Father Knows Best Show
Father Knows Best is a locally produced Question and Answer show on Siouxland Catholic Radio 88.1 FM. The show is hosted by Father Mark Stoll. He is a priest in the Sioux City diocese, canon lawyer, and trained media person on air. The program airs on Wednesdays at 9pm.
Father Knows Best Show
Episode 17 - Sending forth at the end of Mass, Old and New Testament Believers and Hand Sanitizers
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In this episode, Father Mark Stoll answers questions about who is greater - the Old Testament believers or the New Testament believers; the different types of prayer to God, the correct wording to send forth the faithful at the end of Mass, and the use of hand sanitizers by communion ministers.
Tune in so we may discover, learn and engage our hearts, souls and minds so we may be illuminated, informed and inspired.
Send in your questions via e-mail at fatherknowsbestshow@yahoo.com.
The program is sponsored by St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, NE.
I have questions. I don't understand. I'm confused. What's going on? This is not what I learned in school. What does the church really teach? Welcome to Father Knowledge Bush, the studios of 88.1 FM, KFA C Pankasu City, and K-O-I-A. Storm Mike. Brought to you by the St. Augustine Indian Mission, Winnebago. We all have questions and the curiosity about manners of faith as it is normal for humanity to ask questions and seek answers in the kind of quest for understanding regarding matters of faith in the church. We believe that there is no such thing as a foolish or dumb question. And I say the only dumb question is the one that is not asked. And the reality is that the questions you have are like questions others have, and so it is good to ask. Sometimes an answer leads to more questions. Sometimes the questions and answers will lead us to insights we never considered. We at Siouxland Catholic Radio want to invite our listeners from Jackson, Nebraska to Help Point, South Dakota, to Stromlink, Iowa, and everywhere in between and beyond, send your questions to us at Father Knows Best Show at Yahoo.com. Or mail them to Father Knows Best, Sioux Line Catholic Radio, 701 West Fifth Street, Sioux City, Iowa, 51103. During this time, once a week, I or another guest will do our best to answer some of the questions I've received here at the studio so we may discover, learn, and engage our hearts and souls and minds, so we may be illuminated, informed, and inspired. So I thank you for tuning in. We invite you to open your mind, let the questions begin, and let your curiosity find its voice. Are we changing your life here?
SPEAKER_01We are changing my routines. You're changing my thoughts on faith, which I think is incredible.
SPEAKER_00And hopefully our listeners are feeling the same. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01I think they're exactly feeling the same.
SPEAKER_00And I again grateful that Ann is here again on the board to produce this show so that you can hear this, these questions and answers that we're going to present in just a few seconds. So, Tim, let's dive into our first question this evening.
SPEAKER_01A faithful listener asked the question as follows Should faithful believers of the Old Testament be held in greater esteem because they believed without seeing, versus faithful New Testament believers got to see the many miracles that Christ performed and had firsthand sight of God's power.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for that question. This is a very interesting question. And when I first saw this question, my first thought went to remember that uh time in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 29, when it's after the resurrection, Jesus appears again on that Sunday after the resurrection, and Thomas is there with the disciples. Yep, wants to put his hand in the side and his fingers in his nail marks. And Jesus says to Thomas, he says, Have you come to believe because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. It's like, wow, that's a neat statement. And so when you look at that statement, it seems like Jesus is placed in a higher esteem for people who have not seen but still believe. And thus it would seem to place the people of the Old Testament who were faithful to God, and even us at a greater esteem than the apostles, because we haven't seen Jesus. However, then the second thought comes to my mind is that no matter who we are, when we lived, we are all blessed when we believe, whether we've seen or not. So this thought, again, leads to this thought about that faith, those faithful believers of the Old Testament, meaning that they ought not to be, should not be held in a great esteem than those of the New Testament, because, you know, simply because they believed without seeing. They didn't see Jesus' miracles. And let's explain that a little bit. Why upon but no, they're not higher esteem. The