2021 Los Angeles Religious Education Congress Theme Song
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    a_f_hawkins, the first movement is pretty exciting too, but I'd really forgotten how wonderfully weird the middle of the Andante is!
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,048
    .
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,084
    Well, the event has begun. Here's a link to the opening ceremony:

    https://youtu.be/J4EWt2e8OsA?t=836

    After sampling that, consider that such a thing is what the Archdiocese of Los Angeles deemed a worthy catechetical video production.

    I doubt they could have done any better in an effort to drive men and youth away from the Church.
    Thanked by 3CharlesW CHGiffen Elmar
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    I watched about half of it and couldn't take any more.
    Thanked by 2MarkB Elmar
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,890
    I don't know why I didn't think of this before clicking that link... but what a surprise: dancing... lots of dancing.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Brings back memories of disco. What did I do with those bell bottoms?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    O my gosh! The three days of darkness has finally arrived!
    Thanked by 2CharlesW MarkB
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    I clicked through parts of it. *sigh*
    There isn't a lot that makes this "Catholic conference" different than a "Christian Music" concert.

    What did y'all think of the song at the 1'21" mark?
    Talk of "Building bridges,"
    "There is no distinction..." between" "Jew or Greek..." languages, borders, customs, races....
    "There is no distinction between woman or man..."
    "Neither gender nor bias, labels nor roles can divide the fam'ly of God..."
    Thanked by 2MarkB Elmar
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,084
    I hated that stupid, condescendingly leftist virtue-signalling, preachy song that tried to wrap secularist values in the mantle of Catholic faith. The vocalist sucked too.

    "Does our faith build bridges or does it put up walls?"

    Give me a break.

    On the good side, the very last song by the Gospel choir was the best of the bunch, and the lead vocalist has an exquisite voice. Not for Mass, but a good Gospel song nonetheless.
    Thanked by 2Elmar irishtenor
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

    ([35] "I came to set a man at variance": Not that this was the end or design of the coming of our Saviour; but that his coming and his doctrine would have this effect, by reason of the obstinate resistance that many would make, and of their persecuting all such as should adhere to him.)
    Matthew 10:35
    Thanked by 1CCooze
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    So what we would like is, as I suppose Garbo would say, Fewer but better [Catholics].
  • Elmar
    Posts: 506
    There isn't a lot that makes this "Catholic conference" different than a "Christian Music" concert.
    The vocalist sucked too.
    As did the 'video' aspect of the clips. Why should the content be better than the form?
    This guy preaching(?) about Noah just failed to be swept away by the rising sea level.
    The only thing worth listening to (ehm... reading subtitles) were the greetings by pope Francis. Accidentally he was just sitting at his desk, reading, looking friendly into the camera, no frills.
    No aureole, no walking on water.
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    Oh, Charles, I am trying to reconcile my imagined you of the present day with you in platform shoes. I can't do it. But thanks anyway.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Hey, I had the platform shoes, bell bottoms, and Saturday Night Fever pantsuits. I also had the jewelry that went with it all. It was not a time for understatement. LOL.

    A rather funny event that happened at the time. I worked for a government agency in a downtown setting. This was before retail moved out of downtown locations. I remember us having some snow during the work day. I went outside and couldn't walk in those platform shoes. It was like being on skis. I had to creep and slide two blocks on the sidewalk to the JC Penney store and buy shoes with a crepe sole so I could safely walk.
    Thanked by 2Carol bhcordova
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Some of us didn't experience the platform shoes etc first hand, and are grateful for that lack of experience.
    Thanked by 1CatherineS
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    It was a fun time to be alive. You had to be there to appreciate it.

    Addition: As I remember, the girls started wearing platform shoes first. Suddenly, they were all taller than their boyfriends. The guys started wearing them to maintain their height advantage.
    Thanked by 1Carol
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,084
    And here's a link to the closing liturgy:
    https://youtu.be/EVAZhjHka_c?t=1600

    If you're in need of some additional penance for Lent.

    My observations:
    1. The dramatic buildup with the incensing and instrumental music was too much and took way too long
    2. Becker Litany of the Saints as first piece in the Gathering Medley? Odd
    3. The next song in the Gathering Medley is awful
    4. I don't understand why without a congregation and without one hundred clergy in procession they had to extend the procession to a TEN MINUTE PRODUCTION. It's not supposed to be theater
    5. The linguistic somersaults in the psalm response are ridiculous, as is the musical style
    6. Tri/multi-lingual liturgies really annoy me. No Latin
    7. I think they used a M. Roger Holland setting of the Communion antiphon: very strong Gospel style. Not the best setting they could have chosen for that, but it's the first time they've sung the antiphon at Communion at this event
    8. Communion "meditation" song is rather self-indulgent and unnecessary at a Mass without a congregation. Another made-for-TV element in this theatrical Mass. Some leftist virtue signaling in the images, obviously influenced by the summer of BLM/Antifa
    9. They play a recording of the theme song for the recessional

    Less ridiculous than the non-virtual closing Masses of the past, but still ridiculous.

