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Ash Wednesday

No, I haven't given up blogging for Lent. As you can see from the general infrequency of my posts, giving it up would be no great sacrifice anyway...

I went to Ash Wednesday Mass at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, one of many beautiful old churches downtown. The music was equally beautiful, chanted by their schola cantorum from the old choir loft. So that's what a choir loft is for... No musical instruments, just beautiful voices singing the ancient music of the Church in mixed Latin and English.

And then to top it all off they rang sanctus bells at the consecration!

I dearly miss the bells, few parishes here in the Bay Area use them any more. They were rung without fail at my neighborhood parish growing up, and I can remember when I was a very small child it was always my favorite part of the Mass. Of course I was too young then to understand what they meant, but isn't it all the more fitting that even at that age I looked forward to the consecration every Sunday? Yet now, even at the children's Mass at my parish where they are willing to mangle and distort the rubrics and norms in an attempt to appeal to children, they still don't ring any bells... puzzling.

posted by The Jabberwock @ 8:50 PM