And is shocked at what he finds. There is much in this post by Father Mark that deserves wide distribution and reflection. Because ultimately what it reveals is a loss of sense of why we go to Mass at all–and unfortunately the ones who “plan” liturgies are often the most clueless, giving such platitudes as “we are building community.” I’ve got news for you–Mass isn’t about what “we” do but what has and is being done to us not by liturgical organizers but by God.
The Mother Teresa book (mentioned in the post below) points out the real temptation that enters into the life of every person who sets out to follow Christ. Mother Teresa’s sanctity is evident because she was not overcome by those temptations, most of us aren’t so saintly and when the doubt and darkness creep in we seek to take charge and run the show ourselves. This is the great disaster that most of us have to put up with on a weekly basis when someone comes to a microphone and starts giving us instructions on what it is we are going to do today at Mass.
God gathers us to Himself–God brings us into communion with Himself, our active participation in the Mass is all about saying “Yes” to God and being aware of our inability to say “yes” with our whole being.
1) The loss of any notion of sacred space. I think this is directly related to the removal of the Communion Rail or other effective delineation of the sanctuary of the church. Time to rally ’round the rood screen again! The Tractarians were right.
2) Mass “facing the people.” This, more than anything else, undermined and continues to undermine the faithful’s experience of the Mass as a Sacrifice offered to God in adoration, propitiation, thanksgiving, and supplication. The altar has become the big desk of the clerical CEO behind it: The Presider. It has become a stage prop for the “performing priest,” complete with The Microphone.
3) Holy Communion in the hand. I see it every time I offer Mass in a parish church: the casual approach prevails. If one receives the Holy Mysteries like ordinary bread and a sip of ordinary wine, one begins rather sooner than later, will-nilly, to think of them as mere bread and wine.
4) No bells. Instead of ringing a sacristy bell to announce the beginning of Mass, the organist leaned into His Microphone and said, “Let us stand to greet Father Kirby.” Sorry. That is not what the Entrance Procession is about. It is a humble, joyful, and orderly movement into the Holy Place, a crossing-over from chronos (worldly, stressful, clocked time) to kairos (the heavenly, tranquil, timeless moment of God), an entering into the adorable presence of the God who is like a consuming fire, a making-ready for the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven. A bell says it better.
Same thing during the Eucharistic Prayer. People need to be warned of the imminence of the most sacred moment of the Mass, even when the Eucharistic Prayer (Canon) is prayed aloud and in the vernacular. A bell does the job quite nicely. And another thing: saying the whole Eucharistic Prayer aloud and in the vernacular does not automatically guarantee “full, conscious, and actual participation” in the Holy Sacrifice. Silence, on the other hand, at least for certain parts of the Eucharistic Prayer, effectively opens a door onto the Holy Mysteries.
4) Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Alas, they are not extraordinary. They are ubiquitous and, I think, superfluous. Does expediting the distribution of Holy Communion really constitute grave necessity? In the church where I offered Mass last Saturday there were four Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, all of whom were women. Three were wearing casual slacks and one was showing cleavage. They could have been serving lemonade at the parish garden party. It was frightfully inappropriate.
Could there not be properly instituted acolytes for the service of the Holy Mysteries where such are needed? These would be adult men — few in number — suitably vested in amice, alb, and cincture and, most of all, schooled in reverence, attention, and devotion, and carefully trained for the service of the sacred liturgy.
This brings up yet another issue? Where have all the men gone? At last Saturday’s Mass, the four Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, the Server, and one Lector were all women. I am not a misogynist. But honestly, this situation does nothing to foster priestly vocations.
5) The Music. Dare I call it that? Oh, the music! Show-tuney, trite, tired, and sickeningly sentimental with the organist/crooner singing into His Microphone. Might we not try singing the Mass itself: the Ordinary and the Propers? More than anything else celebrants must begin taking their sacerdotal obligations seriously by learning to cantillate the dialogical parts of the Mass, the orations, the Preface Dialogue and Preface, and the other elements that belong uniquely to them as priests.
I am not a gloomy person by nature, but last Saturday’s Mass left me very sad indeed. “For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?” (Lk 23:31).
Filed under: liturgy, Mass, Michael Dubruiel, Vultus Christi Tagged: | Michael Dubruiel
This monk has put his finger on many of the problems that beset the typical parish liturgy. The reverence for the Mass has been lost and has been replaced by a weekly family get-together. There is nothing wrong with family get-togethers, but that simply is not the Mass. The Church will gradually wither if the true Mass is not restored because people will eventually weary of coming to these unsatisfying gatherings.
