Orthodixie

Pic from another church’s Halloween service. Good Lord.

“Once I was at Mass in the Cathedral in Santa Fe during Indian fair, and the Indian moderator explained that the Buffalo dance was a way that his people had worshipped the Great Spirit, and now they danced in gratitude to Jesus and NOT TO APPLAUD – THE DANCE WAS A PRAYER. The dance was too long to do at mass, so they would finish it in the plaza afterwards. After Communion the tom-toms began; the men came out wearing their buffalo robes and the women with their rattles. They danced for half an hour around the church. At the end of the mass the idiot assistant bishop asked everyone to give these folks a big round of applause …”

That’s Lee Podles over at MereComments …
Here’s More.

For your scrutiny, here is an open letter (PDF) from Muslims to the Pope.

Speaking of the Pope …

Wanna talk about me! Wanna talk about I! Wanna talk about Number One, O my, me, my …

Thanks to FWD from Fr Miguel Grave de Peralta.

Ever wonder if there’s any (worldly) famous Orthodox people? Here’s some you might know.

(Oh and, the other night, thanks to soon-to-be-ordained Richard Petranek‘s wife, Elaine, I got to hear Tim Conway — yes, of the Carol Burnett Show — tell how he was “baptized” Greek Orthodox!)

PS — Only a couple more days for you Old Calendars Halloweeners!

“Whatever requires an undue amount of thought or trouble or involves a large expenditure of effort and causes our whole life to revolve, as it were, around solicitude for the flesh must be avoided by Christians.”

— St Basil the Great

Thanks to FWD from Fr Josiah Trenham.

About that Halloween “Mass” …

Like Dawn, I only watched the beginning snippet. Couldn’t bear to see it through.

But, I can understand. Really, I can. It is often thought that mocking the devil is a holy endeavor. “Look! We can dress up like devils, serve the Mass, and still … be able to live another day. Ha-ha! God doesn’t care about our fun and frolic!” And, of course, that is true. He, the He, just plain don’t care (for it). Find me a place in Scripture where the Lord longs for our “fun and frolic.” God help us.

Still, I’ve been there. Kinda.

I remember when I was in college and attending a little Episcopal church on campus. We once had a visiting priest, a young man with a beard, to celebrate an evening Mass in a peculiar way. We stood around in a circle, the priest without any vestments — in jeans & a flannel, all of us around the altar and, sans the eucharistic prayers — but with the “Words of Institution,” we passed around a styrofoam cup of wine and a disposable picnic plate with a slice of white bread. Each of us communed the person next to us. At the end we held hands, enjoyed a very pregnant moment of silence, and ended with an extemporaneous group prayer. And that was it.

The message: God doesn’t mind if we just do it this way. Or any ol’ way, for that matter. We don’t need all that pomp and majesty stuff. All we need’s each other.

One of my seminary profs, Dr Peter Toon, was once asked about receiving communion from suspected non-believing clergy — say, heretics. He said, and you have to hear this in a gentle and dramatic English accent: “Sometimes, on your way to receive communion, you have to pray, ‘Dear Lord, of Thy mercy, today please give me just a little piece of bread and a small sip of wine.'”

In other words, God does care. It does matter.

To that end, someone has taken the time to write a letter to Fr Fred, the priest who encouraged the “Devil Mass.” Here’s a quote:

You made the Mass into a joke with your idea of “fun and frolic”. In fact these two words should not even enter into your speech when talking about the Mass. Christ did not institute the Sacrament of His Body and Blood so that we could come together to have fun and frolic together; He gave us the Eucharist so that we could proclaim His Death and Resurrection until He comes again and so that we as His believers could share in His Sacrifice that has been offered once and for all. I ask you for the sake of those who are under your care either treat the Lord present in the Eucharist with the respect and reverence He so rightly deserves or else leave the priesthood.

Go here for the whole letter.

Would that we all, Catholic, Orthodox & Other, took such matters as seriously as we do sports, shopping, surfing, and pleasuring. In other words, would that we Christians took the eucharist more seriously than we do fun and frolic.

After all, when it comes to fun and frolic, someone does care. (And he don’t even mind if you mock him.)

But he can’t save you.

Corrected spelling of the F-word thanks to blog reg, Doug.

For several years Father Fred Bailey of Corpus Christichurch in the diocese of Orange, California, has had a special Halloween mass. It features devils giving out communion The cantor is a witch. Fred said “As goblins and ghouls, we raise one voice: Our Father…” but I doubt that the Father he addressed was the one in Heaven, but rather the Father of lies. Fred himself dressed up as Barney as the musicians played theme from the Adams Family …

More …

No more boom box cars.

When I was young, you could play your KISS tapes as loud as you wanted. Back then, speakers had only a tinny AM type a sound. Even when Disco threatened world civ, no one’s doors rattled with its dizzying round-n-round. No sir. But these days, it’s quieter in Iraq than on the streets of a Merica.

If I am elected, I will see to it that there’s a sound ordinance phone number, like the current 911 system, on every cell phone. You hear an offender — you know the ones: Sounds like dinosaur at 5 o’clock in your rear view, light turns red, sits beside you, music so deafening you get that metallic taste in your mouth like you just been punched, your car starts rattling, you dare not look over at the black tinted windows with the wheels still spinnin though it’s sitting still (except for the breathing doors which bulge with the “music” whose lyrics are spouting God knows what) …

SO, you hear the offending dinosaur, what do you do?

You dial *7#7*7.

That’s right. Dial *7#7*7.

This number contacts no one. Instead, it disables any thundering pimp wagon within 20 yards and automatically switches their ha-uge bling, bling sound system to pure AM radio static. Pure static.

This, my fellow Mericans, might seem extreme to some. But to these people I say, think about it, All Hillary Clinton All the Time, or even Sean Hannity for that matter, would be far, far worse. Intolerable.

As it now stands, should we tarry on this measure, in future generations English will no longer be spoken in this great land. Rather, a crude form of sign language will surely take its place. Though they’ve lost their minds, let us help our beloved thugs before they also lose their hearing.

Vote for me, Elmer P. Floodbottom.

* * * * *

Gore Vidal said, “Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for president. One hopes it is the same half.”

W.C. Fields said, “I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.”

Quotes stolen from Writer’s Almanac.