For my own information.
TRIUMPHALIST--YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Worship I
Just some random notes, on my thoughts about worship.
Hymns: Most modern hymns suck. Aside from a "low artistic merit", they seem nearly devoid of Theological content. Take an example, "On Eagles Wings". Very popular, yet with almost no theology, only an emotional content. It's all about how you feel, and what is going to be done for you. Take even one of the more clying 'traditional" hymns--"Sing of Mary'. The first verse if filled with mystery and theology:
Sing of Mary pure and lowly:
Virgin mother undefiled Here we have the Virgin birth, and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary!
Sing of Gods own Son most Holy,
Who became her little child. And now a rejection of adoptionism.
In the second verse we have
Fairest Child of fairest mother
God the Lord who came to Earth
Word Made Flesh our Very Brother
Takes our nature by his Birth. Now we have the Divine Son-ship of Christ, Christ as the Divine Logos (In the beginning was the word...), the Hypostatic union, and through reference to him being our Brother, the enabling of us to be Sons and Daughters of God.
OK, if you want to feel even more impoverished by the "Music Ministers" look at the propers, the Graduale and the other resources we, as a Church, have developed over millennia, and compare them to things that you find in 'Gather' and similar publications. Pretty poor showing for the modern stuff, isn't it? both on artistic merit and doctrinal and scriptural content. No wonder so many of us Catholics are nearly illiterate concerning the faith. Liturgy is the primary form of catechesis for adults, and we've been robbed.
I also at this point have to ask a pointed question: Since we've all had to learn new musical settings for the Mass, because of the new translations, why didn't we learn the ones provided in the Missal? There are lovely, uplifting and inspiring things being published, which are in line with out tradition of chant. They have of course, been ignored. Instead we have been given things that come from the major publishing houses of"Catholic" music. I just have to ask--why? Vatican II affirmed the primacy of chant, yet we seem to have abandoned it. More than that, it costs money--a surprisingly large amount of money.--to buy new musical settings. Why not go with the Chants in the Missal, and skip the entrenched commercial interests of OCP and others? Do "Music Ministers" get a kick back from the modernist publishing houses? Or do they really just wish to foist an rupture with Tradition upon the faithful? (BTW--technically, "ministry" is restricted in Catholic usage to those who minister from the altar. A server is a minister, a "song leader" is not.)
Hymns: Most modern hymns suck. Aside from a "low artistic merit", they seem nearly devoid of Theological content. Take an example, "On Eagles Wings". Very popular, yet with almost no theology, only an emotional content. It's all about how you feel, and what is going to be done for you. Take even one of the more clying 'traditional" hymns--"Sing of Mary'. The first verse if filled with mystery and theology:
Sing of Mary pure and lowly:
Virgin mother undefiled Here we have the Virgin birth, and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary!
Sing of Gods own Son most Holy,
Who became her little child. And now a rejection of adoptionism.
In the second verse we have
Fairest Child of fairest mother
God the Lord who came to Earth
Word Made Flesh our Very Brother
Takes our nature by his Birth. Now we have the Divine Son-ship of Christ, Christ as the Divine Logos (In the beginning was the word...), the Hypostatic union, and through reference to him being our Brother, the enabling of us to be Sons and Daughters of God.
OK, if you want to feel even more impoverished by the "Music Ministers" look at the propers, the Graduale and the other resources we, as a Church, have developed over millennia, and compare them to things that you find in 'Gather' and similar publications. Pretty poor showing for the modern stuff, isn't it? both on artistic merit and doctrinal and scriptural content. No wonder so many of us Catholics are nearly illiterate concerning the faith. Liturgy is the primary form of catechesis for adults, and we've been robbed.
I also at this point have to ask a pointed question: Since we've all had to learn new musical settings for the Mass, because of the new translations, why didn't we learn the ones provided in the Missal? There are lovely, uplifting and inspiring things being published, which are in line with out tradition of chant. They have of course, been ignored. Instead we have been given things that come from the major publishing houses of"Catholic" music. I just have to ask--why? Vatican II affirmed the primacy of chant, yet we seem to have abandoned it. More than that, it costs money--a surprisingly large amount of money.--to buy new musical settings. Why not go with the Chants in the Missal, and skip the entrenched commercial interests of OCP and others? Do "Music Ministers" get a kick back from the modernist publishing houses? Or do they really just wish to foist an rupture with Tradition upon the faithful? (BTW--technically, "ministry" is restricted in Catholic usage to those who minister from the altar. A server is a minister, a "song leader" is not.)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
CAPE Catholics.
Well, it's Palm Sunday, and the Catholic Internet is seeing the usual amount of Kvetching about CAPE Catholics. Being a Non-Conformist, or if you prefer a more direct and honest approach, a natural born contrarian, I am not going to complain about CAPE Catholics. I'm going to complain about people who complain about them.
Just quit, OK?
I'm tired of putting up a variant of this post every year, but it needs to be done.
Yes, missing Mass on Sunday is objectively sinful. Ummmm....so's gluttony, and how many of us who are ragging on CAPE Catholics have a more than ample waistline? How did we get that waist line? Other things as well. Like Calumny and gossip. So, when I hear Priests and Laymen (I've never heard a deacon say this) say that these folks turn up at Mass on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday because that's when the Church gives stuff out, I have to wonder; are a dirty forehead and a dead palm frond valuable enough to attract someone? Glass houses, people. Yeah, they have a problem. And we don't? I know for a fact that I do, several, in fact.
I hear people say that they come just because of cultural influences. So? Is that so bad? Would you rather they took their cultural influences from Lady GaGa and the porn sites? Even if Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter are "cultural events" for them, they are Christian cultural events, grounded in the Gospel of our Lord. They could stay home and watch TV and be more a part of the modern American ideal than getting up and going to long liturgical services, that don't make you feel real good about yourself for half of them.
