In doing some research on the web, I found that the juggling performance you mention was *not *part of the Mass itself, but part of a supporting prayer service given in conjunction with the closing events of World Youth Day 2005. The web site of WYD states of the performance:
The evening prayer service, the Vigil, consists of two parts:
- Vespers (with arrival of WYD cross and icon of Mary)
- Eucharistic devotional service (with Service of Light)
The music for the Vigil is provided by World Youth Day Choir B, by an Indian dance choir and by a dance and music group from Ghana.
At the opening of the Service of Light, Argentinean juggler Paul Ponce will perform, offering through his juggling an interpretation of prayer as a dialogue between God and man (
source).
An article featuring the juggler mentions that he was asked to perform an adaptation of the “Juggler of Notre Dame,” which was to take place in front of an image of the Virgin Mary (
source). It recalls the story of a young monk, distraught over having nothing to give the Virgin in honor of her feast day, finally offering her a juggling performance before her image because he was a talented juggler in his former life. A scandalized brother who spies on the performance is astonished to see the image of the Virgin come to life as a thanksgiving to the juggler for offering up his talents in service to God and to God’s Mother.
What both the actual World Youth Day event and the Catholic fable should teach us is to avoid passing judgment on something to which we don’t have full information. In the first case, the WYD event turned out to be a permissible performance occurring outside of Mass. In the case of the “Juggler of Notre Dame,” the story teaches that all of our talents, however humble, can become part of the means by which we worship God and honor his friends, the saints.
