The purpose of
this section of this website is to teach converts and conservative
Catholics who want to return to Tradition how to worship as traditional Catholics.
What I want this area to be is a complete online manual that baby-steps
one through the "how-tos" of Catholicism. I want to present the
material in such a way that someone who's totally unfamiliar with
traditional Catholic culture -- including Catholic folk customs -- can
come to be as comfortable with it as
if he'd grown
up in the Church. I try to write without the presumption that my
audience will be familiar with the everyday Catholic things,
expressions, and ideas that cradle Catholics take for granted, so I try
to heavily cross-reference and link to explanatory material. I can only
imagine the puzzled expressions on the face of an
ex-Pentecostal-cum-new Catholic convert when hearing that we Catholics
"can gain a plenary indulgence if we pray a Novena starting on Corpus
Christi in anticipation of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a day we
enthrone the Sacred Heart and pray a Litany." Unanswered are the
questions, "What's a Novena? What's 'Corpus Christi'? What do
you mean
by 'Sacred Heart'? What's a 'plenary indulgence'? What's a litany? And
how the heck do you 'enthrone' the 'Sacred Heart'? What does all this mean?"
In other words, I sort of want to act as "Godmother to Netizens" and
answer all those questions new Catholics "want to know about
Catholicism, but are afraid to ask" -- the sorts of things they don't
teach you in those typically horrible "RCIA" or "faith formation
programs," but you are supposed to know somehow.
As you read, note the following:
- I write with the
1962 Missal and Liturgical Calendar in mind because they are the most
commonly used by traditional priests1
- All Scriptural
references are to the Douay-Rheims version of the Bible, including
Psalm numbering 2
- Where there is a
difference between the new Code of Canon Law3
and now voluntary but beneficial and common
traditional Catholic practices, I try to state both so Catholics can
know what they are canonically bound to -- but will nonetheless likely
find their fellow traditionalists doing out of a love for the Church, a
desire to be faithful to Her true Spirit, and in the spirit of true
obedience.
Footnotes:
1 A missal
is a book that
contains the rite of the Mass, and its prayers, readings, lessons, etc.
The 1962 version of the Missal is the last Missal used before the Novus
Ordo Missae -- the new rite of the Mass -- was introduced after the
Second Vatican Council ("Vatican II"), which took place from 1962 to
1965.
2 The Douay Bible
(Challoner revision) is the Bible version whence the readings for the
1962 Missal come in its English translation (the Latin comes from the
Latin Vulgate, the translation of the Bible made by St. Jerome and
which is the official Bible version for the Roman Church). For
information on the differences in Psalm numbering used by most
Protestants and "Novus Ordo Catholics" (for lack of a better term) on
the one hand, and by traditional Catholics on the other, see the bottom
of the "Books of the Catholic Bible"
page.
3 A new Code of Canon Law
was also introduced after Vatican II, in 1983. Prior to this, the 1917
Code of Canon Law was used.
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