The Traditional Catholic Life?

[Dempsey1919]

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far. Please keep posting. Share any memories you have of life growing up as a Catholic.

It is sad that we have lost many of our distinctive traditions, but we younger Catholics cannot reclaim them if we don’t know about them. Please help us recover some of the things that got left aside during the 60’s and 70’s by telling us about them.

 

[Dempsey1919]

Here’s a quick question:

How many of you had homes that were enthroned to the Sacred Heart?

A priest I know once said that almost every house had an image of the Sacred Heart when he was a kid. He said that most working class families had a strong devotion to the Sacred Heart, and said this was especially true among the Irish.

 

[JustaServant]

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far. Please keep posting. Share any memories you have of life growing up as a Catholic.

It is sad that we have lost many of our distinctive traditions, but we younger Catholics cannot reclaim them if we don’t know about them. Please help us recover some of the things that got left aside during the 60’s and 70’s by telling us about them.

Tradition’s coming back, it always has for 2000 years.
In baptist churches we used to call it a Revival.

 

[Frosty]

I have never experienced this. I would love to hear the Bells ring for the Angelus every day. It would remind me to put God first and remember him in everything I do.

Do many Church’s still ring the Angelus bells throughout the day? If not, why did this practice die out?

I have never attended Benediction. What is this devotion and does it still happen?

Perhaps you have heard the bells and did not realize what they were for? Almost all the churches that have bells do ring the Angelus, at least at noon and usually at 6pm as well. I believe the reason the bells are not rung at 6am is because of local noise restrictions. One would know the Angelus Bell by a triple stroke, repeated three times with a pause in between.
Many Catholic schools still say the noon Angelus every school day, at least all that I ever taught in or visited. there even are places where the Angelus is broadcast daily, either on T.V. or over the radio. In Ireland, the Phillipines and some parts of Mexico it is televised. In Canada and the U.S there are Catholic radio stations, run by laity, which broadcast daily.
Benediction is basically a short service, consisting mainly with the singing of the hymn, Tantum Ergo, with its prayer, followed by a blessing given to the people by the priest making a sign of the cross above them with the Blessed Sacrament, either contained in a ciborium or a monstrance. The forms are very variable. A common form is the exposition of the Host in a monstrance and its incensation while the song O Salutaris is sung. Tantum Ergo is is sung and the Host is incensed again. The blessing follows in silence then the hymn Holy God We Praise Thy Name.
We have Benediction at my parish every First Friday and the Cathedral in my city has it every Friday at 5pm. It also has it after Vespers on Holy Days of obligation and certain other feast days or special occasions. Benediction isn’t a truly ancient tradition. It began sometime in the 16th century and only became popular in the 18th. As with most other traditional forms of worship that are really basically popular expressions of piety, it was practiced more in certain areas than in others.

 

[brotherhrolf]

The bells of the cathedrals in Baton Rouge and New Orleans toll the Angelus each day at noon and six and people continue about their ways with nary a glance.

Benediction is the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for formal Adoration.Such was very common before Vatican II and alas not now.

youtube.com/watch?v=wr1rAv_XOWk

This is what we sang but not how Benediction was carried out before Vatican II. There was a litany and well, adoration. I couldn’t find a you tube video.

As for the Irish and the Sacred Heart. My family always had a strong devotion to the Sacred Heart. I am a member of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart and was inducted in 1964. Such was my comment about the nine First Fridays. Of course, I was taught by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart which is a French order but I live in both worlds since I am both French and Irish (although you would not mistake me for a Frenchman )

 

[CradleCath]

I was four years old in 1955. In New Orleans, the immigrant experience had already met the siren song of that city. My Irish ancestors had been there for well over a hundred years. My French ancestors over two hundred. I had Italian and Sicilian aunts and uncles. We all rejoiced in being Roman Catholics - so I don’t buy the “immigrant” scenario at least for me.

I am the product of a Catholic education from primer in 1956 through high school in 1969. It was not at all unusual to ride public transportation and when passing in front of a church (and thus the Holy Eucharist) to see large numbers of people making the sign of the cross. Restaurants and movie theaters closed on Good Friday until well into the early '70s. Nuns still wore habits and got free public transportation because the sisters had nursed the wounded at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Priests still wore cassocks and birettas in public. The brothers wore cassocks up until mid-1967.

