Sunday, March 19, 2006

Unexpected Delight

Over the weekend, we did something which usually creates heart palpitations--attended Sunday Mass out of town. We were advised that for our purposes, St. Pius X parish in Appleton would be just fine and dandy.

AND IT WAS!!!!

The Mass was celebrated exactly as written in the IG, and the priest/celebrant even tossed in a Chant-esque Kyrie Eleison. It was Chant-esque because it was apparently based on the Kyrie from the Litany of the Saints--it was not one of the usual Ordinary melodies.

Nonetheless, this was an unexpected pleasure.

After Mass, we made it a point to greet the celebrant and confirmed our suspicions: he had been in the Parish for only 6 months. It was clear that there were some dissonances between his understanding of the Liturgy and that held by others surrounding him--the 'hold-hands-Kumbaya' routine at the Our Father bespoke a past age of flower children, for example; and the outlandish hat worn by the "Yout' Minister" was a sign...

Ironically, the Gospel story was about profaning the Temple. Evidently the Yout' person had forgotten about that story.

We learned that the good Father-celebrant had attended the Old Rite Mass in Green Bay for several years prior to his Ordination. Evidently something rubbed off.

Best wishes to you, Father. And thanks!

1 comment:

Neo-Con Tastic said...

It's quite sad to think that a Catholic was surprised to find an "appropriate" mass. One would think it's the opposite - being dissappointed when the mass was unacceptable. It took me weeks to find a mass that I deemed acceptable here and it's still borderline.