Impossible unless the “abuses” actually invalidate the Mass. While I do think some peoples’ nourishment is impacted because they focus on things like brown shoes, a slipped or missing amice or the licit use of EMsHC, that’s on them and not on the Mass.
What I think is really sad is that there are people–e.g., me, a Protestant convert–who are perfectly happy with the Mass, but when they are exposed to the teachings about “liturgical abuse,” namely the “extreme teachings” spread by the “liturgical police,” it is like an infection that makes it very difficult for us to feel the same way about our Mass ever again.
There are times that I feel like I’ve been raped by these liturgical police.
Their teachings destroyed my innocent appreciation and awe of the OF Mass.
It’s like when Eve first ate the fruit, her eyes were opened. I feel like my eyes were opened, but in a bad way–I now find myself policing any Mass I attend and mentally ticking off abuses, even the littlest of abuses.
And then I remonstrate against myself and rebuke myself.
And…I hate to confess this… these little “cracks” in the liturgy cause me to question the Authority of the Church. After all, if the priest is using the wrong kind of chalice to hold the Precious Blood, then perhaps he is also wrong about artificial contraception, or divorce, or a myriad of other teachings.
And I wonder why the Church doesn’t DO SOMETHING about all these abuses! Again, distrust and disdain and a growing disillusionment with Catholicism.
I wonder how many Catholics have left the Church down this path. Perhaps they started out hunting for liturgical abuses out of a sense of responsibility and duty, thinking that they were doing something righteous. But as they continued to spot more and more “abuses,” these abuses gradually destroyed their joy in the Mass, and eventually they grew completely disillusioned and decided to walk away from the Church, since obviously, it can’t even correct a Mass, so how can it correct souls?
I honestly believe that liturgical police can send people down this path. Well, I will NOT go down this path.
As an evangelical Protestant, I was taught to disregard emotion and to base my faith on cold, hard facts. **So I deliberately choose to disregard the “liturgical police” and the kinds of behaviors that Cluny was thinking of when starting this thread. ** I believe that my soul is at stake.
I have to continually remind myself that I must submit to the Authority of Holy Mother Church, and trust that her clergy know what they’re doing, and that if there is a serious error, the Holy Spirit will convict the proper people and the error will eventually be corrected.
Here are the facts as I understand them, and these facts are what I base my faith on. The Catholic Church was given authority on this earth by Jesus Christ Himself. The Pope and Magisterium, and the bishops and priests, are the human authorities in the Catholic Church. They are given charisms by the Holy Spirit to help them to fulfil their calling, and the Church is protected from errors in faith and morals. Various practices, including the liturgy, are NOT the authority in the Church, and may be changed by the Church over the years because these are not faith and morals.
The liturgy is, indeed, a sacred thing that the Church strives to keep intact. If abuses occur, it is proper for laypeople to go to their priest and request that the abuse be corrected.
BUT…as a layperson, and especially as a fairly new Catholic, it is very likely that I do NOT have a full understanding of the liturgy and all the many variations tthat are permitted. Because I am not an expert, it is best at this time to leave the discernment of liturgical abuse to those who are more knowledgeable and tactful than I. I can and I WILL trust that the Holy Spirit WILL lead those knowledgeable people to the proper authorities.
And in the meantime, I will delight in whatever Mass I attend, and trust that the Lord Jesus will bestow many graces upon me as I serve at Mass and receive my Lord in Holy Communion. I will not sigh because the Mass has occasional human errors and mistakes and imperfections.
I believe that it is in Mass that we are closest to heaven on this earth. There is a curtain separating earth and heaven. At Mass, we are privileged to be able to see through this curtain and glimpse, as shadows, the glories of heaven. As long as the Mass is licit and valid, the abuses do not take away heaven. The more we concentrate on abuses, the harder it is to see heaven at all. It is not the abuses that destroy our ability to glimpse heaven, it is our fixation on the abuses. I will look past the abuses and try very hard to see through the curtain into heaven during Mass.
As Uncle Tom said of Evangeline’s death: “…we’ll all get a look in at the glory…”
A silly thing like someone holding hands during a prayer is NOT going to make me take my eyes off heaven on earth. Even a girl dances around the altar (I’ve never seen this), I will NOT look away from that curtain and miss my “look in at the glory.”
I hope this sounds like a reasonable approach towards the liturgy.
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