Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Sunday 18 November 2007

Our Lady of the Ill-Behaved

Himself and I once, planning to attend the local LCM* only to discover it had been canceled due to a parish festival, found ourselves in East Chicago, in a parish we have since referred to as "the Church of the Ill-Behaved," and both vowed never to darken its doors again.
(Shortly thereafter, that became very unlikely, for obvious reasons... the Saturday after Thanksgiving I will have my first sub for weekend Mass since summer of 2006, and will actually miss one, [since I was running in and out of that one,] for the first time since February of that year, and only the second in the last four years.)
Anyway, after Mass today, Himself turned to me and said, that's a first.... huh?
I glanced down, and sure enough, there was a kid, 9 or 10 y.o., with wheelies, apparently trying to decide between hardwood, terrazzo and marble for a home renovation she was contemplating, and testing them all, under the approving, or at least noncommittal gaze of her parental units.
Boorishness has grown to interesting proportions.
Is Catholicism becoming a network of sacramental service station for the essentially unchurched?
We are changing the Mass schedule, it is very sad and is going to cause some real hostility, but it is necessary.
Many reasons, demographics, etc., but I offer that one with a powerful impact is that the attitudes, of far too many who do attend, naturally informs their behavior, a behavior that trivializes the Liturgy and the space in which it is celebrated; a behavior that inarguably telegraphs to the young, to the seeker, to the fence sitter, that what we're doing just ain't all that important.

*Last Chance Mass

4 comments:

Mara Joy said...

At my church, we have confession going on during Adoration, and I think that someone was in confession for about half an hour (I was in the front of the church praying,) because I could hear little kids talking audibly and walking around, and...finally a little girl wanders up by the altar, looks at me, (I gave her a "death look") and then wanders back...yeah...people have no idea how to teach their kids respect for sacred things. Oh wait, that's probably because they don't have it themselves...

Anonymous said...

I felt compelled to come down from the loft to tell a child not to continue her experimentation as to whihc surface was the most pleasant on which to use her Wheelies: hardwood, terrazzo or marble.
!!?@#?$?%??!!!!!!!
Maybe I'm just a busy-body...

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Anonymous said...

I felt compelled to come down from the loft to tell a child not to continue her experimentation as to whihc surface was the most pleasant on which to use her Wheelies: hardwood, terrazzo or marble.
!!?@#?$?%??!!!!!!!
Maybe I'm just a busy-body...

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Anonymous said...

I felt compelled to come down from the loft to tell a child not to continue her experimentation as to whihc surface was the most pleasant on which to use her Wheelies: hardwood, terrazzo or marble.
!!?@#?$?%??!!!!!!!
Maybe I'm just a busy-body...

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)