God in the double helix

Interesting article in the NYTimes about how morality may be hardwired into us little lower than the angels types.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/science/18mora.html?8dpc=&pagewanted=all
That we may be genetically coded to be "good."
(Original grace? Pre-disposed by DNA to seek to be like God who is All-Good and deserving of all our love?)
That there may be two strains of morality, moral intuition and moral judgement, (the latter is the more complex, language-requiring brain activity); and five basic components of the moral life -- refraining from harm to the individual person, expectations of reciprocity between individuals, loyalty to the group, respect for hierarchy within the group and... purity.
All promote a suppression of selfishness.

The theory seems to break down when one tries to (mis)apply it to the over-used liberal/conservative divide.
EXACTLY!
I give you the Abortion question. By all rights, the "pro-life" side ought to be the "liberal" position. (What more vulnerable and oppressed groups of individual persons can there be?)

And in my case, it is. My defense of the unborn is the most obvious signal of my extreme liberality. (I am squishy on so many other points...)

Odd to be reading the article while watching the old Korda version of An Ideal Husband.

Oscar Wilde was a great Christian moralist -- Christ Himself teaches us the truth that figures in a weak and flawed man's plea for his wife's love -- it is the IMperfect who need love.

To quote that most beautiful of hymns, Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.

And now, a word from our sponsors... have guilty secrets? need to unburden yourself?

Seriously, this is an ad, although it is a public service announcement. (No money changed hands... Ha!)

The confessional in the northwest corner of St John Cantius was, yet again, last night the scene of the most beautiful administration of the Sacrament of Confession...
(I t hasn't always been the same priest, so I've decided to pretend to myself that the confessional has some particular Grace attached to it :oP)
However I am fairly certain I have been to this priest before, he sounds all of twelve years old, and Looks (if it is the Canon Regular I suspect,) a whopping 16 years old.
And he just gives the most marvelous spiritual direction.
I feel truly blessed.

Anyway, if you are in the market for a good Reconciliation, hie thee to St John Cantius in Chicago, northeast corner (although I have also had wonderful confessions in the "booth" in the middle of the north wall. i don't know why, we never sit on the south side of the nave...)

Mind you, our guys are terrific confessors, truly gifted, but Saturday afternoons I am scrambling to get ready for the anticipated mass.
And I must be honest, I don't DO, or even say/write things needing confession so much as think them, and the idea of making sacramental confession about harboring anger when you're furious with colleagues becomes a bit touchy when your employers are your confessor... anyone else ever have that problem?)

Let there be sung Non nobis and Te Deum!

Well, done the latter for the first time....
I've been meaning to look at it and learn it for two years now, and never got around to it, because there was other music I needed to... well, whatever -- but it was EASY! no, really, EASY to read! seriously, I sight-read it, all but the first two line which I'd looked at once before. (Yes, I admit, I had a modern notation liber with me...)
The Mass at St John Cantius was very beautiful, very moving.
Himself thought the candlelit procession (another first fro me,) was reminiscent of The Godfather.

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS!!!!!!!!
(But what's a "non nobis"?) (That's semi-rhetorical, I understand Latin, what I don't get is Willy S's musical reference -- was there a normative or at least familiar setting of this most humble of triumphant phrases?)

Incidentally, Faure seems to me almost as perfect a liturgical music as Gregorian chant... it elicits thought, it compels devotion -- but it has a certain diffidence, it does not generate affect.

Why is my blog speaking to me in German?

It was offering me a chance to:

Blog anzeigen

or

in einem neuen Fenster?

Is it because they knew I was thinking of imbibing a nice Bavarian or German lager? in honor of PapaRatz?

I'm not...

