Author: Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue
-
Dippy the Dinosaur in Norwich Cathedral
Sometimes people say that the Christian Faith is in trouble. Numbers of people attending church are down. Many ecclesial institutions have trouble staying open. A recent post has analyzed this decrease in religious practice that is common throughout the West. This isn’t an exclusively Catholic phenomenon but can be found across denomination lines. A number…
-
Shed of the Year
I am not the most optimistic person in the world. So looking at the situation of the Church, I often despair that it will all come tumbling down. Reading stories like this one which tells of how the Archdiocese of Barcelona, Spain is combining parishes to form 48 new parishes down from 375 in 1950. …
-
A Uniform Mode of Celebrating
Liturgical unity in the Syro-Malabar Church.
-
At the End of the Sky
When we speak about inculturation in the liturgy, we tend to think of the Zaire Rite or the situation in the Amazonian Region. However, we cannot limit discussions on inculturation to other places – it is also necessary in regions where Christianity has been present for a longer time and is more established. Indeed, a…
-
May Madness: Popular Piety vs. Doctrinal Feasts
Yesterday, on the Trinity Sunday, I presided a Liturgy of the Eucharist in a parish where I had not been for a number of years. Unusually, there was music at the liturgy – only 1 of the 4 normal Sunday liturgies regularly had music at that parish before the COVID lockdowns. But a cantor presented…
-
“I want Westlife played at my funeral”
Many people outside Ireland still tend to think of Ireland as a Catholic country. However, I think that the days of identifying Irishness with Catholicism are long gone. I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and a report on a news program brought this home to me once again. The dignified funeral of England’s…
-
Problematic Incipit
Someone pointed out to me that there was some confusion about the Gospel Reading in the Roman Rite Lectionary for Mass for yesterday (Thursday of the Second Week of Easter). Part of the advantage of the Lectionary (as opposed to from reading from the Bible itself), is that small introductions are given that contextualize the…
-
For the priest who has everything
I like to think of myself as a fairly avid follower of things liturgical, so I was surprised when, a few weeks ago, I came across a liturgical accoutrement that I had never encountered before. This was not some obscure item from the Middle Ages or a particular article used in the Syro-Malabar Rite. What…
-
Passion Versus Palm Sunday
I know that there is no such thing as a “theme” for any liturgical celebration. In every liturgy we celebrate the Paschal Mystery and every aspect of our salvation is present there. So, on Palm Sunday we celebrate everything. Nonetheless the Roman Missal informs us that it is Palm Sunday of the Passion of the…