I think Gaspar would have said something like, "God has reserved for us these terrible times." Really, I think there are a whole generation of priests who have the bad habit of simply not listening to the church, but they have been trained to follow their own lights. They are sincere in their belief that this is appropriate and even more pastoral.
What I said to the visiting priest this weekend:
If it is in black, say it, and if it is in red, do it. If it is not in black, do not say it, and if it is in not red, do not do it.
What the visiting priest did at his first Mass:
ad-libbed the Eucharistic Prayer.
These priests would be deeply offended to be called "clerical." But is there anything more clerical than thinking you know better than the Church? But then the response would be, "We are the Church." And the conversation goes on ...
He did so only because "pay attention to the pastor" was not in red. You should color code your speech for future reference! ;-)
And perhaps this was done only to balance the joy with which you must have read the Moto Proprio upon its release. God does seem to like a semblance of balance.
I think you mean, "We are Church." For this crowd, removing articles makes one sound more profound.
You hit the nail on the head with the descriptor "clerical." Clericalism is the #1 disease in the Catholic Church in the West. (It's not any sort of abuse scandal either, by the way -- that's just one of the many ugly faces of clericalism.)
Welcome back to the real world, good Father. It was nice to soak in the Calgon bath of the CMAA for a few days, eh? Next year in Chicago!
"For this crowd, removing articles makes one sound more profound."
Yet Latin omits them entirely: what does this say?
Visiting priests have been abusing hospitality probably since the days of the apostles. My '07 hang-up is throwing the sacristan and EM's into confusion by not "doing the dishes."
Wow, let the rhetorical games begin in Newark, apparently.
As your pastor would confirm, I am formerly of the Oakland Diocese and am entering my 38th year of service to the Church as a parish director of music. He would also confirm that through these last three decades, that many of us who came into the liturgy during those heady, expressive post-conciliar years have maintained a steady interest in delving deeper into all the mysteries and traditions that are our "Rites." The paths we choose in order to help us become truly pastoral are diverse, as they should be. But some of us cannot even agree upon what constitutes being "truly pastoral."
I also attended CMAA (for the first time) and would not characterize it cleverly as a "Calgon bath." I purposefully audited both my own reasons for attending, and speculated on other attendee's intent and motivation to participate. The one aspect that clearly spoke to me about the CMAA "agenda" and endeavor is that "these people" are there, if for nothing else, to express a personally profound witness to the Lord within a culture of God-granted beauty as articulated by centuries of cultivated forms specific to the Roman Rite. They did not argue forms, debate or demean other practices or organzations, engage in political polemic- they simply helped each other prepare to worship in specific ways. In no way were they "selling product," as in a refreshing bath oil.
Yes, clericalism is a volatile term, much less a vexing issue within our own house, and without. I deal with clerics daily, eight days a week! But I see no positive purpose or outcome if people voice "their beefs" with our Church's necessary heirarchy on superficial levels.
I know your pastor as a man willing to sit down and talk honestly with any soul about any and all aspects of our journeys of faith, and more importantly, listen to those he has been privileged to serve as priest. He is not a "cleric" who has assumed the role of "alter Christi" for all the wrong reasons.
I hope that your dialogues with him up in my beloved old Oakland Diocese progress with true concern and charity.
"Next year in Chicago!"
What does that mean, Michael? (You won't remember me, but I was a member of the schola for the recording made at Fr Heimann's last year of the Chant Institute)
Is the CMAA going to vary the site of the colloquiam?
"Yet Latin omits [articles] entirely: what does this say?"
That it is a different language, perhaps?
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
"Yet Latin omits [articles] entirely: what does this say?"
That it is a different language, perhaps?
Perhaps. It might also say that the omission of articles is another person's capitalization. Human groups adopt their own groupspeak. These days, it seems to have more significance for self-identification than bad grammar.
Hi, Geri! "Next year in Chicago" refers to the persistent rumor that next year's colloquium will be held in the Windy City. It is my hope that, perhaps, it will be scheduled in such a way that interested parties may also be able to attend that Gregorian Chant Institute at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, IN, which we've both attended in years past.
Charles, I write from the Archdiocese of Boston, so perhaps my clericalism radar is a bit more acute these days. My beef with clericalism is not the hierarchy itself; in fact, I find the hierarchy to be a splendid and beautiful, if imperfect, terrestrial representation of the order of heaven. But the Holy Spirit gave the hierarchy of the Church its authority for the purpose of discerning the truth on our pilgrim way to the Kingdom, not for indulgent worldly power which corrupts our dear Church. It is necessary, yes, but it has been abused and broken. At any rate, I couldn't agree more with your assessment of the keeper of this blog. He is a faithful pastor of souls, and I join you and other fans of this blog in praying for him often.
And, by the way, I stick by my bath oil analogy: God wants us to soak in His beauty, to drench ourselves in His abundant love!
Hi, Fr. Keyes; you mentioned what the priest did at his first Mass. Was there a second one? Was he any better behaved?
The "personalized liturgy" always surprises me because instead of making the text more meaningful, it almost always diminishes it. One priest a few weeks ago changed "and preserve us from all anxiety" to "preserve us from all useless anxiety." OK, if it's not useless, God should just let me freak out. Otherwise, the Mass wasn't bad and at least Father X didn't come down and wander across the front row shaking hands.
Some days I think I've seen it all from the organ bench. Other days, I'm afraid I haven't.
Dear Michael,
Please accept my apologies for any misconstruance; I soon realized that my perspective was skewed and I misjudged the, ahem, tenor of your post.
I did consider your take on the Calgon! They do have their place in this world, amen. But then we have to then sigh, roll up our sleeves and back to the wheel.
Pax et bonum,
Charles
And don't forget, L.A. is just three hours away from Boston! Lucky, I'm quite north of it.
"'Next year in Chicago' refers to the persistent rumor that next year's colloquium will be held in the Windy City. It is my hope that, perhaps, it will be scheduled in such a way that interested parties may also be able to attend that Gregorian Chant Institute at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, IN, which we've both attended in years past."
Hmmmm, now THERE'S something to hope for!
I might also hope for scheduling that allowed for attendance at the musician's retreat at the Liturgical Institute's at Mundelein.
Fr Weber was inspiring, and the celebrations of Mass and the Divine Office were all done with such care and devotion and prayerfulness that it was truly remarkable.