Ten minutes ago I finished playing a dirge-of-an-entrance-hymn perfectly suited for Lent: Forty Days and Forty Nights. I played the organ extra slow just to make sure no one would enjoy it. Looking at their faces I’m thinking I succeeded. But as I start to listen to the prayers at Mass and hear the readings [...]
One could never accuse the Eastern Catholic of being a lazy participant in the liturgy. Throughout the almost two hours of celebration the clergy and laity do enough moving to merit applause from the US Gymnastics team. A Divine Liturgy is also a noisy place. The silences common to the Roman Rite do not exist [...]
Baptism is a ceremony where naked babies are dunked into small pool like fonts then paraded around the church by a priest or deacon so the assembly can see the babies’ naked body parts. This ceremony can be risky as sudden exposure to the cold church air, a plunge into the cold font water, and [...]
If you aren’t Catholic, you may have gotten the idea from watching television shows from the 1960s or even old movies like, “On the Waterfront,” that priests are really important. Now, if confession or receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus is a Catholic’s thing, then yes, priests are very significant. For other Catholics, though, [...]
You’ve heard it. You’ve probably done it. If you haven’t, your children have innocently followed the herd and started applauding during / after Mass. It’s embarrassing to admit that you hate it, especially when your discomfort at clapping gets you labeled as “anti-community”, “choir hater”, or worse, “not nice”. If you aren’t Catholic and happen [...]