Catholic Church teaching emphasizes that faith is a gift. It's a response to God's revelation. And again, it's a response in any generation, any era. With the Old Testament believers, we see them serving as excellent models, precisely because they lived their faith anticipating the coming of Christ, the Messiah. And while the New Testaments believed, they received, you might say, one sense, greater graces because of the incarnation and the miracles, which again confirmed rather than replaced the faith of the people of the Old Testament. Yet the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament were both rooted in obedience to God along with that limited human sight. And thus we say both groups of people are worthy of high esteem. So when we talk about faith and belief, we're talking about trust in divine truth. We're talking about that this trust may or may not be done, or have people have experienced uh various sights, visions, miracles, or whatever it might be. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that even without miracles, humanity is bound to believe Christ as the first truth incarnate greater than any sign. That's found in his Summa Theological in one of these books that we're not going to get into. In the letter of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it says, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And again, we see that statement in referring to the faithful people of the Old Testament as models for all believers. Faith is assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen. Yet this same faith we see finds a perfection in Christ who uh the Catechism Catholic Church in paragraph 149 says is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. And thus with through Christ grants to New Testament believers a kind of a fuller light, we can say. Now, we also look at the Old Testament going back to like Abraham. Abraham was called the father of all believers because Abraham trusted in God's promise amid various trials. But we also take a look at the New Testament, we see and hear people who witnessed Jesus' miracles and who believed in Jesus due to the wonders, but their faith still remained a little weak compared to those who were moved just simply by Jesus' teaching. And so if we esteem the Old Testament faithful as being greater than the faithful of the New Testament, then we're overlooking the graces that are given to each group of people. With those of the Old Testament, they're preparing for the coming of Christ. While those of the New Testament, they are called to respond to the fulfillment of God's promise with the coming of the Messiah of Jesus. And while miracles helped unbelievers, the miracles demanded a deeper trust beyond sight. And we know that Jesus scolded those who had doubt when people pleaded for help from him. I also want to point out uh Pope Benedict XVI and the general audience back in January 2013 presented Abraham as a universal model for all believers, but he's not saying he's a superior model of faith. Rather, the church, we honor both groups proportionately. We would say the patriarchs, you know, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets, they're our ancestors in faith. The apostles are eyewitnesses. Both groups are united in the communion of saints. Both have an obedience of faith, which again basically defines greatness. You know, faith brings greatness. And in summary, we can see we esteem all faithful equally as witnesses to that one faith that was nurtured through salvation history. And so with those of the Old Testament, they demonstrate what we call anticipating trust. Those of the New Testament demonstrate this trust due to what they saw. Both groups glorify God in a way they knew how to do at that time of their that they lived. And I might also add that we the faithful, what we might call the post-New Testament times, we also have an equal esteem for believing in what God has done in the past, what God is doing today, and what God will do tomorrow. And so I hope this answers your question. I think it does answer the question. Very good.
SPEAKER_01Well, let's try the next one. Yes. Another faithful listener asks, What are the different types of prayer that we make to God?
