In the Roman rite of the Catholic Church, every priest when they come into the church to celebrate Mass AND when they exit after the final blessing, they go to the altar and kiss it.

Have you ever wondered why?

In the Sacramentary, the big book which contains all the prayers of the Mass (the bits in black), and all the actions during the Mass (the bits in red), it says quite unequivocally ‘the priest kisses the altar’ in both the entrance and the exit parts.
It is definitely a kiss, and not a veneration.
It is definitely a kiss, and not open to interpretation.

Why is this so?

To answer we have to learn from the Bible.

Firstly we need to find out what a throne looks like.

2 Chronicles 9:17-19 which describes how King Solomon constructed his throne:
The king also made a great ivory throne, and plated it with purest gold. The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, with a lion standing beside each armrest. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any kingdom.

The Jerusalem Bible translation most of us are used to, does not translate verse 18 well. But the Hebrew definitely says ‘a footstool of gold’.

Why would a throne have a footstool? We don’t see them in the kingdoms of Western Civilisation, but in the Middle East and in the Orient footstools made it easier for a subject to kiss the feet of the king while the king was sitting on his throne, and in particular easier to kiss the soles of the king’s feet.

Smith’s Bible Dictionary after it talks about kissing between friends, relatives, and in greeting, says this about other uses of kissing:
‘Among the Arabs the women and children kiss the beards of their husbands or fathers. The superior returns the salute by a kiss on the forehead. In Egypt, an inferior kisses the hand of a superior, generally on the back, but sometimes, as a special favor, on the palm also. To testify abject submission, and in asking favors, the feet are often kissed instead of the hand. The written decrees of a sovereign are kissed in token of respect; even the ground is sometimes kissed by Orientals in the fullness of their submission.’

Psalm 71(72):9
May the wild beasts of the desert bow before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.

Isaiah 49:23
Kings will be your foster fathers, their queens your nursing mothers.
They will fall prostrate before you, faces to the ground,
and lick the dust at your feet.
What does God say about His throne?

Isaiah 66:1
Thus says the Lord God: With heaven My throne and earth My footstool, what house could you build Me, what place could you make for My rest?

That is true in general.

But with the building of the Temple and the dedication prayers of King Solomon something more particular emerges.

2 Chronicles 6:18-20
Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens and their heavens cannot contain You! How much less this house that I have built! Listen to the prayer and entreaty of Your servant, Lord my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer Your servant makes to You. Day and night let Your eyes watch over this house, over this place in which You have promised to make a home for Your name. Listen to the prayer that Your servant will offer in this place.

2 Chronicles 6:41-42
Rise Lord God, come to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your power.
Your priests, Lord God, are vested in salvation,
Your faithful rejoice in prosperity.
Lord God, do not turn away from the face of Your anointed;
remember Your favours to David Your servant.

The Temple in Jerusalem begins to be seen as the place of God’s particular footstool, the place where the tribes go up to worship at the courts of the Lord, and to seek His favour and mercy – which doesn’t negate that the whole of the earth is God’s footstool, it is the place out of all the places on earth where earth is closest to heaven.

Psalm 131(132):7
Let us go to where He is waiting,
and worship at His footstool.

Psalm 98(99):5
Let us extol the Lord our God,
and worship at His footstool, ‘Holy is He!’

Lamentations 2:1
O, how the Lord God in His wrath
has brought darkness on the daughter of Zion!
He has flung the glory of Israel from heaven to the ground,
no more remembering His footstool on the day of His wrath.

What set the Temple apart from other places?
The ark of the covenant, and the altar of sacrifice.

In New Covenant terms, in each church we go to join in the heavenly worship through our participation at the altar of God. What goes on at the altar links us directly to what goes on in heaven, and in a real sense is an earthly footstool for God.

Each priest, as he processes to the altar is coming into the presence of Almighty God, the Great King of Kings, and it is appropriate to kiss His feet upon entering and upon leaving the Mass that connects heaven and earth through the Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.
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Concluding Rite of the Mass – the Priest’s blessing

In the liturgy of the Roman rite of the Catholic Church, only the priest can use the words, May the Lord bless you.

If a lay person is conducting a communion service, or the liturgy of the hours, they can only use May the Lord bless us.

Why is this so? The answer is in the Bible.

Numbers 6:22-26:
The Lord God spoke to Moses and said, ‘Say this to Aaron and his sons:
“This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover His face to you and bring you peace.”
This is how they are to call down My name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.”

