Pensées Catholiques: Volume 2 - Collections I

By Edward L. Helmrich

In 1961 at Garabandal, at the height of power of the Soviet Union, Mary told Conchita and the other three girls that "When Communism comes back, these things [marking the end of time] would begin." e girls asked: "Come back? Where is it going?" Now we've seen Communism go, overcome by Pope St. John Paul II and other leaders, and now we're seei

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliant Books Literary
• Release date: Jan 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889450092

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Pensées Catholiques

Copyright © 2023 by Edward L. Helmrich

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America.

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MCzarnecki 2020

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:15. And this is what the Lord does for us when we receive the Eucharist: he tills and defends the garden of our soul, through which he walks in the twilight of the day.

This book is dedicated to the C.F.R.s

(a Franciscan Religious Community)

Contents

1) Foreword

2) Mass Pensées

3) Bible Pensées

4) Rosary Pensées

5) The Helmrich Law of Theology

6) 9/11 Notes and Picture

Foreword

In 2011 Pope Benedict promulgated a new translation of the Roman Missal (the prayers of the Mass). It is a translation from the official Latin, and is less an attempt to capture the sense of a phrase than it is an attempt to be exact word by word. For example, the phrase And with you was changed to And with your spirit, which is how the Latin reads. When I heard this new phrase, which had been the translation years ago, I realized that I didn’t know why this change had been made. Since then I have been studying and reading about the Mass, the central and most powerful prayer of the Church. These collections of observations come from this study.

There is a collection of thoughts on the Bible. Many writers today work at finding the background of the elements of the New Testament in the Old Testament. (I use the terms Hebrew Bible and Old Testament interchangeably.) It has been a very fruitful project, and now includes archaeological investigations of the Holy Land.¹

God gave us three main things, in no particular order: the Mass; the Bible; the Rosary. So the third collection is thoughts on the Rosary. As a practitioner of the five first Saturdays and a member of the Legion of Mary, and with the help of grace, I say the Rosary each day, and on first Saturdays spend 15 minutes reflecting on the Rosary as a whole.(Mary urges us all to adopt the First Saturday devotion to save the world.) The observations on the Rosary are collected from these weekly 15 minute reflections.

In reflecting on these questions it seemed a common occurrence for things to happen twice. It got to the point where finding one important event, I would look for the second, and I almost always found it. The Helmrich Law of Theology is that God does things twice, and here is a collection of events that happened twice. Then there is a collection of facts about 9/11, an event which we’ve all had to come to try to understand.

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¹ For example the excellent Patterns of Evidence films.

Mass Pensées

²

1. Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. (Matthew 13:52). The Mass draws from both the Old and New Testaments.

2. The Mass is a re-presentation of the Life of Jesus. And the liturgical year taken as a whole is also the Life of Jesus, retold and relived. The Life of Christ is represented, carried out in reality, again and again. The four Gospels are also biographies of Jesus written by the Holy Spirit with the cooperation of their human authors. And the Rosary is Mary’s Life of Christ.

3. At the Mass God is worshipped; man is sanctified; God and man are united; evil is defeated.(Vagaggini)

4. It would be easier for the world to exist without the sun, than to exist without the Mass. (Saint Pio of Pietrelcina)

5. The Mass is the greatest prayer to God. It is also the prayer of the Church, the Bride of Christ, to God, done with Christ, to the Father.

6. The Lord be with you is said four times at the Mass:

a. At the start

b. Before the Gospel, the high point of the first half of the Mass

c. At the start of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the start of the Preface, the 2nd high point of the Mass

d. At the end, as we go out into the world

e. If one adds Peace be with you, it is five times.

7. There are four readings in the first half of the Mass:

a. The Old Testament reading

b. The Psalm

c. The New Testament letters

d. The Gospel

e. If one adds the Alleluia verse, it is five.

8. There are at least ten reading of Scripture during the Mass:

a. Entrance antiphon

b. The first reading

c. The responsorial Psalm

d. The second reading

e. The Gospel acclamation

f. The Gospel

g. The Words of Institution (2 parts)

h. The Our Father

i. My peace I give you.

j. The Communion antiphon.

9. Counted separately, there are ten elevations of the bread and wine / Body and Blood of Christ in the second half of the Mass:

a. The bread and the wine in the Offertory

b. The Body and Blood of Christ in the Words of Consecration

c. The Body and Blood of Christ offered to the Father in the Doxology

d. The Body and Blood at the Behold the Lamb of God

e. The Body and Blood of Christ before each individual at Communion.

10. So during the Mass there are 10 elevations, and ten readings from Scripture.

11. There are three main elevations in the Eucharistic Prayer: the elevation of the Bread after the Words of Institution; the elevation of the Wine after the Words of Institution; and the Doxology. There is one elevation at the Behold the Lamb of God. One sees the 3-1 pattern here.

12. The Church is seen as a woman, the abundant breasts in Isaiah 66:11 can be identified with the two parts of the Mass.

13. The two halves of the Mass of course serve each other. The readings prepare us to receive the Eucharist; the Eucharist is an end in itself but also gives us the strength to carry out how the readings instruct us to live.

