Banned in Collegeville PTB-"Send in the Clowns!"
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I think Anthony and Rita are serious and oh, so veddy earnest this time around. I've had occasions to be temporarily banned at PTB, and so it was in the combox of this article. And believe it or not, there were far more irritable comments allowed than mine. Go figure and have fun. Just another sign of the apocalypso (copyright pending).

    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    What could be more serious than a clown mass? How dare you jest.
    Thanked by 1Salieri
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    It seems to me that this is the same old tired liberal hogwash to justify some goofy practice that would have been regarded as ridiculous to begin with among people who are rational. Rave on demented souls. When God wishes to punish, he first takes away their minds.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen irishtenor
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    apocalypso (copyright pending).


    Already a thing.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2RDtueAJ1s
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    melo-
    i read your comment, at least your first one. Didn't seem inflammatory to me. And the mention of Wren's text was an important point.
    Thanked by 1melofluent
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    I am teaching a parish Religious Education class to a few students (grades 7-8-9).
    We have started our reading through parts of Genesis and Exodus
    to have some groundwork for the Passover and the Ten Commandments.

    PTB: inviting a refreshing playfulness into the sometimes-too-serious business of worship

    Can someone fast-forward me to Bible verses that suggest
    worship that is refreshing playfulness or
    worship that is a sometimes-less-serious business?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    "playfulness"? "Entertainment" seems more what is intended.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    inviting a refreshing playfulness into the sometimes-too-serious business of worship


    This phrase shows how wrong-headed the author is. The liturgy is already in a sense "holy play": it is an activity which is good in itself, conducted for its own sake, in which the participants are God and man, and conducted according to an established procedure. If they can't find spiritual refreshment in it, the fault is not in God or in the rite.
    Thanked by 4CharlesW Salieri eft94530 CHGiffen
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Y'know, Richard, that's essentially what I posted initially. My caricature was that after the professor entertained the student's question, she must have just tossed a quasi-intellectual dart on the wall and then drew her raison d'etre circle around where the dart landed. That gets me the boot from Anthony? And they think I'm thin skinned!
    I like the post where the author calls for a chair fellowship at CUA in Clown Ministries. Plus, it's remarkable how invested Rita Ferrone became in the thread. Portends the return of the Gospel Acclamation "Alleluia Conga Line" of NPM 2000 Vegas, a new show each week and it's free!!
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Amen, Chonak.
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    If you can't delight in the psalms, for example, Wazzzzup?
    Melo, dust off your feet, sing a Dies irae and a Cantate Domino. Throw in a Veni Creator Spiritus. All will be well.

    There are chant prescriptions for these situations.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • rollingrj
    Posts: 344
    Romano Guardini devotes an entire chapter to the concept of "holy play" in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy. In a sense, I think Mr. Chonak might be referencing that.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • rollingrj
    Posts: 344
    Melo, I would almost consider your exile a badge of honor.
    Thanked by 1ryand
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Romano Guardini devotes an entire chapter to the concept of "holy play" in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy. In a sense, I think Mr. Chonak might be referencing that.


    Yes. Right next to his chapter on how liturgy is SERIOUS BUSINESS.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,032
    I banned myself from PTB long time ago.
    Thanked by 4CharlesW CHGiffen ryand francis
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    Someday I shall have to read Guardini directly and not just get this concepts conveyed through another interpreter!
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    It's a great book.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Update- the PTB combox thread about an article academically defending "The Clown Mass" is at 47 comments, with our friend TF ironically using multiple posts to tell everyone he and everyone else shouldn't be so interested in the subject. Jim Pauwels (deacon and sensible fellow and friend) points out that in this era clowns are, for the most part, more frightening to children than the Emmit Kelly days, thanks to "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" (a personal fave of mine as a cult film.) You want good clowns, go to the circus.
    Further down the rabbit hole, anyone?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    I am of the following opinion:

    The thing that is wrong with clown Mass is the same thing that is wrong with the Satanic Black Mass: They are parodies of the Sacred Rites.
    Thanked by 3Ben eft94530 Gavin
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    And - in some ways - the Clown Mass is worse, because it managed to seep in and pervert real Christian sentiment, as opposed to the Black Mass, which seems to have been quite a PR boon for serious Catholicism.

    I am so often unsuccessful, but I try to take a Zen approach to this:
    For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh.
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 468
    @melofluent

    I was banned before being banned was cool!
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    am so often unsuccessful, but I try to take a Zen approach to this:...


    The wages of zen are actually not at all bad. Sometimes a little more zen would be a nice break from the culture wars.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    The wages of zen


    +1
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Salieri
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,046
    The wages of zen are nonexistence.
    Personally, I think I'd like to see a Black Clown Mass.
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Samuel? You were "shunned?!? You were our last, best hope, my man!
    Oh, the humanity. (Have my "Red Skelton" scrunch face on.)
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