Word: rite
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...illusion that makes Oscar night look moribund. There is a point when disbelief can no longer be suspended: O.J. Simpson is not Gary Grant, and although Jacqueline Bisset may be the most beautiful girl in the world, she is not Ava Gardner. Without such priests and priestesses, the fertility rite means nothing...
Such a symbolic rite generates ritual objects, dedicated to the potential event. Wedding is a collection of such talismen. These photos were intended as documentation of an important moment, but, more significantly, they were created to evoke a mood, inspire some faith. Like votive offerings at a shrine, they do not merely record a commitment, they reaffirm and even manufacture that commitment. Pictures of a marriage are magic, or at least those involved want them...
Alther tries to make the illness and eventual death of Ginny's mother the rite of passage that will turn the daughter into a self-winding adult. But Mrs. Babcock, whose suffering and despair are movingly portrayed, seems to have been smuggled in from a different novel. Kinflicks, for better and worse, belongs to Ginny and her amusing, if hardly profound, moral: Sisterhood is Slapstick...
Rushed Sins. With the start last week of the penitential season of Lent, many priests began educating their parishioners in the revised sacrament of Penance-now also called the Rite for Reconciliation-that formally takes effect next year. Face-to-face confession -the last reform of the sacraments that stemmed from Vatican Council II-is intended to enable the penitent not only to confess specific sins but discuss spiritual failings and work out appropriate good deeds for penance. Traditional confession, by contrast, has tended to be a rushed recitation of sins and routine prescription of "ten Hail Marys" or "five...
...confession takes longer than the traditional rite-15 or 20 minutes v. five or so-and is more demanding for priests and parishioners. But where it has been tried, the option seems popular. While some older Catholics find the open style uncomfortable, many younger parishioners seem to feel, in the words of one California seventh grader, that "it makes much more sense than going in and talking to a wall." Theologically, the old liturgy "evolved into a rite of fear and guilt, emphasizing sin more than God's love and mercy," says Father John Tivenan of St. Catherine...