Hare Krishmas to you, Paul, and Happy Merry Everything to everyone!
I took Ben with me to midnight Mass last night at our new parish church. It's been a while since I've been to church, because my old parish, St. Timothy's, out in Chantilly, was always crowded, and felt sort of ersatz. Not fair to compare it to churches in New Orleans, but what else do I have to compare them to? My parish churches in New Orleans felt old, venerable, and were lavishly decorated like European and Latin American churches. And there were other "issues." But Ben wanted to go to church, so I thought Midnight Mass would be good, with all the incense, candles, decorated altar, and singing. Midnight Mass for Christmas is one of the things that really shows off the differences between Catholics and Protestants.
The service started at 11, and we got there somewhat early so we were assured of a seat. We sat next to the musicians and choir because the acoustics weren't very good, so we could hear everything. Our new church (felicitously, Church of the Nativity) isn't very big, and even less impressive than St. Timothy's. What to compare it to? A Protestant church, but not even a fancy Protestant church, except for a couple of statues that had that suggestive, minimalistic look of Scandinavian sculpture, scarcely differentiated from plain wood. The Stations of the Cross are the size of dinner platters, and only along one wall.
But it was all nicely decorated, with Christmas trees flanking the altar, and a five-foot-tall pyramid of poinsettas on the sanctuary altar. The choir numbered maybe 30, all adults, dressed in black and white, and there were teenagers sitting in front of the choir with musical instruments. Five adults with musical instruments, a woman with a guitar who was the musical director, a man with a bhodran (Irish drum) who was in charge of the sound equipment, a woman playing the electrical piano, a man playing a string bass, and across the church a man playing the organ in the organ pit.
The music started at 11. The musical director and one other woman had very good soprano voices, but the woman who wasn't the musical director sang all the dramatic soprano songs, and the solos, like the one that goes "Gloria! Hosanna in Excelsus!"
After the choir performed for an hour, at midnight the mass service began, with the altar boys carrying candles walking before deacons bearing the gold-covered Bible, followed by the priest swinging an incense censer, followed by more altar boys carrying candles, everyone dressed in white and gold robes. And the mass was a singing mass.
What I really liked, though, was the homily. The priest lectured on the third verse of one carol, can't remember then name, with a phrase about Christ freeing slaves enchained. Apparently some sports figure recently gave an interview and criticised Asians, people who don't speak English well, homosexuals, and unwed mothers, and the priest said that this was dehumanizing, and contrary to Christ's message. How Christ never turned anyone away, and never made anyone feel guilty, how he loved and accepted and welcomed everyone, no matter who they were. And he talked about the death penalty, and how America is the only civilized country in the free world that still has the death penalty, and how seven men were freed from Death Row this year because they were innocent. And he talked about how much money we spent on Christmas presents for our own pride's sake when people were hungry. I hadn't heard anyone talk like that in many years, and I was very glad that Ben was there to hear it.
The best part was when he said that he wanted to repeat for the sake of the people who hadn't been there weeks ago when he announced that the church would not be having paid accompanists for the Midnight Mass, and that the money would be sent to SOME (So Others May Eat) instead, and that the church had sent $1500 to SOME. And that, when the announcement was made, volunteers had come forth to play for the Midnight Mass, including the orchestra, all local high school students. That probably explained why one of the oboists sort of wandered around off-key, looking for the tune, on a couple of Bach pieces, but when she and the lead oboist were hitting their marks, they were really good.
I am really happy that this is our new church. I can't imagine something like that being done at St. Timothy's, for one thing. But that's not the important thing, of course. What matters is that this is the true spirit of Christmas.
We didn't get home until almost 2 a.m., and I didn't get to sleep until 3 a.m. And we've been making dinner, and then we ate dinner, and I just logged on briefly to wish you a Merry Happy Everything, and the same to everyone else, and best luck in your operation. Please let us know ASAP how things go, as we will all be terribly worried.
Love to you, and MJ, and all the cats, especially McKinley.
And love to all the DARians. Happy Merry Everything!!!!! |
