Does God design some souls to be more sensitive to liturgy?

[Brennan_Doherty]

I can only speak from a Protestant childhood, but my experience among Cs and Ps alike (who have each undergone certain changes in architecture and prevailing worship styles) is this: EXTREMELY BROADLY SPEAKING–yes, yes, exceptions abound–I find that older people who grew up in ornate churches and traditional liturgies tend to underappreciate them, or to oppose them in the same sense in which a teenage may oppose his parents’ values. AGAIN, BROADLY SPEAKING, among Christians who grew up after the stripping-down of cathedral and liturgy, there’s a tendency to regret a past richness that one was never allowed to experience personally, like heirlooms that one’s parents threw away to make a “clean start” for themselves, posterity be damned.

Now, perhaps the latter group wouldn’t appreciate such things any better had they been permitted to grow up among them. But when you grow up in churches that resemble stripped-down auditoriums, and when the language you hear is informed by the “Spirit of V2” or is the dulcet Amway-ese of evangelical Christianity, a fellow becomes downright starved for beauty, and is tempted to resent his immediate predecessors’ judgment that he’d be better off without it. The fevered contemporaneity of much Christian worship seems like aggression not only against one’s grandfathers, but against one’s grandchildren. The “simple austerity” that many Christians chose for themselves looks different to their successors who never knew its converse.

Yes, “starved for beauty”–exactly! And perhaps what is even worse is that in America we live in a culture that is in a sense stripped down to the lowest common denominator. I mean, it’s difficult to find alot of nourishment for the soul at a Wal-Mart or a strip mall. Thus we need, for the nourishment of our souls that God designed to appreciate and respond to Beauty, liturgical and architectural beauty to help offset the ugliness and mediocrity of modern American culture. Excellent post!

 

[Brennan_Doherty]

I can only speak from a Protestant childhood, but my experience among Cs and Ps alike (who have each undergone certain changes in architecture and prevailing worship styles) is this: EXTREMELY BROADLY SPEAKING–yes, yes, exceptions abound–I find that older people who grew up in ornate churches and traditional liturgies tend to underappreciate them, or to oppose them in the same sense in which a teenage may oppose his parents’ values. AGAIN, BROADLY SPEAKING, among Christians who grew up after the stripping-down of cathedral and liturgy, there’s a tendency to regret a past richness that one was never allowed to experience personally, like heirlooms that one’s parents threw away to make a “clean start” for themselves, posterity be damned.

Now, perhaps the latter group wouldn’t appreciate such things any better had they been permitted to grow up among them. But when you grow up in churches that resemble stripped-down auditoriums, and when the language you hear is informed by the “Spirit of V2” or is the dulcet Amway-ese of evangelical Christianity, a fellow becomes downright starved for beauty, and is tempted to resent his immediate predecessors’ judgment that he’d be better off without it. The fevered contemporaneity of much Christian worship seems like aggression not only against one’s grandfathers, but against one’s grandchildren. The “simple austerity” that many Christians chose for themselves looks different to their successors who never knew its converse.

And actually, you are probably being kinder to the generation that instigated and/or allowed the beauty of the liturgy and our churches to be stripped away than I am (though not all did). To me, there is something intrinsically wrong when people take something such as the liturgy, strip it of its beauty and mystery, then do the same to the churches, and actually believe they’ve made an improvement. I wonder if that’s happened much before in history.

 

[Rabbititus]

And actually, you are probably being kinder to the generation that instigated and/or allowed the beauty of the liturgy and our churches to be stripped away than I am (though not all did). To me, there is something intrinsically wrong when people take something such as the liturgy, strip it of its beauty and mystery, then do the same to the churches, and actually believe they’ve made an improvement. I wonder if that’s happened much before in history.

In the arts it seems to happen in a cycle - you’ll often find periods of excessive ornament and romanticism followed by periods of more stripped down aesthetics. Then, after the sparer period, you’ll have a return to more ornament. Probably the most extreme of these contrasts has been in our own modern time with Victorianism and Modernism.

I too resent the ruining of churches, so many stunningly beautiful ones stripped down. I think that a lot of churches would have been ruined regardless of the changes in liturgy since it was what was going on in the secular world of the time (look for books like “Capitol Losses” and “Lost Chicago” and you’ll see pages and pages of great buildings being replaced by the mediocre). However, I do think the liturgical changes and the “Spirit of Vatican II” excellerated the remuddling and unfortunately still drives it today. Christian groups seem to have a bad reputation among architectural preservationists from what I gather.

