I’ve written about this before, but a couple of articles brought it back to mind. A few months ago my daughter and I happened upon a church in the diocese just south of our home diocese. We walked into a wide open auditorium room with folding chairs. There were no kneelers. Of note, this is not a temporary arrangement but the final configuration of the sanctuary. We entered through the central main entrance and found no holy water. There were no saints, no stations of the cross, no crucifix, and no visible tabernacle. In other words, it was completely void of any traditional Catholic imagery. The gathering congregation was quite noisy as they all chatted in the sanctuary. Suddenly the lights blinked twice. The room quieted and the entrance hymn and processional began. To my surprise, a digital screen behind the altar began to display “inspiring” landscapes. These views changed throughout the Mass. The Eucharist used “home baked bread” for the Blessed Sacrament. At the end of communion, the remnants were whisked away uncovered on a big pottery platter. There was no sense of reverence or awe. It reminded me of someone clearing the dishes after dinner. The words of the liturgy had been tampered with as well. The creed was some sort of modified Baptismal vows. All in all, it felt like a very Protestant rendition of the Mass.
I was so uncomfortable with the Mass I wrote a letter to the Bishop. I described the events and offered my prayers for the parish. This bishop is new to the diocese and I knew he had inherited a real mixed bag of liturgical heterodoxy. The bishop was very gracious and forwarded my concerns to the pastor. The pastor’s response included the following:
They do have a tabernacle. It is in a lovely little chapel somewhere else in the building. In that chapel they have the stations of the cross and an icon of Mary.
They have holy water at the side entrances and it is refreshed weekly.
They gather in the worship space with conversation and view this fellowship as the actual beginning of the liturgy.
He then closed with the following statement: “I do not seek to convert them to our way of celebrating and invite them to look for a Church that meets their expectations”.
This came to mind because I read Cardinal Arinze’s address from April 3, 2006 given to a conference on the liturgy. Please read the whole address, however, pay special attention to the following quotes:
Those who refuse to adore God must not decorate themselves with the apparently nice title of liberal intellectuals.
If we are to call a spade a spade, we shall inform such people that they are unreasonable, ignorant and blind to most obvious facts. A child who refuses to recognise his parents is not a liberal. He is a brat. Would it be wrong to call him stupid, and unaware of common sense, and even of his own best interest? And God is to us much more than parents are to their children. On the other hand, God is not a rival to us human beings. He is not a threat. He is not a killjoy.…
Everyone can thus see why the tabernacle of the Most Blessed Sacrament is located in a central or at least prominent place in our churches. It is the centre of our attention and prayer. The October 2005 Synod of Bishops emphasised this point (cf Prop., 6, 28, 34). In some of our churches some misguided person has relegated the tabernacle to an obscure section of the church. Sometimes it is even so difficult for a visitor to locate where the tabernacle is, that the visitor can say with truth with St Mary Magdalene: "They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they laid him" (Jn 20:13).
May I say a further word on the importance of silence in our churches and chapels. Moments of silence help us to prepare for the celebration of Mass. During Mass, a few minutes of silence help us to meditate on the lessons, the Gospel and the homily just heard. Silence after receiving Jesus Holy Communion is a time for personal prayer to Our Lord. At the end of Mass and at all other times in church, silence is a mark of reverence for God's house and especially for Jesus present in the tabernacle.
and finally this
It follows that individuals, whether they be priests or lay faithful, are not free to add or subtract any details in the approved rites of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist (cf Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22). A do-it-yourself mentality, an attitude of nobody-will-tell-me-what-to-do, or a defiant sting of if-you-do-not-like-my-Mass-you-can-go-to-another-parish, is not only against sound theology and ecclesiology, but also offends against common sense. Unfortunately, sometimes common sense is not very common, when we see a priest ignoring liturgical rules and installing creativity in his case personal idiosyncracy as the guide to the celebration of Holy Mass. Our faith guides us and our love of Jesus and of his Church safeguards us from taking such unwholesome liberties. Aware that we are only ministers, not masters of the mysteries of Christ (cf I Cor 4:1), we follow the approved liturgical books so that the people of God are respected and their faith nourished, and so that God is honoured and the Church is gradually being built up.
Let me tell you, I felt a great big “I told you so!” welling up within me. Of course then I also read an insightful piece on Jimmy Akin’s blog. One particular quote jumped out at me:
Don't make the mistake of turning over your happiness before God to someone else. You don't have to do that. You may tell yourself, 'I just can't stand the way this Mass is being celebrated,' but you're wrong. People say that they can't stand something when they know full well that they can. They're simply trying to rationalize a decision they want to make by telling themselves that they don't have any choice.
You do have a choice. You have a choice how you will react to what someone else is doing. You can choose to react in a way that mourns whatever offense has been committed yet leaves your spiritual peace intact. Or you may choose to react in a way that poisons your spiritual life and robs of you of the peace God wants you to have. But it's still your choice.
You can't control what another person is going to do. But you can control how you choose to react.
