Perspectives of a Wanderer

One thing I like about the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (also known as the Latin or Tridentine Mass) is that it forces one to concentrate more on the Mass than the Ordinary Form of the Mass.  In my opinion the Low Mass requires more concentration than the High Mass because there is even less interaction (i.e. no music or incense).

This has nothing to do with reverence since I have since I have seen the Ordinary Form of the Mass celebrated with great reverence.  It is just, with the Ordinary Form of the Mass, you always know where you are in the Mass due to the “active participation”.  No concentration is really needed.

However, this is not what this post is really about since Mass is the easy part.  It is concentration when doing things like my prayers or sacred reading.  It seem that, no matter what I do, I cannot concentrate.  I have tried music and silence and neither works well for extended period of time.

The only real exception is music without any vocals does help a little.  If there are any voices in the music or elsewhere, my concentration is completely disrupted. This is why I usually put Baroque music on since, for me at least, it is more relaxing that other eras of classical music and there are few vocal compositions played on the Internet site I frequent most often.  It is also does not help that I have extra sensitive hearing that intensifies background noise.

I have to figure out how to concentrate.  One thing I am going do is to try to find a place to live where it is quieter than where I live now.  Without going into detail, lets just say I can see 2 major highways from my apartment window.  I will be looking in the next couple of months at a number of places.  I am still a year or so away from having enough money for a sizable chunk of land where I can build my own home.

That is one thing, now to figure out other ways to concentrate.  If not, I will have a very hard time growing spiritually.

Yes, I know it sounds weird living in a society that is infected by plagues like Relativism, Socialism, Materialism, Liberalism, and Global Capitalism, but I am wondering if it could be a viable to completely living in today’s society.

Many Catholics, including myself, belong to various third orders and/or confraternities that share in the spirituality of a particular order or movement but are not religious members of that order.  From what I have read, and that has been very cursory at best, what I am looking at has existed in the past in one form or another with the best example being that of Third Order of St. Francis.

At the present, I am still researching this idea of mine but what I am looking at is where a group lives in a community, but still works outside of the community in many cases or in jobs associated with the community.  These communities can be set up anywhere but should be as self-reliant as possible.

These communities, based on the actual size will be broken up into a number of groups.  These groups would include, but not restricted to, married, single males, single females, and those inquiring and/or actively pursuing a religious life.  These communities would also follow a particular rule that could be completely based on a current rule, one of the most famous being the Rule of St. Benedict, a modified version of one of those rules, or a completely new one.

One thing that has consistently been mentioned when I suggest these types of thing is that I am trying to set up communities/societies completely separated (i.e. isolated) from current society.  This is not true.  What I envision is an alternative within the current framework of society that could become the norm.

There is more that would go into these types of communities but, at the present time, I am looking mainly at the possibility, viability, and examples of (both historical and present) communities.

I will admit, my prayer life has been a roller coaster for years now.  There are points, including recently where it has been extremely high and points where it has been practically non-existent.  Usually the lows come immediately after a period of extreme high.  I am currently at the point of extreme high that I have not reached before and I am now feeling the start of the burnout phase.  I do not want that to occur since other things tend to happen when I hit those low points.

The problem is finding the proper level of prayer life to avoid the highs and, thus, cause the lows to occur due to burnout.  There are a number of prayers that are obligatory for me.  These include Divine Office (also known as the Liturgy of the Hours), the Rosary, certain prayers to the Holy Guardian Angels, and Eucharistic Adoration (although not absolutely mandatory is encouraged).  All of these are related to investitures and/or groups I belong to.

Other than that, all other prayers are not required of my obligation.  Yes, I still want to say them, but maybe not all every single day.  I need to figure out a schedule for these prayers so that they are said only once or twice a week.

Another advantage of a measured approach to my prayer life is that I will avoid the tendency of rushing my prayers due to time constraints.  This is not no much of a problem on the weekends, but is during the week.  As it is right now, if I do the prayers at the proper pace, I do not leave much time in the mornings before work to do anything else.  This is the time here I feel most rushed.

