So, I'm thinking about converting to the Eastern Rite.
Ok, not really. But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at all appealing and the thought hadn't ever crossed my mind.
I went to one Divine Liturgy back in November, and it was really...beautiful. And then at the Vigil for Life Mass last week, there were a few seminarians/deacons/priests (and maybe a bishop?) from the Eastern Church. And there's just something about them. I don't know what it is. I guess maybe it's the part of me that's always loved a lot of the traditions of orthodox, practicing Jewish culture. (Not that I want to convert to Judaism, or anything.)
Don't worry. I love the Roman Church. And I really love Latin. You know what a part of it is? I could be totally off on this, but it seems to me that if you go to an Eastern Rite church, you know you're not going to get any funny business. But I'm wary of going to any new Latin Rite parish because so many churches these days have really...squishy liturgies. Hand-holding, happy-clappy, let's-just-all-get-along Masses. I was thinking about it the other day, and I've been lucky out here - the whole five months I've been here, I have yet to go to one of those Masses. But that's because I've gone to a total of four churches - St. Bernadette, where they know how to do Mass; the Shrine, where they also know how to do Mass; Caldwell Chapel on campus where we have our Institute Masses (and the Institute knows how to do Mass); and the one Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Oh, and I also ventured out to the Polish church up the street that one time. Guess I can't really comment there as I had no idea what they were saying the whole time, but I'm assuming it was a pretty solid liturgy as well. I will say that I don't get nearly my fill of incense, even here in DC - if I'm at the Crypt daily noon Mass early enough I get incense from when they do Benediction right before Mass starts, but that's about it. Sadly.
Anyway, my point is...what's my point? Oh. I guess I just wish that I had more of a guarantee that I could get a good, solid, smells-and-bells traditional liturgy at more regular Catholic churches. And I guess I can't really speak for all Eastern Rite churches, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that for the most part they all encourage a liberal use of incense and a very conservative (ie, nonexistent) use of female altar servers and lay EMHCs. It's hard to find any Latin Rite church that doesn't use female altar servers or lay EMHCs. Wait, I guess that's redundant - if they're not lay, they're not EMHCs, I don't think...They're just...MHCs. Anyway. Yeah. And incense. Gosh I miss incense. I may be misremembering, but I'm fairly confident that the 10am Mass at ND always used incense. And often had concelebrating priests, at least one or two. I understand that's not realistic for a lot of places, though. But it was just one perk of ND. I do like St. Bernadette's out here, don't get me wrong. I just wish...eh. Whatever. Doesn't matter.
In summation: I like tradition. I like incense. I like bells. I like old languages of the Church. And I don't like females in the sanctuary. The end.
:-)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Weird (and lovely)
I haven't listened to my classical music collection in a deplorably long time. So tonight I put it on, choosing to listen to songs from the CD I downloaded, The 99 Most Essential Pieces of the Romantic Era. It has some great songs on it. I wanted to start with the Jupiter movement from The Planets suite (it happens to be the same music to one of my favorite church hymns, O God Beyond All Praising). After starting that, I put the rest of the CD on random. But like all my favorites are coming up in a row! I had The Planets, Bolero, Nessun Dorma, Hungarian Dance no. 5, the 1812 Overture, and Adagio for Strings. Pretty darn awesome.
(I did skip over Night on Bald Mountain. Just not in that kind of mood right now.)
Good music to put me in a sleepy mood, as if I need help with that.
(I did skip over Night on Bald Mountain. Just not in that kind of mood right now.)
Good music to put me in a sleepy mood, as if I need help with that.
So much to blog, so little time
I haven't written in awhile. Again. But this time, it's more because I haven't had my computer for the last week ish, so I haven't really been able to. And there's so much to write about!
-Meeting Cardinal DiNardo on Wednesday.
-Opening Mass for the Prayer Vigil for Life Thursday evening.
-March for Life.
-Students for Life conference on Saturday.
-Regular, other, every day life things.
Just a few comments, I guess:
-It was cool getting to meet a Cardinal. (He's the new head of the Pro-Life Secretariat at the USCCB, where I happen to be an intern, and he came into town on Wednesday and wanted to meet the office. Apparently it's the first time the head of an office in the USCCB has asked to meet the whole office. So that's pretty cool. We thought we were going to miss him, we being the three interns who are all first year students at JPII, but he was still there when we got back after class, so we got to meet him really quickly. It was cool.)