It’s not only parish churches, I’m afraid. See my experiences at a Cathedral in the South of England last Sunday:
http://sifractus.squarespace.com/journal/2007/8/28/cathedral-blues.html
My question, where the heck has this monk been for 40 years???? Why is he so shocked? I am all for upholding the sanctity of the Mass, but perhaps the “performing priest” is reaching WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY more people than the doctrine quoting stiffo! I know that rules are important but what about HOLINESS and LOVE?! It’s like this monk is saying that holiness is completely impossible aside from Ecclesistical Latin, communion on the tongue and ad orientem liturgies. WHY do people have to be so judgmental about what other people might find edifying and holy? Why does it seem like so many people are trying to put God and his Church in a box. I don’t get it. Lord, help us.
If you feel depressed Fr. Mark, you will feel sympathy for those of us in the pews who have to suffer through all this innanity at every Mass and can do nothing about it. You mentioned the shocking dress of the eucharistic ministers especially of one woman immodestly dressed. Immodest dress in church and in our Catholic schools, even grade schools is a real scandal. The smoke of Satan has entered the Church. Its the only way to explain it.
I’m sorry to disagree but, generally speaking, its just not as bad as all that. I know, I know the list of abuses is endless and I’ve experienced many of them…the worst being required, as a parish community, to ‘witness’ the baptisms of children being raised by gay couples in the parish at the main Sunday liturgies. Basically putting the children in an untenable position but that’s another story.
I only use it to illustrate that I understand liturgical abuses. What i don’t understand is the notion that, if we install the altar rails again & can the EMs etc, we’ll all understand “sacred space”…itself a term coined post-VII.
I personally am not interested in attending liturgies that only cover a small portion of the Bible during the course of the liturgical year or in which I’m not allowed to receive the Precious Blood of Our Lord anymore. Sacred Space begins in each one of us
I attend mass at a small parish and yes, I am an em most Sundays. I always dress in a long dress that has at least 3/4 length sleeves and a high neckline. I serve our Lord with a quiet reverence, knowing full well that I am holding the cup that holds the Body or Blood of our Lord.
I am filling this position because our elderly priest has no help and not enough men interested in serving, so that leave little choice.
There is much wrong with our mass, but there is much right. It is only with people (men or women) who are interested in serving our Lord properly that we will be able to bring our young to know the true gift we have.
Catholics around the world don’t even read the same version of the Bible. How do you expect them to celebrate Mass the same. I had a Nun tell me that I probably knew more about the Bible then she did. I was shocked. We have Catholic schools with protestant teachers. We have decans who think they walk on water. My faith has never failed me. The ROMAN Catholic Faith that is. Not those other catholic faiths. But, ministers of the ROMAN Catholic faith fail all of us every day of the week. It really doesn’t matter I guess. In 10 to 20 years we’ll all be muslims or dead. The ROMAN Catholic Church leaders need to pull the Church together. Catholic is Universal. One Faith, the Same, in all countries of the world. And that is just my humble opinion, observation and feelings.
May God help us all …………….
JAS: The monk was in the monastery. That’s generally where monks can be found.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell famously likened the post-Vatican II mass with the Priest turned around to a Julia Child cooking show because they removed all the mystery from it.
I agree about the music. There’s nothing quite like good church music. A well sung Ave Maria could leave the angels in tears, I’m sure.
I must agree with 99% of what Fr. Mark had to say. I would like to know who he is and what his position in the Church is at this time. If the information is available to me, please contact me at grammshart@yahoo.com
Thank you.
Grace M. Alvarez,
a servant of God
Friends, the term “sacred space” was not coined after Vatican II. It goes back to the classic liturgical movement and, in particular, to the writings of Romano Guardini and Dom Odo Casel, who saw it as part of a coherent whole including sacred time, sacred gesture, sacred chant, and what Dom Vagaggini referred to as “the whole complexus of sacred signs”
November 30, 2006, Patriarch Bartholomew I to Pope Benedict XVI:
“With the grace of God, Your Holiness, we have been blessed to enter the joy of the Kingdom, to “see the true light and receive the heavenly Spirit.” Every celebration of the Divine Liturgy is a powerful and inspiring con-celebration of heaven and of history. Every Divine Liturgy is both an anamnesis of the past and an anticipation of the Kingdom. We are convinced that during this Divine Liturgy, we have once again been transferred spiritually in three directions: toward the kingdom of heaven where the angels celebrate; toward the celebration of the liturgy through the centuries; and toward the heavenly kingdom to come.”