Not for entertainment purposes only

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

It seems that a goodly deal of liturgical abuse comes about with the good intention of drawing more people to Mass (what’s that saying about a certain road being paved with good intentions). I think many have a very distorted view of what exactly the Liturgy is, and what we are to put into and get out of it. Mass is not party time, nor a concert.

We live in a pragmatic world that promises quick rewards, entertainment, or stimulation. As a result, many people today have a difficulty with a liturgical worship which does not fulfill such promises. According to the Church’s tradition, however, the divine services actually partake of the reality they represent. We must approach them using the gifts of faith to see God acting in our midst from within these services and calling us out of our daily existence into a new life - the starting point for the creation of the new world. Liturgical worship reminds us time after time that our God, who cannot be explained by human concepts, still lovingly calls us to be one with Him. This is a task that calls for everything that we are so that we might become even more. (Light for Life, vol. 2, pg. 98)

 

[JMJ_coder]

bump

 

[Chuy]

Hello,

It seems that a goodly deal of liturgical abuse comes about with the good intention of drawing more people to Mass (what’s that saying about a certain road being paved with good intentions). I think many have a very distorted view of what exactly the Liturgy is, and what we are to put into and get out of it. Mass is not party time, nor a concert.

Which “abuses?”

 

[JMJ_coder]

Which “abuses?”

Liturgical dancing; use of secular musical instruments and musical genres (the degree of abuse which has been repeatedly debated on this forum); clown masses; allowing non-ordained laity to give ‘talks’ instead of the homily; etc.

 

[Chuy]

Liturgical dancing; use of secular musical instruments and musical genres (the degree of abuse which has been repeatedly debated on this forum); clown masses; allowing non-ordained laity to give ‘talks’ instead of the homily; etc.

“Secular” musical instruments? Like the violins on EWTN? Either way, I don’t believe it’s an abuse.

I don’t think clown Masses really exist. I think a half-dozen took place over time and select groups of people continue to obsess about them while trading pictures and youtube URLs.

 

[JMJ_coder]

“Secular” musical instruments? Like the violins on EWTN? Either way, I don’t believe it’s an abuse.

Not as bad as a full rock band doing a monster ballad Alleluia before the Gospel.

I don’t think clown Masses really exist. I think a half-dozen took place over time and select groups of people continue to obsess about them while trading pictures and youtube URLs.

But they did in fact occur, and they illustrate my point.

 

[japhy]

“Secular” musical instruments? Like the violins on EWTN?

Bowed instruments have been admissible since at least 1903.

I don’t think clown Masses really exist. I think a half-dozen took place over time and select groups of people continue to obsess about them while trading pictures and youtube URLs.

I don’t think China really exists. (etc.)

Mockery-Masses happen more often than you’d like to admit it, even if they don’t happen to the same degree as others, and even if you don’t see them.

 

[PacoG]

I don’t think clown Masses really exist. I think a half-dozen took place over time and select groups of people continue to obsess about them while trading pictures and youtube URLs.

I actually witnessed one (or a partial clown mass). When I was in my early teens in the late seventies/early eighties, our parish had an Assistant Pastor who would dress up as a clown. Occasionally, he would bring out a sock puppet during the homily and talk to the sock puppet.

One Sunday, he gradually put on his clown make up and nose and wig and became his clown alter-ego. (I believe it was Zubo the Clown is what he called his clown alter ego.) He did it to illustrate the point of how people can change before our eyes. Anyway, after the Credo and before the offertory, he went into the sacristy and cleaned up.

This guy is no longer a priest. And that’s good for the Church.

 

[Cat]

I actually witnessed one (or a partial clown mass). When I was in my early teens in the late seventies/early eighties, our parish had an Assistant Pastor who would dress up as a clown. Occasionally, he would bring out a sock puppet during the homily and talk to the sock puppet.

One Sunday, he gradually put on his clown make up and nose and wig and became his clown alter-ego. (I believe it was Zubo the Clown is what he called his clown alter ego.) He did it to illustrate the point of how people can change before our eyes. Anyway, after the Credo and before the offertory, he went into the sacristy and cleaned up.

This guy is no longer a priest. And that’s good for the Church.

You witnessed one? Thirty years ago?

Why on earth bring it up now as though this is the norm in the Catholic Church?

 

[Chuy]

You witnessed one? Thirty years ago?

Why on earth bring it up now as though this is the norm in the Catholic Church?

Yeap.

You know at this point, be it on-line or in person, anyone referencing “clown Masses” as a problem within the Church would unwittingly telegraph to me that they are not someone to be taken seriously.

 

[PacoG]

I was just making the point that I witnessed one. It was in the late 70s/early 80s, at the height of that stupidity. Other than that one, I have never seen another. I would like to think that what I saw was the exception not the rule.

Of the Masses that I have attended in my 40 years on this planet, the ratio of solid, holy, well-celebrated Masses to illicit, irreverent Masses is somewhere in the area of 9 to 1. I really have not seen the large level of liturgical abuse that other people see.

 

[japhy]

The Bishops in the UK are planning a travesty of a Mass next month. It might not have clowns, but it’s still pretty awful. It’s called “Reclaim the Future”, and it’s a hijacking of Christ the King for a “youth Mass” oriented around “social sins” (like not recycling, wasting electricity or water, littering, etc.).

The web site appears to be down or offline now. I blogged about it, and so did others.