May the Lord bless you is directly taken from Numbers 6:24

When God gives a directive like this for a priest to use His words, then when that directive is obeyed by the priest, God’s power to bless is released over the people.

We are more used to thinking like this when the priest obeys the directive of Jesus and says,
This is My body; This is My blood.

May the Lord bless us, in contrast, is really only a prayer request.

God desires to bless His people:

Deuteronomy 28:1-2:
But if you obey the voice of the Lord your God faithfully, keeping and observing all those commandments of His that I enjoin on you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All the blessings that follow shall come up and overtake you if you only obey the voice of the Lord your God.
(Then there is a long list of the kinds of blessings to expect.)

When was this blessing expected to take place? At the conclusion of the liturgical rites.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 50:13-21:
When all the sons of Aaron in their glory, with the offerings of the Lord in their hands, stood before the whole assembly of Israel, while he (Simon, high priest, son of Onias) completed the rites at the altars, presenting in due order the offering for the Most High, the Almighty, reaching out his hand to the cup, and pouring a libation of the juice of the grape, pouring it at the foot of the altar, an appeasing fragrance to the Most High, the King of all, then the sons of Aaron would shout and blow their trumpets of beaten metal, making a mighty sound ring out as a reminder before the Most High; and immediately the people all together would fall on their faces to the ground, in adoration of their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High, and with the cantors chanting their hymns of praise sweet was the melody of all these voices, as the people pleaded with the Lord Most High, and prayed in the presence of the Merciful, until the service of the Lord was completed, and the ceremony at an end. Then he would come down and raise his hands over the whole concourse of the sons of Israel, to give them the Lord’s blessing from his lips, being privileged to pronounce His name; and once again the people would bow low to receive the blessing from the Most High.

When pronouncing these words of blessing, May the Lord bless you, the priest isn’t speaking in his own name, but in God’s name.

Sadly some priests are using May the Lord bless us instead of God’s words.

Perhaps that is because they wish to make things feel inclusive and team-like.

Perhaps that is because it feels like they are ‘missing out’.

They will never ever miss out when using God’s directive May the Lord bless you.

Acts 20:35 St Paul speaks to the elders of the church of Ephesus, it is a farewell speech:
‘I did this to show you that this is how we must exert ourselves to support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who Himself said, “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving”.’

Luke 6:38 Jesus says:
‘Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.’

We often think this passage only refers to temporal things. But it applies to blessings too.

Give blessings, and there will be blessings for you, a full measure…. etc.

God cannot be outdone in generosity.

Whenever a priest uses God’s formula for a blessing, May the Lord bless you, God’s grace and blessing flow out to the people, and the more he blesses people using God’s words, the more grace and blessing he will himself receive. God’s word guarantees it.
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Write Non Fiction In November : #WNFIN Day 2

Today is All Souls Day, one of my absolute favourite days of the year because so many souls in purgatory get helped closer to the happy day of their entrance into the fullness of heaven.

Maybe there will be more on that later, but I've had an image in my mind for months and today seems like a good day to share it.

Some months back I attended a weekly ecumenical prayer group. They were all good people and well-seasoned prayer warriors and it was a privilege to get to know them. However the leader and maybe some of the others had a completely different vision for church unity and sometimes only God can fight city hall. The perception (which I fully acknowledge may not have been the reality) was that unity was only possible if you had been judged an insider by your spoken spontaneous prayers and by your bible alone fundamentalist credentials. In other words, a unity based on doctrinal conformity, was their vision for unity.

That's a very different vision to the 'unity in diversity' principle from the Catholic perspective where ecumenical unity is the amazing work of the Holy Spirit and the theologians spend centuries ironing out the details. It is a unity based on relationship, upon love, mutual respect, shared prayer, common service and common witness, and where differences are seen as potential richness to be shared and explored, all the while acknowledging that we are probably going to agree on very little doctrinally.

Jesus used the parable of the mustard seed as an image of His church. It is a tiny seed that grows into a huge shrub. Obviously it is going to have deep roots, a strong trunk, several branches and lots of twigs.

I've been imagining a tree with a much bigger trunk like an oak or cedar, and fewer branches that start quite a long way up the trunk of the tree. The trunk is the Catholic church with a very large high canopy with lots of vertical branches representing dioceses and religious orders. Then there are branches that jut out sideways from the truck: there's a big Orthodox branch, and then there's a Lutheran branch that quickly send out many smaller branches like the Calvinists, the Baptists, the Anglicans and the Methodists and gets prolific with thousands of tiny twigs of denominations and non-denominations.

