Father Zed is, as always, right. Having looked at that lovely video of the Mass of the Americas, I share his observations that
(1) 'solemn' doesn't have to mean 'It needs to take a long time'; and
(2) liturgical things can happen simultaneously, in a very natural sort of way.
I would myself tentatively add
(3) Processions do not have to happen slowly.
It would certainly be dreadful if everybody, as in Dryden's comment on Ovid's hexameters, went "at the hand-gallop". But processions should go at the normal relaxed but business-like human pace in which people move who are not in a tearing hurry but simply need to get from point A to point B.
Slow processions are so pompously Anglican, so embarrassingly clericalist; so terribly "look at me".
I mean this next bit seriously:
Liturgical organisers should have experience of the Byzantine Rite. Not ... Heaven forbid ... so that they will 'byzantinise', but to help them to understand the distinctions between Solemnity and Pomposity.
I have been to the basilica, and it has concealed traffic problems. See, the big events have everyone vesting downstairs in the crypt church, which is fine, but then they line up to go upstairs -- and not everyone can go up the ramp very fast.
ReplyDeleteABS is in complete agreement with your advice about The Byzantine Catholics for he occasionally goes to a Greek Melkite Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteTheir processions within the Divine and Holy Liturgy are beautifully paced and solemn.
The procession you noted earlier is like the pace of a man who has been asked by his wife to go to the closet and get that Nehru Jacket he still owns so the guest can be amused as they abuse his clothing choices of the past.