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Saturday 16 August 2014

Serendipity at the Cathedral Basilica

So, where do I find myself on Assumption?

The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, I read once somewhere, would be where the royal family's weddings were celebrated if the US had a royal family.

It is that breath-takingly beautiful and beautifully situated.

I expected very little of a liturgy, but I am, as my nieces and nephews like to remind me, "2 lucky  2 live 4 long, Aunt Scelata."

John Miller, (IIR his name, C,) was the organist, and the Dupre postlude was stunning.
It was nice to hear and sing, (for the first time since the new translation,) the Lee Gloria, and the Proulx Commnity Mass.
Standard hymns, (WHAT??!?@?#??? an American parish where they didn't sing HMGW? saints be praised!) didn't think much of the Jones Magnificat, or an alleluia that tried to out-alleluia the celtic cliche, (and why if there is no deacon-returning-the-Book-of the-Gospels-to-a- place-of-honor procession do we need to repeat the alleluia post Gospel? that seems to have become part of the ritual,) but the server/ priest, cantor/lay reader, everyone perfect and perfectly diffident in their ministry. (Different from the near heretical sermon I sat through over the weekend while traveling.)

Wonderful.
Bravo Mr Miller!



Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, New Jersey

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