Although I am a member of The Confraternity of Saint Peter and although my heart and soul remains anchored in the Traditional Mass, I am trying (since Advent) to assist at daily mass in the normative [ordinary] rite but it is a veritable way of the cross to do so.
Tomorrow I will be trying the third Parish in my area.
The first Parish has video screens on each side of the Sanctuary and while the Eucharist was being confected, the screen displayed the word "Jesus" with bright yellow leaves shimmering as they were being lightly fluttered by a zephyr; and then the Hosanna flashed on the screen with the (mis)translation "Holy...Lord, God of power and might..." that all recited...
And then, in search of a less fractious Mass, I went to another Parish where there was a substitute Priest at one of whose masses I had assisted, sadly, once before. He has a habit of dispensing the last Blessing and then he strolls over to the lectern to tell a joke - giving me enough time to exit before his joke is completed. Today, as soon as he finished the blessing, he immediately launched into a joke as he stood behind the altar.
Maybe the third time/Parish tomorrow will be the charm.
Yours in Christ,
IANS
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The cross of visiting the ordinary form
A reader and frequent commenter writes:
Well, I am still searching :)
ReplyDeleteThe third Parish seemed promising. The Lil' Licit Liturgy (TLLL) was celebrated in a small chapel with a nearly level ceiling and there were no architectural features differentiating the sanctuary from the rest of the chapel; and, of course, the Memorial Meal of TLLL was celebrated on a crummy wooden table and three communion babes helped distribute the Sacred Species because one eats and drinks at a meal and Heaven forfend the poor Presider alone distribute the Sacred Species (...only the hands of the consecrated make touch the sacred species...) and so I had to chase him across the small chapel so I could receive from him.
The Presider seemed orthodox and TLLL was moving right along until we got to The Bidding Prayer and then things got weird; at least five communicants loudly proclaimed their own personal prayers and the last woman allowed to pray proclaimed a political message about abortion and the government ect and when she, finally, finished, The Presider loudly took back control and we moved on to the Consecration - after which The Presider ad libbed a bunch of stuff prior to the Elevation of The Host.
So it is on to Parish number four tomorrow...
For any who may be interested, the following are prayers I have with me for all Masses, whether the Real Mass or The LIl' Licit Liturgy.
I think they are quite good and redolent of the best of Catholic Tradition.
PRAYER TO BE SAID AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MASS
Eternal Father, I unite myself with the intentions and affections of our Lady of Sorrows on Calvary, and I offer Thee the Sacrifice which Thy beloved Son Jesus made of Himself on the Cross and which He now renews on this holy altar:
First. To adore Thee and give Thee the honor which is due Thee, confessing Thy supreme dominion over all things, and the absolute dependence of everything uponThee, Who art our one and last End.
Second. To thank Thee for innumerable benefits received.
Third. To appease Thy justice, aroused against us by so many sins, and to make satisfaction for them.
Fourth. To implore grace and mercy for myself, for my loved ones, for my friends and enemies, and for all afflicted and sorrowing, for poor sinners, for all the world, and for the holy souls in Purgatory.
Invocatio Post Communionem
O Lord God almighty, thy blessed Son! who graciously hearest them that call upon thee in uprightness, who knowest the prayers of those even who are silent; we thank thee for thou hast deemed us worthy to partake of thy sacred mysteries thou hast given to us, for fully strengthening our faith in those things which we so well know, for the preservation of piety, and for the forgiveness of our sins; for the name of thy Christ has been invoked upon us, and we have been joined to thee.
O thou that has separated us from communion with the ungodly, unite us with them that are consecrated to thee, strengthen us in the truth, by the coming of the Holy Ghost, teach us the things we know not, supply our deficiencies, confirm us in the truths we already know.
Preserve they priests blameless in thy service. Keep kings in peace, magistrates in justice, the air salubrious, thy fruits in abundance, the world in thy almighty providence. Pacify nations that are waging war. Convert them that are astray.
Sanctify thy people; preserve thy virgins; keep in fidelity them that are in wedlock; strengthen the chaste; lead little ones to mature age; confirm the newly initiated; teach the catechumens and make them worthy of initiation; and gather us all together into the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To whom, together with thee, and the Holy Ghost, be glory, honor, and adoration for ever. Amen
In my letter that you were kind enough to post, I mentioned Fr. Joker, the substitute Priest I ran into at the second Parish. Well, I have had the misfortune to run across him in a Confessional and after he heard my Confession, he asked me to do something nice for someone as my penance and I asked for a different penance ( I suggested prayers) and he told me that prayers should never be a penance (but acts of kindness should be?).
