True pastor or pharisee?

[Deacon2006]

There was a woman who as soon as she held the Eucharist in her mouth would fall to the ground as if she fainted, then her husband would receive and they would then a big production of reviving her and getting to her pew would ensue. On more the one occasion the spectacle had degenerated into shouts for a doctor.

The pastor and EMHC’s tried to ignore her reaction week after week then he finally he took the women aside and told to stop falling on the ground when she receives. His obvious pastoral judgment was that God does not want the communion rite to become a spectacle centered on her extreme displays of faithfulness at the expense of the quiet and reflective reverence of the other faithful.

She assented to his wishes and no longer does she have fainting spells but occasionally she stumbles as if intoxicated so she still needs her husband to help her to her pew.

Do you think the pastor was right or wrong in his admonitions? Is this a faithful pastor exercising his prudential judgment or do you think this is another case of a rogue priest extinguishing the Holy Sprit in his congregation?

God Bless

 

[pnewton]

I would say he acted correctly. Maintaining order in the Mass is something the St. Paul addresses and is definitley within the scope of his authority. The fact that she corrected this behavior shows that it was not an involuntary reaction.

 

[CatholicMatthew]

pnewton:

I would say he acted correctly. Maintaining order in the Mass is something the St. Paul addresses and is definitley within the scope of his authority. The fact that she corrected this behavior shows that it was not an involuntary reaction.

Actually, (and not saying this is true or not true) one way that mystics would be known to be having an authentic ecstatic union (flying around the chapel) is that their superior would order them down and they would come down (sign of obedience).

Under the Mercy,

Matthew

 

[mkw]

She kind of reminds me of how people act/behave at a television “healing” service.

My first reaction is always…PASS THE ENVELOPE PLEEEASE!!

 

[puzzleannie]

if she is a true mystic and having a genuine spiritual experience as a gift from the Lord, then like all mystics she will seek advice from her pastor and spiritual advisor, and follow that advice, even when/if it denies or downplays her experience. If she is not genuine and is either faking the experience, or the victim of some evil influence, the pastor is duty bound to counsel her as he did. In either case, that pastor has specifically bound to care for the souls of those in his parish, including this lady, and is performing his duty in counselling her as he did.

 

[asteroid]

It was good pastoral practice.

It stopped the mass from becoming some sort of sideshow. It allowed the people next in line to the woman to concentrate on Jesus and the eucharist rather than on fainting spells.

And, since the woman was quite able to do as the pastor requested and the fainting when receiving every week stopped this should tell us something.

It should tell us that it almost certainly wasn’t God causing the reaction but her own psychological makeup - not that she was intentionally fainting to put on a show but that the fainting was a result of her own expectations. (almost certainly it had nothing to do with the devil either)

If God was the one causing such an extreme reaction, no request from a pastor would have been able to stop it.

I’ve spent a lot of time in very charismatic churches and have finally concluded that we must be very careful before ascribing any seeming miracle or religious experience to God. And that we must be very careful that God is at the centre of our public worship rather than some whacky happening. (I write here as someone who, in the past, was quite capable of becoming the centre of people’s attention in worship services and stealing the attention from God, through whacky happenings. May it never happen again).

Blessings

Asteroid