-The Vigil Mass. My goodness. I could write pages. I got to sit up in the sanctuary, facing the center of the altar (basically, I was on the side of it, so across from me was the other side of the sanctuary, and if I turned my head to the left there was the whole congregation and then some, and if I turned my head right, it was priests and seminarians as far as the eye could see to the back of the church). Again, thanks to working in the Pro-Life Secretariat. Our office co-sponsors the Mass, so we get to sit up there, along with a few other VIPs. Pretty fantastically awesome. The procession in alone took at least 40 minutes, what with almost 600 seminarians processing in, several hundred priests, and probably 40-50 bishops and cardinals. AMAZING. I was totally geeking out the whole time over the awesomeness of it all. And it was a beautiful Mass, and just so lovely, and I felt so privileged and unworthy to be able to see it so well, to have such great seats just because I lucked out and got an internship at the PL office. Seriously. One of the greatest, most beautiful things I've experienced in a long time. (And seriously, all those seminarians? Gosh what a beautiful sight that is! Even if I couldn't help thinking "So that's where all the faithful young Catholic men have gone!" Honestly, though, I was almost in tears of joy watching the whole thing. I love priests. And seminarians. It's just great. It was weird, though, because there was one single girl in the whole of the procession - an acolyte at the Shrine, I guess, but she just seemed so out of place in the midst of all those seminarians and mostly-male acolytes. I know the Shrine has female altar servers, but why they decided to include one in this Mass is sort of weird. But oh well. I only saw her during the procession and recession.
-The March. Pretty good, but wished I knew someone so I could have marched with the ND group. I heard they had 350 people come up, which is a good number. And Fr. Jenkins did indeed make good on his promise to come this year, but apparently he was flanked with two police officers the whole way. Someone told me that the whole way, people would cheer Notre Dame when they saw the group, but then boo Jenkins. As is expected. I saw a large banner (either the same one two different times, or two of the same sign in different places) someone had set up on the sidewalk that said "FR. JENKINS: FREE THE NOTRE DAME 88" (that's those 88 people who were arrested for trespassing during protests of graduation last year, who are still having to go to court and whatnot, against whom many pro-lifers think Fr. Jenkins should drop the charges). Would have been interesting to be a part of that group this year. I did get to see them - I marched with a handful of Institute people, and our little sign that no one could see because we didn't have poles to hold it up (so we were just holding it at chest height, or whatever), and we were pretty close to the front. Managed to nudge our way in there. But anyway, after our group got to the Supreme Court (fastest I've ever done the March), my friend and I decided to stand on the corner where everyone has to turn to get to the Supreme Court, and just watch it. She was meeting up with her sister after, and as it happened, her sister was towards the end of the March. So I basically got to watch the whole thing, which was kind of cool. And ND was towards the end, but they were indeed a sizable group. I didn't see Jenkins, although I was very much looking for him - and also looking for some type of security around him, as I did half-expect that would be the case. A little disappointed that I didn't see him. Oh well.
-Mainstream coverage was, of course, practically non-existent. The Washington Post had some coverage up online, but it's a local event so they can't exactly ignore it. (You wouldn't know this if you relied on regular coverage, but there were well over 200,000 people there this year - I've heard some estimates as high as 300,000. And it's hard to ignore 300,000 people who close streets, clog public transportation, and eat in restaurants.) Did you see CNN's coverage? Can't blame you if you didn't - even I almost missed it. Not much there to miss, though - reading that article makes it sound like there were a good number of protesters in response to some tens of thousands, maybe, of marchers. And don't you love that the picture of the March for Life is the protesters? Of whom I saw, with my own two eyes, MAYBE ten. But they were just rather very much blocked out by the THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of peaceful, beautiful, happy YOUNG pro-lifers. Bah, CNN, who needs you. (PS - the USCCB person quoted? I know her! She's awesome. Also works in the PL Secretariat. All the cool people do. And me.)
