I thought it would be neat to go to St. Anthony since it was his feast day. I also thought it was going to be a quiet daily Mass. I had no idea it was their golden anniversary. So rather than a sparsely-attended, brief daily Mass it was a two-hour bilngual Eucharistic shindig. Now I am concerned about being uncharitable (since I probably just did) so I will say this. We must separate the fact that Christ becomes present in body, blood, soul and divinity from everything else. Christ is there whether the homily is boring, the altar boys are wearing sneakers, the music is irreverant or not. Even if there is an awards ceremony during the Mass Christ is still there. "Awards ceremony? What on Earth is he talking about?" you say. After Communion before Mass ended there were some speeches and the pastoral council gave out awards to the order of priests who founded the Church in 1952, the sisters who founded the school, and to one of the previous pastors. In all fairness, when you plan an event like this I suppose you don't have many options. I suppose they could have done speeches then Mass rather than what they did. Maybe a 30 minute awards ceremony with speeches then a Mass, instead of a two-hour Mass with this non-liturgical stuff.
There were two very memorable occurences besides the drumset that was playing along on every sung prayer with the organ, the rhythmic clapping during the Lamb of God, and the readings that alternated one sentence in English and one in Spanish. The first was Representative Tom Davis making an ass of himself in a speech after communion. He opened by saying "Blessed are those who are brief, for they shall be re-elected." har-har. Not with your record on abortion, buddy. Some Catholics pay attention to that when they vote - especially when our tax money is used to fund abortion and contraception overseas. When he was done speaking he put the wireless microphone on the altar. Oops. I guess he's not Catholic. Next was something said by one of the previous pastors. To the best of my recollection it was, "I like to think of the pastor as the coach of the football team and the members of the church as the team. You've got to pick who can best throw that pass, who can catch it, who can keep score, etc." Golly - I always thought of the pastor as ministering the sacraments and providing for his flock. Maybe I'm just being churlish again.
Oh, the hymn books were from OCP. The drummer really did play along with everything ever when the organ was playing, and he had windchimes that he used gerenously for effect. I'm sure they effect was different on me than on the drummer who was chiming then. They weren't the kind you hang up in your back yard that has five innocuous tones but a whole rack of them. It was a very happy-sounding abomination. I was impressed with the piano/organ player though because he was fluent in Spanish and English. If you've got a big hispanic community that is a must. The clapping during the Lamb of God can go, though. Bilingual Masses are wonderful. It's important to recognize the diversity of congregations and celebrate it. You know what really breaks down cultural barriers and allows everyone to worship in the same spirit and language? Masses in Latin.
