The Tenth Crusade
Friday, April 18, 2014
Pedicure Thursday
I've never understood the desire to give or receive cheap grace.
Why would a priest want to cheapen the understanding of our sacred ritual memorializing the institution of the priesthood?
Those of us who mystically pray literally take flight to the time and place of Christ. On Holy Thursday, to the moment Christ ordained His first priests.
What a moment and a gift it is to be taken there.
They have cheapened it to a moment where we are watching them be nice.
Instead of transcendence and mystical prayer, the objective now is to have people in the pews think about how nice they are to give twelve people a pedicure. Another time and moment when we're robbed of intimacy with Christ.
It's like showing up for Mass and having the priest load me on a bus and sing Old McDonald Had a Farm on the way to Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I don't get it.
I don't want to get it.
Look where this unfortunate soul went with it.
(Is she Episcopalian now?)
I used to grit my teeth through the larceny on this Holy night and watch their show.
I can't do it anymore.
To find peace, I check out. I've always brought reading material to try take flight myself to this sacred moment. This year, a friend gave me a Maryknoll Missal. I cherish it. It's like an express ticket to intimacy with Christ and the Communion of Saints.
This girl is never going for the pedicure Thursday ride again.
My Triduum is off to a magnificent start. I sat with the True Relic for an hour today, 1/4 inch from Christ's Cross. What a gift. (n.b. Don't forget about the Divine Mercy Novena which began today - many graces always come from it)
Blessed Triduum to each of you. Pray for me. I am praying for you and yours.
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FWIW about the deep background:
The association of the foot washing ritual with Orders is pretty much a late 20th century innovation. I was struck by the explanation given for the ritual in my Holy Week book of the liturgies from circa 1939: the ritual, which was then typically performed on the afternoon of Holy Thursday (apart from the Mass until 1955), was to be understood to be emblematic of:
1. Discipleship
2. Humility
3. Purity
Given that for many centuries the rite was exhorted to be performed on the feet of poor men*, this understanding makes sense (also, remember that bathing was long prohibited during Lent - it's why catechumens heads were washed on Palm Sunday).
* Cloistered or canonical religious did it intramurally, so that abbesses would wash the feet of their nuns, for example. The division of genders didn't have to do with Orders but that cross-sex touching outside the family was very limited in public.
Friend,
To teach that this ritual is devoid of it's Sacramental purpose is way too cheap for me.
It is an act of purity, humility and discipleship. So is Baptism. So is Confession. So is the Eucharist.
Mary Magdelene and Christ's Mother were not there. Nor were the pagans, unclean, uncatechized.
When they enter our sanctuaries and wish to take the people on a ride to pervert a sacred ritual redutio ad absurdum, I do not go along for the ride.
It takes me from a deep mystical immersion into what is really happening to something mortal.
I'm not saying there is something nefarious about it. I can even assent to the good faith intentions behind turning the moment into a circus of giddy emotions between men.
I prefer to take flight with the angels. I look for opportunities where priests will take me there. The perversion of this ritual at the level of the Holy See means a lot less of us are going to be taken there in the future.
It is a crying shame.
ps
You cannot purify the unbaptized by washing their piggies toes.
This is the moment of the Last Supper, the purification for the Eucharistic Meal.
What they are doing to it is out of context to it's meaning.
You would have lost your mind at our parish this week. Holy Thursday, everyone lined up to get their feet washed by the person ahead of them. Good Friday our priest had the people read the role of Christ during The Passion. The music was good though.
You've got to be kidding!
How can you stand it?
I can't go to places that is completely daft - even if the music is entertaining.
Miley Cyrus can pull that one off.
It is said Lucifer was the greatest musician in Heaven prior to the fall, now he lures souls through Music as Satan, don't be fooled. Even if the music is "nice" but the feelings are wrong, get up and LEAVE.
They lined up at our parish too...Men,women,children ..But next to me was a young woman who, like me, didn't budge from her seat nor did she clap after some emotionalism from the pulpit (something about how rubrics take a backseat to the "meaning" of washing the piggy toes) I thanked God for sitting me next to her.
Friday's exaltation of the cross however, was by the rubrics and so beautiful.
I can't stand the confusion all the 'reinterpretations' and 'clarifications' engender.
Blessed Triduum, Carol. I am praying for you. +
Nooooo!
That is brutal!
Did they sing that lame Laing let me wash your piggies and I will let you wash my piggie toes too?
Ugh!!!
TTC, I can't stand it, but tolerate it because my wife is so attached to the parish community. We have been attending and active in the parish for 24 years. For awhile we were going to separate churches and may do so again, but for the Triduum I conceded to her wishes.
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