So Much to Think About.....
My friend Kelly has posed an interesting question:

What Does It Take To Be Devout?

You may want to go over and help her out. In my usual shy way, I have posted a comment already.

* * *

Rich Leonardi at Ten Reasons, continues a discussion started on Father Z's blog, which was started Lord knows where, and in how many different places. We know people are leaving the Church and Rich's conclusion is the need for more and better catechesis. As many of you know, I am on the RCIA team of our parish, and until this year, taught 7th through 12th grade religious education classes.

****There is no doubt that the average Catholic is completely ignorant of their faith. There is also, in my opinion, a lack in the liturgy leading one to a fuller understanding of the faith. In an effort to be delicate, as I hate to belittle priests (I save that for Obambi), there is, in most cases, not much good instruction pouring forth from our ambos.

While I agree with Rich, my question is:

*****When does the finger that points to lack of catechesis, indifferent priests, and bad liturgy, get pointed back to the pointer? When do we have to start taking responsibility for our own lack of knowledge? It is disingenuous and insulting to keep saying that Catholics are too weak and ignorant to educate themselves, to find a different church, or pray for the priest they got stuck with.

****Are they really so ignorant that they don't even know they're ignorant? It's one thing to excuse young people because they think they know everything anyway. But by the time someone is in their 30's or 40's, a little light should be going off that perhaps they could avail themselves of some good Catholic books. And do Catholic parents really not understand they are the primary teachers of the faith?

Maybe it's time to answer some of these people with a simple, "you are lacking in that area of your knowledge of the faith. I could recommend some wonderful books for you." Will you win friends and influence people? Gosh, I hope so!

* * *

Obambi's projections for "saving or creating jobs" is up to 4.1 million now. That figure just keeps growing and growing. Just exactly how can you know if you "saved" a job? Isn't that like proving a negative? Just sayin'..............

Government Projects do not "Create Jobs" read more...

"The Fallacy That Government Creates Jobs" read more...

This issue is not going away:

From Deliberate Engagement: "Oppose this Pro-Abortion action in Congress"
read more....

Mass Annoyance
A Poll......

*****We're supposed to make a profound bow every time we recite the Creed at Mass at the "et incarnatus est" ("by the power of the Holy Spirit . . .became man") except at Christmas and the Annunciation, when we're supposed to genuflect instead. My husband and I, and perhaps one or two other people, are the only ones who do this, even though it is clearly stated in the missalette (say the black, do the red). At Christmas we did not kneel. Do people in your parish bow, and did you kneel at Christmas? Take a moment and click on the poll in the upper left corner.

Award

I love getting awards. I'm proud to call Esther, A Catholic Mom in Hawaii, a friend. And I will continue to call her one as long as she keeps giving me awards (only kiiiiiding - sorta!)

Rules:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass the award on to 5 most deserving Bloggy Friends.
   
2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received the Award.
3. Each Superior Scribbler must display the award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains the award.
4. Each Blogger who wins the Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List (scroll down). That way, we’ll be able to keep up to date on everyone who receives this.
5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

I pass this award on to, ta da:

1. Each and every one of you that just took the time to read this.........ha. ha. Gothcha!
   

More on Liturgy

****Often comments need to be put on the front page. This is one such instance. My friend Joe, who resides at Orthodox Christian Musings, has some additions to what Father Jay Scott Newman had written in his article that I posted yesterday.

****I have a particular soft spot for the Orthodox since we live two doors away from a beautiful Orthodox Church (pictured at right as viewed from my back deck.) It has been my fervent prayer for quite some time that a reconciliation between our two great faith groups (I just can't say the word community), would be a reality that I will live to see. For one thing they eat waaaaay better than we do and their music is sublime.

****I agree with everything Joe has added except for just a few points. Although our delightful priest at the Eastern Rite Church in the Spokane Valley sports a beard and looks quite smashing, I simply cannot imagine every priest with a beard. Let's just say if he is not challenged in the hair growing department and looks ok in a beard, then I'm all for it.

****Also in number eight is the call to "one Mass per altar on any given liturgical day." While I understand the liturgical reason for this I think the logistics would not be worth the trouble.

from the combox:

