[Magdalen] Epiphany

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/6/2015 6:49:34 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
jay.weigel at gmail.com writes:

Yeah, it  does seem like a lot. I try to go about 15, though. It seems to
make a big  difference, especially with a reading like that darned Ephesians
one from  last Sunday, which has such long sentences with many subordinate
clauses.  (When I was preparing for it I thought about diagramming one or
two of  them, but it gave me a headache.)>>>>
 
Sometimes these contrived silences backfire, and they leave the
congregation thinking the speaker has had a seizure, or some such.
 
I am unimpressed by the whole use of silences in the various
contemporary rites, RC, TEC, and Lutheran.  An example of this  is
this lengthy silence after readings.  They were trying this at  the
downtown RC parish where I was cantoring, and the general tenor
of commentary on the part of the congregation was that the presider
appeared to have nodded off.
 
When you see silences that are built into the liturgy in such as the
old Latin Tridentine Rite (Currently the Extraordinary Form of the RC  
Rite),
they can be very effective, but not, IMHO in the context of the  modern
rites.  We're just not used to silences sacred or profane.
 
 
David Strang.