On Passion Sunday which is two weeks before Easter, all the
statues in our church were covered with purple cloths. Very few churches do that
anymore, and somehow that really diminished the visual atmosphere for me. Palm
Sunday was always a joyous celebration of Christ's grand entry into Jerusalem,
but then it became "The second Sunday of the Passion" and only the first half of
the Mass was joyous, while so much great music was squeezed out of the service
in the second half.
Holy Thursday was when the organ played and all the
bells were rung during the "Gloria" and then the organ and the bell towers fell
silent until Easter. Few churches go for the a cappella singing after the Gloria
now. We always sang the "Pange Lingua" during the procession at the end of the
Mass on Thursday, and when they started to sing those gorgeous lyrics by Thomas
Aquinas in English...they lost me. Now the Latin is at last creeping back into
the Catholic liturgies. The churches were always open all night on Holy Thursday
and I remember my Dad signing up to spend an hour there in the middle of the
night..."keeping watch". Now most of the churches are locked up by
midnight.
I guess going to church for me years ago was always an
"uncommon experience" as Joseph Campbell called it. The language was uncommon,
the buildings didn't look like nice meeting halls or spaceships, the music was
ancient, and even the light and the air seemed different...( maybe it was from
all the candles burning...before the electric ones were brought on the scene ).
Walking into church for a Holy Week service was to enter into an unusual space,
where something different from our everyday lives occurred, and while there is
still beauty to be experienced in today's modernized ceremonies, I miss the
tradition of the covered statues, the wooden "clacker" that replaced the bells,
and the all night vigils.
Somehow hearing the organ on Good Friday just doesn't feel
right...but then again it's 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment