An interesting piece in Dappled Things by Philip Carl Smith, entitled "The Monastery, the Motu Proprio, and the Heart of the Church" -- I was going to say "interesting but disjointed" until I realized it was probably my late night reading, (after a strenuous dance rehearsal,) rather than Mr. Smith's writing that doesn't hang together.
Smith quotes the abbot of Fontgombault, Dom Antoine Forgeot, as saying, “The liturgy is the heart of the Church, and Pope Benedict knows what medicine the Church requires.”
Smith goes on:
Hearing his words, I recalled participating years before in a seminar discussion of John Senior’s essay, “What is Christian Culture?” at the University of Notre Dame. Some students were puzzled by Dr. Senior’s description of the ancient form of the Mass as “the most refined and brilliant work of art in the history of the world, the heart and soul and most powerful determinant factor in Western Civilization.” Our professor explained this to us, for though he himself was not a Catholic, he still appreciated the importance of the Mass: “Think of what happens if your heart becomes sick,” he suggested. “It is no longer able to supply blood to the rest of the body. If the Mass is truly the heart of the Church, its health and strength are of utmost importance to the proper functioning of all aspects of the Church’s life.”
Yes.
Yes, precisely.
Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...
Thursday, 11 October 2007
More on the need to cultivate the Cult of the Dead, and what we're currently getting all wrong
Timely, in light of the approach of All Souls, (about which i shall probably write after the LitCom meeting next week; I am hopeful, my sense is our parish is maturing liturgically, evidenced so far by their at least frankly now calling what we conduct a "Memorial Service" rather than pretending it is "Vespers.")
The original post: http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2007/10/resurrecting-cult-of-dead.html
The thread: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/
It is not uncommon to hear someone say that before the liturgical changes of the 1960's, the atmosphere at Catholic funerals was intensely negative. ... While I don't disagree .. the cult of the dead in the Catholic tradition is rich and beautiful and full of hope.
and
most Catholic funerals today are canonization celebrations.... discourse on the Four Last Things (death, judgment, heaven, hell) needs to ensue.
And recommendations which I must take to heart, these have both been on my "to-read" list for too long.
Professor Eamon Duffy has written beautifully about the cult of the dead in 16th century England in his book The Stripping of the Altars. Also, Fr. Jonathan Robinson has written about some of the modern errors which have contributed to the deterioration of the cult of the dead in the present age in his book The Mass and Modernity. I encourage you all to read both of these books.
But the real meat was in some posts from, how delightful to report! priests.
...............
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/#190918
It seems that the movement to white vestments at funerals is very much rooted in the American denial of death and mortality. Culturally, we do anything and everything to deny the reality of death. This break with reality has found its way into our liturgical practices, and not for the better. I believe that one could argue that the current liturgical praxis, at least as I have experienced it, is not only unhealthy, but is very problematic in that it reinforces these un-human and un-Catholic Ideas. This is a definite situation where a reform of the reform is needed.
I recently concelebrated the funeral of a priest and confrere. Admittedly he was a holy man and a good priest. However, given the funeral Mass, one would have assumed he had been raised to the altars. He himself would have been horrified. What he would have wanted was that those present be exhorted to pray for him, a man fully aware of who he was before God. Because he was a member of a religious congregation he will have Masses offered for him by rule. But what about those who are not so fortunate?
Our current funeral praxis does little to really help the dead or the living. We priests must always keep in mind "lex orandi, lex credendi." Reform of both praxis and catechesis is necessary. So bring out the black vestments and the unbleached candles, but be sure to explain what you're doing and why. It is my experience that people will be grateful.
Fr. Scott Bailey, C.Ss.R.
...........
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/#190979
My personal experience of mourning is that resurrection is obviously important but it is seen through the tomb. Even the Resurrection himself wept at the death of his friend, we need to acknowledge that.
We should not pretend that "death is nothing at all" for mourners it is horrendous, there is need for the Church to identify with that soul splitting grief, otherwise we do a grave disservice to those who mourn (as well as to Christ's death).
The jolly "resurrection mass", that celebrates the life of the deceased, without acknowledging grief so often imposes a concept that is alien to the sorrow death brings.At the moment of intense grief, mourners need the Church to stand with those who grieve, rather than shouting Resurrection at them. I remember and Anglican clergy man saying at a funeral, "the vestments are black but shot through with gold", a good metaphor for Christian mourning.
I normally use purple because it associates the Requiem with Advent and Lent, times of waiting and expectation, of things not yet accomplished.
Mourning is a process, not just an event, we need to reflect in our Rites for the dead.
Fr Raymond Blake
.....................
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/#190985
I used to serve in a parish which had funeral Masses every week (!) and I noted that almost all the men wore black ties and the women wore sombre colours.
It struck me then, and it still does, as being somewhat un-pastoral not to recognise the deep psychological need to acknowledge loss and to grieve. The Requiem Mass recognises this, through the use of black or violet vestments.
When someone grieves, telling them to cheer up (which wearing white is akin to doing) is irritating and hurtful.
In grief, what helps one to cope (as indeed, the Scriptures tell us) is hope. As such, the Requiem Mass is also shot through with hope and a sure and certain faith in the Resurrection. This hope is a promise and something we long for, but it is not yet fully realised.
Wearing white (or worse still, gold) is a crass and naive expression of Resurrection faith that does not approach the subtlety and nuance of traditional liturgical practice that recognises grief mingled with hope in the life to come.
Fra' Lawrence Lew, O.P.
The original post: http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2007/10/resurrecting-cult-of-dead.html
The thread: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/
It is not uncommon to hear someone say that before the liturgical changes of the 1960's, the atmosphere at Catholic funerals was intensely negative. ... While I don't disagree .. the cult of the dead in the Catholic tradition is rich and beautiful and full of hope.
and
most Catholic funerals today are canonization celebrations.... discourse on the Four Last Things (death, judgment, heaven, hell) needs to ensue.
And recommendations which I must take to heart, these have both been on my "to-read" list for too long.
Professor Eamon Duffy has written beautifully about the cult of the dead in 16th century England in his book The Stripping of the Altars. Also, Fr. Jonathan Robinson has written about some of the modern errors which have contributed to the deterioration of the cult of the dead in the present age in his book The Mass and Modernity. I encourage you all to read both of these books.
But the real meat was in some posts from, how delightful to report! priests.
...............
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/#190918
It seems that the movement to white vestments at funerals is very much rooted in the American denial of death and mortality. Culturally, we do anything and everything to deny the reality of death. This break with reality has found its way into our liturgical practices, and not for the better. I believe that one could argue that the current liturgical praxis, at least as I have experienced it, is not only unhealthy, but is very problematic in that it reinforces these un-human and un-Catholic Ideas. This is a definite situation where a reform of the reform is needed.
I recently concelebrated the funeral of a priest and confrere. Admittedly he was a holy man and a good priest. However, given the funeral Mass, one would have assumed he had been raised to the altars. He himself would have been horrified. What he would have wanted was that those present be exhorted to pray for him, a man fully aware of who he was before God. Because he was a member of a religious congregation he will have Masses offered for him by rule. But what about those who are not so fortunate?