Update: A blogger who live-blogged the March and discusses subsequent "coverage."
-Saturday I worked all day, manning a table for work at the Students for Life Conference. Lots of college students, which was cool to see. Yay young pro-life people! Got to talk to a few who came up to the table and were talky.
-Other stuff will be talked about later, possibly. This is already too long.
The end.
-Meeting Cardinal DiNardo on Wednesday.
-Opening Mass for the Prayer Vigil for Life Thursday evening.
-March for Life.
-Students for Life conference on Saturday.
-Regular, other, every day life things.
Just a few comments, I guess:
-It was cool getting to meet a Cardinal. (He's the new head of the Pro-Life Secretariat at the USCCB, where I happen to be an intern, and he came into town on Wednesday and wanted to meet the office. Apparently it's the first time the head of an office in the USCCB has asked to meet the whole office. So that's pretty cool. We thought we were going to miss him, we being the three interns who are all first year students at JPII, but he was still there when we got back after class, so we got to meet him really quickly. It was cool.)
-The Vigil Mass. My goodness. I could write pages. I got to sit up in the sanctuary, facing the center of the altar (basically, I was on the side of it, so across from me was the other side of the sanctuary, and if I turned my head to the left there was the whole congregation and then some, and if I turned my head right, it was priests and seminarians as far as the eye could see to the back of the church). Again, thanks to working in the Pro-Life Secretariat. Our office co-sponsors the Mass, so we get to sit up there, along with a few other VIPs. Pretty fantastically awesome. The procession in alone took at least 40 minutes, what with almost 600 seminarians processing in, several hundred priests, and probably 40-50 bishops and cardinals. AMAZING. I was totally geeking out the whole time over the awesomeness of it all. And it was a beautiful Mass, and just so lovely, and I felt so privileged and unworthy to be able to see it so well, to have such great seats just because I lucked out and got an internship at the PL office. Seriously. One of the greatest, most beautiful things I've experienced in a long time. (And seriously, all those seminarians? Gosh what a beautiful sight that is! Even if I couldn't help thinking "So that's where all the faithful young Catholic men have gone!" Honestly, though, I was almost in tears of joy watching the whole thing. I love priests. And seminarians. It's just great. It was weird, though, because there was one single girl in the whole of the procession - an acolyte at the Shrine, I guess, but she just seemed so out of place in the midst of all those seminarians and mostly-male acolytes. I know the Shrine has female altar servers, but why they decided to include one in this Mass is sort of weird. But oh well. I only saw her during the procession and recession.
-The March. Pretty good, but wished I knew someone so I could have marched with the ND group. I heard they had 350 people come up, which is a good number. And Fr. Jenkins did indeed make good on his promise to come this year, but apparently he was flanked with two police officers the whole way. Someone told me that the whole way, people would cheer Notre Dame when they saw the group, but then boo Jenkins. As is expected. I saw a large banner (either the same one two different times, or two of the same sign in different places) someone had set up on the sidewalk that said "FR. JENKINS: FREE THE NOTRE DAME 88" (that's those 88 people who were arrested for trespassing during protests of graduation last year, who are still having to go to court and whatnot, against whom many pro-lifers think Fr. Jenkins should drop the charges). Would have been interesting to be a part of that group this year. I did get to see them - I marched with a handful of Institute people, and our little sign that no one could see because we didn't have poles to hold it up (so we were just holding it at chest height, or whatever), and we were pretty close to the front. Managed to nudge our way in there. But anyway, after our group got to the Supreme Court (fastest I've ever done the March), my friend and I decided to stand on the corner where everyone has to turn to get to the Supreme Court, and just watch it. She was meeting up with her sister after, and as it happened, her sister was towards the end of the March. So I basically got to watch the whole thing, which was kind of cool. And ND was towards the end, but they were indeed a sizable group. I didn't see Jenkins, although I was very much looking for him - and also looking for some type of security around him, as I did half-expect that would be the case. A little disappointed that I didn't see him. Oh well.
