I think I know where you are going, but I disagree. Silence is the mystery revealed at the unleashing of the seventh seal. Isn't this why The Apostle John holds his fingers over his lips? We experience the dead Christ first in silence before all of creation reacts. Cherubik Hymns even overrode what was once an always silent prelude to the Great Entrance. The Pre-Sanctified Holy Things are still processed as though the faithful are blind and deaf the glory of the Messiah passing before us; I think silence can indeed be liturgical.
You see, I've always seen silence as something solitary and therefore not liturgical. Silence has immense value in one's interior prayer life (not that I would know), and there are undoubted scriptural texts that support silence as godly (Elijah on the mountain, for instance), as well as the monastic quality of silence. But the liturgical, corporate prayer of the Church? I'm not so sure.
To elaborate somewhat on the corporate nature of Christian worship, I'm not that keen on the silent Canon. I don't think I've ever witnessed a chanted anaphora in the Roman Rite, but I would like to.
Perhaps. I just think that silence maintains a purpose when something is being accomplished liturgically that the other senses can perceive or acknowledge. Awkward silence "between sets", as it were, has no place in liturgy. The heavens are far to dynamic for us to have moments of non-sensual nonsense.
I think I know where you are going, but I disagree. Silence is the mystery revealed at the unleashing of the seventh seal. Isn't this why The Apostle John holds his fingers over his lips? We experience the dead Christ first in silence before all of creation reacts. Cherubik Hymns even overrode what was once an always silent prelude to the Great Entrance. The Pre-Sanctified Holy Things are still processed as though the faithful are blind and deaf the glory of the Messiah passing before us; I think silence can indeed be liturgical.
ReplyDeleteYou see, I've always seen silence as something solitary and therefore not liturgical. Silence has immense value in one's interior prayer life (not that I would know), and there are undoubted scriptural texts that support silence as godly (Elijah on the mountain, for instance), as well as the monastic quality of silence. But the liturgical, corporate prayer of the Church? I'm not so sure.
DeleteTo elaborate somewhat on the corporate nature of Christian worship, I'm not that keen on the silent Canon. I don't think I've ever witnessed a chanted anaphora in the Roman Rite, but I would like to.
DeleteOh, the wisdom of Vatican II...
Perhaps. I just think that silence maintains a purpose when something is being accomplished liturgically that the other senses can perceive or acknowledge. Awkward silence "between sets", as it were, has no place in liturgy. The heavens are far to dynamic for us to have moments of non-sensual nonsense.
ReplyDelete