From the Catholic perspective there's all these twigs that each and every one draws life and growth from the trunk. The New Testament, the Christian canon of Scripture, the doctrine of the Trinity, the Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed, baptism and so much more come from the trunk. When a member of a twig tells a member of the trunk that the trunk is unworthy of unity, it's all one can do to stop rolling around on the floor in uncontrollable laughter – and all because the trunk doesn't look like a twig!

From the twig's perspective, there are lots of other similar twigs nearby, and they are able to develop gentle relationships with each other. But the trunk has been seen as a backdrop only, sinister because it casts shadows and because it doesn't look like a twig and from the view of the twig it looks rather dead, lifeless and uninteresting because the twig cannot see the canopy but only the bark of the trunk.

O that the twigs might wake up and rediscover that they are unable to fulfill all of God's purpose without the trunk, and vice versa. The more they draw from the trunk the stronger they will become, the less they draw from the trunk the greater risk they run of being separated entirely from the trunk by the storms and winds of the enemy.

All the tree lives on the sunshine of God's love and the water of the Holy Spirit and the roots of the mercy and Cross of Jesus.

We have been promised this epic flood of grace by God, bringing levels of fruitfulness never ever seen before. Do you think this is possible if the twigs, branches, trunk and canopy don't work together? Neither do I!

But it is not enough just to pray for unity, especially if you are only in your hearts of hearts praying for twig unity. Unity has to be on the Holy Spirit's terms, not on ours. It has to be supported by seeking relationships with each other, prayer opportunities with each other, ways to serve with each other and ways to witness to the world with each other. Efforts once or twice a year aren't enough.

Unity does not mean sameness. One quick look out the window at the variety of plant, bird and insect life proves that sameness isn't in God's vocabulary, and yet each part fulfils its purpose in its ecosystem and is utterly necessary for that ecosystem to flourish. Unity means a variety of gifts working in harmony for a common purpose.
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So let's get on with it…and if you happen to have a burden on your heart for the cause of church unity make sure you invite (co-opt, conscript, or whatever it takes) a member of the trunk to work with you…and don't drive them away with incessant demands 'to show me where the proof for that is in the bible' and prayers against the evil of religion. Last time I checked, religion was still a virtue, viz "The virtue of religion is the supernatural, infused, moral habit that inclines us to give to God the worship that is due Him as Supreme Being and as Creator and Lord of the universe."

This talk was given by Archbishop Christopher Prowse at Seven Hills, NSW on Saturday 18 February 2017, the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. #ccrgoldenjubilee2017
 
(As usual, this is only the edited gist of the Archbishop's talk. The content of this talk he expressly asked to be distributed far and wide.)

In this talk I want to give you a bishop's perspective on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Catholic Church and on the contributions of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) over the last 50 years.
 
Australians are a practical people. In Rome you mix with all sorts, and you get to know the qualities of various nationalities. You can depend on Germans to have precision, and upon Italians to have a party with drinks and pasta. Us colonials, being practical, bring the drinks and the glasses to drink them from.
 
In this talk I would like to make 6 points with practical application for our lives.
 
The whole Church is charismatic
When the charismatic renewal began 50 years ago, it was a wide spread explosion; a tsunami of the Holy Spirit. The whole Church is charismatic because the whole Church is animated by the Holy Spirit. We are part of the same Church begun under the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and prefigured by Mary - the one overshadowed by the Holy Spirit when she said Yes to God. Mary was the original charismatic.
 
Expand your minds. Much depends upon the hope you have that the Holy Spirit can bring light into our darkened world.
 
St Francis of Assisi and St Benedict all started movements. Their response to God started when they were lay people and developed into a religious vocation. The CCR has been mainly led by lay people, which is something distinctive about this movement. It has been a grass roots 'bottom-up' movement. These last 50 years have seen the start of many lay Catholic movements, and most of them have origins in the charismatic movement.
 
At Vatican II Pope St John XXIII prayed for a new Pentecost, and this prayer has been echoed by subsequent popes. John XXIII was very wise and had a great sense of humour. When asked how many people worked at the Vatican, he replied, 'about half'. In the documents of Vatican II the Holy Spirit is frequently mentioned.
 
