You really make a case for Protestant ministry. Jim & Tammy Faye could go sell the feel good line and profit. You need permission if you're Catholic to use the word Catholic in your ministry. In other words you need the blessing of the Church for ministry. You can be on fire with the love of God spreading the gospel message, just don't use the word Catholic in your pamphlets unless you have the permission to do so. For a Catholic to give up acknowledging their Catholic may be too much to bear, it's been written about the heat being unbearable. As long as this is the case the Catholic minister, if they want to have income to live, needs the blessing of the Church to use the word Catholic in their ministry. How about coming to feel good at the Holy First Bible Thumpin Church of the Believers Victory. Enough said. It was an inspiring video.
Whose making a case for a Protestant Jimmy-and-Tammy-Faye-or-Holy-First-Bible-Thumpin-Church here? You agree that the video was inspiring. He clearly draws his own inspiration to overcome his disabilities from his faith in Jesus Christ. So the guy isn't a Catholic, and we wish he were. Isn't that beside the point?
Nick is making the case for ministry. It can be as simple as a smile, so he states. True enough. My point is if you want to be paid, as in making a living, as a Catholic minister you need the blessing of the Church if you are to publish your self as Catholic. However if you wish to do the same as a Protestant minister it's much easier. Small point but large if you want to make a living at it.
Point well-taken. There are internal hazards, of course, associated with the independent fundamentalist approach to "ministry" in which the minister is directly dependent on remuneration from those to whom he ministers. Talk about a conflict of interests. But that is another subject.
Some of our Protestant, and Catholic, friends may have discovered those hazards. If you're Catholic with any sense of your obligations to the Church, you have few options. I would like to see the Catholic Church much more welcoming toward ministers that are in full communion with the Church. I just don't see this happening at this time even though there are fewer priests and burned out priests. Please all reading this take time today and pray for all on the East Coast threatened by hurricane Earl.
I have been to Mass at many different parishes monasteries and cathedrals. The most beautiful celebrations have been when there is participation, female and male, and diverse cultures as presider, lectors, cantor, altar servers, and gathering spaces filled. Also having music that is diverse, from Gregorian chant to Spanish hymns. I have also attended Mass where there were women doing everything except when it came time for the Eucharistic prayer and consecration, which when completed the priest went back a sat down. I have attended Mass with the priest doing everything, not even altar servers. Both of these were in my experience very awkward indeed. In this last case it would seem easy enough for the priest to ask a lector, who was present, to help out. We all need to welcome to the table those who will be unable to give nothing in return, the poor in our midst.
What do you mean by saying you would like to see the Catholic Church "much more welcoming toward ministers that are in full communion with the Church"? Do you mean ordained Eastern rite Catholic priests? Do you mean non-ordained folk involved in various lay "ministries" who are Catholics in good standing? It's not clear what you're suggesting, and some of the conceivable options could be rather problematic.
... The most beautiful celebrations have been when there is participation, female and male, and diverse cultures as presider, lectors, cantor, altar servers, and gathering spaces filled....
This assumes that liturgy is something that can be cobbled together to one's own particular preference, which is precisely the legacy of Bugnini's Novus Ordo, a liturgy that is anything but "established," and endlessly undergoing changes both by the Vatican and by implementers faced with a largesse of endlessly adaptable "options."
Whether this is a good thing or not is, of course, the $6 million question, and a question for another post, not this.
Properly trained laity when there is a shortage of priests, if authorized, can do almost everything a priest can do, especially in grave circumstances, obviously with the exception of consecrating the Eucharist. When there are available lectors, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and trained altar servers in the assembly and not be asked before Mass to help out is not welcoming. I can understand it if this happens once in a while, but continually there is no excuse. I have been in some parishes that make it their practice of asking from the ambo, before Mass, if there are trained ministers that can help. I would revise my comment to say some parishes are welcoming and not paint the Church, my apologies.
