Is this an acceptable final blessing?

[porthos11]

IMO, this approach would lead to pride. I would see myself as “better than all the other people sitting in Mass because I know more than they do.”

I am not a cop. I am a parishioner, and the priest is my father. He knows more than I do. My bishop knows more than my priests do.

I know that some of you must live in hell here on earth. I can honestly say that out of all the parishes that I have visited in my diocese, and all that I have visited in three states (Illinois, Missouri,and Michigan), I have never seen an “abuse.” Errors, yes. (A few weeks ago, I was playing at a wedding, and the priest totally bungled the Liturgy. Afterwards, he apologized to the musicians and explained that he was distracted by the antics and screams of the four little flower girls who decided that the sanctuary was a gymnasium! Their mothers were the bridesmaids, so no one was available to take these little girls out and calm them down. Poor priest!)

But I am willing to overlook errors. I make plenty myself.

There is a difference between a mistake and abuse. God knows we are all only human, even priests. But an abuse is an intentional disregard for liturgical law.

The reason people are very particular about proper liturgy is the principle of “lex orandi, lex credendi”. We are not talking about mistakes, we are talking about abuse. What you describe is not abuse, it’s a mistake.

But I must disagree; there are priests who indeed DO NOT KNOW what they ought. That is a sad fact, and many of these priests are humble enough to try and receive further education from LAITY.

This has nothing to do with pride. This has everything to do with the Catholic in the pew knowing his liturgy by heart, the rights he has granted by the Holy See itself, and the means and time to assert those rights.

Redemptionis Sacramentum is a very easy read. Why not get a copy and check it out with the GIRM. At the back of RS are the gravity of abuse and what the laity’s responsibilities are about them.

The liturgy belongs to the Church, not to the priest, and not to the laity, but to the Church. No one has the right to mess with it.

 

[VietCatholic83]

I know a priest that always says "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord with joy

it seems redundant to me. an adequately catechized individual knows that true service in the Lord can ONLY be done with joy.

 

[meeshy]

There is a difference between a mistake and abuse. God knows we are all only human, even priests. But an abuse is an intentional disregard for liturgical law… The liturgy belongs to the Church, not to the priest, and not to the laity, but to the Church. No one has the right to mess with it.

I read this thread from 2007 with great interest, after our parish was subjected for a week to a visiting priest who CLEARLY had no regard for rubrics, CLEARLY was irreverent, and CLEARLY intended to persist in his personal modifications to the Holy Mass.

It was very distressing, to say the least, and all I could do was pray for him during Mass and after. But his words and actions definitely affected my regard for him as a person and a priest, and they definitely caused me distraction during Mass.

Briefly, this is what the priest did to alter the Masses he celebrated this past week:

He changed the words of the consecration. Not “Do this in remembrance of me,” but “As often as you do this, do it in memory of me.”

During the entire Liturgy of the Eucharist, including all prayers, and “This is the Lamb of God,” he spoke as fast and as unintelligibly as possible. The rest of the Mass, including his homily, were spoken at a normal speed. He did this EVERY TIME he celebrated Mass.

He left the altar during each time during the Sign of Peace and shook hands with practically everyone in the church, which took a good 5 minutes.

He said in one of his homilies that “all sins are forgiven sins.”

He went to the ambo after every communion, and led us in kind of a self-hypnosis thing. “Close your eyes, imagine Jesus next to you…” etc., etc., for at least 5 minutes. Then, always while still at the ambo, always in a very rushed manner, he started the preparation for the final blessing – “The Lord be with you…” Then he walked back to the presider’s chair. People were confused and still seated during his final blessings, probably because they were hypnotized from his post-communion meditations. LOL.

He blessed us thusly, all week long: “May All-Gentle God bless you…” etc.

He changed many other words of the liturgical prayers, which I cannot specifically remember.

When I read the posts from the 2007 thread, there were a few regarding the laity not trying to be “liturgical cops”. I do understand the sentiment of those posts, and it does feel really bad to think critically of a priest, but sometimes it’s clear that abuse is intentional and in those cases, it can be a really distressing situation for the faithful.

Thanks for reading,

 

[meeshy]

P.S. I forgot one more thing: before the Sign of Peace, he instructed us to “shake hands with at least 5 people.”

Sigh…