Words

Vernacular words, in fact.

Before Berenike expends too much time finding excellent translations of the Good Book and commentaries all entirely sound and Catholic, I'd better quickly put my case.

Words, spoken language are great for conveying facts, intellectual discourse and humour for me, but don't really touch me that deeply. I enjoy writing, up to a point. I admire and enjoy the writing of others and language is good for marshalling certain types of thoughts, but they just don't do it for me in the end.

I could provide a very short list of novels that I have found overpowering, I could provide a very long list of music. Music touches me everyday, writing occasionally.

With the new opportunities to attend the Old Mass, I now realise why for the first twenty years of my adult life, I have been dutifully going to Mass and I have to say not being radically altered alas. I just presumed that it was a deficiency on my part. Try harder, Leutgeb! But now I know it is not so. That's why I will never be a Prod. It's not just the lack of Sacraments and Authority (which let's face it are deal breakers - No forgiveness, no Blessed Sacrament and who are you to define truth and which one of you anyway or do I have to work everything out myself?) I can't be doing with too many words. The NO is tipped very heavily in favour of words at the expense of music, gesture, the visually beautiful, incense, silence, routine and anything else that you think makes up the Liturgy.

The idea of Bach Chorales is beginning to annoy me too. That they pack in so much harmonically in so short a time and whilst holding in balance the four contrapuntal voices is an amazing exercise in musical suduko, but why the rush to get through the text so fast? Why so many words? Musically, vowels are where the beauty is and why the melismas of plainsong or polyphony weave their magic. I don't like syllabic text setting in this context. I was talking to a pupil the other day about the need of Lutherans (and indeed Anglicans) to provide a new musical repertoire for the new ideas and indeed metrical, vernacular psalms apparently were very attractive to some people, and he said,' So they did that to may the text easier to understand?' Subtext: Catholic bad, Protestant good. Miss Leutgeb subtext Catholic truth, Protestant heretic. But does making everything as plain as plain can be make it more understandable? More affecting? More likely to convert you? For me NO!

Interestingly, (to me and this is my blog!) just as I have never watched Star Wars all the way through, because I just get bored, I find the Bach B minor Mass boring and have never listened to it in one go. Heart not in the text? Interesting, because I love the Matthew Passion with a passion and when I first heard it, the first chord it caused a bolt of electricity to go through me. Just the first E minor Chord. Now that's genius. No written language has ever come even faintly close to that. Not even getting a static teading!

So Bible study at the mo. No thanks.

And so to work.

Locus iste

Today, being the Dedication of the Cathedral, the gradual was Locus iste, which Bruckner set so beautifully. Fairly singable for a church choir.

Not sure which Church this is. It's not Linz Cathedral which is neo Gothic and I thought the Alte Kirche where Bruckner was the organist was, well, old, though stupidly, I've never been in, despite it being on the Hauptplaz. Also the Monastery (Stift) St Florian, where he is buried beneath the organ, has the organ at the back not to the side of the sanctuary, I think, so name that church!

It's Linz, or somewhere in Upper Austria, it's pretty huge and has a very wet acoustic and I'm in the mood for some seriously washy sound, surely that is musically totally apt for the words? You want the sound to reach every crevice of the building. Apart from the rather bright first note of the sops, I think it's perfectly fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkgeZaVug9c

Apples

I've been busy the past few Saturdays, so have not been to the supermarket to buy my favourite apples -Cox's. Would you believe that that the Tesco Metro by the station does not have any? (Do you care?) Well it does not and some of the apples have been imported from Kiwiland and therefore refrigerated, poor things.

So today I righted this wrong and bought two bags. This put me in the happy poisition of having toast (from own bread), some very tasty cheese, my own tomato chutney and an apple. A perfect Saturday lunch.

Hundreds and Thousands

Thanks to Catholic Mom of 10 for these figures.

Total number of pilgrims who have visited the relics of St Thérèse in England and Wales:
Portsmouth 4,500
Plymouth 3,000
Taunton 1,800
Birmingham 11,000
Coleshill 3,000
Cardiff 4,400
Filton 6,000
Liverpool 17,000
Salford 30,000
Manchester University Catholic Chaplaincy 2,000
Preston Carmel 2,000
Lancaster 8,000
Newcastle 5,000
Darlington Carmel
York Minster 10,000
Middlesbrough 15,000
Leeds 14,000
Kirk Edge Carmel (Sheffield) 3,000
Nottingham 8,000
Walsingham 5,000
Oxford 6,200
Gerrards Cross 2,000
Aylesford 17,000
Kensington Carmelite Church 10,000
Notting Hill Carmel 3,500
Wormwood Scrubs 250
Westminster Cathedral 95,000

Grand Total 286,650 pilgrims

So that would explain the one column inch in the print edition of today's Times, which actually referes to Protestant England(!) and then says 300k venerated the relics. PARDON? Three Hundred Thousand People. Oh right, I guessed that from the reporting.

