9-9-22 Morning meditation etc.

Day starts with mass which I attend in my own peculiar way, continues with great thoughts crowding into each other over breakfast . . .

Word to wise: Desire heaven, take care of yourself spiritually and within reason every other way, worry not. Concise enough for you?

Can’t help it if I wonder: Is there room in the Novus Ordo (new mass) for a matter-of-fact rendering of the much increased speech-making by the celebrant. Increased over the old mass, which severely limited sacerdotal speaking. May we call the new mass, actually 50 years old, the talking mass?

As such, it makes high demands on how the priest talks, does it not? Sermons there were, of course, in which the preacher had the attention of all or most. Now he has them where he wants them if he’s so inclined, listening as they watch his every move. No longer does he have to wait till sermon time.

Returning to the word for wise, why not yearn for heaven? For a few minutes anyhow. Nothing wrong with that. Not a cop-out. You deserve the consolation, fleeting though it may be. Besides, it has the potential for putting things in perspective. After all this, the good and the bad of it, there’s heaven. Depending on you. Put differently in a Black- (and other) community favorite, keeping your eye on the prize.

I’d like to hear a preacher also adopt a matter-of-fact tone. A more natural one.

Whatever the massgoer does, he or she should take no credit for anything. No, his or her motto should be to-God-be-the-glory.

Another thing about God. The massgoer gets a healthy dose of Psalm readings, much more than the old mass offered. Ditto, for that matter, for Old Testament selections in general. And the Psalms are so big on praising God lyrically. The New Testament was written in the Greek and Roman world, in a quite different over-all culture, far less lyrical and much more rational.

So we look to the Old for the grand statements about God, his dwelling place, and the like, how lovely is the latter, for instance. Over recent years, a good place to try them out for oneself is The Psalms: New Catholic Version, A St. Joseph Edition (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2002).

I got mine some years back at the Pauline Books & Media store on Boul Mich, thrust into an unwelcome limelight two years ago at riot time.

The sisters came out in high spirits, ready to start again:

“So last night our bookstore in Chicago was looted,” one of them tweeted. “I'll bet people were really disappointed when they got home and found that all they had to show for it was a handful of religious books.”

They’re still in business, at 172 N. Michigan, if you want to drop by.