Our current funeral praxis does little to really help the dead or the living. We priests must always keep in mind "lex orandi, lex credendi." Reform of both praxis and catechesis is necessary. So bring out the black vestments and the unbleached candles, but be sure to explain what you're doing and why. It is my experience that people will be grateful.
Fr. Scott Bailey, C.Ss.R.
...........
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/#190979
My personal experience of mourning is that resurrection is obviously important but it is seen through the tomb. Even the Resurrection himself wept at the death of his friend, we need to acknowledge that.
We should not pretend that "death is nothing at all" for mourners it is horrendous, there is need for the Church to identify with that soul splitting grief, otherwise we do a grave disservice to those who mourn (as well as to Christ's death).
The jolly "resurrection mass", that celebrates the life of the deceased, without acknowledging grief so often imposes a concept that is alien to the sorrow death brings.At the moment of intense grief, mourners need the Church to stand with those who grieve, rather than shouting Resurrection at them. I remember and Anglican clergy man saying at a funeral, "the vestments are black but shot through with gold", a good metaphor for Christian mourning.
I normally use purple because it associates the Requiem with Advent and Lent, times of waiting and expectation, of things not yet accomplished.
Mourning is a process, not just an event, we need to reflect in our Rites for the dead.
Fr Raymond Blake
.....................
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/stribe/5749794583952667229/#190985
I used to serve in a parish which had funeral Masses every week (!) and I noted that almost all the men wore black ties and the women wore sombre colours.
It struck me then, and it still does, as being somewhat un-pastoral not to recognise the deep psychological need to acknowledge loss and to grieve. The Requiem Mass recognises this, through the use of black or violet vestments.
When someone grieves, telling them to cheer up (which wearing white is akin to doing) is irritating and hurtful.
In grief, what helps one to cope (as indeed, the Scriptures tell us) is hope. As such, the Requiem Mass is also shot through with hope and a sure and certain faith in the Resurrection. This hope is a promise and something we long for, but it is not yet fully realised.
Wearing white (or worse still, gold) is a crass and naive expression of Resurrection faith that does not approach the subtlety and nuance of traditional liturgical practice that recognises grief mingled with hope in the life to come.
Fra' Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Funereal black
A verrrrry interesting blog and thread at TNLM, that I will have to put some more thought into, where one post states pretty flatly that black is probably no longer an appropriate choice for funeral vestments in our country because "it communicates nothing of grief or loss."
True, in the US it is simply the shade of the urban uniform, that of, not only the sartorially lazy, but of the hip, the powerful, the fashion forward... but the poster, Liam, one of the most unfailingly gracious and rational commentators in all of blogdom, may be betraying an urbi-centrism.
He is, I gather from the Boston area, probably Boston itself.
I can assure him that there is an enormous portion of our citizenry that still consider black, however the catalogue writers' imaginations go into overdrive to sell us onyx, ebony, shadow, midnight, deepest dark, or anthracite garments, (yes, all designation I have seen in J Crew or Abercrombie, or whoever,) to be "BLACK," and a signifier of drabness and morbidity.
Just this weekend, a friend came back from London, which she told me she found "sad and depressing," LONDON ! -- because "everybody wears black all the time."
Okay, this is small-town in the midwest, but in one of the wealthier NY suburbs, a woman I know was in trouble with her own mother-in-law for, I kid you not, wearing white sneakers within the 6 months of mourning for a death in the family (and this, within spitting distance of the Short Hills Mall...) She even wore black sweats for workouts.
And the goth-kids' affectation is not for, say, pink, for a good reason.
As a tween, certain that I had a career in music or theater ahead of me, I began to wear nothing but black (and I am old enough, and lived in cheery enough suburbia that this should not be mistaken for goth leanings.)
So black spoke to me of either formality -the cantata chorister, or anonymity and invisibility -the techie or the pit musician. (I was more than slightly steamed when the distaff half of the high school madrigal group chose a pinky-red voile with monstrously large, abstract white flowers for our gowns. ) Although if anyone asked, I told them my affectation was in mourning for a divided Ireland.
Anyway, not that any one's asking, but I would like black vestments for my funeral, and violet if my first choice cannot be procured.
True, in the US it is simply the shade of the urban uniform, that of, not only the sartorially lazy, but of the hip, the powerful, the fashion forward... but the poster, Liam, one of the most unfailingly gracious and rational commentators in all of blogdom, may be betraying an urbi-centrism.
He is, I gather from the Boston area, probably Boston itself.
I can assure him that there is an enormous portion of our citizenry that still consider black, however the catalogue writers' imaginations go into overdrive to sell us onyx, ebony, shadow, midnight, deepest dark, or anthracite garments, (yes, all designation I have seen in J Crew or Abercrombie, or whoever,) to be "BLACK," and a signifier of drabness and morbidity.
Just this weekend, a friend came back from London, which she told me she found "sad and depressing," LONDON ! -- because "everybody wears black all the time."
Okay, this is small-town in the midwest, but in one of the wealthier NY suburbs, a woman I know was in trouble with her own mother-in-law for, I kid you not, wearing white sneakers within the 6 months of mourning for a death in the family (and this, within spitting distance of the Short Hills Mall...) She even wore black sweats for workouts.
And the goth-kids' affectation is not for, say, pink, for a good reason.
As a tween, certain that I had a career in music or theater ahead of me, I began to wear nothing but black (and I am old enough, and lived in cheery enough suburbia that this should not be mistaken for goth leanings.)
So black spoke to me of either formality -the cantata chorister, or anonymity and invisibility -the techie or the pit musician. (I was more than slightly steamed when the distaff half of the high school madrigal group chose a pinky-red voile with monstrously large, abstract white flowers for our gowns. ) Although if anyone asked, I told them my affectation was in mourning for a divided Ireland.
Anyway, not that any one's asking, but I would like black vestments for my funeral, and violet if my first choice cannot be procured.
"Cater-corner "
While reading in this morning's Times about the new H & M for men (yes, I have lots better to do; and no, my interest in fashion, as anyone who ever noted the way I dress would agree, is purely theoretical,) I cam across the word "cater-corner ."
I have always said "katty-corner" and heard "kitty-corner," mostly from southerners, I think.
In a rare moment of humility or self-deprecation I wondered if (oh horrors...) a feature writer, a style writer, were using correctly a term I had been Archie-Bunkering, to use Himself's phrase. Well, it seems we all, in a grand Anglo-phone tradition, have been butchering a French word.
(According to Kenneth G. Wilson in The Columbia Guide to Standard American English.)
kitty-corner(ed), catty-corner(ed), cater-corner(ed) (adv., adj.)
All these are Standard variants of an idiom, based on folk etymologies developed from the French cater (quatre)—“four”—prefixed to corner(ed); the idiom means “diagonal” or “obliquely opposite,” as in The gas station was kitty-corner(ed) [catty-corner(ed), cater-corner(ed)] from the flower stand.
Now, back to the Style section...
I have always said "katty-corner" and heard "kitty-corner," mostly from southerners, I think.
In a rare moment of humility or self-deprecation I wondered if (oh horrors...) a feature writer, a style writer, were using correctly a term I had been Archie-Bunkering, to use Himself's phrase. Well, it seems we all, in a grand Anglo-phone tradition, have been butchering a French word.
