Experience of those who've stopped attending the N.O.?

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NoPlaceLikeRome

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I am a college student. A year and a half ago I went to my first TLM and have gone since then pretty much whenever I was able to get there. Until recently, I’ve kept up going to daily Mass in the N.O., which is all I could get to (very easy as my college is Catholic).

However, a few weeks ago I read a new article about the problem with Communion in the hand. There is probably a thread on this somewhere: here is a summary:
  1. When Communion is given in the hand with no paten, particles can and do detach and presumably fall to the ground
  2. Thus, if one attends a Mass where Communion is given in the hand with no paten, there is moral certainty that one is treading on particles of the Blessed Sacrament.
  3. This is bad.
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Along with the general near-total unfitness of the closest church for worshipping God, this has really put me off attending the N.O. (It’s not a one-issue thing–laziness for getting up early for a less ugly church is involved too.)

Of course, ideally I would love to be able to go to Low Mass every day. There is one in the city. But I just can’t–right now I have no car and know no-one who goes; if I did have a car, going every day would be impractical due to distance and preparing for classes.

I am interested in the experience of those who have stopped attending daily N.O. not because their church was particularly irreverent but for reasons like the Communion-in-the-hand issue as summarized above. Or anyone who thought about stopping, but was inspired not to; or tried stopping, but went back to it.

If none of those categories apply to you, send me a message if you feel you must express your opinion, but I would prefer it if you didn’t post. I am mostly interested not in everyone’s opinions but in those who have actually been in this particular situation and have reflections on it.

I’m more interested in indult types than SSPX types here.

Thank you for your advice and reflections in advance.
 
I am in a very similar boat. I used to go to N.O. Daily Mass, and Sunday Mass… in fact I was an EMHC. I finally found a good indult Church that I now exclusively attend on Sundays. I have stopped attending the N.O. daily Mass. Perhaps I will start going again- but the Eucharist is treated with extreme irreverence. The EMHC to communicant ration is 1:5. No joke- I counted.
 
Do you do anything else to “make up for it”, such as Spiritual Communions or reading the daily Mass propers? (Don’t feel accused, if you don’t! I’m just wondering.) Do you find that you feel relieved, or that your spiritual life is a bit rockier without daily Mass even if it is not the best, or something else?
 
I pray the Little Office and I try to get in a Rosary. I wish there was a Low Mass near me- but I already drive a half hour at 6:00 AM on sundays just to attend Sunday Low Mass (in a ghetto, no less). It just is not as available as it should be.

I realize Jesus is Jesus, and that receiving Jesus at my local NO Church is no less receiviong Jesus at the TLM Church- but am I spitting in His face when I sit idle while He is treated with wanton disregard?
 
Right, that is how I have been feeling sort of.

Anyone else?
 
I’m sure its a common experiance one goes through on the path to Tradition.

Good luck and don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater- the NO is great when rubrics are actually followed!
 
I cannot stop going to daily Mass. I love Holy Communion too much. I read the 1962 Missal and attend at a local hospital chapel. Yes, there are liturgical abuses and father thinks the bible is mostly a bunch of made up stories. BUT I pray the 1962 Mass and receive my Lord–on the tongue of course.

The fact that the local N.O. Masses are irreverent and so forth is not a deterrent for me although I have come close. In fact we are looking to move this year out of this liturgical wasteland diocese and where we are going will have the extraordinary form of the Holy Mass available monthly with plans to increase availability.

I have had to endure. Nothing else takes the place of attending Mass. I have been told by holy priests that my endurance, and the cross of it, has been a source of merit and graces. Calvary was not a cake walk.

One person who is only here temporarily said that in the big city one could go to a beautiful church or listen to a heavenly choir or enjoy a holy homilist and here we have none of that–we must go for God alone and not for what pleases us. That helped me. But I cannot live the rest of my life like this. My children are disgusted at Mass with all the extra junk they add to make it ‘meaningful’ and this is without any comments from me. We are spiritually starving in some ways.

When I have the TLM available all the time, I will be there–daily.
Until then, I offer.

Ave Maria!
 
Snoop around and see if a fairly local priest either diocesan or a religious is offering a private traditional Latin mass.

Or find one interested in learning it. If you can, try and organize a small group and ask him if you can attend.

Many priests are getting training individually, on their own, with the guidance of older priests and with help on the sly from SSPX priests. It might just be that a priest is saying the mass near you in a private chapel or off hours (meaning very early)

The Pope’s recent motu proprio states explicitly that private masses of priests in the TLM are allowed to have laity attend.

Heck, while you are looking start studying and see if you can learn to serve low mass. They might start calling you to see if you can help them.
 
