I was up in town yesterday, I have to go up again tomorrow to meet Cardinal Levada at a do for the Ordinariate organised by the Herald, yes, I am name dropping. Yesterday I went see the National Galleries exhibition of Altarpieces, it was exquisite, most were pieces already in the collection but lit and arranged as if in context. One room was arranged as a chapel, I tried to persuade a priest friend to go up to the central exhibit to go and start the Rosary.
Unfortunately it has now ended.
I sat next to a lady on the train who comes to the Trad Mass she said, "I don't feel it at the Ordinary Mass but at the Traditional Mass I don't feel I should be there, during the Eucharistic Prayer it is like, well listening to a lover muttering to his beloved".
Having redone the lighting in the Church - though after all these months it is still not done properly- and seeing exhibition, I wonder if we have overlit it a bit. There is something about intimacy and whispering and subdued lighting that leads to the "pillow talk" of prayer.
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No, it hasn't ended yet - it finishes on Sunday (2nd). And the National Gallery has a late opening on Friday until 9 o'clock.
I went last weekend - would definitely have joined in the rosary!
Someone has just sent me details of a 'Matters of Faith' conference at the British Museum related to the relics exhibition:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/october_2011/conference_matter_of_faith.aspx
There's a link to a pdf giving details of the papers.
We are all sensitive to lighting. Candlelight is gentle, and intimate. We have horrible strip lights in our church, which I am certain contribute to the restlessness of children during services. Our most beloved weekday services are the Lenten Liturgies of the Presanctified Gifts, beginning at 6.30pm when the daylight in March has almost gone, and we only have the oil icon lamps and altar candles providing a subdued light. People then feel happy to pray. When the church is lit like a shop or office, it is difficult to find a place for prayer.
"Mutter of lovers." How beautiful.
A priest lacks a wife. Thus, his most "intimate" moment of union is when he stands in persona Christi before the Father.
I often use that analogy when discussing with priests or seminarians their seeming lack of interest in their own ars celebrandi, or their lack of understanding regarding specifically the history of the Mass. To me, as I explain to them, it's like a man not knowing his wife, or being unfascinated with her past. A man desperately wants to know every aching detail of his beloved.
To do otherwise is incomprehensible.
The mutter of lovers. Yes, absolutely. The love of a priest for Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
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