Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Aylesford Homily

A priest friend of mine, Fr Graham wanted a copy of Fr John Keating O. Carm’s homily at Ayelsford, this for him, it was pretty impressive, once I recovered from that liturgical greeting "Good morning everybody" with its primary school response, "Good morning Father". I know I am being a cummudgeon, and I am not going to go on about the Friars selling pottery chalices, despite there being explicitly forbidden either, You have to take the good with the bad and in the homily and at Aylesford there is plenty of good.
The video of the Mass is here too.

13 comments:

Crux Fidelis said...

You're right about the "Good morning, everybody" thing, Fr Ray. It's just like being in primary school and I find it rather cringeworthy. It seems to have just crept in because I can recall a time when it wasn't done. Can anyone remember when it started?

Richard Collins said...

It started when the Novus Ordo was first introduced and was probably the very first of many "cringeworthy" introductions (Extraordinary Ministers, Kiss of Peace Handshakes, standing for holy communion and reception by hand all swiftly followed).
May they just as swiftly disappear.

Crux Fidelis said...

It didn't start with the NO - it came much later.

There seems to be a real "Animal Farm" attitude on this blog and others to the Novus Ordo. Do you recall Orwell's sheep bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad. Four legs good, two legs bad"? Just substitute EF and NO respectively.

pelerin said...

I could not help noticing that some of the ciboria used at Aylesford appeared to be pottery, the rest were presumably silver. I understood that pottery or glass or anything liable to shatter on impact was forbidden hence the precious metals used through the ages.

Although I do not like to see pottery being used in this way, after the initial surprise I realised that because it would have been made by the friars themselves it somehow seemed appropriate - the fruits of their labours as it were.

Regarding the beginning of the 'Good morning everybody' Shepherd mentions it started with the introduction of the Novus Ordo. Once the Priests had to start Mass facing all his flock, instead of the Tabernacle or Crucifix I suppose it seemed natural for them to acknowlege our presence by a 'Good morning' which as we know leads to the cringemaking 'Good-mor-ning-faaa-ther'.

Fr Ray Blake said...

CF, I don't know about bleating sheep, I hear the "Good morning" thing rarely which it irritates when I do.
Is it widespread?

tempus putationis said...

Oh yes, Father.

Dilly said...

It is endemic. I never minded it until I actually understood the significance of the Mass as primarily a Sacrifice, not a meal.

I still don't mind it if the Mass is in English, and the Mass is otherwise done reverently, but I wouldn't miss it if it ended tomorrow.

gemoftheocean said...

I don't know what got into me one time, but I was visiting a friend's church one time and after a daily Mass he'd met us in the vestibule, which was quite close to an uglier than mortal sin stuck-in-there-for-Easter awful "font." I said "hey, nice jacuzzi, Father." He blanched, but the young newly ordained priest standing behind him had to stiffle a laugh. Years later this then young priest is now the pastor of a parish in San Diego county who has fairly recently introduced the EF form to his parish. I'm not surprised, given the evidence of his good taste back then. I'd also remarked how nicely he did the rubrics and told him that I hope he said mass "just so" like that every time. I'm sure he doesn't have any "issues" with saying the black and doing the red.

Crux Fidelis said...

Fr Ray, you ask if it's widespread. Well, I can say that in Scotland and Ireland it is. If you want any proof of the latter just listen to Sunday Mass broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 at 10.00am (on Sundays, naturally).

Annie said...

Is it widespread? The only place I haven't heard it is at the EF.

Physiocrat said...

"Good morning, everybody" is not in any of the Mass texts. It is a case of priests doing things as they feel like it. Which appears to have begun with NO, since the old version leaves no room for doing other than what it says in the book.

Which is not to say that NO cannot be done properly, simply that is opens the door to doing it very badly indeed.

Sadie Vacantist said...

I don't get CF's convoluted Animal Farm analogy and I would like to.

Crux Fidelis said...

Sadie: Many people on this blog and others seem to think that there is nothing right with the NO and can see no shortcomings with the EF. In that respect they remind me of the slogan bleating sheep of "Animal Farm". Hope this makes my convoluted analogy a little simpler.

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