Heroes

Speaking of those who will "save the liturgy," and in so doing, save the world:

I don't believe I remembered to mention:
I met one of my heroes yesterday, briefly.
I heard the noon Mass at St John Cantius, (as I had informed Himself of my intentions the previous evening after choir practice* ,and asked about the availability of the car, he asked, "Ya need a 'fix,' don't you?)
I don't know why, but I had thought the Missa in Cantu was over. But the Mass was concelebrated, presumably by all the attendee priests still in town, it was well and reverently chanted (the Epistle, particularly, I thought, fine voice and especially diction,) and a glorious and encouraging sight and sound it was -- it bodes well for the future of the Catholic Church in America. (I wonder how many priests were there over the course of the workshop, and if a "formal" report of the proceedings will be available, rather than the reports of JT which I have read grateful over at TNLM.)
I was tempted to scurry downstairs after mass and scavenge through the trash and dustbins and empty room and see if there were any left-over hand-outs to be had...
Anyway, during Mass I noticed an extremely elegant gentleman sitting a few pews away who looked familiar, very sound on the chant (which I sight-read, not too shamefully badly if I do say so myself, though I'm having the usual Fall vocal difficulties and sometimes had to drop into the mane's octave to sing softly. I have to make the time to learn more of the Gregorian Ordinaries, even though I can have no recourse to them at all right now...)
I wondered if I had ever sung with him, taken a class from him?
I asked him afterwards if we knew each other, and he got out "I'm Bill M---, before I realized it was Dr Mahrt, can't think where I'd seen a picture of him, but I must have, and I was very proud to have the opportunity to shake his hand, tell him how much his work means to me and others like me, and tell him how grateful I am for the brilliant point-by-point deconstruction of MCW he had made (and presented to the music sub-committee of the BCL of the USCCB, IIRC [yes, you have fallen down the rabbit hole of unending acronymia!]).
Now this was disconcerting -- he smiled hopefully and crossed his fingers.
You mean someone as well placed as he doesn’t know what the Bishops are going to come out with next month? You mean all of the obviously necessary changes he suggested may not be incorporated? You mean Bishop Trautman, who I'm sure is a good man but is inadvertently responsible for much nonsense and bad liturgy, after 10 drafts (so we read,) may have come out with another useless piece of Catholish, instead of the straight forward remedy we need, and which Dr Mahrt was so kind as to place in the hands of the Bishops??!?@??%??!^?
To quote Scrooge, I'll retire to Bedlam.

*and an amazingly lavish brithday party for one of the long-time members, all planned and paid for my another memeber, so not technically a "choir function," so while I was startled that the rectory had not been informed and invited, I guess no harm done.