Don, you really need to start your own Substack. You are both intelligent and funny. I actually have been listening to Gregorian chants lately. They take me away from the Mundane insanity of our current culture, transporting me into a world of mystery and symbolism.
TM sounds great. As a good seminarian, I was taught to meditate on various Catholic topics, but there were always too many distractions. The dolorous mysteries, for example, when reciting the rosary always filled me with sadness and made me feel even more guilty and less worthy than usual. Images of Christ’s suffering, of Mary’s sorrow, of all the horrible things we do to one another, unlike TM, filled me with dread. On the other hand, trying to focus on the Monstrance at Benediction, clouds of incense billowing and Gregorian chant ringing in the air, kept me precisely from achieving otherworldliness. Later in life, passing around a bong while listening to Mountains of the Moon captured those medieval days pretty well. And like you, when it came time to offer my life to the priesthood, I bolted. But there are still times when the strains of Tantum ergo Sacramentum flow through my mind, like the misremembered remnant of a troubled dream.
Don, you really need to start your own Substack. You are both intelligent and funny. I actually have been listening to Gregorian chants lately. They take me away from the Mundane insanity of our current culture, transporting me into a world of mystery and symbolism.
TM sounds great. As a good seminarian, I was taught to meditate on various Catholic topics, but there were always too many distractions. The dolorous mysteries, for example, when reciting the rosary always filled me with sadness and made me feel even more guilty and less worthy than usual. Images of Christ’s suffering, of Mary’s sorrow, of all the horrible things we do to one another, unlike TM, filled me with dread. On the other hand, trying to focus on the Monstrance at Benediction, clouds of incense billowing and Gregorian chant ringing in the air, kept me precisely from achieving otherworldliness. Later in life, passing around a bong while listening to Mountains of the Moon captured those medieval days pretty well. And like you, when it came time to offer my life to the priesthood, I bolted. But there are still times when the strains of Tantum ergo Sacramentum flow through my mind, like the misremembered remnant of a troubled dream.