From the people who brought you Oktoberfest

Well, every idea cant be a good idea....

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=51676

German priests reject Vatican directive on translation
Rottenburg, Jun. 8, 2007 (Kath.net/CWNews.com) - Priests in Rottenburg, Germany have voted to reject the Vatican translation of the phrase pro multis in the Eucharistic liturgy, the Kath.net news service reports.
The priests' council of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese announced that the members had decided by a "democratic vote," to retain the current German translation of pro multis as "for all."
The dismissed a directive from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship. Cardinal Francis Arinze (bio - news), the prefect of the Congregation, wrote to the world's bishops last November, announcing that all translations of the liturgy should render pro multis as "for many"-- a translation that is more faithful to the Latin text and to the theological reality that while Christ's redemptive suffering makes salvation available to all, it does not follow that all men are saved.
The Rottenburg priests argued that the use of "for many" would be confusing to the faith In this day and age." They added that the original Scriptural text read "for all," citing as their authority a Protestant scholar of the 18th century whose analysis the Catholic Church has rejected.
"The promise of salvation is directed to all people," the German priests said. "This truth of the faith is put most clearly in the 'for all.'"

Poor thangs

REAL fashion designers having their thunder, and their livelihood stolen by celebs...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/fashion/07DESIGNERS.html?ref=style

As if that hasn't been happening to actors for, oh I dunno... FOREVER?
I give you Madonna on Broadway, King Charles (and any number of Louis...s...s...s?,) Nero, et al.
I give you numerous productions at the late lamented BRDT.
Martin Sheen showed up to star in something, son in tow, and SB with a signed contract was told, "buh bye."And I don't blame Sheen (to whom it probably didn't even occur that someone else was harmed by the request for a favor,) or whichever son it was (neither was known well enough at the time for it to have stuck in my mind, but both became decent actors,) and I only blame the weasel producer a little.

Business is business, and skill and training count for less than connections and publicity value because Money is god.
It's why amateurism is such a beautiful thing.
And that is personally relevant just now, yes.
And no, I'm not speaking of theater.
No, another matter entirely.
I should, yes.
So you're putting a price on integrity and joy?
But I can barely afford health insurance as it is.... (who's the weasel now?)

Jolie lives!

Odd little item in the times in light of discussion with Himself last night while watching an interminable musical number where Jolson arrived in heaven with his loyal ol' mule.
We talked about the difference in intent, when such a think was, (and even is, archivally-speaking,) permissible today.
But wait a minute, wait a minute.... you ain't heard nothin' yet.

Black leaders critical of church skit meant to honor history

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) -- Local black leaders are decrying a recent
performance by three white men at a church who wore blackface while
pantomiming traditional black hymns.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Religion-Briefs.html?pagewanted=2

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.

Liturgical Translation

http://adoremus.org/0607LiturgicalTranslation.html

Adoremus Bulletin has a superb address by (now Bishop) Peter Elliot on liturgical translation and how much of the current (dreadful) translation now in use manages to be... untruthful.
One might amend Twain, "There are lies, damned lies, and the output of the late 20th c. ICEL."

Trinity and anniversaries...