ReplyDeleteI any event, he absolved me with some dufus ad libbed words of absolution and so I handed him the proper words of absolution ( A Trad never goes to a N.O. Church without the words of absolution typed so he can hand it to the Priests who were never taught the correct form of Absolution) and asked him to say that Absolution. and he did.
My question - did my handing him the right words of Absolution count as a penance?
And so this is what life is like for one who is the same age as Israel and who was born into a Church that is completely different than the one now existing (different Mass, Sacraments, Prayers, Praxis) but who is expected to confess continuity with the past in this ecumenical springtime of the new pentecost in the civilisation of love.
Sadly, I live three hours away from the Parish that has my heart and soul - Christ The King Catholic Church Chapel in Sarasota and which Traditional Catholic Church is administered by The FSSP and it is in that handsome Church that one can assist at the Real Mass offered in an atmosphere of dignified solemnity
I find the death penalty nuttiness to be the greatest Catholic cross for me: society, not other inmates or guards, are protected by a life sentence for this murderer...and let's corporately ignore whether other murderers out in society are being deterred...let's corporately ignore whether he, as a gang member, is ordering other murders by court mandated phone rights...and let's corporately ignore whether he will increase his mortal sin tally by thousands of acts of self abuse til he dies as one possibility during a life sentence. And let's watch elderly Cardinals applaud
ReplyDeletetwo Popes just as they applauded Pius XII as new
priests when he affirmed the death penalty in 1952.
Catholicism should be a conformism in the essentials but variegated in the non essentials. Instead job security and book publishing security is making her a conformism in whatever idea springs into a Pope's mind.
Think of it. God gave over 34 death penalties in the Bible....one ( Romans 13:4 was given in the context of an empire that had life sentences no one could escape)
and Popes and Bishops are constantly pronouncing death penalties as not pro life...and God gave over 34 of them. Yes....He rescinded over 34 of them which were for the Jews only for personal sins now that God in Christ has reduced the power of Satan for all men.
But Genesis 9:5-6 and Romans 13:4 are till there...unrescinded...excpet that the last two Popes studiously avoid quoting them.
So Catholic crosses vary. For many, it's the Mass.
For me it is the above nuttiness. For others it is annullments as certain...which equates to divorce if they are certain of attainment in some countries. For others it's the near total silence of the Church on husband authority over wives...while the authority of the Bishops and Popes is forever flattered.
Solution: distinguish between quintessential Catholicism and human historical context Catholicism.
The latter means there will always be the nutty element til you breathe your last breath. Be Catholic but also be interested in other aspects of life. Be fully for God but don't be fully for everything that passes for Catholic in the Catholic media/ hierarchy circus. Catholic paid bloggers and writers are constantly "Catholic" in the non quintessential sense. None will diverge on the death penalty. All will promote the "new evangelisation" which was resurrected to draw attention away from the sex abuse debacle. There should have been a near ecumenical council on why the hierarchy had not one hero who was zealous for children....Pope or Bishop.
That council never happened. The new evangelisation reappeared instead. We have 47% of Catholics in the Camden New Jersey Diocese who were polled as believing that Christ sinned while on earth. And the Vatican thinks they should be evangelizing others door
to door. Someone pass me two asprin.
Yeah, it's a real bummer returning to a suburban, pedestrian, Protestant hymn singing church after having immersed oneself in the visual and aural beauty of St. Josaphat. And I'm not even the one in my family complaining the loudest. It's my 16 year old son, who now considers NO masses "pablum." My oldest daughter also decries the lack of seriousness she sees in our fellow congregants, decked out, as many of them are, in tight-fitting jeans and football jerseys. We still need our neighborhood parish for Confession, Confirmation, and catechism classes; and my son is still on its altar server list, but assist at St. Josaphat as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteI blame you though, PP, for getting me into this fine liturgical mess. You just had to post the TC newsletter on your blog, luring an unsuspecting V2 Catholic like myself to the real Mass.
Not Spartacus,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: "... so I handed him the proper words of absolution ..."
Señor, tiene bolas de latón (otherwise known as cojones that klink)!
