buy stromectol online uk I just concluded the most successful churchgoing period of my life, and while nothing really ends, Easter marks a turning-point and it is good to look back from here.
darkling Lent is almost certainly supposed to be experienced together with Carnival. The extremity of the one makes no sense without its opposite. Carnival exhausts the body with stimulus – as it is supposed to be exhausted. On Ash Wednesday this year at Mass I just cried and cried hearing the Miserere – I had been prepared.
For the first time in my life, I have had the benefit of a wonderful parish priest. I went to Mass every Sunday, with the exception of the two Sundays when I was not here. The masses were wonderful every time. They were also brief, and since it is the nature of clerics to believe that the longer road is somehow better, let me note down some statistics about the masses to shame the tardipeds. One Sunday I timed the Mass.
According to my watch, it began at 5:29 and forty seconds. I think that is because my watch is twenty seconds behind. I believe it started right on time. No opening hymn. At 5:30:05 we were at the Kyrie. The first reading began at 5:31:00. The psalm at 5:32:21. The second reading at 5:33:28. The Gospel started at 5:34:08. The sermon began at 5:36:40. If you arrived seven minutes late you missed all the readings. The sermon lasted two minutes and fifty three seconds. If you arrived ten minutes late you missed the whole Liturgy of the Word. By 5:44:10 we were at the Sursum Corda, and I next looked at my watch at 5:56:01, when I had taken communion and was done with my personal prayers. We were outside before 5:58. The mass had taken less than twenty-eight minutes. Even on Good Friday, known to Catholics as “the three hours,” we were done in an hour and a half.
There was no music, which is much, much, much better than bad music. I cannot understand why this is not more generally understood. No one cares if you can’t play the piano as long as you never sit in front of one. And in fact the Mass greatly increases in dignity by the atmosphere of silence. If you have Johann Sebastian Bach as your parish director of music, by all means, let him play. But a living dog guards better than a dead lion.
The priest was remarkable. He constantly referred to the fact that the Paschal Mystery is expressed in our lives, that the pattern of Death and Resurrection is life itself. He preached Christ crucified as a way of seeing the hardship of our lives as a vehicle for spiritual growth. He reminded us that Lent was supposed to be joyous – that’s the point. Simplified but joyous. He always said, “The Lord is with you” rather than putting it in the optative. At first I was suspicious, but upon reflection I decided he was right (there is no verb in the Latin, so you must revert to theology). Of course God is with you. Your presence is always the question, not God’s presence.
Attendance at church was excellent – the Church was packed every Sunday – except on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. This was a Sunday crowd, which I think has been the direction the hierarchy has pushed for quite a while, a kind of First Day Adventist church.
The reading of the Passion really should be altered. I was not as offended by it as I normally am, but it is still theologically wrong. The passions are read in parts: the priest reads the part of Jesus, the parishioners are the crowds, and two lectors read narrator and assorted other parts, the largest one being Peter. The correct theology is that the Body of Christ – the parishioners – should read the part of Jesus. The priest should read Peter. Then you add a narrator and another character reader. There is no one for whom this would not be spiritually better and truer.
The Easter Vigil was my favorite service, and after going to it I wondered why I would go to any other Easter service. The readings are astonishing (though they left out the Valley of the Dry Bones this year). I cried and cried at hearing the Exultet – it was so beautiful my memory really could not contain it. An odd thing happened at the service. The priest had some difficulty lighting the candle in the back of the church, and the people were left in a completely dark church (which was very beautiful). All of a sudden, people started pulling out lighters and lit their own candles, and by the time the priest came up the nave chanting “Christ our light,” almost everyone had their candles lit already! Well, I suppose if the priests can’t get their act together, that’s the way it will work. But in general, the crowd at the Easter Vigil had no idea what was going on at the Mass – not standing for the Alleluia, not knowing to sit and so forth. I was not sure why this was so only at this one service. There was a litany, which was amazing. No babies cried during that – the chanting is so mesmerizing.
Last year, for personal reasons, I did not attend the Resurrection Masses. To celebrate them would have been an emotional lie. This year, however, I was able to celebrate again. And I am so happy!
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