Perfunctorily celebrated Masses do harm. So do utilitarian Masses

[fide]

Duesenberg:

I think the Church is largely awake today. The problem is one of not taking action, not taking action soon enough or not taking the appropriate action.

Then we have not seen the same examples, not at all. I see adult Catholics fed a continuous diet of baby-food - pablum - and denied stronger food; minimizing the call to holiness, the call to the Cross, the call to grow in the spiritual life and prayer. Even the call and command to make disciples (even that vocation, given by Jesus to the Church) has been co-opted and redefined to fit in the playground of the parish “campus”.

I see an article in HPR this month that highlights an observation of the “Peter Pan” syndrome affecting marriages in the country. The author cites Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) who wrote, “We are living in an America of perpetual adolescence. Our kids simply don’t know what an adult is anymore—or how to become one.” He concludes that “It’s our fault more than theirs.”

I see this resistance to leaving childhood deeply affecting the Church - laity and clergy - in many ways, especially in formation in the Catholic Faith, adult formation of the laity, and seminary formation of the clergy. “Formation” cannot happen without the heart-desire to grow!

Children cannot “take action” appropriate to and expected, owed, due from adults.

There is more than deserves to be said, but enough for here and for now.

 

[CilladeRoma]

OP, I am still waiting for your definitaion of perfunctory & utilitarian.

We already know you don’t like EP 2.

So if a priest uses another option other than the Confiteor- is that utilitarian & perfunctory?

What if he wears a plain vestment, instead of one with lots of adornment & fancy fabrics?

What if there is no music, and the Gloria & Sanctus are spoken instead of sung? Is that utilitarian & perfunctory?

I sometimes prefer a Mass without music, as it is quieter and more introspective. Or is that also too utilitarian?

I guess I don’t understand what it is you want. If you have the “bells & smells” all the time, they cease to be something special. Mass is a beautiful gift. Yes, it is nice to see a gift all adorned with pretty wrappings, but those wrappings should never become more important than the gift itself.

 

[tafan2]

I go do an early morning (6:30am) mass many days. I have to be home to take the kids to school by 7:15. The church is 15-20 minutes away. The mass is typically over by 7:50-7:55. Communion starts around 6:45. I greatly appreciate the way the priest says it. Me, and many others who attend could not make a daily mass if it was not early and fast. If you watched any given portion of the mass, you would not know it would as a whole be so short, the priest does a very good job. Of course, there is no homily, or the prayers of the faithful, and it uses the short penitential rite and Eucharistic Prayer #2.
I don’t know if this qualifies as the OP’s utilitarian mass, I suspect it does. I am guessing the OP is judging too harshly situations he may not understand.

 

[Duesenberg]

I don’t know if this qualifies as the OP’s utilitarian mass, I suspect it does. I am guessing the OP is judging too harshly situations he may not understand.

If a priest is doing that so people can attend a Mass that’s designed for workers/commuters, I don’t see a problem with that. In fact it was a good thing. Timothy Cardinal Dolan celebrates a blazingly fast daily mass at St. Pat’s with a 1 minute or so homily just for this reason.

What I have a problem with are Masses that are burned through despite no time constraints with little care. I could list a couple of dozen things that I feel define a perfunctorily and/or utilitarian Mass that I’m exposed to on a regular basis. But I won’t because I am weary of the excuses.

 

[tafan2]

So you admit to excuses that justify a “utilitarian” type of mass. I note in your response you do not say that the mass I describe is not utilitarian, just that it is ok if the priest is doing it so workers/commuters can attend. hmmm.

 

[Duesenberg]

I note in your response you do not say that the mass I describe is not utilitarian, just that it is ok if the priest is doing it so workers/commuters can attend. hmmm.

It IS utilitarian. Just like there are times when Mass celebrated on the hood of a HMMWV is appropriate, there are times when utilitarian Masses are acceptable when the alternative is no Mass at all.

I would ask though, would it be that great of a sacrifice to begin Mass at 6:15 or even 6:20?

 

[xsacerdos]

nothing new here. did you know that in the 1917 Code of Canon Law it was laid down that a low Mass was not to be said in less than 15 minutes? nothing new under the sun! but of course back then, was harder to tell the state of mind of the celebrant, since you rarely saw him and most didn’t understand the Latin. like I said, nothing new under the sun!

 

[Duesenberg]

It IS utilitarian. Just like there are times when Mass celebrated on the hood of a HMMWV is appropriate, there are times when utilitarian Masses are acceptable when the alternative is no Mass at all.

I would ask though, would it be that great of a sacrifice to begin Mass at 6:15 or even 6:20?

You cannot get upt 15 minutes earlier, @tafong2 ?

