Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 362

Memento Mori

I do not want to pull cheap spiritual lessons from the terrible suffering of the people of Japan. They are caught up in a nightmare of catastrophic and gargantuan proportions. Their world, quite simply, has been destroyed. Uprooted and cast aside by the force of nature like an unwanted weed. Their suffering is immense and we can only stand on one side with compassion and try to help in what little ways we can.



However, in observing the disaster, we can't help reflecting on the frailty of our human condition. In our modern, technological world we so easily take things for granted. We assume that our cars, our cell phones, our electricity, our economy, our credit cards, our leisure time our homes and our artificial world is all so secure and safe and sound. It's not. It's a house of cards. It's a fragile, delicate construction that might collapse at the merest puff of nature's whim. The earth's crust shifts and our world tumbles down.

The moral is the simple old dictum of memento mori.  Remember Death. It's a good message for Lent as well. I see a young woman in my parish who has congenital heart condition. She's already had several heart attacks. The next one may happen tomorrow...or in the next minute. She lives every day on the edge of eternity. Her faith and trust inspires me and I said to her that she reminds each one of us that we are all just a heartbeat away from judgment day. 

The Japanese disaster is a sober warning. Our own lives--our health, our safety, our security, our homes--all are built on shifting sand. 

Therefore build your house on the rock. Invest in eternity. Lay up treasures in heaven. Draw close to God the rock, the fortress and the sure defense.

Slubgrip Instructs - 6 & 7

 Here is Friday's installment of Slubgrip's Lenten Lectures. No.6 is on Sentimentality. Remember

Slubgrip's been demoted and is teaching Pop Cult 101 at Bowelbages University.



No. 6 was published on Friday. Today's lecture on popular culture is 'That's Entertainment!" You can find it Here.

Is Anybody Home?

Sorry I've been away from the blog for so many days. Is anybody still out there?



Last week I was on retreat at Belmont Abbey in Charlotte, NC for several days. They had Wi Fi in the monastery, but I thought it wasn't really in keeping with a monastic retreat for me to be blogging away as usual. Saturday I did a talk at Belmont on C.S.Lewis for Lent.





To prepare I re-read the first two science fiction books--Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. I'd forgotten the amount of exciting metaphysical, cosmological wonders he weaves into the books--especially Perelandra. 





Whenever I'm away there's always catch up to do in the parish, so on Saturday I zoomed back down I-85 to take confessions, celebrate the vigil Mass and take Sunday duties in the parish.



Today is my 'day off' which means writing, having lunch with Joseph Pearce, doing my radio show and running errands. I might just get a chance to blog a little too.

Sight and Vision in Worship

What many people forget about the liturgy is that what we see is more powerful than what we hear. We know that a visual image is more powerful than hearing, but we seem to forget that when we come to church. Because vision is more powerful than hearing it is important to make an effort to make the church--and especially the sanctuary of the church beautiful and inspiring.



What often happens, nowdays, however, is that beauty is the last thing the church designer thinks of. Utilitarianism rules. So the main concern is, "where will everyone sit?" or "where will we put the sound system?" or "Do we have the air conditioning vents in the best place?" The utilitarianism extends to other questions as well. I heard of one well meaning church designer who said, "The main aim in designing the church is that it is warm and welcoming." They ended up with soft lighting, pastel color schemes, comfortable pews and cozyness. Others have said, "The main thing is that the altar is seen by everyone." Other times images are placed in the church for utilitarian reasons or to obey some rubric or tradition or some earnest desire for a particular devotion without any sense of unity, beauty or design to the church. So the church will be designed solely with sight lines for the altar in mind, or it will be cluttered up with lots of inappropriate but worthy images.



Most often modern church buildings are designed by architects with no history of the tradition. They build functional, cheap buildings which are easy to maintain, comfortable and with a suitable heating and sound system. Then they make it 'look like a church' by adding fake arches with two by fours and plasterboard. They design a church with the same mentality as they design an Italian restaurant. "Let's build a place for people to sit with a kitchen attached and then make it look like a Tuscan villa--Mexican restaurant? We'll make it look like a hacienda. You want Indian? What about a mini Taj Mahal. It's all fake and Disney-esque. They build the church with the same mentality--"We got a functional box for you here. You want Romanesque? We can do that. A few fiberglass pillars and some plasterboard and hey, you got Romanesque. You want Gothic? We'll make the arches pointed." Instead of real, integrity of design and beauty that is deep within the whole structure you get a cosmetic effect. It's sort of the botox and facelift school of architecture.



Instead the church should be designed with the big picture in mind. The beauty of the architecture should start with the first drawings and the inspirational look of the church should be integral to the whole design and construction. In designing the church interior, you ask, where is the eye drawn when one enters the church? It should be to the altar and the tabernacle beyond. Anything that is distracting should be removed, and all images and furniture in their design, color and size should be secondary to the altar. There should also be a vertical 'attitude' to the design of the church. The heart should lift with height and spaciousness in the design. The design should also be hierarchical. That is to say, the ancient three fold pattern of the Jewish temple should be incorporated--a place for the people, a place for the sacrifice and a place beyond which is the Holy of Holies. This helps to draw the individual up and away from himself and the people around him and focus his mind and heart on God.



There is much more that can be said about the visual in church design and decoration, but another principal that should be stressed is that nothing in the liturgy should draw attention to itself and away from the altar and the action of the sacrifice of the Mass. Choirs up front as performers? Nix. Worship leaders and lectors up front as soloists? Nix. Choir music that is so wonderful (or so awful) that it draws attention to itself? No. Servers who are so wonderful (or awful) that they draw attention? No. Vestments or liturgical innovations that are 'creative' or 'sincere' but draw attention to themselves? No. The visual in church should be subtle, understated and traditional. Stuff that is modern and 'clever' draws attention to itself and is unworthy. Remember Ogden Nash's dictum, "Here is a good rule of thumb: too clever is dumb."



Some will complain that this puts everything in the hands of the aesthete. Good taste and the enjoyment of fine and costly things in church also has to be subject to the worship of the Lord. It is possible to go to the other extreme and make the church so fussy and pretty and to spend so much money on making it look good that the real purpose of it all is also lost. All should be done modestly, with good taste and expenditure of solid, mid range good quality stuff. Materials and workmanship that are cheap and shoddy do not give glory to God, but likewise, materials and workmanship that are inordinately expensive and luxurious cause scandal. It is bad to have cheap felt banners, polyester vestments and tin cups for chalices, but it is also a ridiculous scandal when you learn that a Poor Clare monastery has a tabernacle encrusted with diamonds.



Balance is beauty and beauty is balance.

Shahbaz Bhatti - Martyr for the Faith

This link reports the proposal to the Vatican to officially recognize recently slain Pakistani government minister Shahbaz Bhatti as a martyr. We should begin praying to this saint who gave his life in conformity to his Lord for the conversion and loving defeat of Islam.

Reform of the Reform

Instead of grumbling about liturgical abuses I have been asked to do something about it. First, I must confess that I am not a liturgical expert. I am more of a 'big picture' person. I'm more interested in reasons than rubrics. In other words, I'm interested in why we do something more than what we do because I think that if we know why we're doing it the 'what' will follow.



In modern liturgical practices there are two different centers of focus: God and Neighbor. These two centers of gravity for the liturgy determine sides one takes on all the liturgy wars. Generally speaking you have the folks who believe the liturgy is all about the worship of God. They emphasize the vertical aspect of worship. For them the Mass is always the 'holy  sacrifice of the Mass' which the priest offers up on behalf of the people. This awesome mystery is to be kept at a proper, reverent distance from the people. It is being done for them, not by them. The emphasis, therefore is no what is done at the altar by the priest. The sacrifice is objective. Whether the people 'get anything out of it' or not is secondary. Once this is understood then everything else--music, architecture, altar servers, art, preaching falls into a logical place.



The second center of focus for the liturgy is not God, but the people. With this view the horizontal is emphasized. The Mass becomes not so much the divine sacrifice, but the fellowship meal of the people of God. The priest is the 'presider' and may even be seen as the 'first among equals' for the action of the Mass has become the action of the whole people of God who are, themselves, a 'priestly nation.' The music, actions, art and architecture all, then, serve this function--to draw the people closer together as they worship God. The extreme view of this is that in worshipping together and facing one another they actually are worshipping God for we are taught to see the face of God in other people.



