Do you have summer Rawhide Masses?

[CarrieH]

The priest at the parish church I attended back in the 1990’s was guilty of this. He would offer Sunday Mass in 20 minutes on a hot day (this was an old church building with no a/c). :bigyikes: There would be one hymn for the entire Mass, and the congregation would sing one or two verses during the processional and one verse for the recessional. The organist would play something short during the offertory and during communion. The gloria, homily, and creed were all omitted. I wonder if these Masses were even valid, but I didn’t know any better at the time. I understand that the bishop put a speedy end to this once he was notified, but I had moved to a different city by then.

 

[MarieVeronica]

Hi “Bibbet”. That’s kind of strange, for sure. The only change I notice in summer… is that our regular Adult Choir… goes on hiatus, until Fall. With a less formal “fill-in” Choir, taking over.

But Mass, incense, homilies… etc. about the same.

(P.S. I’m sorry if you feel like the cattle in the Rawhide song. That made me laugh. At least you’re keeping a great sense of humor about it. God bless).

 

[Bibbit]

I did try to be funny or cute with the Rawhide reference, so thanks. But I must say I feel robbed when I am at Sunday Mass and the priest does it with such speed as to make me wonder where he needs to go in such a hurry. I’m talking a speed that is for speed’s sake, meaning there is a noticeable loss of reverence. And I’m talking at the Mass which is supposed to be the parish’s main Sunday Mass. The 7:30am is understood to be the quicker Mass (no music, etc), the 9:30am the children’s Mass (loud and louder), and the 11:30am the most reverent (for lack of a better word at this time of night, it’s 1:30am:yawn. Still, summer comes and the 11:30 am starts rivaling the 7:30am in terms of speed. I may very well talk to my pastor or assistant pastor this weekend. But my experience has been my pastor does not change things much, usually not at all, for what may be a minority opinion. I’d bet a tank of gasoline that if I took a survey at my parish it would conclude that the folks like the quick summer Mass.

 

[Sam_Maloney]

The problem in my parish-- when we still had a priest-- was the opposite. It was his last Mass of the weekend, and he’d usually blow in 10 minutes late, and raaammmble, giving us a 40 minute homily and 90 minute Mass. Very self indulgent.

These days we have rotating visiting priests, who more to the point but very reverent. Sadly, the music director, Ms. Squeaknsquawk, has discovered a 7 minute version of the Gloria that is less a matter of praise than penance.

 

[LilyM]

The priest at the parish church I attended back in the 1990’s was guilty of this. He would offer Sunday Mass in 20 minutes on a hot day (this was an old church building with no a/c). :bigyikes: There would be one hymn for the entire Mass, and the congregation would sing one or two verses during the processional and one verse for the recessional. The organist would play something short during the offertory and during communion. The gloria, homily, and creed were all omitted. I wonder if these Masses were even valid, but I didn’t know any better at the time. I understand that the bishop put a speedy end to this once he was notified, but I had moved to a different city by then.

The only things that would invalidate a Mass are

a) if the bread or wine are improper (not pure wheat and pure fermented grape juice without additives)

b) if the words of consecration (‘this is my body … this is my blood…’) aren’t said or are said incorrectly

c) the priest lacks the requisite intent to consecrate the bread and wine

Any changes/omissions in other parts of the Mass make it illicit (and can be serious abuses, so the Bishop was right to get involved here) but still valid, still fulfils your Sunday obligation for example.

 

[Lux_et_Tenebrae]

To the OP, your parish is not unlike many others out there. I’m familiar with many churches in RI as my wife is from there and we don’t live too far away. We went to another parish 3 weeks ago to visit a priest-friend of ours and we appalled with the attire, espicially some of the collectors and EMHC’s. Picture older men wearing Hawaiian Shirts.

Picture a rubinesque female EMHC in short shorts. I guess she thought it was OK because they were looser, but then she bowed (sometimes it is best to nod, rather than bow)

I take a Hawaiian shirt any day—a LONG Hawaiian shirt

Lux

 

[NicPais83]

Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’
Those are some of the lyrics, and they fit pretty well with what happens at my parish every summer. For some reason, my pastor takes the Mass really serious during the other three seasons, but summer is different. It suddenly becomes move 'em in and move 'em out time. I know my parish is in a coastal state and the beaches are less than an hour away, but come on! The Mass suddenly get 10 minutes shorter, and the feasts do not get celebrated with the same vigor as they are during the other months. Incense? Forget about it during summer. Normal length homilies? They’re gone too, quick and not so to the point they are. Hymns? No, we have what I call hymnettes as we sing very few songs more than half way through. Of course folks dress like they just got out of bed and are going to put the garbage out for the morning collection (income has no direct correlation as the doctors and professionals do it as much as the non-professionals). Attendance goes way down, yet we still have extraordinary ministers giving out communion, this despite the fact that the 11:30am Mass generally has three priests for a Mass that is not at all heavily attended. Anybody have any idea why this wonderful parish in the northeast corner of RI suddenly changes when the winds turn warm? I go to this parish because I grew up in it and for three seasons it’s wonderful. But every summer I seriously consider movin’ on myself, to a place where the Mass is celebrated with the same love and vigor all year long. This simply makes no sense to me. Heaven never takes time off, and we should never take time off from our love for the Mass.

You have incense at all?! You are one lucky son of a gun!

 

[idrum677]

Sadly, the music director, Ms. Squeaknsquawk, has discovered a 7 minute version of the Gloria that is less a matter of praise than penance.

That reminds me of my wife’s former parish. We hired our own musician for our wedding.