Ok, a bit overdue but…

Wednesday night was great. You know, just a regular weekday mass with 20+ servers, 7 priests and a presiding bishop. I was the second torchbearer from the right. Literally. A wonderful time was had by all despite it being a tremedous hot and humid day for mid September in NY. The church certainly lived up to its nickname (Smokey Mary) and used two thuribles for the procession of a relic of the True Cross. I didn’t know they had one of those there but wasn’t terribly surprised.

The PB seems like a nice guy. He hung out and chatted with folks in the sacristy before and after the service, stayed out of the way when we were bustling around with various items, etc. I introduced myself to him; no huge chat, just a quick hi. He’s fairly soft-spoken though. This was especially evident when he was out chanting the prayers–I could barely hear him and I was in the chancel choir…I hope the sound system in the main nave carried better. He preached a fine sermon. Wasn’t stellar but it was decent and contained no heresies (for those keeping track of such things…).

Now–after observing tens if not hundreds of priests doing their thing in various situations, places, etc. I have come to a personal test to determine whether a priest is High Church. Of course this has *absolutely nothing* to do with how good of a priest, who pious of a priest, or how faithful of a priest a person is. Lots of Low Church people are these things; several High Church folks aren’t. This only determines worship style–and separates the practitioners from the posers. Anyway, the way to tell is how they cense the altar. Proper technique is about wrist action. A priest unfamiliar with this task tends to hold their wrist stable and they gingerly wave the thurible around. A more practiced priest will snap the wrist (this also causes the proper *clank* on the down-swing as it hits the chain on the rebound). The PB is a gingerly waving kind of guy. You could tell even before we hit the nave, though that he isn’t High Church. He didn’t do anything wrong, didn’t pretend otherwise–you could just tell that he wasn’t in his native environment. And that’s totally fine with me. We needn’t all be High Church…

Overall–seems like a nice guy; soft-spoken. The right leader for the church at this time? Who knows. We all have to play the cards we’re dealt.

Last night was the New York Medieval Liturgy group. The presentation was on decorative schemes in a 14th century missal from Saint-Denis in reference to the feasts of St Denis and connections with the royal court. Good scholarly discussion all around.