supplicare, animamque simul communione spirituali refocillare" (I Westmonast. xviii. 9).

60

"Ecclesiae in quibus Sanctissima Eucharistia asservatur, praesertim paroechiales, quotidie per aliquot saltem horas fidelibus pateant" (Canon 1266).

61

St. Matt. x. 19.

62

Acts iv. 20.

63

That is, an ordinary parish sermon. In the case of a sermon on some special occasion this remark must be modified. Such sermons partake of the nature of a pronouncement, and it is important that the language should be carefully weighed, and no point of importance omitted. They usually find their way into print, and are therefore addressed to a larger and different audience besides that in the church, and must be treated on a different footing.

64

Eternal Priesthood, p. 187.

65

Ibid., p. 179.

66

Perhaps a remark may be here made respecting the eventuality which from time to time occurs to every preacher. All those who have been in the pulpit are familiar with the sudden feeling of blank coming over the mind, and the momentary complete forgetfulness of the scheme of the sermon. The great thing on such an occasion is not to stop. Once one stops to think, ideas go further away, the silence and expectancy of the congregation become oppressive, and the pause seems interminable: it is a question whether we shall ever recover ourselves at all. Whatever happens, one must not stop. One can repeat what one has just said in slightly different words, or give forth any religious sentiment, or the like: this gives time for thought and conditions favourable for thinking, and ordinarily one's ideas will return in plenty of time. And only those who have themselves had experience in preaching are likely to detect what is happening. One can occasionally notice even the most experienced preachers losing their thread in this way, and it is worth noting as an antidote to discouragement.

67

A similar remark applies to the notices, and the Epistle and Gospel, which are sometimes read with quite painful carelessness. This is a point which many laymen feel very much.

68

St. Matt. x. 20.

69

Eternal Priesthood, p. 76.

70

The Priest on the Mission, p. 209.

71

Sequel to Catholic Emancipation, i., p. 140.

72

The words within brackets were added at the Synod of 1872, at which Archbishop Manning presided.

The following is the original text:—

"Abstineant sacerdotes a spectaculis viro ecclesiastico indignis, a venatione clamorosa quae equo et canibus fit, a publicis choreis, ab illicitis ludis, et a cornessationibus quae usque ad intempestam noctem protrabuntur. Prohibemus districte ne ecclesiastici saeris Ordinibus initiati, scenis spectaculis in publicis theatris vel in locis theatri publici usui ad tempus inservientibus intersint, imponentes transgressoribus poenam suspensionis ipso facto incurrendam, hactenus ubique in Anglia vigentem, cum reservatione respectivo Ordinario" (Westmonast. i. xxiv. 2; iv. x. 9).

The corresponding law in the new Codex is:—

"Spectaculis, choreis et pompis quae eos dedecent vel quibus clericos interesse scandalo sit, praesertim in publicis theatris, ne intersint" (Canon 140).

73

Acta Apostolicae Sedis, May, 1916, p. 147, and January, 1918, p. 17.

74

Life, p. 112.

75

The first rule prohibiting the theatre to priests was made at the Synod of Winchester and Old Hall in 1803, which was indeed the first occasion on which the four Vicars Apostolic were able to hold a meeting to consider such matters at all. The penalty enacted was then as now, suspension ipso facto, reserved to the Bishop.

76

Devout Life, chapter xxxiii.

77

1 Cor. x. 23.

78

"Singuli sacerdotes teneantur, quoque saltem biennio, exercitia spiritualia quae Episcopus providebit, adire " (I. Westmonast, xxiv. 7).

79

"Omnes sacerdotes saeculares debent tertio saltem anno spirituajibus exercitiis, per tempus a proprio Ordinario determinandum, in pia aliqua religiosave domo, ab eodem designata vacare; neque ab eis quisquam eximatur, nisi in casu particulari, justa de causa, ac de expressa ejusdem Ordinarii licentia" (Canon 126).

80

Ecclus. xviii. 23.

81

The Priest, etc., p. 60.

82

Imitation, I, xxv. 2.