Friday, April 13, 2012

"The same again, please" (conclusion)

Evelyn Waugh


The following excerpt from an article published in the November, 1962 Spectator by Evelyn Waugh is taken from "A Bitter Trial," which mainly concerns the correspondence between Waugh and Cardinal Heenan on the post- Vatican 2 changes to the liturgy:

"Awe is the natural predisposition to prayer.  When young theologians talk, as they do, of Holy Communion as a "social meal" they find little response in the hearts and minds of their less sophisticated brothers.

No doubt there are certain clerical minds to whom the behaviour of the laity at Mass seems shockingly unregimented. . . . There is no apparent "togetherness".  Only in heaven are we recognisable as the united body we are.  It is easy to see why some clergy would like us to show more consciousness of one another, more evidence of taking part in a social "group activity".  Ideally they are right but that is to presuppose a very much deeper spiritual life in private than most of us have achieved."


Elizabethan martyrs, pray for us.

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