Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
Is this not a summary of Mass in one sentence? I was thinking this yesterday as we recited the divine mercy chaplet led by the PP, all of us kneeling before Our Lord on the altar.
Did I mention I love my parish? I love my parish so much I even quite like the flying wire-mesh angels, though I cannot argue against my opinion that sanctuaries designed after the introduction of the new missal tend to be a mess, and that ours is no exception. Did I mention I love our pp? He preaches most excellently well and offers Mass with devotion and recollectedly. The family-life-themed stations of the cross through the streets of the parish were a series of perfect short sermons delivered through very powerful speakers, echoing through the blocks of flats around us. Looks like a bouncer, delicate words, most edifying example. [And a crotchety git in person.] Did I mention the drumming and wailing of the neo-cats in the “undercroft” is really really annoying, but worth putting up with for the effect it seems to have on the parish in general? Did I mention I love the organist? It is not easy to accompany the ordinary of the Mass well, especially not the Gloria, nor to prevent long things like the Te Deum becoming the Tedium. He is a magician, and the instrument is a good one, together they lift the prayer and do not crush it. Did I mention we sang the Te Deum yesterday in thanks for the election of the Pope? Did I mention I love the fact that of the nine priests in the parish (one of the trendy young bearded ones in the photies under the wire-mesh angels, pp in the bottom photie) only one yawns his way through Mass? The crowds on Sundays, the lines of people walking to church on Sundays and feasts? The daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament? We’ve even got a proper bookshop.
To think I nearly didn’t take this flat.
To think of my poor little parish in West Lothian, where the folk group played over and over again a small selection from an old edition of Hymns Old & New, when they didn’t have more interesting plans for Sunday than going to Mass. A little later someone discovered CDs of Celtic Sacro-pop, and we sang along to those (I jest not). A religious decided he liked the parish and used to say Mass to help out the pp (who had two or three parishes) – in the summer vac he announced that since it was the holidays, he wouldn’t preach, but would tell jokes instead. His sermons were a joke anyway, so the material change was not great. It was so sad. It shouldn’t have been sadder for the folk in the parish being so great, but it was. Nivver mind social justice, how about ecclesial justice?
[update: more photies of me parish church: Warszavka.
You can see it in the previous post as well, looking as though it’s in the middle of the world’s most horrible concrete jungle, which it’s not.][and I’ve just discovered four thousand people can fit into the church at one time – certainly on Maundy Thursday one had to check carefully if there was enough space to kneel].
Laodicea 
April 20, 2009 at 1:44 pm
“Is this not a summary of Mass in one sentence?” I’ve often thought the same thing myself.
Your parish church is very impressive. Even the wire-mesh angels have a dramatic and exuberant quality.
April 20, 2009 at 7:19 pm
+JMJ+
Forget the wire mesh angels! I can’t get over that roof . . . 😉
I also dearly love my parish. For me, that emotion has all the surprise of someone in an arranged marriage waking up one morning and realising she has learned to love her spouse.
April 20, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I’m really glad you love your parish, and especially your PPs. But I don’t agree with you about the wire mesh angels. I do however agree about the sanctuary.
I know all about the neo-cats and their banging and wailing. But I agree that they tend to have an overall good effect on people.
I love my parish too:
http://www.sansecondodasti.com/History.htm
April 20, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Does Poland have a version of “Hymns Old and New” (which is not the worst of the UK Catholic hymn books by a long way) or is it the norm simply to to sing chant?
April 20, 2009 at 7:50 pm
My pastor inspired me on Good Friday. He had Good Friday services in the Extraordinary Form at 7:00 p.m. He’s in his 60s, I believe, and was 15 minutes late because his knee was causing him a lot of pain. But being as how he was the only one present who could read Latin, he read, no, he *chanted*, the entire Passion narrative by himself, on his feet.
Later on he distributed Communion entirely by himself, even though you could seem him hobbling painfully back and forth, back and forth, across the communion rail, for a good 20 minutes, until everyone had received communion.