SPEAKER_00Excellent. Thank you for that question. Again, prayer, of course, is that important component of our faith life that is the way that we communicate, one of the ways we communicate with God, and God communicates with us. It's a dialogue. Saint Teresa Lassour in his in her autobiography talks about, she says, quote, For me, prayer is a surge of the heart, is a simple look towards heaven, is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. And Saint John Dasbassine, uh, in a book that he wrote, I believe it's uh on Orthodox faith, he says that prayer is the raising of one's mind to the heart and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God. So again, just a brief kind of definition from two saints of what prayer is. So in the Catholic tradition, again, this is you know, since the first days of the church, we basically have recognized several forms and modes of prayer. There, of course, forms of prayer include vocal prayer and mental prayer. There's also individual prayer and communal expressions. And then we will talk about modes of prayer. Uh, modes of prayer would be blessing and adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. And we find all these forms of modes of prayer in the scripture, in the example of the saints, in the lives of, you know, for example, uh Saint Teresa of Avalon and the teachings on religious life, and of course, we find these in Jesus Himself. And so let's first look at vocal and mental prayer. In her writings, uh, in uh Saint Teresa of Avalon, again, writings the way of the perfection that she wrote, in chapter 24, she describes how vocal prayer may be practiced with perfection and how closely it is allied to mental prayer. And so she writes in in that, in her book, she says, vocal prayer involves recited words directed to God, often faithfully combined with attentive realization of divine presence. And she also points out that while mental prayer deepens interior union through uh recollection and meditation, so she she sees both vocal and mental prayer go hand in hand. You can verbalize something, but at the same time, your mental prayer is deepening this interior union with God through recollection and meditation. And then she goes on, St. Teresa Avala goes on and says, she emphasizes that reciting the Lord's Prayer and doing it well, she says, requires staying close to Christ, the Master, while blending vocal uh resuscitation and with mental awareness. And so, in short, we can see vocal prayer is of course when we speak our prayers out loud. It's whether we're praying in the memorized prayer, like the Lord's Prayer or the Hail Mary. We may be reading a prayer from a prayer book, uh, maybe even an impromptu, just come from the heart. We just make up this prayer and we just verbalize it. And more information about uh vocal prayer can be found in the Catholic Catholic Church, or paragraphs 2700 to 2704. Mental prayer, as of course when we sit quietly and we pray, a memory, maybe a memorized prayer again, like the Lord's Prayer of the Hail Mary, or prayer we find in the in in the prayer book, or we just maybe mentally come up with a prayer from the heart that we make up. But again, as St. Teresa Alva states, you know, when we are meditating on a prayer, in a sense we're also vocalizing. And so again, God hears us even when we're just quietly meditating or contemplating. And those are all the two forms of mental prayers the meditation and contemplation. And again, more information can be found in the Catechist Catholic Church, paragraphs 2705 to 2719. So the Catechist Catholic Church has a lot to say about prayer. Now let's go on to individual communal prayer. Again, that's pretty self-explanatory, I believe. You know, individual prayer is what we do on an individual basis. You know, we're by ourselves, maybe pray our morning prayers or evening prayers, pray before we eat. Even even attending daily Eucharist could be uh individual prayer in one sense. And I'll go more on that a little bit later, but you know under psychology, there's some scripture reading, engagement mental prayer, praying liturgy hours, doing our mental, or excuse me, doing our marrying devotions such as the rosary, attending annual retreats, whatever it might be. But those all those forms of prayer can also move into a communal sense. Because, you know, we can actually pray with a community, you know, morning and evening prayers. We can, you know, maybe with our family praying before we eat with you know some with a family member or family, friends. Again, daily mass, you know, going to the Eucharist, going to the sacrament salation, which again is a private thing, but yet still it's can be done somewhat communally in various aspects of it. Again, scripture reading with another person or others, or again, engaged in mental prayer, praying, playing, praying liturgy hours, or marrying devotions, and ten retreats. And all this, you know, can be done communally too. And so, in a you know, most often we see that you know, celebrating the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, again, the very communal form of prayer. We gather together as a community. And then in any of these forms of prayer, we can look at there's different modes. Again, I mentioned blessing, adoration, and petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. Let's dive a little deeper into those. Prayer and adoration. Again, that's described in the Catechist Catholic Church, paragraphs 26, 26 to 26, 28. That prayer of blessing and adoration is all about acknowledging the greatness of God, paying homage to God. Then there's petition, and that comes in the following uh paragraphs of Catechist