At home we said grace before meals. Of course we said the Angelus at school but you could see people stopping in the street to recite the Angelus at noon when the cathedral bells rang (my high school was on the edge of the French Quarter). People stopped and made the sign of the cross when funeral processions passed by on the street. Rosaries? Yes. Novenas? Yes.

There was a crucifix in every bedroom of our house (still is today). We had statues of the Blessed Mother on dressers and St. Francis was out in the garden. I would say that we didn’t have a Mary garden per se, but every year my mother would plant sweet peas to weave into crowns for the May Crownings we did at school.

We all went to school Mass on Fridays and did First Fridays (something I haven’t heard of in years). From the time I started primer in 1956, all of us went to Mass and you knew you were in the presence of the Most High. One did not even do anything that would appear to be “cutting-up” in church. Sister or our teacher was right there and woe to the child who squirmed and heard the dreaded “clicker”. One “click-click” and you knew you had had it.

First Confession and First Communion at the end of the second grade. One got one’s little Missal and a rosary and was taken to have a formal portrait done in a white communion suit (take that Bill O’Reilly! I have an almost identical picture of me taken for my First Communion). At the end of third grade, boys were allowed to become altar boys. I rode my bike to church that entire summer to be trained by Father as to the Latin responses and the rubrics. Confirmation in sixth grade - March of '63 when one got one’s “big” missal and adult sized rosary.

Served as altar boy when my grandmother received Extreme Unction in January of '65. The Redemptorist priest who came to the house gave me a holy card of Fr. Francis X. Seelos and asked me to pray for his canonization. We now have Blessed Fr. Seelos. My little brother and I served my grandmother’s Requiem Mass.

Benedictions. I have attended one Benediction since the late 60s.

I note with great pleasure that the Archdiocese of New Orleans reinstated the Corpus Christi procession two years ago and that the suburb of Kenner retains its St. Rosalie procession to this day.

Catechism questions? Oh my. Baltimore Catechism! I can recite the answers to the questions to this day.

I am still a traditional Catholic. It is the way I was raised. No, I do not attend a TLM parish but rather a traditional cathedral parish where I still hear Latin chant and sacred motets. I am rusty on my rubrics but the Latin is still there after all these years. I could serve…

The world changed in mid-'67 between my sophomore and junior years in high school. We left at the end of May with the brothers in cassocks girded with rosaries and returned to most of the brothers in a white shirt, black tie, and black slacks. A signal of things to come. By May of '69 it was all over.

I do not receive Communion in the hand and I would love to kneel. I can still do one but not the other. That is one of the main things I miss the most.

BROTHERHROLF!!! Haven’t seen you post in ages. Great to have you back.

 

[CradleCath]

Perhaps you have heard the bells and did not realize what they were for? Almost all the churches that have bells do ring the Angelus, at least at noon and usually at 6pm as well. I believe the reason the bells are not rung at 6am is because of local noise restrictions. One would know the Angelus Bell by a triple stroke, repeated three times with a pause in between.
Many Catholic schools still say the noon Angelus every school day, at least all that I ever taught in or visited. there even are places where the Angelus is broadcast daily, either on T.V. or over the radio. In Ireland, the Phillipines and some parts of Mexico it is televised. In Canada and the U.S there are Catholic radio stations, run by laity, which broadcast daily.
Benediction is basically a short service, consisting mainly with the singing of the hymn, Tantum Ergo, with its prayer, followed by a blessing given to the people by the priest making a sign of the cross above them with the Blessed Sacrament, either contained in a ciborium or a monstrance. The forms are very variable. A common form is the exposition of the Host in a monstrance and its incensation while the song O Salutaris is sung. Tantum Ergo is is sung and the Host is incensed again. The blessing follows in silence then the hymn Holy God We Praise Thy Name.
We have Benediction at my parish every First Friday and the Cathedral in my city has it every Friday at 5pm. It also has it after Vespers on Holy Days of obligation and certain other feast days or special occasions. Benediction isn’t a truly ancient tradition. It began sometime in the 16th century and only became popular in the 18th. As with most other traditional forms of worship that are really basically popular expressions of piety, it was practiced more in certain areas than in others.

Tantum Ergo is my favorite. I haven’t thought about it in years. Tantum Ergo are the first two words of the last verses of the Pange Lingua, written by St. Thomas Aquinas:

Latin text
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui:
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui:
Praestet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.

Genitori, Genitoque
Laus et jubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.