    The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is mission territory for liturgical catechesis.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Elmar
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Ominous prophetic moment: The Body of Christ has been banned from the event.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Some of us didn't experience the platform shoes etc first hand, and are grateful for that lack of experience.


    You weren't the one behind the tree writing down the names of kids who were having too much fun at recess, now were you?

  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Charles,

    No, though the image of me writing the names of those having too much fun is (entertainingly) inaccurate. I wasn't born until just before Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and didn't mix much with the exciting crowd when I did get old enough to pay attention.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Understand fully. I was an introverted musician who practiced all the time.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Liturgical Catechesis? Moving chairs OTDOT... Too little, way too late. How about basics of faith and morals, repentance and conversion? The world is on the brink.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    [..On The Deck Of (the) Titanic]?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    @Chris Garton-Zavesky

    Yes, not a perfect analogy since the 'Titanic' of our Faith will never go down, but I suppose it makes the point.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Given your context, it's the Novus Ordo which is the Titanic, not our faith.
    Thanked by 2francis CCooze
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Yea, I suppose that is a more accurate comparison.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Once again, beat up on the NO as the source of all your ills. The fortunate thing about being older, is that I remember well the days before the NO. They were not so great and the problems of today were thriving underground and below the surface. Trying to retreat to the past will solve little, if anything.
    Thanked by 5M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen Elmar MarkB bhcordova
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    source of all [your] ills
    haha... (not my ills... thank God.)

    The NO is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is, indeed the tip. I don't think I need to list the 'source' of all our ills here.

    (hmmm... a new and maybe better analogy... a lot of people have jumped off the ship and moved onto the iceberg with their chairs which is floating directionless in a massive spiritual storm with no heat, light or sense of purpose?)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    What you are describing is a lack of competent leadership. I have been saying that for years.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Charles,

    I wasn't commenting (negatively or positively) on Francis' context, merely noting that he hadn't (accidentally) made our faith the Titanic but had clearly intended the novus Ordoas the Titanic.

    Let me put this question, however, to any reader who wants to take a whack at answering it: is the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress' liturgy part of the proper praxis of the new ordo of Pope Paul VI, or is it an outlier, an inappropriate application of the actual principles of the liturgical reform? If it is an outlier, and an inappropriate abuse, an abomination and all the rest of it, why is it allowed to go on, year after year, with no one in actual authority to correct the evils actually correcting them? If it's a proper application, on the other hand, would Catholics of any other epoch recognize it as Catholic worship? IF THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS "NO", BUT THE ANSWER TO THE APPLICATION QUESTION IS "YES", then the whole liturgical reform, it seems to me, must be called into question. By this I do not mean to call into question liturgical reform of all ages and every age and any age, but only the liturgical reform which generated the principles which, rightly applied, give rise to the LAREC.
    Thanked by 1irishtenor
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    I would say it is the liturgical reform as practiced in Los Angeles. There are other places as bad, but many that are not. You can't find much in the way of uniformity in the country, and that is its own problem. As for the "whole liturgical reform," it seems to me a case of some people who were given an inch taking a mile. No one seems willing to correct them.
    Thanked by 2mattebery bhcordova
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    No one seems willing to correct them.
    ...and hence why very many are abandoning the ship... and are being scattered for lack of a shepherd...

    Uniformity of the NO (externals) is not going to correct the error of the altered faith in the liturgy. Therefore, uniformity becomes a moot point.

    You can't get off the ship, even if it has run into an iceberg and the iceberg looks more stable... you gotta stay on the ship, patch the holes, mend the sails, man the cannons, etc.

    Here is an interesting treatise on the entire matter, not just the NO.

    https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Suicide-of-Altering-the-Faith-in-the-Liturgy.pdf

    “Suppose, dear friend, that Communism [one of “the errors of Russia” mentioned in the Message of Fatima] was only the most visible of the instruments of subversion to be used against the Church and the traditions of Divine Revelation …

    “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in her liturgy, her theology and her soul. … “I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments and make her feel remorse for her historical past.

    “A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them, like Mary Magdalene weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask, ‘Where have they taken Him?’”
    . . . Pope Pius XII
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Francis,

    The time His Holiness describes apparently is upon us.

    I'm not a fan of the reforms of c.1955, but the reforms of that era even when clumsy protect the content of the faith. The reforms of Pope Pius X, similarly, even when clumsy protect the content of the faith. I am uncertain that the same can be unequivocally said of the reform undertaken by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Please note, guys: this thread was posted for the sake of amusement, and I've even labeled it 'amusements', so if you are going to whine about the Novus Ordo and the '55, please whine entertainingly.
    Thanked by 7CharlesW CHGiffen MarkB mattebery Andrew_Malton Chris Garton-Zavesky Elmar
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    A liturgist, a politician and a priest walk into a bar.....
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 440
    They all say "Ow!"
    Thanked by 3mattebery bhcordova chonak
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    not amused
    Thanked by 1a_f_hawkins
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