Ironies

[pecunium]

I used Ash Wednsday as an excuse to go to Mass. One doesn't really need an excuse to go to Mass, but as I wanted to attend at the Mission (Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, the fifth Mission built in Calif.) and today being a minor Holy Day (not one of obligation, but one of fasting and abstinence) they chose to have a special service for the grammar school. That meat I didn't have to get out the door by 0630, nor miss the basic Aikido lesson at 1800.

I got there half an hour early. Read the missal, browsed the hymnal (dreadful stuff) and watched them set up.

The mission church is interesting. The pattern is a V, not a cross, and while there is a nave (evident by the better door, and it's postional relation to the rest of the mission) there isn't a front. The altar is angled to face between the sections.

The walls to the sides of the altar space (the sanctuary is off to the side, outside the altar rail, it's very strange. I don't know if this is the way it was built, or a more recent change) are frescoed in a pleasant trompe l'oeille of raised panels and Doric columns. It's pleasing to the eye.

But they use microphones, despite the spendid acoustics, and small space.

Being a service for children, some of the structure was a tad different. The most shocking was the reading of the Gospel... it wasn't. The priest paraphrased Matt 6:1-7. OK.

The first reading was from Isaiah, the prefiguring of "the least of my these".

Which was good. The homily was well done too. The priest did a nice job of weaving the internalising of the first reading, and the gospel (the scond reading was left out) and the idea of lent, as a time of growth; like the springtime it takes place it. But I was amused.

The main point of the Gospel reading was to not strumpet one's faith. To not parade on street corners, to not be boastful of one's charity, nor to fast with lamentations of one's suffering.

All the while knowing that everyone who recieved the ashes was going to wear them until the wore off. None of us was going to step outside the church and take out a handkerchief and clean our foreheads.

As I left there was a woman taking a picture of the mission. She then asked the ladies who were outside why they were wearing ashes.

I went to get some breakfast, and was asked by my waiter if I'd gone to church early. There wasn't much of the ashes left on my forehead, my hatband had reduced it to the smallest of smears, almost hidden by my hair (and if I'd not been sitting in one of the high tables, so that I was at eye level to him, he might not have seen it at all).

So perhaps today I am not laying up stores for some time in heaven (or, as is more likely, shaving time off my stay in purgatory) but rather it must be it's own reward, as I; with the start of the lenten season rejoice, and am glad, for this is the day the Lord hath made.

Comments

[waterlilly.livejournal.com]

Back in the day, when I went to Catholic school, they did not pre-digest the readings for us. Quite the contrary. We were expected to keep up. In fact, we were occasionally called upon to read them out loud at the podium to everyone as part of the service, and that started when we were in first grade and reading reliably. How times change.

But really, it sounds like it was a good service with a really good message. I haven't been Catholic (other than ethnically) for years, but I still respect it quite a bit, and I certainly can't remove it from where I've been and who I am.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

One of the students (aged about 11) did the first reading, and the paraphrasing of the Gospel was strange (it never would have happened at the schools I attended).

I'm not sure what I think of that, because the delivery was solid. I don't know if the use of his words, rather than the preserved words of the Duoai make it better. Oddly enough it didn't hurt. He was able to use dramatic presentation (and he has a very agile face), hiding his left hand in his surplice as he said it ought not know what the right hand was doing when it gave alms, and the like.

It was a decent service, but it reminds me of why I tend to not go to Roman Masses when I want the solace of the church, but rather attend an Anglican one, and add the bits they shouldn't have left out.

TK

[mountain-spirit.livejournal.com]

yea ashes

boo abstinence

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

What is it with Catholic hymnals? Maybe it's the lack of a tradition of congregational singing, until it was needed yo keep up with the Protestants? Not only is every version I've ever seen uninspiring, most Catholic congregations I've encountered are pretty bashful about the singing bit.

Are my Methodist roots showing at all? :)

[killslowly.livejournal.com]

Quote "As I left there was a woman taking a picture of the mission. She then asked the ladies who were outside why they were wearing ashes"...

I went to deliver a package to one of the infantry offices, when I see one of the sergeants with an inverted black T behind the desk.. I caught myself mid sentence "hey... you got some kiwi on you foreh.... ah... your a catholic..."

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

The Gospel reading and the visible ashes is indeed a wonderful irony. One wonders if they did it on purpose. Yes, you're carrying this visible mark, but remember not to strut around with it feeling righteous.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, one doesn't notice it. I, honestly, was amused, and a tad surprised that my waiter noticed it (I tend to be chary of letting strangers know my religious affiliations, because assumptions will be made).

So a sense of righteousness, much less justification, doesn't tend to come with it.

TK