 

[az_4_faith]

Ten years ago I was asked by our grade-school principal to coordinate the school’s K-8 weekly liturgies. I had no prior experience. The Holy Spirit led me, and I dove into every resource within the Church that I could get my hands on. I continuously collaborated with our parish priests, deferring to their direction. Fortunately, I was always blessed with priests obedient to the GIRM and they were very happy to instruct me (and correct me when I was out of line).

Over those ten years, I absolutely fell in love with the Mass as given to us by our Holy Mother Church. I learned the history of the Mass, the structure, the connection to our Jewish roots, the meaning, you name it. For the first time in my Catholic life, I felt totally connected with 2,000 years of worship, the universal Church.

Naturally, the more I became aware of how the liturgy is supposed to be celebrated, the more aware I became of how many priests have made it their own personal playground. Some of the abuses I have personally witnessed have made me sick. I don’t understand it, it’s so easy for priests to celebrate Mass correctly, to be faithful to the GIRM, but so many priests feel that they need to adjust the liturgy to their personal tastes and egos, that it is somehow lacking in its present form. Right down to Priests substituting short stories for readings (“here’s a story about a raisin and a grape” - I kid you not - a priest actually had a lector read a short story about a raisin and a grape in the place of the first reading . . . by the time I realized that this was happening,my blood was boiling), liturgically dancing the entire Liturgy of the Word, skipping integral parts of the Mass (washing of the hands, the penitential rite, the Gloria on Sundays outside of Advent and Lent, the Creed -one priest told me he doesn’t like to lead the congregation’s recitation of the Creed every Sunday because people begin to “take it for granted if they just ramble through the words every Sunday” -), the list could go on and on, but it would only make me sad again. THese have happened within my own diocese as well as places I’ve visited.

As a result, I’ve became very gun-shy of going to Mass in different parishes and diocese because the abuses just seemed to top one another over and over.

I also noticed that I was beginning to hyper-focus, rather than pray, and I had to take a step back to remind myself of why I go to Mass.

I would take a Mass offered by an obedient priest in the simplest chapel over an arrogant priest abusing the liturgy in the largest and most beautiful Cathedral in the world. Everything added to an obedient liturgy (incense, bells, stained glass, statues, great music) would only make it that-the-much-better!

Only in heaven will we receive the Mass in perfection. I’ve learned to choose my battles, and I still pray fervently for disobedient priests (and bishops that don’t seem to care or notice). In the meantime, I remind myself that despite all, I am still able to receive Jesus Christ in Holy Communion anytime I choose to go to Mass. He’s my strength and my purpose.

Pray for our priests, the good and the bad. Their hands hold the power of consecration.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I grew up in the 50’s pre-Vatican II, attending Catholic School were we had only nuns.

Mass for the most part was attended by Catholics fulfilling their obligation.

After Vatican II, there was a period of confusion, especially for older Catholics like my mother, who to this day, has never gotten use to the idea of lay people touching the Host.

Today, we tend to have a mixed bag of people. We have those who treat the Mass more on an emotional level of getting together with people to have a warm fuzzy social. Then we still have those who go to Mass to fulfill their obligation. We have the ridgid, who look for every flaw the people or priest make, and complain constantly. They have very little joy in their spiritual life.

I prefer the Mass at the two monasteries near my town. St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer Mass, and St. Scholastica’s Priory in Petersham, MA. St. Scholastica’s is a Benedictine order and they combine Latin and English in the Mass, except on Thursdays, it’s entirely done in Latin. Why latin only on Thursday, I never found out. They also follow Mass immediately with Terce, also done in Latin, if on Thursday, otherwise it’s in English. Also, the lay people who attend the Masses at the Monasteries, are very contemplative and it’s a totally reverent atmosphere.

That being said, there is no way that Mass will ever be like this in my home parish, or any home parish for that matter. People are at different level’s spiritually, and diocesan priest, must relate to all the various types of people.

Jim

 

[Marsha_Adams]

AZ 4 Faith:

I know what you mean. We went to Mass while on vacation. The homily was read by a sitting down woman from the book Tuesdays with Morrie. The priest never once referred to God as the Father, preferring to call Him, “Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.”

We left wondering if we had fulfilled our Sunday obligation or not.

Marsha