Laudato Si - a Quick Note

My, there is so much commentary in the blogosphere on Laudato Si, and most of it addressing controversy-whether to defend or to criticize what the Pope has written.

I have my opinions, but thank God I don't do blogging of the punditry sort. And so--the mercy of God is great!--none of you have to learn whether I think the Pope is mistaken (or not) about global climate change. Nor should you care what I think about that.

Furthermore, I've read only 1/4 of it so far, so commenting at any  length would be really, really dumb.

But I'll share a section that will resonate with us breviary lovers:


72. The Psalms frequently exhort us to praise God the Creator, “who spread out the earth on the waters, for his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 136:6). They also invite other creatures to join us in this praise: “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created” (Ps 148:3-5). We do not only exist by God’s mighty power; we also live with him and beside him. This is why we adore him.

The Holy Father is trying to teach many things in this document. One of them is the need for us to detach ourselves from technology and overwork, to rest, contemplate, appreciate the beauty of creation and thus grow in gratitutde and praise toward the Creator. If we are stopping two or three or four or five times a day  to pray the psalms, we probably are making a lot of headway toward that habit of priase. Think of all the psalms and canticles that talk about the grandeuor of creation and God's loving guidance of it all.  ( We get lots of these on Sundays-- Lauds and Office of Readings in particular.) 

If we are internalizing those "nature psalms" then we are acquiring a habitual awareness of the gifts of creation, and are responding with the praise that is God's due. Just one more way that the Liturgy of the Hours is so, so good for us. 

PS. A quick scan of the encyclical reveals quotations from Psalms 148, 104, 136, and 33. 

Latest on Revised American Breviary

Alert reader Lenny just pointed out that the March 2015 issue of the USCCB Worship Committee's newsletter is now available online, and it talks in detail about progress on the new edition of the breviary.  The bad news: we won't have a new breviary in our hands before 2020. (Or maybe that's good news if you recently purchased the current 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours--you'll be getting plenty of use out of it.)   The good news is that we might end up with a much more complete breviary, even including the second cycle of scritpure readings for the Office of Readings, and maybe even the second set of patristic readings as well. Maybe.

But no one has to ask me for further details and information. Here is the link to the newsletter. It is well worth reading:


http://www.usccb.org/about/divine-worship/newsletter/upload/newsletter-2015-03.pdf

Corpus Christi alert and Bishop's vote alert!

An alert reader recently pointed out to me that the US Bishope are meeting next week.  If you follow that link you'll see in a summary of the agenda that, among other things, they will be debating and voting on the translation ot the gospel canticles for the Liturgyy of the Hours.

Please pray that they make a good decision.

It looks like EWTN will be covering the meeting live on Wednesday from 12:30 to 3:00 PM, and on Thursday from 10 AM til 3:30 PM. Here's the EWTN website schedule.  I'm going to be travelling, with no access to television and uncertain internet, so I'd appreciate if anyone tunes in and can send me highlights of the discussion, plus the vote results, it would be nice. Of course, none of us have access to the text being voted on, unless they are going to go with the New American Bible Revised Edition version.

You can either give me your observations and comments in the comments section below, OR send me an email to thesockeys"AT" gmail "dot" com. If you get my drift...I'm trying to avoid getting spammed.

Office of Corpus Christi starts this evening, don't forget. Enjoy this lovely office. Linger over those antiphons and do the Office of Readings even if it is not your normal custom. (or at least just the readings) You'll be glad you did.