I have nothing against contemporary worship music. You can check the endorsement of Mark Shuttleworth’s CD that I posted earlier this week. And I’m a real fan of John Michael Talbot, who is himself a perceptive reader of the Church Fathers.

But I had to laugh when my son Michael presented me with the following, from the ancient “Canons of St. Basil”:

If a lector learns to play the guitar, he shall also be instructed to confess it. If he does not return to it, he shall suffer his penance for seven weeks. If he keeps at it, he shall be excommunicated and put out of the Church.

My son plays the guitar, but he favors old-fashioned hymns at Mass. Nevertheless, he insisted that, if I should post the bit from Basil, I must also post (as a sort of bronze serpent?) a link for readers to gaze upon a Gibson Les Paul with proper veneration.