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BRING CHURCH BACK TO LIFE BY RETURNING TO SANCTITY AND THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

In a famous vision of St. John Bosco was the image of the pontiff guiding a large ship over rough seas to port (between two pillars, one representing Mary, one the Eucharist). Many have ascribed that Pope to John Paul II, and perhaps his successor is now also making some shifts in navigation to bring the ship entirely to shore. Let us hope so. It is time to bring back the sacred -- and open the Church to the Spirit of its fathers.

In any case, what Pope Benedict XVI is currently doing has the earmarks of steering a huge lumbering ship and of tweaking its course. It may even be the beginning of a slow u-turn -- from the radical liturgical changes in the wake of Vatican II.

We are not supposed to be obsessed with the institution, nor closed to others, but we are called to make the Church as holy as possible. This involves everything from devotions to artifacts.

We all know that such a turn must be done gradually but with a firm hand and there are elements of such in recent comments by the Pope concerning music.

"It is possible to modernize holy music," the pontiff said at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, director of music at the Sistine Chapel. "But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."

The Pope specifically mentioned "instrumentation," and the press headlined this as a call to eliminate guitars. The Pope had not been quite so direct but left no question about where he thought the liturgy should begin to move. In Spain they had gone so far as to set such instrumentation to flamenco music!

It is also Benedict who is overseeing the transition to the first major liturgical word changes, bringing back some of the phrases of earlier times ("Lord, I am not worthy to receive you" will revert back to "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof"). Such was initiated under the reign of John Paul and alterations were approved by U.S. bishops two weeks ago -- reintroducing a touch of the Mass of yesteryear.

It is no secret that the Pope feels Vatican-II changes went too far. In his book, God and the World, then-Cardinal Ratzinger said that "the most important thing today is that we should regain respect for the liturgy and for the fact that it is not to be manipulated."

"You must look," said Cardinal Ratzinger, "with great respect for what is carrying the riches of the centuries with it." He added that there should be "a new openness toward the use of Latin."

The important point is that the modern Mass has lost far too much of its sacred feel and must regain such -- by closing itself to sterility and opening itself to the Holy Spirit, who in many parishes is oddly missing.

In the years ahead, we hope that what the Pope has begun blossoms into other recoveries of the past, and in this regard we have some suggestions. Spearhead more devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Promote Marian prayer. Encourage charismatic prayer. Move the tabernacle back to the center of the altar. Bring back bells for the Consecration. Reinstitute the prayer to the Archangel Michael. Have a prayer of the Blessed Mother. Make sure every church in the world has kneelers. Encourage a move not only to sacred music but also back to sacred art, especially statues: the modern Church is sterile largely because it is architecturally devoid of the supernatural.

These are important changes in the religious element and there is also need for a large change in the spiritual. As Benedict has also said, the Church must be a "living entity."

At the same time that our Church needs to hearken back to older times, it also needs to do so in the way we pray. While a new sense of the sacred will bring the Holy Spirit (His absence is what caused many to leave), so will more lively praying. A Church that is alive can not expect to remain so if prayers are not said from the heart but instead, as is now too often the case, are numbingly rote.

We need to invoke the Holy Spirit back into our Church. We need heartfelt ways of inviting Him back in such a way that we can feel the sanctity of His Presence. Let the Spirit speak through the Church. Homilies must be shortened and strengthened. No one prays like the Paracelete, and if Mass becomes an involvement with this third Person of the Trinity -- in union with a more sacred setting -- that sense will draw back some of those and perhaps even many of those who -- bored by homilies that did not personally relate to them -- decided to stay home.

The most ancient form of Christianity was one in which the Spirit descended as tongues of flame and there was an outpouring of His gifts.

This is Christianity in its oldest form. Let us return to the Upper Room. A solemn and faithful and yet living Church is the only hope for the future. The Mystical Body must reassert its role over the institutional one. Holy mysticism was the faith of our fathers.

Come, Holy Spirit. Come pray through us. Lead us in prayer. Lead us in Mass. Bring the Heavenly Court. It is a prayer we can say that will benefit our Church.

And then there is the matter of relics:

With so many churches closing, statues and other holy objects are tossed into the bin or even sold on eBay.

This the Church must instantly address and can do so by instituting a warehouse to which such objects can be sent, for later redistribution -- perhaps to some of the modern churches that are now without them, thanks to the over-exuberance of the 1960s.

"Our beautiful artifacts of the church often end up in strange places," wrote viewer Barbara Arkwright. "Four years ago, my sister and I were visiting New Orleans French Quarter.  Entering the door of one shop, I came face to face with a beautiful Statue of Our Lady.  She was being used to display scarves and jewelry."

We hear this quite often.

"About three years ago I accidentally -- providence -- stumbled upon a large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary pregnant with the child Jesus in an antique shop in Houston," noted another, Don Parchman. "What was unusual about the statue was that it was a statue of the pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary with her Immaculate Heart exposed. The antique shop had obtained the statue from a broker in Spain. I paid $3,300 to rescue Mary. She is now in my mom's house in San Antonio."

When we do not honor the sacred, there is no sanctity -- and such disrespect has badly hurt the Church.

A city of light we must be, but also a fort.

Strengthen the walls and build a fire within.

After Benedict's comment on music, Cardinal Carlo Furno, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, said it was "better to have guitars on the altar and rock-and-roll Masses than empty churches."

We beg to differ.

There is a place for the ministry of music, but it must evoke a sense of the sacred, and it should not consume Mass. It should not be a form of entertainment.

Cardinal Furno, with all due respect, modern music has kept no one in the Church. If you look back, you will find that the pews emptied at the onset of such "innovations" and a lack of reverence that went with it.

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