St T of L at Westminster II

Being the saddo that I am, I check sitemeter now and then and see that I have a link from The Catholic Herald to the previous shockingly trivial, vague and generally vacuous post.

So I though that I'd better try and be a little more cogent, even in my enfeebled state.

Here goes. Over the past three days I have got up earlier and gone to Westminster Cathedral and thence to work. Why? Well lots of reasons. The er obvious one, St Therese of Lisieux of course, on whom I am by no means an expert, but she is a Saint and Doctor of the Church and that is enough for me. And for the reason lots of people love her that is that she didn't do anything externally very amazing in her short life, though joining the Carmelites at such a young age impresses me no end, but she lived a hidden life that was extraordinary. My reading extends little beyond the CTS Pamphlet, but that says all you need to know.

Another reason is that I like good old fashioned piety. I like Cathedrals full of people praying their own prayers and doing their own thing. I like lots of people lighting candles. I like the Altar covered in roses. I like the fact that woman and men who are written off by the world are held up as examples by the Church. I like the fact that we can all have our private intentions which we may never share with another soul, but yet all be united together in the Church. I like the family in front of me at Mass with their children in pyjamas. I like the slightly wacky lady next to me (who was probably thinking, 'I like that slightly wacky lady next to me.'). I like the Irish Nuns behind me, the people in posh suits and everyone else. There were oo lots of people at the 7am Mass this am. I don't know how many people half the nave holds, but it was pretty full. I want to be with other people who hold the same beliefs as me and are trying to live according to the same way of life. I don't care where they come from, what they look like or anything else about them as long as we share that.

I don't want to 'share' my intentions out loud with other people! Mind your own business! I hate meetings. I hate Committees. I don't want to discuss the teachings of the Church. I can listen to my PP or read the Catechism thanks. I don't want to change the Church. I want the Church to change me. I go to Church to say my prayers. I go to meetings at work.

So, emboldened by my visit to St T of L, I put my votive candle on the counter at Pret a Manger (impressive witness eh?) as I paid for today's brekkie and had a chat with the lady serving about when the relics were going and how big the queue was. I hope she got there later in a break. How often is visiting a Cathedral to venerate the relics of a Saint a perfectly normal piece of conversation when you pay for something in a shop in England?

If anyone reads this who has any power to do anything, please stop wasting time discussing stuff in meetings and just lay on lots of Masses and devotions. Don't ask people to 'share' anything. Don't have any liturgical chit chat, banal music, or novelty of any sort. Give us the real deal.

As Fr Z says - Say the Black and do the Red, then we can all get on with our prayers.
In fact just dust down your 1962 Missal and do what it says in there.

Then there might be more need to have 100 000 votive candles to hand in our Cathedrals and Churches.

PS Thank you to the organisers of the Tour and all the people who worked in whatever way.
I say JOB WELL DONE!

I'm looking forward to a lie in tomorrow - get up at 6 - but it's been a very good week.

St Therese of Lisieux at Westminster Cathedral

NB Please read the post above for Thursday 15th Oct. This is twaddle!
I succeeded yesterday in getting the 0545. I admit that I had to run part of the way to the station, but I made it.

Got to the Cathedral at 6.40am and went to the 7am Mass and as I was leaving saw a colleague from work, which was really good. Later in the day she popped into my lesson to ask if her form were involved in that night's recital and we shared a certain pleasure that they were not... I had to stay of course, but was just listening, so no ham fisted piano accompaniments. ( not on that occasion anyway.)

After Mass I walked round to the piazza to join the queue to venerate the relics and was able to stay a while. I've never been to that Mass before, so have no idea what it's usually like, but there were maybe 100 people and they had the relics of St Edward the Confessor on the Altar.

So I went back this morning too, though missed the Mass, but am aiming for an early night and a showing for St Teresa of Avila.

Since bara brith is the home of the trivial, you will be pleased to know that the piazza is sporting a burger refreshment type van. Not a vegetable in sight! I have had some very nice breakfasts these past two days and am wondering what fuel I need to get me to the end of the rehearsal after school tomorrow. Food can replace sleep! 1 bacon sandwich= 1 hour!

A zippy Missal cover

Car keys, Missals and handbags make an unstable mix and it's the Missal that's going to come off worst, so finding myself in the piazza outside Westminster Cathedral at lunch-time popped into the CTS Bookshop and hey presto! All zipped up and safe and before any great accident occurred.

Oh yes and the Rosary Crusade was great. Lovely weather too and lots of people even though squillions must have been at Aylesford. St T of L advertised out ide the Cathedral as 58 continuous hours, four Priests hearing confessions etc...