Today is Monday of the First Week of Advent.

In Catholic history: Deaths of Pope Leo X (1521) and Pope Pius VIII (1830).

Mass Readings: Yesterday | Today | Next Sunday

Pope Benedict's Intentions for December:
General: That in the face of a spreading of a culture of violence and death the Church through her apostolic and missionary activity may promote with courage the culture of life.
Missionary: That especially in mission countries Christians may show with acts of fraternal love that the Child born in the stable at Bethlehem is the luminous Hope of the world.

Classroom Ideas:

- Introduce the season. Remind the students that Advent is not just about preparing for Christmas but also to prepare us for the Second Coming of Jesus. Yesterday's Gospel is a great place to start a discussion of this important focus.

- Use this reflection to help students internalize this idea and apply it to their own lives. This is from Rocco Palmo's blog, Whispers in the Loggia. He is beginning a new series in which he posts a homily from different priests for each Sunday and holy day of obligation. This week's is well worth using because of its images and its very clear theme.

- Play the short overview of Advent podcast from the Bible Geek at LifeTeen. It's only 4:20.

Those who know me are aware that for the past year or so I've been trying to rebrand this site as a resource for Catholic educators (of which I am one). I've finally done it! All my Advent stuff will be posted by Tuesday night (troubles with my camera today forced a delay). There will be many features of the season, the centerpiece of which will be lesson ideas and useful reflections for high school students. Most of the material is original so you won't see it anywhere else.

I'll post a note on the blog once it's all finished.

One feature that will be on the blog will be a daily (Mon.-Fri.) link to something you could use in class. I'll try to post it at 7pm (Eastern) the night before. Please give me feedback in the com boxes or email me.

Advent is my favorite season... I spent an inordinate amount of time at school this weekend finishing my room. I hope my work can be of some benefit to others. I also hope that it can fill the void for good, solid resources for Catholic teachers on the net.

From today's Boston Globe, a look at the making of hosts for the Eucharist. If you follow the link, there's a video of the process as well. If you teach, students will enjoy this. Consider this an "end of class" change of pace.

There are very few recession-proof businesses left in the world, but the Cavanagh family of Rhode Island thinks they may have one - they make Communion wafers for millions of churchgoers each week.

These days, the company connected to the prayer business is enjoying an uptick.

"When times are tough, more people seem to go to church," said Brian Cavanagh, the chief executive officer of Cavanagh Co. He said sales of the company's altar breads are up as much as 5 percent this year, a possible indicator of the national mood. Sales spiked 10 percent after the Sept. 11 attacks.

In its 62d year of operation, the Cavanagh family business is the nation's leading supplier of Communion wafers. Their commercial bakery in this northern Rhode Island town runs 24 hours a day to make about 25 million wafers a week, primarily for Catholics, but for other denominations as well.

The company's manufacturing floor is a humming assembly line of weird, Willie Wonka-like machines. Contraptions custom-built by the Cavanaghs will thud, click sharply, and whoosh at odd intervals, like the percussion section of a highly experimental jazz band.

This effort goes to make one of the most revered products in the world, which faithful members of the Catholic Church believe will become the body of Jesus Christ.

The family markets its bread as "untouched by human hands" until they are delivered to parishioners in the Communion line. "You just want to make it as perfect as possible," said Andy Cavanagh, a member of the family that runs the business.

Before the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, Communion wafers were shiny white, much thinner than they are now, and designed to dissolve on the tongue, the Cavanaghs explained. The Church now celebrates the Eucharist with wafers that more closely resembled bread, and the Cavanagh Co. patented techniques to produce thicker unleavened wafers with sealed edges to prevent crumbs, the Cavanaghs said.

The family boasts of an 80 percent market share in the United States, and similar or even greater percentages in Canada, England, and Australia. With those kinds of numbers, the Cavanagh Co. is the Microsoft of altar bread.

From yesterday's ZENIT:

Erroneous applications of liturgical reforms implemented by Vatican II are generally not due to bad intentions, but simply to ignorance, says the Vatican official in charge of liturgy.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, affirmed this to L'Osservatore Romano on Saturday. The cardinal celebrated 50 years as a priest last Sunday.

The cardinal spoke with the Vatican daily about the responsibilities of his dicastery and its role in promoting and protecting the worship of God.

"The liturgy is the heart of the Church," he said. "If the Church were not to celebrate the Eucharist, she would become an obsolete institution." The congregation therefore is not an "ecclesiastical police force" but simply a "promoter of divine worship."

"If the Church doesn't pray, it doesn't live. The liturgy is the respiration of the life of the Church. The Church was born to adore God, to honor and praise him. The Mass is the highest act that the Church can perform; there is nothing higher. This is essentially the center of the activity of this dicastery," the prelate added.

Regarding confusion after the reforms to the liturgy implemented by the Second Vatican Council, the cardinal affirmed that the problem "is not the council itself, but those who have not received it correctly or those who in practice have even rejected it."

Differing views

"There are people who have not digested what Vatican II said, others who pretend to dictate the authentic interpretation of the council spirit, and others who even request a new council," he said.

Nevertheless, Cardinal Arinze affirmed, the situation today is much calmer than 30 years ago.

He contended that many abuses "are not due to bad intentions, but to ignorance. Some do no know, or are not aware that they do not know. They don't know, for example, that words and gestures have roots in the tradition of the Church. Thus, they think themselves more original or more creative changing them.