Then, at 9:45 p.m., when the service was just about over — when I was thinking to myself, “what a relief it’s going to be for him to lie down I bet!” — he announced that he would make himself available for Confessions! There were a good 20 people in line for Confession too. What an inspiration he is, in terms of making himself available to meet the needs of his flock.
He’s that way all the time. I first noticed it during Advent, when he scheduled Confessions every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, during the week leading up to Christmas. He’s not one of those who says “No confessions during the Triduum!”, or feels the need to “make time for himself” in order to “recharge”, etc. Instead he seems to totally give himself over to his vocation. Which as I understand it is supposed to be the whole idea of 1 Cor. 7.
April 20, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Mark: thank you!
Enbrethiliel: 🙂 I hope that’s a positive shock you are describing. People call it “the banana tree”, apparently.
Agellius: 🙂 Hasty note – am not recommending WCC, I know nothing about it except that the inestimable Kwaz now teaches there, and that some other guys who were pretty good (but not as exceedingly wonderful as Kwaz) teach there (oh, there’s only one of them now, just checked).
Why not send the kids to the UK? It’ll probably be cheaper as well 🙂 (though, the dollar has really crashed, hasn’t it?)
invocante: there’s no standard book that I know of: parishes don’t use hymn books, you sing from memory or, more usually, from words projected onto the wall or a screen. Not much chant, and most of that Polished (tune preserved) – O Salutaris and Tantum Ergo. They don’t change the words of the Ordinary, so that’s not a problem.
out of here till Thursday, toodle oo!
April 20, 2009 at 8:36 pm
B writes, “Why not send the kids to the UK? It’ll probably be cheaper as well 🙂 (though, the dollar has really crashed, hasn’t it?)”
An intriguing idea. Any particular college or university you recommend? Or is that confidential? : )
April 22, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Well, I would say Queen’s, Aelianus would say Hertford and Boeciana would say Univ, but then we’re biased and in fact we would probably only say that because of the bias. Notburga and Aelianus might say Aberdeen, Boeciana might say Edinburgh, I wouldn’t say Napier.
April 22, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I guess it’s not very important to you folks to attend a Catholic college then? I’m not saying you’re wrong necessarily . . .
April 22, 2009 at 7:51 pm
If you’ve read a biography of Newman, you’ll know the Catholic University never came off… There’s always Blackfriars Hall, though I think you can only read English or theology.
Better a secular university with a good chaplaincy than a bad Catholic institution. Some call Catholic schools (in the sense of school) Lapsation Factories. If you send your kids to secular schools, at least you aren’t under any false impressions about the formation they are going to get 🙂 I went to a Catholic school, and didn’t know anything about the faith until I went to God’s Own University.
April 22, 2009 at 8:04 pm
B writes, “Better a secular university with a good chaplaincy than a bad Catholic institution.”
Oh I agree! But there are several colleges in the U.S. that by all accounts are “good Catholic institutions”. There are many more that are bad ones, and I will avoid them like the plague, since you’re right, better to go secular and know what you’re getting, than to go Catholic and be deceived.
April 22, 2009 at 8:05 pm
By the way, are you at liberty to say which is “God’s Own University”? Is it Oxford?
April 21, 2009 at 12:07 am
Well, I love my parish and although excited about moving on shortly, I must admit I’m terrified about the new parish. I know nothing about it except some info from website and having met the PP, who seems like a decent bloke, at a Chaplaincy SCES event. Hoping I’m not in for several years of liturgical purgatory (guitars, tambourines arrghh!)
April 21, 2009 at 5:38 pm
+JMJ+
Ha! I’ve seen real banana trees. That roof is more like one of the paper-and-toothpick parasols you get with your pina colada.
Not to be too harsh on your parish church. It’s best to have beautiful architecture, of course, but since when did strange buildings prove too much of a hindrance for grace.
April 22, 2009 at 10:30 am
I love my parish church – the architecture is lovely – but sometimes the people do my head in.
September 3, 2018 at 2:58 am
elevatorstuck piano
One-liner by Our Lord, and parishes | Laodicea