Thursday, April 01, 2010

I hate to see Lent end.

Maundy, Maundy...
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St. Benedict wrote in his rule that the monk's life should always have the character of lent - thus as in year's past, I hope to  carry over my Lenten penance after Easter.  (I'm not always successful of course.)  I love Lent and the intense devotion to the Sacred Passion of our Lord it inspires.  One Easter, when I was in the monastery, I remember being surprised to see Dom Philip praying the stations as usual before Lauds in the chapel.  Later in confession, I asked him about it.  He simply said, "Some mystics and pious tradition hold that whenever Our Lady was in Jerusalem, she traced the steps of her Son on his way to Calvary each day after his death and burial.  So I try to keep her company." 
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The Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper this evening.  It is the holiest time of the year for Christians.  These are the days I especially miss the old liturgy - I find the innovations that have crept into the new rites to be generally distracting.  For instance the big production in many parishes over the washing of the feet.  At Larry's blog, Acts of the Apostasy, I commented on his post dealing with the subject of foot washing, "To be honest, I wish foot washing was limited to the Cathedrals and not the novelty it has become in nearly every parish.  In fact, I wish it wasn't the novelty it has become in some Cathedrals."
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When I was young, the ritual seemed to be conducted with greater decorum and followed the rubrics, today it is often a bad theatrical production.  It's that active participation thing again I guess.  Nevertheless, I am Catholic and I am an obedient son of the Church.
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Links:
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Regulations for Washing of Feet Holy Thursday
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Interesting link to a trad site tracing the history of liturgical reforms.
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I know!

15 comments:

  1. I wish I hadn't been eating lunch while seeing the pictures of this post...Also, as a child I remember the "theatrics" of the foot washing and sensing the uncomfortability of it then. I couldn't understand why there were women up there when that wasn't how it happened. Sometimes I think that if children were liturgists we would be seeing more attention to the ruberics.

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  2. Good post, Terry, and thanks for the link.

    I had found an answer that Fr Z gave years ago and pasted it in my combox in response to another commenter who thinks rubrics is just a cube you twist and turn to create whatever pattern you like.

    Your link to CUF is excellent.

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  3. Miscellaneous stuff I wanna tell you....

    You wrote, "When I was young, the ritual seemed to be conducted with greater decorum"

    - As reflected in one's attire I think. Mass is now one of the breast, oops I mean best shows in town.
    (I mean no disrespect towards Christ, only some of his people)
    *********************************
    *Don't worry, our Lent will continue as long as our pope suffers. I am very concerned!
    The wolves are rife with vengeance. I doubt they would even be satisfied with
    his death. They want more. It's so demonic - transparent, and sickening.
    **********************************
    My husband and I have decided that we will continue with our Lenten activities as I'm
    still trying to learn how to be nice. "FAIL"
    *******************************
    My Gracie babysat a group of three year old's at a daycare for charity and
    she said one little girl flipped off another girl for taking her tricycle! Grace was floored!
    (naturally I thought of one of your previous posts)- unbelievable!
    **************************
    I was wrong about suffering - it can get real bad. No amount of acclamation could ever prepare
    you for some kinds of suffering.

    - I'm Pondering Christ's passion today and our Popes heavy cross.
    ****************************
    I'm sad.

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  4. Holy smokes. Why is Fr. kissing that old woman's foot?

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  5. Dymphna, he wants to smell what kind of aromatherapy oil she used in her feet. If he likes it, then he will lick it. ;-)

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  6. I didn't even realize it was a CUF site - thanks Larry. (I never know where I am lately.)

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  7. For a somewhat different take on the Holy Thursday foot washing than the links cited, here is another link:
    http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/q&a/general/feet.shtml
    I'm not a big fan of foot-washing, I wish they would just skip it. I declined the request by someone on the liturgy committee to have my foot washed (had an excuse; I'm supposed to be EMHC tonight). But I don't know why the trad sites get their knickers in a knot over women being included, if the bishops don't. Actually I do know, it's the same reason they would probably have a hissy fit over a woman being an EMHC. I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Hope everybody has a nice Mass tonight.

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  8. Melody--The anonymous trads would be wrong concerning the female EMHC as it is clearly allowed by the Roman rubric. However they would be clearly right regarding the washing of feet. Only Rome can grant a change in this as they did for Boston. It is just one more case of people (bishops included) altering the liturgy without authority to suit a dubious ideology.

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  9. One thing I like about the foot-washing is that it is the Scriptures come to life..in my previous life as a Presbyterian the people whose feet were washed represented the various demographics of our local church--men, women, children, baby, elderly, disabled, different races and ethnic groups, the rich, the poor, the single mom, the widow, etc.

    Our teaching was that Jesus humbled Himself for ALL of us, not just particular groups. The foot-wshing demonstrated that...and I try to carry that with me.

    But yeah--when it turns into a circus..

    Fr Erik--looking forward to the Vigil Bonfire :)

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  10. Well, you know those liberals: give 'em a foot, and they'll take a mile.

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  11. Austringer8:34 PM

    Larry, you are awesome...

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  12. During tonights mass there was not only washing if the feet but washing of your hands, or the hands of the Dracon or Pastor. And during mass we had 5 ballerinas dancing... Unbelievable.

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  13. Our foot washing was so low key it was unbelievable! Twelve men came up, got washed, went back to their seats. No fanfare, no gobbeldy-gook, no silliness. Oh that every year would be so!

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  14. Same here in my parish Angela.

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  15. Well, you know those liberals: give 'em a foot, and they'll take a mile. —Larry

    or

    give'em a foot, and they'll take the body ....

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