Psalm 34: Taste and See

Mass for a Risen Church: Eucharistic Acclamations

If you haven’t yet watched Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you really should.

Earlier in the year, her boss generously sent out an open invitation to his employees. He’d gotten season tickets in the Redbird Club, almost right behind home plate, and any employee interested in a specific date could pay him for the individual game tickets.

What made the gift extra special, besides the excellent seats, was that it would be my first game in the new Busch Stadium, as well as Joan’s very first Cards game.

After she told me, she asked: “Do you want to pick up a glove, just in case a foul ball flies back?”

I thought, and said, “I don’t think it’ll happen. It just doesn’t seem likely that a foul ball would fly that high behind home plate.”

Friday night came, and I was squealing with excitement the entire time. At the bottom of the second inning, right-fielder Ryan Ludwick was up to bat, and was fouling in every direction possible. Sure enough, one foul ball flew backwards.

Straight

at

our

heads.

I shot up, leaned over Joan, knocked over her Diet Coke, wedged my shin into the seat directly in front of us (ow), and stuck my hand out.

The ball bounced off my left thumb (OW) and behind us a couple rows, into the glove of some ten-year-old.

I sat back down, rubbed my throbbing shin, and held my thumb, numb from the impact. I looked sheepishly at the destruction I left in my path, and then at my wife.

“You were right.”

Game went into extra innings, but we eventually lost 4-1. Still a great experience.

Now have you ever heard someone recount what was done to John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton and not use the word “torture”? I haven’t. “Beatings and isolation” is a bizarre phrase to use to describe the torture that was done to John McCain. I’m sure McCain thinks so.

Am I being persnickety? As with the Trig story, there’s a very easy way to find out—if the press will simply do its job. A White House reporter needs to ask the president, quite simply, if he believes that John McCain was tortured in Vietnam. Just ask. Use that specific word. See if he can answer.

The reason he put it this way, I infer, is that if he describes what was done to McCain as torture, he has incriminated himself for war crimes.

In the past few years, I’ve found the neocon lexicon maddeningly perplexing, especially since most neocons eschew and condemn the language of political correctness. I mean, “enhanced/harsh interrogation techniques”? But now, reducing McCain’s and other POW’s experiences to “beatings and isolation” reeks of cynical double-talk.

Guitar Praise: Solid Rock

Two days ago, the bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship finally released the new translation of the Order of Mass (800kb PDF). It’s not for use in worship yet—Rocco Palmo says the earliest it’ll be rolled out is 2011—but it’s being provided for study and formation.

So, start unlearning 35 years of ingrained congregational responses like “And also with you,” and get used to “And with your spirit.” Other responses, as quoted from Whispers in the Loggia:

The more significant changes of the people’s parts are:

• et cum spiritu tuo is rendered as “And with your spirit”
• In the Confiteor, the text “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault” has been added
• The Gloria has been translated differently and the structure is different from the present text
• In the Preface dialogue the translation of “Dignum et justum est” is “It is right and just”
• The first line of the Sanctus now reads “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts”
• The response of the people at the Ecce Agnus Dei is “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

A few years ago, John Wilkins wrote an excellent article for Commonweal chronicling the painstaking and painful history of ICEL’s translating process. It’s a fascinating and disturbing history of clashing interests and church politics, of literalist translation versus dynamic equivalence, and of authority over collegiality.

I’m not happy with the text, but that’s not for me to decide. I will finally be able to work on either creating or updating the Mass settings I’ve composed, and hopefully prepare them for publication.

Click thumbnail for full size (996 x 800, 216kb JPG)

Ink, colored pencil, construction paper, tissue paper, and parchment on bristol board

Caveat: It’s long—a 40-minute speech at 4,916 words. Resist the temptation to get somebody else’s opinion or summary of it, particularly if it’s a soundbyte off of Faux News.

Obama’s ties to Wright could be the beginning of his fall. But as someone who goes to church a lot more than most of the regular blog readers here combined, I have a lot of difficulty seeing how people are fusing Wright’s incendiary remarks with Obama’s own beliefs. I’ve heard some pretty abhorrent things spoken from the pulpit in over 30 years, from vituperative homophobia and sexism to stupidly embarrassed, half-assed apologies for the sex scandals. And yet, I understand that pastors and their homilies/sermons are only one part of the whole that makes the church. There is a diverse community there working to change not only the world around them, but also within themselves.

And for all the attention this is getting, Obama’s response isn’t merely a repudiation of Wright’s words. Read (or watch) the speech. It’s an acknowledgment of the black AND white anger, and a call to dialogue. It’s a repudiation of using soundbytes and identity politics to get in cheap shots for one side or another.

Full text of the speech, made yesterday, after the jump.