Author: John Schultz

Chant = Boring?

Some of you know I have a big problem with the Becker “Litany of the Saints.” To me, it sounds like a jam session with a bunch of names thrown in. The joke with folks who share my disdain is you can add all sorts of name combinations since the word “Saint” doesn’t appear much:
Peter, Paul & Mary – pray for us
George Jetson – pray for us
His Boy Elroy – pray for us
The banality of the Becker piece compared with the prayerful simplicity of chant drives me batty. Why replace something honored by the Church as having a special place in our liturgies with something so… blah?
I finally found out why the Becker won out over the chant Litany: our DRE thinks gregorian chant is boring.
That’s right: boring. As in not fun or exciting. And prayer is supposed to be fun and exciting.
We’re back to the chant litany this year, thank God. It was my only request of our main music/liturgy director and I’m glad it was honored.

POW! KABLAM! BOOM!

Today’s liturgical practices smackdown brought to you by Cardinal Arinze.
Holding up his fists, he said “This one is law, and this one is order”
Actually, what he said was:

“A do-it-yourself mentality, an attitude of nobody-will-tell-me-what-to-do, or a defiant sting of if-you-do-not-like-my-Mass-you-can-go-to-another-parish, is not only against sound theology and ecclesiology, but also offends against common sense,” the Cardinal said.
“Unfortunately, sometimes common sense is not very common, when we see a priest ignoring liturgical rules and installing creativity, in his case personal idiosyncrasy, as the guide to the celebration of Holy Mass.”

Bright idea

Episcopalians consider freeze on gay bishops

“Our continued membership in the Anglican Communion can no longer be taken for granted,” he wrote. “There is now evidence that a majority of bishops are beginning to rethink the position staked out by the General Convention 2003, when it approved the election of the bishop of New Hampshire.”