Multi-Culture Mass... Had a blast...

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Rebecca_Pslm91

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We had a muti-culture Mass this evening at our Church, to welcome our new Arch-Bishop! It was awesome. We welcomed various Catholic Churches in our community with a variety of ethnic groups, oh my gosh, it was awesome. We had people Spanish, Haitian, Nigeria, Polish, Korean, and much more. I am in the Choir at my Church, and the other Churches had their Choirs there too, you should of seen us, we had our Choir Robes on, and just dancing up a storm. LOL We all laughed because we all look like something out of a movie… I wish I could speak or at the least understand creole or the people from Nigeria, now let me tell you, they praise our Lord, it was so interesting and awesome…

It was so interesting to see the differences in how we worship, but how we are one at the same time. I think the most moving thing was that the Arch-Bishop had us all recite the Lord’s Prayer in our native language, you have no idea how awesome that was.

The Mass was actually held in various languages too, it was pretty awesome. I think it would be awesome if more Churches did that more often, it truly brings people from nationalities together in Christ Jesus!

Well, I just wanted to share…
 
Rebecca_Pslm91 said:
We had a muti-culture Mass this evening at our Church, to welcome our new Arch-Bishop! It was awesome. We welcomed various Catholic Churches in our community with a variety of ethnic groups, oh my gosh, it was awesome. We had people Spanish, Haitian, Nigeria, Polish, Korean, and much more. I am in the Choir at my Church, and the other Churches had their Choirs there too, you should of seen us, we had our Choir Robes on, and just dancing up a storm. LOL We all laughed because we all look like something out of a movie… I wish I could speak or at the least understand creole or the people from Nigeria, now let me tell you, they praise our Lord, it was so interesting and awesome…

It was so interesting to see the differences in how we worship, but how we are one at the same time. I think the most moving thing was that the Arch-Bishop had us all recite the Lord’s Prayer in our native language, you have no idea how awesome that was.

The Mass was actually held in various languages too, it was pretty awesome. I think it would be awesome if more Churches did that more often, it truly brings people from nationalities together in Christ Jesus!

Well, I just wanted to share…
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Did this really happen or are you just messing with us? I can’t tell…
 
Rebecca_Pslm91 said:
The Mass was actually held in various languages too, it was pretty awesome. I think it would be awesome if more Churches did that more often, it truly brings people from nationalities together in Christ Jesus!
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i for one think that things would be better if the church had one universal language in which to have mass… oh wait we do, its called Latin. Mass is not the place to celebrate diffrent cultures or dance around in chior robes, its a solem occasion to worship God, not the cultures of man.
youtube.com/watch?v=9rJFdmmqj_s
 
That’s what is so cool about the Latin Mass, we can go through the entire beginning of the Mass and then be shocked when we hear a thick foreign accent come out during the homily, never having noticed that the priest was from a totally different culture! Then no matter what country we go to, we can go to a Latin Mass and it all feels the same as at home. I could walk into a TLM in Asia somewhere and with my chapel veil nobody would even notice I was out of place!!

I’m glad you had such a beautiful spiritual experience. There is still a memory of the cultural unity of Catholicism deep within our souls, all it takes is a moment straight out of eternity to bring this back. God bless you! 🙂
 
VetA said:
i for one think that things would be better if the church had one universal language in which to have mass… oh wait we do, its called Latin. Mass is not the place to celebrate diffrent cultures or dance around in chior robes, its a solem occasion to worship God, not the cultures of man.
youtube.com/watch?v=9rJFdmmqj_s
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Agreed 100%. One of the big points of Mass is that all people regardless of ethnicity come together under one roof to become united and celebrate that which they all hold in common - the Mass. The Mass is not something for people to go to in order to celebrate their differences.

What has happened to this once beautiful and solemn occasion?
 
right, the Church should only have one language, one culture

so all those Byzantines, Chaldeans, Armenians, Antiochans and Alexandrians should give up their cultures and Latinize!
 
ErichK said:
Agreed 100%. One of the big points of Mass is that all people regardless of ethnicity come together under one roof to become united and celebrate that which they all hold in common - the Mass. The Mass is not something for people to go to in order to celebrate their differences.

What has happened to this once beautiful and solemn occasion?
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Actually, the Papal Masses of late are a great text book example of how these particular liturgies should be celebrated:
The Latin language
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  1. None of the above observations should cast doubt upon the importance of such large-scale liturgies. I am thinking here particularly of celebrations at international gatherings, which nowadays are held with greater frequency. The most should be made of these occasions. In order to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church, I wish to endorse the proposal made by the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the directives of the Second Vatican Council, (182) that, with the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the faithful, it is fitting that such liturgies be celebrated in Latin. Similarly, the better-known prayers (183) of the Church’s tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung. Speaking more generally, I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant. (184)
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I am not trying to pooh-pooh what the OP reported. I also recognize that the Church is composed of different cultures and a wide array of peoples. However, the Mass is not about cultural diversity. Inasmuch as legitimate use exists for inculturation, we should not make cultural diversity a chief component of the Mass. When we do that, we lose sight of why we are there in the first place.
 