We belong to the Latin Rite of the Church, but there are 27 different Rites. The Eastern Rites have a far more developed understanding of the Holy Spirit than we have. The Ukrainian Rite understands the Trinity this way: God the Father is the source of the river; God the Son is the shape and banks of the river; God the Holy Spirit is the water of the river which flows.
 
This flow of the Holy Spirit can be seen in Rublev's icon of the Trinity, based on the story of the three men who came to visit Abraham. In it there is a circular movement. Others express this dynamic flow of the Holy Spirit as a circle of a dance.

Marriage is another way to understand the Trinity, husband, wife, and the love between them. Not too long ago I went out to Temora to share in the 65th wedding anniversary celebrations of a couple – a couple still holding hands! When asked what their secret was, the answer came, 'The secret is not the me, but the we; not the mine, but the ours'.
 
Catch the wave!
 
Kerygma
Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour. That is the initial proclamation of the Gospel, our kerygma.
 
Finger wagging doesn’t make people disciples.
 
People can go through Catholic schools and all the sacraments of initiation and not come out the other side with a relationship with Jesus. A personal encounter with Jesus does not happen automatically on this 'conveyer belt'.
 
First we need to invite people to open their hearts to Jesus; everything else will follow after that crucial first step. Jesus won't come in unless He is asked, so our invitation has to include, 'You have to ask Jesus to come into your life and into your heart'.
 
It is only after people have asked Jesus in that we find that they want to know more about Him. That's why catechism has to come after kerygma. We have to give them a thirst for Jesus before we begin any kind of teaching.
 
A bishop is the kerygmatic and catechetical leader of his diocese.
 
Young people are tribal, they want to feel like they belong. Give them a chance.
 
Example vs Testimony
Hearing testimonies of the action of Jesus in people's lives has helped me a lot over the years.
 
The Catholic instinct knows that there is a difference between witness and testimony. A gothic cathedral gives witness to the faith of the people who built it 24 hours a day 7 days a week. But the cathedral cannot give testimony.
 
You can only give the answer when people ask the question. If people are not asking you the reason for the faith and hope and joy that you have, then you are not living your faith properly.
 
Catholics are not proselytizers, but we are inviters. We don't impose, but we propose. As Pope Francis said in his 5 Oct 2016 General Audience, 'The real mission is never proselytism, but rather attraction to Christ, beginning with strong union with Him in prayer, adoration and concrete works of charity, which is service to Jesus present in the least of our brothers'.
 
We take the scriptures seriously, but not literally in a fundamentalist way. We take Jesus as our model. Look at Him with the woman at the well (John 4). As a Jew He shouldn't have been talking to a Samaritan, let alone talking to a woman on her own especially one coming for water in the hottest part of the day (indicating that she was a social outsider) and asking her for a drink. Notice that He didn't start by saying, 'You should be a Jew and worship at the Temple'. He started in a non-threatening way, with easy conversation and dialogue – waiting for her to be intrigued enough to ask questions.
 
In a similar way with the man born blind (John 9), Jesus is patient. When the man is healed, he doesn't know what Jesus looks like. But when he has become hungry enough to want to know more who this Jesus is, Jesus comes quietly and introduces Himself.
 
There are good Catholic commentaries on the scriptures out there. Go looking for them.
 
Healing and Holiness
These things are not just for canonized Saints, they are universal calls and gifts.
 
Experientially in the charismatic renewal we learn what Vatican II taught, praying for healing and growing in holiness is what normal believers do.
 
Holiness is a gift from God. The closer you come to Jesus, the warmer your hearts are.
 
Here's what normal holiness looks like: In Melbourne there was a taxi driver who belonged to one of the early prayer groups. He would pray before he started work – for safety and for all the passengers of that day, and kept his taxi clean and sweet-smelling. He played gentle, uplifting background music. Around the inside of the taxi were various holy pictures. He took care to be a safe driver and a good listener. If his passenger wanted conversation he would take part. Many times he was asked why he was so happy and contented, or what this or that holy picture was all about – and that was his opening to talk about Jesus with them and sometimes to even pray with them.
 
Open to all
The charismatic renewal has been quite ecumenical and generally quite youthful. There has been a sense that everybody is welcome – especially in the early days.
 
Keep being open. Don't let your prayer groups devolve into places where anyone under age 70 isn't welcome. Be places where I can send our young people after their World Youth Day experiences, places where they can grow and be accepted and not be told verbally or non-verbally that 'we don't do things that way, and don't want to try' and they get the message that they are not wanted.
 