... a Trad, but I play one on TV. Or rather, IRL.
That wonderful expression about "reinvigorating" the Novus Ordo with the "Virtues" of the Tridentine stick in my mind.
I am coming across as Traditionalist, I realized in conversation with the Silent Traditionalists in my parish, the people who have spent 40 years asking for something, and been denied, and who have given up, and don't all realize that they have to ask again, NOW.
Now their requests matter. Now they have some weight. Now they have recourse.
My situation is somewhat different, and not just because i am an employee who, yes, has to be politic because of her job, but also, has to be politic if I am ever to accomplish anything good.
Who, yes, may have to retreat from, or even not take the field in small battles, with an eye toward the big picture (the great war, that is not mine to win or lose.)
You can only accomplish what you can accomplish.
And you can't even accomplish that if you expend your energy on what you can't accomplish.
But that's all beside the point.
If I were not employed, and were free to participate where and when and how I would, the Extraordinary Form would not be my first choice.
But now, praise Benedict and the motu proprio, I am at least entitled to ask for that, whereas I am not entitled to ask for the Ordinary Form with the Ordinary sung in Latin.
Or the Ordinary Form with the priest facing ad orientem. Or the Ordinary Form with no jokes. Or the Ordinary Form without being asked to squawk Lord of the Dance. Or the Ordinary Form without a glad-handing rotary convention inserted where the Pax Christi is offered. Or the Ordinary Form where no adolescent in a football jersey will address me from the sanctuary. Or the Ordinary Form with no mention of Jambalaya or sports enthusiasms.

So I am asking for the Extraordinary Form.
And my aspirations are rightful.

EWTN Rountable on Motu Proprio

Very interesting, (despite the not-ready-for-primetime personas of the members of the roundtable discussion.)
One participant (Msrg. Schmitz? of Christ the King? I'll have to look it up,) used (or quoted?) a perfect analogy.

This is the first year I've grown peppers, and the first time I have ever even tried to grow something from any seed that I had gathered myself.
I take an inordinate pride in gazing out my back window at the shining, brilliantly yellow-gold, tremendously sweet (I have eaten one so far, they ripened far more slowly than I'd expected,) and normally EXPENSIVE beauties.
How I preen!
Look what I grew! I think to myself.
But I always think "grew."
Note that. Not "look what I created," I merely planted, and watered, and staked, and watched.
I create nothing.
Anyway, this priest, in talking about the excessive so-called creativity of "liturgists," reminded that a liturgist (and a musician, I might add,) is no more a creator than a gardener, who properly tends..., protects,... encourages, NEVER creates the Liturgy/the Plant, to "grow from its own interior strength."
Exactly.
I was pleased to hear, (can I admit this as an creative artist? LOL!) the dismissive inflection everyone on the panel used in speaking the word "creativity."

There was also a phrase that caught my ear, as an alternative to "exerting a gravitational pull," which I have probably overused.
The Extraordinary Form can "reinvigorate the Rite [in its Ordinary Form,] with VIRTUES THAT HAVE BEEN LOST" either in practice er even in theory (I would have said either accidentally through carelessness or ignorance, or intentionally, by design; the useful idiots guilty of the former are far less culpable than the "theologians" and "liturgists", the theorists who perpetrated the latter.)

One other quote, which I saw as a possible rebuke to certain bishops who shall remain nameless... but not, I hasten to add, mine... the motu proprio requires implementation, not commentary.

Guilty pleasures...

Mea culpa, I love Hormel Spam, spit takes, and a blog with the atrocious title of Go Fug Yourself.
"Fugly," it disingenuously claims is an elision of "Frighteningly Ugly."
Be that as it may, it always, or almost always gives me a laugh when I need one (which I did after the aural assault of Lord of the Dance this morning, on piano and drums.)
The description of a juvenile trying to look older as having "styled [him]self like an extra in the Key West Reperatory Theater and Steak Den production of 'Guys and Dolls.'" had me howling out loud.
If you're not too civilized, or too squeamish, check it out. (I'm sorry, I've always been too tolerant of coarse language, I spent far too much of my life in dressing rooms... and you ain't heard coarse if you ain't heard little dancer girls .)
http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/
How can you not love a line like this: "it's refreshing to see child stars who have not grown up to be tremendous skanks, and we are grateful to them for all of their panty-wearing, complexion-saving good behavior."?