14. In the Book of Revelation the narration stops once in a while for the saints in heaven or the Church on earth to simply praise God. We see that in the Mass: it stops every so often for a doxology (the praise of God).

15. The major steps in the spiritual life are the penitential stage; the illuminative stage; and the unitive stage.³ We see this in the Mass: the Penitential Rite (penitential stage); the Readings (illuminative stage); the Eucharist (unitivestage).

16. In the first part of the Mass we receive the Word Inspired (the Bible); in the second half of Mass we receive the Word Incarnate (the Eucharist).

17. At the Mass Jesus offers Himself to the Father first (the doxology); then he gives Himself to us(Communion).

18. The Mass has a Yin/Yang structure: in the first part the priest and God reach out to the congregation; in the second half of the Mass the people focus on the altar.

19. The Crucifix with the five Wounds stands over the Mass. And in the Mass we say five times The Lord be with you—four times exactly, and then Peace be with you. It’s as if Jesus with his wounds within the Mass, the backbone or scaffolding of the Mass.

20. The Mass is like a universe with stars and planets: there are parts that remain fixed, parts that change with the season, parts that change with the day, and then some parts that change with the year of the liturgical cycle. (There are three yearly Sunday cycles and two yearly weekday cycles.) All of these wheels within wheels⁴ move in the way reminiscent of the stars and planets in the heavens: the liturgy is like a second universe.

The wheels within wheels brings to mind the Book of Kells, which might be, as well as a Gospel, a commentary on the Gospel within the complexity of the Mass:

(public domain. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

21. The Mass contains all literary forms: poetry, narrative, didactic teaching, recitation, memorization, dialogue, etc.

22. There is a unity among the three actions of the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Mass. A long book could be written on the close relation that exists between these three realities. Scott Hahn has written about the relationship between the first two. We even see the 3-1 pattern here. (And, Martin Luther notwithstanding, they are not in conflict with each other—cf. Feinberg, p. 470, drawing by author)

(drawing by author)

23. If the first part of the Mass is a going out, and the second half is an approach to the altar. In that way the Mass can be seen as one iteration of a sine wave or of a heartbeat.

24. The name Jesus appears 37 times in the new English translation of the Mass. The number 37 appears often—for example the digits add to ten, the number of men needed to worship fully in Judaism, and in the Ten Commandments where the first three Commandments address how man interacts with God and the next seven address how men and women interact with each other.

25. Jesus has two related altars: that of the Last Supper, and that of the Crucifix. The Mass combines both altars.

26. He who comes in the name of the Lord—from the Sanctus— is a traditional address for the Messiah.

27. In the Book of Malachi there is a reference to the coming of Your Holy Angel, the Messiah. In Eucharist Prayer I it is prayed that your holy Angel may bring this Sacrifice to Your altar on high. That Angel is Jesus.⁵ So Jesus became man, but He also becomes, in a real sense, an angel, or messenger, as well.

28. In the readings at Mass there is a tension: together they need to touch on the main themes of faith, yet together they also usually contain one dominant theme. The dominant theme is the path which this Mass is taking to the Eucharist. As one can take many paths up a mountain, one only takes one path during a specific climb.

29. Psalm 24:3 reads: Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Attending Mass is the climbing of the mountain of the Lord, standing in His holy place.

30. There are two prayers in the Mass which are ongoing outside of Mass: the Sanctus, which the angels sing eternally, and the Our Father, which we say whenever we pray.

31. The Our Father contains 10 phrases: the first five have to do with God; the second five have to do with our needs. The Hail Mary has ten phrases, the first five praising Mary, the second five asking for her intercession, surrounding the name of Jesus.

32. The offering of the Mass is done eternally by the Son in Heaven, offering Himself to the Father: the Mass brings it down into this time and place.

33. The first indication of the resurrection takes place when we stand after the great Amen. The second takes place when the priest after the Our Father addresses Jesus Christ directly. The third indication of the resurrection takes place when the priest quotes Jesus in the upper room on the evening of the resurrection: Peace be with you. The fourth indication of the resurrection if the removal of the pall from the chalice. And the fifth indication is the rite of the fraction, where the Body and Blood of Christ are reunited.

34. At some point in the Eucharistic Prayer transubstantiation takes place, but one isn’t quite sure when, though before the words of institution in the Roman rite.

35. The chalice is uncovered/covered four times:

a. It is uncovered to say the prayer of thanks to the Father for the wine we have to offer, then it is recovered.

b. It is uncovered in the Words of Institution, where it is transubstantiated into the Blood of Christ.

c. It is uncovered when it is offered, with the Body of Christ, to the Father, at the apex of the Mass.

d. It is uncovered for the Rite of Fraction, representing the stone removed from the tomb out of which Jesus rises, and is left uncovered for the priest and other to receive Communion.

36. At Mass the whole chalice must be consumed and cannot be reposed.⁶ The Bread can be reposed in the tabernacle after Mass, left for us to adore, and to bring to the sick.