 

[adamhovey1988]

I’m not exactly sure what this is about.

 

[babochka]

fide:

So many priests and pastors are so busy with the business of a parish!

That’s one of the longstanding universal excuses that’s routinely offered. If that’s indeed the case in some parishes then something needs to be done about it. Yes, it’s that important – not only for the laity, but for the priest as well.

The result - a perfunctory and utilitarian response to the call to priesthood.

That might indeed be the case in some parishes. A far more difficult problem to solve of course, but one that still needs to be addressed.

What do you mean exactly? I’m not disagreeing, but what exactly changed?

When I was a child, my home parish had a pastor, 3 curates, a parish secretary, a religious sister who took care of the altar servers and linens and a volunteer maintenance coordinator. Business was done in the rectory, where the pastor maintained an office and a meeting room.

Today, on that EXACT SAME CAMPUS with perhaps 10% fewer parishioners and 1 less Mass/day on all 7 days, my home parish has: a pastor, 2 parochial vicars, a senior priest, 3 deacons, an office manager, 4 office assistants, a bookeeper, a bookeeper’s assistant, a music director and a total of NINETEEN (this number fluctuates, but I have my parish bulletin in front of me) lay pastoral “coordinators” for everything from a “liturgy coordinator” and a “environment coordinator” to a “physical plant coordinator” and a “baptism coordinator.” They are now located in a former apartment building that’s adjacent to my parish.

From what I can ascertain, my parishes actually provides somewhat fewer services (e.g. no more weekday evening Masses) then it did decades ago. The only new mandate is the “safe environment coordinator” from the diocese (which is a good thing.) What do all these resources (people) spend their time on? Please think about that for a moment. No, it’s not a matter of more people attending the parish or anything like that. where do you think the hours go (including the priestly hours?)

While I have never formally analyzed the parish, my years with McKinsey tell me that most of the resources go to dealing with/navigating the huge bureaucracy that has been constructed – largely by the laity over several decades.

I agree with much of what you say here. When we were children, there were no background checks to be managed, no pre-baptism classes for parents, no RCIA, no Children’s Liturgy of the Word, little to no pre-Cana. It is all well-intentioned and much of it is good and useful, but it has created a rather unwieldy bureaucracy. Our priests do spend an amazing amount of time on practical, administrative matters. They are required to become CEOs, whether or not they have the aptitude for such work, often to the detriment of their ministries.

 

[Xantippe]

Its not the only thing they have planned for the day in their busy schedule. Staying 20 minutes extra, making little Johnny late for soccer practice, staying even longer and getting the Faithful caught in the traffic caused by Central Baptist and 1st Assembly faithful leaving their churches can put a damper on their entire day that might take the rest of the day to untangle.

Unpredictability is the worst.

I remember once at the National Shrine at the end of Mass, the head of AFL-CIO was invited to speak at a Labor Day weekend Mass. He went on and on and on. He couldn’t have been a church-goer, or he would have realized that Catholics (of whatever political complexion) do not want to hear a 15-minute tirade about evil Republicans when they think that Mass is almost over. I was this close to walking out. (We may or may not have had a little child with us at the time that we had dragged 90 minutes by public transportation in order to go to Mass at the Shrine.)

Parents with small children get especially antsy during long Masses. Many can expect to spend the bulk of the Mass out in the narthex chasing a small child around. (Protestants have longer services! I hear somebody say. But Protestants often have a nursery for little kids.)

 

[babochka]

Augustinian:

Its not the only thing they have planned for the day in their busy schedule. Staying 20 minutes extra, making little Johnny late for soccer practice, staying even longer and getting the Faithful caught in the traffic caused by Central Baptist and 1st Assembly faithful leaving their churches can put a damper on their entire day that might take the rest of the day to untangle.

Unpredictability is the worst.

I remember once at the National Shrine at the end of Mass, the head of AFL-CIO was invited to speak at a Labor Day weekend Mass. He went on and on and on. He couldn’t have been a church-goer, or he would have realized that Catholics (of whatever political complexion) do not want to hear a 15-minute tirade about evil Republicans when they think that Mass is almost over. I was this close to walking out. (We may or may not have had a little child with us at the time that we had dragged 90 minutes by public transportation in order to go to Mass at the Shrine.)

Parents with small children get especially antsy during long Masses. Many can expect to spend the bulk of the Mass out in the narthex chasing a small child around. (Protestants have longer services! I hear somebody say. But Protestants often have a nursery for little kids.)

