Possible Abuses, Please Help Discern

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Yes, but I said as individuals it’s possible, because we can abandon the Solas. Protestantism, as a form of Christianity, cannot evolve into greater truth because of the Solas. If they somehow were wholesale abandoned, it would either result in or be a result of greater heresy, or a wholesale re-assimilation with the See of Rome and/or the Orthodox communion.

For Protestants to reach greater truth, they have to abandon Protestantism.
Have you ever heard the term, “more Catholic than the Pope”?
 
I would find a more traditional parish if I were you. It sounds like you have a liberal priest. I’ve attended Masses while traveling where priests allow the laity to do all kinds of weird stuff (I’m old school Catholic) and I barely stand it. It sounds to me like the Holy Spirit is helping you to discern that there is something not quite right. Also, read scriptures from a Catholic Bible and Catholic books, especially on lives of the Saints. Ignatious Press and Tan Books are traditional sources. Watch EWTN. In this day and time, we need to educate ourselves with the Truth since we can’t always get it from the clergy. God bless you and let us all pray for our Church.
 
Have you ever heard the term, “more Catholic than the Pope”?
Wow that wasn’t necessary to this conversation. Why is the OP as you said “more Catholic than the Pope”? Looks like what he wrote was pretty spot on.
 
Have you ever heard the term, “more Catholic than the Pope”?
I’m speaking of Church Law. If it’s wrong it’s wrong, pleasant symbolism or not, and it has nothing to do with age or haughtiness or self-righteousness. I have right of conscience here to leave. Now, if you or anyone else has some documentation to correct me I in the particulars I will be happy to revise my views. But if it boils down to insult and accusations of being an overzealous convert then it’s not something I’ll heed.

I should also mention that another small thing is that they give blessings at Communion to the non-confirmed. Which was another thing I got tripped up on and went to do. There’s a trend here. The liturgy is catechesis, and the parish community helps one another be on the straight and narrow. As a newbie, I can’t afford to be improperly formed unwittingly.
 
  • The deacon mentioned the universal priesthood and said people can bless things while mentioning that most people just have the priest bless rosaries because of his “authority”.
A Catholic can take blessed water (from the Easter or Baptismal water fonts) and use it to bless their home and children.

Priests and deacons have a book of blessings and prayers for various objects. They will bless objects that people use which function to bring families and individuals closer to God.
 
I’m speaking of Church Law. If it’s wrong it’s wrong, pleasant symbolism or not, and it has nothing to do with age or haughtiness or self-righteousness. I have right of conscience here to leave. Now, if you or anyone else has some documentation to correct me I in the particulars I will be happy to revise my views. But if it boils down to insult and accusations of being an overzealous convert then it’s not something I’ll heed.

I should also mention that another small thing is that they give blessings at Communion to the non-confirmed. Which was another thing I got tripped up on and went to do. There’s a trend here. The liturgy is catechesis, and the parish community helps one another be on the straight and narrow. As a newbie, I can’t afford to be improperly formed unwittingly.
Honestly, having the laity give “blessings” both during communion and otherwise during Mass is so widespread that you’ll be hard-pressed to find a parish that doesn’t do those things.

Leaving a parish isn’t the answer. Stay there and help to get things changed…new convert or not. If everyone leaves for a different parish or religion (denomination), nothing will get fixed.
 
I’m speaking of Church Law. If it’s wrong it’s wrong, pleasant symbolism or not, and it has nothing to do with age or haughtiness or self-righteousness. I have right of conscience here to leave. Now, if you or anyone else has some documentation to correct me I in the particulars I will be happy to revise my views. But if it boils down to insult and accusations of being an overzealous convert then it’s not something I’ll heed.

I should also mention that another small thing is that they give blessings at Communion to the non-confirmed. Which was another thing I got tripped up on and went to do. There’s a trend here. The liturgy is catechesis, and the parish community helps one another be on the straight and narrow. As a newbie, I can’t afford to be improperly formed unwittingly.
It’s wrong to look for disagreements between you and the Church’s ordained priest. You are nit picking him to death.

You don’t agree with blessing the non-confirmed?
 
