Sunday, February 06, 2011

A funeral and Ice

Yesterday I went to the funeral for my cousin Peg Dolan who reposed at 103 (memory eternal). It's the first time in a very long time I have been in a Catholic Church, and I have to say that the reason aside it was not a pleasant experience.

Our Lady of Good Counsel used to be a beautiful church (my grandparents were among the founding members). Alas, like so many others it has been recovated. They had some sort of new age design that is horribly modern and just weird. There was no fixed crucifix on or near the altar. Just a statue of Jesus suspended over a giant 'O' carved in a section of wall behind the altar with his arms outstretched.

In fairness there were two crucifixes that I saw in the building. One was located in an area segregated behind the altar area which was partitioned and it looked fairly normal. The other one was located by some candles in a stairwell. And that was just WRONG. Not the location. The crucifix. It had Jesus with His feet and left arm nailed to the cross and Him leaning forward with His right arm outstretched holding what looked like a bird in His hand. It seemed like He was trying the get down from the cross and to launch the bird. UGGG

There were of course the usual ugly felt banners including the ubiquitous "if you want peace work for justice" directly to the side of the altar. There was a female altar server and the two priests and deacon serving the funeral were dressed in very modern (which is to say plain) white vestments. With the exception of the consecration, the pall bearers and the Gospel reading (performed by the deacon) all of the various functions of the liturgy were performed by women.

Then there was the music. It was a guitar funeral. Almost the entire liturgy was done to the accompaniment of a guitar with a choir singing all of your favorite 1960's nails on the chalkboard folk hymns. On Wings of Eagles, Let There Be Peace on Earth etc...

The homily was the customary canonization of the recently departed. That said it wasn't bad. The deacon delivered the homily/eulogy and he seemed to know her pretty well. There were some nice and occasionally humorous anecdotes.

After the funeral we all repaired to the basement (that's when I saw the broken crucifix) where we had a very nice meal and I got to catch up with family members I don't see very often. Then it was time to go which brings me to part II of this post, the weather.

It was sprinkling on my way into town (I'm staying with mom out in the country) and by time I left the church it was raining steadily. Now in the northeast I can deal with snow but rain is a little scary especially when the temperature is hovering just above freezing. Between the rain and the melting snow we had water all over the place and predictably as the temperature started to drop everything turned to ice. A thin sheet of ice was already forming by time I got home and it just went down hill from there. I woke up to an icy winter wonderland. Even the newspaper was not delivered because of all the ice. A quick look at the road convinced me that God had decided I was not going to liturgy, so I enjoyed a nice breakfast for a change and have settled in for the day.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for your loss.

I think most Orthodox don't understand the reason schism will never be overcome: the relatively few theological issues that divide us can probably be resolved with the right historical moment. The main problem is large portions of the Roman Church have so degraded the liturgy that we simply can never join with them in worship.

Anonymous said...

Quasi off topic - Help. Can't find the tropar & kontak for Super Bowl Sunday.

Bill, tGf

John said...

Where on the East Coast are you, if you don't mind me asking? Are you in NJ?

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

May she rest in peace.

Igumen gregory said...

I certainly can commiserate with you. Every RC funeral of family members that I have attended in recent years has been, by and large, a most unpleasant experience. The Modern RCs in many quarters are put to shame by the piety of even the Mormons. Thank God the playing field is beginning to change in some quarters.

Chris said...

May the soul of your cousin rest in God's abundant peace.

John (Ad Orientem) said...

John
I'm in upstate NY for a few weeks then off to Florida.

The Archer of the Forest said...

I believe every RC service I have ever been to (and I went to a Catholic high school, so I've been to my fair share) has always played Eagles' Wings. I don't understand the fixation with that song myself. It doesn't bother me too badly, but every single RC service I can remember?

Ingemar said...

I come from a Filipino family. Sadly, this "mass" is the only Mass everyone from my father's generation down has ever known.


I sometimes complain about the organ in my GOArch home parish, but at least I don't have to worry about tepid 60's inspired hymns.