Anyone so hearty of spirit still to be visiting this forlorn site so long after its spirit passed into memory and vibrancy into dust is unlikely to be among the dead-eyed minority that I will now briefly criticize, so please join with me in that very human and yet unendorsable activity of shared ridicule of the less fortunate. The object of my objection is a phenomenon, inexplicably still common and most unfortunately chiefly found among the, ah, otherwise wise and tasteful precincts of traditional faithful: the publication of huge, indeed seemingly endless, photographic galleries of liturgical occasions.
When Pope Benedict finally gets around to saying the old Mass, sign me up for a photograph or two; but please do not fool yourselves, oh ye who post such pictures, that anyone of good sense, breeding, and taste is truly interested in viewing yet one more photo of the old Mass said in your local Historic Chapel by a dignitary of moderate fame wearing Really Quite Nice Vestments. One of the glories of the old Mass is that is, you know, pretty much always the same. And while I yield to none in my embrace of finery and pomp in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries, they really aren’t of the character that lends itself to flickr representation. The Mass is an action. When one is in attendance and praying the Mass, it is a glorious thing. But that puff of incense or liturgical procession you so cleverly captured with your Canon Powershot? Bully for you — I don’t give a damn about seeing it. Even worse, of course, are numerous photos of the backs of the clerics, resplendent though they naturally are in embroidered silk and gilt. Where is the drama that makes a photographic still worthwhile? It is not there.
A photograph stops motion in seeming; the Mass stops time in fact. We fool ourselves and bore to tears our polite and well-meaning friends and fellow Catholics when we make the mistake of thinking that another set of photos is really necessary. Pray the Mass, photograph your kids, and leave the stopping of time to God.