St John Bosco

[Peter Jones]

Bishop Williams and the Salesians are being criticised for dancing in Liverpool.......... but there doesn't appear to be rotational movement in the reliquary.

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/01/liturgical-dance-not-dead-yet.html

[Peter Jones]

also - comments at:

http://www.lovingit.co.uk/2013/01/liturgical-dancing-in-liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral.html

[alan29]

Its all a bit too post-modern for me ..... carting relics around and "dancing."

[Nick Baty]

Couldn't John Bosco, John Vianney, Teresa (whichever one it was) and all the others have their body parts returned to their graves? How the Church can sanction it is beyond me.

[Southern Comfort]

Thérèse of Lisieux is actually in three sections.

Part of her travels throughout the year around mainland France. Another part does the international tour (I believe a part of one leg). The rest of her remains in the tomb underneath the altar in Lisieux.

[alan29]

Macabre and comical. There's a lot to be said for cremation.

[Nick Baty]

Wish I could "like" Alan's comment, as on Facebook. I'll have to settle for abso-bleeping-lutely.

[musicus]

Agreed. I wonder if our distaste arises out of the decontextualising of these body parts. In particular, wresting them from their resting places (excuse the pun). When I have stood at Cuthbert's tomb in Durham Cathedral, or Edward's in Westminster Abbey, or (near) Peter's and Paul's in Rome, it is with a profound sense of being in a hallowed place. I'm not at all sure that digging them up and carrying them around would make any sense at all. And yet, people do flock to these exhibitions.

In former times, before relatively easy international transport links, taking relics to where the people were might have made some sort of sense. These days, we can surely take ourselves to them, if that is what we want.

[Peter Jones]

abso-bleeping-lutely.

ooooooo - a tmesis.

To me, the dance appears to be, as it were, an unnecessary, para-liturgical tmesis, pushed in to separate Word and Eucharist and I cannot fathom its purpose. In my opinion, it would have been better as a part of the "prayer service" rather than the Mass.

Copious amounts of "this spray wipes out 99.9% of germs" were in use at St Chad's, as the reliquary was subject to frequent osculation.

The opportunity for confession was available throughout the visit at St Chad's - and presumably at the other venues too. That many people took that opportunity is heartening.

[Peter Jones]

Thérèse of Lisieux is actually in three sections.

So is John Bosco - a hand and part of an arm in the reliquary on tour here.
Another part is contained in a statue doing a world tour.
Most of him rests in Turin.

[alan29]

Thérèse of Lisieux is actually in three sections.

So is John Bosco - a hand and part of an arm in the reliquary on tour here.
Another part is contained in a statue doing a world tour.
Most of him rests in Turin.

Strewth!

[Nick Baty]

We really should have listened to Martin Luther!

[musicus]

...Another part does the international tour (I believe a part of one leg)...

Ah! The international leg of her journey.

[Nick Baty]

I was going to say that earlier.
And then I thought wondered, if it was international, would it be a leg?

[alan29]

Why do I keep hearing the theme tune from the Adams Family?