Anthony Esolen attends Mass at Marvin Gardens

[JimG]

“When I entered, the priest was stationed in the vestibule, ready to greet people on their way in—and perhaps offer to carry their luggage. I do not want to be greeted on my way in. I want to prepare and to pray, which is never easy for me because my thoughts wander.”

He laments fifty years of effete and infertile liturgical culture:

50 Years of Effete and Infertile Liturgical Culture Is Enough - Crisis Magazine

 

[otrrl]

yes, he let it all hang out, didn’t he?

Yes, his point is that the liturgy has been abused in the name of progress – the Mass was something that didn’t need to be fixed, yet a lot of unnecessary fixing was done to it – as much as I understand what he was saying.

It may not be exactly what he was saying, but I certainly expected a lot more of the liturgical reforms. Unless one lived through it, one doesn’t know how awkward it was to shift to “guitar Masses.” (For certain, guitar music is very popular with a lot of people – it was popular in the US, too; the problem was the almost total loss of organ music and the tunes that sound best with it.) I felt that I had been kidnapped and taken to some strange island. It took years for the Church to figure out how to translate the Mass and the Bible for liturgical use. Familiar phrases were changed and what I thought were important prayers were dropped.

 

[JimG]

It took years for the Church to figure out how to translate the Mass and the Bible for liturgical use. Familiar phrases were changed and what I thought were important prayers were dropped.

Yes, in my own parish, the current liturgy is what I thought we were going to get when the Mass was first revised. I would have been happy with that. But it took a long time to get there. Wwe had to start out with guitar Mass and Simon and Garfunkel songs.

 

[otrrl]

Our nice lady organist bought a music synthesizer for the church. On Sunday nights there’s a guy on a guitar. Well, he plugged his guitar amp into the same socket as the synthesizer --zottt! The synthesizer she burned up due to the power surge !!

Plan B was an older electronic organ that was quickly rolled into position. The organist bought another electronic organ, not so fancy this time around (she and her late husband were very generous to the church). She bought a $100 power surge protector.