10 comments:
You really make a case for Protestant ministry. Jim & Tammy Faye could go sell the feel good line and profit. You need permission if you're Catholic to use the word Catholic in your ministry. In other words you need the blessing of the Church for ministry. You can be on fire with the love of God spreading the gospel message, just don't use the word Catholic in your pamphlets unless you have the permission to do so. For a Catholic to give up acknowledging their Catholic may be too much to bear, it's been written about the heat being unbearable. As long as this is the case the Catholic minister, if they want to have income to live, needs the blessing of the Church to use the word Catholic in their ministry. How about coming to feel good at the Holy First Bible Thumpin Church of the Believers Victory. Enough said. It was an inspiring video.
Whose making a case for a Protestant Jimmy-and-Tammy-Faye-or-Holy-First-Bible-Thumpin-Church here? You agree that the video was inspiring. He clearly draws his own inspiration to overcome his disabilities from his faith in Jesus Christ. So the guy isn't a Catholic, and we wish he were. Isn't that beside the point?
Pertinacious Papist:
Nick is making the case for ministry. It can be as simple as a smile, so he states. True enough. My point is if you want to be paid, as in making a living, as a Catholic minister you need the blessing of the Church if you are to publish your self as Catholic. However if you wish to do the same as a Protestant minister it's much easier. Small point but large if you want to make a living at it.
Point well-taken. There are internal hazards, of course, associated with the independent fundamentalist approach to "ministry" in which the minister is directly dependent on remuneration from those to whom he ministers. Talk about a conflict of interests. But that is another subject.
Some of our Protestant, and Catholic, friends may have discovered those hazards. If you're Catholic with any sense of your obligations to the Church, you have few options. I would like to see the Catholic Church much more welcoming toward ministers that are in full communion with the Church. I just don't see this happening at this time even though there are fewer priests and burned out priests. Please all reading this take time today and pray for all on the East Coast threatened by hurricane Earl.
I have been to Mass at many different parishes monasteries and cathedrals. The most beautiful celebrations have been when there is participation, female and male, and diverse cultures as presider, lectors, cantor, altar servers, and gathering spaces filled. Also having music that is diverse, from Gregorian chant to Spanish hymns. I have also attended Mass where there were women doing everything except when it came time for the Eucharistic prayer and consecration, which when completed the priest went back a sat down. I have attended Mass with the priest doing everything, not even altar servers. Both of these were in my experience very awkward indeed. In this last case it would seem easy enough for the priest to ask a lector, who was present, to help out. We all need to welcome to the table those who will be unable to give nothing in return, the poor in our midst.
Anonymous,
What do you mean by saying you would like to see the Catholic Church "much more welcoming toward ministers that are in full communion with the Church"? Do you mean ordained Eastern rite Catholic priests? Do you mean non-ordained folk involved in various lay "ministries" who are Catholics in good standing? It's not clear what you're suggesting, and some of the conceivable options could be rather problematic.
... The most beautiful celebrations have been when there is participation, female and male, and diverse cultures as presider, lectors, cantor, altar servers, and gathering spaces filled....
This assumes that liturgy is something that can be cobbled together to one's own particular preference, which is precisely the legacy of Bugnini's Novus Ordo, a liturgy that is anything but "established," and endlessly undergoing changes both by the Vatican and by implementers faced with a largesse of endlessly adaptable "options."
Whether this is a good thing or not is, of course, the $6 million question, and a question for another post, not this.
Properly trained laity when there is a shortage of priests, if authorized, can do almost everything a priest can do, especially in grave circumstances, obviously with the exception of consecrating the Eucharist. When there are available lectors, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and trained altar servers in the assembly and not be asked before Mass to help out is not welcoming. I can understand it if this happens once in a while, but continually there is no excuse. I have been in some parishes that make it their practice of asking from the ambo, before Mass, if there are trained ministers that can help. I would revise my comment to say some parishes are welcoming and not paint the Church, my apologies.
Nick was also in an incredible short film, The Butterfly Circus. It also starred the actor from the movie, Bella.
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