Tag: Liturgy

Holy week!

Two thoughts 2/3 through the Sacred Triduum:

1. Foot-washing on Holy Thursday is a liturgical loser.  Liturgy is theatre.  You have to see it or hear it or smell it or touch it or taste it, none of which 99% of pew-sitters can do with foot-washing, which is hidden from their view in any church I have been in.  You can do it yourself, of course . . .  if you’re into that sort of thing.

2. Ditto venerating the cross on Good Friday.  It really calls for more talent as liturgy (theatre) than most parishes can muster, and what do the hoi polloi do while waiting to do this medieval thing, besides listen to “Were you there when they crucified my lord?” or “Amazing Grace,” which are 19th-century sentimentalism run riot?

Let’s hear it for low mass on Sunday and a nice, calm thoughtful sermon.

The ABC’s of getting it right

Some nice explanation here from various experts about what’s been wrong with the RC liturgy and how it will change come next December, the first Sunday of Advent, 2011:

The original translation of the Roman Missal into English was carried out under 1969 Vatican rules that stressed simplicity, modernity and other factors that would make the language of the liturgy more comprehensible and participatory.

I believe it.

[T]here was concern “that the language has been too laid back” and failed to convey the rich liturgical heritage of the Roman rite.

Yep.

The new translation [in December] shows an effort “to heighten the language a bit” and capture “the transcendence as well as the imminence of God,” he says.

Yes, give us a taste of something special here, alert us to the mystery.

“. . .  To radically simplify the language is often to dilute the concept.”

Not to make light of the problem that led to simplifying things, but you do lose something.  I like the challenge the translators are recognizing.  Let’s hope they meet it.

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