Mary
Mary, our model of the charismatic dimension of the Church is a great gift. The Peter dimension is hierarchical, and we need both. It is the interwoven circle and the triangle. The circle has the charisms and the gifts to share and serve; it has a Marian dimension of gentleness and motherliness. The circle softens the triangle.
 
Your deference to authority is good. Bishop Long asked me after Friday night's big Mass at the cathedral why there wasn't any sounds of the charismatic gifts. I told him, 'that's because you didn't give them the green light to go for it, they were just waiting for your signal of permission'.
 
I know you love the pope, and your bishops and priests. Keep loving them.
 
Don't get discouraged. Catholics think and work in 100 year blocks. It is a huge ship and it takes time to turn. We are not on a speedboat. The last 50 years is just a blink in time to the Church. Be patient as the Church comes to a greater understanding of the charismatic renewal and God's purpose for it.

This question was posed to Catholic bloggers by @theAnchoress and answers are being posted using the hashtag #whyremaincatholic.

Such a worthwhile question deserves an attempt at an answer.

The short answer is that any alternative is completely unthinkable.

I remain a Catholic

Because the Catholic Church today is the same Church begun by Jesus with His Apostles.

Because the Catholic Church has been a continuous witness to the resurrection of Jesus for almost 2000 years.

Because the Catholic Church wrote the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is the 'Church of the living God, which upholds the truth and keeps it safe' 1 Tim 3:15 or as other translations say 'the pillar and bulwark of truth'.

Because the Catholic Church has preserved the faith of the Apostles and the early Church and has never watered down its teaching on abortion, contraception and marriage, unlike other churches.

Because the Catholic Church has been led by a successor of St Peter, the prime minister of Jesus, for its whole history.

Because the Catholic Church deals in reality and not in symbols. Baptism makes a person a child of God. Penance cleanses a person of sin and grants power to overcome sin. Confirmation empowers a person with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to enter into the mission of the Church. Eucharist feeds us with the true body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, to make us one with Him and with each other. Marriage transforms the bond of love between a man and woman into a life-giving icon of the love between Jesus and His Church. Holy Orders transforms a man into a priest. The Anointing of the Sick always heals, body, mind, soul, spirit at a level chosen by God and protects a person in the final conflicts between good and evil as death approaches.

Because the Catholic Church is universal. Anywhere in the world I can walk into a Catholic Church and can participate in the Eucharist. Where ever we find ourselves, we offer the same perfect sacrifice to God that Jesus offered on the Cross.

Because the Catholic Church prays in unity. Across the whole world (apart from those places where regional feast day liturgical prayer takes precedence) members of the Catholic Church are praying the same set of psalms, canticle and intercessions at morning and evening prayer each day. The scriptures read at Mass are the same, too.

Because the Catholic Church is serious about calling Her members to holiness. She is the one surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses, Hebrews 12:1, of Saints from every age, nationality, and walk of life. We know, treasure and celebrate the great witnesses to Jesus in every century, and are encouraged to imitate their virtues. Thecla, Clement, Perpetua, Augustine, Jerome, Gregory, Basil, Benedict, Boniface, Patrick, Francis, Dominic, Catherine, Gertrude, Charles Borromeo, Ignatius, Kateri, Bernadette, Maximillian Kolbe, John XXIII and many thousands more.

Because the Catholic Church is bigger than any one of its worst members. Even if a priest is at enmity with God the sacraments he celebrates are still 100% valid and life giving.

Because the Catholic Church is the wise householder who brings out from Her storeroom things both new and old Matt 13:52. Not only does she share all that the Holy Spirit is teaching her now, but she preserves and shares all that the Holy Spirit has taught her in the past. What a vast treasure house there is of the writings of popes, Saints and Councils, of prayers, songs, meditations and scripture commentaries, of wisdom on how to live the counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, and on how to live family and community life.

Because the Catholic Church gets persecuted, just like Jesus promised She would.

Because the Catholic Church enables its members to worship in the fullness of the truth and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. John 4:24. Safeguarded in truth by the magisterium of the Church and open to the miracles and charisms of the Holy Spirit under the pastoral care of the bishops.

Who wouldn't want to be in, and remain in, the Church that Jesus Christ founded?

That's why I remain a Catholic.