Son of a sea cook, the heat is on for me to join the choir at church. It is not as if they have no women in the choir but most of the women they have are teenagers or kids in their early 20s. They need a more, ahem, mature voice.
Two jokes here.
No. 1, who would have guessed that the choir for the Latin Mass would be overrun by kids in their 20s? I am telling you, the Latin Mass is where it is at!
No. 2, big laugh thinking of me as having a mature voice.
I sound like a 10-year-old!
Especially before my second cup of coffee which is usually the situation on Sunday mornings. One cup is probably bad enough. I am ashamed to say I do not know exactly what the food rules are before Mass for an, ahem, traditional Catholic. I only know the modern rule where you are not supposed to eat for an hour beforehand. I am sure in my present situation the rule is much more stringent. That is why I have not gotten around to finding out exactly what it is.
I have a couple of problems with joining the choir. First I have trouble sleeping on Saturday nights because often I work and I do not know what it is, I can not go to sleep. Last night at 3 a.m. there I am, up and wandering the house sipping Honey Reserve.
Secondly having been a church organist I know what goes on in organ lofts and it is not a lot of praying, I will tell you that right now. It is a lot of stressing. Well, you often have fun in organ lofts too. At Gerard's I remember one day Dorothy, who sang with me, and I were getting ready to do the "Danish" Amen.
And a split second before we began, Dorothy goes, "I wish I had coffee and a Danish right now!"
Ha, ha! There was just something about it that got me. That is how sophisticated my sense of humor is.
Perhaps I will try the choir and see how it goes. All I have to do is show up an hour early. There is no rehearsal during the week which is lucky because telling the story of Leonard Pennario leaves no time for that.
Singing in the choir might improve my knowledge of the Latin chants.
I could pretend I was back in the SCA. I could use old SCA skills I had forgotten I had.
Wow, now I am psyched! Perhaps I will summon my erstwhile ladies-in-waiting.
I will command them to accompany me to Mass.
10 comments:
The law in effect is 1 hour fast before receiving communion. Before the Counsel, it was a three hour fast.... Back before the modifications in the 50's, it was food OR drink (including water I believe) after midnight.... this caused a lot of altar boys passing out.
And yes, the Latin Mass IS where it's at! :)
There is no separate fast rule for the Latin Mass. The is one rule for the whole church--one hour before communion. And black coffee doesn' count. t has no food value--no carbohydrates, no fats, no protein, no calories. If you pu milk or sugar in it, it's food, but black, it's not.
Yes, you could use said skills to play the Mass on your nose!
I want to have a drink at the Angry Idol Tiki Bar!
Mike, zut alors, I have been cheating with my coffee with cream! Well, it is over an hour before Communion so I guess technically I am OK. I knew there's no separate rule for Latin Mass but being a nerd I try to follow the pre-Vatican II rules. Hence my burgeoning mantilla collection.
Luckily there is no pre-Vatican II rule forbidding tiki bar attendance!
Bing, my dad was an altar boy in the 1930s and used to tell me stories about how he would get faint because he couldn't eat before Mass. I guess a few of those 9th century rules needed a little tweaking..
These days, all I can say is, good luck getting me not to eat!
I don't even know what a Tiki Bar is. But since I am a lawter, if you ge arrested by the Liturgical Police, I'll represent you. You can pay me in hail Mary's, or "Je vous salue Marie's."
Mary, the law immediately before and during most of Vatican II was 3hours until Paul VI made it 1 hour in November, 1964.
The 3-hour fast was instituted by Pius XII in January 1953. In the same document, the Pope allowed for Masses to be said later in the afternoon/evening. Before then, 3 hours already applied to Christmas Midnight Mass and the Easter Vigil (when the Mass itself began at Midnight).
Strictly speaking, the canonical fast is now 1 hour for both Forms of the Roman Rite.
However observing the earlier laws, are commendable and obviously not forbidden - it is up to the individual. I believe both pontiffs stated this when they modified the fast.
Well, now we have that all sorted out. Thank you, Brendan!!
And Mike, yes, you can be my defense when the Liturgical Police come and get me.
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