Sighting of "Benedictine" altar arrangement in Edinburgh!

At the moment I am not residing at my own house but rather elsewhere in Edinburgh, in a place very very close to a church, St Margaret Mary's. This morning I went to this church for mass and last night I went to the associated parish, Holy Cross, for confession. In both churches I noticed that there was a crucifix on the altar placed so that it was facing the priest. In Holy Cross I think it also had six candles on the altar and in at St Margaret Mary's there were six (lit!) large candles behind the altar, three on either side of the tabernacle. I mention the fact that they were lit because at my own parish there are also six candles beside the tabernacle behind the altar but they are rarely lit. I realised that this was what is often known as the "Benedictine arrangement", so called because it is favoured/required by Pope Benedict at the masses he celebrates. Indeed there was a little contention about the fact that the candles were not placed on the altar at the mass but rather beside the altar on the floor (which did look a bit silly, tbh) at Bellahouston. On further consideration, St Margaret Mary's is just ripe and ready in terms of its architecture and layout of sanctuary for the extraordinary form. It has three steps to the altar, an altar rail and the room for it. Furthermore, the altar on the steps is actually the altar used, meaning there's no stupid secondary altar right in front of it. The only misgiving about it is that it is made from wood. Both churches are similar, and both have a huge message spanning an archway over the sanctuary. At Holy Cross it says "+ Ave Crux Spes Unica +" - "Hail to the Cross, our only hope" and at St Margaret Mary's it says "+ Magister Adest et Vocat Te +" - "The Master is here and He is calling you".

Anyway, many see this Benedictine arrangement as a sort of middle stage towards returning to worship ad orientem - the worship direction of the ages. Let us pray for our priests that they may keep to the holy traditions of Mother Church.

St Margaret Mary, pray for us!

Prayer to the Sacred Heart for Priests

Remember, O most loving Heart of Jesus, that they for whom I pray are those for whom You prayed so earnestly the night before Your death.  These are they to whom You look to continue with You in Your sorrows when others forsake You, who share Your griefs and have inherited your persecutions, according to Your word: That the servant is not greater than his Lord.  Remember, O Heart of Jesus, that they are the objects of the world's hatred and Satan's deadliest snares.  Keep them then, O Jesus, in the safe citadel of Your Sacred Heart and there let them be sanctified in truth.  May they be one with you and one among themselves, and grant that multitudes may be brought through their word to believe in You and love You.

Sad video :-(

Just today I happened to come across a video of a priest's ordination at my parish church. The ordination took place twenty years ago this year. This means that I was less than one year old, and also living doon sooth at the time, but I do remember much of the layout as the church was then. The tabernacle was in the corner of the sanctuary, as I remember it was when I first started serving on the altar when I was about seven or eight. I remember the large cross behind the altar which has now been moved to upstairs, to the Venerable Margaret Sinclair Chapel as it is now known as. Back then it was just the choir loft. And this takes me nicely to the next point. The music. All which is moderately terrible was played at this mass and was accompanied with guitar, flute and tambourine. Now, these things I can cope with, but what really dismayed me was at the canon - first of all, the celebrant bishop asked all to stand during the eucharistic prayer. Why? Why? Everyone had already knelt during the litany, so why couldn't they kneel at the moment of sacrifice? I don't know...
Secondly, the vessels used were not "of a noble material" and gilt on the interior. They were just ceramic bowls. This causes me to make a big sad face :-( and makes my heart sink. It also explains a few things about a certain letter I sent just over a year ago...

Now all this makes me realise how different things are already. Much of this is due to the most recent parish priest, who retired in June this year after ten years at the parish, so he is very much the priest I remember. Unfortunately, for many his personality was too much and they left to other parishes. Despite this, the changes he made were generally good. He moved the tabernacle from the corner to behind the altar. He moved the Saint Margaret statue from a corner of the porch to inside the body of the church and made it stand out a bit more. He made the sanctuary more noble looking, though he wished he had made more changes (i.e. rip out what remained of the 1970s wreckovations). He also converted the choir loft into the chapel I mentioned above and installed two more stained glass windows there. Most recently he placed a large vessel with holy water in it for people to take some home for them. Unfortunately, many people had left already before these changes were made and so they never got the benefit of them.

Lastly, the ordination video made me think again about the question of vocation. Now, I know I will not be a priest and the reasons are numerous. One of the main ones is that I am far too proud a person and I'm a gloryseeker - not exactly good qualities. Yet, I still have "dreams" or "fantasies" about being one and this video made me think about this further. If God had made things slightly different for me, perhaps I would have become a priest. But it doesn't do to dwell in the realm of fantasy and of ifs and maybes. So I just thank God for what He has called me to do and I just trust in His plans.

One last word about the video - what was abundantly clear was that if a person living only seventy years ago were to watch this video then, they wouldn't recognise a thing...

Marshmallow liturgy

While doing some browsing I came across a website called "The Center for Progressive Christianity". On this website there was a section on liturgy and asked people to write in and submit possible liturgy texts! So far, they have a sample of some of the texts already submitted. Check them out for some light entertainment if you want.

One of my favourite submissions is this:

One: May God the World Maker bless you;
All: Let us delight in sunlight and starlight and surprises of the turning earth.
One: May Jesus the Peace Maker bless you;
Many: Let us celebrate Life as it is found in this community, in all its struggles and joys.
One: May Spirit the Journey Maker bless you;
Many: Let us walk with saints and angels in the wisdom and wildness of Love. Amen.

Notice how the presider is called "One". Another suggestion, presumably "equivalent" to "May almighty God have mercy on us..." after the confiteor is:

Leader: The God of all creation welcomes us with open arms,
offering love and hope and faith.
We are forgiven. Amen.

Liturgical dancers hailing mother Gaia, perhaps

I also recommend checking out the communion poem talking of "the life of the agribusiness executive" and "the accountant who does the taxes for the artist who makes the ads" and the pluralism and earthday liturgies further down.

Everybody's Special

I had difficulty in deciding whether to post this here or on the Ulaan Bataar blog instead. Here is a delightful song which I learnt in 2006 on my trip to Lourdes with the archdiocese. The others in the youth group taught me this song. Here it is as it was sung to me:

Ooh Sprachmeister don't you know
that you are very special!
You're so special to us all!
So come if you will
and join our circle.
Everybody's special,
special in God's circle of love.

Then they turned on... I mean turned to my friend Jamie, and sang:

Ooh Jamie don't you know
that you are very special!
You're so special to us all!
So come if you will
and join our circle.
Everybody's special,
special in God's circle of love.

This then went on around all 20 plus members of the youth group, and then some others too. This was as we went on a trip aux Pyrénées.

I'm still trying to work out a way of demonstrating the tune on blogger. So far, and luckily for you, I haven't found any.

Meanwhile, while I was in my final year at school, we had to take the new first years of high school (about 11/12 years old and generally quite obnoxious, though not at the beginning) into groups (my group went to the chaplaincy for this) and do activities with them. I suggested, as a way of learning their names, we sang that song in turn to each of them, letting them know too that they were ALL special. Surprisingly, the others rejected this idea.