Not bad.
Come Now Almighty King, ALL verses... Praise to the Lord, I Received the Living God, and the Divine Praises, all sung with such gusto at all four Masses that the cantors were taken aback.
The MoC Gloria would be low on my list of preferences, but that's not what it's about, and it, as well as the Danish Amen Mass acclamations, (newly re-introduced after a longish absence,) are sturdy and well-liked.
The People's Mass Agnus Dei is still not as strong as I would like, (though it stopped being actually tentative quite shortly after its introduction at the Mass of the Lord's Supper this year,) we'll use that for a few more weeks yet.
The choir sang well, Mr Webbe's Cor Jesu (we will use it throughout the month of the Sacred Heart,) is a keeper, and Canticorum Jubilo made a good impression (God bless Mark for helping us out, trumpet was an excellent, festive addition, very fitting for the occasion.)
On compunction, one song that I believe to be totally unfit to appear in a liturgical setting, for its presumptuous touting of human rather than Divine agency, but other than that and the M of C, I was very satisfied with the programming.
The psalm was a lovely, solemn metric response, (from the Basilica Psalter, is that what that used in C th E is called?) that everyone sang very well (I took it down a step, too high, silly, needlessly so, really what is that tendency?) to which I added simpler chant verses.
But best of all, to me, were the Praises.
I was all in a lather, certain someone (hint, hint...) would object, or that they would be insufficiently long for the need, or that the congregation wouldn't sing.
Oh, and Father G cited the Fr Clarence Rivers God Is Love in his sermon, and NO ONE, except the 7 school children to whom I taught it for the opening of Catholic Schools' Week Mass this year, knew it! But I could oblige him by singing it along with him from the loft, and I worked it (as well as Glory Be To Jesus, aka The Precious Blood Fight Song,) into my noodling (liturgical cocktail keyboard...) and I was very proud of that.
Oh, and snatches of Nimrod in honour of Elgar's anniversary.
So all in all, not too ashamed of my efforts, my offering.

Prevarication and the prevaricating prevaricaters who...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pell-calls-for-stem-cell-research-ban/2005/09/20/1126982061898.html

Notice something missing from the headline? The word "embryonic."
Cardinal Pell is fighting EMBRYONIC stem cell research, the destruction of human life to make use of body parts, (not to mention harvesting those parts without that person's permission.)

But yet again, well done, Cdl. Pell. Big man from down under makes big noise.

Oh...you mean you expect me to BELIEVE the stuff we teach?

Cardinal Pell to ask profession of faith for school principals

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=51555

Well done, Cardinal Pell.

The old year fast away is fading...

Church choirs are a bit like school, or at least this one is... the unbearable heat of the loft coupled with the average age of the choir (and the fact that, come summer, even the priests are looking for a "fast Mass" in the un-air conditioned church,) means that we have summer vacation.
It took a few years, but with the hook of our patronal saint's feast day, and the promise of an end of year social gathering I have managed to get a few to stick it out till the end of June.
Still, it was a dismal turn-out last night.
But we're sounding pretty okay.
And it took a few years but I have finally learned to think of this long term, that I can rehearse things this year that we won't use till fall or even next year.
I have thoughts of a vocal arrangement incorporated into the V-W prelude on RHOSMYDRE so I decided to introduce them to the tune with Our Father By Whose Name, with the idea that we have tons o' rep for Mothers' Day, thanks to all the (albeit, many of them sappy,) Marian hymns, but nothing for Fathers' Day.
But of course, I couldn't shut up, when someone brought up Abba Father I had to open my big yap and say that it was maybe the most boring tune ever composed. And OF COURSE someone there likes it and was hurt.
And what am I gonna do, go into details about its musical inadequacies, its technical inefficiencies?
Dang me...
On t'other hand, they are quite taken with the Handel and will be a nice capper for the anniversary Mass, the Gouzes last week went well (and will again this week,) the Sequence last week not tooo bad (so yeah, not too good, either...) and the little setting we'll try for Lauda Sion next week (not the greatest piece of music but tolerable,) has been a moderate hit with them (I never thought I would have to tip-toe around worrying quite so much about the choir's taste --- live and learn, GROW UP, Scelata!) and they do a number of more authentic pieces well and with a good will, so I need to back off.
And incrementally we are moving toward Ordinaries with integrity (that has occasioned wailing and gnashing of teeth....)
All in all, a real learning year for them and me.
Oh, speaking of wailing and gnashing of teeth, my use of the Divine Praises this weekend will be the focus of some of my prayers before the Blessed Sacrament this aft...

Doncha just LURV reality shows?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/arts/30arts.html?ref=arts

Death Shapes a Reality Show


Impending death and organ donation are the attractions of a planned Dutch reality show that has been condemned as unethical and tasteless, The Associated Press reported.

But the BNN network plans to proceed with the program on Friday, saying it believes that the show will draw attention to a shortage of organ donors.

