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Tuesday 20 January 2009

Is it "the Divine Liturgy".... or is it Blechy, fabricated rituals?

A new, to me, blog, the Discerning Deacon.
I will not try to tease out his location from his posts, but some of his words make me wonder if he is a sometime pew- or loft-mate.
I think he could use our prayers (of course, everyone can use prayers, but anyone discerning a vocation deserves special attention.
I recently attended a 'Children's Mass' at my parish. This was the first one I was at since I've been actively seeking to do the will of Christ. And what a shock it was. I should preface by saying that we have two Priests, who are both wonderful men, and have each helped me to grow in maturity and spirituality. To put it loosely, one is of a gentle, "Spirit of Vatican II" formation, and I suspect the other is somewhere on the spectrum of "The reform of the reform." Depending on the celebrant at Mass, we will have a different level of adherence to the GIRM, but it never approaches a Novus Ordo in Latin, nor a 'Clown Mass.'

However, the Children's Mass was quite a departure. ... the Second Reading.. was omitted entirely. .. they had to make time for the antics ahead. God forbid some Catholics spend more than 45 minutes at Mass. When I was in Africa, people would walk all night to make it to the Mission Church, and they would certainly feel ripped-off if the Homily was less than an hour long. But that's a story for another time.

After the Gospel, the Children put on a ...skit... as part of the homily, though mercifully, not in place of it. IT was something about how they were living in the faraway land of "Blech" (pronounced like disgust at some kind of food) and how they had to work together to do something or other. ...The children were really just props and I don't believe they even spoke. They were led/dragged around by our Choir Director who concluded by admitting that they were going to try out for Broadway. Then, the [Choir] Director simply left Mass, while the Pastor started his homily with a Joke. ... Mass Ended with [a song] where we sing "YHWH's people dance for Joy..." The message on the usage of Songs with the Tetragrammation has in fact reached our Parish some time ago. Sigh.

The Byzantine Rite does not refer to the great prayer of the Church as Mass. It is called, The Divine Liturgy. The name itself indicates that Liturgy does not belong to any of us, but only to the Lord. Perhaps the very name has played a small role in preventing the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom from devolving into the Liturgy of Us. ....

Now, I love and respect the perpetrators of all this, but !@#$, the Mass does not need to be made relevant, or be improved upon, regardless of the Good intentions of a Liturgy Committee.
Update -- The blog has disappeared. I suspect its author was fearful that discovery would lead to wounded feelings.
Glad I saw it while it lasted.

3 comments:

lvschant said...

Hurray... another up and coming priest who will care about the sacredness of the liturgy! You are right... we should pray for him and all young men of like mind that they don't get discouraged along the way... J.

Scelata said...

Just one point, he is discerning a vocation to the permanent diaconate.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Dad29 said...

Umnnnhhh....the blog-link does not work.