When I was a lad, I wanted a piano more than anything I could think of. Well, I wanted globes of all the planets, but they only made Earth and Moon circa 1970. Instead of a piano, my parents got me a three-octave electric organ with push buttons for chords. I taught myself how to read treble clef and pondered the basic theory of chord construction in the dissonance of pushing the C button with my left hand and playing black keys with my right.
I picked up an upright for my office in my first church position. I still remember with great laughter the assistance of two friends and a truck. We had a late-night trip into a very shady Chicago neighborhood to fetch it. Then no rope to secure it in the back. The pastor was still working late–11:30pm–when we got back to the parish center. He was a cleanliness fanatic and asked if we couldn’t lift the instrument into my office and save getting the carpet soiled.
Shortly after we moved into our first house, my wife procured a piano for me. Honestly, I didn’t play it much. The grand at church was so much nicer. And the piano tuner we hired to service and tune the home piano said our elderly instrument wouldn’t bear being tuned up to 440. He pitched it a whole tone flat, so at least my wife’s clarinet could play the flute parts and we were close.
When we moved from Kansas City in 2008, we were very fortunate to find a taker for our upright. We were heading to a smaller house and the home piano wasn’t really getting played much at all. Admittedly very sad.
I noticed this BBC piece on old pianos, and the sad feeling returned. John Gist, of Louisville, Kentucky:
It’s like a human, it slowly goes downhill in terms of its health.
There are more and more pianos reaching extinction, needing to go to the graveyard. I get 10 to 15 calls a day from people saying ‘So how much is my piano worth?’
Sentimental value, yes. Otherwise, probably nothing.
In the early 19th Century, the piano was the preserve of the upper and middle classes – doctors and lawyers for example – but by the end of the century, pianos were common in the homes of English coal miners, says Laurence, with pianos sold on instalment plans to make them more affordable.
The piano was an important source of home entertainment, as well as being a sign of status, and was often put in the best room in the house, ready to show the neighbours – even attract suitors. A young woman who was good at playing the piano was regarded as better marriage material.
Because pianos were being made in such quantities at the time, the quality was not always the best.
“In the 1920s, they were made for the mass market. They were not made to last, they were made to sell,” says Marcus Roberts of Roberts Pianos in Oxford.
Today we are entertained individually by the computer, and perhaps socially by the tv screen. Digital piano sales are on the uptick.
Maybe I feel a little less guilty about my old pianos. I haven’t yet tipped one into a dump. And it is true that these instruments do get old and nothing lasts forever. Any stories about old pianos?
These two convictions are really the same quality. Evangelization is an ecclesial act carried out in Communion with the Church.
60. The observation that the Church has been sent out and given a mandate to evangelize the world should awaken in us two convictions.
The first is this: evangelization is for no one an individual and isolated act; it is one that is deeply ecclesial. When the most obscure preacher, catechist or pastor in the most distant land preaches the Gospel, gathers his little community together or administers a sacrament, even alone, he is carrying out an ecclesial act, and his action is certainly attached to the evangelizing activity of the whole Church by institutional relationships, but also by profound invisible links in the order of grace. This presupposes that he acts not in virtue of a mission which he attributes to himself or by a personal inspiration, but in union with the mission of the Church and in her name.
From this flows the second conviction: if each individual evangelizes in the name of the Church, who herself does so by virtue of a mandate from the Lord, no evangelizer is the absolute master of his evangelizing action, with a discretionary power to carry it out in accordance with individualistic criteria and perspectives; he acts in communion with the Church and her pastors.
We have remarked that the Church is entirely and completely evangelizing. This means that, in the whole world and in each part of the world where she is present, the Church feels responsible for the task of spreading the Gospel.
This is not only about those “institutional relationships;” evangelization is also a cooperation with the grace of Christ. What does this mean? To be totally honest, we cannot excise aspects of the Church we dislike or about which we harbor serious disagreements. Seekers may be drawn to the individual faith witness of an individual: a friend, a lay person, a priest, or a religious. They might be attracted to the overall charism of a faith community. It might be an intellectual path, too. But all of these aspects combine to form a living Body, the Church. Difficult teachings and difficult people are part of the salvific path.
