I used to tell people that Roman Catholics had abandoned serious Lenten penances. No more. I would rather keep the monastic fast all year than endure this for 2 hours. Lord have mercy!
Can someone explain to me why elderly men with long hair and long beards wearing glistening robes and shiny bejeweled cuspidors on their heads in a procession preceded by younger men with long hair and beards wearing glistening robes and waving incense censers on chains is any less weird than what's seen on this clip?
Because that's what a typical viewer unacquainted with the ritual would see of an Orthodox liturgical bishop's entrance.
what is less weird is the unstated eroticism inherent in the dancing with the incense, or the altar in the round with no tabernacle, the multi-colored gospel danced up the aisle as it it were a pom-pom, the passivity of the audience, the saccharine and banal music that sounded more appropriate to figure skating at the olympics, or the very real lack of reverence present anywhere in this service.
no one can accuse our services of impiety, no matter how "weird" they may seem.
The procession was odd enough, but the music was as if the liturgist was a Celine Dion wannabe, only worse. Which is pretty bad. Honestly, the public floggings of the middle ages seems much stranger. Oh man, now he's procession with the gospel in a round!
Truly. I only made it about one minute.
ReplyDeleteNo thanks! I won't look at it having already heard enough about it. I don't need it imprinted on my visual memory.
ReplyDeleteTake my advice and go to your happy place. Forget all about it. :-)
I made it five minutes, but that's because I was reading comments. Good grief.
ReplyDeleteNo weirder than guys with long hair and beards wearing cuspidors on their heads waving incense bowls attached to chains.
ReplyDeleteThe liturgical celebration at Hagia Sophia apparently had suspended people portraying cherubim during the Great entrance. at the cherubimic hymn.
That must have been something to see.
The Imperial Liturgy was the entertainment of the week for most people.
I think I saw a foreshadowing of the Future Religion (cf. Fr. Seraphim Rose).
ReplyDeleteWhat's with the Vestal virgins? Weird.
ReplyDeleteWhew, and I thought the Episcopal Church was bad.
Can someone explain to me why elderly men with long hair and long beards wearing glistening robes and shiny bejeweled cuspidors on their heads in a procession preceded by younger men with long hair and beards wearing glistening robes and waving incense censers on chains is any less weird than what's seen on this clip?
ReplyDeleteBecause that's what a typical viewer unacquainted with the ritual would see of an Orthodox liturgical bishop's entrance.
what is less weird is the unstated eroticism inherent in the dancing with the incense, or the altar in the round with no tabernacle, the multi-colored gospel danced up the aisle as it it were a pom-pom, the passivity of the audience, the saccharine and banal music that sounded more appropriate to figure skating at the olympics, or the very real lack of reverence present anywhere in this service.
ReplyDeleteno one can accuse our services of impiety, no matter how "weird" they may seem.
The procession was odd enough, but the music was as if the liturgist was a Celine Dion wannabe, only worse. Which is pretty bad. Honestly, the public floggings of the middle ages seems much stranger. Oh man, now he's procession with the gospel in a round!
ReplyDeleteOooh, can we start doing the "gospel boogie" at the Little Entrance???
ReplyDeletePardon me while I go throw up.
Angela