Cassock Day (updated 10/4)
Sunday was a Working Sunday. With the upcoming National Day holiday, the government has once again rearranged the calendar so that more people can have a few consecutive days off. It's a system that Chinese people have learned to accept.
Normally, our working Sunday masses have far fewer people, with so many people having to go to work and the children are all in school. One time we were treated to the seminary's schola since we had no choir. We had expected Mass to be empty and short.
When we arrived, though, we saw the seminarians lining up for a procession outside. Inside, a red carpet had been rolled out in the center aisle, and there were more flowers than normal. The altar cloth was white, too. Myles nodded at how the church seemed to be dressed up, and wondered if there was to be a wedding today.
Then most of the choir, nearly all of the regulars, entered the church and took up their normal places. That meant probably no chant this morning, I thought. The entrance hymn began, and the seminarians processed from outside, and they seemed to be carrying themselves a little more reverently than usual, taking the turns into the pews with almost military precision.
I looked back through the crowd, and somewhere behind the line of priests, I could just make out the top of a mitre and crozier.
Bishop Li Shan was there. He was going to be our celebrant. It was not going to be a normal, short, working Sunday Mass.
More after the jump
Had I taken the time to translate last week's bulletin, I would have known. But I kept putting it off, since I could read enough that I could see that it didn't say there would be no Mass or that the time had changed.
The liturgical white remained a mystery to me, too, until we got to the Gospel. The first two readings and the Psalm were those already on the lectionary schedule for this twenty-sixth Sunday in ordinary time.
上主，求你记起你的仁慈
Shàng zhǔ, qiú nǐ jì qǐ nǐ de réncí
The Gospel, though, was not from Matthew 21. I looked at my bulletin and saw the Gospel was from John 1. I pointed this out to Myles, who had been following along with the Magnifcat app. I suggested to him that it probably had something to do with why Bishop Li was here.
During the homily, Bishop Li began to talk about angels, and specifically the archangels. He pointed out their appearances in the Bible, and how they appear in art and devotional images. It was then I quietly scrolled Myles' Magnifcat to Monday's readings. Our Gospel was for the Feast of Saints Micheal, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels. Now the white vestments made sense to me, but still not the presence of Bishop Shan.
That was answered after the homily and before the Creed.Twenty Nineteen of the seminarians were called by name to come forward. Each was given a clear plastic bag with something made of black fabric inside.
They walked to the rear of the church and quickly buttoned new cassocks over their regular Sunday clothes.
The bishops' chair had been moved to the center, and when they returned to face him he read from one of the Rites of blessing.
Afterwards, the seminarians turned to us, the congregation, so we could acknowledge their progress and commitment with applause. Some of the younger seminarians stepped up and gave each of the newly cassocked a single white rose before they all sat down again in their pew.
They in the new black robes lined up one more time at Mass, just before the offertory. They came up preceding the gifts of bread and wine, and one by one they handed their white roses over to the Bishop so that they were empty-handed again.
This was a bit jarring for me. The gesture was in line with this next step in their commitment in priestly formation. Even something as small as a flower was only theirs to offer back to the Church. This is what their lives will be, should they continue to ordination.
The Mass ended up being so much longer than we thought we would be on a working Sunday. However, it was another life-goes-on-in-the-seminary experience that we needed as an antidote from the absolutely discouraging news about Christians in China these last few months. Something about being at the seminary week in and week out gives me glimmers of hope.
Updated 10/4: I was off by one! There were, in fact, nineteen seminarians cassocked.
Normally, our working Sunday masses have far fewer people, with so many people having to go to work and the children are all in school. One time we were treated to the seminary's schola since we had no choir. We had expected Mass to be empty and short.
When we arrived, though, we saw the seminarians lining up for a procession outside. Inside, a red carpet had been rolled out in the center aisle, and there were more flowers than normal. The altar cloth was white, too. Myles nodded at how the church seemed to be dressed up, and wondered if there was to be a wedding today.
Then most of the choir, nearly all of the regulars, entered the church and took up their normal places. That meant probably no chant this morning, I thought. The entrance hymn began, and the seminarians processed from outside, and they seemed to be carrying themselves a little more reverently than usual, taking the turns into the pews with almost military precision.
I looked back through the crowd, and somewhere behind the line of priests, I could just make out the top of a mitre and crozier.
Bishop Li Shan was there. He was going to be our celebrant. It was not going to be a normal, short, working Sunday Mass.
More after the jump
Had I taken the time to translate last week's bulletin, I would have known. But I kept putting it off, since I could read enough that I could see that it didn't say there would be no Mass or that the time had changed.
The liturgical white remained a mystery to me, too, until we got to the Gospel. The first two readings and the Psalm were those already on the lectionary schedule for this twenty-sixth Sunday in ordinary time.
上主，求你记起你的仁慈
Shàng zhǔ, qiú nǐ jì qǐ nǐ de réncí
The Gospel, though, was not from Matthew 21. I looked at my bulletin and saw the Gospel was from John 1. I pointed this out to Myles, who had been following along with the Magnifcat app. I suggested to him that it probably had something to do with why Bishop Li was here.
During the homily, Bishop Li began to talk about angels, and specifically the archangels. He pointed out their appearances in the Bible, and how they appear in art and devotional images. It was then I quietly scrolled Myles' Magnifcat to Monday's readings. Our Gospel was for the Feast of Saints Micheal, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels. Now the white vestments made sense to me, but still not the presence of Bishop Shan.
That was answered after the homily and before the Creed.
They walked to the rear of the church and quickly buttoned new cassocks over their regular Sunday clothes.
The bishops' chair had been moved to the center, and when they returned to face him he read from one of the Rites of blessing.
Afterwards, the seminarians turned to us, the congregation, so we could acknowledge their progress and commitment with applause. Some of the younger seminarians stepped up and gave each of the newly cassocked a single white rose before they all sat down again in their pew.
They in the new black robes lined up one more time at Mass, just before the offertory. They came up preceding the gifts of bread and wine, and one by one they handed their white roses over to the Bishop so that they were empty-handed again.
This was a bit jarring for me. The gesture was in line with this next step in their commitment in priestly formation. Even something as small as a flower was only theirs to offer back to the Church. This is what their lives will be, should they continue to ordination.
The Mass ended up being so much longer than we thought we would be on a working Sunday. However, it was another life-goes-on-in-the-seminary experience that we needed as an antidote from the absolutely discouraging news about Christians in China these last few months. Something about being at the seminary week in and week out gives me glimmers of hope.
Updated 10/4: I was off by one! There were, in fact, nineteen seminarians cassocked.
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