Putting Catholic Men on Ritalin
SIT DOWN & SHUT UP
The lady cantor, in her polite intercom voice, intoned the dread phrase as she announced the final “song” of the Mass: “Please turn to song number 117 in your Breaking Bread hymnal. We will be using the alternate lyrics.”
Ah, yes: “Joy to the World.” Instead of “Let men their songs employ,” we have “Let us our songs employ.” The cantor had done the same with “Let There Be Peace on Earth”: from “Brothers all are we” to “We are a family.” I had to keep from laughing out loud as the voice of Barney singing those alternate lyrics resonated in my head.
This episode, and it was hardly the first, got me thinking: What exactly does the American Catholic mindset offer to its laymen?
To be blunt, it offers this: the opportunity to sit down and shut up.
Think about it. Unless your parish is unusual, the ratio skews female on Sundays and other holy days of obligation. Why is that?
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Hymnal and missal editors aren’t infallible or unswervingly orthodox, and just because a song is in a hymnal or missal doesn’t mean it is free from error.
We ought to be thankful to Pope John Paul II, who set the stage for this momentous improvement of the Mass in the vernacular.
The humble candle is a sacramental of the Church; it reminds us of Our Lord and our call to illumine this world with His light, and it is an assurance of His protection.