Notes from a commute

[magid]

Just once, I'd like to hear the weather report finish "cloudy, with a chance of" with "meatballs."

There is much locally about the installation of the new cardinal in Boston. I'm fascinated by the pomp of it, all sorts of specialized words dusted off and used widely for the first time in ages (cathedra, crozier, etc.). The clip of part of the installation (I'm so sure there's a specific word for this I'm not remembering) included something that surprised me: massive applause. Not that the new guy doesn't deserve it, or anything like that, but I never quite think of applause as appropriate in the midst of a religious service.

Bright blue popcorn is just wrong. Blueberry crackers are also wrong, but not nearly so much.

I find it extremely strange that there's a Kabbalah bookstore in Newton. Come on in! Learn the mysteries of the universe! Free classes every Wednesday! Commercialized Kabbalah, or any mysticism, is just not how things should be.

Comments

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Sure, applause is not rare at church services. There's usually a moment reserved for announcements and such, usually after communion and before the final blessing, where applause happens often enough. And then of course there's applause at baptisms, weddings, first communions, confirmations, and other special occasions.

[queue.livejournal.com]

Applause never happened in my church outside of special occasions. And, come to think of it, I don't remember any applause at baptisms, weddings, or first communions. I don't specifically remember any at confirmations, but that seems the most likely place for me to have heard applause.

So, apparently churches differ in the amount of applause.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Do you think it might be different in different parts of the U.S., or due to the size of the churches, or just "people are different"?

[queue.livejournal.com]

No idea.

[prog.livejournal.com]

My first thought is that denomination plays a large role; maybe branches of the church tend to be culturally "stuffier" than others. You're much less likely to hear applause at a Catholic church service than a Pentecostal one, I'd reckon. And denomination density is also tied in with geography, so those other factors certainly apply, too.

[prog.livejournal.com]

s/maybe/many/

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was wondering that myself. But in this case, it meant that there was applause in a RC church, in Boston, which we know is a very demonstrative place...

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yup. I think your initial observations were astute. (I say this coming from a Boston-area Catholic education background (three years' worth, anyway), including frequent Masses lorded over by an archetypical nun, who would have spit acid at the idea of any kind of noise from the pews (other than singing on cue).)

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

See my comments above. I am Catholic. ;)

[magid.livejournal.com]

(above in the level of thread, but below in layout of comments... :-)

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

yeah, what she said!

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

It varies from congregation to congregation. prog mentioned the nun who frowned on any inappropriate noise. That exists, but it's an extreme. Applause in church isn't part of the service, per se. But there are breaks built into the service where one can make announcements, applaud, whatever. Hell, we may not be Southern Baptists shouting "Amen!" at every utterance, swaying and dancing in the aisles, and clapping our hands throughout the service, but we Catholics aren't the stuffshirts some people would make us out to be. For the record, in the past 10 years I have missed mass only 3 times, and I often go more than once a week, and applause happens for one reason or another during Sunday mass on average about a half-dozen or so times a year. I know that's not frequent, but it's not exactly rare either. Keep in mind that a mass is several things: an opportunity for spiritual reflection, structured worship and prayer, communal breaking of bread, and celebration; and applause is not anathema to that.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The services that I'm used to don't have applause.
If there's some joyful life-cycle event (wedding, engagment, baby born, bar/bat mitzvah, etc), people say "mazal tov"(lit. "good luck", but used to mean "congratulations") (en masse, it can be pretty impressive), and frequently burst out into a song version of that.
If someone has given a talk, or gotten a degree, or some other accomplishment, people say "yasher koach" (er, something to the effect of "good job").

So for me the applause changes my idea of the event, from a religious service to something that is a bit more of a performance or something. (Note that I didn't watch it on TV, just heard snippets on the radio.)

"yasher koach"

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

Is a phonetic degradation of "Yisrar Kochacha" which literally means "[may] your strength prevail", saying in a sense "you have done well, may you have the strength to continue doing so".

This has been a drive by comment.
You don't know me, but I know teddywolf.

Re: "yasher koach"

[magid.livejournal.com]

Drive-by comments welcome anytime (well, as long as they're not flames).

Re: the new Archbishop

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I was most interested to read in the account of this installation that he told jokes including slightly self-deprecating ones. Of course, I've only been to one Mass in my life and it was in latin so I don't know if there was even the slightest non-serious thing in it. Also in yesterday's Globe I learned a couple of things about the ritual such as what a cathedra is.

He isn't a Cardinal yet (note he was wearing white). rsc says he thinks the bird is named after the priest.

Re: the new Archbishop

[magid.livejournal.com]

From all accounts, the new archbishop (I really should be better about keeping track of priest levels) is pretty impressive, not only a nice person but someone who's been sent to clean up messes in a variety of areas, and is still popular. I hope he can help Boston.

I just checked dictionary.com. Their first definition is for the priest, then the color, then the bird, and on from there. The Latin derivation is "Late Latin cardinlis, principal, pivotal, from Latin, serving as a hinge, from card, cardin-, hinge.]", which implies to me that indeed, the priest came before the bird (in naming, that is).