(According to Kenneth G. Wilson in The Columbia Guide to Standard American English.)
kitty-corner(ed), catty-corner(ed), cater-corner(ed) (adv., adj.)
All these are Standard variants of an idiom, based on folk etymologies developed from the French cater (quatre)—“four”—prefixed to corner(ed); the idiom means “diagonal” or “obliquely opposite,” as in The gas station was kitty-corner(ed) [catty-corner(ed), cater-corner(ed)] from the flower stand.
Now, back to the Style section...
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Larger Print
My entire life I have written too small.
You'd think, as I tumble into the abyss of middle age, and presbyopia advances, I would have a clue.... but no, it seems I still gravitate to tiny fonts, they look "right" to me.
Sorry.
Anyway, per a readers request, a touch more legible, I hope.
(When I was in college, riding the subway up to Harlem everyday, I would often take the time to write in my journal. One day, a woman in the seat next to me leaned over and gushed, ooooh, that's beautiful! Is it Arabic?)
You'd think, as I tumble into the abyss of middle age, and presbyopia advances, I would have a clue.... but no, it seems I still gravitate to tiny fonts, they look "right" to me.
Sorry.
Anyway, per a readers request, a touch more legible, I hope.
(When I was in college, riding the subway up to Harlem everyday, I would often take the time to write in my journal. One day, a woman in the seat next to me leaned over and gushed, ooooh, that's beautiful! Is it Arabic?)
Cricket Bats and Quality
Some people just know more about some things.
For instance, some people just know more about words...
Tom Stoppard is a brilliant writer, IMO (which, I hasten to add in light of the subject of this post, is worth nothing whatever.)
I realized recently that something I have often wished to say, to find the words for, has already been said, by Henry, in the Real Thing, or more accurately, by Tom Stoppard, his creator.
The Snowbird Statement put the same idea very succinctly, but not with much wit: some music is of higher quality than others; not all music is good. Certainly, musical standards are not absolute or unchanging, and church history attests this mutability. Still, we are convinced that the elements which comprise the musical judgment are objective and are something more than mere assertions of personal preference or of social or historical convention. There are those who, through training and talent, are able to identify music that is technically, aesthetically and expressively good.
One of the complaints about me in my last job was "Oh, she always has a reason....," as if that were a Bad Thing, as if trying to control various aspects of the Liturgy on personal preference, or gut instinct, or whim, or even tertiary sources (my friend says that the O of W says that the official document says...,) were better.
Because that was how the complainant operated. "In your opinion," was the hissed retort to many statements of mine, and when I would cite a reference, seething ensued.
I am not a wordsmith, but oh, how I wanted to make them understand, some things are "good" or "bad," not because I (or anyone else,) says so, but because they are.
Even rudimentary musical explanations (that showy syncopation puts the accent on a syllable that makes the phrase virtually unintelligible, that tessitura is always going to evoke either performance mentality or excruciating strain from the cantors who should just be a conduit for the Word of God, that voice leading pretty much guarantees the altos are not going to find that tri-tone, "evil" is not the best choice of word in the Lord's Prayer to make the musical climax, if you set the tempo that fast when you get to the 16th notes in the last period no one will be able to articulate the words or notes and the hymn will fall apart, of course it's too high not to mention the refrain sits in the sopranos' passagio and if I transpose it the verse will be too low even for the basses and altos...) usually elicited blank stares, and I won't say some weren't just attempts at obfuscation because I was tired of the contempt for experience and education and, yes, talent.
From someone much impressed with his own single afternoon's training in "facilitating" whatever the latest diocesan program was, (Oh no, Spanish-speaking people had to take the program, and he couldn't speak Spanish, but a native Spanish-speaking priest couldn't mediate and translate the session because "He isn't a trained facilitator,") he had no commensurate respect for other people's degrees, or years of training.
And Tom Stoppard, being a wordsmith, defends the rights of "the guy who knows," (to quote Himself,) and in the process defends the primacy of the judgement of the few over the opinions of many, with perfect, perfect, words.
And being a wordsmith, he does so in defense of "the guy who knows" words, (not alas, Liturgical Music.)
But I think even Toby would understand the Cricket Bat "aria" Stoppard wrote for Henry.
To quote Wikipedia: he defends the importance of beauty in language and skill in writing using an analogy with a cricket bat: good writing is like hitting a ball with a cricket bat (i.e. something that has been carefully designed to hit balls with in the best manner possible); bad writing is like hitting it with a plank of wood (i.e., something that has the same composition as a cricket bat, and bears it some resemblance, but is ultimately random and inferior).
I should rather have said, he defends the person capable of creating that beauty, and more, the utility of the well crafted phrase, that propels an idea as the bat does the ball; and defends that person's "right" to say what is "good" or not so good.
(In the same way "good" liturgical music has the ability to bear the Word which is beyond words, and to propel spiritual truths rather than merely pleasing or soothing.)
Anyway, I haven't read or seen The Real Think in a long time and I would very, very much like to.
(Always wanted to play Annie, I'm too old now, of course.)
I'll have to dig it out.
For instance, some people just know more about words...
Tom Stoppard is a brilliant writer, IMO (which, I hasten to add in light of the subject of this post, is worth nothing whatever.)
I realized recently that something I have often wished to say, to find the words for, has already been said, by Henry, in the Real Thing, or more accurately, by Tom Stoppard, his creator.
The Snowbird Statement put the same idea very succinctly, but not with much wit: some music is of higher quality than others; not all music is good. Certainly, musical standards are not absolute or unchanging, and church history attests this mutability. Still, we are convinced that the elements which comprise the musical judgment are objective and are something more than mere assertions of personal preference or of social or historical convention. There are those who, through training and talent, are able to identify music that is technically, aesthetically and expressively good.
One of the complaints about me in my last job was "Oh, she always has a reason....," as if that were a Bad Thing, as if trying to control various aspects of the Liturgy on personal preference, or gut instinct, or whim, or even tertiary sources (my friend says that the O of W says that the official document says...,) were better.
Because that was how the complainant operated. "In your opinion," was the hissed retort to many statements of mine, and when I would cite a reference, seething ensued.
I am not a wordsmith, but oh, how I wanted to make them understand, some things are "good" or "bad," not because I (or anyone else,) says so, but because they are.
Even rudimentary musical explanations (that showy syncopation puts the accent on a syllable that makes the phrase virtually unintelligible, that tessitura is always going to evoke either performance mentality or excruciating strain from the cantors who should just be a conduit for the Word of God, that voice leading pretty much guarantees the altos are not going to find that tri-tone, "evil" is not the best choice of word in the Lord's Prayer to make the musical climax, if you set the tempo that fast when you get to the 16th notes in the last period no one will be able to articulate the words or notes and the hymn will fall apart, of course it's too high not to mention the refrain sits in the sopranos' passagio and if I transpose it the verse will be too low even for the basses and altos...) usually elicited blank stares, and I won't say some weren't just attempts at obfuscation because I was tired of the contempt for experience and education and, yes, talent.
