"I have a dream"

Today, as some of you may have guessed from the lack of mail in your mailboxes, is Martin Luther King Junior day. I never paid much attention to this day as I never paid attention to it coming around until I went to check the mailbox and found it empty, then went to check the calendar to found what the deuce had held up the mail today. But in Detroit it is a different matter. MLK is HUGE out here...well at least there was a big mass at the Cathedral today...you know...the mass for the Solemnity of St. MLK.

Now I honor MLK for all the good work that he did, and the dream that he worked so hard to acheive...but he was basically canonized at the Cathedral this morning. Hymns dedicated to him, red vestments (for a weekday in ordinary time???) denoting "martyrdom," and a full blown solemn liturgy (yea...two readings and a gospel...not just the weekday one...and I don't think it was the reading for the day either...or at least one of them was not), not to mention all the applause after every song the choir sang (they were very good btw...objectively speaking) like it was some kind of show (I think it was) and the Aztec dancers (where that came from I don't know...the African style Gospel music made sense...but the Aztec dancers???...random???).

Like I said, I have no problem with honoring MLK. I have a problem with shaping an entire mass around him as though he was canonized...not to mention the liturgical "additions." I also don't understand why this huge celebration was planned in a liturgical context when legitimate saints like Kateri Tekawitha, Juan Diego, Elizabeth Seton, the North American Martyrs or blessed Junipero Serra get barely a mention at many masses on their feast days throughout the U.S. At least the Mexicans have it right with the honor that they pay the Virgin of Guadalupe on her feast...somebody has their head on straight.

And speaking of Feasts...I just want to mention the Irish Saint of the day is St. Ita...the teacher of St. Brendan (who discovered America...but I will not go into a tirade about Columbus day...so you don't have to hold your breath). And yes Thom I can go for more than a few sentences without mentioning something Irish...but why would I want to?