Catholic, 2629 to 2633. It talks about asking God for forgiveness. Petition is about asking God for forgiveness and also desiring to come into God's kingdom. Then there's intercession. Again, following paragraphs in 2634 to 2633 talks about prayer petition is asking God for something that we or someone else might need or want. That's intercession. And thanksgiving. Next paragraphs, 2637, 2638, says it's about giving thanks to God for the gifts that we have received from God. And finally, there's praise. Following paragraphs 2639 to 2643, it's all about recognizing God as God and gives God glory simply because God is God. So let's use a few examples here where we find those forms of prayer, those modes of prayer. One is, of course, in the Lord's Prayer. And in that Lord's Prayer, you're going to find a number of these form modes of prayer. And maybe a little bit kind of hard to discern, but I'm going to say that when we say our Father, it's simply just a praise. You know, praise of God as being God, God's Father. He's our Father. And then we go a little further, we talk about hallowed be thy name. That's again a blessing adoration. We're blessing God for how holy his name is. And then we go a little further and we start having some intercessions. Give us this day our daily bread. And then a little bit later we have a petition. Forgive us our trespasses. So again, there's four more, at least four modes, four of the modes that are right there in the Lord's Prayer. Another wonderful place to find these different modes of prayer is in the Psalms. In Psalm 103, it says, Bless the Lord, my soul, all my being, bless his holy name, bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his gifts. And again, when we look at that psalm, it kind of gives it away what it is. It's a blessing adoration because it mentions the word bless many times. There's a nice beautiful petition psalm that's used many times in our church's liturgy, Psalm 51. Petition again, asking for God's forgiveness. Have mercy on us, God. It says, in accord with your merciful love, in your abundant compassion, blot out my transgressions. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and from my sin cleanse me. And then there's intercession. Psalm 20 is an example of this. The Lord answer you in time of distress. The name of God of Jacob defend you. Again, asking for defense, protection. Psalm of Thanksgiving can be found in Psalm 7. I will thank the Lord in accordance with his justice. I will sing the name of the Lord Most High. And praise. One of the most famous praise Psalms is 145, where it says, I will extort you, my God and King. I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you. I will praise your name forever and ever. It's sometimes a little hard to discern maybe what the Psalm is doing. Maybe it shifts a little bit sometimes, but uh, in that Psalm 145, it does mention about blessing God's name. So maybe consider us a psalm of blessing, but again, it mentions praise, and so again, we consider that a praise psalm. So again, just all the psalms, you know, every one of the psalms, there's a theme to it, and take a look, it's like which mode are they being uh is being used here? So, in summary, the types of prayer are, of course, vocal and mental, individual communal, and then there's the modes of prayer: blessing, adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. And so I hope that answers your question about the different types of prayer.
SPEAKER_01You know, we do a really good job in this society of asking God for many things. We don't do a good job of thanking him for many things. So that's that's an important piece to the equation.
SPEAKER_00Which reminds me, it's like, you know, this morning I went on and I got a brand new phone, and I'm like, boy, this hope this all works out fine. Yep. And I'm driving away from the store, I'm thinking, thank you, Jesus, this worked out beautiful. So again, anytime you just drop a little some vocal mental prayer, you know, word it out. It's like just thank you. So we are giving so many gifts.
SPEAKER_01So many gifts.
SPEAKER_00If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Father Knows Best here on Sullivan Catholic Radio as I answer your questions about faith and about the Catholic Church. I'm Father Mark Stowe, joined by Tim Soudine, who is presenting some of the questions I received from you, our listeners. And so let's uh try in the third question.
SPEAKER_01Okay. This too comes from a loyal listener, and it's a bit long, so I will try to make sure that the question makes sense at the end. Yes. At conclusion of Mass, I've heard the following words from the bishop or priest or deacon. The mass is ended, go in peace. Go forth glorifying the Lord by your life, go forth proclaiming the gospel. And from a bishop, our help is in the name of the Lord. What is the correct wording to send forth the faithful? And how much leeway does the deacon, priest, or bishop have?
