To the advocates of "liturgical creativity", some words from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI):
"The liturgy is not a show, a spectacle, requiring brilliant producers and talented actors. The life of the liturgy does not consist in 'pleasant' surprises and in attractive 'ideas' but in solemn repetitions. It cannot be an expression of of what is current and transitory, for it expresses the mystery of the Holy. Many people have felt and said that liturgy must be 'made' by the whole community if it is really to belong to them. Such an attitude has led to the 'success' of the liturgy being measured by its effects at the level of spectacle and entertainment. It is to lose sight of what is distinctive to the liturgy, which does not come from what we do but from the fact that something is taking place here that all of us together cannot 'make'. In the liturgy there is a power, and energy at work which not even the Church as a whole can generate: what is manifests is the Wholly Other, coming to us through the community (which is hence not sovereign but servant, purely instrumental)."
J. Ratzinger, The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church, 126
Ah, The Ratzinger Report. It is a nice work of him. I just read a summary of the Chapter 10 of the book, and it is very informative.
ReplyDeleteMe, too, i don't like the idea of having dancers dance the 'Gloria', or some spectacular displays of colorful flags, scenery, etc. that you'll feel you are in a concert, rather than in the Holy Mass, adoring Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist. Just let the Holy Spirit give 'color' to the Holy Mass.