Oh, MY! The Parody Strikes...

The other day, I read this post by Angela Messenger.

Gather Us In

Here in this place, our comfortable parish,
All of the statues carried away,
See in each face a vacuous visage,
Brought here by guilt or by R.C.I.A.

Gather us in, by Beammer or Hummer,
Gather us in, so we can feel good,
Come to us now in this barren Zen temple,
With only a shrub and an altar of wood.

We are the young, our morals a mystery,
We are the old, who couldn't care less,
We have been warned throughout all of history,
But we enjoy this liturgical mess.

Gather us in, our radical pastor,
Gather us in, our unveiled nun,
Call to us now, with guitars and bongos,
Hang up your cellphones and join in the fun!

Here we will take some wine and some water,
Whether it changes, we really don't care.
But when the Sign of Peace comes, our pastor,
Jumps from the altar and hugs like a bear.

Gather us in, the privileged and snobby,
Gather us in, the liberal elite,
Help us to form our personal Credo,
Give us a choice between white bread and wheat.

I usually go to Mass on Sunday morning, but because of an event tomorrow, I went to Mass tonight. And can you guess what was the opening "hymn"?

Yes, that's right. You have NO IDEA how HARD it was to not bust out laughing! Especially when it got to the 3rd verse!

"We are the young, our morals a mystery..."

I found myself nearly singing ANGELA'S LYRICS!

Humor is dangerous, people. Dangerous indeed. Especially when we must be solomn and tranquil...and apparently vacuous. And I'm not certain that suppressed laughter is healthy.

I had to offer it up.

And I think Angela's got my nomination for next year's "Funniest Catholic Blog" award.