C
Catholic_Opinion
Guest
I don’t know precisely what is planned for the Mass in NYC. Perhaps it is the intention of the organizers to counter-balanced some of what we saw and heard in Washington.
I have live feed from the USCCB (they talk *way *too much) and also CTV.
Some of the music for the Mass in Nationals Stadium was simply dreadful. For example, the Responsorial Psalm… well… it reminded me of something one might hear during an episode of The Twilight Zone taking place at a carnival.
In no way am I faulting the musicians, who were clearly well-trained and, obviously, focused for this event. They did their part, I think.
I must ask why the very best music was reserved for *before *the Mass began, for example, when the emense choir sang Tu es Petrus or the whole stadium sang Grosser Gott wir loben Dich? Tremendous! But as Mass went on, it was fairly clear that they got all the obviously Catholic music out of the way at the beginning.
The Mass seemed over consciously multi-cultural. To my mind, it was terribly self-conscious. I had the feeling that this was a stage event, a show moving from one episode to another, at least until the Eucharistic Prayer began. Then it settled down a bit.
The distribution of Communion was, under the circumstances, fairly ordlerly, I suppose. Communion was given in the hand even by the Holy Father. The yellow umbrellas over the priests with the ciboria not only marked the station but acted as a kind of ombrellino.
But what was that horrible caterwalling during Communion? It might be partly because we were hearing the live feed and it was overly amplified, but… oh my.
It is almost as if the organizers of this Mass had never read a single thing of what Joseph Ratzinger has written about sacred music and liturgy.
I am not bothered by some Spanish or other enthic expressions, but this was so self-conscious, so multi-culturally in your face, so much like a show tune review.
Then there was a token handful of dirt thrown out with a phrase form Ubi caritas.
It was terribly distracting.
Even when the great Placido Domingo sand Panis angelicus, every bit as well as one would desire, it still gave me the impression that this was the next moment in the review.
At the end of Mass I was somewhat amazed to hear that the Pontiff was to bless a cornerstone for a new High School to be called “John Paul the GREAT”. So, this seems to be a sort of approbation of that title. I wonder how this fits with the cause for beatification.
I did enjoy watching the Pope go into the dug out at Nationals Stadium.
Full entry…
I have live feed from the USCCB (they talk *way *too much) and also CTV.
Some of the music for the Mass in Nationals Stadium was simply dreadful. For example, the Responsorial Psalm… well… it reminded me of something one might hear during an episode of The Twilight Zone taking place at a carnival.
In no way am I faulting the musicians, who were clearly well-trained and, obviously, focused for this event. They did their part, I think.
I must ask why the very best music was reserved for *before *the Mass began, for example, when the emense choir sang Tu es Petrus or the whole stadium sang Grosser Gott wir loben Dich? Tremendous! But as Mass went on, it was fairly clear that they got all the obviously Catholic music out of the way at the beginning.
The Mass seemed over consciously multi-cultural. To my mind, it was terribly self-conscious. I had the feeling that this was a stage event, a show moving from one episode to another, at least until the Eucharistic Prayer began. Then it settled down a bit.
The distribution of Communion was, under the circumstances, fairly ordlerly, I suppose. Communion was given in the hand even by the Holy Father. The yellow umbrellas over the priests with the ciboria not only marked the station but acted as a kind of ombrellino.
But what was that horrible caterwalling during Communion? It might be partly because we were hearing the live feed and it was overly amplified, but… oh my.
It is almost as if the organizers of this Mass had never read a single thing of what Joseph Ratzinger has written about sacred music and liturgy.
I am not bothered by some Spanish or other enthic expressions, but this was so self-conscious, so multi-culturally in your face, so much like a show tune review.
Then there was a token handful of dirt thrown out with a phrase form Ubi caritas.
It was terribly distracting.
Even when the great Placido Domingo sand Panis angelicus, every bit as well as one would desire, it still gave me the impression that this was the next moment in the review.
At the end of Mass I was somewhat amazed to hear that the Pontiff was to bless a cornerstone for a new High School to be called “John Paul the GREAT”. So, this seems to be a sort of approbation of that title. I wonder how this fits with the cause for beatification.
I did enjoy watching the Pope go into the dug out at Nationals Stadium.
Full entry…
.
Well done!!!