V. Panem de caelis[2] praestitisti eis.(T.P. Alleluja)
R. Omne delectamentum in se habentem.(T.P. Alleluja)

Oremus: Deus, qui nobis sub sacramento mirabili, passionis tuae memoriam reliquisti: tribue, quaesumus, ita nos corporis et sanguinis tui sacra mysteria venerari, ut redemptionis tuae fructum in nobis iugiter sentiamus. Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.

R. Amen.

[edit] English translation
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail,
Lo! o’er ancient forms departing
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith for all defects supplying,
Where the feeble senses fail.
To the everlasting Father,
And the Son Who reigns on high
With the Holy Spirit proceeding
Forth from each eternally,
Be praise, honor, and blessing,
Might and endless majesty.
Amen.
R. Thou hast given them bread from heaven.
V. Having within it all sweetness.

Let us pray: O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament left us a memorial of Thy Passion: grant, we implore Thee, that we may so venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, as always to be conscious of the fruit of Thy Redemption. Thou who livest and reignest forever and ever.

R. Amen.

adoremus.org/499Pasley.html

 

[LilyM]

Bravo, Dempsey - on that initial post - Well said !
Do I remember my life pre-Vatican II? Yes. I remember reverence in Church. There was no talking and waving before, during or after Mass. Sometimes now, a Church sounds like a meeting hall.
I remember Sunday Mass was Sunday Mass. Not Saturday night. Do the Yankees hold a pre-games/pre-playoffs if you can’t get to the Sunday game?****
**I remember Catholic school: Every class had an assigned “Mass Day”, **required once a week. Mondays, after lunch - there was Rosary in the Church. Does any Catholic school follow these practices now? (And I remember if I leaned back / semi-sitting on the pew while kneeling, a nun would give me a solid push on the back to kneel up straight!)

I remember there was less trash on TV (I can’t say it any better). While this has nothing to do with Church, it has everything to do with the fact that Catholics / Christians accept rather than reject this. Entertainers - were entertainers. Anything less was shunned by decent people - now it’s applauded/accepted all day everyday on TV. (My cable company is clueless as to what EWTN is - and they charge for it. Tell you anything?)

**I remember when statues and holy images were a part of the inside of a Church **(now, many have been removed). My own house was filled with them displayed unashamedly. There wasn’t a second thought about displaying Crucifixes and holy images - whereas other families might be more apt to display photos and knick-knacks. I have a “Mary garden”, as you call it. But we didn’t say the Family Rosary - and wish we had.

As to before and after Vatican II, it’s sad. **I remember novenas **were a regular thing, once - usually well-attended in evenings. Even after Vatican II I remember a better-attended novena than is now the case. Barely a handful of people (if novena is offered at all). Again, one can’t help but wonder - aside from the elderly or homebound - where are Catholics today? Watching TV - at the movies - sports events - concerts. Not to mention, you WILL see better turnout for Church-run functions like dinners, etc., than for religious functions. All these things have their time and place - but to see Church attendance - be it Mass or Novenas drop to the point it has - the answer is we all must return to something from days gone by. But prayer - where are we? A Novena is not an old-fashioned thing. A Rosary (which BTW yours truly doesn’t say often enough) may not even be promoted by the priests, and it should be.

IT IS FROM THE PULPIT - FROM OUR PRIESTS - that we got much of our instruction, constructive criticism and lessons on how to better exercise our Faith. It didn’t have to be fire and brimstone. Just a good sermon. From prelates to parents to lukewarm Catholics - we all must change soon not just for the next generation - but for our own souls…That’s the answer. Sadly, **I also remember **when Churches could keep their doors open all the time - day or night. Times have changed and vandalism has forced many to lock their doors when there’s no service.
(Have I covered everything? Sorry for running on but I DO remember when.)

Most of these things are alive and kicking in plenty (though sadly not all) OF parishes too. Most of the ones round here will have daily Rosary, usually before daily Mass, several have weekly novenas (the ones I’ve been to have been very well attended) and daily Morning and Evening prayer. All have lots of statues and stained glass.

Can’t speak to how schools are now, when I was in school in the late 70s through the 80s we had weekly Mass (and yes, I got scolded once for waving to a friend on my way back from Communion), regular Benediction and confession.

 

[Jacafamala]

Scripture Warri; I don’t speak or understand Latin, and I like being able to be more of a participant in the Mass. The Liturgy of the Word is improved from the older version, and when the presider is doing their job, the Liturgy of the Body is more meaningful too (I have participated in both).

Hi, I just wanted to say that in my area (New Jersey), at the ICK and FSSP chapels both the Gospel and the NT reading are read first in Latin and then in English at the Sunday Mass. In addition, a missal has the entire Mass and propers in English, so you can follow along.

The key isn’t what form the mass is in, the key is what form the participants are in.

I’d agree to this. But also true is the fact that a Mass said sloppily will create sloppy Catholics.

1. If you prefer to receive the host on the tongue you can do so,. As for kneeling, the Pope is on your side, his preference is kneeling and on the tongue. My concern is that the sound of all the creaking bones when getting back up would interfere with the reverence desired.

It’s perfectly acceptable at the TLM for older persons with joint problems to stand at the altar rail. I think that everyone there understands this.

Anyway, keep in mind that as good Catholics we should be doing all we can to spread the ‘Good News’ and bring those like myself into the flock. Let us remember fondly those experiences, but not try to roll back time. It can’t be done, and some of those things can be difficult for a prospective convert to cope with.

This is true, the Church will always move forward. But doctrine in always unchanging, of course… and I like to think we’ll bring more of our traditional devotions back into the picture.

Blessings

And with your spirit

 

[Jacafamala]

Most of these things are alive and kicking in plenty (though sadly not all) OF parishes too. Most of the ones round here will have daily Rosary, usually before daily Mass, several have weekly novenas (the ones I’ve been to have been very well attended) and daily Morning and Evening prayer. All have lots of statues and stained glass.

Can’t speak to how schools are now, when I was in school in the late 70s through the 80s we had weekly Mass (and yes, I got scolded once for waving to a friend on my way back from Communion), regular Benediction and confession.

In my area, there are a lot of devotion-less parishes serving up new age carp. They may have a Rosary before the weekday Masses for the old timers, but the younger people don’t know how to pray it, by en large.

 

[Dempsey1919]

Frosty:

Perhaps you have heard the bells and did not realize what they were for?

I’ve honestly never heard them before. In fact, I only recently learned about the Angelus. There are no Church bells in my area. I can’t remember the last time I head the bells toll.

BROTHERHROLF - Thanks for posting that video of Bendiction. It’s the first time I’ve seen it. I’m going to mention this to my priest in the hopes that we will start doing it on a regular basis. Devotions like Benediction would really help to foster belief in the miracle of Transubstantiation. I think every Catholic should have the option of attending these types of service.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Howdy, CradleCath! I’ve been busy reminiscing about the other side of traditional catholic life in the '50s. You know M I C K EY…

But thank you for posting the Tantum Ergo. It was my choir’s greatest joy in the early 90s when we finally, finally, did not have to sing the Pange Lingua on Holy Thursday in English and could sing it in Latin. Dempsey, the Holy Eucharist is transferred from the altar to the altar of repose while the choir sings the Tantum Ergo.

We sang the same two verses at Benediction. It has never stopped being for me all about the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as Fr. Z says we take it one small step at a time.

 

[Dempsey1919]

But, as Fr. Z says we take it one small step at a time.

I read F. Z’s blog every day. I learn so much about the Faith through him. It’s priest’s like him who will bring about the “revival” of Catholicism that is just beginning.

Dempsey, the Holy Eucharist is transferred from the altar to the altar of repose while the choir sings the Tantum Ergo.

I would love to hear this sung in Latin. I’ve heard it in English and it doesn’t sound as beautiful.

 

[Dempsey1919]

brotherhrolf,

You mentioned that you sing in a choir. I often wonder why my the Choir at my Church chooses to sing hymns in the vernacular, when they sound much better in the original latin? Does your choir still sing the traditional latin hymns, or do you focus more on vernacular versions?

 

[Phemie]

I can’t say about 1955, I was only 2 but let’s make it a general my ‘pre Vatican II’ home:

A crucifix in every room

St. Anthony of Padua on the upstairs landing wall, St. Maria Goretti on my bedroom wall, St. Gerard Majella on Mom & Dad’s bedroom wall (one of their great friends was a Redemptorist so St. Gerard was a favorite), Pope Pius XII on the wall until replaced by Pope John XXIII.

Rosary, maybe not every night, but several times a week, including any time we went for a drive. On driving holidays it was the first thing we did on getting in the car every morning.