I realized my attendance at Mass in this neighboring diocese had turned into an exercise in “hidden pictures”. I go to Mass and concentrate on finding the liturgical abuses. Granted, these liturgical abuses are usually not very hidden. I am fortunate to have a wonderful home parish with a reverent and inspiring celebration of the Mass. So when I am traveling I don’t need to get myself tied into knots over the practices of these churches. I am not sorry I pointed out questionable liturgical practices in the church I visited. One of the Spiritual Works of Mercy is to instruct the ignorant and prayerful, loving catechesis is not condemnation. Perhaps the pastor will give my concerns a second thought. However, the bottom line is I am attending Mass, even when traveling, because I need to meet my Lord in the Eucharist. He is most assuredly there whether or not the Tabernacle is visible.
5 comments:
The questions I would have to ask is... Was the matter valid (no wierd ingredients tasted), were the words of consecration correct, and do you believe the the priest wished to confect the Body and Blood of Our Lord? (valid matter, words and intent from an ordained priest in good standing?)
Of so, gratefully accept our Lord and Savior in Communion. Afterward, visit Him and his mother in the "chapel" and say a prayer for this particular parish. Then shake the dust from your sandals.
I believe you should have talked to the pastor first and with the utmost caritas explain specifically what the abuses were.
Now you mentioned a lack of kneelers, a lack of statuary, and other problems. Were any of them Canon Law violations or violations of the rubrics (as defined in their GIRM with associated episcopal mandated from their local ordinary?)
If there were, I believe you should have bumped it up the chain of command all the way to Cardinal Laveda if you had to.
But falling short of that, it becomes a matter of preference. And as St. Augustine said: "In necessitas, unitas. In dubiis, libertas. In omnibus, caritas".
If you're interested, I'll e-mail you a missive about my home parish that I mailed to Julie D.
I have no qualms that the Mass was valid and the consecration licit. I do think the treatment of the Blessed Sacrament was worrisome. Truly, all the remnants were scraped on to a pottery plattter and the plate was removed from the sanctuary without any special reverence. There wasn't even a cloth covering over the Blessed Sacrament. One could not tell by the actions of the priest or the extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist that there was any difference in the matter before and after consecration. Catechesis about the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist is sorely lacking in many parishes as it is. This casual approach to the handling of the Blessed Sacrament exacerbates the problem. I think of how carefully the Blessed Sacrament is handled during Exposition and Benediction. Shouldn't equal respect be offered during Mass? The creed was also an issue but I really don't know how much flexibility there is in the wording. I have often been to Mass where the Baptismal vows are substituted for the creed. This was sort of like do-it-yourself vows. We pledged our belief in the dignity and equality of all men and women. I know the rejecting Satan passage was not included. I just didn't recognize the format but as I said, I don't know how many choices you have. I am only familiar with the Nicene Creed, the Apostle's Creed, and the Baptismal vows.
Mom, I agree with your feeling of consternation. But in the case of "reverence", the term is completely subjective. My version of reverence might be different than yours, which I'm sure is different than the "offending priest".
I also agree that reverence for the Blessed Sacrament should be a requirement, but is it an "abuse" (that was, after all, the title of the blog entry).
In the case of a one time visit, I'd say there's not a lot you can do. In the case of it being your home parish, I'd begin by being an example of eucharistic reverence.
Maybe it will rub off on the people around you, and even to the priest who might be suffering from a crisis of faith, or other such problem, and who needs our prayers.
The issue is your right as a Catholic to a Holy Mass. Not some circus.
I am afraid that we have suffered so much that at Holy Mass we think first what's next? What new abomination will be foisted on me this week? It is very hard, despite the fascile remark of Jimmy Akin, to turn off our critical sense. I have 30+ years of innovation experiences and yet I am always surprised. Yesterday we were told to sit for the reading of the Holy Gospel. How can you not have your critical senses on heightened alert in such environments?
Dear Mom,
My hunch is you are from Arlington and the diocese to the south is Richmond. The new bishop of Richmond has much work ahead of him and I do not envy him.
You seemed to use the word, "sanctuary" to name the entire area in which the the congregation and priest celebrate mass. Do I misread your posting?
Catholics all the area around the altar (traditionally the area on the altar side of the communion rail or rood screen) the sanctuary. Presbyterians and increasingly most American Protestants call the whole "worship" area the sanctuary based on their understanding of the priesthood of the faithful and their very different notion of "worship."
This use of language is quite common here in Wichita and I have seen it leach into Catholic usage as well. This is no doubt fostered in part by liturgically ignorant architects who get to build Catholic churches by submitting the lowest bid. The sanctuary is the equivalent of the Holy of Holies in the Israel's temple. Hence its separation from the laity by an altar rail or rood screed in the west and an iconastasis in the East.
One of the scandals of these basketball arena churches is their lack of separation of the sanctuary.
Speaking directly to the pastor and telling him nicely and helpfully that his parishioners are missing the transcendence of the Eucharist may seem like an exercise in futility, but is what we should do first. Mailing a copy of "Sacramentum Caritatis" for his reflection and edification might not be a bad idea.
We should pray for him and Bishop di Lorenzo or whomever the bishop is.
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