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Kneel before God
Regarding the Jan. 27 article, “ Archbishop tries his hand at Latin Mass,” I wish to commend Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast for celebrating the traditional Latin Mass for his first time in keeping with Pope Benedict’s recent apostolic letter promoting its wider implementation. One of the things I miss most with the Tridentine rite is the ritual of kneeling at the communion rail when receiving our Lord in holy Communion.
Recently I attended a graduation ceremony in which all university students humbled themselves on a small wooden kneeler before the school chancellor as they were presented with their respective degrees. This practice of kneeling is in fact widely accepted in secular circles, including those instances when one is in the presence of state royalty or some other important dignitary. Oddly enough, while even the secular world requires one to kneel before men of mere mortal metal, our Catholic bishops make no such stipulation when one is in the presence of God Himself in the Blessed Sacrament. In fact our post-Vatican II bishops have even gone so far as to remove the Communion rail in order to make it difficult for the faithful, especially the old, to engage in this most holy and solemn practice. Is this an instance of the Catholic Church trying to be more secular than the secular world?
In any event, kneeling comes from the Bible and its knowledge of God. In fact, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — has pointed out, “the word proskynein alone occurs 59 times in the New Testament, 24 of which are in the Apocalypse, the book of the heavenly liturgy, which is presented to the church as the standard for her own liturgy.”
Paul Kokoski
Hamilton, Ont.
Leave rabble alone
In the Feb. 3 edition of The Catholic Register, Peter Kavanagh and John Bentley Mays both seem to think the Pope should have attended La Sapienza University inauguration last month. Kavanagh thinks he would have or should have acknowledged the errors the church has made, assertions were wrong, etc. and Mays feels Benedict’s appearance would have been an act of open defiance to the enemies of the Catholic Church.
Arguing with rabble rousers — one wonders if that is what Jesus Christ Himself would have done.
Remember Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “Have nothing to do with pointless philosophical discussions — they only lead further and further away from true religion.”
Sheelagh Barry
Pointe Claire, Que.
Vengeance is not ours
I was appalled at the vengeful tone of two letters that appeared in the Feb. 3 issue of The Register.
Graeme Barry (“Justice will be done”) criticizes Ron Rolheiser’s compassionate stance. Barry seems to be salivating with pleasure at the thought of evil-doers being punished in eternal life.
Frank Chatigny (“Protecting society”) claims that long ago God established man’s right to use capital punishment legally. Wow! I wonder where he got that idea.
I seem to remember learning a long time ago that “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,” and “Thou shalt not kill.”
I believe we should leave the judging and the punishing up to God. It is He who creates life and who has dominion over it. May His will be done.
Anne Fischer
Kitchener, Ont.
Misses old saints
I am responding to the Feb. 10 article about St. Valentine’s Day, by Dorothy Cummings “Valentine’s Day brings out the good, the bad, the ugly.”
Cummings writes, “The church in her maternal wisdom tried to save us from all the nonsense of Valentine’s Day by taking Feb. 14 away from St. Valentine and giving it to Sts. Cyril and Methodius instead.”
Actually, taking into consideration that there are thousands of saints and only 365 days a year, I think that it is safe to say that Feb. 14 had been Sts. Cyril and Methodius feast day since their canonization. But, as is the case with all saints sharing the same day, the more well-known ones get priority.
Personally, I was disappointed when I first learned that St. Valentine had been taken out of the canon, alongside such beloved saints as St. Christopher, St. Philomena, St. Catherine of Alexandria, etc. Just as there are many Catholics who await for the day when these aforementioned saints are reinstated in the canon, I also hope that St. Valentine will be included once again.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day as a feast day is to remember that marital love is a gift from God Himself.
Carolyn A. Barratt
Thornhill, Ont.
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