{"id":498,"date":"2008-03-24T12:36:38","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T12:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html"},"modified":"2008-03-24T12:36:38","modified_gmt":"2008-03-24T12:36:38","slug":"what-did-you-see-and-hear-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html","title":{"rendered":"What did you see and hear?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, back to satisfying our ‘satiable curiosity about liturgy around the country and around the globe. I’ve always enjoyed these threads because it’s just interesting to see the diversity – welcome and unwelcome. I think it’s also good for us all to see how important liturgy is – skeptics, even in Catholic circles, sometimes dismiss interest in liturgy as mere aesthetics. But threads like this tell us that it simply isn’t so.
\nI’ll begin.
\nOn Palm Sunday<\/u> we attended the traditionally German parish in town, the church which has been beautifully maintained, but unrenovated (except for that steeple, which still hasn’t been replaced!), in which you will find, if anything, the least ego-driven liturgy in town. No ad-libbing, no chatting, simply the commitment to serving God through the liturgy and letting God do his work in people’s souls without feeling as if these same people must be manipulated in order for that to happen.
\nThere was no congregational procession at the beginning, simply a very solemn procession of priest and servers up and down the aisles while we sang All Glory, Laud and Honor<\/em>.\u00a0 It was rather moving – I have never found Palm Sunday processions to be a particularly helpful experience, spiritually speaking. Perhaps no place have been to has ever gotten it – the main problem always being coordinating the singing between the front and the back – I’m sure many places have figured out how to scatter choir members throughout the procession to keep things going apace (and even that is difficult,depending on the size of the crowd), but nowhere I’ve been has yet.\u00a0 Living Stations of the Cross, Corpus Christi processions, Marian processions – all seem to work out better, for some reason. This, however – in this particular setting – was a meditative experience,The Passion was read in parts – the priest and two women. A brief but potent homily about suffering.
\nMinimal palm swordplay.
\nHoly Thursday <\/u>was at the same parish. Again, simplicity. \u00a0No instrumental accompaniment after the Gloria<\/em>. No foot-washing (which is optional) and no stripping of the altar.\u00a0 I was\u00a0fine with the first omission, but think the second\u00a0 was unfortunate. There’s a lot of power in that ritual. The procession with the reserved Eucharist was up and down the aisles of the church to Tantum Ergo in both Latin and English.
\nI didn’t make it anywhere for Good Friday this year. Michael wanted to go to the Extraordinary Form service and I just wasn’t up to something new (and old!) with the two little ones at that time of day (ie naptime). So he went on alone and has blogged about it – and his attendance at the Extraordinary Form Easter Vigil – here. <\/a>\u00a0(the latter went from 11pm to 2am, btw)
\nSunday morning, the rest of us heading to Easter Sunday Mass, which was about half full at the beginning of mass and maybe 3\/4 full twenty minutes in.\u00a0 Music: “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” “I am the Bread of Life” “Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks”. “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” for the sequence. The horrible “Halle, Halle” for the Gospel Acclamation, a setting that seems most fitting, if you must use it, for a children’s liturgy, and which always sounds to me like something played at a circus. Some things, I just don’t get, and never will. Homily was on the theme of how a busy Holy Week with lots happening and some things going wrong might make you doubt that this really is “the day that the Lord has made” but the presence of the people at the various rituals helps you see that it really is true, that it’s all good.
\nAnyway.
\nIt was a good Holy Week, if somewhat distracted. My spiritual reading (well, my reading<\/em>) for the week\u00a0consisted (go ahead and think this is odd – no matter) first, various blogs I keep running across of people\u00a0grappling with physical suffering and mortality (beginning with CF Husband<\/a> and moving on, for some reason I’ve forgotten, to a number of blogs of parents with children diagnosed with Trisomy 18, like this one)<\/a>,\u00a0in which death, resurrection and the healing love that emerges from sacrifice and suffering are profound realities, right now. \u00a0\u00a0Secondly, I was reading Ratzinger on liturgy: Feast of Faith <\/em>and The Spirit of the Liturgy. <\/em>I found that my prayer and reflection was bouncing all of that off of what I was experiencing, not in a critical way (in terms of the liturgy) \u00a0at all, but simply in a way that revealed to me, “There’s more here than I thought.” But at the same time, “Where?”
\nBut more on that later.
\nNo gas cards<\/a>\u00a0were given to me<\/a> anywhere I went though. Bummer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, back to satisfying our ‘satiable curiosity about liturgy around the country and around the globe. I’ve always enjoyed these threads because it’s just interesting to see the diversity – welcome and unwelcome. I think it’s also good for us all to see how important liturgy is – skeptics, even in Catholic circles, sometimes dismiss…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat did you see and hear? - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What did you see and hear? - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oh, back to satisfying our ‘satiable curiosity about liturgy around the country and around the globe. I’ve always enjoyed these threads because it’s just interesting to see the diversity – welcome and unwelcome. I think it’s also good for us all to see how important liturgy is – skeptics, even in Catholic circles, sometimes dismiss…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-24T12:36:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What did you see and hear? - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What did you see and hear? - Via Media","og_description":"Oh, back to satisfying our ‘satiable curiosity about liturgy around the country and around the globe. I’ve always enjoyed these threads because it’s just interesting to see the diversity – welcome and unwelcome. I think it’s also good for us all to see how important liturgy is – skeptics, even in Catholic circles, sometimes dismiss…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2008-03-24T12:36:38+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html","name":"What did you see and hear? - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-24T12:36:38+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-24T12:36:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/what-did-you-see-and-hear-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What did you see and hear?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}