From someone much impressed with his own single afternoon's training in "facilitating" whatever the latest diocesan program was, (Oh no, Spanish-speaking people had to take the program, and he couldn't speak Spanish, but a native Spanish-speaking priest couldn't mediate and translate the session because "He isn't a trained facilitator,") he had no commensurate respect for other people's degrees, or years of training.
And Tom Stoppard, being a wordsmith, defends the rights of "the guy who knows," (to quote Himself,) and in the process defends the primacy of the judgement of the few over the opinions of many, with perfect, perfect, words.
And being a wordsmith, he does so in defense of "the guy who knows" words, (not alas, Liturgical Music.)
But I think even Toby would understand the Cricket Bat "aria" Stoppard wrote for Henry.
To quote Wikipedia: he defends the importance of beauty in language and skill in writing using an analogy with a cricket bat: good writing is like hitting a ball with a cricket bat (i.e. something that has been carefully designed to hit balls with in the best manner possible); bad writing is like hitting it with a plank of wood (i.e., something that has the same composition as a cricket bat, and bears it some resemblance, but is ultimately random and inferior).
I should rather have said, he defends the person capable of creating that beauty, and more, the utility of the well crafted phrase, that propels an idea as the bat does the ball; and defends that person's "right" to say what is "good" or not so good.
(In the same way "good" liturgical music has the ability to bear the Word which is beyond words, and to propel spiritual truths rather than merely pleasing or soothing.)
Anyway, I haven't read or seen The Real Think in a long time and I would very, very much like to.
(Always wanted to play Annie, I'm too old now, of course.)
I'll have to dig it out.
Our soul
Let's see, we, through people we have deputized to do such things, engaged in extraordinary rendition: kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured a man, and then released him, in a state of psychosis that our actions induced, into a strange land without a word of explanation; and he has no redress whatsoever as far as our country is concerned, because talking about it might expose state secrets.
Do I have that right?
Our nation has sold its soul to the devil.
I am so ashamed...
Do I have that right?
Our nation has sold its soul to the devil.
I am so ashamed...
Inculturation and Cultural Imperialism
"Consider the sign of peace. In some East Asian cultures, a bow may replace the handshake as a gesture for this ritual moment."
"Replace?" "REPLACE?"
I know one cannot suggest that anyone from a minority culture speaks from a POV of even inadvertent racism or prejudice, so I'll just wonder if the writer is Yoowesseeseebee-centric. (See IGMR, para. 82)
It's very easy to forget that ones own experience is just that, merely ones own, Fr. M.
There's a reason the name we, in the Church, go by means "universal", and a reason that parochial means "parochial."
We have far too often suppressed signifiers of the former, and elevated whims and preferences to the level of rubrics, to our great and lasting detriment.
"Replace?" "REPLACE?"
I know one cannot suggest that anyone from a minority culture speaks from a POV of even inadvertent racism or prejudice, so I'll just wonder if the writer is Yoowesseeseebee-centric. (See IGMR, para. 82)
It's very easy to forget that ones own experience is just that, merely ones own, Fr. M.
There's a reason the name we, in the Church, go by means "universal", and a reason that parochial means "parochial."
We have far too often suppressed signifiers of the former, and elevated whims and preferences to the level of rubrics, to our great and lasting detriment.
What hope is there?
Those in musical ministry know that funerals, (and the increasingly common memorial Mass,) are among the most trying of our programming duites.
Two facts: recent praxis has encouraged mourners, regardless of knowledge or of expereince or even of their faith, to become de facto liturgists; and the growing secualrazation of society leading to congregations at funerals (and weddings, while we're at it,) are, in large part, completely un-churched; combine to make what is already hard more difficult.
Trying to minister to mourners and at the same time preserve the integrity of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass sometimes seems like a losing battle.
What hope is there with such ignorance as this: "Unlike the readings, there is no set music repertoire for funerals"?
http://www.ritemagazine.org/resources/0707ReproRsrc.pdf
It seems extraordinary to me that an adult Catholic would be utterly unaware of the existence of the May the angels/In paradisum, and indeed, that besides this unique situation - a prescribed RECESSIONAL in the Roman Rite -- there ARE prescribed texts for the final commendation, for the introit, the communion, even the offertory; and further, that these texts, at least in the original, do in fact have their own prescribed music. (That deviation from them is allowed is no more pertinent than the fact that virtually unlimited choices are offered for the 5 [NOT 3!] pericopes that comprise the Liturgy of the Word at funerals.)
We will never get away from the How Great Thou Arts, and "Mom's favorite song was 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow, where can we fit that in?"s, and Oh When the Saints, when we have such ignorance from someone who purports to know a little something about liturgy.
A Catholic priest.
Not just a Catholic priest, a pastor.
Not just a pastor but a professor of liturgy and sacraments at a Catholic University.
And, incidentally, one who someone thought was good enough to present him with the forum of a major publication from LTP.
Really, what hope is there?
Two facts: recent praxis has encouraged mourners, regardless of knowledge or of expereince or even of their faith, to become de facto liturgists; and the growing secualrazation of society leading to congregations at funerals (and weddings, while we're at it,) are, in large part, completely un-churched; combine to make what is already hard more difficult.
Trying to minister to mourners and at the same time preserve the integrity of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass sometimes seems like a losing battle.
What hope is there with such ignorance as this: "Unlike the readings, there is no set music repertoire for funerals"?
http://www.ritemagazine.org/resources/0707ReproRsrc.pdf
It seems extraordinary to me that an adult Catholic would be utterly unaware of the existence of the May the angels/In paradisum, and indeed, that besides this unique situation - a prescribed RECESSIONAL in the Roman Rite -- there ARE prescribed texts for the final commendation, for the introit, the communion, even the offertory; and further, that these texts, at least in the original, do in fact have their own prescribed music. (That deviation from them is allowed is no more pertinent than the fact that virtually unlimited choices are offered for the 5 [NOT 3!] pericopes that comprise the Liturgy of the Word at funerals.)
We will never get away from the How Great Thou Arts, and "Mom's favorite song was 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow, where can we fit that in?"s, and Oh When the Saints, when we have such ignorance from someone who purports to know a little something about liturgy.
A Catholic priest.
Not just a Catholic priest, a pastor.
Not just a pastor but a professor of liturgy and sacraments at a Catholic University.
And, incidentally, one who someone thought was good enough to present him with the forum of a major publication from LTP.
Really, what hope is there?
From Approbation to Opprobrium
I want to withdraw my recommendation of the fashion blog I wrote about, wherein "Frighteningly Ugly" outfit, items and persons are fisked.
Since I began reading it it has gone from amusingly deploring the deplorable, to snarky nit-pickery.
It also promotes the truly damaging that like Goldilocks, we can, and should achieve something just right, and if you don't achieve it, you're just wrong.... and that it all matters.
There is no place for not caring, or not caring sometimes; and there are growing numbers of posts the gist of which are "I can't put my finger on it, but this just doesn't work," or "I want to like it but..."
But what? It's not perfect?
(Oh, I'll still read it from time to time, it can still be hilariously funny, but it will be an even more guilty pleasure than before, far too much of it, to sound like a middle school girl is "mean.")
Since I began reading it it has gone from amusingly deploring the deplorable, to snarky nit-pickery.
