The hardest thing about my last 20 years as a priest

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Justin_Mary said:
A question I was just asking myself, “How would I act if I truly believed my God is truly present under the guise of bread & wine.”

Don’t get me wrong. I know the teaching. I understand. I can follow the connected dots.

But if I truly believed…
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…unless the Lord miraculously heals my arthritic knee so that I am able to kneel and get up again, I would behave exactly the way I do now.

Even when my knee is replaced, which I hope it will be by this time next year, I understand that kneeling may still be difficult for me. On top of that, I have a couple of “bad” feet that have had surgery with the result that I have some unsteadiness at times.

During Mass this morning, I watched a man who I know is very devout kneel to receive Holy Communion, and then stand up again. I marveled at how easily he did it, and he’s overweight and close to 50 years old! I just can’t imagine being able to do that! It’s seems superhuman to me! I don’t kneel to clean a spill on my floor–I bend from the waist, and thankfully I’m flexible enough to reach the floor to wipe up the mess (try it sometime).

But to be able to kneel on a hard floor and then stand right back up without even holding onto anything–wow! I would give that maneuver a 6.0!

I don’t think that kneeling or any posture would make a difference in my reverence for the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. There are plenty of people who receive the Lord Jesus from a hospital bed, and I’m sure many of them are very reverent in their soul even though they aren’t kneeling.
 
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I implied that you’re paying attention to the other people when you shouldn’t be.
 
The implication that was based on an unjust assumption then. I’ve explained the circumstances related to this occurence which you could not have previously known.
 
“Acting reverent is being reverent, just as acting obedient is obedience”.

I couldn’t disagree more strongly. Judas acted reverent, until he betrayed Christ. By their fruits shall you know them.
 
The problem is the liturgical reform’s goal of making the Mass more understandable was contradicted by its goals of simplicity and reflection of modern and ecumenical sensibilities. While the language of the texts was switched to the vernacular, so much of what “spoke” truths to us in non-verbal ways was hidden away. We got rid of so many helps toward understanding.

Yes, these things are not absolutely necessary to the strong in faith, but not everyone is there yet. Some of us need the helps the Church once provided.
 
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You bring up some good points and the issue isn’t about being physically unable to kneel, but choosing not to.

Those who receive from a hospital bed or from a wheel chair are not being irreverent, they simply can’t perform the action. So it’s not really a fair comparison.

Unless I misunderstand your post; if you could kneel with no physical impediment would you?
 
Big amen. Our priest teaches the children to say ‘Jesus has given his life for us’ as he raises the bread which is Jesus and as he lowers it he teaches them to say ‘Jesus I adore you’, adoration is important too absolutely adoration = adoring Christ in the blessed sacrament.
 
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People are discouraged from genuflecting to the tabernacle or kneeling to receive Holy Communion. In some cases, they are humiliated for receiving on the tongue. Priests affirm that God is perfectly delighted that people talk rather than pray in church before and after Mass. The habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion in contravention of the norms, to the point where they have become a kind of quasi-hierarchical order in the Church, has hardly helped encourage faith in the Real Presence. This is particularly so when they are so inadequately formed that they explain their role as “giving out the wine” at Mass.
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This part resonates with me.

I attended a parish like this when I was traveling the other week. I didn’t observe very many people genuflect to the tabernacle (off to the side) most bowed to the altar when leaving or entering the pew.

I was taken aback when, after the consecration, no fewer than 10 laymen and laywomen walked up and gathered around the altar. They were all EMHCs! They went out in pairs and lined up across the front. This church had maybe 200 people in it. I had never seen so many EMHCs even at much larger parishes.

No one kneeled for communion, which isn’t out of the ordinary for the US, but most in front of me also did not bow!

I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend mass and receive the Eucharist. It was just a very jarring experience.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
No one kneeled for communion, which isn’t out of the ordinary for the US, but most in front of me also did not bow!
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Many people do not bow in my home diocese in another state because we were not trained to bow as children or young people receiving Communion. Furthermore, when I moved to another diocese at age 22, nobody bowed there either, again it was not taught.

