Orthodoxy vs. orthopraxis

One of my personal issues with the Ordinary Form has to do with certain habits of thought from my Wiccan days. Unlike Christianity, which is primarily about believing certain things, Wicca is more about doing certain things. What passes for their holy book is analogous not to a Bible but to a missal. And not one of those 4-inch thick missals either; more like a missalette without the songs.(there are other materials that circulate, but they’re more analogous to the GIRM). Now, there’s a fair bit of theology that one can extract from a missal (and deep Wiccan thinkers do so), but it’s short on theological instruction and on teaching stories (No parables, no lives of the Wiccan saints). Instead, you do certain things to contact the Gods, who then teach you directly.

Now, my Catholic experience has largely been with the Latin Mass. The changes in the Bugnini-mass seem not only strange, but are often a violation of previously-established theological norms. For example, whenever I hear the twofold Kyrie, I think, “Which Person of the Trinity did they get rid of?” Yes, I know, that’s not the pattern of the new rite; it’s a call-and-response. And my belief as a magician was that if you changed the ritual, it would take you to a different place. That “different place” is modern Catholic culture, with its shortage of vocations and rampant disrespect for church teaching, and few people pretend it’s an improvement. Unfortunately, while the Holy Father has released Coke Classic for general sale, there’s a whole generation who think that New Coke is the Real Thing, and it isn’t going to be pulled off the market anytime soon. So if I as a pastoral musician can in any way walk back the changes to the Mass, the destination of the ritual journey might come closer to where it was.

Hmmm, two posts in a row on religion… my Objectivist readers (if any anymore) are probably flushing their rss feeds right now.

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