At least one parliament member said he would ask the government to block the broadcast of the “Big Donor Show,” produced by Endemol NV, creator of the “Big Brother” series.

On the show a donor identified only as Lisa, 37, who is terminally ill with an inoperable brain tumor, will hear interviews with three candidates, their families and friends before deciding who will receive one of her kidneys. “We know that this program is super-controversial, and some people will think it’s tasteless,” said Laurens Drillich, chairman of BNN, “but we think the reality is even more shocking and tasteless: waiting for an organ is just like playing the lottery.”

Marieke Saly, a spokeswoman for BNN, said there could be no guarantees that the donation would actually be made, but said “the intention” was that the transplant would be carried out before Lisa died. Under Dutch rules, her designation of a recipient would become invalid after her death.

Wishy washy? Right...

So much to-do! about the phoenix-like reappearance of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, and evidence of a flip-flop, back-pedaling, back-tracking, what have you on the part of the Holy Father.
Right.... because he's so unsure of what he wants to do, and has so little time to think about it, and is so ignorant, and such a greenhorn on the workings of the Curia, and so lacking in a POV, and so...

I am put in mind of the production that wished to almost but not entirely re-cast; but OH! you can't fire pink contracts without cause! They're iron-clad!
Nor can you humiliate and alienate people you may need again, down the road.

But what you can do, is close the production for two weeks.
Oh, and look! It's a brand new contract! a brand production! (which just happens to look suspiciously like the old production.)

God bless, God speed Abp. Fitzgerald, and now let's go about this (VITAL! absolutely VITAL!!!!!!) task the right way.

Need I add? I am appalled by right-wing nut jobs who don't want "dialogue," which they seem to have mis-defined in their Funk and Wagnells, as a synonym for "compromise" or "capitulation." It's not that they think peace at any cost wrong -- any intelligent person does -- it's that they think peace is utterly worthless, they actually prefer the idea of conflict, they aren't even interested in the possibility of conversion of hearts.
How can you evangelize if you eschew conversation?

God preserve Benedict the Great!

Bravo, your Excellency!

Archbishop Chaput delivers the platonic ideal of commencement speeches :
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=745

(Though it isn't a commencement speech, per se, but rather, was delivered a Path to Peace Foundation seminar “Catholic Students and the Common Good: Building a Better World” in New York on May 22, 2007)

A few highlights:

As college students, you’re already young adults. In a few years you’ll have jobs and families. Some of you will be doctors, teachers, or business leaders. Some of you will go into politics or the military. Many of you will have children. And all of you will be responsible.
What I mean by “responsible” is this. St. Paul tells us: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Cor. 14:20). You’re about to inherit the most powerful nation in history. Each of you has the talent, goodwill, and energy to use that power well.
But the problem is that much of American culture right now is built on an adolescent fiction. The fiction is that life is all about you as an individual—your ideas, your appetites, and your needs. Believe me: It isn’t. ....God made you for a purpose. The world needs the gifts he gave you. Adulthood brings power. Power brings responsibility. And the meaning of your life will hinge on a simple, basic choice. Will you engage the world with your heart and brains and faith, and work to make it a better place—not just for yourself and the people you love but also for people you don’t even know whose survival depends on your service to the common good? Or will you wrap yourself in a blanket of noise and toys and consumer junk, and stay a child?
God gave you a free will. How you use that gift is your choice—but it’s a choice you won’t be able to avoid. And that choice has consequences....
People who take the question of human truth, freedom and meaning seriously will never remain silent about it. They can’t. They’ll always act on what they believe, even at the cost of their reputations and lives. That’s the way it should be. Religious faith is always personal, but it’s never private. It always has social consequences, or it isn’t real. And this is why any definition of “tolerance” that tries to turn religious faith into a private idiosyncrasy, or a set of personal opinions that we can have at home but that we need to be quiet about in public, is doomed to fail.

Who knew? my shoe's faboo!

