Watch what's been lost: Classic Church songs on classic Church bells
At Church this past Sunday I was subjected to unfair criticisms of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, hero of Chile. But on a positive note, they actually played some decent music, one song of which was an English translation of an older song called "Mainz Gesangbuch" from 1870. Searching through google,
I ran across this version of the song on bells and thought it was neat. It reminded me of how nice it is to be in one of the few remaining Churches which uses the bells.
Labels: Catholicism, Church, music
God warns the apathetic: Ezekiel 33: 7-9
The reading this week was important.
EWTN has it here if you missed or overlooked it. God not only hates the coward, despises the meek, but actively punishes those who are apathetic. There is no middle ground and no room for those who seek creature comforts in both materialism and within social acceptance. No, I think quite clearly, our Lord desires more John the Baptists than that he wants more monastic lives. No issue speaks louder in our current age than that, on this issue, of abortion.
"7 "So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life."
Labels: Catholicism, Church, religion
Liturgical Design Oppression
We ought to end the Protestant Occupation of our sacred Catholic places, namely in the design and architecture of our churches. Michael Rose wrote a wonderful book called "
Ugly as Sin" which I would highly recommend to anyone. It seems as though the constant theme is that Vatican II misinterpretations have given rise to liturgical anarchy.
This quote was very telling, from a liturgical design consultant Fr. Vosko, part of
this article from
Catholic Culture which is actually taken from
the Wanderer.
During his lecture, Fr. Vosko expressed his preference for the church-in-the-round model, saying circles — citing Stonehenge, Indian tepees, and mandalas as examples — are powerful symbols, as is the labyrinth. He also defended Corpus Christi Chapel's movable bare wooden cross, which he described as a "powerful totem that puts us in touch with that which can be."
He told his audience that when he is retained as a consultant for a parish renovation, that "sometimes you have to strip away things ... that get in the way, things that are just habits."
That which is being stripped away, obviously, is any tradition or Catholicism. And I was also somewhat shocked to see that Michael Rose was offering no exaggeration in his "Ugly as Sin" book that many of the Catholic design consultants are really Protestant ones as well. You can see that for yourself
here, and even the ones that tend to be more "Catholic" are still
falling short of the majesty of the house of God. The tendency to make them meeting places rather than sacred spaces seems too tempting for the designers.
I'd like to further flesh out Rose's thesis, compare some local churches which are both good and bad, and really define what I'm referring to here. Perhaps in some small way the way to a beautiful future is through future beautiful churches. And as Lauren Conner once quoted to me, "beauty will save the world."
Labels: architecture, beauty, Catholicism, Church, design, truth