Victory?

An article by Christopher Bord, (should I know that name?) at CanticaNova, that makes some very important, and perhaps overlooked points.

It would be very easy [for musicians] to retreat to the extraordinary form ...
[A]ttempts to integrate chant and polyphony into the ordinary form [may be met with] "if people want that, they can go to the extraordinary form of the Mass — that's what it's there for." ...
And frankly, it would be very nice to be able to do our work in a non-hostile environment, in which the people are actually looking for what we have to offer, rather than fighting us every step of the way...
[But this] would bring an end to the "reform of the reform." ...
If we abandon [the ordinary] form, then we ensure that the norm for most Catholics will be poorly done liturgy with little to no attempt to follow the guidelines of the Church.

Reading this put me in mind of people who read books on grief well after the fact and exclaim over how dead-on (excuse the pun,) the conventional wisdom is, the stages ring absolutely true, utter familiar.
My ambiguity and discontent is a result all of these things swirling around in me simultaneously (exacerbated by worries about my Mother, my alcoholic brother and the possibility of an impending move.)
Or, as Homer Simpson would put it, "Doh.... it's funny because it's true!"
It is funny.
But it's also comforting... at a music workshop Dr Ed Shaefer practically had tears in his eyes asking if such gatherings weren't reassuring, to realize those of us with similar aims and sensibilities were not alone.
So, thank you, Christopher Bord.
And Deacon Shaefer.
And Fr Weber
And Msgr. Phillips
And Shawn Tribe
And Jeff Ostrowski
And Fr Heimann
And Mr Webb
And Msgr Hellreigel
And Rafael Ornes
And Dad
And Fr Skeris
And Linda Shaefer
And PapaRatz
And Dom Mocquereau
And Dr Prowse
And William Mahrt
And Michael Lawrence
And Fr Martis
And Msgr Schuler
And Jean Claude Chiasson
And Joe Naglia
And Pope St Gregory
And Julia Ward
And RVW
And Fr Jeff Keyes
And Theodore Marier
And the 9th grader who told me the offertory from the 4th Sunday of Advent was the most beautiful thing she'd ever sung.
And thousands of others whose names I will never know, thousands living and dead and yet to be....

Gee, all of a sudden, I don't feel so alone.

Prayers for Bishop Han Dingxiang

May the angels escort this martyr into paradise.
................
Chinese Catholic Bishop Dies in Custody

BEIJING (AP) -- A bishop who led an underground congregation of Roman Catholics and was repeatedly detained in China for his loyalty to the Vatican died in police custody, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
Bishop Han Dingxiang, 71, was cremated within six hours of his death Sunday and buried in a public cemetery with no priests or other faithful present, both groups said.

May I point out that the Holy Father, and those who might be considered a part of his inner circle have more important things on their minds than putting a foot (red-shod or not,) down in the matter of beyond-ugly vestments given him, (and dozens of other priests, in matching tatt,) to wear by local authorities? or even than scolding or replacing the master of ceremonies who might be thought to be behind the ugliness?

Logic and Honesty on the Abortion Question

"[T]he Roman Catholic Church holds that abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being. Catholic liberal politicians since Mario Cuomo have said they personally accept the doctrine of their church but nevertheless believe in a woman's right to choose. This is silly. There is no right to choose murder. Either these politicians are lying to their church, or they are lying to us."

Bingo.
This from Michael Kinsley, liberal pundit (and a helluva lot smarter than most of the mushy -headed people in positions of influence an authority talking at us from the tv, internet and print media,) in Time Mag, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1659734,00.html

Either [the Liturgy] is Opus Dei, with God as its specific subject, or it is not."