"Faced with these things, it is necessary to reaffirm that the liturgy is sacred; it is the public prayer of the Church."

The cardinal noted that his dicastery is currently studying possible changes to the liturgy, such as the placement of the sign of peace.

"Often, the significance of this gesture is not fully understood," Cardinal Arinze noted. "It is thought that it is an occasion to give a high-five to friends. Rather, it is a way of saying to the person beside you that the peace of Christ, really present on the altar, is also with all men."

The prelate said that the Church is considering moving the sign of peace to the moment of the offertory, "to create an atmosphere of more recollection while one is preparing for Communion."

"The Pope has asked for a consultation of all the bishops," the cardinal said. "Afterward, he will decide."

From CathNews:

The Bishop of Bunbury, Bishop Gerard Holohan, called for a radical reconsideration of the age and practice of the Sacrament of Confirmation at a meeting with the school principals of the Bunbury Diocese. He said that "in every practical sense, Confirmation had become a ‘Sacrament of Farewell'".

The Bishop contrasted the gap between the practice of today and the pastoral practice of the Early Church. Most Confirmation candidates today are the children of parents who have little if anything to do with the Christian community.

The Early Church conferred the Sacraments of Initiation on the children within families in which they were receiving, and would continue to receive, initiatory catechesis. The current practice of confirming children from families incapable of giving the necessary catechesis would not have been allowed in the Early Church. Sacraments were seen as sacraments of faith, and would not have been conferred outside a faith context.

The Bishop noted that today, instead of catechesis, we make do with religious education. Initiatory catechesis is an ‘apprenticeship in the faith', whereas religious education is an educational discipline offering an ‘understanding that leads towards faith'. Confusing the two, he said, is like confusing an electrical apprenticeship with the TAFE course required to qualify as an electrician.

One reason why the age for Confirmation has to be reconsidered is because of the move towards ‘Middle Schooling' in Western Australia. Another reason the Bishop cited is Pope Benedict's call for a review of pastoral approach to Confirmation in the light of whether it led into the 'community' where people ‘received formation' needed to appreciate the Eucharist as ‘the climax and summit' of the Christian life. He suggested that the current approach did the reverse.

Bishop Holohan concluded his remarks by saying a diocesan discussion is needed on the current approach to Confirmation. He suggested that among future possibilities was the one of "not completing Christian initiation until young people received adequate initiatory catechesis".

Practical implications of this approach included a new and focussed catechesis programme, a new level of parish and school collaboration, a catechesis strategy that draws in parents and even other family members so that families can offer catechesis and the raising of the Confirmation age.

The Bishop said the he wondered about the wisdom of reversing the order of First Holy Communion and Confirmation in the current pastoral situation. ‘There seems little sense in the Eucharist replacing Confirmation as the ‘Sacrament of Farewell'.

From Catholic Online:

Notre Dame Academy, located in Middleburg, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC, describes itself as an “independent, Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory high school…” at least until now. Founded in 1965, the current Board of Trustees recently announced that school will not comply with the Diocese of Arlington's Policy 910, which requires that Catholic schools have a Catholic headmaster. The change will go into effect July 1, 2009.

Claiming that the Catholic requirement has hindered their search for a permanent head, the board sent an email to parents on October 10, 2008, stating that “any limiting criteria placed on the process has reduced our pool of potential candidates and has hindered our search.”

Reportedly, the Chief Operating Officer of the Academy, Mr. Dan Dolan, who is a Catholic, had applied for the job but was ignored.

The Most Reverend Paul Loverde, Bishop of the Diocese of Arlington, where the academy is located, contacted the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Jim Atkins, on October 8, before the email had been sent. Atkins confirmed to the bishop that the board was resolute in their decision. In an open letter to the diocese, Bishop Loverde also indicated that Mr. Atkins further stated the Board of Trustees intends to amend the Articles of Incorporation for the school to delete the statement that it is a “Roman Catholic organization” functioning “in accordance with the traditions and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.”

The bishop informed Mr. Atkins he had no choice but to announce that Notre Dame would no longer be considered a Catholic School and would not be allowed to recruit in the elementary schools and parishes in the diocese.

“I am deeply disappointed that this formerly Catholic institution will no longer be counted among our Catholic schools,” he stated, “and that families in the western part of our diocese who wish to provide a Catholic high school education for their children will lose one option for doing so. I am encouraged, however, by the ongoing commitment of so many in our diocese as we work to provide faithful, excellent Catholic education to as many children as possible.”

The decision by the board will bring about a significant shift in identity for an educational institution that had an excellent reputation as a private Catholic school. “The Catholic mission of Notre Dame Academy is rooted in the Catholic principles upon which our school was founded.

Many parents are, not surprisingly, quite upset with the change. Diane Beauchamp, whose son Thomas is a freshman, told the Loudoun Times-Mirror, “We want a Catholic school. There are other schools out there that are private that are better academically, but I want that Catholic factor. I want my children to be balanced, and our Catholic faith is what really lays that foundation.”

The October 10 email took parents, who had just paid approximately $18,000 in tuition, completely by surprise. While most will be leaving their students at the school for the current year, next year may be very different.

Some parents, however, are supportive, citing the difficulty in fundraising and staffing.