I appreciate the inclusion of those “profound invisible links in the order of grace.” If we bristle at sharing “our” evangelical ministries with far-away Rome or bishops, we should respond with humility to the notion that God works his grace independently of our skilled or clumsy attempts at sowing the seed of the Word. We evangelize not to gain personal disciples, but to pass them on to the Church (the whole Church, not just the parts we like) and to Christ.
Comments?
The bishops devote four sections to the considerations of the dedication rites. We reviewed those rites in depth earlier this year here. We are reminded that a faith community does well to develop or renew its familiarity with these rituals and the texts, especiallythe Scriptures, that accompany them.
§ 118 § In addition to containing the rituals of dedication, the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar contains liturgies for laying the cornerstone, for commencing work on the building of a church, for dedication of a church already in use, and for the blessing of a church and an altar.(RDCA, ch. 5, no. 1) These rituals serve as a foundational resource for those engaged in designing and building churches. Just as the initiation of a person into the Christian community occurs in stages, so the construction of church building unfolds over a period of time. Rites are celebrated at the beginning of the building process “to ask God’s blessing for the success of the work and to remind the people that the structure built of stone will be a visible sign of the living Church, God’s building which is formed of the people themselves.”(RDCA, ch. 1, no. 1) At the conclusion of the construction, the church is dedicated to God with a solemn rite.(RDCA, ch. 2 no. 2) Familiarity with this rite and the context of prayer that it offers will help to prevent the building project from degenerating into a purely pragmatic or functional enterprise.
At minimum, the planning committees should engage this material in prayer. The parish at large, too. The physical experience of a building project generates excitement: we see a change in landscape, and progress is easy to track. What makes it different from a new building elsewhere in the community? That should be evident, and attended to by the pastoral leadership and committees.
Regarding the premature use of a new altar, BLS cautions against reducing the dedication to empty symbolism:
§ 119 § Since the celebration of the Eucharist on the new altar after it has been solemnly anointed, incensed, covered and lighted, is at the heart of the dedication ritual,(RDCA, ch. 2, no. 15) a new or renovated church is, as far as possible, not used for the celebration of the sacraments until after the Rite of Dedication has taken place. To celebrate the rite after the altar has been in use is anti-climactic and can reduce the rite to empty symbolism.(RDCA, ch. 3, no. 1; Cf. RDCA, ch. 4, no. 13) Use of a temporary altar in the period before the dedication is a viable alternative that can help to heighten anticipation of the day of dedication when the new altar will receive the ritual initiation that solemnly prepares it for the celebration of the central mystery of our faith.
This can be a difficult temptation. Worshiping in gyms, basements, and auditoriums can be tedious. The most difficult aspect is coordinating a busy bishop’s schedule with a construction project that may encounter delays. Most contractors and pastors leave leeway in case unforeseen delays clog and extend a timeline. If the parish is patient and declines anticipating the use of a new building, one would hope the bishop is reasonably flexible as well. That connection to the bishop is important:
§ 120 § When the people of the parish community gather to dedicate their new church building or to celebrate its renovation, they will have made many decisions, balanced a variety of needs, and overcome a multitude of challenges. As the diocesan bishop celebrates the Rite of Dedication and receives the church from his people,(RDCA, ch. 2, no. 33) the connection between the diocesan Church and the parish community is particularly evident.
Don’t neglect the points of anointing:
§ 121 § The Rite of Dedication provides that the walls of the church may be anointed with sacred chrism in four or twelve places depending on the size and design of the structure. These points can be marked by crosses made from stone, brass, or another appropriate material or carved into the walls themselves. A bracket for a small candle should be affixed to the wall beneath each of these crosses.(RDCA, ch. 2, no. 22) The candles in these brackets are then lighted during the ritual lighting at the dedication, on anniversaries of the dedication, and on other solemn occasions.
I confess I’ve forgotten the lighting of these candles on some of those solemn occasions. Aside from the dedication anniversary, what might they be? The patronal feast, certainly. Easter and Christmas? The Lateran Dedication feast? Any other possibilities?
All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