It also promotes the truly damaging that like Goldilocks, we can, and should achieve something just right, and if you don't achieve it, you're just wrong.... and that it all matters.
There is no place for not caring, or not caring sometimes; and there are growing numbers of posts the gist of which are "I can't put my finger on it, but this just doesn't work," or "I want to like it but..."
But what? It's not perfect?
(Oh, I'll still read it from time to time, it can still be hilariously funny, but it will be an even more guilty pleasure than before, far too much of it, to sound like a middle school girl is "mean.")
Vandals and Art
I'm such a Philistine... I have completely different reactions to the criminal vandalism of a Monet painting of a bridge as opposed to a black and white photo of a naked woman fondling a horse in a sexual (or sexually suggestive,) manner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/arts/design/08monet.html?ref=arts
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/arts/design/09serr.html?ref=arts
Security is patently very different from that in art museums and public places in the US. (I have been scolded by guards in public galleries for leaning too close to a painting, trying to see brush strokes.)
The article about the attack on the impressionist painting in France goes on to enumerate other "similar" incidents, the theft of chalices and patens from a Catholic cathedral (surely this was looked at even by the French, whose relationship with Catholic places of worship is akin to that with soap, as described by Twain, as something more than vandalism of mere art?) and the leaving of a lip print on a piece of "art" consisting of a blank canvas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/arts/design/08monet.html?ref=arts
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/arts/design/09serr.html?ref=arts
Security is patently very different from that in art museums and public places in the US. (I have been scolded by guards in public galleries for leaning too close to a painting, trying to see brush strokes.)
The article about the attack on the impressionist painting in France goes on to enumerate other "similar" incidents, the theft of chalices and patens from a Catholic cathedral (surely this was looked at even by the French, whose relationship with Catholic places of worship is akin to that with soap, as described by Twain, as something more than vandalism of mere art?) and the leaving of a lip print on a piece of "art" consisting of a blank canvas.
Monday, 8 October 2007
Those who died before their time of birth
Yesterday we sang, as we have for several years, a song dedicated to reverencing human life, and I realized, as I never had before in my life, that I have a brother (I believe, though it may be a sister,) whom I never met.
I was completely unable to finish singing, fortunately the congregation sang it as if it were their school fight song, so even at the non-choir Masses, my voice was not missed. (They would belt out even the phone book listings if I played ST COLUMBA for them to sing it to.)
But how had i never thought of that before?
Does the remembrance pain my Mother, I wonder? Imagine, were it not for the miscarriage, twelve children.
She's a remarkable woman. The strongest person I know.
She is pretty matter of fact about loss.
But still...
Someday we shall all sing together.
Name Meme
Lifted from Christus Vincit
MY ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) None Fiorenze
YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favourite ice cream flavour and favorite cookie) Jamocha Pyms (there's a cookie I prefer, but can't remember the name of...)
YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Black Butterfly
SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) - The Maroon Rum (although I think I prefer "The Rum Maroon" as in, "what a maroon..."")
NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Jack Daniel
TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) - Klein Kalmazoo... Kankakee?... Kenosha?....Kennebunk?
SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower) - Corpus Christ Lily of the Valley's just too dang long, so Autumn Sweet William
CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) - peachy Mini-skirtsy
HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) - Cranberry Willow
YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) - The Flower Beading Lightening Tour
YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Alix Union
WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents' middle names) Eleanor Vincent
MY ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) None Fiorenze
YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favourite ice cream flavour and favorite cookie) Jamocha Pyms (there's a cookie I prefer, but can't remember the name of...)
YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Black Butterfly
SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) - The Maroon Rum (although I think I prefer "The Rum Maroon" as in, "what a maroon..."")
NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Jack Daniel
TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) - Klein Kalmazoo... Kankakee?... Kenosha?....Kennebunk?
SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower) - Corpus Christ Lily of the Valley's just too dang long, so Autumn Sweet William
CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) - peachy Mini-skirtsy
HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) - Cranberry Willow
YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) - The Flower Beading Lightening Tour
YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Alix Union
WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents' middle names) Eleanor Vincent
What would you take?
I was creeped by this thread on Fr Z's blog.
The premise was,
If you had to leave where you are in, say, 12 hours, what, realistically,would you take? (only what you can carry , and "they" are coming for you, with ID checks, block by block.)
I guess it shouldn't really be surprising that there was a healthy representation by people I would consider survivalists.
And people with multiple firearms.
Me? Don't know. Complete coward. & much attached to things.
Now, natural disasters, with family virtually all over to whom to escape, cash and a half dozen or fewer irreplaceables -- my Dad's Liber, my Mom's pearls (that my father, who didn't even know her at the time brought back from his war service in the Pacific theater,) my rings (that I do not, cannot wear,) those Boosey and Hawkes Irish Songs collected at such effort, the crucifix that hangs over the entrance to the house, (not heavy,)
But depending on why "they were coming for me"... well, would I want to abandon "identifiers"?
Would I flee? or stand and be a martyr? head for the hills? try to blend in?
Hard to say.
In a fire, the pearls and the Liber.
The premise was,
If you had to leave where you are in, say, 12 hours, what, realistically,would you take? (only what you can carry , and "they" are coming for you, with ID checks, block by block.)
I guess it shouldn't really be surprising that there was a healthy representation by people I would consider survivalists.
And people with multiple firearms.
Me? Don't know. Complete coward. & much attached to things.
Now, natural disasters, with family virtually all over to whom to escape, cash and a half dozen or fewer irreplaceables -- my Dad's Liber, my Mom's pearls (that my father, who didn't even know her at the time brought back from his war service in the Pacific theater,) my rings (that I do not, cannot wear,) those Boosey and Hawkes Irish Songs collected at such effort, the crucifix that hangs over the entrance to the house, (not heavy,)
But depending on why "they were coming for me"... well, would I want to abandon "identifiers"?
Would I flee? or stand and be a martyr? head for the hills? try to blend in?
Hard to say.
In a fire, the pearls and the Liber.
In praise of laziness
There's no need to do many things that "must be done."
Himself frets about many health things, but the fact is, most minor medical problems are self-limiting.
My cold is going to make me miserable, run its course and go away whether I go to the doctor or not, whether I try the next new homeopathic remedy, or sip my usual tea, (substituting honey lemon and brandy for my usual milk and aspartame...)
I could wash my kitchen floor, but since a small construction project is going to make it filthy, and require replacing some of the tiles, really, what's the point?
(As some comic said, you dust your house, you're gonna hafta dust it again in a few months...)
This rumination is inspired by the fact that yesterday afternoon, really exhausted from the weekend liturgies, (it was the heat in the loft, more than any actual unusual exertion,) I knew I should have gotten out a ladder and a saw to trim the mulberry-bush-which-is-really-a-tree which had begun to threaten nearby wires and cables, but instead chose to read some articles I'd clipped and make myself a wine punch.
So lazy....
And there, today, the local utility company has sent a truck through the neighborhood, and they're doing it for me.
Maybe I'll have some more punch this afternoon.
An aside, (Scelata, EVERYTHING you write "is an aside." You need a "But I Digress" emoticon,) I remembered an actual unusual exertion.