The emphasis on bowing seems to be relatively recent and is very pervasive in certain dioceses, Philadelphia for example, whereas it’s not done so much elsewhere. I never saw my parents bow for Communion in my life, and they were both very reverent people. I myself started bowing only about 3 years ago because I am now spending lots of time in a diocese where almost everybody bows.

I know you are fairly new to the church, mrsdizzyd, so I don’t mean you when I say this, but it would be nice if people who have been in the church for some years would stop to think there are reasons other than irreverence or “not taking it seriously” that people do or don’t do certain gestures.
 
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That fact that it was/is not taught rather bolsters the authors point don’t you think?
 
We were taught as children to reverently approach for communion with our hands folded, to not talk, fidget, etc. While the bow is nice, I don’t think it is particularly irreverent to skip it. Like I said, my parents were extremely reverent, my mother would often even cry at communion, and you seem to be saying she’d be irreverent if she skipped doing a bow that in her era of receiving standing (early 1960s through 2013 or so) almost nobody in her parishes did.

It’s not about whether you go through some special gyration, it’s about your general attitude and what is in your heart.
 
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I think the author’s point is that these gestures matter and when they are absent it can lead to a misunderstanding of the Eucharist and an increase in irreverence. The bow before reception is the norm for the sign of reverence in the US, as established by the USCCB. That apparently large portions of the US omit it is problematic.

I wouldn’t consider that an indictment of your mother or anyone else in particular. I also did not say that anyone of these folks were irreverent. I just found it jarring. As I noted.

The shepards should be ensuring that the norms are followed by their flocks and they should explain why it matters.
 
I personally think when it comes to all these threads on gestures and which way the priest faces, the Church has much bigger fish to fry. One problem I have with all these fussbudgety articles is that the Catholics being criticized for their alleged lack of “reverence” are actually at Mass. They cared enough to go. The ones showing true “irreverence” are the ones who don’t bother to show up.

People who come to Mass and make a reasonable effort to be mannerly there deserve encouragement, not a bunch of criticism because according to some observer they aren’t doing a good enough job acting all holy while they’re in church.
 
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I generally agree with you. I think the blame for where we are now rests with the clergy. It is their responsibility to instruct the faithful.
 
Genesis315 said:
The problem is the liturgical reform’s goal of making the Mass more understandable was contradicted by its goals of simplicity and reflection of modern and ecumenical sensibilities
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I find this hard to believe.

I believe there is more going on at the Mass than what we see & hear. God is working in the Mass. I don’t think making it more difficult to understand or easier to follow makes a difference.

From my own experience I know there are times when I see or hear something that’s been said repeatedly as if I heard it for the first time & it makes sense to me in a way it never had before.

Whether it’s a hymn, a Psalm, a prayer, even the greeting & dismissal. “Go & glorify the Lord with your lives.”

May be a bit controversial, but I believe if more of us would pray the Mass the way we know we should, they could simplify down to, “Repent & be saved!” Followed by the Liturgy of the Eucharistic & the Kingdom of God will be here & now from sea to sea & every corner of the earth.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
The shepards should be ensuring that the norms are followed by their flocks and they should explain why it matters.
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Agreed. At the same time, I wasn’t taught to bow. I saw other people doing it. I liked it. I started imitating them.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
I generally agree with you. I think the blame for where we are now rests with the clergy. It is their responsibility to instruct the faithful.
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I think laying blame is uncalled for & unfair. I also think expecting the clergy to do this, or that is (at times) misguided.

We are the Church. We are the catechist, the example, the bible study leaders. We are the faith formation directors, the outreach organizers… we are the Church, with the clergy.
 
Crusader13 said:
Unless I misunderstand your post; if you could kneel with no physical impediment would you?
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Of course, if it was the norm. I personally don’t have any greater sense of “reverence” from kneeling as I do standing or sitting, or playing.
 
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