Before the procession is formed, the deacon cries "The Screens ! The Screens" whereupon the minister turns on the screens and monitors so that the assembly may more fully enter into the Sacred Mysteries.
General Instructions on the Roman Missal from the year 2040.
This naughty rubric is, of course, invented, but it has a semblance of possibility about how the liturgy of the modern Roman Rite could develop, as things are presently celebrated.
Forty years ago, those who were concerned more about the transcendent aspects of the Sacred Liturgy and less about Liturgy as communication would bemoan the over-arching importance of the sacred microphone and public address system. Everything had to be clearly audible; everything had to be amplified ... or perhaps over-amplified.
Decades later, the Sacred Liturgy has moved beyond the imperative of the public address system to the imperative of the digital SCREEN : the ultimate liturgical accessory for the digital age. I must qualify, this is the Catholic experience in Australia.
Where once was a shrine, now a SCREEN or monitor is placed. Where once you could enter the church and try to recollect yourself before Mass, now - just like the movie theatres in the old days - a series of notices is put up on the SCREEN, advising people of the name of the Church they are in, where the fire-exits are, the names of ministers etc. Finally, the fixation with the SCREEN large and small that dominates our lives has entered our places of worship. Once content to use hymn books and missals, now everything is flashed up on the SCREEN : look away if you can.
Rather than direct our greater attention to the Sacred Mysteries, the SCREENS are now their own point of focus. The casualty is recollection and prayer. Instead of closing our eyes to pray, we look upon the SCREEN. Gathered in a large and noble church, where we may look upon many beautiful works of sacred art, instead we are given close-ups of the celebrant and ministers, shewn on the SCREEN. Look away if you can ... we are drawn to it.
Why must we hear everything, be it sung or spoken, over-amplified? Is there not a more recollected way of worshipping God? Why must we have close-up images of the Holy Place, as if we are at a concert watching every gesture and expression of the performers we are applauding? It is the attitude which deems these new electronic phenomena essential to modern worship which is the enemy of transcendent celebrations of the Sacred Liturgy.
You will be ever-hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever -seeing, but never perceiving.
The Septuagint text of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 6 : 10.
Purveyors of ecclesiastical digital equipment, please let the Faithful come into our churches and pray without worldly digital distractions.
