Thursday, January 17, 2013

It happens about as often as a total eclipse of the sun

But it appears that David Warren and I expressed some of the same sentiments at roughly the same time. (With profuse apologies to Mr. Warren). Here is my post-Christmas column from The Record. I'm not sure when it appeared in the print edition, but it was posted online Jan. 14. And here is an excerpt from Mr. Warren's Epiphany blog post
But just as the “spirit of Christmas” is supposed to be remembered throughout the year, the spirit of the Mass goes forth into the world. We do not cease to be Christians when we walk out of church. We have been restored, but this restoration is carried with & within us.
However, he goes on to rant wax eloquently on the Liturgical Year, while I merely mock Elvis. (I never pretended that he and I were intellectual equals--Mr. Warren, not Elvis.) 
Parcelled with this convulsion, the knocking around of the most solemn Holy feasts, which once fell where they fell. It was unthinkable to transfer them, say to the nearest Sunday, the way a provincial government transfers bank holidays to the next or nearest Monday — for the sake of a notion of convenience that is aggressively worldly.
Twelve days from Christmas is twelve days from Christmas; one cannot muck with such a plain thing. I, at least, cannot get my little mind around, “The Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated on 6 January, unless, where it is not observed as a Holy day of obligation, it has been assigned to the Sunday occurring between 2 and 8 January.” I pray to God that I will never become so smart that I will be able to understand this instruction.
It is also the only instance when I have been able to read the phrase "liturgical dance" without retching.

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