…just for a day.
I was up very, very late last night, polishing NEOTM (see left rail) , readying it to send out to a Person of Interest who has actually Expressed Interest. I polished and polished and then, naturally, couldn’t sleep. I think I’ll look at it one more time this morning, and then push the fatal buttons: "Attach File" and "Send."
Ack.
So I’m rather tired today, the house is more of a wreck than usual, and now that this thing is out of my head and in someone else’s hands, I need to do some serious regrouping and orient my head toward Prove It: You and the Mary book.
But chances are, I just might end up at Barnes and Noble in a little while. I feel a need for an Atlantic Monthly or New Yorker in my life right now.
A bit of bloggage, for the day:
Awakening: A Colorado woman awakens, cyclically, after being in what was diagnosed as PVS for years. (The, story, from a television station website, is typically garbled for that medium. The woman’s name is Christa Lilly, which is confusing because sometimes she’s referred to as "Christa," others as "Lilly," which makes you think it’s two different people…no. )
In NCR(eporter), Joe Feuerherd has a fascinating, yet frustrating (because most of the principals involved won’t talk) article on a hotel/golf course on property owned by the Archdiocese of Detroit, a project in which the Archdiocese’s continuing role is murky, to say the least.
LA Congress coverage continues around the blogosphere, as reports of talks and various videos make their appearance. CourageMan expertly parses one particular presentation.
A friend of mine attended and shared one anecdote, a small reason for hope amid the cacaphony of conflicting and (to many) confusing actions at this event. She writes:
Sacred Space–has a labyrinth on one side, lightly attended. The adoration and confession space was SRO. Mostly the young. Nice trend.
Agreed!
George Weigel on Anglican matters:
There’s an Anglican church, St. Luke’s, a few blocks up Old Georgetown Road from my parish in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. St. Luke’s recently posted a large sign on the church lawn: “No matter who you are, no matter what you believe, you are welcome at our table.”
Which is, in one sense, a noble sentiment: if it’s meant to convey that, look, we’re all sinners, and no matter how awful you may think you are, you’re welcome in the communion of Christ’s Church if you’re truly repentant. Judging from recent events in the Anglican Communion, however, St. Luke’s sign isn’t a synopsis of the parable of the prodigal son and his merciful father; it’s a succinct, if unwitting, statement of why the Anglican Communion is coming apart at the seams.
snip
Shortly after Rowan Williams was named to Becket’s chair, we spent a cordial ninety minutes together at Lambeth Palace, Canterbury’s London headquarters. I gave him a copy of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II; we spoke of John Paul’s theology of the body, and then fell to discussing the difference between “sacramental” and “gnostic” understandings of the human condition. The former insists that the stuff of the world – including maleness, femaleness, and their complementarity — has truths built into it; gnostics say it’s all plastic, all malleable, all changeable. The sacramentalists believe that the extraordinary reveals itself through the ordinary: bread, wine, water, salt, marital love and fidelity; the gnostics say it’s a matter of superior wisdom, available to the enlightened (which can mean, the politically correct). Dr. Williams seemed convinced that the gnosticism of a lot of western high culture posed a great danger to historic Christianity and the truths it must proclaim.
He was right. The gnosticism that infects the Episcopal Church USA has just about driven the Anglican Communion over the cliff.
I have been particularly interested over the past days to see numerous articles and comments concerning the celebration of Mass ad orientem. Virtually everything I am reading on the blogs commends this form of the celebration. All the reasons are given as to why this is a good practice. Signs are searched for in the hope that it might be found more frequently. Rejoicing over the altar arrangement seen in the Vatican’s Redemptoris Mater Chapel are being expressed. Some priests are voicing the possibility that they might well try it.
Perhaps I am being naïve in asking my brother priests, “What are you waiting for?” As has been stated by more than one knowledgeable cleric, no special permission is required. The point has been made over and over again that it enhances the devotion of both priest and laity. It is a practical fact that even free-standing altars usually have sufficient room on the west side to celebrate facing east. As I said, perhaps I am being naïve (and I’m sure I’ll be told so if that is the case) but I really don’t understand the hesitation
When we built our original church in 1987 the sanctuary was designed for an eastward facing altar. The local experts in the worship office told me I couldn’t do that, but I was more brash then, and ignored the wringing of their hands. The archbishop came to dedicate the church and consecrate the altar, and without batting an eye he did so – facing east. Over the course of the twenty years I have been saying Mass at that altar, I have celebrated nearly 15,000 times, every single time ad orientem. Our parish has an extraordinary number of visitors, and only once have I been asked why I am facing in that direction. When I explained, the response was, “that makes sense.” The students in our parish school attend Mass every day and not a single child has expressed any confusion over the position of the celebrant. In fact, visitors at the children’s Mass always marvel, wondering how it is that five hundred children are so attentive and devout.
And finally, please pray for Melanie Bettanelli, as well as Dom and the rest of the family. Melanie received a scary, if still slightly (just slightly) questionable in terms of seriousness (until test results are back on Monday) diagnosis, and is asking for prayers. Today, Dom has more.
For Melanie, for Kendall, for Jen Ambrose, who is now in China, dealing with sadness in a new way. For all those who suffer, bearing their crosses, in hope and faith, near and far.
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