Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

A friend—Nathaniel Peters, our former Junior Fellow, now at Notre Dame—sends a note pointing out this video of a liturgy at a Call to Action meeting a while back:

The liturgical puppets seem to be about ten feet tall, four feet of which are their huge, dreadlocked liturgical heads, and they have huge flat hands that look like oversized Ping-Pong paddles. Liturgical Ping-Pong paddles.

The puppets are coaxed down the aisle by the liturgical dancers at the start of the liturgy, only to wander back up the aisle during the Gloria, perhaps because the liturgical dancers were not supervising, but twirling and sprinkling the congregation with holy water. All in all, a lively liturgical circus.

And yet, don’t most circuses have children at them? I mean, aren’t they supposed to be for the young? In the congregation itself there doesn’t seem to be a single person under age fifty at the Call to Action liturgy.

It’s sad, really. These people genuinely thought they were the future, once upon a time, and the future didn’t even bother to oppose them. It just went along its own path, leaving the bleating sounds of liturgical puppet dance to fade away, off to the side, down one of the false trails of history.

Dear Reader,

While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.

Twenty-five thousand people subscribe to First Things. Why can’t that be fifty thousand? Three million people read First Things online like you are right now. Why can’t that be four million?

Let’s stop saying “can’t.” Because it can. And your year-end gift of just $50, $100, or even $250 or more will make it possible.

How much would you give to introduce just one new person to First Things? What about ten people, or even a hundred? That’s the power of your charitable support.

Make your year-end gift now using this secure link or the button below.
GIVE NOW

Comments are visible to subscribers only. Log in or subscribe to join the conversation.

Tags

Loading...

Filter First Thoughts Posts

Related Articles