Tag Archives: liturgy

In, But Not Of

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Scripture tells us to be in the world but not of it. Obviously somebody forgot to tell the Anglicans. The implication of these actions is that if it’s legal in man’s law, it should be legal in God’s law. "It has the state’s blessing. Why shouldn’t it have ours?" Oy. I bet this kind of thing drives Pontificator nutty.

Liturgy for Gay Marriages Developed in Vt.
Fri Jun 18, 4:26 AM ET
By DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Writer

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont’s Episcopal Diocese has become the first in the country to develop a liturgy – a script for a religious service – in response to a state law making same-sex unions legal.

Fasting From the Eucharist

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Here’s a completely different take on the current communion debate that’s all the
rage these days.

Staying
in the Pew at Communion Time

I’ve come to believe that part of the problem has to do with the unremitting insistence
on frequent Communion. I will pause for a moment as 90% of my readers emit gasps
of horror at what I’ve just written. I think we’ve hammered frequent Communion (a
wonderful thing, in itself) into the people’s heads so hard and have at the same
time failed so miserably to catechize them on the full richness of this Sacrament’s
meaning, that now we find Communion time resembling (as one of my scandalized Mexican
parishioners described the English-language Masses) a stampede of cattle, leaving
behind empty pew after empty pew as everyone surges forward to get a Host. And if
they can’t have a Host, you damn sure better give them a nice blessing because it’s
Communion time and, you know, everybody has to get something. I’ve had people go
to confession for not having gone to Communion even though they were present for
an entire Mass. It is not a sin not to go to Communion. But people have been led
to believe that it is. Together with the misunderstood insistence on frequent Communion,
a poor understanding of “active participation in the Liturgy” must shoulder
a fair share of the blame.

Gone to the Dogs

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Ordination of actively homosexual priests is wrong, but at least it’s an issue that intelligent individuals can debate rationally. Having regular pet attendance at communion, however, is absolutely ridiculous. I wonder how widely this practice is considered acceptable by the Anglican hierarchy.

Houses of Worship Are Reaching Out To a Flock of Pets
Purr Box Goes to Communion At St. Francis Episcopal; A Group ‘Bark Mitzvah’

For the first time in 10 years, Mary Wilkinson went to church one Sunday in January. She sat in a back pew at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stamford, Conn., flipping through a prayer book and listening intently to the priest’s sermon.

Improper Conduct

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Well,
I am now a former parishoner of my parish.

[…]

[A]fter I had received the body and blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in my mouth, and as I was proceeding back to my pew (still with the Body of Christ in my mouth), the women’s ACTS group finished their rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”

Then half of the congregation clapped and catcalled and whistled and cheered.

During the Eucharist.

For the women’s ACTS group.

And that, my friends, was the deal breaker for me and my parish. I can ignore the ritualized clapping after the choir finishes the final song of the Mass. The priest is gone, the tabernacle is sealed, and the Mass is ended. I can even ignore the fact that the choir director is an ageing ex-hippie gal who shakes her butt whenever she uses the tamborine during a song. I wince but don’t walk out when the altar servers walk up to the altar and start grabbing the crystal chalices filled with the Precious Blood and handing them to the deacon. I can deal with the fact that they use crystal for the chalices and for the ciboriums, even though the Bookman and I have been looking into buying some of the less expensive precious metal ones and donating them to the church.

But the fact that a large percentage of the congregation thought it was acceptable, in any way, shape, or form, to applaud a musical performance during the most sacred mystery of the Eucharist . . . that tells me right there that the people at that parish have no clue what the Mass is about. The disrespect staggered me. I actually gasped, just stunned that anyone could possibly think that it was an appropriate time for catcalls and whooping.

I don’t blame this lady for leaving her parish one bit. It’s sad, though, that she
could not have been a force for change. I’m sure it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Accustomed to Error

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So people have gotten used to a bad translation. So what? Granted, the draft of the new mass needs some work to overcome some "clunky" wording, but that’s the not the point. The mass needs to be translationally and theologically correct before it is "comfortable".

Priests predict possible backlash against new Mass text

"A forum of priests on a national radio program has suggested the draft text of changes to the Mass creates a distance between the priest and the people, and it could alienate Catholics who have grown up with liturgy in the vernacular."