GregoryPalamas:
There’s enough scandal in the world and in the Church without turning positives into negatives, isn’t there?
Dan L
Dan, my Eastern brother,
Gotta agree with buffalo here… the GIRM is very clear on the appropriate posture for the delivery of the homily, and this document is, after all, the “rule book” with regard to the celebration of the Mass. As members of the Church, both lay individuals and clergy, we’re
obligated to follow the rules, no matter how trivial we may believe them to be or how much better suited we believe our own interpretations to be with regard to the specifics of our own congregation. At the risk of sounding as though I’m stretching a point, it’s these arbitrary parish-by-parish “tweaks” of the rules, albeit many well-intended, that slowly but surely destroy liturgical consistency.
Dan, I’m aware that you were a Methodist preacher prior to your conversion to Catholicism. It’s understandable that you would still carry some amount of that “baggage” with you. To assume, however, that we can apply the much freer Protestant philosophies regarding the structure of community worship to our Catholic liturgical practice is a fatal flaw. Ours (
yours, now) is a Church of Tradition. The Liturgy (or Mass) is the
culmination of the expression of our Catholic faith and we, the lay individuals and the clergy, have no right to tamper with it. Period.
You stated in one of your posts in this thread that, “Worship is done in all sorts of ways.” While this statement is generally true, I believe we need to add a qualifier that states that
communal worship, within the framework of a given sui iuris Catholic Church, is done ONE WAY and one way ONLY - that is, within the prescribed guidelines established for that particular ritualistic celebration, be it the Latin Mass, the Byzantine Divine Liturgy or any of our other expressions of communal Catholic worship. Once we start trivializing self-enacted liturgical changes by rationalizing that they’re not as important as the bigger problems facing our Church today, we place ourselves on the road to anarchy.
Deal with what he says and don’t worry about how he says it and everyone will be happier.
Let’s be clear on this… there are plenty of opportunities to make everyone in a given congregation happier that don’t involve altering our sacred rituals. Liturgical worship is not about how happy we can make people feel. It’s about coming together as a community of believers to give praise and glory to our Creator
in the manner prescribed by our Church, knowing that countless others across our globe are simultaneously doing the same thing, and have been for centuries. THAT, my friend, should be sufficient to earn
any congregation a “happy” enough return on their one-hour-per-week or so investment (slightly longer in our Byzantine tradition
). If it’s not, perhaps some inward-directed reflection as to
why they choose to be Catholic in the first place would be in order.
I don’t really mean to be critical of the critical but isn’t this rather picky?
No, Dan, it’s not picky. Quite the opposite, in fact. It speaks to the very essence of who we are as a faith community. The format of our liturgical worship, as entrusted to us by those who came before us, is not up for grabs… not even the most seemingly inconsequential part of it. It is prescribed and codefied, not for our own comfort and convenience, but as a means by which we may, with God’s grace, climb above our feeble selves and achieve
Theosis, a oneness with our Creator. How blessed we are to have this gift of liturgy He has given us! Shame on us if we choose to alter that gift to suit our own whims and fancies.