****I think that Fr. Newman's liturgical sensibilities are spot on. I would add a few more recommendations:

1. Turn the priest around so that he is facing the right direction, not the people.
2. Get rid of musical instruments altogether and sing the whole Mass in Gregorian Chant (English translations if need be).
3. Clergy should wear beards as a sign of their apostolic and Christ-given authority and should normally wear cassocks under their vestments, even outside of liturgy.
4. Forbid communion in the hand.
5. Forbid Lay Eucharistic Ministers. Only a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon should touch the Holy Bread or the Holy Chalice. If there are not two clergy members to distribute both the body and blood, then have the priest distribute both by intinction. Also, along with male-only altar servers, it should be canon law that women are never to be in the altar area for any reason. For us in the East, this is easy since we have an iconostasis separating the altar from the rest of the Church. But perhaps reinstituting communion rails would do the trick.
6. Institute the practice (borrowing from the east) of using a blessing cross to give the final blessing. At the conclusion of the Liturgy, have the people come to the front to kiss the cross and the priest's hand. Institute chanting by the cantors while people are lining up and going forward.
7. During the distribution of communion, forbid any hymn or song that is not about Holy Communion or receiving Christ in some real sense.
8. Reinstitute the other prayer services of the Church such as Matins and Vespers. Ban the Saturday evening Liturgy and replace it with Vespers. Also, offer only one Mass per altar on any given liturgical day. If everyone can't fit into the church, then build a bigger one.
9. Ban all children's liturgies and children's sermons.
10. Institute the forthcoming new English translation of the Mass as soon as possible and as completely as possible.
11. Incense, Incense, Incense! Require by Canon Law that incense be used at EVERY liturgy.

Father William Eugene O'Brien, Jr.
Saints Cyril & Methodius Byzantine Catholic Church in Spokane

Now that's one smashing beard!

Worshiping the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
November 28, 2005
Fr. Jay Scott Newman

*

****I was baptized in the Episcopal Church, and there I learned to worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. When I became a Catholic, one of the most difficult adjustments for me was learning to accept the generally wretched state of the sacred liturgy in most parishes: banal language, casual atmosphere, mediocre secular music, ugly buildings badly decorated. In all too many places, the result is simply unspeakable. But this need not be.

****The Catholic Church gave us Chartres and Canterbury; she gave us plainchant and Palestrina. The Catholic Church saved the language of Cicero, and gave birth to the Christian poetry of the West. The cultural and artistic riches of the Western Church are still in our storehouse; we need only deploy them in a way adapted to the present structure of the Roman Rite.

****I have been a priest for more than twelve years, and in that time I have served four parishes, one college chaplaincy, and one seminary. In all of those posts, the following characteristics were observed (mutatis mutandis), and the results were splendid. I offer these suggestions for those who seek to "re-enchant" the sacred liturgy for the purpose of leading those who worship more deeply into the Paschal Mystery.

For the building and its contents

1. The tabernacle MUST be on the rear wall of the chancel and on the central axis of the church. Putting the LORD anywhere else turns everything else on an angle, and no ideological justification will change the way in which this simple fact destabilizes the liturgy.


2. The priest's chair should face the ambo, not the congregation, and it should ideally be located on the opposite side of the altar from the ambo. When he is seated, the celebrant (like the congregation) should be facing the proclamation of the Word of God; to have him face the people from his chair makes him the focus of attention and invites him to behave like a talk show host.


3. Right angles are preferable to oblique ones. The eye senses rest when it follows one line to a 90 degree angle with another line; it senses motion when any other angle is present. One of the reasons many of our churches do not feel like peaceful houses of prayer to most folk is that the entire building and all of its furnishings are constantly "in motion."


4. The altar candles should rest on the mensa, not on the floor around the altar. The passion for the "naked altar" is bizarre, pagan, and antiquarian for its own sake. Yes, the rubrics do allow for the candles to be on or near the altar, but I believe that placing them on the mensa has an immediate effect towards the re-enchantment of the liturgy.


5. Avoid kitsch in all its forms, including most especially the trendy and sentimental, in decorating the church. Most churches look like someone's Italian or Irish grandmother has just finished sprucing up the place. Is it any wonder we have such trouble convincing our men that religion is not women's work? The sanctuary is the home of the Son of Man; let's make it look like a place in which most men would be comfortable spending a little time.

For the sacred music

1. Stop balkanizing the Mass schedule with different types of music. This trick comes from Protestant church growth strategies, and it teaches our people that divine worship is just a matter of personal taste. Yes, progressive solemnity can distinguish one Mass from another in a large parish (low Mass, sung Mass, solemn Mass, etc.), but the basic approach to matters musical should remain essentially the same.


2. If the choir is visible to the congregation, move them to a place where they will not be. This is absolutely essential to celebrating liturgy as worship rather than liturgy as entertainment. Yes, Anglicans more or less successfully replaced priests with lay choirs in the chancel, but for several different reasons, that simply does not work in the contemporary Roman Rite. The ideal place, of course, is a loft for organ and choir at the rear of the church. Failing that, at least move them to the back of the church.


3. Sing only sacred music. Much of what is now marketed as "liturgical music" is not sacred at all, and congregations addicted to that pablum are not capable of entering the liturgy as a participation in the worship of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Sacred music is a happy marriage of text and music, and both halves are necessary to re-enchant the liturgy.


