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Online Edition - Vol. IX, No. 7: October 2003
About Letters to the Editor
READERS' FORUM

Readers' Forum -- the lively "Letters to the Editor" of the Adoremus Bulletin provides a forum for exchange of ideas, comment and information on the sacred liturgy -- but the letters column is not normally published online. (Sample letters below).

If you are reading the Adoremus Bulletin in the "online edition" only, you are missing one of the most popular and useful features of the journal. To become a member of Adoremus -- and receive the "hard-copy" edition, including the "Readers Forum", see Membership page.

We are grateful for your letters. While we read every letter, we get so many that it is impossible to answer or publish all of them. In selecting those to appear in "Readers Forum", preference will be given to subjects of widest interest. Letters should be 250 words or fewer, preferably typed. They may be e-mailed. Please include your name, address, city and state (which may be withheld on request). If a letter refers to a previous issue of AB, please include the date of that issue and name of article. All letters may be edited for publication. Be sure to indicate clearly if your letter is NOT intended for publication.

Readers' Forum -- October 2003 --Compelling Case for Quality Music at Mass -- What's Next? -- Missals at Mass -- Purification of Vessels -- Mother Teresa -- What can we do?

What can we do?

Editor's Note: In late August we received a letter from a reader who asked to be removed from the mailing list, because he finds the news so discouraging he is tempted to despair. We, too, become disheartened. And reporting accurately is a difficult and exacting task. It sometimes seems like taking one step forward and two steps back. Responding to the letter, however, reminded us why we do what we do. We thought it might be useful for you too. Out of respect for our correspondent's privacy, we are not printing his letter, but we share our response here:

We received your letter of August 22, asking to be removed from our Adoremus Bulletin mailing list because you find it so disheartening to read. Believe me, I understand your reaction to distressing news; and I also sympathize with your sense of discouragement. It may indeed seem virtually impossible to overcome the damage that has for several decades afflicted the Liturgy of the Catholic Church -- alas, more often due to dissent from within the Church than from outside attacks. (Why should we be surprised? "He came unto His own, but His own received Him not".)

Indeed, if everything depended on our flawed human efforts, we would have cause for despair. Thank God, it does not. The same Holy Spirit that inspired the apostles on Pentecost, so that within the first few hours of the Church's existence more than 3,000 souls were converted to Christ, is still with her -- Deo gratias. We surely cannot expect less -- or more -- than they. Almost every one of the apostles suffered martyrdom in a world hostile to the True Faith. They did not live to see "the restoration of all things in God" - nor shall we, in all probability. And they, too, may have been tempted to despair - since they they "saw through the glass darkly", even as do we. Yet they did not; and their example of hope (albeit of the eschatological sort) shines forth still, and may even now encourage and console us, and enlighten our seemingly impenetrable darkness today.

Does this sound unconvincing? Is is too abstract or remote? Perhaps. But if we may become discouraged by the overwhelming troubles the Church suffers, and may sometimes be tempted to give up the fight, we have also recently seen surprising signals of hope -- of blossoming of renewed faith, especially among young people who (inexplicably?) have responded vigorously to the call to priesthood and religious life. We have seen even remarkable changes for the better in the liturgical sphere, not visible even a few years ago. The strong leadership of the Congregation for Divine Worship under Cardinals Medina and Arinze has produced foundational documents for liturgical renewal (e.g., Liturgiam authenticam), and even strong and unexpected correctives (e.g., the rejection of the defective International Commission on English in the Liturgy [ICEL]-revised "Sacramentary"; the thoroughgoing restructure of ICEL; the recent official clarifications of disputed liturgical norms). And it's barely ten years since the Catechism of the Catholic Church appeared, utterly changing the landscape for authentic transmission of the Catholic faith, making the authoritative teaching of the Church easily accessible not only to every Catholic but to everyone else as well.

It is up to us, now, to make full use of the gifts we have been given to "labor in the Vineyard" faithfully. We were brought into being at this time in history, in this civilization and not some other, to serve God and His Church. Will our path be smooth? No, it will be uphill and often treacherous -- just as it was for the first Christians. We can expect, too, that it will be profoundly depressing, at times. So many people suffer a "deep and abiding sense of loss", as you do. How can we expect to help? Is it futile after all?

Yet, we remember that we are not our own. We belong to Christ. And when we are called to serve Him, how can we say "Non Serviam" -- even if our service of His Truth entails great personal cost? What if we refuse? Put another way, if someone is assaulting my mother can I stand apart and watch? No, I am compelled to do everything I can to stop the assailant -- and then to bind up my mother's wounds and nurse her back to health -- or die trying. As I see it, the same applies with Holy Mother Church. Even if I do not live to see her beauty restored, her truth transparent, her Mystical Body renewed.

We will remove your name from our mailing list, as you request. However, I ask that you please consider giving us the benefit of your prayers, that the Holy Spirit may guide all our efforts, and that we do not succumb to discouragement or despair. I am enclosing a copy of our Novena for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy, and I beg you to pray for us -- and also to pray especially for seminarians, who will one day inherit the mantle of the apostles, that they may "put on the whole armor of God" to "fight the good fight", to serve His people and His Holy Church.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Helen Hull Hitchcock
Editor, Adoremus Bulletin

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