Sunday 19 August 2007

Mary

Happy Birthday to my friend Ree. Without looking at the calendar I thought it was two days ago, so consider the birthday wishes I sent you then as a pre-birthday hail.
I hope this year brings you a great deal of contentment.

Today, Marie's birthday, we celebrated the Feast Day of Saint Mary in church.

The happy-clappy brand of Christian worship doesn't suit my needs. I like church to be a time for quietness and contemplation. Prayer interspersed with Liturgy. When they brought in the sharing of the sign of peace with others it was almost too intrusive, maybe it IS too intrusive for the English, but here, and now, I see that it is good.

I wonder whether hearing Mass said in Latin might be a deeper experience. The cloaking of meaning in an older language, would it concentrate the mind, opening it up at a more profound level?

Of course it is important to have the Eucharist in English too, at least one of my sons, like many people, would get nothing from it were it in Latin.

The curate took the service today. I listened carefully to her use of language, because I had noticed something when the vicar takes the service. Anywhere possible, they avoid attaching a gender to God. Instead of 'he' they will say 'God', instead of 'his', they said 'this'. I admire and appreciate this almost too greatly to express. The only word that seems impossible to replace is 'Lord'.

The Curate's preaching was different from that of the Vicar. The Vicar's talks show a wisdom and knowledge, and attention to the interpretation of the Bible as a whole text, showing us how to approach it.
The Curate, a younger woman, shared personal experiences. But she too, directed us back to the words themselves.

She painted us a picture of the Garden of Eden before the fall, perfection and happiness, bliss. Every action taken was exactly as it should be.
But it was only when Eve persuaded Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit (whatever that was, maybe an olive, maybe an apple) that life in the Garden took on meaning. Now, they had choice, now they could choose to do what was good, before, there was no perception of right or wrong, so really, no-one could be good.
A old message, re-emphasised. Eve, the bringer not just of life, but of meaning, reality, value.
The Prime Mover perhaps. God created everything we needed to set things in motion, but Eve is the one who sets the pendulum swinging.

I miss the wafers though. In this church, we have real bread. And so there is always the possibility of letting some crumb of the body of Christ fall.
There is just something about the way the communion wafer sticks to the roof of your mouth and is then moistened and freed by Christ's blood.

At least I knew all the hymns today. The final hymn was the rousing 'Bread of Heaven'.
Nothing finer. Well, except having a bunch of rich-voiced Welsh people singing it, now there's perfection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, you are actually making church sound appealing to me again. Might have to make the Richmond trek and check it out.
- Karen

Sleepy said...

Jaysus!!
Nearly had me convinced you'd turn up........................................................................................................................................................................................

Not!