Can a Catholic parish church be exciting, envigorating?

Many people who are not Catholic, and many who are, think that Catholics are earnest people, full of faith, who go to very boring churches, where an octogenarian celibate lectures them about gay marriage while an octogenarian old lady deafens everyone with the Pipe organ. :-)

I say this, because yesterday I teased A and Philip that I'd drag them to my church, if they were disenchanted with their own.

Sometimes I forget that Catholic parishes have a reputation for grand decor and boring liturgies. Many protestant churches realize at a profound level that church has to be engaging and interesting. We Catholics sometimes mistake this legitimate facet of church life as "entertainment," where in our case, the point of Church is the Mass itself.

The words that are said in church, liturgy, have great importance for us. The Anglicans and Lutherans are the western denominations that would have some sense of what I mean, but people from non-denominational churches could find it stiff and formal. But the liturgy does serve some purpose for us - for starters, it guarantees that every three years, the entire Bible is read in church. The liturgy also takes the focus off the person celebrating Mass (the Priest) and puts it back onto the seasonal themes, the readings in the liturgy.

What one or two Catholic parishes I've been to sometimes forget, however, is that while the Mass is Holy, there's no particular sanctity in being boring. Mass can be interesting: the homily or sermon can afford to be topical, touching, funny, or sad. Lecters who read the passages from the Bible can choose to make them sound like the interesting stories they are, and not funereal readings from incomprehensible scrolls. The music can be interesting, inspiring, if you want, giving full voice to St. Augustine's wisdom that singing is praying twice.

I'm thankful that the pastor of my parish not only realizes this, but made a point of it when describing how our parish does things to the newspaper last year. An alternative weekly in Ottawa (the X-Press) has an annual "What's hot" issue that talks about who does the best what in town. Last year, it gave our pastor props for "Best minister/priest/rabbi/imam" topping even the popular Rabbi Reuven Bulka, who has had a radio show for years and is much loved.

Tomorrow, we do the Maundy Thursday reenactment of the Last Supper. But our congregation does not have to endure the dull fare where some octogenarian washes another octogenarian's feet while they go to sleep. The night is filled with moving and inspiring music, while the young folks on the Altar playing the disciples take a queue or two from the Godspell musical.

So when I talk about my parish, don't you mind if I don't act like I have a staid and dull church. Because I don't!