4. If you sing hymns, sing the whole hymn. Stopping after the second verse because Father is at his chair makes as little sense as reciting half the Creed. And no "closing hymn" is needed. "The Mass is ended, go in peace" means what it says. Where possible, the priest and ministers should depart the sanctuary to an organ postlude or something comparable.


5. The Anglican, Methodist, and Lutheran traditions have given us an extraordinary treasury of hymnody, most of which can be used in the Catholic liturgy with very little adaption. This music has proven itself to be durable, effective, and sacred. Do not be afraid of using hymns from this patrimony because they are "Protestant." In truth, these texts are far more orthodox and "Catholic" than most of the tripe published by Catholics in the past two generation.


6. Plainchant was, is, and ever shall be the music best suited to the Roman Rite. Teach your musicians and your people some simple chants, and sing them well. Even those who struggle with Latin grammar will not need to be taught that this is sacred music.
   

For the congregation

1. Silence is indispensable. No talking before Mass. Teach them to be comfortable with prolonged sacred silences during the liturgy by explaining that we're not just waiting for the next thing to happen; we're waiting together for the LORD.


2. Teach them all the gestures proper to them, e.g. profound bow in the Creed, striking the breast at the Confiteor, kneeling at all appropriate times, etc. If the liturgy is just talking, talking, talking, then half the human person is left out of worship.


3. Emphasize coming early and stigmatize leaving early. Being casual about being on time renders the entire activity casual. Ditto for clothing. Same for the eucharistic fast.


4. Give constant, clear, and firm instruction about who should and who should not receive Holy Communion. Nothing desacralizes the sacred liturgy more than sacrilegious Communions, and the people need to be told this regularly. If you are not in full communion with the Church, if you are married outside of the Church, if you are in serious sin (including missing Mass on a Sunday or a Holy Day) and have not yet been to Confession: DO NOT EAT AND DRINK YOUR OWN CONDEMNATION. Reasserting that the Most Holy Eucharist is the most sacred reality on earth and not to be profaned by unclean lips will go a long way towards sorting out the McChurch atmosphere that poisons our souls.

For the priest

1. Say Mass as though the people were not present. This means that the priest is thinking about, speaking to, and turned towards the Most High God. Paradoxically, it is this benign neglect of the people that gets the person of the priest out of the way and invites the people into the most intimate participation in the sacred mysteries. This is now counter-intuitive to most priests, who were taught that their first, last and constant job is make the people "feel welcome," but it is absolutely and unconditionally true: say Mass as though they are not there, and they will start to say things like, "That's the first time in 40 years I feel like I've been to Mass." Guaranteed.


2. Naturally, when speaking to the people, the priest must look at them. But except when speaking directly to the people, the priest's entire attention (shown by posture, direction of eyes, etc.) must be directed away from the people and towards the Throne of Grace. For example, the Collect is not addressed to the congregation. Why face the people when you are speaking to the great I AM? And in the Eucharistic Prayer, the words "Take this all of you.." are NOT directed to the congregation, so when you say those words, Father, DO NOT look at the people. The entire Anaphora is directed to God the Father, so do not look at your congregation when you are speaking to the Ancient of Days.


3. Eliminate the words of introduction in the entrance rite. Simply cut them out completely. This little interlude is one of the worst mistakes in the 1970 Missal; it's like pulling the emergency brake on a train moving at 80 mph: the whole thing comes crashing to a disturbing halt. Give one homily, and give it when you should ... in the homily. No off the cuff remarks, no improvisation after Holy Communion.


4. To the maximum extent possible, hide your personality under the chasuble. Who the celebrant is ought to be as nearly insignificant as possible. The priest's job is to pull back the veil between God and man and hide himself in the folds, and this task is made nearly impossible by the ever expanding personality of "The Presider" who feels compelled to intrude his personality into every part of the sacred liturgy. The people aren't there to see us, Father, and if they like our jokes, then we can let loose at cocktail parties. But not in the liturgy.


5. Sing the liturgy. Most parishes sing around the liturgy, but the liturgy is meant to be sung. Unless a priest is truly tone deaf (and even then he can learn to sing recto tono), he should sing, at least at Solemn Masses, nearly every word out of his mouth. From "In the Name of" to "The Mass is ended" and including most especially the Eucharistic Prayer (in whole or at least the words of the institution narrative), the priest should sing the liturgy. In the Christian East, it was once clear that a man who could not sing had no priestly vocation. I wouldn't go that far, but singing the priestly prayers is an essential part of the sacred liturgy, and when it is done well, the re-enchantment of the liturgy is literally at hand.


6. Remember that every liturgy leaves chronological time and enters kairotic time. In chronos we say Good Morning; in liturgical kairos we say Dominus vobiscum. If we do not depart from the texts of the Church, then we stand a fair chance of taking the people with us into the never ending liturgy of the New Jerusalem. This is also why SLOW walking, talking and gestures are important. Same with hiding street clothes under sacred vesture. Ditto for the athletic shoes of the altar boys.


