Knock knock

I could have posted this a few days ago, but home for the holidays is a sort of limbo; time pools, like a tidal river shifting from flowing upstream to downstream. (And the week after Christmas is shapeless and unmotivated on top of that.) Anyway, I went to church with my mother on Christmas, and had my first experience of the new-old Catholic liturgy. We didn't do all of it: no striking here, for instance:

I guess California has faults enough already! Elsewhere the new wording (conveniently in bold on a laminated worship aid) seemed more of a joke, albeit one everyone was in on, but throughout there is a stronger emphasis on human sinfulness and divine mercy. The only disruption came in the sung prayers, the new wording not having the same number of syllables as the earlier words for which the melodies were crafted.