Liturgy and the Economy
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    I quail to say anything about economics on a forum led by the inestimable and impeccably dressed Jeffrey Tucker. And yet I have the following to offer.

    I was wondering how far I would have to go into the new social encyclical to find the idea of “the closed circle.” This image, which I first encountered in the Pope’s works on liturgy, represents an apparent desire in our times to finish projects without inviting God to be active in them.

    (An example from liturgy is the tendency to build churches “in the round.” We are there, all of us aware of one another. The priest faces us. The circle is closed. And God? Where is God? Is there a pathway for God, Himself, to enter?)

    The first mention I find is in paragraph 4:

    "A Christianity of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pool of good sentiments, helpful for social cohesion, but of little relevance. In other words, there would no longer be any real place for God in the world.”
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    It starts with the liturgy in the parishes where the Church's instruction is ignored.

    In the last homily by our associate priest before he was transferred to another parish this past Tuesday, he quoted a Benedictine monk he met in his retreat for priests;

    "If your parish is not in connection with the Universal Church, it is a cult with your name on it."
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    I'm just enthralled with the encyclical and laughing at how it has everyone in a tizzy in our highly politicized world in which every statement of the pope is forced into preset categories. so it is hardly surprising that the commentary is all over the place.

    I don't know if this is the place to point it out but issues of intellectual property to impinge on the economy of the lives of Catholic musicians. The Pope has a very strong statement against IP and, in particular, its implications for health care.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    Yes, I saw that passage and thought about the ongoing discussion of intellectual property here.

    I thought the Holy Father's point was that keeping a tight hold on IP is elitist and contrary to the common good.

    There are other significant passages that relate to worship and its inseparability from charity, insofar as it is one single Church that prays and serves.
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    I believe Christain charity requires 'sacrifice and humility,' and go beyond the level of mere social charity. I've seen today's culture, promoting pride as highest virtue (especially in Western culture. In our cultrue it used to be the opposite before the Wetern culture took over the young people's mind, mostly focused on materialism), starting at early age at school and home , seem to have hard time understanding this concept of humility, too much 'me centered,' doing what I like to do, and too much choices, whether it's a worship or charity work.
    In CCD class, (they were 4th graders) we were talking about sacrifice. First of all, they thought dying is the only sacrifice. When I talk about one hour fasting before Mass, one girl says she cannot do that because she wants to eat breakfast at a ceratain time she wants. I told her she could eat a little early or after, and that could be a little sacrifice for Jesus who died for us, but she didn't want to, because it means getting up (a few minutes) early or getting hungy.
    And many kids never heard, I mean literally never, the word 'humility' or even being 'humble.'
    Another child told me whatever he does, he doesn't really need to do do well and work hard, because his parents will always say 'good job' no matter what. (I guess his parents are quite busy.)
    Maybe I'm off the subject, because I'm not really talking about the problem itself, but the cause of the problem. I learned that we Orientals usually go beyond the surface of the problems and try to prevent them (you might see the difference between the Oriental and Western medical world. We are much more into prevention than surgeries. And I also noiticed many people here seem to say 'it didn't happen yet. why bother?' in many things. Then when the problem is noticeable, it maybe is too big to cure.)
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    Mia, maybe it helps to put things in Western terms for Western kids. This is a real, kid-generated example: the moral life is like a video game.

    You can see that they would understand in this illustration that sometimes you make sacrifices for a greater good, and there is a real opponent, and sometimes the presence of evil can make the good stronger. You share with others for good team building. It would be easy to illustrate the sacraments this way: confession is when you get a new man.

    Obviously this is only an illustration and I don't mean to be irreverent--after all, St. Paul often spoke of the moral life as a race.

    Anyways I think it's a really important thing that you are doing!
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