Advent 2010

For St. Joan of Arc Knights of Columbus December newsletter:

Advent is the season of hope with anticipation and waiting without anxiety. We are invited by the Church to look forward to the final coming of Christ Jesus at the end of time. At the same time we prepare to celebrate His first coming in the Incarnation. We look forward by looking back, beginning with the words of Jesus: “…for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

How should we prepare, what are we to do? We are invited by Isaiah: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.”

Consider the words of the old hymn: “Rise up, O men of God! Be done with lesser things. Give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the King of kings.”

Let us not be distracted by the red and green that surrounds the season, but focus on the violet color of anticipation and the rose of sublime joy.

Deacon Rex Pilger

Authority of a Document

What is the significance and authority of the Directory for the Ministry and Life of the Permanent Deacons? The introduction includes this statement:

The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons, as in the case of the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, has, together with its hortative character, juridically binding force where its norms “recall disciplinary norms of the Code of Canon Law” or “determine with regard to the manner of applying universal laws of the Church, explicitate their doctrinal basis and inculcate or solicit their faithful observance”.(1) In these specific cases, it is to be regarded as a formal, general, executory Decree (cf. canon 32).

No doubt the Society of St. Piux X is unimpressed with this assertion.