The Sisters is the first story of Joyce's Dubliners. Although written sometime before 1914, the whole Universe of this story is totally familiar to me: the priest's sisters, the priest's altar-boy and the priest himself. I grew up astride the 80s and 90s, so I guess certain things have clung on uses and cultures for too long. That or that certain things have certainly changed dramatically in the last fifteen or twenty years.
The edition I am reading is annotated by Terence Brown and I can say that this man -educated at Trinity College in Dublin- had little regard for religious believes, particularly Catholicism, and any form of its rites and practices. I am just guessing from the notes he wrote on the following paragraph: "He has told me stories about the catacombs and about Napoleon Bonaparte, and he had explained to me the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass and of the different vestments worn by the priest". The boy is telling in first person all about the death -solitary and tormented death- of Rev. James Flynn. The underline is mine.
In his notes, after explaining that "the Mass is the supreme act of worship in the Roman Catholic Church", Brown tells that "there are many Masses associated with different times in the liturgical year and Masses for different ecclesiastical occasions", and points out as, an example, those celebrated after the wish of a person. He called them votive Masses, which is not strictly correct. Finally, he concludes: "It is probably these complex regulations that Father Flynn explains to the boy narrator".
I think, on the contrary, that the meaning of "the different ceremonies of the Mass" refers rather to the different parts of the Mass: the Liturgy of The Word, Offertory, Consecration, etc. All parts full of meaning, good purpose and rich symbolism. One can for sure confirm from time to time how superficial, gullible and prejudiced is the knowledge of scholars in matters of Religion (the Religion traditionally rooted in their own countries and culture!). In a similar way, the second note of Terence Brown on the vestments of the priest is unnecessarily recherche and misleading. Although "during the liturgical year the outer garments of the priest at Mass" are of different colors, their symbolism is not complex at all, as he states: as far as I know, green means hope, white means life and red means blood. Simpler, simply impossible. Additionally, it is only the chasuble and the stole the vestments that changes color along the year. The alb is normally always white (from alba, white, dawn) and so is the girdle.
One does not need to study to know this. It is something you learn from going to Mass... It permeates you like water down a patch of clay, until you stop going to Mass and the memory forsakes you. This is why I can guess that the number of Masses Terence Brown attended can be counted with the fingers on one hand... Two, tops.
(PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR COMMENT).
The edition I am reading is annotated by Terence Brown and I can say that this man -educated at Trinity College in Dublin- had little regard for religious believes, particularly Catholicism, and any form of its rites and practices. I am just guessing from the notes he wrote on the following paragraph: "He has told me stories about the catacombs and about Napoleon Bonaparte, and he had explained to me the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass and of the different vestments worn by the priest". The boy is telling in first person all about the death -solitary and tormented death- of Rev. James Flynn. The underline is mine.
In his notes, after explaining that "the Mass is the supreme act of worship in the Roman Catholic Church", Brown tells that "there are many Masses associated with different times in the liturgical year and Masses for different ecclesiastical occasions", and points out as, an example, those celebrated after the wish of a person. He called them votive Masses, which is not strictly correct. Finally, he concludes: "It is probably these complex regulations that Father Flynn explains to the boy narrator".
I think, on the contrary, that the meaning of "the different ceremonies of the Mass" refers rather to the different parts of the Mass: the Liturgy of The Word, Offertory, Consecration, etc. All parts full of meaning, good purpose and rich symbolism. One can for sure confirm from time to time how superficial, gullible and prejudiced is the knowledge of scholars in matters of Religion (the Religion traditionally rooted in their own countries and culture!). In a similar way, the second note of Terence Brown on the vestments of the priest is unnecessarily recherche and misleading. Although "during the liturgical year the outer garments of the priest at Mass" are of different colors, their symbolism is not complex at all, as he states: as far as I know, green means hope, white means life and red means blood. Simpler, simply impossible. Additionally, it is only the chasuble and the stole the vestments that changes color along the year. The alb is normally always white (from alba, white, dawn) and so is the girdle.
One does not need to study to know this. It is something you learn from going to Mass... It permeates you like water down a patch of clay, until you stop going to Mass and the memory forsakes you. This is why I can guess that the number of Masses Terence Brown attended can be counted with the fingers on one hand... Two, tops.
(PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR COMMENT).
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