Seriously, did you ever think of me as in any way shape or form a...., a....., well, a ....HIPSTER?
But me and my jazz shoes are apparently all that.
They're comfortable, they're boyish (you know I always yearned to play trouser roles,) and, new appeal!, they're a fraction of the price of organ masters.
(Yes, I buy bottom of the line Capezios or Danskins, NOT the Midas-touched, Midas-level-resources-required-to-purchase lovelies featured in the pages of the NYTimes, but ya can't have everything.
And if ya did, where would ya put it?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/fashion/24POINTS.html

The New Phone Books Are In!!!!!!

(Oooh, sorry, I was channeling The Jerk.)

Actually, the new psalter is in, and first I apologize for whining on TNLM, mine HAD arrived, but for some reason was sent attn: Bookkeeper, so I never looked at the box sitting on the mail drawers at the rectory.

And secondly, let me at first blush pronounce myself well PLEASED.

Fine job, Fr Martis*, well done, I think the Mundelein Psalter is gonna have legs. Beautifully produced, too, lovely binding paper print and layout, immensely readable.

And, perfect timing, I have a funeral tomorrow with a request for a psalm we never do, and for which the Dread Hymnal Gather offers a pleasant but skippy-dippy Joncas setting.

Himself didn't quite grasp the concept that this doesn't so much allow me to do something I didn't heretofore, but that it saves me IMMENSE amounts of work -- I was doing what the music books any sensible parish church purchases should have already done.

Thank you, Fr Martis et al and God bless you!

*Quite deservedly pointed out to me the last time I went to Mundelein as the epitome of Father Whatawaste. The Holy Spirit knows what He (or She,) is about -- the first fruits, the best of the harvest belong to the Almighty.

A Tale of Two ...

...funerals
One, the family asked that everything that could be done in Latin, would be.
The other, the family requested a song in the place of the psalm, as well as a deviation from the normative rite in these parts, the Missa Albenda.
Fulfilling the requests of neither of these families affected anyone so much as me, (and my choir, of course.)
But the latter was, not just allowed, but transmitted to me by the same person who denied the former with the reasoning that this is the "way we do things" here, it's "valid" and we're not going to change.
I don't contest his right, but I do question his consistency (he is such a kind person, why does "pastoral" sensitivity not extend to some people making easily filled and valid requests?,) and wonder the source of his outright hostility to a licit liturgical option (to which people have , as they say, "legitimate aspirations.")
(Though to be fair, I think the phrase "legitimate aspirations" in its first usage was being applied not to the language, per se, but to the older rite.)
Well, I did my best.
For both.
(Though it is sometimes a struggle.)

Wonderful, spiritually rewarding time, oh, and assembly, too...

All in all it was quite a marvelous few days.
The CPPS assembly, at least the part of it I attended, was very rewarding, interesting stuff about Circles, shared values, conflict resolution and reconciliation.
You know I am not a fan of jargon ("Circle keepers," passing around a "talking piece", too cute by half,) but it was very useful, very sound stuff.
The conviviality was unsurpassable (the CPPS charism of hospitality is boldly lived out, and there seems to be an unspoken charism of wit and humour,) what a bunch of beautiful beings...
Charm, erudition, kindness... and I will state outright that I met with saints.
The liturgies were a mixed bag, just my opinion. Good sense of ritual for the most part, good presiders, not bad preaching, but members of the assembly loudly proclaiming the words they would have used if anyone had consulted them over any masculine pronouns that dare to be part of the missal are just foolish, and much of the the music was ill-chosen, it seemed to me. There is no excuse for using "psalms" that play fast and loose with scripture. If any individual is credited with the text in the copyright notice for a psalm, it had damn well better be King David. And there were some interesting, but far too chromatic for congregational use, songs. I do like the Proulx ordinary we used, (sorry that the Boss wasn't there to hear it.)
I was glad to finally learn a little more about who we are and how we came to be where we are -- there's a bit of the Whiting syndrome at play there, everyone just assuming you know all the history and the names and the places a relative newcomer has no way of knowing, (like Aunt Eileen giving me, as part of directions, a turn "at the junk yard on Mountain," which hasn't been there since the 1930s!)
Br Nick is a very interesting man, so sweet, and down to earth. I'm looking forward to any visits he makes to our... chapter? group? what are we?
Himself had a terrific time, but is feeling the need to remind me evermore frequently and evermore emphatically that he doesn't think it's for him, he has no intention of joining (and no, I HAVEN'T asked him... so he does indeed protest a bit too, too.)
The serenity and prayerfulness of the atmosphere of the Retreat center, the surrounding countryside, and especially the Shrine really speak to him.

