A reader sent a fun note:
Father,
I saw this prayer on the website of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions. As you are well-aware, many members of the Federation are the same people who are on the “progressive” side of the Translation wars.
This is a Christmas prayer, but I thought you and your readers may find it a bit ironic…at least, you may find the sixth word ironic. Enjoy.
Let us listen to the ineffable melody
that fills the silence of that night. ….
I am sure no one could understand that!
As a matter of fact, by the time I got to the end of the "prayer", which I cut off here, I was still scratching my head.
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Bishop Trautman will be ineffably upset. Tom
Hmmm. “Ineffable melody.” 1969 ICEL translation: “song we can play with one flat. Sing a new F major and F minor into being.”
In Christ,
…Oh God, you are SOOOO Big.
Let me be big like you…
Anyone else want to continue…????
(would probably end up better than anything a “Liturgical Commission” could come up with…:))
Oh, Father….I am so sorry you posted this. Before reading this post, I had not idea that there was such an organization as the “Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.” Now, having looked over their website, I am feeling nauseous.
Who knew that in addition to the Bishops Committee on Liturgy and the USCCB Secretariat for Liturgy, our country also needed the “Southwest Liturgical Conference, Association of Consultants for Liturgical Space, the Liturgical Conference, the Georgetown Center for Liturgy, the National Organization for Continuing Education of Roman Catholic clergy,” etc., etc…..
Maybe instead of shuttering churches and schools, we should start shutting down some of these organizations and re-allocate the funds to keeping our parishes alive! Oh well, wishful thinking.
We need the new translations now in our Mass. We also need to keep South African Catholics in our prayers as they had a \”freak out\” moment when the new translations were brought in a few months ago.
You say \”brick by brick\” but I think some people were so upset they could have hurled those bricks.
But of course, I am all for skipping the new translations and going to Latin instead.
I was watching an old episode of How I Met Your Mother and when one of the characters said “ineffable” the other responded by saying “good word” and explained the meaning. Joe and Mary Catholic surely deserve language on par with TV sitcoms.
Too many liturgical conferences, consultants, organizations, centers, etc. all fed by our diocesan monies…sigh for the simplicity of the good old days of the transcendence and simplicity of the Traditional Latin Mass.
What Loudes said. Oh my, I had no idea! Dear God, make our bishops strong and faithful to the Holy Father.
The FDLC has many, many problems. However, what is particularly funny is watching the old members deal with the young members. They don’t know what to do with us. Give us another 40 years and the FDLC will either be a proper group fostering organic liturgical growth, or they will disband. Either one is good for me.
Just as ironically, if you do a Google search of “ineffable” on the USCCB website, you get about 25 hits. My favorite is the NAB translation of 2 Cor 12:3-4: “And I know that this person (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things, which no one may utter.”
Regrettably, since this passage has made it into the current Lectionary (See the 1st Reading for Sat. of the 11th Week of the Year (Year I)), our people must have been utterly confused by what Paul may or may not have heard.
Ah, but “liturgists”, with their advanced degrees, can understand words like “ineffable” so it’s OK to use them in their own prayers.
Who are you, Most Excellent Sledgehammer? Maybe I’ve seen you at one of these meetings…