How do you know why they don't come more often? It might be that they live back of beyond, and it's a six or seven hour drive to Mass--that happens in the US. it might be that they have a crappy job, that they dare not lose through being restricted in availability and don't get off when there are Church services (been there done that--4 to close Saturday nights, open to 2 Sunday morning). It could be that they just can't stomach another sermon praising MoveOn.Org, or being told that the Gospel consists of social services and political action (been there, done that). Maybe the have gotten hungry for sermons that exhort them to the Christian life, Scriptural exegesis, and spiritual food, that they weren't getting at Mass that they could tell. Seen it. I Know people who go to Mass on Easter, and avoid the Church the rest of the year, going to other places to worship every Sunday because they were hungry for the gospel, and all they got was milque toast and anecdotes and crappy Liturgies with clapping hugging and no vertical element. Maybe they don't actually understand why they should go to Mass, their religious formation was so poor. I've seen that too. Heck I've been told it's more important to work for social justice than to go to Mass, and even if I went every Sunday, prayed daily, kept all the moral rules if I didn't actively work for "social justice" (preferably through the Democratic party) I wouldn't make it to heaven.
Maybe they avoid it because their kid was born out of wedlock, and the same people who condemn them for being CAPE Catholics make a point of mentioning things where they could hear them. Seen that too. Maybe they're just lonely.
Look, they show up on Christmas--they acknowledge the Nativity, and by logical necessity the incarnation. They show up on Ash Wednesday, and by so doing, they are enacting the First Luminous Mystery, the Proclamation of the Gospel and it's call to repentance. They show up on Palm Sunday, and acknowledge the Passion of Our Lord, saying with the rest of us "Crucify Him". They Show up on Easter and in so doing proclaim the resurrection. These folks may well be more honest and accurate in their assessment of their own relationship with god than us Mass-Every-Sunday types. (Look, I knew a person who went every Sunday, who cheated on their spouse and went to dirty book stores to perform fellatio on strangers on the side of both spouse and sex-partner.)
Instead of rolling ones eyes, how about asking someone you haven't seen there before to Coffee and Breakkie on Easter? Huh? Maybe be a friend, just invite them along, and don't say a damned thing about religion, just be a friend. It'll get more mileage than rolling your eyes, bucko.
Just quit, OK?
I'm tired of putting up a variant of this post every year, but it needs to be done.
Yes, missing Mass on Sunday is objectively sinful. Ummmm....so's gluttony, and how many of us who are ragging on CAPE Catholics have a more than ample waistline? How did we get that waist line? Other things as well. Like Calumny and gossip. So, when I hear Priests and Laymen (I've never heard a deacon say this) say that these folks turn up at Mass on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday because that's when the Church gives stuff out, I have to wonder; are a dirty forehead and a dead palm frond valuable enough to attract someone? Glass houses, people. Yeah, they have a problem. And we don't? I know for a fact that I do, several, in fact.
I hear people say that they come just because of cultural influences. So? Is that so bad? Would you rather they took their cultural influences from Lady GaGa and the porn sites? Even if Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter are "cultural events" for them, they are Christian cultural events, grounded in the Gospel of our Lord. They could stay home and watch TV and be more a part of the modern American ideal than getting up and going to long liturgical services, that don't make you feel real good about yourself for half of them.
How do you know why they don't come more often? It might be that they live back of beyond, and it's a six or seven hour drive to Mass--that happens in the US. it might be that they have a crappy job, that they dare not lose through being restricted in availability and don't get off when there are Church services (been there done that--4 to close Saturday nights, open to 2 Sunday morning). It could be that they just can't stomach another sermon praising MoveOn.Org, or being told that the Gospel consists of social services and political action (been there, done that). Maybe the have gotten hungry for sermons that exhort them to the Christian life, Scriptural exegesis, and spiritual food, that they weren't getting at Mass that they could tell. Seen it. I Know people who go to Mass on Easter, and avoid the Church the rest of the year, going to other places to worship every Sunday because they were hungry for the gospel, and all they got was milque toast and anecdotes and crappy Liturgies with clapping hugging and no vertical element. Maybe they don't actually understand why they should go to Mass, their religious formation was so poor. I've seen that too. Heck I've been told it's more important to work for social justice than to go to Mass, and even if I went every Sunday, prayed daily, kept all the moral rules if I didn't actively work for "social justice" (preferably through the Democratic party) I wouldn't make it to heaven.
Maybe they avoid it because their kid was born out of wedlock, and the same people who condemn them for being CAPE Catholics make a point of mentioning things where they could hear them. Seen that too. Maybe they're just lonely.
Look, they show up on Christmas--they acknowledge the Nativity, and by logical necessity the incarnation. They show up on Ash Wednesday, and by so doing, they are enacting the First Luminous Mystery, the Proclamation of the Gospel and it's call to repentance. They show up on Palm Sunday, and acknowledge the Passion of Our Lord, saying with the rest of us "Crucify Him". They Show up on Easter and in so doing proclaim the resurrection. These folks may well be more honest and accurate in their assessment of their own relationship with god than us Mass-Every-Sunday types. (Look, I knew a person who went every Sunday, who cheated on their spouse and went to dirty book stores to perform fellatio on strangers on the side of both spouse and sex-partner.)
Instead of rolling ones eyes, how about asking someone you haven't seen there before to Coffee and Breakkie on Easter? Huh? Maybe be a friend, just invite them along, and don't say a damned thing about religion, just be a friend. It'll get more mileage than rolling your eyes, bucko.
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