But the highlight for me was unquestionably the several hours I spent talking with Fr. H.

What a beautiful man; a giant, and a saint.

I am going to find a way to get some tapes that will be useful to him.
(The encyclicals, I will record myself.)

Snarking about

It feels as if I have been away for months. But finally, a weekend with no, or nearly no extras (the mini-conclave was not per normal, but that was actually relaxing,) no weddings, wedding meetings, funerals, LitComms, strikes, matinees, openings...)
And so, back to the matters at hand.
Choir loved Nun Komm, (it was actually better that I'd anticipated,) virtually everything programmed for Sunday went well (and more, was APPROPRIATE -- much has been snarked, by me and others, about the "concert" before Mass, but it offers a spot for the much-loved but not appropriate for the Mass itself: extra-liturgical war-horses, ethnic favorites, the appropriate but too-long-under-current-LitComm-diktat, and yes, even next week's "On This Day..." After all, I live with my other corn allergy.)

Good conversation going on over at TNLM, about the programming of Marian music during May, or other Masses, and the place of devotions.
To be Joanna, one last time, I should like to add just one small contribution to the evening's entertainment--
(And I did)

http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/1717099211924927510/#163569

I find it telling that the misguided "Spirit of VCII" phobia about "accretions" merely cleared the deck for new ones. (As did the reform of the calender, from what I've gathered, the stripping of the altars, etc., etc., etc. -- the primal human aesthetic is more Victorian than monastic.)

Save the Liturgy, Save the World!

Good days work

No, I didn't take the Christmas tree down.

But I did a very nice (well, I'll know after I hear it Thursday night at rehearsal, but I think it's very nice,) concertante of Nun Komm der, etc.

It is slow going, and I know there have been missteps, but I am introducing more genuine liturgical music, and better hymnody, and finer anthems, bit by bit.
Yes, we'll still do OTD,OBM next Sunday (I can't take another soprano with tears in her eyes,) but we've also done a few Gregorian propers, added BRYN CALIFARIA (sp?) and LAUDA ANIMA to our hymn rep, and good, solid stuff by Langlais, Routley, Gouzes, Croft , Cherubini... okay, haven't gone as far as I would have liked in 3 plus years, but the progress is not dismal.

Now, the Festival Chorus, that's another thing altogether.
Don't know exactly what to think of that, but I'll try to clarify my thoughts and get them down.

Summer won't be long and lazy, that's for sure.

The little weigh....

I enrolled in Weight watchers today.
I am in denial and will continue to insist I did it only to support Himself's efforts on behalf of himself.
I don't need a program, oh no, I can do such things on my lonesome...
But you know, just to be companionable, and all...

I was a little yeeshed at the threat, er, announcement, that next meeting we will break into (cue ominous chords,) SMALL DISCUSSION GROUPS.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!
Will their be faith sharing?

I'm sorry, I shouldn't do that -- but I'm just not a joiner, I'm not a club person, an extrovert, a "member" type.... groups exist only for activities that I literally cannot perform myself (SATB, for instance, or three-legged races. Back-scratching, sometimes.)

The let-down

Himself has now slept enough to recover from the run and the run (the one in Florida,) and has reverted to form.
BP called to say that a plan had fallen through, but since Himself had given up on that long ago and actually forgotten about it, all the call did was pick at a scab.
And talk of the disdain he feels the cabal has expressed for him fooled me into offering the advice that he telegraphs his own self-esteem problem...
Ah well, it could have been worse, it was not the 3 hours of silence that followed the John Lithgow/Leslie Howard conversation...

The funny thing is, of course, that he was bloody MAHHHHHVELOUS

He is too, too Garry.