-Mainstream coverage was, of course, practically non-existent. The Washington Post had some coverage up online, but it's a local event so they can't exactly ignore it. (You wouldn't know this if you relied on regular coverage, but there were well over 200,000 people there this year - I've heard some estimates as high as 300,000. And it's hard to ignore 300,000 people who close streets, clog public transportation, and eat in restaurants.) Did you see CNN's coverage? Can't blame you if you didn't - even I almost missed it. Not much there to miss, though - reading that article makes it sound like there were a good number of protesters in response to some tens of thousands, maybe, of marchers. And don't you love that the picture of the March for Life is the protesters? Of whom I saw, with my own two eyes, MAYBE ten. But they were just rather very much blocked out by the THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of peaceful, beautiful, happy YOUNG pro-lifers. Bah, CNN, who needs you. (PS - the USCCB person quoted? I know her! She's awesome. Also works in the PL Secretariat. All the cool people do. And me.)
Update: A blogger who live-blogged the March and discusses subsequent "coverage."
-Saturday I worked all day, manning a table for work at the Students for Life Conference. Lots of college students, which was cool to see. Yay young pro-life people! Got to talk to a few who came up to the table and were talky.
-Other stuff will be talked about later, possibly. This is already too long.
The end.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
No one wants to hear about my real life
10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling
50 Things We Know Now That We Didn't Know Last Year
(I kinda like number 2. And #19 is interesting - I want to go there. And #47 is kinda interesting too.)
I found new beauty in Palmer Park yesterday. I went at just before sunset-ish (around 4:30), so it was starting to get darker, but it was overcast anyway. And I took a different trail than I normally do, and went further into and down in the forest-y area than I normally do, where the sun doesn't easily get to - so it's always more shadowy and snowy than other areas of the park. Anyway. The way the overcast, twilighty light was hitting everything, it was just beautiful. A different beautiful than I'm used to being at Palmer Park (which is always beautiful. My oasis in the city). I was happy about that.
I've been doing a lot of thinking. And yes, it does hurt, thanks for asking.
The lovely Sarah and I are going hiking tomorrow, revisiting a hike we did this summer that we both loved. It should be interesting to do in the winter. Don't know how much snow we'll hit on the trail, but I'm excited about it.
*****
(Obviously, the above was written awhile ago. Almost two weeks ago. The 4th, I think. Apparently I haven't written a post in awhile. And forgot about this one.)
*****
News flash: IVF is wrong. And dangerous.
Trying to take this to heart.
I suck at prayer. Both in the doing it, and in the believing that my wimpy pathetic prayers (for whatever they might be) matter in the slightest.
The Wonka kids as grown-ups. Weird. I should ask for that movie someday. It's really quality.
I haven't even been here for a full week. And it's been the longest week ever. Don't think I'm going to survive the semester. Nor will my lappytop.
Discerning. It's hard.
I'm sorry I haven't written anything in a long while. (Although I'm not entirely sure anyone still even reads this and thus would care.) I'm sick of writing woe-is-me posts, but I don't have much else to convey to the world. I could tell you about how I bought a pack of pastel-colored index cards the other day, but who cares about that? Or the fact that someday I'd like to organize my knitting supplies and patterns, someday when I'm settled somewhere (will that actually ever happen), maybe have a little bit of money to buy things that will help me to become organized, and of course the time and energy to do it. But since I'm not doing that, what's the point in writing about it? I could write about the great time I had in CO, about the fun time Sarah and I had hiking (tough though it was, especially with my out-of-shape graduate-student body). Or how much fun my nephews are. Or how much I love love love my cuddly doggie, who is currently many many miles away from me. But all that tends to remind me how much I miss those things, and how few joys I find here. (Graduate school? Not my favorite thing.)
Besides, it all inevitably turns back to my depressed state, and again, who wants to read more about that? So instead of emotaposting, I tend towards not posting at all. We'll see what happens moving forward. Maybe I'll find good and happy things to post about. (March for Life coming up next week, for one.) Maybe the semester will go by insanely quickly, and before I know it I'll be going home again for spring break, and then another wedding, and then for the summer. (I still don't know what the plans are for the summer. Parentals are going to Italy for a few weeks in May, and I desperately hope I can be home when they're gone because three weeks with me and the pup sounds both glorious and lonely - but great as long as I can work some human interaction in with the dog-cuddling. And if I can't be home with her during that time, I think she'll have to stay with my brother who just won't love her like I do. She needs lots o' loving. But I really don't think I'll be able to stand a whole summer here, regardless. Not being here will require finding a subletter. And a job in CO. So...we have to see.)