GerardP, Actually I know a monk who does but I imagine he offers it in his cell (maybe not? no idea). He’s not really approachable though. P.S. I would serve Mass except I happen to be a woman. 😉

Ave Maria!, Your post made sense to me pretty much until I read the point that I summarized above about the result of Communion in the hand with no paten. That really depressed me. Don’t you think that changes things, or doesn’t it?
 
Just to add to what Ave said, if there are actual irreverences being committed, and you don’t have another option, you could still go and, rather than sit idle, make spiritual reparations. You can be like the Blessed Virgin who stayed close as her Son’s Body was being abused rather than the Apostles who fled. She was not idle just because she was silent and still at the foot of the Cross. Her heart was united to His and that gave Him great consolation.
 
If the TLM draws you closer to God, by all means participate in it. But it is unfair to call everything one does not like about the NO irreverant or wrong. I have been to both and find that there is a great deal of reverence in our parish. We only have NO and the conventual mass, we are attached to a Franciscan friary where they have a daily mass for the friars.

As to the particles falling to the floor with communion in the hand, that’s why you’re supposed to hold your hands to form a cross that serves as a receptible.

I have never seen the so called irreverence toward the Eucharist in the NO since I became a Catholic many years ago.

I went to the TLM several times and didn’t experience what others do. But that’s not the TLM’s fault. It’s not culture. I converted from Judaism in the 1980s and there was no TLM.

I also found that the TLM is not accepted in all places where it has been tried. I served as a missionary in South America. One of the bishops tried to introduce the TLM and eventually dropped it, because Latin Americans are not as drawn to it as are people of Northern European extraction. I can’t explain why, but they’re not

I can’t explain why I am not at home in it, other than maybe it’s not my culture. It reminded me too much of when I was a kid and we had to go to Orthodox Temple where everything was in Hebrew. Even though I had to learn to read and speak Hebrew fluently for my Bar Mitzvah, I didn’t feel comfortable using a language other than my own to pray.

There is beauty and solemnity in both forms, the TLM and the NO. I beleive that we should acknowledge that, even if we have a personal preference. I’ll never forget attedning midnight mass at the Vatican in 1999 with Pope John Paul II presiding. I was in the third row. It was the No, but it was one of the most beautiful liturgies that I ever attended.

Let’s try to be fair to both the TLM and the NO. Both have merit and serve the pastoral needs of the faithful.

JR 🙂
 
Still, is attending a Mass where the Eucharist is being profaned inherently a good thing? It may be a cause of scandal to others who think you condone monking around with the Holiest of all Holies
 
As the readings today allude, you can’t expose the bad without light. I thinking bring the light of true reverence and divine charity to a place where it is lacking is better than leaving it in darkness–most people are ignorant and not malicious when it comes to these problems. Devotion can spread like a flame–but if you remove all the flames from where they are needed, how will devotion ever spread?
 
Just to add, St. Alphonsus Liguori actually recommended adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament where He was least reverenced and adored.
 
As to the particles falling to the floor with communion in the hand, that’s why you’re supposed to hold your hands to form a cross that serves as a receptible.
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I’m not talking about oneself; I receive on the tongue; I’m talking about other people and the argument that if ANYONE receives on the hand, and does not check his hand for particles, then there is a chance that there will be particles detached from the Host which end up being brushed off to the ground &c, which, with many people receiving on the hand, is pretty much certain. *That *is what I am asking for help with: how can one go and then walk on this floor? I feel that this isn’t scrupulous–I mean, if there is a reasonable way it can be explained as not scrupulous, I am happy to hear it–but it seems to me like an awful thing.
 
JuanCarlos said:
Still, is attending a Mass where the Eucharist is being profaned inherently a good thing? It may be a cause of scandal to others who think you condone monking around with the Holiest of all Holies
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Conversely, is it better to stay away from Jesus or be there with Him in prayerful solidarity?

Worth considering is that microscopic particles invariably will blow in the wind with or without a patten - with or without receiving in the hand. (And as uncommon as it may be, I HAVE seen people receive in the hand at EF Masses…)

I may not articulate it well, but opting to NOT attend daily Mass for this reason alone just seems problematic.
 
GerardP said:
Snoop around and see if a fairly local priest either diocesan or a religious is offering a private traditional Latin mass.

Or find one interested in learning it. If you can, try and organize a small group and ask him if you can attend.

Many priests are getting training individually, on their own, with the guidance of older priests and with help on the sly from SSPX priests. It might just be that a priest is saying the mass near you in a private chapel or off hours (meaning very early)

The Pope’s recent motu proprio states explicitly that private masses of priests in the TLM are allowed to have laity attend.

