*Sigh*

If I’d known about this, I’d have been supporting Spain regardless of the Holland side’s underdog status, over-aggressive play, or indefatigable play from Arjen Robben.
 

Fr Paul Vlaar inaugurates the liturgical season of Orange before his bishop gets wind of that poor decision

 
Friends, one of the reasons the church has set traditions about liturgical and ceremonial practice, and about preaching actually from Scripture, involves protecting the church and its faithful from the half quarter one-sixteenth-baked ideas of people who confuse “the worship offered by God’s people” with “a platform for whatever cockamamie notions they want to parade before a captive audience.” Trevor, if I recollect correctly, used to refer to this as “high school drama class” liturgy, and in the same spirit I’ve associated it with those old teen movies where someone says “Hey, gang! Let’s put on a talent show!”
 
It’s not a matter of “free speech” or “freedom of expression” — it’s a matter of understanding what you’re doing in the first place, and a catholic understanding of liturgy, above all Eucharistic liturgy, ought to have precluded such an unfortunately misguided idea in the first place. Rather than run through a catena of the reasons that this was a deeply, deeply wrong-headed notion, I’ll conclude by hoping that Pastor Vlaar doesn’t devote the time of his “leave for reflection” (don’t watch the video if you have delicate liturgical sensibilities) to resentment and passive-agressive ideation, but to learning how he might more fully cherish the responsibility vested in him by the church. (In a snarky moment, I thought “At least Pastor Vlaar isn’t a woman!” but mockery on this point does not edify Rome nor elevate me, so please consider that a confession of my impious glibness.)

2 thoughts on “*Sigh*

  1. And as a side note: I wonder what the attendance of the parish is like when the priest doesn’t resort to . . . um . . . creative ideas . . . to attract people?

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