A priest friend sent me this piece of masterful invective:
The Diocese of ____’s newly commissioned ANTHEM FOR THE YEAR OF FAITH.
Close your eyes. No, really close them. Now (okay, open your eyes and read this and THEN close them again) think of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Think of John Mason Neale. Think of Mozart!!
Now open your eyes and feast deeply of this carrion:
Maker of Galaxies
(sung to the tune of Praise to the Lord, the Almighty)1.
Maker of galaxies, stardust, and all that has being,
open the eyes of our hearts to know faith’s way of seeing.
Shine through the night; lead us to radiance of light,
vision empow’ring and freeing.2.
Jesus, of Mary born, bringing the good news astounding,
open the ears of our hearts to your Gospel resounding.
Hearing your voice, let all the people rejoice,
glad in your blessings abounding.3.
Spirit of Jesus and mentor of saints through the ages,
open our lips with a word that invites and engages.
We will proclaim pardon and peace in Christ’s name
through all of life, all its stages.4.
We are your fam’ly beloved in each generation,
Church on a pilgrimage, called to embrace transformation.
Called to this way, growing in love day by day,
we live now, Christ’s new creation.5.
Praise for the joy of believing and journey amazing;
praise for the goodness and beauty here, ev’rywhere blazing!
Praise for the song, singing the faint-hearted strong;
praise for delight in the praising!Text:
Delores Dufner, OSB, © 2012, Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict,
104 Chapel Lane, St. Joseph, MN 56374.
Commissioned for the Year of Faith by the Catholic Diocese of ___Tune:
LOBE DEN HERREN, 14.14.4.7.8 (Praise to the Lord, the Almighty)Sources:
2 Cor. 5:17; Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
______________________________I’m glad they put the footnotes in. I would hate to think that had just been slapped together. You can’t put it past those Sisters of St Benedict of St Joseph’s Convent, MN. Christ’s Career Girls, manfully striding into the future, witnessing to justice, confronting oppressive structures of patriarchal, um, oppression, living eco-friendly lives of integral intersubjectivity. Literary scholars will note the subtle yet unmistakable influence of Maya Angelou in the soaring cadences, the overheated rhetoric, the sheer destitution of thought. I know why the caged organist weeps.
