Not sure I agree with that.
Generally speaking, the first question we as men tend to ask is “What am I doing?” In other words, what am I producing of value by doing this or that. Am I making money, am I fixing something, am I providing for the security of my family? Men, generally speaking, do not see the value in making time for spirituality because nothing is seemingly accomplished. Worshipping God can be seen as doing nothing, which goes against our worldly nature and makes us real fidgety. We as men do not know how to “be” in God’s presence, without doing or accomplishing.
Women seem to have a much better sense of this, thank God. Think of the scene at the cross. Most of the men, when it is obvious that nothing is going to be accomplished by this “failed” mission of Christ’s, are nowhere to be found. They are all scattered, probably looking for the next productive thing to do. Who is simply adoring Jesus on the cross? His mother and the women, and John. Somehow they have a better sense of the eternal, and the value of patiently adoring, hopefully waiting on and tending to, Christ.
By the way, some posters who believe that a less expressive liturgy would draw men to Mass should look at St John of the Cross, who was definitely not afraid of expressing himself to fullest extent.
I think we need a balance and I think that’s why men and women complement each other. Women are often seen as more spiritual, men as more action-oriented. When we’re given a problem, we feel the need to find a solution, whereas in many instances it’s really an intractable problem, and we’d be better served to take a more spiritual approach that allows us to live at peace with ourselves and with the world around us instead of flailing at windmills trying to fix an intractable problem; we need to learn to pick our battles. We can learn that from women. We can learn from them to place our trust fully in God, instead of relying exclusively on our own will.
And perhaps women often feel, and rightly so, that their work is taken for granted, and need to be reminded that work is prayer too. Indeed, in looking at the Rule of St. Benedict, the motto “Ora et Labora” of Benedictines isn’t a clear-cut black-or-white sort of thing. It is work AND prayer, not work OR prayer. That means there’s overlap and indeed work carried out for the glory of God is its own form of prayer, and regular prayer is a form of work; for the monks, in fact, prayer is their man job, the Divine Office is often referred to as the Work of God. So there’s overlap. Benedict made sacred the mundane (“treat every tool of the monastery as a sacred object of the altar”), and humanized the sacred by taking into account human frailties in designing his famous rule. His rule is equally used by men’s and women’s monasteries.
I agree with the poster who said being told to “go pray the Rosary” to deal with men’s issues won’t work. I know it won’t work for me, some problems just need a very practical solution. I haven’t prayed the Rosary in years though I’ve tried. Being told to make time for prayer does help though. I do pray the Liturgy of the Hours each day because it gives my day
structure and a sense of order, and by God that is so important for us men. It is also a very structural prayer with rules, rubrics and guidelines, and I like that as well. There’s an almost mathematical precision to it (especially so if you chant it in Latin following the rules of Latin psalmody on the Gregorian modes, but I digress
). I find also great benefit in the LOTH to help me transition from one phase of the day to the other, leaving my work problems aside, for example, when I come home.
What also did work though, on the prayer side besides the LOTH, is being told early in my Oblate formation that when unable to pray the LOTH because of some pressing family duty, then that duty takes place of the prayer and is in itself prayer. Men need to be told in fact that we shouldn’t feel guilty if we aren’t into things like praying the Rosary, or stations of the Cross, or adoration, etc. Men and women need to be told that our contributions to society are in fact prayer in themselves, if they’re carried out with dignity and for the greater glory of God. I do my work well, because my work is my gift to Him. And that applies equally to doing things like working on the church roof, simply doing my job to the best of my abilities and treating my co-workers and subordinates with dignity, or carrying out my duties as a husband and father.
We also need role models. The priests who have most impressed me have been those who are virile, give practical advice, give robust, non-watered down homilies, and are able to give me my “marching orders” for the week through the homily at Mass. We are after all, the “Church militant”
That said, I’ve seen far too many liturgical committees that were all women resulting in liturgical add-ons and liturgical music that was far to effete for my tastes. Often too the “para-liturgical” add ons that often disrupt the order of the Mass are for me very disturbing and affect my sense of security and order in the liturgy. It’s particularly bad at my wife’s Anglican church (though it has a very virile pastor), the liturgy is all over the place and never predictable and I’m always rather uneasy when I go there. Whereas at the Benedictine Abbey were I go to Mass, not only does it have great beauty, it has great order as well. We men love our routine
I think therefore we need more men on liturgical committees
We need to strike a balance so that both men and women are reached at Mass.
