I was reading over some comments by my RM brothers and sisters who are lamenting how frequently one encounters Sunday school classes or Wednesday evening Bible classes that are just--and there's no way to say this pretty--boring as all get out.
I very clearly remember those days. Pretty much the entire service is given over to a lesson or sermon, with some short prayers and a few hymns. The services were generally about an hour long at most. The teaching/preaching element of the worship can be anywhere from half an hour to forty-five minutes. If the preacher or Bible leader is, um, well, dry as dust, it can be excruciating. Which leaves about a half hour to fifteen minutes (or even less) for prayer.
I've thought about my three years worshipping at All Saints. Now I confess, Father Patrick is not on his game every single homily, though this is rare. But when you look at the service, the sermon takes perhaps as much as one-sixth of the time (and that's only if you miss Matins, otherwise it would mean the sermon is about one-ninth the total time). If you look at the remaining five-sixths, it's all prayers and chanting, with Holy Communion. That is to say, it's more than an hour and a half of worship. For more than an hour and a half, you, the worshipper, are doing something.
And that something is prayer. Worshipping the Holy Trinity.
Funny thing. We use pretty much the exact same words every week, except for the changing troparia and kontakia. In fact, none of these things are my own words. They're someone else's. But each week I pray them--or try to as I also try to catechize my daughter in proper worship behavior--making them my own.
I can count on one hand all the times I've been "bored" in Church in the last three years. And all of them were early on before I really understood the flow of the service.
What's the cure for boredom in Church?
Pray more.
Posted by Clifton at August 18, 2005 04:01 PM | TrackBackWait, you've got Fr. Reardon as a pastor?
Luck dog.
Maybe I'll have to move to Chicago. I've been up there a couple of times for conventions at the McCormick Center. Two years ago, while there I went to St. Peter's in the Loop of Palm Sunday.
I don't think this Southern boy could stand the cold though.
Posted by: Ken at August 18, 2005 08:47 PMWith regards to the real point of your post, something about "always studying but never coming to a knowledge of the truth" comes to mind.
One of the good aspects of the RM was the centrality of the Lord's Supper in worship. However, without the liturgical actions surrounding it, I'm afraid it just becomes another check on the checklist.
Yep, I count my blessings every day that God has placed us in Father Patrick's parish.
And speaking of prayer, that's pretty much all Father Patrick wants to do anymore. I have a suspicion he will retire from the active parish ministry soon--not because he's getting too old, or is in frail health (though he does have age and health concerns), but primarily because he would want more and more time to pray.
He used to be a Benedictine monk at Gethsemani, and had Father Thomas Merton for his novice master. So the vocation to prayer has been a lifelong one.
Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at August 18, 2005 10:47 PM"Clifton, can you tell us what that passage says?"
"Why umn, it says what it means."
"That's right, now can someone tell us what it means?"
"Uh, it means what it says."
"Ok, very good. Now who will take the next verse?"
Posted by: Max Higgs at August 18, 2005 11:02 PMFather Patrick was a Benedictine at Gethsemani? That's incredible. I have no wish to be too personal, or discuss the private life of any man in such a forum, but I wonder at this man's life. One assumes that he was a tertiary or oblate or something then, as he is married.
Posted by: Nephon at August 18, 2005 11:36 PMYep...pray more...talk less.
Posted by: Tripp at August 19, 2005 06:17 AMBrian:
Although I could be mistaken, it's my understanding that he was not married at the time. If I recall correctly, he was a monk for several years.
But beyond these bare details, I don't know very much.
Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at August 19, 2005 07:55 AMI only say this because I believe it's "public knowledge", but...
Fr. Patrick wasn't married until he was in his mid-30's and that was after he left the Catholic Church. While I don't know the exact timeline of his life, I suspect that he was either on his way or in the Episcopal Church ("Church of the Holy Insurrection" as he'd call it) by that point. His wife was formerly a nun.
I find his story (or what I know of it) to be especially interesting given that the priest from the Antiochian parish I attended in my hometown is the same age as Fr. Patrick and was formerly in the Catholic Church before leaving and marrying a former nun.
My sense is that all of them left after the outcomes of Vatican II.
Posted by: Gabriel Sanchez at August 19, 2005 09:51 AM