I would find a more traditional parish if I were you. It sounds like you have a liberal priest. I’ve attended Masses while traveling where priests allow the laity to do all kinds of weird stuff (I’m old school Catholic) and I barely stand it. It sounds to me like the Holy Spirit is helping you to discern that there is something not quite right. Also, read scriptures from a Catholic Bible and Catholic books, especially on lives of the Saints. Ignatious Press and Tan Books are traditional sources. Watch EWTN. In this day and time, we need to educate ourselves with the Truth since we can’t always get it from the clergy. God bless you and let us all pray for our Church.
There are a few other parishes within my zip code, some of which are older, ethnic, and more traditional when it comes to the architecture, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean I can trust them. I would prefer an Ordinary Form parish close to home, but if it can’t be done without issue then I may have to travel quite a distance to a Extraordinary Form parish. Whatever works out I guess. 🤷 It grates on my nerves to be at their masses, which is definitely not a good thing. Call me a snob, but I like chant and polyphony - not OCA tunes. Owwww. I know the EF parish has bells in their OF mass. Maybe incense too, which are always good signs. I read their bulletin and they seemed to be the reform of the reform types. Talking about both/and thinking and such.

Ha, I sound vain now. But I love Catholic culture, not 80s suburban culture 😛

But I have a Catechism, an RSV-2CE which I’m going to use to augment my future DRB, and a 1962 Daily Missal from Baronius. I like the publishers you mentioned. Trusty.
 
Another “don’t touch me, don’t put your hands up, don’t extend out your hands” thread. 🤷
 
As the conversation deepens, you resort to accusations and name-calling? I find that odd. Why not actually respond to what is being discussed?
 
It’s wrong to look for disagreements between you and the Church’s ordained priest. You are nit picking him to death.

You don’t agree with blessing the non-confirmed?
They’re blessed along with everyone else at the closure of the mass, and even the stickies on this forum say the CDW disapprove. Outside of mass it is alright for the laity to invoke God to bless things, but if a EMHC is spiritually incapable of granting a blessing within mass by their own will, then I doubt it can be done outside of mass either.

And I’m not nit-picking, there’s a larger picture here that I really don’t want to get sucked into. I know the kind of messes going on in the name of “the Spirit of Vatican II” and I’m just a passionately orthodox young person who has a deep appreciation of what God has given you and me and all of us in this Church, and I don’t like seeing people take advantage of it. I want to be a part of the Reform toward the original intentions of the Council and Novus Ordo, but this is A LOT to tackle for me right off the bat. I would help change things, but the clergy don’t respect me enough to heed me. They fixate way too much on my age and newness to the faith. I mean, it would be essentially one “angsty overzealous goth convert-kid” up against the way things are done, so-to-speak. Plus I’m mentally ill, so I’d get more of their “don’t try so hard, think less” advice. The deacon thinks I’m scrupulous too, but quite frankly using that term to throw the devout under the bus is getting old.
 
Not to mention I’m just straight up afraid to address an elder in authority like that.
 
A Catholic can take blessed water (from the Easter or Baptismal water fonts) and use it to bless their home and children.
Yes, but the blessing is from the priest, contained in the holy water.
The blessing one asks of parents or future parents-in-law is nothing more than permission, and that has been expressed in the Church by the laity by applause, not extending the hand, which is a priestly gesture.
 
Yeah, with the meditation we were imagining cool running water cleansing us of our anxieties to teach us about sacramentals. I know about rosary-style meditation and proper contemplative non-centering prayer, but that just seemed rather out of place for the RCIA, especially in context with some of the other looseness there.

And with the Responsorial Psalm, wouldn’t the options be present in the missal? Because this was not even a psalm (that I can remember), and it had no verse/response structure… so I think they outright swapped for a hymn. Was there another option for the Third Sunday of Easter, because UCSSB doesn’t show one.

I found this however:

GIRM # 61
Code:
In the dioceses of the United States of America, the following may also be sung in place of the Psalm assigned in the Lectionary for Mass: either the proper or seasonal antiphon and Psalm from the Lectionary, as found either in the Roman Gradual or Simple Gradual or in another musical setting; or an antiphon and Psalm from another collection of the psalms and antiphons, including psalms arranged in metrical form, providing that they have been approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop. Songs or hymns may not be used in place of the responsorial Psalm.
I know that on Resurrection Sunday they paraphrased the psalm too. Total mismatch with the missal.

