I am a freshman at Boston College High School. As an extra credit assignmnet I had the option of reading your blog and posting a comment. I thought why not just check it out. I read your last and current entry and I loved them. I did not realize how many different events and places you have to go to. The things that you do for all those people are great. I now think I am going to read yoiur blog reagularly, not just for extra credit. God Bless.

I am a Senior at Boston College High School, a Jesuit school in the city of Boston. I find it very heartwarming that you have taken the time to reach out to children and the immigrant population. Also, congratulations on your success with the newly opened Trinity Academy.
I hope that the Church and especially you will continue to be a positive influence on the youth and help them develop into moral adolescents. I was very interested by the fact that the children were able to sing The Prayer of St. Francis in both English and Spanish. It is very important that kids and adults value and respect diversity because everyone is different.

God bless!

I read your blog about your time with the other Lung of the church which led me to post this message.

The Lord is smiling, I am sure, when He observes your inclusivness…..all men are to be included when it comes to Love….mankind spends so much time looking for differences that we miss what makes us the same….that God created and loves us all and wants all people with Him in Heaven….no one excluded.

As a child I was not taught about God….but I knew Him in my heart…. He was the One who was there to take away fear and protect me from what would harm me. Then by chance I was introduced to the Salvation Army and they were so generous and loving to us that I was sure God was in their midst. Then we went to the Luthern Church where we were baptised and confirmed. I was in touble and a Priest helped me and at the age of 19 I took instructions and became a Latin Rite Catholic. I loved the journey because I knew He was with me….everywhere I went ….in the goodtimes and the bad…and there were very bad times in my life. I grew in knowledge of my faith and I was a great defender of the Church.

But one day….God touched my heart and I knew it was all about “LOVE”. A a very wise Capuchin I knew said, “If what you hear does not nuture “unity” run from it….and I do. I am a secular franciscan now almost 20 years…and have learned much from my experiences in the Order.

My husband returned to his roots and went back to the Byzantine Rite….it was enlightening but also very “right” if God being the center of worship…is what it should be.

But the point of my comments is that in all of these parts of my life there is a “Constant” that God loves all people and there is no “one” way to love Him back…just love Him.

So again, why do we spend so much time looking for differences when we all just need to love each other and God. Like Francis…..sometimes the “simple things” are the hardest to comprehend and yet, the ones that contain the most enlightenment.

Pax et Bonum,
God grant you many years,

Christos vos Kress
JMJ+

krmsfo

I would just like to ask a follow-up question to Susan Peterson’s question. The reason is that I have some friends who became Orthodox because they were unable to find a Catholic liturgy in their city that seemed, as Susan said, “transcendent.”

One of this family’s major concerns had to do with liturgical music. First of all, the father of the family had a music degree, and he thought, rightly, I believe, that the music in that diocese’s parishes was not of very high quality. I don’t think they would suggest that there should be a symphony at every Mass! But there are very reverent styles of music, such as Taize, and Anglican/ Methodist-style hymns, that are beautiful and accessible at the same time. It seems that this kind of music, or greater use of Psalms at Mass, could be of a higher quality and more integral to the Latin rite in a way than some of the currently popular liturgical music is.

Secondly, the family thought that some of the hymns were actually incorrect in their theological content. I would agree, from my experience, that that is a problem at times. And they actually thought it was bad for their children, catechetically, to be exposed to it.

So they have gone to the Orthodox Church, and we are out of Communion, primarily because our music is not beautiful enough. And like Susan I wonder, when an Orthodox person visits American parishes, whether they would recognize our liturgies as having any similarity to theirs in its orientation.

I heard that Patriarch Alexy of the Russian Orthodox Church was very happy with the Holy Father’s Motu Propio, “Summorum Pontificum,” on use of the Missal of Pope John XXIII. I am wondering, do you have any plans to publically celebrate a Mass according to the Extranordinary Form of the Roman Rite? I think that would be cool.