7. Yes, that's altar boys, not androgynous altar servers. Want to encourage young men in the parish to think about the priesthood and all the men to take seriously their responsibilities for masculine headship? Then restrict the service of the altar to boys and young men.

What's This About?

Remember that the cult of the ugly and the mundane was forced upon the Church in the service of an ideology. And if 40 years ago there was any doubt that this ideology is the enemy of the Gospel of Christ, there can be no doubt now. A bare ruined choir is all that is left in many corners of the vineyard, but even (and sometimes especially) in the ruins, God can make all things new.

In the service of this renewal, or re-enchantment:

1. Take Cardinal Mahony's pastoral letter on the celebration of parochial liturgy and throw it on the fire. Watch it burn. Now go take a hot shower.


2. Reject the ideology that got us here. Root and branch, cut it out of yourself. Empty seminaries, despoiled religious orders, plummeting Mass attendance, and wholesale immorality among clergy and laity alike are probably pretty good clues that the vocation to holiness which is our baptismal second birthright is getting obscured along the way.


3. Read good books that will help you understand the real nature and purpose of the sacred liturgy. Two excellent places to start are The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger (who now goes by a new nom de plume) and Looking at the Liturgy by Aidan Nichols, O.P. For the mechanics of celebration, start with Peter Elliott's Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite and Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year.


4. Now approach the altar in spirit and truth, and worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

*

A Small Annoyance

I try to keep my annoyances just that - annoyances and not a full blown hissy fit. Anger is not healthy for alcoholics, or anyone else for that matter.

Every Sunday in our parish after the lector reads the General Intercessions, the congregation is asked to add their own personal intentions. What ensues is a quagmire of people either talking at the same time or mumbling so that you have no idea what you just lent your prayers to, or saying things of such a personal nature that you just cringe. This goes on for a considerable time. I particularly like the gal who every week prays for the return of her children to the faith. Two prayers later a fellow prays for the same thing. He is either not listening or thinks her prayer is just not up to snuff. This goes on week after week.

The New Liturgical Movement has a post and about a gazillion comments on this subject, so it must be on other people's minds as well. The GIRM doesn't state specifically whether this is not to be done.

I posted a poll on the sidebar because I am interested in how many other parishes engage in this practice. If you don't have time to post a comment (always appreciated), please do take the time to click on yes or no.

Saturday Update: The one yes vote on the poll is mine. LOL

* * *

Liturgical

Committee

It would be much appreciated if someone could explain to me in simple terms, the exact purpose of a Liturgical Committee. As many of you know, our church has just started one of these aberrations, designed, as far as I can see, to waste time and accomplish nothing of real importance.

After each committee meeting, my hubby and I are riled up and determined to quit. Finally Harold said, “Listen, if we keep going because we think we’re going to make any changes, we’ll be driven insane. How about we go just to yank some chains?” Now that sort of pot stirring is right up my Italian alley.

Last night was to be our third meeting. We dragged our tired bodies up to church and not one other committee member bothered to show up or even phone in an excuse. You think there may be a message here?

The whole concept has made me excruciatingly uncomfortable from the get go. And I think I’ve figured out why. I am the laity. Everyone else on the committee is the laity. It is not our job to instruct or recommend how the liturgy is to be conducted. I have spent hundreds of hours studying every document relating to liturgy, plus dabbled a bit in Canon Law, to be competent enough to do something I’m not supposed to do.

Except for the one mad moment when I rebuked Bishop Wuerl for allowing the less than stellar Papal Mass in Washington, DC., I have always refrained from criticizing priests and bishops, and I don’t plan on starting now. I just want them to do their jobs and allow me to be the laity. Fair enough?

I Tried to Hide

Request for Help

My husband and I will be on our parish's newly formed Liturgical Committee. I have a pretty good grasp of the GIRM and related documents. Here's where we need the help. Since we are certain the issue of music will come up, it would be nice to have some liturgical music experts volunteer to be available for any questions we may have. In most cases it will be no more then to steer us to the correct documents or provide us with simple song lists for beginning chant, etc.

Even though my husband is a musician, we know that liturgical music is it's own category. Now I know there are musicians out there with strong, indeed brilliant, liturgical experience. I also know that you come and visit occasionally. Please, don't make me email you and beg. I hate to beg. View this as a wonderful way to stick it to some very misled church musicians and not have to experience any of the unpleasant blowback.

Any other liturgical help, whether expert or semi-expert, would also be appreciated. It would be nice to know there were a few other folks onboard to support us as we swim the deep waters of liturgy. Let me know in the com-box or, if you prefer to remain anonymous, my email is adrienne@icehouse.net.