That’s usually where I get confused actually. That, and I think there’s some ad-libbing, and mild inclusive language in the creed.
Good research on the psalm, and you’re right, replacing it with a hymn is not allowed. Just be non-confrontational about that one until you’ve determined exactly what is going on there. Also be careful about the translation of the psalm. There are more than one.

I hear ya about the meditation. From what you’ve posted here, it doesn’t see wrong, but if it’s not your thing, then you know to avoid the meditation prayer group. As an aside, though, sacramentals can help to reduce our anxiety. That is grace in action!
 
Yes, but the blessing is from the priest, contained in the holy water.
The blessing one asks of parents or future parents-in-law is nothing more than permission, and that has been expressed in the Church by the laity by applause, not extending the hand, which is a priestly gesture.
Applause during the Mass. For shame! Such calamity.

I believe our current Pope disapproves of applause at Mass. It takes away from the solemnity of the celebration.

Off to hunt that down in the GIRM…

🤷
 
Good research on the psalm, and you’re right, replacing it with a hymn is not allowed. Just be non-confrontational about that one until you’ve determined exactly what is going on there. Also be careful about the translation of the psalm. There are more than one.

I hear ya about the meditation. From what you’ve posted here, it doesn’t see wrong, but if it’s not your thing, then you know to avoid the meditation prayer group. As an aside, though, sacramentals can help to reduce our anxiety. That is grace in action!
You’re right, I need to take it slow on that one. All I know is Palm Sunday (which is what I meant) had a different wording to the psalm, and there was no response in the last mass. It sounded like a hymn, but everything sounds like a hymn these days… how does one go about talking to clergy about this? I really hope it isn’t the bishop allowing these things :banghead:

And yes, sacramentals help me immensely. They’re one of those things a Protestant just eats up after finding out they’re actually holy. I have a Miraculous Medal on now, I love lighting candles for intentions, I use 3rd order relics and chaplets in devotion to saints, and I go through holy water perhaps a bit to fast. I’d recite the rosary more, but it’s one of those things that I feel is a chore before I do it, and after I find that I enjoyed it but it took too long. I get a lot out of it when I do it though.

I saw something that leaped out at me from one of the other threads, and it might sound a bit prideful to say of myself, but it was “He only gives the biggest crosses to those closest to Him!” 😃 My crosses have been made of lead and twenty feet tall XD
 
Applause during the Mass. For shame! Such calamity.

I believe our current Pope disapproves of applause at Mass. It takes away from the solemnity of the celebration.

Off to hunt that down in the GIRM…

🤷
Two different purposes for applause. Applause for the band is frowned upon. Applause to indicate approval of a newly-ordained deacon, priest, or bishop is called for in the rubrics, under the general heading “congregation shows approval”.
 
Yes, but the blessing is from the priest, contained in the holy water.
The blessing one asks of parents or future parents-in-law is nothing more than permission, and that has been expressed in the Church by the laity by applause, not extending the hand, which is a priestly gesture.
Actually the blessing is from God, Father Son and Holy Spirit; the ritual blessing is performed by the priest or deacon. The rituals found in the book of blessings are all of basically the same form, “May almighty God Bless…”

Don’t think you’ll find blessing rituals that begin, “I bless you…”

The blessing imparted by the minister of a liturgy at the end, either priest or deacon begins in the same manner, “May almighty God bless you…”

:blessyou:
 
I just converted to the Catholic Church about 1.5 years ago at age 49, I had started looking at the Church as a teenager, exploring the early Church Fathers, etc. I attended a few Catholic churches over the years and didn’t seem to find the same Catholicism that I had been reading about from history, confused for many years, left church completely, basically came back searching and found the Tridentine Mass existed, there I found what the Saints over the past two thousand years had experienced. Deo gratias!
 
Actually the blessing is from God, Father Son and Holy Spirit; the ritual blessing is performed by the priest or deacon. The rituals found in the book of blessings are all of basically the same form, “May almighty God Bless…”

Don’t think you’ll find blessing rituals that begin, “I bless you…”

The blessing imparted by the minister of a liturgy at the end, either priest or deacon begins in the same manner, “May almighty God bless you…”

:blessyou:
True dat. They just have the keys to unlock them with authority basically.
 
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