Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Monday 6 October 2008

An encouraging word.....

.... and the skies are not cloudy all day!
Seriously, an encouraging word.
The name of "Jesus," name above all other names, name at which every knee should bow, all hail the power of that name...
THAT word.
Jesus.
And what is also encouraging is a development at our parish liturgies, regarding that word. (And since so much of my output is whinging threnody, I feel obliged to make more of an effort to report on the good.)
We have a wonderful liturgist, who I misapprehended, at first. There are those who are deliberately misinformed, and when reluctantly forced to confront factual information, disregard it. This liturgist is not one such. (An OofW I know has some 'splaining to do, on the other hand...) So when the famous Unspeakable Tetragrammaton Memo was issued by the home office, what's that executive's name, Arinze? I printed it out and dropped it in the liturgist's mailbox.
It was brought up at the next meeting (I have no luck, bringing things up, you understand..., and truth to tell, it doesn't affect me, I never program the one song, and always leave out the verse of the other.)
Father say, oh, okay. We don't use the Father's name. I wish something could be done about actual disrespect to the Son's name. (I believe he was thinking of blasphemy, but I take it in another direction.)
So I mention how what they see in the sanctuary really influences people. Maybe we could get, say, the servers, and the lay readers, to follow the old custom of bowing their heads everytime His name is spoken? Because I don't really know the particulars, but aren't there rubrics about bowing when the Trinity is mentioned during the Mass, and the name of the saint whose feast it is and that kind of thing?
I really must look that up, instead of doing my lazy, manipulative, passive-aggressive, do I remember right....? kind of questioning.
(Understand, I believe it was my instruction to the cantors that started the ball rolling on the profound bow at the mention of the Incarnation during the credo.... the priest's bows are now at least visible, though only a bow of the head, and it has spread to maybe a quarter of the congregation, and mirabile dictu! to some of the servers.)
Anyway, fine liturgist, who has no trouble taking charge, says, you should preach on it.
And wasn't there just a perfect confluence the next Sunday of the reading from Paul and a meeting of our Holy Name Society, and some social justice collection demanding of us respect for human life which must be all the greater since our God has deigned to share in our humanity?
And after several weeks aren't there heads visibly bowing?

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