A reader of the blog sent the following to us. He was visiting his aunt, a one-time parishioner at St. Anne Church on Mt. Hope Avenue, and who now lives at Monroe Community Hospital. The reason she chose to live there rather than a home like St. John’s or St. Ann is because she knows how reverent the Masses are there. Every Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, Fr. Bonsignore offers a Mass, and in her words, “they’re just so sublime!”
Well, today the hospital chaplain was away, celebrating the golden anniversary of ordination for a friend of his. In his stead was a priest who, at the request of the “informant,” will remain nameless. Usually, this priest is solid, loving the Traditions of Holy Mother Church. And doubtless he did today, but in a most . . . peculiar . . . way.
Upon the altar, flanking the crucifix, he placed to lighthouse figurines. Adorning them at their base was the stole which should have been worn with the chasuble he chose for the day. However, the stole that he wore (over his chasuble, mind you) was apparently made of felt, with glued-on flames and other “fire decorations.” His explanation for the statuettes was that they represented the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He continued this theme at the “Behold the Lamb of God” portion of the Mass by saying, “Here is the Lamb of God, whose fruits and gifts are like these beacons on the shores of life. Happy are those who have been called to His supper.”
This is part of a trend which is perhaps the most unfortunate of trends in the post-Conciliar Church. Uniformity has been lost. The Mass is an instrument of whatever priest is saying it, rather than being a timeless, ageless, statement-free liturgy focused on God rather than self. Are we starting to see the merits of having a by-the-book interpretation, folks? When you “say the black and do the red,” no one gets angry, no one feels hurt, and the Mass is genuinely beautiful. However, when you let personal ideas and tastes infiltrate the hallowed halls of our liturgical “know-how,” that’s when problems begin.
I hope that you all had a lighthouse-free Pentecost. I’m certainly glad I did.
Tags: Liturgy, Progressive Drivel
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"His explanation for the statuettes was that they represented the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit."
Good gravvy. He might as well put a Lance Berkman bobblehead on the altar and tell us it represents the gift of fortitude.
Latin Mass at St. Stanislaus was blissfully free of lighthouses, cow bells (planned at a church which will remain nameless), and any other "liturgical" weirdness. Instead we enjoyed wonderful Gregorian chant and an extraordinarily good homily.
Fr. McMahon's a treasure, for sure, Gretchen.
So candles just aren't good enough?
One of these days, someone's going to attempt a pantomime Mass. I just know it.
Larry — we do have Passion Mime in Rochester, where kids reenact the Passion in for the form of mime within the church sanctuary.
This priest needs to shut the hell up, keep his face down, and read from the freaking Missal. Enough with this liberal garbage. Shut up and say the Mass.
If it's any consolation, I think the priest was doing it out of qwerkiness than maliciousness.
Did the representatives of the local homosexual community present themselves for communion on Pentecost Sunday at Sacred Heart Cathedral this year?
They wear the rainbow sashes on Pentecost Sunday.
Anon, does this usually happen in DOR? I always thought this tended to be a Chicago thing, but I've been around the Catholic blogosphere and haven't heard a peep about it so far.
It has been happening for about the past 10 years at Sacred Heart Cathedral. These incidents have been photographed and video taped.
The photos and video are sitting in a file cabinet at the Vatican.
Pope Benedict is very well aware of what is taking place in the Diocese of Rochester.
Out of one billion Catholics in the world, just mention Rochester, New York to him and he will say "Ah, much trouble in Rochester", just as he spoke those words to one of our parishioners, who caught him coming out of a parish in Rome after a Mass, before he became our Pope.
Anon. 11:08. What you are saying must be true because I hear that over and over. For the 999,999th time I don't get why he doesn't send help. Everyone keeps saying "its very difficult to remove a Bishop." Today he has 782 days to do that!! It seems like an exit interview should not take more than an hour. I love and respect our holy Father and pray everday for him.
J.M.
Larry — we do have Passion Mime in Rochester, where kids reenact the Passion in for the form of mime within the church sanctuary.
Yah – I knew that. Thanks