Friday, August 22, 2008

Catholics Will Get This

The mystery of communion in the tedium of the mass.

I remember being in church at age six or seven waiting for that moment, when the altar boys rang their bells and bread and wine became body and blood.

4 comments:

BJG. said...

I was an altar boy, and I used to relish the moment at which I'd ring the bell. There was a funny little power trip to delaying it for the tiniest fraction of a second. I haven't been to a mass in a while, but I'm still enamored of Catholic ceremonial pomp.

Anonymous said...

I always liked the singing. There was a weird mystical quality to hymns; it was strange & fascinating that certain songs-- and not others!-- were ones that God was listening to.

Pentimento said...

The transcendence of the consecration amid the mundanity of the liturgy is a glimpse of eternity poking through time. My father used to emphasize the fact that a priest could be a lush, a louse, a grievous sinner, and could still perform the miracle of the consecration. I always liked that.

aiko said...

if you'd like, send me an email and we can talk more about it ;)