Responsorials
O'Shea, Helene
there are two ways in which people respond to the world. Some people merely observe the world. They simply label and recognize things. Other people perceive and participate in what they...
...That is what happens in the aesthetic encounter...
...3. The third step is the performance...
...You do not want to be an actor...
...Liturgy is surely not On Golden Pond...
...A reciprocal dialogue between the artist and the art work is, involved in this process...
...As one creates from his or her insight into the texts and the times, ritual will in turn create the artist...
...It goes somewhere with one energy leading to the next action...
...The energy of the acclamation went nowhere...
...An example: I attended a national meeting which involved a beautifully choreographed ritual...
...It is not enough to look at the text and the times...
...I suspect that I may have only planned a ritual if it did not change me...
...2. The second stage is the creation of the artwork which expresses the insight which has been born in the intense engagement with reality...
...You want to be real...
...The imagination surrenders to this encounter so that we see, we perceive, and we participate in the mystery with feeling...
...One will be transformed because one has created...
...They live in it...
...Then the deacon said, in a fiat, nasal tone, "The Lord be with y o u . . . " It all fell flat...
...I sometimes wonder whether I have really created a liturgy if my vision has not changed down deep...
...This can change vision, values, and behavior...
...It soared and peaked...
...Other people perceive and participate in what they experience...
...This is aesthetic insight that is the seed of the expression and the experience of Mystery in ritual...
...It is not waiting for the last thing to finish so that you can do your Commonweal: 332...
...But it is not reading recipes either...
...You are trying to pray...
...One can create the most marvelous art work ritual in the word on the page but it can fail in performance...
...Now, I hope that you are as nervous about my use of the word "performance" in relationship to ritual as I am...
...It becomes symbolic action that moves with rhythm...
...The creative artist takes all that material - - the sounds, the movements, the words - - and swallows them into a unified art piece...
...The Gospel Acclamation was a lively Howard Hughes's Alleluia...
Vol. 111 • June 1984 • No. 11