Cant' you just hear some people's thoughts: Hmmm... what shall I do with MY Mass?
The Holy Father had this to say to some monastics in Austria:
"The interior disposition of each priest, and of each consecrated person, must be that of
putting nothing before the divine office.
The beauty of this inner attitude will find expression in the beauty of the liturgy, so that wherever we join in singing, praising, exalting and worshiping God, a little bit of heaven will become present on earth
In all our efforts on behalf of the liturgy, the determining factor must always be our looking to
God.
We stand before God – he speaks to us and we speak to him.
Whenever in our thinking we are only concerned about making the liturgy attractive, interesting and beautiful, the battle is already lost.
Either it is Opus Dei, with God as its specific subject, or it is not."

(Don't ya just love him?)
How loudly he must have needed to speak to be heard over some of the beyond-description-ugly vestments he was made to wear in various situations in Austria :twisted; And that monstrance!
But while it was very, very beautiful, I am afraid I would put that glorious Haydn orchestral Mass sung at St Stephens in the same category: a distraction that detracted from the attention due the rightful Subject of the Liturgy.
Although, of course, if such beauty were commonplace it would no longer distract, (admittedly, the bad craft project altar furnishings at other of the apostolic voyage's liturgies could never fail to be eye-sores.)

Letter to the Bishop concerning the motu proprio

I probably should have posted this, and asked for criticisms and suggestions before sending it off, but, ah, well...
...................
Dear Bishop [X]--
In response to the Holy Father’s recent motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, taking effect this Friday, are there any plans to make the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite any more available to the faithful of the [X] Diocese than the single Saturday afternoon anticipated Mass now celebrated in [nearby town]?
Our pastor in [my town], with three parishes to take care of, can hardly be expected to squeeze in another obligation (or pleasure,) but I was hoping there was some news that some other parish in the diocese might be offering the Mass of Blessed John XXIII.
Has anyone made known the intention to celebrate the Extraordinary Form, maybe on weekdays, or on Holy Days? Or do you yourself anticipating offering such a Mass, as several of your brother bishops in the US have done or announced plans to do?
Thank you.
Yours,
[my name]
.........
So, whaddya think? Strike the right tone, use the right terminology?
I don't expect any result, but I don't want anyone to say, "well, nobody asked...."
And I can't ask my pastor, for the reasons given, (although I know also exactly what his response would be,) and wanted to make that clear, so that I don't get the "take this up with your own pastor," response.
I'd simply like to know if I'll ever be given any options other than heading in to the Big Bad City, in Big Neighboring Diocese, since the sole opportunity in my diocese happens simultaneously with one of our most attended Masses, at which my job requires my presence.

The Late Summer or Early MeteorologicalAutmn of My Discontent

The funeral almost immediately on my return from the rarified liturgical air of an intentional community, featured some mourners waiting for a "private" Baptism to be finished.
If anyone honestly wonders why the average PIP in our parish resents "their Mass" being interrupted by "those people" having a baptism, may I offer several points for consideration?
It is perfectly apparent to anyone with eyes and ears that "well, this is the way we do it here," just isn't true -- if you are connected enough to have the Baptism outside of a regularly scheduled Sunday Mass, (which is seemingly what most parents would prefer.)
It is not just priests who will bend the rules for friends or for families of long standing in the parish, or whose parents are on this or that council, or deacons who understandably wish to baptize their own grandchildren, it is even the person in charge of prep, at least one of whose grandchildren was not forced to go through the "Attend 3 Classes, Attend 3 Separate Ceremonies at 3 Separate [and not always consecutive,] Sunday Masses" regimen that some PTB has decreed.
How can this not breed resentment among those who do dutifully attend, even for second and third children?
Nevertheless, naturally this is going to lead to the appearance that the group Baptisms are mostly of people who aren't "regulars," since so many "regulars" get special treatment that they are less visible at the Baptismal Marathon.
And then of course, there is the marathon itself.
We are not going to convince people to love having their normal worship disrupted this way, by repeating to them that this is the way it is supposed to be done, that this is the way the Church asks us to do it, because She DOESN'T.
You cannot inundate people with fabricated ritual, and then expect the resentment that causes not to spill over onto authentic ritual.


