V
_veritas
Guest
Hello all,
Just giving a happy report on my return from the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s “Defending the Faith” summer conference. Cardinal Arinze was the celebrant for our Mass on Saturday morning–and what a Mass!
I was curious going into it how this was going to look, because FUS is known for its fidelity and orthodoxy, but it’s also known for its charismatic atmosphere (Jim Cowan is the worship leader of a very contemporary band–it is a FULL band however, with drums, flute and violin as well as guitar and keyboard). Because of the size of the crowd (over 1500 people) all of the Masses were held in the fieldhouse. Now, I had nightmare images of what this might look like, with “contemporary” liturgical music style and 1500 charismatically-inclined people in a fieldhouse… Of course, I also knew FUS’s good reputation and I knew that I could trust Cardinal Arinze (of all people!) to do things right. But with that many people together in that kind of atmosphere… you never know.
It worked. Wow. It has been proved to me that (with due necessity) one can attend a reverent and CORRECTLY celebrated Mass under such conditions in America–and not only when someone like Cardinal Arinze is around. His Mass, and the other two Masses during the conference, was celebrated with full attention to the rubrics (and no EMHCs… they made full use of the priests present) and properly clothed servers who knew what they were doing (all seminarians). The homilies were instructive (And wow, can Cardinal Arinze give a homily!) and full of veritas! The congregation, apart from applause at the end of Cardinal Arinze’s homily, was very respectful (with almost everyone kneeling AT ONCE when they were supposed to, from young to old, in the fieldhouse with the hard floor and limited space… hmm.
)
The only sad thing (IMO) was that they did thank-yous and announcements between the closing prayer and the final blessings… but I guess that is ok to do, I just personally didn’t think it needed to be done there. And, while the music was appropriate, I don’t care much for the contemporary liturgical music personally… kind of hard to haul organs into a fieldhouse however
But then… the trip home wasn’t quite so wonderful… see next thread called “… and then the bad news”
+veritas+
Just giving a happy report on my return from the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s “Defending the Faith” summer conference. Cardinal Arinze was the celebrant for our Mass on Saturday morning–and what a Mass!
I was curious going into it how this was going to look, because FUS is known for its fidelity and orthodoxy, but it’s also known for its charismatic atmosphere (Jim Cowan is the worship leader of a very contemporary band–it is a FULL band however, with drums, flute and violin as well as guitar and keyboard). Because of the size of the crowd (over 1500 people) all of the Masses were held in the fieldhouse. Now, I had nightmare images of what this might look like, with “contemporary” liturgical music style and 1500 charismatically-inclined people in a fieldhouse… Of course, I also knew FUS’s good reputation and I knew that I could trust Cardinal Arinze (of all people!) to do things right. But with that many people together in that kind of atmosphere… you never know.
It worked. Wow. It has been proved to me that (with due necessity) one can attend a reverent and CORRECTLY celebrated Mass under such conditions in America–and not only when someone like Cardinal Arinze is around. His Mass, and the other two Masses during the conference, was celebrated with full attention to the rubrics (and no EMHCs… they made full use of the priests present) and properly clothed servers who knew what they were doing (all seminarians). The homilies were instructive (And wow, can Cardinal Arinze give a homily!) and full of veritas! The congregation, apart from applause at the end of Cardinal Arinze’s homily, was very respectful (with almost everyone kneeling AT ONCE when they were supposed to, from young to old, in the fieldhouse with the hard floor and limited space… hmm.
)The only sad thing (IMO) was that they did thank-yous and announcements between the closing prayer and the final blessings… but I guess that is ok to do, I just personally didn’t think it needed to be done there. And, while the music was appropriate, I don’t care much for the contemporary liturgical music personally… kind of hard to haul organs into a fieldhouse however
But then… the trip home wasn’t quite so wonderful… see next thread called “… and then the bad news”
+veritas+
