I wrote something that caught my attention later. I have written it before too. I wrote that Pope Francis style of celebrating the Liturgy is “blah” but by the book. I think Pope Benedict’s style was “blah” too although he would chant and wore vestments more becoming to a pope.
Let’s take the pope, any pope, out of this equation. When someone says a celebrant’s style of celebrating Mass is blah, what does that mean when the Mass is in the Ordinary Form.
Would anyone describe a priest’s style of celebrating the Mass in the Extraordinary Form as “blah”?
What does that say about the Ordinary Form when one describes the priest as blah but more than likely would not use that term for any priest celebrating the EF Mass?
8 comments:
I know "blah". We have " blah" in my parish.
For me the celebrant sets the entire tone for a liturgy from the minute he steps out onto the altar. I like our guys and I respect them. However, when it comes to liturgy more often than not, especially for the pastor, it's "going through the motions". His homilies more often than not are " read" and obviously taken from a book. For the other, he incorporates stories about "himself" to try and illustrate points from Scripture. And the homilies become about "him". There is the same little speech before the final blessing. Whats missing more often than not is the " heart" of the liturgy. We have the motions, we need the "Spirit" to propel those motions.
Now having said this, the answer to the "blah" is to "prepare MY OWN" heart well before mass. If my own heart is prepared it doesn't matter if the celebrant sleeps through the liturgy ( as long as the consecration is valid!) The Spirit is always present and can use even the "blah". So I pray daily for my guys and try and prepare myself as best as I can.
If a priest says the black and does the red, I don't consider that blah. The personality of the priest, ideally, is subsumed in the Rite, at least that's the way it is in the EF.
I understand that the Pope does not chant the Mass because I think I read somewhere he has some type of pulmonary issue?
To me, it is the appearance of a bored functionary going through their hocus pocus showtime for their 18,246th consecutive night, and uttering the prayers with no sign of true emotion or feeling or devotion or humility, purely on autopilot, and this applicable to either Mass style.
Generally, they put on the grave funereal face and intone each word as a judge uttering his 26th death sentence of the day, mistaking that for awe which seems totally lacking, and/or speed read or entirely skip portions because people have places to go, things to do, and people to see, and the homily was the important part.
I am so focused on the Lord in the beauty and reverence of the EF, I don't think I would notice if the priest were blah.
TJM, the pope had a lung removed when he was a teenager. I am amazed that he can get along so well.
Honorable mention goes to lay lectors who also believe a droning slow funeral dirge speech shows awe....or, the ohes who read as if in middle school to an invariable cadence of dah duh-dah duh-dah duh-dah, repeated infinitely but with a bright high DAH! at the end of a sentence.
I am not suggesting overacted elementary school story-time reading or ham imitation professional book narrator, but simply that these spoken words be read as the language is spoken, with inflection where obviously the words would have had them originally, to pass along what is hoped to be passed along....sincere words from the heart of the reader and sincere words from the heart of God.....say it like you mean it, in incorrect vernacular.
Unfortunately, the lectors-for-life, and darned few of them, seem more selected for links to parish power levers and token diversity, than for any skill at reading. The instructions say (unwisely, in my opinion) that lectors should not be the constant same ones, in a laudable effort to stop the entrenchment of unofficial officials lacking vows, but it is ignored at most parishes, anyhow, so, why not consistantly use the very best readers the parish has to offer? A FEW of them in a parish are MARVELOUS, and the words really hit home...
And getting through to people and them taking the words to heart is the entire purpose of this announcing....had Peter or Paul spoken to crowds the way most scripture is read today, those two would still be alive to this very day, as any hearers eyes would have started to cross within 2mins and it impossible to take offense or become angry while snoring.
In the OF, it isn’t just too much Blah. It often is too much blah blah blah blah directed at me. I’m not at Mass to have some one talking to me. I also get tired of looking at all of the personalities that are hovering and exerting their authority around the sanctuary. If I want to see pushy people trying to be noticed I can go to work. That’s my blah blah blah on the subject. Thanks.
Anonymous 4:34
My parish is FULL of the very people you describe. Sad isn't it?
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