From the Ordinary to the Extraordinary

Now that really helps your cause, Mr. Occupier. Climb on top of an abandoned hotel and THROW BRICKS AT PEOPLE!! According to the SFPD:

“One of our officers was struck with a brick to the chest and one of our lieutenants was struck in the hand with an object and may have damaged or even broken his hand,” he said.”

If you ask me, they have no right to complain about all the supposed “police violence” when they are doing things like this. Absolutely uncalled for.

Read more about it at The Blaze

Several times in the last couple months, we’ve seen multiple “Eucharistic flash mobs.” I’m you might have heard of them. If you haven’t, check out the video above.

I can’t say I agree with the way that these “Eucharistic flash mobs” are usually executed. Everyone is well meaining, but there’s one major issue with these events:

The treatment of the Holy Eucharist

Of course, everyone means well, but the way the Eucharist is treated is at best, disrespectful, or at worst, sacrilegious. You just don’t simply put Our Lord in a monstrance, and throw that monstrance in a gym bag, to be pulled out at a later time. In our catholic tradition, we not only treat The Holy Eucharist with a great reverence, but also any particles of those hosts, which is why we have things such as corporals, communion plates (commonly reffered to as “patens”), and before communion plates, altar rail cloths, and so much more.

The corporal is a cloth that goes on the altar, and it’s sole purpose is to catch any particles of the holy eucharist that may fall during the Mass. Then, it is folded in a manner that prevents any particles from falling out the sides, and then it is put into a burse, which is then closed, making it impossible for the corporal to open up.

Communion plates are held under the hand of a priest distributing communion and follow the hand to the communicant’s mouth (or hand, if you must). The altar rail cloth served the same purpose before the introduction of communion plates a little more than 100 years ago. Just think: all of this to protect the smallest crumb of the host from being unaccounted for. The church takes Eucharistic reverence very seriously, and it’s not something we should be taking lightly.

There’s also the issue of the external reverence and solemnity we should be showing. There should be candles. There should be incence. There should be a canopy. Maybe even an honor guard.

I would have no problem with these flash mobs if there were executed by a priest wearing appropriate vestments, flanked by thurifers and torch bearers, and a KofC honor guard for good measure. Maybe something along the lines of what we did for the Rosary Garden dedication (img 1, img 2, img 3) a while back. Something like that event, with some real liturgical dignity, not a priest standing in the middle of the square holding up a monstrance by himself.

In my opinion, if you want to do something like this, why not just have a traditional Eucharistic procession?

But as it is, it almost appears as if we don’t care about our Lord. In no way am I saying that people actually don’t care, I’m just commenting on the appearances and tenancies that I see.

What do you think about these Eucharistic flash mobs?

 Yesterday, I had to sub last minute for our home school group’s “music director,” Aristotle Esguerra, for First Friday Mass, and thanks to the Simple English Propers, composed by Adam Bartlet, I was able to prepare and rehearse the music for Mass today in under an hour, AND not use the psalm tone propers (except on the verses, of course ). I was given psalm tone settings of the simplex texts, and I was able to find those same texts in SEP.

This wouldn’t have been possible or nearly as beautiful without Adam’s book.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

And all you church musicians out there, you need to check out this book. It’s an amazing resource. And if you click the image above, you can find the entire contents of the book available as PDFs free online.

Recently, I was able to see the new movie Moneyball in the theater. It was a pretty good movie, with a great plot, but one major downfall:
Language. I counted nearly 30 appearances of various profanities, even including a few f-bombs. It’s a sad day when it seems some can’t make a movie without sticking in a lot of swearing. And not only swearing, but useless swearing. Those people would still be portrayed as angry enough to tell the story without yelling “f you” before they stormed off.

I just don’t get it sometimes…

Overall, a pretty good movie, other than the aforementioned issue. If it weren’t for the language, I’d say 4 stars.