Random thoughts....

Random thoughts.... As I sorted and neatened to make way for the organ techs last week, the strains of what Fr wincingly and justly refers to as "the tom-tom" song wafted up to the loft, accompanied by sticks and shakers and other contributers to the, to borrow a pun, orffal sound.
I cannot help but feel sorry for him, and worse, the children whose sensibilties are being formed, and worst of all, for the Sacred Liturgy, which is being DEformed.
I am very sorry.....but I also wonder, what did he expect?
At the the meeting, there was a bit of discussion, with him being as kind and diplomatic as he could, about how much longer something that is cluttering up the sanctuary would be there. (At least I think that was his take on it.)
But I thought, does it really look worse than, say, a dead branch with wads of masking tape stuck to it? and again, what could be expected?
(A poster on many of the blogs I read, to whose posts I always look forward said something once about the impulse that in emphsizing the Mass, misguidedly tried to do away with all devotional practices also, in emphasizing the altar of sacrifice, misguidedly neglected the decorative and catechetical possibilities of the other parts of the worship environment. Good stuff, but a different topic...)
The adult choir is very attached to several numbers that formed part of our Paschaltide repetoire this year, at least one of which he, again, justly, dislikes, and more, disapproves of with good reason.But they are loud and peppy/snappy/uplifting (pick your buzz word for the inappropriate trivialities that pervade contemporary liturgy -- mind you, even the first two are words actually used by this music's PROPONENTS.)
And they entertain the singers and the audience in a way that both groups have all been taught to demand of their church-going experiences. (I still take heat for only programming them before or after and refusing to let them be an actual part of the liturgy.)
So they are united across the generations!
The indoctrination has taken, at ALL age levels.
Certain sensibilities are quite deliberately cultivated, nurtured in the most malleable, most susceptible, most vulnerable, youngest -- its manifestation in adolescents and adults should not surprise.
And these currents all run together to create the torrent that is bearing people ever further and further from what is, or what should be, what would be if they would allow it, the Source and Summit of their faith, their lives.
What is the merchandising equivalent of "burying the lede"?
Whatever it is, we're doing it -- we have the most Precious Being that is, whole and entire, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, Real-ly and Substantial-ly Present, on offer -- gratis! Literally, free, a grace....
And we're advertising balloons, and confetti cannons.