Prayers, please, for those of us at "Ground Zero"
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Santa Clara county claims that its rules don't single out churches for unfair treatment, and the 9th circuit apparently agrees.

    Please pray for all the parishes in our diocese, for our local bishop, and for all the musicians who are being prevented from fulfilling their proper office.

    Pray, also, for the conversion of those souls in public office who see nothing wrong with the county regulations.
    Thanked by 10Drake CHGiffen tandrews Carol Elmar Casavant Organist MAR MatthewRoth CCooze Jehan_Boutte
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    News this evening:

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the County Health officer is, in nursing terms, FOS. Indoor worship may not be prohibited, full stop. Since businesses are limited to 20%, churches apparently can be, too, but I'll have to read the decision in depth. My guess is that what it actually says is closer to "Whatever capacity they can keep safe, they can keep."

    Please continue to pray for us, and for those who will continue to try to persecute us, thereby shooting themselves in the foot.

    My wife tells me that we can also have singing, in a separate room?????That has to go on the list with tone-deaf remarks from other public officials.
    Thanked by 4tomjaw Elmar Drake CCooze
  • Elmar
    Posts: 505
    ... that we can also have singing, in a separate room?????
    That has to go on the list with tone-deaf remarks from other public officials.
    That's not far from displaying pre-recorded choral singing form earlier years on church screens...
    Anyone ever heard of singing being intregral part of liturgy? At least we always have had a cantor, and people are invited to active participation by prayerful listening... yes, this is NO.
    Thanked by 3Drake CHGiffen CCooze
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    I would be 100% willing to attend a Low (TLM) Mass on Sundays, if we could not have "singing."

    I thought people had moved beyond the idea that people in an eagle's nest were supposedly spraying congregations with spit.

    I watched clips from the questioning of Becerra about his suing ("the Federal Government") to force the Little Sisters to provide contraceptive coverage. His prepared non-response was laughably sad. SO many politicians and legislators care not for the actual welfare of anyone, but only what they can accomplish without hurting themselves in any way. It's still an "us v. them" game, only people side with whomever is in power, because they can.
    What a nightmare.
    I'll pray for you all.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw ServiamScores
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,212
    singing in a separate room

    An arrangement like that was used at St. John Cantius to cope with attendance limits last year when they were most stringent: the singers were in another room, and their sound was fed into the church.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Chonak,

    "Fed", how?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,212
    I wasn't there; I only watched the video. Maybe it was a miracle.
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen Elmar MarkS GerardH ServiamScores PaxMelodious
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Five tenors who sing on pitch and two altos who arrive on time?
  • teachermom24
    Posts: 327
    I pray the "affliction prayers" every day for an end to the pandemic of stupidity that has gripped our nation, and church. It's everywhere, even in the conservative mid-South. We are allowed to have Mass, for which I am very, very thankful, but the lone unaccompanied cantor singing through a mask and a few muffled voices from the congregation attempting to sing from memory (no hymnals or song sheets allowed) is painful indeed. It does provide a good opportunity for penance.
    Thanked by 3tomjaw CHGiffen Earl_Grey
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,091
    Well, we can all pray for the end to this and other pandemics around the world (COVID-19 is not the only one).
    Death rates for 1st 12 months of pandemic.png
    1690 x 936 - 155K
    Thanked by 3CharlesW CHGiffen Elmar
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    When one of these kind compassionate people whose only concern is our health annoys me, I try to pray for them, as Jesus told us to pray for our enemies.
    Thanked by 3CharlesW Elmar tomjaw
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,796
    Ground zero is Wuhan, or for the US Seattle, but certainly the San Francisco Bay Area is heavily impacted. My neighbor who usually works in radiology put in a 16 hour volunteer shift on Christmas Day turning Covid patients over in their beds, and every one of the patients died. Considering the music that used to go on in the overwhelming number of churches on Sundays, one might question whether "fulfilling [a musician's] proper office" could really be really worth frittering away another chance to get ahead of the next surge.
    Thanked by 3GerardH MarkS PaxMelodious
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Richard,

    A musician's proper office (just as a doctor's proper office, or a priest's proper office) doesn't take a vacation.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,796
    Chris,
    We're probably in agreement that willingness to take a bullet for GIA is 'Improper', if you're not just trying to hitch a Catholic banner to some libertarian agenda. I do hope in the meantime that Musica Sacra members are doing what they can to make this a second golden age for the French organ mass.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW tomjaw
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Taking a bullet for GIA would be what I think is now called "Virtue Signaling". If our work is actually in the service of the liturgy and in praise of God, merely secular concerns can't be allowed to get in the way.
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    Ground zero is Wuhan


    Apparently, we shouldn't even dare to "speculate" on whether or not that is true.
    The constant change (not even shift, not evolution, but change) of information is beyond frustrating.
  • Elmar
    Posts: 505
    IMHO the 'constant change of information' is largely due to people expecting certainty in matters where there isn't, and politicians who are willing (and I won't blame them) to cater this illusion.

    There are lots of things that we will never find out, without them being 'unexplainable'.
    And when things go wrong, we want culprits: 'Wuhan', 'the establishment', whatever; of course always 'them'. As Jeffrey said above, it's our duty to pray for - rather than complain about - 'those'.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Elmar,

    When we're told to follow the experts unquestioningly, because they know so much more than we do.... and if you're right they don't actually know much more about this than we do ... I think the frustration is quite understandable.

    When those experts give what seems to be conveniently tailored medical assessments, so that singing indoors is clearly out of the question but intimate contact with a complete stranger depends on our personal level of comfort with risk.....

    When the "goalposts" keep moving in terms of when life can get back to semi-normal (irrespective of whether normal is good or not), so that 2 weeks became until there's a vaccine and has now become 100 days as we approach 365...

    When the man promoting vaccines has a vested interest in at least one of the companies developing a vaccine, and when his partner foundation promotes vaccines as a means of societal progress...

    When freedom of the press has suddenly become "If you publish anything not in complete agreement with ....",and when (that organization)'s advice is intermittently changed so that the governor of Texas (who has ended his lockdown) is pilloried as engaging in Neanderthal thinking EVEN THOUGH HIS ACTIONS AGREE WITH THE (organzation)....

    Yes, a certain amount of skepticism is in order.
    Thanked by 6CCooze CharlesW teachermom24 Patricia Cecilia Elmar tomjaw
  • Elmar
    Posts: 505
    You might be surprised (maybe not) that I agree with 95% of what you say.
    When we're told to follow the experts unquestioningly, because they know so much more than we do....
    This in my opinion is the crucial error in the beginning, and ongoing: all the experts said (and keep on saying) that what they advise is certainly never the last word, yet politicians tell us that we should 'follow them unquestioningly', and people seem to want easy to follow rules+leaders. How could this work out?

    Over here we have a prime minister who constantly adjusted policy according to changing advice (and other reasons), was heavily criticised for seemingly erratic decisions and lack of perspective, but maintained that this was the best way of dealing with with free people who are not 'citizens of a kindergarten country'.
    He said it's like driving in heavy fog while looking only through the mirror.

    I bet he will be re-elected this month.

    Implementing 'wisely' the same diocesan rules by the local pastors and/or parish councils, the 'safe' max. number of singers evolved over the past year as 0-2-15-6-2-2-2 in one parish and 0-2-5-4-4-1-4 in the other.
    Thanked by 1a_f_hawkins
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