I will be working on this the next couple of days and will probably speak to one of the priests I know about setting a proper prayer life.

Many of know that yesterday was Solemnity of All Saints, but few remember that today is the Feast of All Souls. On this day, we are to pray and celebrate Masses for the soul of those departed that have not attained the rewards in heaven due to not being perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for past transgressions.  These are the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

Since this day, unlike the Solemnity of All Saints, is not a Holy Day of Obligation and is not a “pagan party” like Halloween has become, it has, for the most part, become a forgotten day along with the souls that are in Purgatory.

Folks, these people are saints even though they have not attained the rewards in heaven. We are to pay for and celebrate Mass for those souls to aid them in attaining those rewards.

It seems we only pray to saints when we want them to intercede for us, it is high time return the favor and pray for those who will attain sainthood and will attain it quicker through our prayers.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Fidelium animae, per misericordiam Dei, requiescant in pace.
Amen.

Yes, becoming a saint is the goal for many of us (And for the ones that it is not their goal it should be).  I bring this up because, according to both the old and new liturgical calendars, today is the Solemnity of All Saints, also known as All Saint’s Day honors of all saints, known and unknown.

No matter which calendar you celebrate, the Gospel Reading today was the same (a rarity theses day) and one of my favorite sections of the Bible, the Beatitudes (Mt 5: 1-12).

The Beatitudes begins Our Lord’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew Chapters 5 – 7) which is our blueprint to sainthood.  In these chapters, Jesus instructs the multitudes on how one should live their lives in accordance with God.  These are the basic tenets on how everyone should live.

Of course, these days they seem to be merely suggestions and not rules.  It also seems to be the same way with the Ten Commandments.  Now it seems that they are the “Ten Suggestions”.  Guess what, in either case, they are not.

We must return to the teachings of Our Lord if we are to have even a sliver of a chance to save society from it impending implosion due to the rampant immorality that has infected today’s society.  My “suggestion”, since I have absolutely no authority over anyone, is to go back, read, re-read, and continue to re-read these chapters and start living them.  Only then will we have a chance to save society and, for us, to become saints.

For me, it depends on what I am doing but it basically comes down to two genres of music; Classical and Country. Yes, sometimes I do listen to other genres, but that is very few and very far between.

Yes, I know it sounds like a weird mix, but it is what I like.  I never got into the “rock” genre other the “southern rock” which can, in some cases, get close to country.

As I said before, it depends on what I am doing.  95% of the time, however, it is classical music. The only real time I listen to country is when I am driving for an extended period of time and do not want to fall asleep.  Classical music tends to relax me.

When I am relaxing, I listen exclusively to classical music with preference for the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods.  There are some from the Romantic Period composers (i.e Wagner, Dvorak, Bruch, and Tchaikovsky) but they are few and far between.

There is one time where I will listen to a specific genre and that is when I am praying.  At that time, I like listening to Baroque music.  It is both relaxing and, unlike Renaissance Music which does has many sacred works, is mostly instrumental music and very little vocal in composition.  When I pray, vocals in music distracts me from my prayers.  When is strictly instrumental music, I can concentrate.

As for the other genres of music, I do not listen to them since much of it these days gravitates towards the immoral and obscene.

I have always wondered how much we are to be in this world but at the same time be apart of this world.   These days, this question seems to be more important than ever due to the socio-economic plagues like Liberalism, Socialism, Relativism, Materialism, and Global Capitalism infecting society as a whole.

Yes, we are to be lights to this world as stated by Our Lord:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Mt. 5: 14-16 RSV)

but, at the same time, He said:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Mt. 6: 24 RSV)

This begs the question, how far to be in this world, but set ourselves apart for the glory or Our Lord.  We have to selective about our participation in today society due to the almost constant threats of Near Occasions of Sin while always being a shining example of how we are to live.

This balance, although difficult, must be determined for each and one of us.  For some, it means being more in this world than others.

