A friend of mine summed up the frustrations of the liturgical with this suggestion:

“They ought to gather up all the cast-off

Remnants of the old liturgy, and get a good

Spot for ‘The Church That Was!...’”

Protestants’ Troubles

A favorite column in the Christian Century called “Pen-ultimate,” checked off some of the advertisers’ appeals recently noted in the religious press:

-- “A very nice Bible marker -- that will work miracles.”

-- “Blest cloths of red, white, and gold. Particularly good at curing warts.”

-- “A Praying Hands Nite Light ... No stumbling to the light switch for a drink.”

“Pen-ultimate” has all the box numbers in case you’re interested. It seems that Protestant renewal is having its resistance too. The columnist was especially doubtful about that “stumbling for a drink” by the help of praying hands.

The Guy In Left Field

It was Charlie Jamieson; the team was the Cleveland Indians; the year 1921 -- my first big league ball game. The old park was so small that our bleacher seats were within a few feet of Tris Speaker, the Texas Eagle, and when they came to town, Ty Cobb, Harry Heilman, and the insuperable Babe Ruth. You could smell the grass as well as the peanuts. When the game began, all of us who had come from St. Mary’s School (30 miles away) started keeping score, but by the fourth inning, only a couple of us were still at it. Sports writers were important people.

Steve O’Neill was Cleveland’s catcher, and Stanley Coreleski one of the hurlers. He was famous largely because of his spitball. It had been outlawed, but Stan’s name, with a few others, were listed in the rule book as “special.” They alone were permitted to wet up the pitch.

Cleveland had won the world series in 1920, but her future years were rarely spectacular. Now I’m back in another big league town as Atlanta joins the diamond elite.

Mayor Allen and all his colleagues deserve congratulations for bringing the Braves down South. That’s a mighty fine stadium, and prospects look good. A team in the South may revitalize the sagging fortunes of major league baseball.

If Charlie Jamieson were only out in left field again! He used to throw the warm up balls to the kids in the bleachers. He was more highly rated by us than Ruth himself.

The Growth Of The Spirit

It would be interesting to speculate how many ball fans are also fans of the center that Atlanta is providing for fine music, creative sculpture, exciting painting and the other arts. And vice versa. Each of us has his talents and skills and they are usually quite limited. The “universal man” of the Renaissance, like Leonardo de Vinci, is a rarity in any age.

But while the privileged ones who perform for us on a ball-field or in a gallery or concert are few, there is a common coin available to us all -- a care, concern, a compassion for skilled sport and creative art. One word “sympathy” is too maudlin -- the Spaniards do it better with “simpatico.” It means we feel for, suffer with, live toward something.

Atlanta (and Northern Georgia) is fortunate in that there are enough people to give generously to the arts and enough simpatico to want to see and hear them. In the new center, beauty will be at home -- beautiful sights of oil, stone and the scores of other media.

Beauty, as Msgr. Cassidy said in his talk at the conferring of papal lay honors last month, is linked with truth and goodness. Should we not, then, thank James Carmichael and the others who are giving beauty a proper home? A community cannot live in goodness unless its universities seek truth and its people appreciate beauty. Neither can the Church lead men to goodness unless it teaches truth and loves beauty. God bless those who are multiplying our opportunities to be at home with the sights and sounds of the beautiful.

A Prayer For Two Weeks

“Hail Cross, our only hope!

In this season of Passionate (Apr. 11 to Apr. 17)

give an increase of grace to the good --

(Our awareness of Christ -- Palm Sunday)

and wipe out the sins of the guilty --

(Our spiritual preparation for Holy Week)

Let every spirit praise you, fountain of salvation,

Holy Trinity

(the Oil’s blessing of Holy Thursday and the priests’ ordination)

On those to whom you have generously given the victory of the Cross--

(the death of sin through Christ’s death on Good Friday)

Bestow the reward also!

(Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday)”

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta