Liturgical Dance is an “Abuse”…. Unless We Say it Isn’t
God help us if they decide this is not an abuse of the liturgy. If you have ever witnessed such an abomination it will make your head spin. Although forbidden, this abuse is still seen from time to time in parishes throughout our country.
Servus Fidelis ~ The Faithful Servant 
My first inclination is to write off this whole business as silly nonsense. Sadly, the American experience of the last fifty years illustrates how often what rightfully should be regarded as idiotic becomes an entrenched part of our culture.
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Indeed so, from the “reception in the hand experiment”, the “female altar servers experiment”, the deterioration of the sense of the sacred by novelties in the Mass, art and music to just name a few. This nonsense, has a way of getting approved in due time depending on the amount of activism garnered up for these new novelties. Again, we must be vigilant if we are to protect our traditions. It is an apostolate for all of us.
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Someone should make a video. Let’s see, start it by showing the words “LITURGICAL DANCE?” Then have a bunch of people, carrying the Eucharist (not the real Eucharist, of course, just an imitation), come swirling and spinning in while “Here She Comes Now Singing Mony Mony” blares from the sound system. Then have one of the women step on the end of her flowing dress and trip, crashing into another dancer and starting a domino effect, sending bodies crashing to the ground and the ‘body and blood’ flying everywhere. Then let the sound abruptly end, and the screen go black, and display the words “IS THIS THE MASS YOU WANT IN YOUR CHURCH?”
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Works for me, Mr. V. 🙂
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Don’t know if you’ve seen this gem. In case you haven’t, I’d like to share with you the pain and suffering I endured watching it. In the words of my 10-year old: “Is this a circus?”
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I feel for you. I had to endure something similar in a Mass in Florida about 2 years ago. It is not allowed but that doesn’t seem to matter to these modernist priests at all.
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Oh dear Lord in heaven, my eye my eyes. Someone pass me the brain bleach.
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A quick trip to the Vomitorium might be in order as well.
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Followed by spending a whole month in “Bath”.
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Yes a good scrubbing is in order after such a spectacle. 🙂
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ROFL!
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ROFL!
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Thoughts on Dance as worship outside of liturgy?
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Nate, do you mean in religious usage? or as some means of honoring God or deepening one’s spirituality? I can’t imagine that it would be useful as it may conflate the practices of many religious practices that are contrary to our faith: sufi, paganism, etc.
I know that dance has a different meaning in some cultures than it does in our European culture, such as Africa. However, the Vatican from what I have read would in time like to bring their practice in liturgy closer to the universal practice of the Catholic faith; but it will take time. If it is introduced here as a novelty, then it serves no purpose but to open the way for more novelty and perhaps getting the practice accepted by the Magisterium as it did with reception in the hand which, as you know, was soundly denounced by the world Bishops during the Second Vatican Council. Thank goodness, our present Pontiff has personally gone on record to say that this was a mistake. Maybe it will be abrogated in the future. See the following on the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/details/ns_lit_doc_20100526_communion_en.html
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I suppose I mean as a personal spiritual practice, or possibly one done in a way for others, outside of the liturgy, to bring them closer to God. In a way that we might go and listen to a Choir or orchestra. My wife is a convert and when we first started dating she was part of a worship dance team that would go and perform. When she first told me she was involved in it I thought she was crazy, conjuring up images like the video above. But when I went to a performance at a local theater it was really beautiful and grace filled. I wouldn’t say it has a place in the liturgy, but it surely has a home in our Catholic spirituality. I mean David danced naked in the streets when they brought the Ark into the city. Ironically it is only after that demonstration of reckless faith that God makes his covenant with him. Long story short. Dance in the Liturgy-No. Dance in general? Well….. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrcovixxSBI
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Excellent points Nate. Well I understand that sometimes joy felt in the spirit (as well as our other emotions) leads a person (since we are a unity of body and spirit) to express this emotion in dance. As you say, David before the Ark and also St. Joseph of Cupertino who danced and levitated with the baby Jesus was filled with joy of the spirit. The danger is that because we are body and spirit all types of emotions can spill over to the body and it promotes, within a group, a “letting go”, of oneself. Instead of gaining control of our “dumb ass” as St. Francis would call his body, we give it dominion, which could cause problems in the spiritual life. The sad part is that even if a “David” who is filled with God’s spirit is merely expressing the joy he has in his God, others may simply let go and recklessly allow their emotions to spill forth. I must say, I feel like this is what happens in most charismatic groups I have seen who are speaking in tongues or writhing around etc. It reminds me more of the trance like state that is brought on in cults such as Voodoo, African religions or the Sufi. A warning was issued by the bishops in the1975 Notitiae http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDWDANCE.HTM that ended with this paragraph: “If the proposal of the religious dance in the West is really to be made welcome, care will have to be taken that in its regard a place be found outside of the liturgy, in assembly areas which are not strictly liturgical. Moreover, the priests must always be excluded from the dance.” So we must use caution.
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