37. The Behold the Lamb of God, with the Rite of the Fraction, can almost be seen as a brief recapitulation or reprise of the whole Mass. We say Behold the Lamb of God, which John stated at the very start of Jesus’ Ministry at the Baptism; we acknowledge that Jesus is the one who takes away our sins; we acknowledge our sinfulness by asking for mercy and peace; we see him raised as his Body and Blood are reunited. A Mass within the Mass.⁷

38. There are three verses in the Lamb of God section. In a speculative vein, we could say that the first verse: Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, asks for God to enter the world out of mercy. The Incarnation. The second, are petition, could be a plea that out of mercy the Lamb endure his Passion to rescue us from sin. The Passion and Death. (And during this time is the fraction rite, when the Host is broken.) And the third, which ends with grant us peace, could be a request that Jesus send the Holy Spirit (peace). The Resurrection.

39. There at least five reprises of the Mass within the Mass, a brief summary of the Pascal mystery, the action of the Mass. Each is a Mass within the Mass:

a. The middle of the Gloria

b. The middle of the Creed

c. The three verse response in the Mystery of Faith

d. The anamnesis in the second part of the Eucharistic Prayer

e. The fraction rite.

40. The choir plays a role in the Mass similar to the role of the chorus in a Greek play—it adds another dimension to the Mass, it echoes and elaborates the meaning of what is taking place, it helps us to concentrate on the action before us.

41. There are three steps up to the Gospel (the Alleliua and verse; the Lord be with you and response; the triple sign of the Cross). And there are three steps up to the Words of Institution (the Offertory; the Preface; the first half of the Eucharistic Prayer).

42. There are three actions that effect the Consecration: the priest puts his hands over the elements of bread and wine; the priest makes the sign of the Cross over the elements of bread and wine; the priest speaks the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper.

43. In looking at the printed Mass, there are at least five matrix-like or two-or three-dimensional elements in the Mass. The first is in the greeting: The priest begins In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, with the Sign of the Cross, and the greeting, making a 3 x 3 x 3 matrix.

The second is at the start of the third stanza of the Gloria: For you alone are the holy one / You alone are the Lord / You alone are the most high. Each you refers to each of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity (as well as the Trinity as One), setting up a 3 x 3 matrix of praise.

The third, the Sanctus, begins with Holy, Holy, Holy, making it a praise of each Person of the Blessed Trinity in one prayer, a 3 x 5 matrix.

The doxology begins with In Him, and through Him, and with Him and continues for five lines, setting up a two-dimensional 3 x 5 matrix.

Finally, in the dismissal, the priest says May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with the Sign of the Cross, and the three phrases The Lord be with you, its response, and The Mass is ended, go in peace (or another dismissal formula), makes a 3 x 3 x 3 matrix.

44. The congregation makes the sign of the Cross on themselves three times or five times: at the start; three times at the start of the Gospel, and at the end. Before the Gospel we make the sign of the Cross three times, a three-time invocation of the Trinity, before hearing the words and actions of Jesus, implying that his actions and words come from the Trinity as a whole.

45. The Mass as 4 waves, 4 high points (drawing by author):

(drawing by author)

46. The Mass of course involves all the senses:

a. Sight—the candles and vestments

b. Hearing—the music and the bells

c. Smell—the incense

d. Taste—the Eucharist, Bread and Wine

e. Touch—the sign of peace.

47. The priest says three presidential prayers in the Mass: the Collect; the Prayer over the Gifts; the Post-Communion Prayer. He also says three silent prayers: the prayer while he prepares the wine; the prayer after the wine is prepared (two parts); and the silent prayer he prays as he prepares for Communion, before he says the Behold the Lamb of God.

48. The Mass historically is made up of two separate Masses: the Mass of the Catechumens (the first half) and the Mass of the Faithful (the second half ). And they are very different, yet form a whole, bringing to mind the yin/yang symbol.

49. At Mass God is glorified; man is sanctified; evil is defeated. (Vagaggini)

50. The movement of Mass can be seen as a straight line of increasing intimacy between the people and God, which concludes with Communion. (Mass is sex with God.)

51. The Lord be with you begins a new section four times during the Mass. It’s as if, seeing the Mass as Jacob’s Ladder, each time we are taking a step up.

52. There are three times in the Mass where the congregation requests the presence of God, and the priest responds:

a. The singing of the entrance antiphon, where the priest responds In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

b. At the Alleliua, where the priests responds by going to the pulpit and reading the Gospel.

c. At the Offertory, where the people bring forward gifts and the priest responds by transforming them by the power of God into the Body and Blood of Christ.

53. In the Second Eucharistic Prayer one line gives thanks to God for being in your Presence and ministering to you. It might be that the first phrase refers to the Lord in the Eucharist; the second part refers to the Lord in the people in the Congregation.

54. In the Confiteor was say I ask Blessed Mary, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. The number of groups named can be thought of as three, or four, or five.

55. There are two penitential parts of the Mass, as usual one in the first half of the Mass, and one in the second half:

a. The Confiteor.

b. The plea for mercy before Communion, to confess its importance and our unworthiness.

56. "The Mass is the