I aggree with VetA & ErichK. The mass should never be about us, it should be completely about worshiping God. It seems your attitude isn’t quite where it should be about the mass.
 
Catholicben said:
I aggree with VetA & ErichK. The mass should never be about us, it should be completely about worshiping God. It seems your attitude isn’t quite where it should be about the mass.
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whats so bad in offering different songs in different languages to God
that isn’t about them. its about these diverse kinds of people coming together as one, offering everything about them, including their cultural identity, to God

hey, even the Pope says “Merry Christmas” in different languages
 
choy said:
whats so bad in offering different songs in different languages to God
that isn’t about them. its about these diverse kinds of people coming together as one, offering everything about them, including their cultural identity, to God

hey, even the Pope says “Merry Christmas” in different languages
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But, that is apart from the Mass and it happens during his Urbi et Orbi Message.
 
1st, yes this really happened…

2nd, I did enjoy it, I really did. To see how different ethnic groups, in their own country, celebrate the Catholic Mass is great. Honestly it was all basically the same as we all do, but in their native language. The also dressed in their native clothing. So it really made see how the Catholic Religion has spread among the different countries. I would say the only huge difference, besides their native tongue, was the music. Each Ethnic group had distinctive music, and I am so glad that I had that chance to be a part of that.

Please keep in mind, this is not something we do all the time, our Church had never never down this before, apparently this is what the Arch-Bishop wanted, and that was his key point, that although we all may be different, we are all one as Catholics…
 
Rebecca, don’t be put down by some of the comments here. there is nothing wrong with what occured, and its wonderful you saw the beauty of people of different backgrounds coming together to praise God
 
VetA said:
i for one think that things would be better if the church had one universal language in which to have mass… oh wait we do, its called Latin. Mass is not the place to celebrate diffrent cultures or dance around in chior robes, its a solem occasion to worship God, not the cultures of man.
youtube.com/watch?v=9rJFdmmqj_s
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Latin is the “official” language of the Church, not the “universal” language. Your opinion "that things would be better if the church had one universal language in which to have mass" is just that, an opinion, that carries little weight.
 
Maybe I’m an old stick in the mud but Mass is for adoration of the Lord not entertainment, especially dancing!
 
Timothysis said:
Latin is the “official” language of the Church, not the “universal” language. Your opinion "that things would be better if the church had one universal language in which to have mass" is just that, an opinion, that carries little weight.
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to add, the Church, in its entirety, doesn’t have one language. not in the past, not today. now, the Roman Church has Latin as its official language. the Eastern Churches would have their own languages they use officially since their foundation
 
I figured I’d go check out the diocesean web page. So I did.

Archbishop Wenski is the son of Polish immigrants. He also speaks fluent Spanish and Haitian Creole. So he has a real interest in and understanding of and love for immigrants.

And Miami itself is an incredible ‘melting pot’ of immigrants.

Now the particular Mass was sponsored by a multicultural group, as opposed to most of the other Masses I saw. While some Masses were offered as bi or trilingual (nothing wrong with that) or for a special profession (the Red Mass for the legal profession for example, nothing wrong with that), this particular Mass was the only one I saw that was specifically ‘designed’ to be a’ Mass with the specific and sole emphasis on “Multicultura!” as opposed to most ‘regular’ Masses. While there are parishes which have a preponderance of say 3 or more ethnic groups such that every weekend there is at least one Spanish Mass, one English Mass, one Korean Mass and one Polish Mass, for example, there is not usually a Mass where the Priest comes up at the beginning, says the Gloria in Spanish, reads the gospel in Korean, gives a short homily in 4 languages, says the Eucharist prayers jumping from Spanish to English to Korean to Polish, and of course, has the opening hymm in Spanish, the offertory in Korean, the Communion in Polish and the recessional in English. Such a Mass is too ‘jumbled’. While obviously at any given point those who are native speakers of whatever language will get an ‘ego boo’ because, “He’s speaking Korean now, this is MY Language!”, the other groups (as most of us do not have the Archbishop’s skill and knowledge of many languages) are left puzzled. ’

Of course, the really THOUGHTFUL thing to do is to have a lot of flyers with all the prayers of the Mass printed in English, Spanish, Korean and Polish, so that when ‘your language’ is not on stage (I mean, being spoken) you can just look along and ‘find it’. And it would be nice if the songs were all translated to all the other languages. That would certainly make it a much more ‘multicultural’ experience because you would UNDERSTAND what you heard.

That’s why I always enjoyed the Latin/English (and later, Latin/French) missals that I used as a young child. I could ‘hear’ the Latin, look at the words and try to follow the ‘sounds’, but I could also ‘jump over’ to English (or French) and know what the priest was saying! It was a great way to get used to other languages and still ‘understand’ the meaning in my own language.
 
And let’s not jump to conclusions.

(All right, stop laughing. I know, hearing that from me of all people! :D)

Just because the OP spoke of ‘dancing in the choir robes’ does not mean that she danced at Mass.

People robe well before service. They were probably dancing as they got ready, perhaps not even in the church itself but down in the parish hall getting ready to process in. . .or perhaps later on as they went (robed) for coffee and donuts.
 
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