The funeral featured a person who just showed up to solo.
This is happening more and more often.
I have no way of knowing if this kind of thing is at the family's wishes or not, and I don't like being put in this position... one ends up guessing which decision will cause the least pain and do the least damage to the Sacred Rites.
So, in the past I've had to say no to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow..." and to juggle dueling and conflicting requests, made by dueling and conflicting soloists, at the behest of dueling and conflicting family members.


And Scary Weddings are growing exponentially. The proliferation of "reality" tv shows about weddings is to blame in large part, but so is the more generalized co-opting of the Liturgy by individuals and groups, and the wide-spread notion that this is a Good Thing.
A priest reporting one Bridezilla-ish request he'd had to put his foot down over, asked rhetorically, where they got off thinking the Mass was theirs to do with as they wished?
I bit my tongue, having heard him say in that the very place, only a few hours earlier, the precise words, "this is your Mass! this isn't just mine, it's yours, too," as a way of stirring up louder musical response from sullen or distracted schoolchildren.
Incidentally, may I say how shocked I am that a variety of musicians, teachers and clerics, with a liturgical sensibility distinctly different from that which I tried to pursue, are having trouble drumming up enthusiasm, (the dearth of which I was assured, was a direct result of the Gregorian psalm tones)?
Gambling at Ricks?

The Sunday Masses
At companions gathering (we are not to call it a meeting any more,) I learned that I am, if not in the minority, at least in the minority amongst those willing to voice their opinion, on the question of whether the Motu Proprio is a Good Thing.
The idea that the Extraordinary Rite could have an ameliatory gravitational pull on the Ordinary Rite was poo-poohed, even though all agreed with, and rushed in with horror stories to illustrate the truth of, the assertion that the fall-off in reverence, in disregard and even contempt for proper ritual, and in civil behavior, has been enormous.
The song we sang was one I had not heard before, (we are not to sing songs that do not express the specific spirituality of the society any more,) but there is a prayer book that will, I suppose, feautre hymns as well? so I will hear it again, or at least others like it.
(Wonder how "Jesu, Salvator Mundi" would go over... would that meet the criterion?)
The reading was a wonderful piece from Archbishop Romero, that remeinded me of something esle, from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, IIRC, that I'll have to look up. (We are not to do reading or prayers that do not deal with Precious Blood spirituality any more.)
I asked if that reading would pass muster. Hem. Would that meet the newly emphasized criterion? Haw. I have to say, I have never noticed a problem with any prayer prepared by anyone in our gathering, at least not in deviating from the topic of the Precious Blood, unless you count the odd Our Father or Memorare, but perhaps it is a problem in other groups? Well, Oscar Romero was very involved in social justice. (Or is that Social Justice?) Anyway, that makes readings from the martyr's writings acceptable. Yes.
That leaves me still a bit confused, but my way out of the dilemma is to volunteer for refreshment prep rather than prayer prep.

OT 23

Prelude: O Sacrum Convivium (Remondi)
The Divine Praises (Grey) (the choir always sing this on the 2nd Sunday of the month, Holy Name Sunday at our parish)
Inprov on SLANE and ST CATHERINE
Entrance: Faith of Our Fathers
Kyrie: Danish with invocations chanted recto tono
Gloria: Lee
Psalm 90, In every age, O Lord, You have been our refuge, Guimont
Gosp Acc Danish (this just reminded me, was that a dream last night, or did I actually find a different published setting of the Alleluia, entirely different, but compatible melody, to the Danish Amen Mass?)
Offertory: Lift High the Cross (not an obvious choice for this slot in the 4 Hymn Sandwich, not quite as boisterously as we usually sing it, slower and softer, but I wanted, for once, to sing all the verses and the Offertory procession is the only possibility of such a practice... they still sang it as if it were their school fight song)
Sanc., An, and Am. - Danish Amen (I like the SATB I wrote, and the choir seems to as well)
Agnus Dei - Danish
Communion: Take Up Your Cross (O WALY WALY) eked out with # 30 from the Benoit 50 Elevations on Modal Themes
Choral Mass "Like as the Hart" Novello
Closing: Now Thank We All Our God
Postlude: Let Your Light So Shine

Excellent choral turn-out, the entire bass and tenor sections, and 6 each S and A, all the psalmists strong, all the congregational singing good, and I didn't make too many egregious mistakes on the pedals (the manual are another matter...)