Because we sang, at my instigation 4 years ago, a song that is not in any of our parish resources, I had to distribute 400 copies of the text to approximately 120 strategic locations about the nave before the first Mass of the weekend, then locate and straighten them up before each subsequent Mass, and then collect them after the last Mass, (and of course, make certain the the priest and deacon had their copies, which were inexplicably lost after several Masses, despite them having slipped them into the hymnals that never left the presider's chair... so they tell me. )
I am going straight to heaven when I die, because as I collected them, when asked if I had to collect them I did not say, no, the same flying monkeys who put them out'll take care of it.
And God bless the 5 year old (and his Mom,) who helped. (She does children's L of the W. Yet another example of the fact that the same 5% of the people do 95% of everything that needs to be done.)
Hmmmmmm.... or does it need to be done?
Himself frets about many health things, but the fact is, most minor medical problems are self-limiting.
My cold is going to make me miserable, run its course and go away whether I go to the doctor or not, whether I try the next new homeopathic remedy, or sip my usual tea, (substituting honey lemon and brandy for my usual milk and aspartame...)
I could wash my kitchen floor, but since a small construction project is going to make it filthy, and require replacing some of the tiles, really, what's the point?
(As some comic said, you dust your house, you're gonna hafta dust it again in a few months...)
This rumination is inspired by the fact that yesterday afternoon, really exhausted from the weekend liturgies, (it was the heat in the loft, more than any actual unusual exertion,) I knew I should have gotten out a ladder and a saw to trim the mulberry-bush-which-is-really-a-tree which had begun to threaten nearby wires and cables, but instead chose to read some articles I'd clipped and make myself a wine punch.
So lazy....
And there, today, the local utility company has sent a truck through the neighborhood, and they're doing it for me.
Maybe I'll have some more punch this afternoon.
An aside, (Scelata, EVERYTHING you write "is an aside." You need a "But I Digress" emoticon,) I remembered an actual unusual exertion.
Because we sang, at my instigation 4 years ago, a song that is not in any of our parish resources, I had to distribute 400 copies of the text to approximately 120 strategic locations about the nave before the first Mass of the weekend, then locate and straighten them up before each subsequent Mass, and then collect them after the last Mass, (and of course, make certain the the priest and deacon had their copies, which were inexplicably lost after several Masses, despite them having slipped them into the hymnals that never left the presider's chair... so they tell me. )
I am going straight to heaven when I die, because as I collected them, when asked if I had to collect them I did not say, no, the same flying monkeys who put them out'll take care of it.
And God bless the 5 year old (and his Mom,) who helped. (She does children's L of the W. Yet another example of the fact that the same 5% of the people do 95% of everything that needs to be done.)
Hmmmmmm.... or does it need to be done?
Sunday, 7 October 2007
Awwww, ya look beautiful in yer wrath....
One should never give ones opponents, (or potential opponents,) weapons.
And yet, watching the worst performance ever of one of his idols, I shared with Himself that if I were ever furious, he would be able to completely diffuse the situation, I would be helpless to remain angry if he were to emote, like John Wayne playing Ghengis Kahn, "Awwww, ya look beautiful in yer wrath...."
I dash home between Masses this morning to try and change into something cooler, (90 blank!#!#!$!%!^!ing degrees as we start the second week in October!!$#!^!&!!,) and grab a drink and the air conditioning is on, and the back door is WIDE OPEN.
"Oh, fer pete's sake, the d..."
But there's this bouquet of roses (the K of C was selling them to raise money for pro-Life activities,) and I start to melt.
And he says, "There's a note..."
And it says, "Awwww, ya look beautiful in yer wrath...." and I find myself laughing so hard I can barely make it back to the next mass, much less stay ticked off because he's been running up our electricity bill by air-conditioning the Great outdoors.
I love Himself....
And yet, watching the worst performance ever of one of his idols, I shared with Himself that if I were ever furious, he would be able to completely diffuse the situation, I would be helpless to remain angry if he were to emote, like John Wayne playing Ghengis Kahn, "Awwww, ya look beautiful in yer wrath...."
I dash home between Masses this morning to try and change into something cooler, (90 blank!#!#!$!%!^!ing degrees as we start the second week in October!!$#!^!&!!,) and grab a drink and the air conditioning is on, and the back door is WIDE OPEN.
"Oh, fer pete's sake, the d..."
But there's this bouquet of roses (the K of C was selling them to raise money for pro-Life activities,) and I start to melt.
And he says, "There's a note..."
And it says, "Awwww, ya look beautiful in yer wrath...." and I find myself laughing so hard I can barely make it back to the next mass, much less stay ticked off because he's been running up our electricity bill by air-conditioning the Great outdoors.
I love Himself....
Sir Monocle's White List
Sir Monocle has begun a White List
http://sirmonocle.blogspot.com/
(a work in progress he says, and again, not quite what I was hoping for, which is a refutation of the canard that those who aspire to improve the musical quality of our liturgies "don't like anything new"... some of Elgar's music is glorious, but surely only Palestrina and Vittoria, shooting the breeze in heaven think of his output as "awfully decent stuff from that new kid.")
(But really, why should anyone care what my hopes are....?)
http://sirmonocle.blogspot.com/
(a work in progress he says, and again, not quite what I was hoping for, which is a refutation of the canard that those who aspire to improve the musical quality of our liturgies "don't like anything new"... some of Elgar's music is glorious, but surely only Palestrina and Vittoria, shooting the breeze in heaven think of his output as "awfully decent stuff from that new kid.")
(But really, why should anyone care what my hopes are....?)
BMP's Congregational White List
The blogger in chief of the Christus Vincit triumvirate doesn't have a White List per se, but recently blogged on the entire contents of his parish's music resource, Music Issue 2008.
Without his permission, but I doubt he'd mind, I'm going to copy his lists from his archives and try to winnow out ("winnow in?") the contemporary.
I am more interested in leads on musical works for choir or schola. Also, a lot of his selections seem to be "doo-fers" usable, but not exactly praiseworthy.
And, I don't know for sure that everything I've eliminated was traditional, or that everything I've left is contemporary., I'll have to get a hold of the Music Issue and check.
But for now...
...............
322 Gift of Finest Wheat /
328 Taste and See (Moore)
338 I Am the Bread of Life
345 Eat this Bread
306 Let Us Go to the Altar
311 Gather Us Together
316 Our Eyes Are Turned to the Lord
335 Ubi Caritas (Hurd)
351 I Received the Living God
352 Anima Christi (Toolan)
386 These Alone Are Enough -Schutte
387 Christ Be Beside Me
393 God Be in My Head -Grayson Warren Brown's best works I've seen.
398 Jesus, Remember Me
439 Seek Ye First
483 Prayer of St. Francis
407 All the Earth (Deiss?)
408 Word of God, You Spoke Creation -Gael Berberick
415 Where Charity and Love Prevail - Dom Paul Benoit (Scelata says: I wouldn't count this, as the great Benoit did not actually compose the tune)
439 You Are Near
450 Spirit of God within Me - Soper
467 Like a Child Rests
489 There Is One Lord (Alstott)
492 Hold Me in Life
497 We Walk by Faith/In Times of Trouble (Barbara Bridge text - two tunes involved here: Jesu Dulcis Memoria for the refrain, Ave Maris Stella for the verse. Her best work!)
