Sunday Mass…
And maybe why some guys just hate going.
I wasn’t able to get to Mass for Candlemas so I attended the vigil Mass for Sunday last evening. It was a flippin’ zoo! The past couple of weeks it has been like that, despite the fact the pastor is actually pretty ‘orthodox’ - he follows the rubrics and all of that.
Last evening within Mass, there were three infant baptisms, with the entire church called around the hot-tub baptismal pool after the readings and father’s homily. (How is this not interrupting Mass? Can’t Sunday Mass be without interruption? Oh I know - we do it at the the Easter Vigil, and every Sunday we commemorate the Resurrection - I know it is supposed to fit- but c’mon… can’t it be done well? Make it flow at least.)
After the prayer of the faithful, the finance person for the parish gets in his speech. (Applause.) Then the collection gets going, with the hideous piano-bar background music, and the cantor whose voice emanates from her throat, to the point she sounds as if she is gargling, singing those ole tyme religion schmalzie hymns. Everything is too effing protestant!
Did I mention the youth group in front of me text messaging each other through out Mass? Crap! I forgot to mention the intro before Mass of all the out-of-towners. “And where’s this lil’ lady from?” She answers. He responds with the accent thing, “Oooh! North Dakota! Fargo I s’pose, huh?!” (Laughter. Applause.) Then before the final blessing, everyone with something significant going on this week must stand up for all of us to raise our hands in blessing over these special people. (Applause.) A big good bye to the piano player - she’s moving on someplace… (More applause.) Final blessing. Final hymn. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
This isn’t what Mass, praise and worship is supposed to be about, is it? Aren’t the words of dismissal, “The Mass has ended, now go in peace” supposed to mean that? I left pretty agitated.
I’m not really complaining - I’m just telling the truth - THIS IS NOT THE MASS! The Catholic Church was once the epitome of taste and dignity, now, in many American Catholic parishes, it is the epitome of tacky, tasteless, worse than protestant schmalz.
While I’m on the subject, many Sunday Masses are the equivalent of a child’s recital or school play, which parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, seem to enjoy attending because their kids are singing in the choir or serving the Mass, or carrying up the gifts - or involved in some kind of performance art, and everyone else has to sit through the ordeal with a frozen smile.
Please! Kill me now!
(I know - if I don’t like it, I can drive 20+ miles for a trad Mass in the middle of the day on Sunday.)
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 am
If your priest is, as you say, pretty orthodox then God help if your parish gets one imbued with “the Spirit of Vatican II” - that or a “trained liturgist”.
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
I could tell you a tale of baptisms during a Christmas Mass at my parish that would infuriate you no end.
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
sounds like “New Age” to me….
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
So terrible that Sunday mass ends up being such an ordeal…..
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Just be glad you have a choice on where you can go - some of us don’t.
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Anna ~ That’s not New Age - new age is actually practiced at other parishes involving eco-spirituality, talks about women and water, and honoring gaia as the renamed sophia, or wisdom. And Bible studies called “Historical Jesus” taught by a guy who hypenates his name because he can’t figure out which surname is proper.
Terry’s parish is hillbilly heaven without all the hillbillys because they have better taste.
That about right, Terry?
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Julie - that’s pretty close - the Merv Griffin show might be a good one too, or maybe PTL Club - the woman who was lector was crying at one point. LOL!
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Ter: I’m with ya, bro. I feel like I have no business complaining about liturgy since I perpetuated much of the abuse for decades.
But, today, I’m craving reverence so bad I’m debating switching parishes. There is so much talking before and after Mass at my parish that I can’t concentrate on prayer. I’ve given up trying to pray a Rosary there before Mass. Too much unecessary commotion. Today was the kids choir. Er, cute, but I’m sorry they are really bad sounding. They don’t rehearse and I think the whole thing is more for the parents then the kids. I try to love them all but dang it’s hard sometimes. In any case, I went to a different parish today to escape the off-key and shouting lambs and to hear the reading on charity at the TLM. See, how I’ve forgotten it already?
Hey, I’ll move to that desert island with you.
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Terry, you are fortunate to have other parishes in a few minutes drive. perhaps attending those would be best. If I don’t like the Mass at my parish, my option is 240 miles away. As it is I attend the Vigil Mass because the Sunday AM Mass is guitar playing,singing women with out of tune guitars, bad voices and the “hymnal” Glory and Praise.
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Harry - yes you are right - I have been slothful and ungrateful that I live in a metro area which has real Catholic churches with decent liturgies, so I am at fault. I feel terrible that other people, such as yourself and Angela, have no other choice. (I’m very serious.)
February 4th, 2008 at 10:43 am
During the summer when we are at our cabin we have few good choices for Mass. One Mass has the “everybody greet your neighbor” intro and then the “everybody bless the birthday and anniversary folks” ending. The middle is pretty much just filler for the social hour.
The other parish has baptisms during Mass just about every Sunday (there is only one Mass) and since this is the parish we attend every week during the summer, I know these folks haven’t set foot in a church outside of occasions like this. And, the most offensive part is when the entire family sits in the reserved seats in the front of the church and as soon as the baptism is over, they just walk out..right as Father is beginning the meat and potatoes part of Mass.
By the time fall rolled around, I felt like a total stranger at a “real” Mass! This is a huge reason why we don’t just sell our house and move to our cabin…I couldn’t stand to live without a Mass that doesn’t make me want to run screaming from the church!
February 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Terry,
I feel your pain. I really do.
If it’s only 20 or so miles, it’s well worth it.
Use that drive time to pray the rosary for people stuck in liturgical deserts where they’d have to drive 200 miles for a decent Mass, or for the people in Saskatchewan, who only get Mass once every six months or so, when the priest travels in from 800 miles away.
Do you feel closer to God when you walk out of Mass? Or do you feel in the throes of the deadly sin of anger?
Is praying the Mass a mystical, heavenly experience or an endurance contest?
No one can convince me that I should go to the parish around the block and endure liturgical dance when I could drive 8 miles (or 20, or whatever) to go to a reverent, holy Mass.
Going to those parishes only encourages that kind of behavior to continue. Giving money to those parishes only serves to make them think they’re right on track.
Call it spiritual pride, call it being snobby, whatever.
I will not sit through homilies about social justice (which does NOT, by the way, include justice for the unborn) and dancers in tights and ad libbed consecrations unless I’m in a liturgical desert and have no choice.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Ma - you are right - I have to drive to the parish where Mass is celebrated correctly.
I do not think you are being snobby or prideful at all.
Thanks.