Do you enforce Tradition at Mass?

[otjm]

For example, if people are socializing in the Church after Mass, this should be nipped in the bud – It is disruptive to the contemplative environment of the Church; it is disrespectful to those who want to pray; and it demonstrates that the people doing it are missing the boat, since one of the purposes of Mass is to pray and give thanks to God, and what better way then to spend an extra 5 or 15 minutes at the end of Mass in silent recollection? The TLM sort of had this built in with the final Gospel, Salve Regina, Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, prayers of thanksgiving after Mass, etc.

Personal prayer after Mass is not a bad thing, and I agree that the socializing should go on outside the Church. But it might be remembered that the prayers after Mass were eliminated because they were something that over time had been added on. There is nothing wrong with the prayers inherently, but if people want to gather for a prayer service (such as is done in some places against abortion, or for peace), then it would be appropriate to have a time set apart, not immediately after the Mass, to do so.

More serious still are matters of misunderstanding or ignorance of dogma and practice. In the “olden days,” maybe 10-25% of the congregation went up to receive Communion, and yet many went to Confession.

While the lines for confession were longer, they certainly did not represnt even 10% of the congregation. In addition, there were two other issues at work: the strict fast from midnight, coupled with a lingering bit of Jansenism.

(It’s still that way in some parts of the world, like rural Spain.) Presently, the situation is reversed, with few going to Confession, and nearly everybody going to receive Communion. Obviously, the nature and number of sins is unlikely to have changed – if anything, they’ve worsened, not gotten better. Therefore, the same number of people today would be in need of going to Confession for absolution from mortal sins, prior to being able to receive Communion, as in the past.

The old bit from the Baltimore Catechism comes to mind: one of the elements of a mortal sin is that one must know that the issue is seriously sinful. We have had 30 or more years of absolutely abysmal catechesis; it was more important that the kids in religious class cut out paper butterflies to represent the Resurection than that the learn the faith. Many people going to Communion have no concept of mortal sin, let alone the need to confess. I agree that we need more and better catechesis, including better homilies which bring Scripture to our daily lives; but we also need to be a little bit more careful about presuming who is committing a mortal sin and then going to Communion.

And yet most people don’t. Since most people don’t go to Church alone (they usually go with friends and families), I would argue that those moms and dads and brothers and sisters and cousins and spouses should wave the red flag and object or at least question when someone receives Communion after knowingly being in a state of mortal sin. I’m not sure how many people do this (and hence the question in the poll).

Given that those brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts have all had the same abysmal lack of catechesis, that is the equivalent of the blind leading the blind.

If I may be so bold as to change the direction of discussion in this thread, may I ask everyone to give some specific examples of the more serious problems they’ve seen at Masses, and how they approached them? Maybe together we can come up with some inventive and effective ways to turn the tide.

My suggestion is along the lines of before you take the splinter out of your brother’s eye, see to it first that the log in your own eye is removed.

Added to that is the fact that the priest is first and foremost in charge of the parish. first, before we tell the priest how to run the parish, we might spend time in prayer. We can pray for the priest, that the Holy Spirit will enlighten him. We can pray for vocations. We can pray also for the bishop, who is our spiritual father and the direct descendant of the Apostles. We can spend time in prayer for the salvation of souls - starting with our own.

 

[pnewton]

If I may be so bold as to change the direction of discussion in this thread, may I ask everyone to give some specific examples of the more serious problems they’ve seen at Masses, and how they approached them? Maybe together we can come up with some inventive and effective ways to turn the tide.

I can tell you that my priest has addressed the method and attitude of receiving communion. He specifically has mentioned chewing gum, slouchy posture and lack of reverence. He has also banned all food and drink.

 

[alessandro]

I can tell you that my priest has addressed the method and attitude of receiving communion. He specifically has mentioned chewing gum, slouchy posture and lack of reverence. He has also banned all food and drink.

Chewing gum?!

Never would’ve even thought…

 

[Wolseley]

Chewing gum?!

Never would’ve even thought…

I’ve seen it. Usually from teenage boys wearing baseball caps inside the church.

 

[Cat]

I’ve seen it. Usually from teenage boys wearing baseball caps inside the church.

I’ve also seen it from elderly people and middle-aged women (like myself) who are using meds that cause extreme dry mouth (e.g., Detrol, Enablex).

I think it’s always best to take a charitable viewpoint. If the priest says no, of course we should submit to his wise leadership, because he speaks for Our Lord. I agree that most people chewing gum are not on meds. But I say let’s think the best of people rather than assuming that they are committing a sin.

 

[Wolseley]

I’ve also seen it from elderly people and middle-aged women (like myself) who are using meds that cause extreme dry mouth (e.g., Detrol, Enablex).

I think it’s always best to take a charitable viewpoint. If the priest says no, of course we should submit to his wise leadership, because he speaks for Our Lord. I agree that most people chewing gum are not on meds. But I say let’s think the best of people rather than assuming that they are committing a sin.

I agree that those with a medical reason have a good excuse, Cat (although I tend to think it would be better to sip bottled water rather than chew gum, IMO). But how many teenaged boys are taking such medications? And how about the hats? What medical excuse do they have for that? Exposure to open air makes their hair dry out?

 

[pnewton]

The chewing gum was really not the big issue. When our priest mentioned the gum it was in context of waiting in communion line like we are waiting to go into a ball park. A few months back, a man that sits with me in choir got up during the Mass and drifted all the way around to the other side of the sanctuary. There were some teenage boys in his CCE class with ball caps and he took the initiative to go and tell them to remove their caps in Church. I was impressed with his fortitude.