Guinness on Vatican II's wake:
>>>>...Much water has flown under the Tiber's bridges, carrying away splendor and mystery from Rome since the Pontificate of Pius XII.... [T]he banalities and translations which have ousted the sonerous Latin and Greek are of a supermarket quality which is quite unacceptable. Hand shaking and embarrassed smiles or smirks have replaced the older courtesies: kneeling is out, queuing is in, and the general tone is like BBC radio broadcast for tiny tots....<<<< [courtesy of pblosser and joseph pearce]
...It is very sad that Guinness, who passed away in 2000, did not live to see any restoration of the Liturgy which he loved.
I probably have said this before, but I will repeat it anyway: Laity! do not be discouraged when our priests and bishops continue to stop their ears at our Holy Father's call to restore worship, and reverence, and humility! Better people than we have endured the same frustration --only worse because they had no straw at which to grasp, no distant glimmer.
I believe God is testing us! Our clergy, as whole, have royally failed that test! So now He -has given us a pope who is reaching over and around disobedient and unbelieving clergy...straight out to us-laity.
Can a bishop keep us from hearing the Mass in Latin? No! The Holy Father has given that decision to us-laity!
Can a bishop keep us from kneeling for Communion? No! The Holy Father's humble example has rudely interrupted the United States Council of Catholic Bishops' slickly worded info-mercial for standing.[How these bishops must dread that someone will ask them the meaning of the Holy Father's gesture. There can be no good USCCB answer to that question!]]
Laity! Get your Sensus Fidelium on!
If we don't kneel now...then we can blame no priest, no bishop, nor peer pressure. The Holy Father has given that decision over to each and every layperson.
Even more than that, he doesn't just hold kneeling out as 'an option'. Rather, his daily reminder at papal liturgies, all and every! exalts kneeling as the ideal!!
The Holy Father is gently inviting us to have our bodies do what our souls already need to be doing. True, the Pope issues no fiat, no bull, no command....he gestures like a nervous teenage boy who stands with unruly slicked down hair and a 'white sportcoat' and silently extends his hand to his would-be dance partner. And for now, we refuse. We sit, like the girl who pretends not to see because she's afraid of what her smart-aleck girlfriends might say ....
Alec Guinness RIP! and pray for us if you can!
k.c.
The great actor of understatement also said: "Never let an actor near the liturgy - especially a bad one (actor)." He lived long enough to see both bads.
ReplyDeleteThey must have made his toes curl.
So sad, as you say, he never saw the seeds of regeneration beginning to sprout.