Experience of 'Extraordinary' Rite

[Caesar]

Mid Mass, there was a role call of couples celebrating an anniversary in August so they could stand and receive a blessing; not just any blessing, but the really special kind where the whole congragation was asked to extend their hands.

Ah, so your parish sometimes resembles the Nuremberg Rally too!

 

[PatienceAndLove]

Same here today. I refuse to extend my hand in blessing and the clapping makes me want to scream. I think it is wonderful that the couple in our church was married for 50 years. The two front pews were “reserved” for their family members. Yes,they are an example to the youth of today. But, interrupting Mass to ask “everyone” to bless them and clapping for them just turned me off.

I know some parishes that do the same things on Mothers and Fathers Day, but it is done at the end of Mass, before the recessional.

 

[PatienceAndLove]

Yet, I do recognize, especially afeter reading Caesar’s post, it could be worse. Heck, we might even let our organist “do liturgy.”

What does it mean to “do liturgy”?

 

[Ignatius]

Hello everyone

I just wanted to share my experience with you. I have attended the ‘Extraordinary’ rite mass a number of times over the last few years.

I was initially drawn to the rite because my Grandmother used to tell me about it and she was a very spiritual person. About 5 years ago I attended an SSPX chapel - the only one in our area that was using the rite at that time. It really put me off - the mass was celebrated beautifully but the sermon was very negative - including slating the Pauline Mass, the one which I grew up with and which I believe can be very beautiful if celebrated correctly.

My second experience was at the local Mass celebrated by the FSSP - it was a good experience but something didn’t click. At that time there was a ‘properly’ celebrated NO Mass just up the road from me which I found to be an intensely spiritual experience.

Since then, the Mass at my local parish has declined. The awful 70s and 80s hymns have taken over and one of the priests makes every Mass into ‘his show’. At a baptism last week he was practically encouraging the congregation to shout responses in a game show style. He takes every opportunity to make each homily about him and the difficulties of his life. At one point I had to walk out of after he made a joke about how his colleague, the parish priest, is very good with children but ‘isn’t a paedophile’.

I’m rambling a bit.

Anyway, it saddens me to say that I have not been attended mass for several months because I found what I was seeing quite painful.

I was drawn, therefore, to something more traditional and today I went back to the FSSP Mass. It was a Missa Cantata (I think) and for the first time in a long time I felt at engaged in what was going on and very much at peace. I didn’t manage to follow everything that was going on but I think that would come in time.

Anyway, I still feel a bit odd about the whole thing? Should I continue with the TLM or should I be attempting to tackle what I perceive to be the abuses of the liturgy at my local parish? Should I wait to see whether they introduce a traditional mass? (Although I think the facilities may make it impossible).

I’m not sure what the right thing to do is?

The “Right Thing” to do is to get to Mass every Sunday. I’t’s your choice which one. If you prefer you can find an Melkite, Ruthenian, Maronite, Coptic Catholic, Byzantine or any other of the Rites of the Catholic Church. But, please brother, don’t miss Mass intentionally.

May the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always.

Your brother in Christ.

 

[KathleenElsie]

I know some parishes that do the same things on Mothers and Fathers Day, but it is done at the end of Mass, before the recessional.

The special blessings at the end of Mass I can understand and am happy to join in. But to interrupt Mass to do so does not make me very comfortable.

 

[Conciliar]

What does it mean to “do liturgy”?

In reality, to me anyway, it is playing church. You know… something akin to “being church” but you get to make everyone play along your way. Forgive my sarcasm. I’ll explain.

That comment was directed toward PaixGioiaAmor who posted earlier here. She thinks the Mass is story time. Remember? If you’ve had the pleasure of reading her heterodox ramblings in the past, you certainly know how condescending and elitist she can be.

That’s irritating enough, but the real travesty is this, she is an organist who took a 1 week liturgy seminar, and she presents herself on the board as a “liturgist.” I know priests with doctorates who don’t call themselves liturgists. Worse still… her pastor thinks she’s qualified to “do liturgy” in her parish! And he lets her! I read this in her introductory post. It’s really cute. Check it out.

Is it any wonder we have the problems we’re talking about? Thank God, literally, He is bigger than organ players who’d rather play church, and the priests who let them do it.

 

[THurifer2]

experiencing the REAL PRESENCE manifest in the assembly (one of the three forms of Real Presence found in the Mass).

The form of real presence you mention above is subordinate to the real presence of jesus christ body, blood, soul and divinity in the wafer…

At least thats what John Paul II implies in Ecclisia de Eucharistia…he explicitly warna against over emphasis of the “fraternal banquet” nature of the mass. Either John Paul II is right on the matter or you are…I a guessing you are not more Catholic than JPII was…I could be mistaken…perhaps there are intense 8 hour courses on Systematic Theology out there.

 

[BlyssfulDreamer]

And to think: you miss all of it because you are buried in your latin missal and not having COMMUNION with everyone else or experiencing the REAL PRESENCE manifest in the assembly (one of the three forms of Real Presence found in the Mass).

How is this so? Heads buried in the Latin Missal? If your head is buried in it, then I doubt you would get much from either a TLm or a NO…you might have your head off somehwere else. When I go to a TLM and read…along in my missal…I am praying the Mass and I am as fully participating MORE THAN someone who is sitting their with their minds off in la-la land.

:heart:Blyss

 

[mao_now]

Actually, that IS why we come. We tell our story. Handed down through the ages by scripture, tradition, the story telling goes on. In the general intercessions and the Eucharistic prayer, the story telling continues: we tell of good and bad times, times of trial and times the Lord was with us. We tell of loved ones gone before us, marked with the sign of faith; we tell the story of human history, a story of sin, redemption, the power of the cross, and the power of resurrection.

And to think: you miss all of it because you are buried in your latin missal and not having COMMUNION with everyone else or experiencing the REAL PRESENCE manifest in the assembly (one of the three forms of Real Presence found in the Mass).

It is useless to resist us…