I don't know what people expect of me, but I suppose they think I am all for the first type of worship and down on the second. I'm not. In fact, I think both aspects need to be remembered and emphasized. However, within the whole life of the church the proper emphasis on God and neighbor occur in different areas. In the liturgy the worship must be first and foremost centered on God. That's simply what worship is: our adoration of God. It is proper to focus on the people of God--but not in the liturgy. We focus on people in the rest of our life together--through education, evangelization, fellowship, social concern, care for the sick and dying etc.



This is not to say, however, that the liturgy must ignore the needs of the people. One of my criticisms of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass as it is often celebrated, is that there is no concern at all for the needs of 'ordinary' Catholics. It's almost as if you have to be an 'extraordinary Catholic' to appreciate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. It is simply not good enough to impose on ordinary Catholics a form of Mass in which the music is so high falutin' as to call attention to itself and put people off. Neither is it right to impose Latin on people who are not properly prepared and catechized and open to suddenly hearing Mass in a language they cannot understand after years of hearing Mass in the vernacular.



I am not opposed to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and I am glad it is being more widely celebrated, but I don't imagine for a minute that it is going to be the cure all for the ills of the Catholic Church. Anyone who thinks, "The Latin Mass is so beautiful and reverent, and once ordinary Catholics get a glimpse of it they will all flock to it..." is living in la la land.



In fact, the experience of an awful lot of ordinary Catholics after experiencing the Latin Mass is that they don't like it all and couldn't think of anything worse for their parish. Proper pastoral concern for such people takes time to listen to them, meet them where they are and realize that their concerns and questions are valid. Just dismissing them as 'Novus Ordo Clown Mass' Catholics is arrogant and counter productive.



The celebration of the Latin Mass is a good thing, but a better thing will be for priests and people to begin celebrating the new translation of the Mass in a more reverent, God-centered and worshipful way--balancing the need for more reverence and God-centered liturgy with the practical and pastoral needs of the people as they adjust.



Therefore in a series of articles here I will set down what practical thoughts I have on the matter. Again, I do not for a moment pretend to be a liturgical expert. I would never presume to tell my fellow priests (who are usually far more experienced than I am) how to celebrate Mass. My own experience comes from ten years as an Anglican priest and four and a half years as a Catholic priest serving at St Mary's, Greenville, St Joseph's Catholic School and now in my own parish.



However, while I do not claim to be an expert, what I say will be based on sound principles as set forth in The Spirit of the Liturgy, and from the bit of experience I have had so far.

Slubgrip Instructs - 5

Here is the fifth installment of Slubgrip's lectures on popular culture.

Chust for Nice

(Click to enlarge)

Monreal in Sicily - more photos from Fr Ray Blake here.

Politically Correct in the UK

This article reveals to what extremes political correctness has gone in the UK. New Home Office regulations give privileges to transgender inmates. Already the prison guards must refer to inmates as 'Mister' so and so. Now they've got to be more specific because some of the inmates mustn't be referred to as 'Mister' but 'Miss'. The fellas who think they're girls are to be allowed padded bras, make up to cover their beards and separate shower facilities. (all of this courtesy of the British taxpayer of course...) Finally, once they have legally become Jane and not Tarzan they can apply to be transferred to a female prison.



I think there is room here for a fantastic comedy film. One of the old fashioned sort of British Ealing comedies which starred Alastair Sim (pictured) The pitch is--One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest meets Some Like it Hot meets Belles of St Trinians meets Cell Block H. Two guys who are prisoners in a British prison decide that their lives are in danger so they decide to be transsexual and get transferred to a women's prison only to find that the conditions there are even worse. The women prisoners are a nastier lot than they anticipated so they try to get back to the men's prison, only to find that their 'operation' has been planned and there's no turning back. So they have to escape in order to save, ermm, their future.



I'll write the script. Anyone want to put up the money?



Or there is this continuing saga in Britain in which a Christian couple have been denied the right to be foster parents because their Christian faith leads them to disapprove of homosexuality. They've been told that they shouldn't even plan to appeal the judges' decision because they don't have a chance of it being over turned. "There's no place for Christianity within the British judicial system" they were told.



By the way, the same article on trans-gendered people in British prisons adds in a final paragraph that pagans in British prisons already have the rights to have ceremonial robes, wands and days off to celebrate the pagan holy days.



There's another movie waiting to be made: Porridge meets The Wicker Man meets Shawshank Redemption meets Harry Potter...

Words and Works

Here is my latest article for Catholic Online. It's on the need for words and works in Evangelization.