And there you go.
50 Things We Know Now That We Didn't Know Last Year
(I kinda like number 2. And #19 is interesting - I want to go there. And #47 is kinda interesting too.)
I found new beauty in Palmer Park yesterday. I went at just before sunset-ish (around 4:30), so it was starting to get darker, but it was overcast anyway. And I took a different trail than I normally do, and went further into and down in the forest-y area than I normally do, where the sun doesn't easily get to - so it's always more shadowy and snowy than other areas of the park. Anyway. The way the overcast, twilighty light was hitting everything, it was just beautiful. A different beautiful than I'm used to being at Palmer Park (which is always beautiful. My oasis in the city). I was happy about that.
I've been doing a lot of thinking. And yes, it does hurt, thanks for asking.
The lovely Sarah and I are going hiking tomorrow, revisiting a hike we did this summer that we both loved. It should be interesting to do in the winter. Don't know how much snow we'll hit on the trail, but I'm excited about it.
*****
(Obviously, the above was written awhile ago. Almost two weeks ago. The 4th, I think. Apparently I haven't written a post in awhile. And forgot about this one.)
*****
News flash: IVF is wrong. And dangerous.
Trying to take this to heart.
I suck at prayer. Both in the doing it, and in the believing that my wimpy pathetic prayers (for whatever they might be) matter in the slightest.
The Wonka kids as grown-ups. Weird. I should ask for that movie someday. It's really quality.
I haven't even been here for a full week. And it's been the longest week ever. Don't think I'm going to survive the semester. Nor will my lappytop.
Discerning. It's hard.
I'm sorry I haven't written anything in a long while. (Although I'm not entirely sure anyone still even reads this and thus would care.) I'm sick of writing woe-is-me posts, but I don't have much else to convey to the world. I could tell you about how I bought a pack of pastel-colored index cards the other day, but who cares about that? Or the fact that someday I'd like to organize my knitting supplies and patterns, someday when I'm settled somewhere (will that actually ever happen), maybe have a little bit of money to buy things that will help me to become organized, and of course the time and energy to do it. But since I'm not doing that, what's the point in writing about it? I could write about the great time I had in CO, about the fun time Sarah and I had hiking (tough though it was, especially with my out-of-shape graduate-student body). Or how much fun my nephews are. Or how much I love love love my cuddly doggie, who is currently many many miles away from me. But all that tends to remind me how much I miss those things, and how few joys I find here. (Graduate school? Not my favorite thing.)
Besides, it all inevitably turns back to my depressed state, and again, who wants to read more about that? So instead of emotaposting, I tend towards not posting at all. We'll see what happens moving forward. Maybe I'll find good and happy things to post about. (March for Life coming up next week, for one.) Maybe the semester will go by insanely quickly, and before I know it I'll be going home again for spring break, and then another wedding, and then for the summer. (I still don't know what the plans are for the summer. Parentals are going to Italy for a few weeks in May, and I desperately hope I can be home when they're gone because three weeks with me and the pup sounds both glorious and lonely - but great as long as I can work some human interaction in with the dog-cuddling. And if I can't be home with her during that time, I think she'll have to stay with my brother who just won't love her like I do. She needs lots o' loving. But I really don't think I'll be able to stand a whole summer here, regardless. Not being here will require finding a subletter. And a job in CO. So...we have to see.)
And there you go.
Friday, January 01, 2010
2010
Heart full of joy.
And happiness.
And gratefulness.
And hope.
And love.
And possibility.
And the knowledge that, inevitably, bad things will happen. But for tonight, just tonight, just right now, things could barely be better, and as far as I'm concerned, this could be what the whole year is like.
Happy 2010, everyone. :-)
And happiness.
And gratefulness.
And hope.
And love.
And possibility.
And the knowledge that, inevitably, bad things will happen. But for tonight, just tonight, just right now, things could barely be better, and as far as I'm concerned, this could be what the whole year is like.
Happy 2010, everyone. :-)
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