I am exhausted.The Second Vatican Council said “participatio actuosa” in the liturgy is desirable. Until recently this phrase was put into English as “active participation”, with the idea that the more people who read, brought up things in the offertory procession, waved their arms around the more they were involved in participatio actuosa, this Pope Benedict has been stressing is a false interpretation.
The reason I am exhausted is my participatio actuosa at Glynebourne yesterday. I went to hear Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and before “anonymous” accuses me of elitist and expensive pleasures, I was the guest of the General Director and his wife. I always find going to the opera exhausting, you have to use more or less every sense and engage your intellect too, your heart tends to follow, bringing your emotions into play as well. I have to confess I often find I a tear trickling down my cheek at the death of a heroine, or particularly beautiful and well sung aria, and I normally feel a deep resentment towards Pinkerton and American naval officers in general at Butterfly.
Externally, apart from clapping, nothing is going on.
Yet it is the interior participation that is so important, in the liturgy the same thing is happening, hopefully even more intensely. I know priests who are filled with euphoria after Sunday Mass, for me it is exhausting. It is not just preaching because I found the same thing when I was a member of a religious community and tended to concelebrate. It is the participatio that was so tiring. In fact the less I am doing at Mass the more I end up by being involved, if you add a beautiful Church, music and actions, and texts that speak to the heart, then you really do want Sunday to be a day of rest, and you can understand why many priests take Monday as their day off.
16 comments:
elitist and expensive pleasures
...and what, pray, is wrong with either elitist or expensive pleasures?
Do your detractors imply that a Christian and especially a priest may only enjoy Big Brother and White Lightning Cider rather than opera and a decent claret. It's your money, Padre, you can do what you please with it...
Father,
let me first of all express how much I like your blog, which is both faithful and edifying, has may references to interesting things I do not read about on other blogs (e.g. the recent post on Abp. Romero) and an overall atmosphere I find very agreeable. Thank you very much!
And now - I hope it doesn't seem like nitpicking - a very small correction (please feel free to delete it after reading): it's "participatio actuosa", since participatio, like most Latin nouns ending on "o", is feminine.
thank you: corrected
Did you drink Krug?
Sorry,
I prefer Tosca, possibly because it is set in Rome.
Sung by ?
Montserrat Caballe as Tosca
and
Placido Domingo as Cavaradossi, (although they never sang together as principals, I think).
Now THAT is an opera full of passion, intrigue, dark deeds,
death and tragedy.
Remain unmoved by it if you can !
Don't worry about people picking on you if you like opera. Let those chips fall where they may. By supporting opera (or skydiving, or billiards) you are exchanging money for the "service" and other people make their livelihood from offering those occupations so you are helping them keep a roof over their heads and feed their families. And anyway, how gutless is it to attack someone behind the cloak of anonymity? Write that off and don't think twice about it.
That said, given the occupational "hazards" of being a priest, I would think feeling "Drained" would be part of it. IT's good that you weren't just "dialing it in" and "Going through the motions." Well done, good and faithful servant. You can't fault yourself for putting all your attention to the task at hand. If you need a little more time with the Almighty without the obligation to "do stuff" it never hurts to do some contemplation in front of the tabernacle. You don't need to even say any set prayers. Just sit and "be."
Fr. Cluny,
I was a guest, my host didn't show labels. I didn't wear a dinner jacket either, I understand some clergy do, not just Protestants - such bad form.
Dr Wright,
I prefer Tosca, or The Barber or, well quite alot, but it so wonderful when a production depends on the artistry of the singers, the were brilliant.
What a brilliant production? We were on the blue gallery, tried to say hello.
I'm surprised you did not go in a cassock.
One of my many unfulfilled ambitions is to go see an opera!
fr paul harrison
Of course one assumes that you were wearing a Ferraiuolo (see here for a good photo description: http://dappledphotos.blogspot.com/2006/02/ferraiuolo.html )
I went to see the same production back in May: marvellous. Unlike their appalling, dramatised St Matthew's Passion, which is close to blasphemous.
You can count yourself lucky that you weren't at the new production of Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth.
http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6844.html
I think if I had been present at this travesty, I would have "participated actively" by walking out. Why do producers think it necessary to alter something that work's supremely well on its own terms? How unlike the home life of Our Holy Mother, the Church?
One of my many unfulfilled ambitions is to go see an opera!
fr paul harrison
Try Opera North -either a trip over the Pennines to Leeds (but I think they also have performances in Manchester - that could be Welsh Opera - both are good).
Recusant,
In England, where men might well wear black tie, women tend not to dress so formally. At Glyndebourne I think they often seem to be dressed quite informally nowadays, sometimes just smart garden party wear, certainly not evening dress. I can understand a priest not wearing a ferraiuolo in such a situation.
Oh no not on to clerical dress again!
Well you have been good for sometime, so…. I have only worn a ferrouila to a theatre once, it is not a good idea, it looks splendid but it draws attention also it becomes a trip hazard if you are sitting in the stalls or even in a restaurant, in fact I don’t even wear a cassock for the same reason. I wear a black suit and stock. I think one should really wear a frock coat, but as no one wears that nowadays, and as it is not described in any Roman document (it used to be regarded as a short cassock) unlike the cassock and ferrouilla, the modern equivalent is an ordinary suit, not a dinner jacket. (Why not? fold the collar of both up and it will become apparent).
I see the subject of clerical dress has appeared again! I have just returned from Lourdes and spotted one biretta on the head of one of the 200 priests celebrating the Mass of the feast of the Assumption. I think he was either Chinese or Vietnamese. Another priest wore a baseball cap throughout presumably to keep the sun off - it was over 36 degrees!
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