The priest in the center looks like he is the main celebrant because he is in the center...but he is just wearing a stole over his alb.
The other priests are either wearing just an alb or a chasu-alb.
The deacon on the left is positioned properly while the one on the right looked like he got booted by the other concelebrating priest.
So who do you think is the main celebrant?
If it it were really the one on the center, well, he is not dressed properly for the occasion.
Same bull you get here from priests who don't dress properly, giving you the same bull that what is important is what is in the inside.
Oh really?
Dear Fathers, read the parable of the wedding feast. A poor guy gets booted out just because he was not wearing the right dress.
Nuff said.
GULP EXAM 2: Guess the name of the priest in the center
Sir, whenever we tell priests to vest properly, most of them would say " OH, I don't want to be like the pharisees who walk in their long robes blahblahblah....be poor looking blahblahblah did Jesus wear them? No! blahblahblah It's what's in the heart blahblahblah".
ReplyDeleteKaya nga vestments are provided...
ReplyDeletealso Pharisees are Jewish people not Christians...
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ReplyDeletePART 1
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, please do not apply that Biblical text out of context on the clothes on the Wedding Banquet over the improper wearing of liturgical vestments.
No I don't intent to mention the name of that priest. I still believe he is a very good priest. But you are right, something was indeed wrong in the way the celebrant wore his vestments, being a celebrant.
Some 30 years ago, these Salesians were sticklers for proper liturgical vestments and beautiful solemn liturgies they organized with young boys. They taught their boys to attend the Mass attentively, serve on the altar as altar boys, in fact, attracted many of them to join their congregation. Their boys reverently kneel down to adore the Blessed Sacrament when they pay a visit to the Lord.It was admirable that their priest in those years wore the Roman Collar with pride, even in the playground.
But today, their priests are simply wearing the layman's collar that you would not recognize them as priests when with the crowd. In the 70s, the Salesians have introduced pop songs into their Masses to ensure that the boys are taken-in to the celebration and finds the Mass as lively as their youth. Surely they were the first users of the American published HYMNAL FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS that contains compositions by Bob Fabing, Ray Repp, Sebastian Temple, etc...they practically ushered in the HERE WE ARE era of Folk Mass Songs, accompanied with electric guitar, bass, organ, and drums. Believe me, these priests did these innovations with the best of intentions to attract young people to God. In fact, I have to point the fact that they encourage their boys to avail of the Sacrament of Penance, and in each Mass, a priest is always at the back or at the confessional patiently ministering to the long queue. However, this folk mass indeed inculcated among their boys the wrong notion that the Mass should be an entertainment and hence should be lively. In the end, these helped foment the lost of the sense of the Sacrificial Nature of the Mass, and turned it into a mere Gathering or Meal.
If any, the way that celebrant dressed up for that Mass was any indicator how their liturgical and ecclesiastical decorum have deteriorated for the worse. Like it or not, external things like this does not give the attending faithful a sense of proper decorum, no matter how accidental or negligible the deviation may be. No wonder, it is difficult nowadays to convince the laity to attend their Sunday Masses in their Sunday best clothes.
PART 2
ReplyDeleteIt is with sincere Christian Love that I appeal to these good Salesians:
Put reverence back into your Masses, especially with Young People.
- Restore the reverent way of receiving communion by letting the communicant kneel on the altar and do away with the communion with hands. You can always reason-out with the boys that this is out of reverence for the Holy Eucharist.
1. Kick-out the pop music especially Rock music OUT of your Masses. It is true that St John Bosco said: to "Run, Jump, Make noise, but do not sin." But he never advised that the boys make noise during the Mass. They should feel a different atmosphere when they go to Mass and not make the Church an extension of their pop culture. In this manner, they will strengthen in their young minds the sense of the sacred. It is true that you should [like what the boys like], but it is your challenge to make them appreciate the Sacrality and Sacrifice of the Mass, and sacredness of the place called Church, especially if the Blessed Sacrament is reserved - WITHOUT the cosmetics of pop and rock music. [Liking what the boys like] ends where the demarcation line of the Sacred begins. Surely, this will be a challenge, but sooner when the boys leave your schools, they will remember the solemnity and the reverence you offered the Mass, and come back to you, just as Don Bosco's exallievi returned to the Oratorio to attend his Masses sans the benefits of choreography and pop music.
2. In the Mass, set the good example of wearing your vestments properly and reciting your Masses with prayerful reverence. Wear your albs and not just your chasubles, it should remind us all of our one Baptism. You are religious and religious wear their habits, then return to the wearing of your Roman Collar and your Cruxifixes.This will help you stay where you should be and keep you far away from where you should not be. Recall what your founder said: "Il vestire l’abito chiericale di per se rappresenta la rinuncia al mondo e ai suoi allettamenti." But at the same time, be sure you also take care of what is inside in your soul, as Don Bosco's mother would admonish: "Non e' l’abito che onora il tuo stato, e' la pratica della virtù.". We really hope to see Salesians again playing soccer in their cassocks or clerical collars and most of all, donning the Liturgical Vestments properly during Mass.
One last wish for you, dear Salesians: I hope and pray that your boys may be able to say (when they shall have grown up) - with their experience of the Holy Mass by every Salesian: "Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat iuventutem meam." Yes, let the Holy Mass be the joy of their youth - that which their soul will crave for even if they are no longer within your premises.
May the Mother of God, the Help of Christians, guide the Salesians offering the Sacrifice of the Mass and in forming their boys to respect and reverence this Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.
Auxilium Christianorum, ora pro nobis.
sigh... if i really have to...
ReplyDeleteThe priest at the center is Fr. Eli Cruz, SDB, Provincial Superior of the Salesians' Philippines North Province. I am a Bosconian, educated by the Salesian Fathers and Sisters, but I sometimes ask myself: "Is this really what Don Bosco wanted?"