Fr. Z of the blog "What Does the Prayer Really Say" highlights a recent series of columns by Bishop Slattery of Tulsa

(And for those of you who don’t know, Bishop Slattery used to be the director of the Catholic Extension Society and you can get a sense of what he means by "mission" in this recent CNS interview (pdf) :

Bishop Slattery said the conference underlined the fact that "we are far more aware now" than people were even 40 years ago "that the name of Jesus has not been spread throughout the world."

"We are failing, even after 2,000 years," he said. "We are still really just beginning evangelization. Only 17 percent of the world’s population is Catholic."

Now, these recent articles in the Catholic paper down there are on liturgy. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

– I am asking that the music in our liturgical celebrations be completely renewed and the proper balance between the word and the melody – reflected in the balance between the celebrant and the choir or cantor – be restored.

– I am insistent that our people be everywhere given the proper understanding of the Mass as a real sacrifice, by which the faithful are given access to share in the unique, unrepeatable and all sufficient historic sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.

We will need to discuss each of these points separately, beginning with our need to be faithful to the General Instructions which guide the celebration of our Sunday and Weekday Eucharist. Let me begin here, then, and in the weeks to come discuss the further three points.

Why we need to be faithful to the General Instructions I do not consider fidelity to the General Instructions of the Roman Missal as a legalistic imposition, nor as simply “following the rubrics.”Rather, our obedience here is an open, public profession that the Eucharist is something which we have received and not something which we ourselves make.

The line forms here for the moving vans to Tulsa.

Seriously, this is excellent stuff. The problem is that the letters, as far as I can tell, are in the copies of the newspaer that are archived in evil pdf format, so you have to go to each one and search out the bishop’s letter.  Go here and go the first issue of the year and work your way through. I’m predicting that these will be a popular read – it would be great if the Diocese could excerpt them and reproduce them on regular web pages so that they would be easier to read and pass on.