500 I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
506 Christ, Be Our Light - Bernadette Farrell
508 O Christ, Our Teacher /
509 O Christ, You Speak the Names of God
519 Out of Darkness (Chris Walker's best work I've seen, IMO)
520 Those Called by Christ /
523 Pescadore de Hombres (in English)
526 Only This I Want (Not bad in the devotional category at all)
531 Holy Wisdom, Lamp of Learning
533 Now My Heart (not bad at all for John Foley)
538 From North and South (The team of Colgan and Kelly
546 Revelation (Brown)
573 Laudate, Laudate Dominum (Latin refrain, English verses)
580 The Word of God Was from the Start /
585 O Silence
587 God of the Hungry - Soper
588 The Cry of the Poor
608 Festival Canticle: Worthy Is Christ
674 Hear Us Now, Our God and Father /
675 God, Who Created Hearts to Love
680 Keep in Mind
628 I Have Loved You (As long as it's not done as a Responsorial Psalm, as I've sadly seen happen)
637 Canticle of Zachary (Joncas) (One of his far better works!)\
667 Remember Your Love (the only Dameans song I actually white list!)
679 Song of Farewell (Sands)
688 Yes, I Shall Arise (Alstott)
696 Be Still My Soul
697 Healing River of the Spirit
704 Song of Mary (Schutte)
712 Mary, Woman of the Promise
713 O Holy Mary (Alstott?)
715 Hail Mary, Our Icon (Scot Crandal)
(Scelata says: Putative "Psalms" not usable for Liturgy of the Word, but suitable for other points in the Mass, I left off all the actual psalms he listed as there really are a number of usable setting of such -- though hardly any consistently good and licit collections)
758 Psalm 25 (Manion)
768 Psalm 33 (Dufford)
769 Psalm 34 (Dean)
787 Psalm 84 (Joncas)
792 Psalm 91 (Joncas)
...............
829 Magnificat (Alstott)
832 Magnificat (Farrell) /
833 Benedictus (Farrell)
834 Nunc Dimittis (Ridge)
843 O Radiant Light (Mode I)
849 Create a Clean Heart (Alstott)
852 Grant them eternal rest (Alstott)
Without his permission, but I doubt he'd mind, I'm going to copy his lists from his archives and try to winnow out ("winnow in?") the contemporary.
I am more interested in leads on musical works for choir or schola. Also, a lot of his selections seem to be "doo-fers" usable, but not exactly praiseworthy.
And, I don't know for sure that everything I've eliminated was traditional, or that everything I've left is contemporary., I'll have to get a hold of the Music Issue and check.
But for now...
...............
322 Gift of Finest Wheat /
328 Taste and See (Moore)
338 I Am the Bread of Life
345 Eat this Bread
306 Let Us Go to the Altar
311 Gather Us Together
316 Our Eyes Are Turned to the Lord
335 Ubi Caritas (Hurd)
351 I Received the Living God
352 Anima Christi (Toolan)
386 These Alone Are Enough -Schutte
387 Christ Be Beside Me
393 God Be in My Head -Grayson Warren Brown's best works I've seen.
398 Jesus, Remember Me
439 Seek Ye First
483 Prayer of St. Francis
407 All the Earth (Deiss?)
408 Word of God, You Spoke Creation -Gael Berberick
415 Where Charity and Love Prevail - Dom Paul Benoit (Scelata says: I wouldn't count this, as the great Benoit did not actually compose the tune)
439 You Are Near
450 Spirit of God within Me - Soper
467 Like a Child Rests
489 There Is One Lord (Alstott)
492 Hold Me in Life
497 We Walk by Faith/In Times of Trouble (Barbara Bridge text - two tunes involved here: Jesu Dulcis Memoria for the refrain, Ave Maris Stella for the verse. Her best work!)
500 I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
506 Christ, Be Our Light - Bernadette Farrell
508 O Christ, Our Teacher /
509 O Christ, You Speak the Names of God
519 Out of Darkness (Chris Walker's best work I've seen, IMO)
520 Those Called by Christ /
523 Pescadore de Hombres (in English)
526 Only This I Want (Not bad in the devotional category at all)
531 Holy Wisdom, Lamp of Learning
533 Now My Heart (not bad at all for John Foley)
538 From North and South (The team of Colgan and Kelly
546 Revelation (Brown)
573 Laudate, Laudate Dominum (Latin refrain, English verses)
580 The Word of God Was from the Start /
585 O Silence
587 God of the Hungry - Soper
588 The Cry of the Poor
608 Festival Canticle: Worthy Is Christ
674 Hear Us Now, Our God and Father /
675 God, Who Created Hearts to Love
680 Keep in Mind
628 I Have Loved You (As long as it's not done as a Responsorial Psalm, as I've sadly seen happen)
637 Canticle of Zachary (Joncas) (One of his far better works!)\
667 Remember Your Love (the only Dameans song I actually white list!)
679 Song of Farewell (Sands)
688 Yes, I Shall Arise (Alstott)
696 Be Still My Soul
697 Healing River of the Spirit
704 Song of Mary (Schutte)
712 Mary, Woman of the Promise
713 O Holy Mary (Alstott?)
715 Hail Mary, Our Icon (Scot Crandal)
(Scelata says: Putative "Psalms" not usable for Liturgy of the Word, but suitable for other points in the Mass, I left off all the actual psalms he listed as there really are a number of usable setting of such -- though hardly any consistently good and licit collections)
758 Psalm 25 (Manion)
768 Psalm 33 (Dufford)
769 Psalm 34 (Dean)
787 Psalm 84 (Joncas)
792 Psalm 91 (Joncas)
...............
829 Magnificat (Alstott)
832 Magnificat (Farrell) /
833 Benedictus (Farrell)
834 Nunc Dimittis (Ridge)
843 O Radiant Light (Mode I)
849 Create a Clean Heart (Alstott)
852 Grant them eternal rest (Alstott)
Traditional Worship 8:00, free alcohol and pornographic movies 10:30
I exaggerate of course, the day will never come.... or will it?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
In order "to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell ... ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants" are using "an unusual recruiting tool", Halo.
Focus on the Family mealy-mouthedly stays impartial (don't want to upset potential allies in the next boycott...)
A voice of reason is quoted:
“If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, ..... “My own take is you can do better than that.”
We had a choir member who missed rehearsal because she had to go stand in line to buy a game the moment it was released, her son wanted it so badly, I've got to assume it was Halo.
I guess, if some religious organizations are doing this that anyone would be a stick in the mud for objecting to the fact that no one can be told to be reverent in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I guess the reasoning is, if they were admonished, they might take offense and decamp for a denomination that offers coffee bars... or now, I see, Halo.
I think the family celebrating today could have made more noise after Mass if they had really tried.
Or maybe they couldn't, perhaps that was the very loudest they could be.
They'll need to go into training to come up to the very high standards set at some recent weddings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
In order "to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell ... ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants" are using "an unusual recruiting tool", Halo.
Focus on the Family mealy-mouthedly stays impartial (don't want to upset potential allies in the next boycott...)