SPEAKER_00Thank you for that question. So the dismissal of the people and a mass is done by the deacon, or if there's no deacon, by the priest, and that's all about, again, dismissing the faithful so they may go back and do the good works, praising and blessing God, you know, in their daily lives. And so the title, uh just a little trivia head of the title title Mass comes from one of the those four dismissals. That uh one of those four dismissal formulas that may be used. In Latin, it says it misa est. It's English is go forth, Mass is ended. So then that's where the word mass comes from, is that being sent. And so let's talk a bit about that dismissal, because the dismissal begins after that, uh, at the end of Mass, after the prayer of Holy Communion, and again, after any announcements need to be made, then the priest, and it does it doesn't matter whether he's a bishop or not, he's gonna stand his hands to the people and either say, or even sing, the Lord be with you, and the people respond, and with your spirit. Now, when there is a bishop presiding, which is also known as the pontifical mass, after the prayer of communion and any announcements are made, the bishop receives the mitre, puts his quote, his hat on, sends his hand, and then he may sing or say, The Lord be with you, we respond, and with your spirit. Then the bishop may sing or say, Blessed be the name of the Lord. The response to that is now and forever. And then the bishop says, Our help is in the name of the Lord, and that we will respond who made heaven and earth. Then the priest or bishop may offer what we call solemn blessing. And it's usually like three invocations such as, May Almighty God bless you in his kindness and pour out our saving wisdom upon you, and we respond, Amen. And then the priest or bishop would say, May he nourish you always in the teachings of the faith and make you persevere in holy deeds. We respond, Amen. And then they say, and may he turn your steps to himself and show you the path of charity and peace. We say amen. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, Holy Spirit come down and remain with you forever. Amen. Then comes the solemn uh dismissal. Um so after that blessing, the deacon, if he's present or the priest, has four options. Option one, go forth, the mass is ended. Option two, go and announce the gospel of the Lord. Option three, go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life. And option four, go in peace. And so if the deacons are present, he gets the final say. And we respond, thanks be to God, any of those four invitations to be dismissed. And so the dismissals, if you notice all four of them begin with the word go, and it's done with a priest or deacon facing the people, and again with uh deacon, you know, uh with his priest having his hands folded when he says that. And it's really up to the bishop, the priest, or the deacon, you know, whoever's present, do that dismissal to choose one of those four as the dismissal. And so when I read the instructions in the rubrics of the mass regarding those words to be used for dismissal, I find that only these four options are given. I find no other options or leeway provided. To the priest or bishop or deacon. Unlike there's a few places in Mass where it says in these words, or the instructions rubric says, in these or similar words, the priest or deacon may say this. And this, for example, can be done like for example the penitentiary, of course, the homily, and a few other places. But otherwise, I see that the bishop, priest, deacon are really, in a sense, locked into those words given. This is what, of course, gives the mass this universal nature. Thus we as people who know that wherever we go, and no matter who the bishop is or who the priest or deacon is, the words will be the same. Unless unless the bishop or priest or deacon invents some words that really are not intended to be used. And so, in summary, these and these are the only words that I see that are to be used for dismissal by a bishop, priest, or deacon.
SPEAKER_01Very good.
SPEAKER_00I hope that answers your question.
SPEAKER_01It does. I think that very well answers it.
SPEAKER_00Let's try another one.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Mary sends this question via email. Yes. Why is hand sanitizer used by communion ministers if we truly believe that the Eucharist is God who is all perfection, all love, all pure? Surely disease would not be transferred via reception of him, the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00That is an excellent question. Whenever I've trained ex-ministers of Holy Communion, I've always reminded them if we truly believe that Christ is truly present in the bread and wine, which is the body and blood of Christ, we receive Holy Communion, we will not share disease. At the same time, of course, I invite them to refrain from receiving from the especially the communion chalice if they are sick, such as have a cold. Simply, this is out of respect for fellow communicants who know that they are sick and and they may become a little nervous of receiving from the chalice because of they believe maybe the cold would be transferred to them. So I just simply asked as a sign of respect for others. But regarding the use of hand and sanitizer, again, as I recall, it was not until the coronavirus, known as SARS, which first appeared in November 2002, that within a few months it began spreading worldwide and was passed from person to person that we priests were asked to have ex-radministers of Holy Communion have their hands sanitized before administering Holy Communion, even if they were going to be holding the communion shells. And so this practice continued even after the cases of SARS ceased in 2004. And then, of course, we all remember 2019, COVID-19 came along, and then we priests were instructed to close our churches with no public masses. And when we resumed public