Heck, while you are looking start studying and see if you can learn to serve low mass. They might start calling you to see if you can help them.
Click to expand...
Hi there. You know what, I have asked before on other posts if the Latin Mass, the Old Mass or whatever it is called, was forbidden by the previous Popes. I was told it was NEVER forbidden, or outlawed. I don’t mean to sound picky, but I guess I will; your statement, “The Pope’s recent motu proprio states explicitly that private masses of priests in the TLM are allowed to have laity attend.”, makes it sound like we need to start building those old priest hidey holes in our hunting lodges and mansions. Explain a bit more please. Thanks. 🙂
 
NoPlaceLikeRome said:
I am a college student. A year and a half ago I went to my first TLM and have gone since then pretty much whenever I was able to get there. Until recently, I’ve kept up going to daily Mass in the N.O., which is all I could get to (very easy as my college is Catholic).

However, a few weeks ago I read a new article about the problem with Communion in the hand. There is probably a thread on this somewhere: here is a summary:

Along with the general near-total unfitness of the closest church for worshipping God, this has really put me off attending the N.O. (It’s not a one-issue thing–laziness for getting up early for a less ugly church is involved too.)

Of course, ideally I would love to be able to go to Low Mass every day. There is one in the city. But I just can’t–right now I have no car and know no-one who goes; if I did have a car, going every day would be impractical due to distance and preparing for classes.

I am interested in the experience of those who have stopped attending daily N.O. not because their church was particularly irreverent but for reasons like the Communion-in-the-hand issue as summarized above. Or anyone who thought about stopping, but was inspired not to; or tried stopping, but went back to it.

If none of those categories apply to you, send me a message if you feel you must express your opinion, but I would prefer it if you didn’t post. I am mostly interested not in everyone’s opinions but in those who have actually been in this particular situation and have reflections on it.

I’m more interested in indult types than SSPX types here.

Thank you for your advice and reflections in advance.
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I’m not a Communion in the hand fan. I receive on the tongue exclusively no matter where I attend. It just so happens that my Novus Ordo Mass has altar boys who use pattens which is more of an issue than Communion in the hand.

All of this said, do you really think that God wants you to stop attending daily Mass for any reason? Stop and think about who would want this to happen? 😦 If the Real Presence is still there, why shouldn’t you be.

I know people claim to see large particles falling to the floor but I’ve never seen this. I’m not sure what kind of hosts people are witnessing. I guess they must be the super crumbling kind. I’ve also seen people ranting and raving about microscopic paritcles. Microscopic particles cease to be the Real Presence. I’m sure I’m not saying this as well as Aquinas so:
f the change [in the consecrated elements] be so great that the substance of the bread or wine would have been corrupted, then Christ’s body and blood do not remain under this sacrament; and this either on the part of the qualities, as when the color, savor, and other qualities of the bread and wine are so altered as to be incompatible with the nature of bread or of wine; or else on the part of the quantity, as, for instance, if the bread be reduced to fine particles, or the wine divided into such tiny drops that the species of bread or wine no longer remain [ST III:77:4].
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What I have seen is hosts just plain dropped. It’s horrific and while a patten may not stop this 100% of the time, it would stop it some time.
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ASimpleSinner said:
Conversely, is it better to stay away from Jesus or be there with Him in prayerful solidarity?

Worth considering is that microscopic particles invariably will blow in the wind with or without a patten - with or without receiving in the hand. (And as uncommon as it may be, I HAVE seen people receive in the hand at EF Masses…)

I may not articulate it well, but opting to NOT attend daily Mass for this reason alone just seems problematic.
Click to expand...
How is the Host being profaned? I just don’t understand. I have been Catholic for 69 years, raised in the 40s and 50s with the Latin Mass. Then came Vatican II and all the changes. I have “never” seen the Host profaned in a Catholic Church. Expalin please. Thank you.
 
Yesterday, I was visiting my parents and we attended their church (we normally attend an FSSP TLM at a Carmeliete Convent). It’s a Novus Ordo church (heck, my dad’s even a deacon there).

However, the Gospel was from John 9 - about the blind man and the Pharisees. Anyway, to make a long story short, the Pharisees were so focused on Jesus doing a miracle on the Sabbath and breaking a law, that they neglected to see that a blind man could now see!

The fact of the matter is, Jesus is still present in the Eucharist, in a NO Mass or in a TLM Mass. I think most of us would agree. Would we prefer that everyone received on the tongue? Absolutely. Does everyone? Unfortunately, no. But, Jesus is still present in the Eucharist.

Attend the TLM on Sundays and Saturday mornings. Attend the NO Mass on weekdays. No amount of spiritual communions said during Mass will grant you the graces that reception of the Eucharist will… NO or not.

Also, if you’re at UD in Dallas and need a ride to Saturday or Sunday Mass, PM me. I’m really not as inflammatory and mean as I sound in this post.

Now, this thread is also speaking to myself, because I haven’t been to daily Mass in forever.
 
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