D
DL82
Guest
I was having a conversation with a friend about something entirely unrelated (it was about how the US customs officials have now started picking out ‘suspicious’ individuals at airports on the basis of whether or not they are smiling, which is just another form of cultural/racial profiling because people from the Middle East tend to look more serious than Americans) when I got to thinking:
Is much of the criticism of protestant worship among Catholics, and of ‘liturgical abuse’ among traditional Catholics, really just about our natural dispositions and attitudes?
For example, I am typically quite a solemn person. I know that. I never felt comfortable in ‘happy-clappy’ protestant worship services even when I was a protestant. At the same time, I’m not overly solemn, I still find a TLM without music a little too much for most occasions, though perhaps appropriate for Lent or for a funeral mass. I know others who find absolutely anything, the use of modern music, a priest who smiles too much, greeting eachother at the beginning of mass, etc. to be an unacceptable liturgical abuse.
I have certainly found that the masses I have attended in the United States are more upbeat, those in Ireland more parochial and those here in the UK more solemn. Surely that’s just a result of the culture of these places, and doesn’t invalidate anything done in any of these settings.
Doesn’t it just come down to individuals and cultures? Some things really REALLY matter in worship, e.g. that it is conducted by a validly ordained priest, that the words of consecration are said, that people revere the Blessed Sacrament. But then, whether people choose to kneel in solemn contemplation for hours before mass or to dance around singing lively worship songs as the priest processes into church, is surely just a matter of personal taste and personality? If we’re praising God, do you think he’s really concerned by these kinds of ‘abuses’?
Clearly, there is a time and a place for everything, and there is a time for solemnity. Isn’t there a risk though of imposing our own personality types or cultural values upon the Divine Liturgy of the Mass, which is ultimately for God, and for all the peoples of the earth. Of course, this cuts both ways, it’s just as easy for charismatics and traditionalists to want everyone to be the same.
Anyway, it’s just a thought.
Is much of the criticism of protestant worship among Catholics, and of ‘liturgical abuse’ among traditional Catholics, really just about our natural dispositions and attitudes?
For example, I am typically quite a solemn person. I know that. I never felt comfortable in ‘happy-clappy’ protestant worship services even when I was a protestant. At the same time, I’m not overly solemn, I still find a TLM without music a little too much for most occasions, though perhaps appropriate for Lent or for a funeral mass. I know others who find absolutely anything, the use of modern music, a priest who smiles too much, greeting eachother at the beginning of mass, etc. to be an unacceptable liturgical abuse.
I have certainly found that the masses I have attended in the United States are more upbeat, those in Ireland more parochial and those here in the UK more solemn. Surely that’s just a result of the culture of these places, and doesn’t invalidate anything done in any of these settings.
Doesn’t it just come down to individuals and cultures? Some things really REALLY matter in worship, e.g. that it is conducted by a validly ordained priest, that the words of consecration are said, that people revere the Blessed Sacrament. But then, whether people choose to kneel in solemn contemplation for hours before mass or to dance around singing lively worship songs as the priest processes into church, is surely just a matter of personal taste and personality? If we’re praising God, do you think he’s really concerned by these kinds of ‘abuses’?
Clearly, there is a time and a place for everything, and there is a time for solemnity. Isn’t there a risk though of imposing our own personality types or cultural values upon the Divine Liturgy of the Mass, which is ultimately for God, and for all the peoples of the earth. Of course, this cuts both ways, it’s just as easy for charismatics and traditionalists to want everyone to be the same.
Anyway, it’s just a thought.