masses with limited attendance, even the priests and deacons were instructed to use hand sand ties before administering Holy Communion. And this practice, again, still is technically in place in our diocese of Sioux City for all priests, deacons, and minister holy communion. But I've seen in many parishes really basically starting to return to the old practice, just only the extra minister of the Holy Communion sound ties. But some of this, again, still remains because there's concern about passing of diseases due to services. Again, we touch door handles, tops of pews, another person's hand during the sign of peace. There's even a failure to wash hands, you know, after using the restroom, God forbid, or wiping one's nose. And so there's still, you know, some concern about passing disease. But yet, the question is, is it necessary, even prudent, to administer Holy Communion after using hand sanitizer? And I just want to first note, I had a nurse a number of years ago noted that as nurses, they're instructed not to use hand sanitizer within five minutes of serving food or medicine to patients, as that residue of the sanitizer can remain up to five minutes depending on how much is applied. We as priests, we were instructed that it takes at least two minutes for hand sanitizer to become effective. But still we see priests, and sometimes I'm included, who have applied a little hand sanitizer and within seconds we're administering Holy Communion. And that means that even that little bit of sanitizer might be placed on the on the host a little bit, and so that the communication might even taste some of the sanitizer on the host, which means the host has been contaminated by the sanitizer. Then there's also medical experts who say that we need to use sanitizer in cases like this. But yet, do we really need it when we're ministering the body and blood of Christ? On my part, I like to wash my hands before mass. Again, I avoid touching as many things as possible. So the only thing my hands are really touching during mass is the hymnal, rumble missile, the vessels, uh maybe a follow-up priest or deacon during the hand sign of peace. But again, all done. You know, do my best to keep my hands clean. Exholic communion need to do the same thing because again, they can touch a lot of objects. But yet, again, when we look at this, the use of hand sanitizer may not be as important as we have been led to believe because Minister Holy Communion, we're not holding the host very long. During the COVID pandemic, again, we're even instructed to carefully place the host in the communist hand so that we do not touch the communicant. Uh, there's also very limited contact of the Minister of Holy Communion with the host, and so you know, really, it seems pretty safe. We're not, you know, we're not handling the host that much. And so the key thing here, I believe, is the fact that we believe that Christ is truly present in the bread and wine, which of course is the body and blood of Christ. And we believe that we when we receive Holy Communion, we'll not share disease. I think that's I think important for us to really think about that how sacred this is, what moment we're doing. Again, I would instruct, you know, if if if you're an extraordinary extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, you're sick, you know, we probably shouldn't be assisting at that time just for respect for others. But again, I think if we really believe that Christ is truly present in the bread and wine, which is the body and blood of Christ, we will not share germs and disease, and we don't really need to use hand sanitizer. But ultimately, this practice is really up to the pastor and the and the bishop. And so I hope that answers your question. I think that is a very good answer to the question. So I think uh we're about out of time. If uh Ann's giving the hands up there, it's like time to quit. Really grateful, really appreciate you tuned in to Soothe and Catholic Radio as we offer national and local programs, including Faith in Action with Joy and Fox, drawing here with Friend Cure, Life Plan, Catholic Ministry Professionals, Divine Reserve Chaplain, Sunday Morning Mass. So please check out the Facebook pages for Soothein Catholic Radio and for Father Knows Best for more information about this show and other shows, including more information about these questions and answers that I've addressed, and maybe some information I have not addressed on it on this episode yet. As we wrap up today's question and answers, please realize our heartfelt thanks to all of you for tuning in and sharing your thought-provoking questions. Your curiosity, your engagement makes the show possible, and we are always inspired by the incredible range of topics to bring to the table. We hope you found the answers both informative and enlightening, and that you'll carry some of the new insights with you as you go about your week. And if your question was not answered today, you may hear the answer to your question next week. If you missed this episode, would like to re-listen to this or other episodes, please visit our website, Sudancatholic Radio.com, and visit visit the programs drop menu and click local programs to find this episode and other episodes of Father Knows Best and other local programs. Again, if you have any questions, please send your questions to us at Father Knows Best Show at Yahoo.com or mail them to Father Knows Best, Sudan Catholic Radio, 701 West Fifth Street, Sioux City, Iowa, 51103. And thank you through our sponsor, San Augusta Indian Mission, Winobago. Please join us again next Wednesday at 9 p.m. for another round of questions and answers. Until then, stay curious, stay faithful, keep your light shining, and keep those questions coming. But now I'm Father Mark Stowe, your host signing off, and wishing you a great week ahead. And mighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.