I think it is unpredictability more than length. Divine Liturgy usually lasts about 90 minutes in our parish. The length is not a problem as we are uses to it, but if it unexpectedly goes longer, kids as well as adults will be squirming. For the most part, we don’t have anywhere to go. Most of the parish stays an hour or more after the liturgy to eat and visit. We just like to know ahead of time what is expected of us.

 

[Xantippe]

I would ask though, would it be that great of a sacrifice to begin Mass at 6:15 or even 6:20?

It might not even be a question of sacrifice, but of it being a physical impossibility for many Mass goers.

Mornings are times when many people need to be somewhere or get other people somewhere exactly on time or earlier–most of us have very little margin for error in the morning.

 

[Xantippe]

Also, come to think of it, a lot of us have childcare responsibilities at home.

We can’t just leave home by ourselves whenever we want–we have to think about the needs of multiple other people.

I’m actually rather astonished (and impressed) by any parent who manages to get to weekday Mass.

 

[CilladeRoma]

It IS utilitarian. Just like there are times when Mass celebrated on the hood of a HMMWV is appropriate, there are times when utilitarian Masses are acceptable when the alternative is no Mass at all.

I would ask though, would it be that great of a sacrifice to begin Mass at 6:15 or even 6:20?

You cannot get upt 15 minutes earlier, @tafong2 ?

Your response to Tafan is quite rude.
It is not just a matter of getting up 15 minutes earlier- it’s the matter of changing one’s whole routine.

In my city, traffic patterns can vary greatly in just 15 minutes. What might be a 10-minute drive at 7:15 am could very well be a 25-minute drive at 7:00 am

I, for one, am grateful for the “perfunctory” 6:30 am Mass offered between my home and my office. It allows me to attend Mass and still get to work on time.

We all should be grateful that we even have an opportunity to celebrate daily Mass, and not berate priests who try to move things along so that people can attend.

 

[Xantippe]

In my city, traffic patterns can vary greatly in just 15 minutes. What might be a 10-minute drive at 7:15 am could very well be a 25-minute drive at 7:00 am

That is a very good point!

We live near a college, and I occasionally find myself trying to deal with the pre-8AM surge of traffic–either 5 minutes later or earlier makes a dramatic difference. It’s remarkable how different the traffic volume can be at slightly different times of day.

 

[PetraG]

Do you think that people set out to be thoughtless or careless? Few do.

People take many people and many things for granted–it is a good day when any of us really go through it in the gratitude and reverence that a day’s bounty demands–but those who do so deliberately aren’t nearly so common. When we do that, we neglect love of God and love of neighbor.

I would agree with you and say that the only thing worse than going to Mass and forgetting where you are is to leave Mass and forget where you’ve been and Who it is you take with you. As bad as it is to fail to recognize Christ in the Mass, it is even worse to take Christ into the world in a form that is utterly unrecognizable.

The royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"
_ _
The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.
_ _
He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the Monarch’s silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
_ _
"No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
_ _
"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'T is by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.
_ _
"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of a friend.
_ _
"The ill-timed truth we might have kept–
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say–
Who knows how grandly it had rung!
_ _
"Our faults no tenderness should ask.
The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
But for our blunders – oh, in shame
Before the eyes of heaven we fall.
_ _
"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!"
_ _
The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
“Be merciful to me, a fool!”

“The Fool’s Prayer,” Edward Rowland Sill

 

[Duesenberg]

I agree with much of what you say here. When we were children, there were no background checks to be managed, no pre-baptism classes for parents, no RCIA, no Children’s Liturgy of the Word, little to no pre-Cana. It is all well-intentioned and much of it is good and useful, but it has created a rather unwieldy bureaucracy. Our priests do spend an amazing amount of time on practical, administrative matters. They are required to become CEOs, whether or not they have the aptitude for such work, often to the detriment of their ministries.

All this was taken care of by priests. Now instead of ministering, they spend their time managing a bureaucracy.

 

[Duesenberg]

I go do an early morning (6:30am) mass many days. I have to be home to take the kids to school by 7:15. The church is 15-20 minutes away. The mass is typically over by 7:50-7:55. Communion starts around 6:45. I greatly appreciate the way the priest says it. Me, and many others who attend could not make a daily mass if it was not early and fast. If you watched any given portion of the mass, you would not know it would as a whole be so short, the priest does a very good job. Of course, there is no homily, or the prayers of the faithful, and it uses the short penitential rite and Eucharistic Prayer #2.

I don’t know if this qualifies as the OP’s utilitarian mass, I suspect it does. I am guessing the OP is judging too harshly situations he may not understand.

Why not take your kids to daily Mass before they go to school?

 

[Maximilian75]

kids need more sleep than adults. I dont know this person’s home schedule but it may not be possible/healthy for the kids to get up that early.