Find some mass which you can attend with less strain, but remember and perhaps try to envisage that the power of the mass is not in how it attracts people, but in how it taps into the sacrifice of Christ. What’s the benefit of the best religiously-themed show compared to the real transsubstantiation?
Let me use the marriage or women analogy, too.
Well, do you want a woman that has substance or the woman that has the externals and there it ends?
Of course, we’re greedy, so we want both, but out of the two, you know what’s better in the long term when the hormones have faded, right?
Another analogy: Would you like one who has beauty of her own (external and internal and all; not just one dimension) which comes strange to you and maybe you still need to discover it (or keep discovering), or one that can look and be whatever you want her at any given moment and change it according to your every preference? The latter sounds good only until you realise that being surprised is ultimately better, that we don’t really know with full certainty what we need until we’ve tried all, which is impossible and so on and so forth.
Basically, mass is there not for its visuals but for the sacrifice. That is something you will get in every valid mass. No matter how bad a sermonist the priest is, he has the same power to consecrate Bread and Wine into Body and Blood as the Pope does. Beautiful, isn’t it?
And if you listen to the boring sermon, remembering the priest is a human like everyone, maybe you will find something for yourself in it? Maybe he’s a bad speaker, but that doesn’t mean he has nothing interesting to say. He may spend half an hour beating around the bush and you may still know what he meant to say, or he may cover just the mere basics, but those may still point you in the right direction.
The music? Well, I don’t need Gregorian chant all the time, but believe me some of the modern music taxes me really hard. Remembering that whoever likes that music is still Catholic like we are, can be quite helpful. Of course, I won’t come back to the same church at the same time if I can’t take, but mass is still mass. It’s more important that whatever bad music they’re playing. Now, bad music and boring sermons mean you’d better look for another place, more suited to your needs, but don’t skip mass.
You’re entitled to go to a different (Catholic) church if you like, but skipping it altogether is a different story.