We had our own bedtime prayers: the usual Lord’s Prayer/Hail Mary/Glory Be; Creed; the Acts of Hope, Love & Contrition; then, as though they were a litany, the 10 Commandments and the “Commandments” (Precepts, I think you call them in English) of the Church. We recited the commandments for several years before the priest told mom that they weren’t prayers and we didn’t have to do that.

Mass on Sunday morning

For us kids, daily Mass before school during Lent and Advent (Dad worked so he couldn’t attend; Mom was handicapped & unable to walk the mile to church)

School was Catholic, in that it had a crucifix in every classroom and but I’m in Canada so it wasn’t a ‘parochial school’ but, in my province, a public school open to all - the only school in our part of the village in fact. While the Protestants didn’t have to take ‘Catechism’, IIRC, they did attend Mass or whatever else we were doing as a school or class.

 

[Dempsey1919]

A crucifix in every room

St. Anthony of Padua on the upstairs landing wall, St. Maria Goretti on my bedroom wall, St. Gerard Majella on Mom & Dad’s bedroom wall (one of their great friends was a Redemptorist so St. Gerard was a favorite), Pope Pius XII on the wall until replaced by Pope John XXIII.

Religious images and artifacts seemed to be in every Catholic home before Vatican II. Why did some Catholics get rid of these images? During the 60’s and 70’s, it seems that the Roman Catholic word discarded most of it’s icons, art, and images.

 

[Phemie]

Religious images and artifacts seemed to be in every Catholic home before Vatican II. Why did some Catholics get rid of these images? During the 60’s and 70’s, it seems that the Roman Catholic word discarded most of it’s icons, art, and images.

My reaction to all those icons & images that were in my home was to insist on totally bare walls in my own home for the first 25 years of our marriage. Now I have 3 paintings and a few pictures scattered around. No holy images. I do have a crucifix in the entrance.

 

[Irishmom2]

I made my First Holy Communion back in 1964. I still have my rather rectangular plastic communion “pocketbook” that contained my new missal, rosary beads and scapular. I remember the Latin, but I do prefer the English. The old hymns were nice, and I prefer them greatly over the Baptist sounding “concert only” pieces that our organist/ music director chooses. Great memories of participating in the May crowning at the Rosary Altar Society Breakfast in May. Grew up in an Irish-Italian Catholic home on Long Island, NY. Couldn’t afford Catholic school and always felt I missed out on something. Made sure my kids attended, but it is a different time.( Mass at school once a week for elementary, once a month in middle and high school.)

My own home has rather large (garden sized) statue of the Blessed Mother in my kitchen. My Catholic friends “get it,” the non Catholic ones find it interesting. Sacred Heart painting in the Foyer. (Yes, the one with the almond shaped eyes!) Beautiful large crucifix in the living room. Little Catholic reminders in the bedrooms: crosses, crucifixes, rosaries; prayer cards to favorite saints hanging over the sink to use as I wash the dishes… I like being surrounded by reminders of our faith. It is very natural for me to have them around. And finally, yes, The Mary garden.

 

[Phemie]

May crownings were not something that happened in my parish and that may well be due to the fact that we were a French parish and that wasn’t part of our ethnic religious tradition. We didn’t do presentations to Mary at weddings either.

I remember scapulars from grade 1 or 2 but it wasn’t something that my parents really seemed to attach much importance to. The Sisters in our school seemed to have a particular fondness for the green scapular, it’s the only one I remember and if I ever had one I don’t recall ever wearing it.

The only gift I remember receiving at my First Communion was a silver bracelet from my Memére & Aunts. Already had a little Mass book and rosary.

The only thing I regretted about Vatican II is that after that nobody had the big zippered Missals that I had been so looking forward to owning.

 

[LilyM]

Howdy, CradleCath! I’ve been busy reminiscing about the other side of traditional catholic life in the '50s. You know M I C K EY…

But thank you for posting the Tantum Ergo. It was my choir’s greatest joy in the early 90s when we finally, finally, did not have to sing the Pange Lingua on Holy Thursday in English and could sing it in Latin. Dempsey, the Holy Eucharist is transferred from the altar to the altar of repose while the choir sings the Tantum Ergo.

We sang the same two verses at Benediction. It has never stopped being for me all about the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as Fr. Z says we take it one small step at a time.

Bro don’t say that :bighanky: I can appreciate your attachment to the Latin but I love singing Pange Lingua in English just as much (and have done both, so it isn’t like I’m unaware of the Latin or anything)