Monday, January 17, 2005
Various opinions, starting with liturgy, moving on from there
Fan-shaped seating: Sometimes bad. More dangerous is that many liturgy people think they're the cat's meow and don't recognize they have more in common with the Tridentine performance set-up than with the older traditions of seating in the round, or the more communal monastic/antiphonal arrangement (with apologies to Liam's neck).
Cantors: Transitional, I hope. The ideal would be a choir at every Mass, at least a small one. I do prefer a single psalmist over a choral experience there, but I'm not dogmatic about it, even in my own groups.
Microphones: If I can get away with not using them, I do.
Greeters at church: If the parishioners themselves were doing their job before and after Mass, they would be entirely superfluous. That said, I think having people at the carport or front steps to assist movement-impaired folks out of their vehicles would be more helpful than ushers talking football or their golf game just inside the front doors.
Ban the carafe: Silly. I think Rome is jealous of American ingenuity.
Holding hands at the Lord's Prayer: Wouldn't start it where it wasn't done. Wouldn't end it where it was. It's a practice that spans the whole ideological strip, and has taken on a life of its own. Not a Frankenstein I want to deal with.
Performance music at Mass: If you have a performance repertoire, give a concert. If the people don't show up for it in numbers like they do for your regular Mass, that might tell you something.
Pre-recorded soundtracks: Just a poor idea, all around. Go for live, not memorex.
"Serious" blogging topics vs "safe" ones: I like reading Neil Dhingra's posts. I don't often have much to add. He's a serious academic, and I might have been one once. I certainly think issues such as Jacques Dupuis and the Catholic approach to non-Christian religion is more important than if a parish uses glass chalices or blue vestments. Since the Church teaches clearly on glass and blue, it is firm ground for many Catholics. It's even a confortable topic for dissenters: I'm not likely to go to a dungeon for saying carafes are okay. There's even a guilty pleasure in being able to suggest a matter of discipline is a bad idea.
But dealing with Buddhists, Hindus, and certainly Muslims is a real problem with far-reaching consequences. When confronted with Dupuis, it's easier to keep one's opinions to oneself, be they agreement or befuddled suspicion. After all, what if he turns out to be the 20th century's Aquinas, villified in his day, mistrusted, then rehabbed into doctorhood?
As it stands, it does the bloggerhood little credit to post like crazy on liturgical minutiae, and forego the tougher topics. I certainly count myself as a regular offender, but I'm wondering how I can alter my practices (and still have a little fun).
