An Expedition to the Pole

There is a singing group in the Catholic church today, a singing group which calls itself “Wildflowers”. (…) It all seems a pity at first, for I have overcome a fiercely anti-Catholic upbringing in order to attend Mass simply and solely to escape Protestant guitars. Why am I here? Who gave these nice Catholics guitars? Why are they not mumbling in Latin and performing superstitious rituals? What is the Pope thinking of? (…)

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The new Episcopalian and Catholic liturgies include a segment called “passing the peace”. (…) passing peace requires that one shake hands with whoever is handy and say, “Peace be with you.” The other responds, “Peace be with you. ” Today I was sitting beside two teen-aged lugs with small mustaches. When it came time to pass the peace I shook hands with one of the lugs and said; “Peace be with you,” and he said, “Yeah.”

(Annie Dillard: “An Expedition to the Pole”, in Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982))