God and I have had a complicated relationship since we moved to Pink Beach 🏝️ and (after being so devout during lockdown) I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I’ve been to Mass ✝️ on a Sunday since moving to the Isle of Wight…
However – on the way out of the Basilica of Santa Maria 💒 on Saturday afternoon, I asked the ticket lady what time Mass was on the Sunday and she said 11:30am. I gave My Dave the option NOT to go (and go & get a coffee etc. which he had done in the past) but WE got up, cycled 🚲 into town, locked up the bikes and WE were sitting inside on the third to front pew at 11:15am…
I’d like to say it was a wonderful, life changing experience 💥 but it wasn’t 😐
There was nice music (from a speaker system) playing as we walked in (as there had been the day before) but the (pretty massive) church was empty bar one of two very old ladies… About 11:25am, an old man in a jumper came out from the back to light the candles on the altar. Just after then a nice looking lady (a bit older than me) came out to place the bible – at the right page – on the lectern. At 11:30am, the bell 🔔 ding’d (???), we all stood up and the old man in the jumper who had lit the candles came out from the side of the altar dressed as a priest with the nice lady (& I think her hubby) – just in their ordinary anoraks – and they bowed in front of the altar and then took a seat at the side.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Back “at home” (in Yate) – as far as I am aware – Father Jim still has altar servers who dress in white robes (Holly used to be an altar server ❤️) and they ALL bother to WALK UP THE AISLE (i.e between the pews – the whole length of the church) whilst the congregation (no matter how few turn up) 🎵 sing 🎵 a hymn – without music…
Even though – as we walked in – I looked for hymn books / any form of documentation (as previously abroad – we’ve had English translation sheets of the readings and also once in France there were hymn books with the full Mass at the back so I could join in) but there was nothing. I thought it may be due to COVID – as you STILL see (particularly old) peeps wearing masks OUTSIDE when they don’t even need to… but no.
NOBODY in the congregation was invited to sing a hymn – even though it was Sunday (and only the Catholics reading this will understand). On any other day than Sunday, you can get away with a 25 minute Mass with no offertory (i.e. you don’t need to give any 💰, no homily (sermon 🗣️) and it’s all very speedy but SUNDAY is different – you are supposed to CELEBRATE Mass 😐
And for me – that means 🎵 SINGING 🎵 !!!
The (only) highlight was – at the beginning – the nice lady & the priest did sing a short tune and they did a harmony & it was lovely 🥰 and I hoped that there’d be more but sadly not…
I was brought up to believe that it was deemed irreverent to turn around in Mass so I asked Dave to (as he’s a heathen & it won’t matter for him 😂) and asked how many peeps were “in” & there was probably only 30 or 40 tops – and it was SO sad that such a beautiful place of worship – on a Sunday – wasn’t bursting at the seams – just for an hour (when they have 167 left in the week to do whatever else they need to…)
And it was ALL OVER by 12:15pm – 45 minutes – call that a celebration ?
Rant over 🙏 if you got to the end !!!