Sandro Magister’s article on Père Michel-Marie is resounding through the blogosphere and Twitterverse. (What’s the Facebook equivalent called?)

It’s nice to know it has captured more imaginations than just my own. There’s nothing in the article I didn’t find compelling. After reading it, I took the natural step of searching for YouTube footage of the Curé of Canabière.

In his previous life you will recall, Père Michel-Marie was a bar-lounge singer, which explains the mildly intrusive soundtrack. I presume it’s the good Father himself singing. But I’m more interested in the visuals.

It’s all there. His “street apostolate,” his rosary, and above all (simply because it lends itself to the YouTube medium), his liturgical piety.

But if one Sunday you enter his packed church and listen to how he speaks of Christ with simple everyday words, and if you observe the religious slowness of the elevation of the host, in an absolute silence, you ask yourself who this priest is, and what it is in him that draws people, bringing back those who are far away. . .

. . the Mass is stark and beautiful. The affable priest of Canabière is a rigorous priest. Why take so much care with the liturgy? “I want everything to be splendid around the Eucharist. I want that at the elevation, the people should understand that He is here, truly. It is not theater, it is not superfluous pomp: it is inhabiting the Mystery. The heart too needs to feel.”