A voice of reason is quoted:
“If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, ..... “My own take is you can do better than that.”
We had a choir member who missed rehearsal because she had to go stand in line to buy a game the moment it was released, her son wanted it so badly, I've got to assume it was Halo.
I guess, if some religious organizations are doing this that anyone would be a stick in the mud for objecting to the fact that no one can be told to be reverent in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I guess the reasoning is, if they were admonished, they might take offense and decamp for a denomination that offers coffee bars... or now, I see, Halo.
I think the family celebrating today could have made more noise after Mass if they had really tried.
Or maybe they couldn't, perhaps that was the very loudest they could be.
They'll need to go into training to come up to the very high standards set at some recent weddings.
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Do you have a sacristan?
Does your parish have a sacristan?
Full or part-time or ad hoc?
Religious or lay?
Paid or volunteer?
I believe that until shortly before I became MD here, we had a sacristan, a woman who did the job on a volunteer basis
(We also had a volunteer lay person who did the altar server scheduling and training and calling to remind before every and I mean every Mass, who has since moved away, though he still drives to our town for weekend Mass.
Both of these jobs now fall to a priest, (still active in ministry but past retirement age, and increasingly vocal about the fact that he feels over-worked.)
Yesterday before Mass a chorister was telling me (in the side choir room, I am trying to discourage conversation in the loft, and incrementally it seem to be having an effect,) about a family wedding being held somewhere else, and the unreasonable twenty dollars they were expected to pay the sacristan.
Does the sacristan live in the church building?
Well, no, of course not, and anyway, it's a lay person, he wouldn't live at the rectory.
Oh, then he has to come in specially on Saturday afternoon?
To lay out one vestment!
(I chose not to ask about the prie-dieu, the altar cloths, the fans, the purificators, the hosts, the water, the wine, vessels, the aspergillium, [sp?] the incense, the windows, the fans or air conditioning or heat, the lights, the locks, the liturgical books, the quick clean up before the anticipated Mass.... all of which can and in my experience are dumped on a sacristan, or whoever is functioning as one.)
Mass began.
Deacon is not there, having been pressed into 1st Friday Communion Calls.
He usually sets out the pall, etc., (which I have seen priest had to bustle around doing before this Mass as soon as he returned from the funeral home,) as well as "stage managing" the grade-school servers, some of whom can't remember to stand up, or to face the altar if he doesn't flick a finger and raise an eyebrow in their direction. (Need I mention that they don't need to remember to kneel, as our servers do not kneel?)
After Prayer of the Faithful, priest announces that the grandchildren will bring up the gifts.
I figure without a deacon, priest and people will of course not be incensed, so music will need to be shorter than usual.
At least a dozen young people, ages maybe 6 to 17 get up and straggle down the the cross aisle, as I notice from the loft, with concern, that the table that holds the gifts for the offertory procession is empty. (I guess the deacon usually does that as well?)
However, the priest, from his vantage point in the sanctuary cannot actually see the table.
Kids mill around.
I try to wave to get the priest's attention, and slooooowly with other hand and both feet begin a looooong intro.
I psssst... to a chorister that she will have to go down and tell priest.
She looks at me as if I am speaking Swahili.
Servers, (Koreography by Keystone, by the way, preparing the altar, and again later, incensing, final procession and retrieving the processional Crucifix from the sacristy similarly... creative, without the guiding hand of the deacon, and with their own newness to it all,) arrive at table and join grandchildren in aimless milling around.
Finally one shrugs toward priest.
Pirest kindly waves them all up to sanctuary, blesses children and sends servers into sacristy to fetch the wafers and wine and water, sends them back to credence table to fetch accoutrements for lavabo, and I wind up my endless improv on the Arcadelt Ave Maria (it was a woman's funeral, and since people often forget to tell me, I just go on the assumption that she might have been a Rosary Society member, and hope no only asks for HMGW.)
Then I walk over to chorister and break my own rule about conversation in the loft during Mass, saying simply, "And that's why you pay the sacristan twenty dollars...."
Full or part-time or ad hoc?
Religious or lay?
Paid or volunteer?
I believe that until shortly before I became MD here, we had a sacristan, a woman who did the job on a volunteer basis
(We also had a volunteer lay person who did the altar server scheduling and training and calling to remind before every and I mean every Mass, who has since moved away, though he still drives to our town for weekend Mass.
Both of these jobs now fall to a priest, (still active in ministry but past retirement age, and increasingly vocal about the fact that he feels over-worked.)
Yesterday before Mass a chorister was telling me (in the side choir room, I am trying to discourage conversation in the loft, and incrementally it seem to be having an effect,) about a family wedding being held somewhere else, and the unreasonable twenty dollars they were expected to pay the sacristan.
Does the sacristan live in the church building?
Well, no, of course not, and anyway, it's a lay person, he wouldn't live at the rectory.
Oh, then he has to come in specially on Saturday afternoon?
To lay out one vestment!
(I chose not to ask about the prie-dieu, the altar cloths, the fans, the purificators, the hosts, the water, the wine, vessels, the aspergillium, [sp?] the incense, the windows, the fans or air conditioning or heat, the lights, the locks, the liturgical books, the quick clean up before the anticipated Mass.... all of which can and in my experience are dumped on a sacristan, or whoever is functioning as one.)
Mass began.
Deacon is not there, having been pressed into 1st Friday Communion Calls.
He usually sets out the pall, etc., (which I have seen priest had to bustle around doing before this Mass as soon as he returned from the funeral home,) as well as "stage managing" the grade-school servers, some of whom can't remember to stand up, or to face the altar if he doesn't flick a finger and raise an eyebrow in their direction. (Need I mention that they don't need to remember to kneel, as our servers do not kneel?)
After Prayer of the Faithful, priest announces that the grandchildren will bring up the gifts.
I figure without a deacon, priest and people will of course not be incensed, so music will need to be shorter than usual.
At least a dozen young people, ages maybe 6 to 17 get up and straggle down the the cross aisle, as I notice from the loft, with concern, that the table that holds the gifts for the offertory procession is empty. (I guess the deacon usually does that as well?)
However, the priest, from his vantage point in the sanctuary cannot actually see the table.
Kids mill around.
I try to wave to get the priest's attention, and slooooowly with other hand and both feet begin a looooong intro.
I psssst... to a chorister that she will have to go down and tell priest.
She looks at me as if I am speaking Swahili.
Servers, (Koreography by Keystone, by the way, preparing the altar, and again later, incensing, final procession and retrieving the processional Crucifix from the sacristy similarly... creative, without the guiding hand of the deacon, and with their own newness to it all,) arrive at table and join grandchildren in aimless milling around.
Finally one shrugs toward priest.
Pirest kindly waves them all up to sanctuary, blesses children and sends servers into sacristy to fetch the wafers and wine and water, sends them back to credence table to fetch accoutrements for lavabo, and I wind up my endless improv on the Arcadelt Ave Maria (it was a woman's funeral, and since people often forget to tell me, I just go on the assumption that she might have been a Rosary Society member, and hope no only asks for HMGW.)
Then I walk over to chorister and break my own rule about conversation in the loft during Mass, saying simply, "And that's why you pay the sacristan twenty dollars...."
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