Another tidbit from my quote journal which originated in
The Crescat's article at Patheos. I again recommend you read in its entirety if you didn't do so on Tuesday.
People often justify their ugly little parishes by saying they don't believe in wasting money for garnishments that insult the poor. Little do they realize their bleak and barren churches are spiritually depriving the poor by starving their very hearts and souls; hard lives aches for beauty. I often wonder why people think that poor need (or deserve) only the bare and basic minimums. A dreary life needs more, not less, uplifting beauty.
Katrina R. Fernandez
5 brave one(s) among us:
How good is that??!!
Home run, Kat!
By the way, Julie -- I like the penitential hues of your header.
Merci, beaucoup! :-)
Yes! I don't understand why my parish doesn't use the nice chalices, etc, that they undoubtedly have in the back somewhere, and why the altar servers don't wear - um - the things servers wear. Instead, they are kids in jeans and sweatshirts. Isn't one of the purposes of the Mass to set apart a sacred, defined space that is not like ordinary time? And isn't one of the ways you define special, sacred time by putting on special, ritualistic clothes?
I was struck yesterday at Ash Wed Mass at a church I have never attended before that they actually rang the bells during the liturgy. My parish hasn't done that in years and years. I like the bells. Why don't they do it? Why are they so casual?
Our parish has held onto a lot of the old things, like bells and the altar rail (not to mention that almost everyone kneels for communion at the rail). Somehow they have managed a graceful union between the Novus Ordo and the old traditions also. I always feel incomplete when I go to another church where they usually don't have the bells during the consecration. It is just another way that they use the physical as well as the spiritual to pull us toward God.
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