Carson Weber finds some rather strange omissions for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year C, in the Lectionary and the reading from the Book of Revelation. I guess one way to deal with "hard sayings" is to simply not mention them.
One of the omitted verses though is rather ironic to be removed "and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book."
Fr. V. posts on applause at Mass.
…When I was younger (and even more idealistic) and directing the choir, Fr. Ozemik whom I looked up to (I took my confirmation name in part after him) acting very out of character asked the congregation at the end of mass, “Didn’t the choir do a fine job? Let’s give them a round of applause.” Not usually one to counter elders I none-the-less marched in to the sacristy and said rather sternly, “Don’t you ever do that to me again. This is my ministry and unless you are going to clap for the servers and the women who ironed the linens, and the men who volunteered to fix the pews, and Mrs. C who mended your vestment, and the ushers, readers, EMEs, and everyone else who had a role in this mass including the congregation don’t you ever do that again!”
Surprisingly he took it very well. More amusedly I think than anything else. But we never clapped again and once or twice he suggested to people that if they liked the music they should go tell the choir.
I spoke about this to a seminarian yesterday at lunch. He was equally as irritated. “We used to do that at my (Catholic) high school," he said, “We were told not to clap during the mass anymore so we took up a bunch of time afterwards to acknowledge everyone after mass and clap for them. ‘And now for the choir . . .and now for the EMHC . . .’ I don’t know why we didn’t clap for the congregation that did a great job praying or for Jesus Christ who was kind enough to show up.”
He then goes on to give more arguments against this. For my part whenever I have heard applause at Mass I always thought it was disruptive and took away from the solemnity of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. That people have forgotten that Christ’s sacrifice is re-presented and we are present at Calvary and Jesus’ live-giving sin-destroying sacrificial act. Would anybody think it was appropriate to clap at Calvary?
If applause is a good to show appreciation in the context of the Mass, then shouldn’t we be doing it at the consecration?
Some of the parishes where I have heard applause I have also experienced another thing. That after Mass the priest will start asking who is from out of town, who has a birthday or an anniversary, etc. I keep waiting for them to ask "Who is annoyed by this phony act of community" so I too can stand up. I am sure they have the best of intentions, but we have just received Jesus Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity and the last thing we need is to be focusing back on ourselves once again. Speaking from experience I know I am very good at doing that myself without any outside help.
In a Slate article by Andrew Santella.
When word began to spread last year that Pope Benedict XVI might release a document that would allow some changes in the ways Catholic worship on Sunday mornings, the reaction in some quarters approached giddy enthusiasm. "It’s coming … it’s coming!" wrote one blogger of the imminent release of the papal decree. (As it turned out, its release was not so imminent. Catholics who were waiting are still waiting, though reports now suggest the announcement could come in a few weeks.)
The blogger referenced is Amy Welborn and she said no such phrase and hardly approached "giddy enthusiasm." Her post was a roundup of talk on the subject and nowhere was there talk of an "imminent" release other than speculation based on rumors.
The rest of the article is not as bad as it might have been. The usual suspects such as Commonweal and Peter Steinfels are quoted and there are no proponents mentioned.
As my liturgically clueless classmates and I were told, before the Second Vatican Council, Masses were celebrated in Latin by a priest who faced the altar, his back to the congregation. After Vatican II, Masses were in the vernacular, and priests faced their flocks.
Funny how they never mention who the priest’s back is now turned to.
Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B has a couple of good posts up.
LITURGICAL DANCE: the kind that the Vatican WANTS you to do
Holding hands really adds nothing to the Mass
I have a simple suggestion for getting rid of hand-holding during the Our Father. Simply add it as a rubric in the GIRM. You hardly ever see somebody do an actual rubric such as striking their breast during the Confeitor or bowing during part of the Nicene Creed. Put it in the GIRM and people will find a reason why they shouldn’t do it.
A reader let me know that that it looks like the new English translation has leaked. Fr. Sean Finnegan gave Fr. Finigan a PDF of the text which can be downloaded here (right click)
Before the St. Louis Jesuits there were the four Pope Urban VIII Jesuits. NLM prints part of an interesting essay written in 1916 of how some Pope Urban renewal of the hymnody ended disastrously.
… Of the choices presented by this question, only one is clearly not in the spirit of the Gospels: weak music marked by worldly commercialism. To have no music at Mass is far better.
There is much to be said these days in favor of leaving it out. The Catholic world has always placed a value on silence and the ability to meditate so that one may “have ears to hear.” It is often said that the Mass is prayer. And yet today there are many souls, aware of beauty in the arts, who are distracted from prayer and alienated by what they understand to be weak or inappropriate music at Mass.
They can no longer trust that choir Mass will be a haven for them — because the borders have been blurred and they will likely be disturbed at choir Mass, too.
We ought to remember that, in a Mass with no musicians, there is still musicality. When the priest intones any part of the Mass, music is present. Moreover, poetry itself has music in it, and to the extent that the liturgy is poetic or even quasi-poetic, it possesses a sublime music of language — poetry.
With no music at Mass, the parish takes on two virtues — poverty and humility.
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I find that I often like much better a daily Mass at a some parishes where the Sunday liturgy is your typical modern fare. That I can often pray at these Masses where at the same parish on Sunday it is a totally different story. So I would agree that unfortunately often no music is better than the music selected.
Before I become the last blogger in St. Blogs to post on Sacramentum Caritatis here is the link to the English translation. I am still in the process of reading it, though I just got to the part about executing liturgists. Gerald at The Cafeteria is Closed is blogging up a storm on the document and of course Amy Welborn has the normal excellent coverage.
Michael Barber has started his examination of the document along with direct links to specific parts of the document.
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has his initial observations which are well worth reading.
Update: Dad29 notices that I must have had a translation error in my document. I wish that I could have read the original Latin to see that it said "executing liturgeists", not "executing liturgists." I once wrote a handy guide for "Signs of inhabitation by a Liturgeist."
