Bishop: "Let chaos storm! When will it stop, change after change in liturgy? Never!"

Catholic Diocese of Dodge City ^ | Most Rev. Ronald M. Gilmore, Bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City

[Polycarp]

Most Rev. Ronald Gilmore, DD

Ordained & Installed

Bishop of Dodge City

July 16, 1998

Learn More About Bishop Gilmore

The bishop's column for May 4, 2003:
 

My Dear People, When will it stop, this change after change after change in our liturgy? Will it never end? In a word, No. When the Spirit came, a new time began. It was the time of the dispensation of the Mystery, of its communication. It was the time of what the Fathers called the Sacramental Economy. So long as time lasts, this dispensing, this communicating, this deepening, this changing will go on. The Fathers saw the liturgy as Christ’s own Paschal Mystery made present through words and through signs. It was a unique event. It happened once for all. It occurred in time, but it draws all time up into itself, as the massive circling winds draw the things of the earth up into themselves. Time is not time unless it flows on. Slowly, gradually, haltingly, stop and start, by guess and by gosh: it can do no other except to flow on. It cannot be rushed. It cannot be slowed. Time is ... Time. Mystery is not mystery unless it unfolds. Here, there, one small group, one whole parish, this one woman, that one man: it can do no other except to unfold in its own slow and secret way. It cannot be forced. It cannot be foreseen. Mystery is ... Mystery. And that Mystery, again, is like unto a whirlwind. It is a large and powerful storm that is beyond us. As Frost said: Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form. In the liturgy, the Church gives place to this once and still powerful storm. Not only does she give it place, she also gives it form. She tells us how she wants to express and to communicate this Mystery in our brief string of time. It is her Mystery, after all, and she knows best how to enter it and how to let it unfold. The New General Instruction of the Roman Missal gathers up the best of the horizontal development of the last forty years, the full and active and conscious participation the Council sought. It gathers up too the vertical development of all our two thousand years: the notion of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the sheer grace of it all, the wild power of it all, the slow unfolding of it all. The liturgy is the Mystery clothed in Time, in our time. I trust we shall soon feel at ease with the drape and the feel and the fit. -- Most Rev. Ronald M. Gilmore Bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City

[Polycarp]

"When will it stop, this change after change after change in our liturgy? Will it never end? In a word, No."

""Let chaos storm!"

"I trust we shall soon feel at ease with the drape and the feel and the fit."

Somehow I doubt it.

[Loyalist]

It's high time the bishop got out of Dodge.

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

? ?? I think the good Bishop is trying to make a point ... or something like that?

Hmm, Let's see,

"The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."

Jesus calms a storm as the ship He's on is about to sink...

Okay, I give up. The image of crystals under the good Bishop's pillow keeps coming to mind...

[Desdemona]

Whatever this guy was smoking or drinking when wrote this, send it this way.

[Maximilian]

I've been trying to think up something funny to say, but how can you parody something like this? How can you possibly be ironic about a bishop who says things like "let chaos storm, let cloud shapes swarm"?

How did this guy get to be a bishop? Who taught him this New Age theology? Who promoted him? Who recommended him? Who consecrated him? Why is it that only heretics can become bishops today?

Most importantly: What options are available to the faithful when the faithless have a stranglehold on the hierarchy of the Church?

[Polycarp]

I don't know why, that line really struck me as LOL funny. That's one of the best lines I've seen on this Religion Forum in quite some time.

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

Ahh, tie-dyes, birkenstocks, and smell of clove ciggies (you know, the incense cigarettes). See, there's this place in AZ called Sedona...

Anyway, to steal from Fr. Neuhaus, can you imagine the Angelic Doctor or St. Augustine or Pope St. Gregory the Great or Pope John Paul the Great saying this?

Neither can I!

[kidd]

It would have been easier to simply say

"The liturgy is changing again. Deal with it."

But this is a wee bit more elegant.

[Desdemona]

Uh, Birkenstocks are comfy when vegging out.

No. I doubt any doctor of the church or great pope would touch this with a ten foot pole other than to whack it.

[saradippity]

This call to the "spirit" is chilling. I have come to using the "Holy Ghost" when addressing the third person of the Trinity because I don't think the evil spirit is as likely to enter.

Over and over again,I have observed that the priests who exult over the "spirit" of Vatican II,never call it the Holy Spirit and I have come to believe that the reason they don't call it that is because they are not calling on the Holy Spirit at all,in fact far from it.

[Arthur McGowan]

This column is so noncommittal and vague, it's hard to say what the bishop was trying to say. More likely, he was trying to fill up his monthly quota of words without saying anything.

Most of the changes in the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal are improvements. Not all, however.

The worst distortion of the liturgy, which simply will have to go sometime in the next few years, is turning the priest to face the people. We will have to wait until the sixties generation are dead. They are the ones who are fanatically attached to this distortion.

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

Uh, Birkenstocks are comfy when vegging out.

Okay, I admit it. I own a pair too. Just don't tell anyone. Bad for the image and all that.

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

I have observed that the priests who exult over the "spirit" of Vatican II,never call it the Holy Spirit...

Feel lucky if you're not hearing them refer to the 3rd Person of the Blessed Trinity as "Holy Sophia".

[Citizen of the United States]

I must say, it was awfully kind of His Excellency to inform us that Time is Time and that Mystery is Mystery. That ought to dispel any confusion about that.

[Antoninus]

An excellent example of post-modernist gobble-dee-gook. Change is good. Change is life. God is change. Don't you get it?

[Antoninus]

But this is a wee bit more elegant.

If this clumsy stupidity is "elegant," I need to have my taste-o-meter adjusted...

[B-Chan]

"Your Eminence:

Please consider cutting back on the massive bong hits. Not everyone in the diocese is 'cool'.

Your Son in Christ,

B-chan"

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

This column is so noncommittal and vague, it's hard to say what the bishop was trying to say.

Okay, this is interesting. Combine your statement with 'kidd's from Post 9, which is:

"The liturgy is changing again. Deal with it."

and we're on to something. Perhaps the good Bishop is noncommittal to the direction of change, and therefore very vague about what that change entails? Perhaps this piece could be his first attempt to "deal with it".

If so, I think he definitely needs help...

The worst distortion of the liturgy,...is turning the priest to face the people.

But...but...but how will they ever be able to put on a performance if they're facing East to the Rising Sun of Justice they have their backs to congregation the people?

[TradicalRC]

Ahem.


We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone really finds us out

Also


Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief.

-Robert Frost