NNooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Skip to the 2:00 minute mark and see how long you can last.
Dear Sweet Lord. That was painful. The worst part is it gave me flashbacks. See, when I was kid (late 70's) the Catholic Church (at least my parish) was a little bonkers. They were co-opting the Hippy/Free Love thing in hopes of keeping the younger parishoners from fleeing. It didn't work and mostly it drove away the other sane people (like my parents). Why? The above video is why. I remember being seven years old and sitting in the pew when the Priest was reading something and the band (that should be a clue to Catholics how far gone my parish was) started playing some sort of background music. I noticed some movement on my left, in the aisle. A young woman, probably in her twenties, was doing some sort of interpretive dance like the one above. She was dressed in a one piece spandex thing. I was literally agape. I had never seen anything like it and haven't since. Our weekly church attendance fell off a cliff after that and I wasn't bothered. I didn't like Mass much as a kid and was happy to have my Sundays unencumbered. Especially during soccer season. Games were on Sunday and it ended the need to rush home from Mass, change into my uniform and rush over to the field.
It wasn't until I was in college that I started going to Mass again. Mass with no "liturgical dance", no felt banners and happy-clappy bands and tambourines. No more "Day by Day". God help me but I hate that song. It's one of the few mainstays of Mass that I remember from those very odd days.
Odd thing though, I always liked our priests. They were, to a man, great people. Happy, eager to help and enthusiastic. No, we never had any sort of scandal at our parish. Nobody abused anybody and everybody got along well. (I just remembered that I was there one evening helping them set up for a carnival or some such event and I had to get a broom. The "broom closet" was the confessional. That, my friend, speaks volumes)
Dear Sweet Lord. That was painful. The worst part is it gave me flashbacks. See, when I was kid (late 70's) the Catholic Church (at least my parish) was a little bonkers. They were co-opting the Hippy/Free Love thing in hopes of keeping the younger parishoners from fleeing. It didn't work and mostly it drove away the other sane people (like my parents). Why? The above video is why. I remember being seven years old and sitting in the pew when the Priest was reading something and the band (that should be a clue to Catholics how far gone my parish was) started playing some sort of background music. I noticed some movement on my left, in the aisle. A young woman, probably in her twenties, was doing some sort of interpretive dance like the one above. She was dressed in a one piece spandex thing. I was literally agape. I had never seen anything like it and haven't since. Our weekly church attendance fell off a cliff after that and I wasn't bothered. I didn't like Mass much as a kid and was happy to have my Sundays unencumbered. Especially during soccer season. Games were on Sunday and it ended the need to rush home from Mass, change into my uniform and rush over to the field.
It wasn't until I was in college that I started going to Mass again. Mass with no "liturgical dance", no felt banners and happy-clappy bands and tambourines. No more "Day by Day". God help me but I hate that song. It's one of the few mainstays of Mass that I remember from those very odd days.
Odd thing though, I always liked our priests. They were, to a man, great people. Happy, eager to help and enthusiastic. No, we never had any sort of scandal at our parish. Nobody abused anybody and everybody got along well. (I just remembered that I was there one evening helping them set up for a carnival or some such event and I had to get a broom. The "broom closet" was the confessional. That, my friend, speaks volumes)
Comments