Heaven Haven

Who would have expected such a reaction?
I can hardly stand things.
In the past such "mountain top experiences" (as homilists always call them when the Transfiguration figures into the Liturgy; is there a book somewhere? must be. I know I found out the loopy General Intercessions were the fault of Crass Commercialism... ButIDigress)
In the past such experiences left me refreshed and more ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work, rather than merely disappointed and despairing of my everyday realities.
I wonder if the Exaltation of the Cross at St John Cantius will prove a mistake...

Programming Question

Are "Sing of Mary" and O Sanctissima odd songs with which to open and close Exposition and Benediction, on September 7?

Belatedly, 22 OT

Prelude: Aaronic Blessing
My Song is Love Unknown
Entrance: Joyful, Joyful (ODE TO JOY)
Kyrie: Chanted invocations (recto tono) + Danish
Gosp Acc, Sanctus, Anemnasis, Amen and Agnus Dei: Danish Amen Mass
Gloria: Lee "Congregational"
Offertory: Lord Whose Love in Humble Service (IN BABILONE)
Communion: What Wondrous Love Is This?
Panis Angelicus, Lambilotte
Closing: Sing a New Song (ONSLOW SQUARE)
Choral Postlude: God of Our Fathers

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog

Quite a moving few days.
Not all as I would have done them, but superb liturgies. And when things are done properly, it becomes gloriously apparent how little ones personal taste of preferences matter.
The rhythms of the L of the H are so powerful, the psalms so potent when they are not approached piecemeal and truncated (or worse, bowdlerized.)
An anonymous liturgist on creative minority report http://www.creativeminorityreport.com : The reason we do what the Church does is because staying with the mind of the Church keeps us from having ignorant, idiosyncratic people making bad decisions.

And Himself is my love and the marriage blessing and renewal of vows is something i can hardly now believe I ever resisted!

Off to the monastery

Although Himself keeps referring to the "renewal of vows," other than R & R, (which praying the L of the H in a monastic setting provides, inherently,) what we'll really do is ask any priest in the vicinity on the morning to bless our marriage.
I never expected to have wedding vows to consider renewing.
I truly am the most fortunate person I know, that was not codswallop.
Concert was a success.
And such largess from the impresario!
I am so glad that I was already waffling, and had finally told him I probably would be able to handle the chorus for the Christmas concert, before I knew just how generous he was being, I would always have wondered if I only relented for mercenary reasons.
Anyway, I was very pleased with the choir, and working with such a large groups, (some of whom are my superiors in musicianship,) really improved my rehearsal technique, and stretched me.

Oh, and Mass was marvelous this weekend, all four of them (NOT the wedding, I'm repeating,) and the choir has never sounded better than they did on the Lambilotte.

And I'm giddy with delight at how my arrangement of the Monteverdi turned out.

So all, in all...

Dry Patches

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta was a source of many, many, many blessings to God's people on earth, but i am not sure the non-miraculous one she is effecting right now through her posthumously published letters revealing her crises of faith is not the very greatest.
My dry patch right now has less to do with Him, than with the people I know are made in His image, who I am nevertheless feeling less and less grateful to minister to.
The crowd (yes, "crowd," not a congregation in any sense,) at the tournam.... I mean, the wedding was a real trial.
Does no one know how to behave in the Presence?
I feel more and more often the way I did at the TP Roast that took place during Mass.
It is not a good feeling.