This is the before picture (I am sure there was an even before one before this one, but can't find it) of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in the Diocese of Charleston West Virginia:
And this is the renovation that the disgraced bishop did:
Evidently a corrupt bishop can do some good, no?
8 comments:
Please, Fr. McDonald, for the love of God, tell your thurifer to incense from the Epistle side during the Elevations!
Please, Fr. McDonald, for the love of God, tell your thurifer that it does not in any way, shape, or form matter which side of the altar he/she incenses from during the elevations!
I suppose if one doesn't care about rubrics, then such a thing doesn't matter. Of course, the Roman Rite is subject to very precise rubrics -- so, presumably the Church disagrees with the idea that "it does not in any way, shape, or form matter." Also, if one is going to offer the mass, presumably one would want to follow the rubrics.
In those rubrics, the thurifer is instructed to incense from the Epistle side during the Elevations. See Fortescue, Adrian, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, p. 93 (1920).
Well, with regard to the corrupt bishop, you might say "even a broken clock is right twice a day!"
And he signed his organ donor block of his driver’s license. But he is selfishly holding on to BOTH kidneys for the time being. Somethings are just done for show.
Why does following the rules for Mass, which are entirely made up by humans, make that big a difference? the rules could be changed tomorrow. They could be changed a hundred years from now. It just doesn't matter.
I assume that Anonymous at 10:19 is being ironic. The 'rules' for Mass involve far more than the actual rubrics, which in any case were pared down to the absolute minimum by 1970. Despite this, or even because of it, many priests took it upon themselves to be 'creative' not only with the rubrics, but also with the texts.
In a versus populum NOM the epistle and gospel are not read at the altar so to talk of epistle and gospel side doesn't really apply, and in any case they would be reversed - the principle of 'service from the right' still seems to be adhered to.
In these circumstances the thurifer usually kneels in the centre.
Why does following the rules matter in any situation? Or, for that matter, why does not following the rules matter in this particular situation? Moreover, why are there any rules about how to say mass at all?
In other words, why were the rules created if they weren't intended to be followed? And if a person refuses to follow them, what does that say about the person?
St. Thomas says that obedience is a special virtue. Why is that?
An analogous situation sheds some light of all of these questions: Why do soldiers in training learn to march in step in formations that have no apparent battlefield utility? Those formations could be changed a hundred years from now, after all.
It is also worth noting that God seems to take a keen interest in the minutiae of rubrics. There are, after all, many chapters in the Old Testament related to the precise details of the temple, the vestments, and the rubrics for the sacrifices. The Church sees the codification of the rubrics of the mass, perfected by the saints over centuries, as the continuation of that idea. The suggestion that "it just doesn't matter" is far from the mind of the Church.
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