As for me, I am gravitating more towards removing myself more and more from this world to serve Our Lord more.  What this will entail, I am not quite sure yet.  I am being more selective of what I do and where I go.  This will increase in the next year or so until I fully determine the path I am to take.

Today is the Feast of Out Lady of the Rosary.  For those who do not know:

Feast of Out Lady of the Rosary is an annual feast to commemorate the victory of Lepanto. The victory was attributed to Our Lady, as a rosary procession was offered on that day in St. Peter’s Square in Rome for the success of the mission of the Holy League to hold back Muslim forces from overrunning Western Europe.  First instituted in 1571 Pope Pius V as “Our Lady of Victory”, the name was changed to “Feast of the Holy Rosary” in 1573 by Pope then to “Our Lady of the Rosary” in 1969 by Pope Paul VI.

The event that this feast celebrates shows how powerful the power of prayer is.

This seems to have been lost in the modern day.  With all the affronts to life and liberty that is happening due to the plagues of Liberalism, Socialism, Materialism, Relativism, and Global Capitalism, we must consider prayer as part of the battle against those plagues.  For without prayer, the battle will be lost.

I know this is a divisive issue, but here it goes.

Currently, there are two main forms of the Mass in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church.  The first one is the Ordinary Form or the current Mass that is celebrated in most parishes these days.  The second is the Extraordinary Form or the Latin/Tridentine/Old Mass that was celebrated before Vatican II.

To be truthful, I was one of those who recognized the need for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, but was resistant to it because of some bad experiences with the proponents of the Mass.  My position them was “I have no issues with the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, it is the people I have issues with.”

That has changed somewhat.  I still have issues with people, but I now go almost exclusively to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.  The only time I do not go is if my parish changes the time of the Mass or when I am traveling and cannot get to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.  In fact, I have done a complete 180 and now prefer the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

The two forms of the Mass is a divisive and, in my opinion, must be reconciled sooner rather than later.  As for me, would like to see the following:

1. The Extraordinary Form of the Mass become the norm or Ordinary Form of the Mass.
2. The current Ordinary Form of the Mass transformed to be another type of a “Low Mass”.
3. Eliminate the differences between the old and new calendars (preferably keep the old calendar and add in the feast days of the newer saints)

To accomplish the second goal, I would love to see only the readings, but the rest of the Mass to follow the rubrics of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.  The only other things I may keep is the vernacular in come cases, the prayers said out loud, and responses from the laity where possible.

I know there will be many that will not like my suggestions (on both ends of the spectrum) but something must be done.

I will make no qualms about it; I am in a high stress career (information technology) and am currently in an even higher stress job.  It is even worse now since they cut the staff and everyone is doing the work of two people (or even more people). Although the job pays well, I am wondering how long it will be before I completely burn out.

I am saying that, one must learn how to balance work and non-work in their life.  When a job takes up over well over half of the time you are awake (today, for instance, I worked over eleven hours instead of the normal eight and a half) it is time to take inventory of what is most important in your life.

Like I said, my job pays well and I do, for the most part, like it.  It is the best company, by far, that I have been with.  However, pay is not the first thing (it never has been) I look in a job.  What I look for is a challenge.  However, this is economy, it is not a challenge when more and more duties are piled on a person.  A balance is needed.

One thing that has been taking a beating the past couple of months is my spiritual and prayer life.  Usually I have barely enough time in the to do my Morning Prayers before I head off to work and it is even harder now since I am starting to do the older form of the Divine Office.  The same can be said for Evening Prayers, I get home and usually I only have a couple of hours before I head off to bed (One thing I try to do is get eight hour of sleep).   It seems I have little time for any more with other things I need to get done in the little time allotted.

I am hoping that work may return to some semblance of normalcy soon.  One of the major projects I was working on is finally in the final stages and I am ramping down on the time I need to spend on the other major project since the programming part of it is essentially complete.  At that time, I am hoping to spend more time on things I want and need to do.