"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
Monday, March 29, 2004 At the end of the gospel, the deacon (or priest) adds:
Verbum Domini.
all respond:
Laus tibi, Christe.
Then he kisses the book, saying quietly:
Per evangelica dicta deleantur nostra delicta.
Homily
Sit
A homily shall be given on all Sundays and holy days of obligation; it is recommended for other days.
* We interrupt this liturgy for a political announcement. Insert video here. *
Profession of Faith
Stand
After the homily, the profession of faith is said on Sundays and solemnities; it may also be said in solemn local celebrations.
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium…
I am less bothered by the gay National Catholic Reporter correspondent speechifying in church (or by the apparent alerting of the media beforehand) than I am by the screening of an eight-minute campaign video in the middle of Mass.
The New England Cable News report (Real Audio) captures a sidewalk confrontation afterward between the gay activist who'd caused the disruption and an elderly parishioner. The latter argued the gay activist was welcome to his views, but that Mass was not the time to air them.
Exactly – and I'd say the same for the screening of videos in the middle of the liturgy. Can you imagine the Old Mass being interrupted by a TV monitor? Are there rubrics for AV altar servers conveying big screen and Bell & Howell to the sanctuary?
The Holy Sacrifice, in my admittedly fusty view, isn't a congregational prayer service with room for Announcements-Announcements-A-NOUNCE-ments.
I sympathize with the Church's position on the issue of the day unfolding on Beacon Hill. Sermons are rightly devoted to the topic, and Masses and prayers are rightly offered for the intention of the preservation of the traditional family.
But the preservation of the traditional Mass – a worthy cause in its own right – would argue for saving movie time for later in the community center. An improvisational Mass that is open to political multimedia also opens itself – perhaps rightly and fairly so – to debate from the pews.
New England's Congregational churches haven't made wonderful Town Meeting halls for nothing.
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