As to the act functioning as a penance, I couldn't say; but I should think it worth at least a partial indulgence.
I love the prayers before and after Mass that you've posted. I should know the source, but sadly do not. From where did you get them?
Bill,
ReplyDeleteI understand completely. You're absolutely right about the issue in question. The prevailing tendency you rightly lament leads to a confusion between doctrine and opinion, which is unhelpful, reinforcing the impression that Church teaching fits hand-in-glove with prevailing (and fashionably quite politically correct) opinion.
Mr. Allen,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for the inconveniences, though I know we both not-so-secretly cherish the trials as a labor of love for our Liege Lord. Greetings to your family.
You remind me of Diogenes, but one who is looking for a really stupid a man.
ReplyDeleteHere is the deal: there is no palatable NO mass anywhere. Such a thing is impossible, a contradiction, an oxymoron. The NO is an anti-liturgy, not a liturgy: it is VITAL that you understand the distinction. The NO is no more serious than Joanne Worley in mid-scream, no more formal than the little moustachioed Monopoly man, no more ritualistic than Silly Putty. Its music is no more reverent than that of Spike Jones, its lyrics provocative of no greater fervency than those of Michael Franks. Its prayers are corporatespeak cribbed from the employees' manual of a really seedy bank. The sermons are typically reminiscent of the Old Philosopher's ("is that what's eating at your liver today, Bunky?") stream of conscious rants. The greeting of peace resembles Jay Leno's flesh-pressing entrances on the Tonight Show.
Mel Brooks should have been included in Bugnini's brain trust: the result would have been far more entertaining than the cheat notes the beloved Annibale took from Karl Rahner, Joseph Ratzinger, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, the World Convention of Churches of Christ (Disciples of Christ), the Friends' World Committee for Consultation, the International Congregational Council, the World Methodist Council, the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom, the World Council of Churches, the Australian Council of Churches, the Marshmallow man from "GhostBusters," and a bunch of squeegee guys on the corner of Elmwood and West Chippewa.
Take it from One Who Knows, you have no choice but to attend, and despite your best efforts, be appalled.
Thanks, Papa Montini!!!
Dear Dr. I've never known a real Trad who did not like those prayers. The Prayer of preparation for Mass is not from Consilium, it is from The New Roman Missal by Fr. Lasance but I can not remember where the Post Communion Prayer came from but it is just a beautiful prayer.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it came from one of the Catholic old timers who learnt it to me in the hills of Vermont?
I do thank you for taking the time to read (and post) the experiences of just one Catholic Traditionalist who lives in a Dead Diocese (Palm Beach Diocese, Florida) and the fact that I know what I experience is not uncommon suggests a certain unpleasant solidarity in the time of the new pentecost; and, who knows, by allowing me to write about what happens to this Trad it may help me to avoid the temptation I have of destroying every single existing Sanctuary Screen brick by brick.
Only after you've immersed yourself in the Traditional Latin Mass for some years and subsequently return for a visit to the Novus Ordo, do you realize how how abusive, bizarre, banal, irreverent, pedestrian, vaudeville, cheap, and disgusting the Li'l Licit Ligurgy is.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: "Liturgy"
ReplyDeleteDear Ralph. What you wrote is not only incredibly funny, it is almost impeccable in its thesis.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I disagree with is your description of the revolutionary rite as an anti-liturgy; it is a Lil' Licit Liturgy; even though the 1969 GIRM described it as the Lord's Supper.
I was learnt that only eight words are sufficient for an Ordained Priest to confect the Eucharist - This is my body, ...this is my blood - (and he could do that in the course of singing every song in the musical,, South Pacific, as inculturation now seems to demand) and the Lil' Licit Liturgy manages to accomplish that.
Even one far more rigorous than me and thee, The Abbe de Nantes, conceded the Revolutionary Mass was a real Mass and he argued that it would have been literally impossible for the Catholic Church to approve and promulgate a rite that was not a mass for that would have meant the Catholic Church had completely failed.
Even though I know we will disagree about this I have to end by repeating myself - your post is absolutely hilarious and proof positive that the funniest Catholics are Traditional Catholics.
Here is a link to The Abbe de Nantes onThe Mass:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crc-internet.org/1397-the-one-catholic-mass.html
A hearty "Amen" to what "I Am Not Spartacus" said. Ralph is not only the funniest commentator here, but one who always has something worth reading.
ReplyDelete