The Late Summer or Early MeteorologicalAutmn of My Discontent

The funeral almost immediately on my return from the rarified liturgical air of an intentional community, featured some mourners waiting for a "private" Baptism to be finished.
If anyone honestly wonders why the average PIP in our parish resents "their Mass" being interrupted by "those people" having a baptism, may I offer several points for consideration?
It is perfectly apparent to anyone with eyes and ears that "well, this is the way we do it here," just isn't true -- if you are connected enough to have the Baptism outside of a regularly scheduled Sunday Mass, (which is seemingly what most parents would prefer.)
It is not just priests who will bend the rules for friends or for families of long standing in the parish, or whose parents are on this or that council, or deacons who understandably wish to baptize their own grandchildren, it is even the person in charge of prep, at least one of whose grandchildren was not forced to go through the "Attend 3 Classes, Attend 3 Separate Ceremonies at 3 Separate [and not always consecutive,] Sunday Masses" regimen that some PTB has decreed.
How can this not breed resentment among those who do dutifully attend, even for second and third children?
Nevertheless, naturally this is going to lead to the appearance that the group Baptisms are mostly of people who aren't "regulars," since so many "regulars" get special treatment that they are less visible at the Baptismal Marathon.
And then of course, there is the marathon itself.
We are not going to convince people to love having their normal worship disrupted this way, by repeating to them that this is the way it is supposed to be done, that this is the way the Church asks us to do it, because She DOESN'T.
You cannot inundate people with fabricated ritual, and then expect the resentment that causes not to spill over onto authentic ritual.


The funeral featured a person who just showed up to solo.
This is happening more and more often.
I have no way of knowing if this kind of thing is at the family's wishes or not, and I don't like being put in this position... one ends up guessing which decision will cause the least pain and do the least damage to the Sacred Rites.
So, in the past I've had to say no to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow..." and to juggle dueling and conflicting requests, made by dueling and conflicting soloists, at the behest of dueling and conflicting family members.


And Scary Weddings are growing exponentially. The proliferation of "reality" tv shows about weddings is to blame in large part, but so is the more generalized co-opting of the Liturgy by individuals and groups, and the wide-spread notion that this is a Good Thing.
A priest reporting one Bridezilla-ish request he'd had to put his foot down over, asked rhetorically, where they got off thinking the Mass was theirs to do with as they wished?
I bit my tongue, having heard him say in that the very place, only a few hours earlier, the precise words, "this is your Mass! this isn't just mine, it's yours, too," as a way of stirring up louder musical response from sullen or distracted schoolchildren.
Incidentally, may I say how shocked I am that a variety of musicians, teachers and clerics, with a liturgical sensibility distinctly different from that which I tried to pursue, are having trouble drumming up enthusiasm, (the dearth of which I was assured, was a direct result of the Gregorian psalm tones)?
Gambling at Ricks?

The Sunday Masses
At companions gathering (we are not to call it a meeting any more,) I learned that I am, if not in the minority, at least in the minority amongst those willing to voice their opinion, on the question of whether the Motu Proprio is a Good Thing.
The idea that the Extraordinary Rite could have an ameliatory gravitational pull on the Ordinary Rite was poo-poohed, even though all agreed with, and rushed in with horror stories to illustrate the truth of, the assertion that the fall-off in reverence, in disregard and even contempt for proper ritual, and in civil behavior, has been enormous.
The song we sang was one I had not heard before, (we are not to sing songs that do not express the specific spirituality of the society any more,) but there is a prayer book that will, I suppose, feautre hymns as well? so I will hear it again, or at least others like it.
(Wonder how "Jesu, Salvator Mundi" would go over... would that meet the criterion?)
The reading was a wonderful piece from Archbishop Romero, that remeinded me of something esle, from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, IIRC, that I'll have to look up. (We are not to do reading or prayers that do not deal with Precious Blood spirituality any more.)
I asked if that reading would pass muster. Hem. Would that meet the newly emphasized criterion? Haw. I have to say, I have never noticed a problem with any prayer prepared by anyone in our gathering, at least not in deviating from the topic of the Precious Blood, unless you count the odd Our Father or Memorare, but perhaps it is a problem in other groups? Well, Oscar Romero was very involved in social justice. (Or is that Social Justice?) Anyway, that makes readings from the martyr's writings acceptable. Yes.
That leaves me still a bit confused, but my way out of the dilemma is to volunteer for refreshment prep rather than prayer prep.