I AM Worthy to receive you?

[Rach620]

Hello all, I have a question that has been bothering me…

Last week I went on my class’ Senior Retreat. We celebrated Mass once, with a priest who our campus minister had never met. It didn’t go so well… I don’t know everything there is to know about the liturgical rubrics, but a lot seemed to be off. For example:

• He had a problem with any language in the Mass that explicitly referred to God as “Father” or even “Him”. He changed a sung portion of the Liturgy of the Eucharist from “Almighty Father” to “Everlasting God”, among other things.
• He divided all of the wine into two glass chalices during the preparation of the gifts. During the consecration, he only raised one of the glasses, and looked like he was making a toast.
• During the homily, he stated that “God needs us more than we need God.” (Something about how He needs us to work through in order to spread His love…)
• This was the most shocking: the priest dramatically paused as the rest of us were saying “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed” and said, all by himself: “Lord, I AM worthy to receive you”.

The retreat center itself which we were staying at seemed to be a bit New Age-y (They had outdoor stations of the cross: at the station where Christ dies, the directed prayer was for “oneness”). The chapel in which we had Mass was oval-shaped, with the octagonal altar table at one end and the lectern, tabernacle, and “crucifix” (an abstract metal stick-figure jesus placed in a cross-shaped crevice in the wall) at the other end. I can’t believe that this place is endorsed by the diocese… any thoughts?

 

[DJJG]

The only thing that was okay, was raising only one of the cups of wine, at the consecration. The priest has only to slightly raise one host and one chalice of wine at the proper parts of the consecration, and have the correct intention for all of the bread and wine to be consecrated, for the transubstanciation to take place.

But as for ALL the rest, :nope: :crying:

That priest, and all those that went along with him, need our prayers.

I would suggest that you write a letter to the bishop and let him know what is going on there, be factual and charitable and let the bishop know that you will be praying for them.

God bless you, and that priest and renewal center.

 

[Illini]

“Lord, I am worthy to receive you.”

Talk about lex orandi, lex credendi.

 Except for the chalices (which should not be glass), these are serious abuses. I agree that something should be done, including notifying the bishop.

-Illini

 

[Illini]

Now that I see you are from St. Louis, definitely contact the Archbishop. He will listen!

-Illini

 

[_veritas]

This wouldn’t happen to have been a Franciscan-Capuchin retreat place would it?

There is a reason the CFR’s (Friars of the Renewal) split from the Capuchins… these kind of shenagians sound eerily familiar.

See thread - forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=9408

Oh, and if you are in the St. Louis Archdiocese, by all means write to the Archbishop – it might be better if you got a few of you who were there to sign it actually.

As was stated, all that you saw during Mass was an abuse except the raising of a single chalice (though glass cups are not correct either). It does not sound like any of the abuses were so grave as to make the Mass invalid, but the word changing and the outburst of “I am worthy” are pretty serious.

+veritas+

 

[Rach620]

This actually happened across the river, in Belleville, Illinois, at King’s House Retreat & Renewal Center, run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. So it wasn’t even in my diocese…