The voice of my childhood pastor, Father Kerwin, was just short of Edward R. Murrow in wartime England. Except instead of saying “This…is London,” he would declare five minutes before Mass began: These…are the announcements.
Grave proclamations in his deep, chastening, black-coffee voice that could refreeze a melted glacier: Ladies’ Circles, Holy Week schedule, parking advisories, adoration times.
He came out, he told us what was what, he went back into the sacristy.
A few minutes later, he appeared again, vested in green chasuble and stole, entrance hymn, bow at the altar, Mass begins.
And after Communion ended and everyone was just sitting there—and this is the important part—he stood, we stood, he gave the final blessing and processed out.
Father Kerwin did not stop the liturgy entirely and have us sit down again to hear about what was going on in the parish.
The announcements had already been done.
He did not need to interrupt the show for a commercial break.
Did not have to halt the play just before the final curtain.
Father Kerwin kept the steady train of the drama on its tracks.
The sacred ritual, the numinous tone, the mystical orientation of the Sunday morning passion play he let go uninterrupted to its logical conclusion.
The Russian actor Michael Chekhov wrote that all good acting should have, among other things, a feeling of beauty, a feeling of form and a feeling of “the whole.”
A natural theatrical flow, a beautifully rounded out creation. You lift the cup, you drink from the cup, you put the cup down. Grace notes between each action. Clear beginning, middle and end. Aesthetic beauty. (Even ugly moments in the most chaotic of plays can be played with beauty.) The liturgy is a set piece, a whole. The fundamental story structure, the narrative steams toward an ending with nothing stopping it.
Having Mass announcements right before the liturgy ends is like having the director come out and stop “Hamlet” three minutes before it finishes in order to tell the audience where the best post-show night spots are. And only then calling on young Fortinbras to come finish things off. Continue reading
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