What do you consider liberal?

[Nick9]

I don’t know how the priest or EMHC in your average parish in the US can know who goes to mass each week with precision. Nor can they easily know who missed last week with just excuse. Also, the person could have gone to confession since last Sunday. It just doesn’t seem workable.

maybe the priest cannot know, but I think that it should be made plain that it is necessary to go every week under pain of mortal sin. I am not saying that if someone goes to receive Communion then they should be refused (as you said, the priest doesn’t know the person’s circumstances), but I don’t like the attitude which says it is ok to miss Mass.

It is difficult, I know. I have a friend who has just started to go to Mass, and she goes 3 out of 4 weeks a month. I would like to think that this is better than not going at all.

 

[strngrnrth]

I am a middle aged man who returned to the faith in the last few years. What I find unacceptable and/or inappropriate in (before and after as well) the Mass are:

(1) Loud fast-beat music, or sentimental feel-good songs with no traditional religious meaning or depth,
(2) Noise, talking, commotion in the congregation at any time,
(3) Revealing and tight clothing,
(4) a lack of spoken prayer (too much singing)(I think some attend solely for the musical performance. I have even heard clapping at the end of a Mass and it was not for our Lord!),
(5) alteration of the true gospel language and thus the meaning (inclusive or “correct” language substitution),
(6) “modern” practices like holding hands at the Our Father or introducing ourselves to others before the Mass,
(7) a lack of reference to sin, Hell, and damnation for fear of offending parishioners (those of us who love the Truth want to hear the blunt reality),
(8) Common parishioners walking around or at the Holy Alter (they often do not even have the sense to bow or genuflect) ,
(9) Common parishioners handling the Eucharist,
(10) Alter girls,
(11) a lack of male involvement/participation. At times, the Mass seems more like a New Age festival than a traditional Catholic ceremony.

The lack of solemn reverence by the congregation in many Masses and lack of instruction or direction by most Priests in this regard is appalling and discouraging. Do so few understand in Whose Presence we gather and why? I will continue to search for the traditional (real) Mass and the more traditional, the better!

I totally agree on 1, 3-5, 7,8 and 11, but as a convert I have been to Masses where most of the things you mention were going on and still the sense of reverence was overwhelming compared to anyplace else I could have been.
Have you ever been to a nondenominational, Pentecostal or similar service? People chew gum, run through the pews to compliment each other’s hair, throw “communion” plastic cups on the floor and walk all over them, chat and drink sodapop during services. Sermons (in mianline denominations, the high point of the service, but in some Evangelical ones secondary to the group singing) are a lot like standup routines, and the Scriptures often come from the Message, and Good News for Modern Man, and The Way, and can barely be identified. A kind of confession exists in some, but it isn’t private and it takes place during services. There is no place to kneel.
So, yeah, we need to be more reverent in Mass, but let’s focus on how lucky we really are to have a Mass to go to, that God has preserved the Church and brought us to it at all.

 

[Pug]

maybe the priest cannot know, but I think that it should be made plain that it is necessary to go every week under pain of mortal sin. I am not saying that if someone goes to receive Communion then they should be refused (as you said, the priest doesn’t know the person’s circumstances), but I don’t like the attitude which says it is ok to miss Mass.

It is difficult, I know. I have a friend who has just started to go to Mass, and she goes 3 out of 4 weeks a month. I would like to think that this is better than not going at all.

I’m glad your friend is going most times. I, too, notice if people close to me skip mass. I worry a bit, and likely say something to them.

You’re right that some people may have been poorly instructed and think they have an overall obligation to go to mass, but that skipping here and there is not important. Sometimes a new convert receives so much information to process that they forget pieces of it. It is easy to forget about the obligation to go to holy days as well as Sundays. They can get lost in the shuffle. Also, a person can get confused and think holy days of obligation are days like Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. It doesn’t have to be the fault of instruction, though. Some people simply refuse to think certain actions on their part “matter”. Sometimes I think that is an entire world view issue, involving lots of underlying thinking patterns. I used to have that problem in spades.

A sidebar in the bulletin now and then might help in some parishes. But lots of priests will tell you that people don’t read the bulletin. It might well need to be from the ambo.

 

[Nick9]

I’m glad your friend is going most times. I, too, notice if people close to me skip mass. I worry a bit, and likely say something to them.

You’re right that some people may have been poorly instructed and think they have an overall obligation to go to mass, but that skipping here and there is not important. Sometimes a new convert receives so much information to process that they forget pieces of it. It is easy to forget about the obligation to go to holy days as well as Sundays. They can get lost in the shuffle. Also, a person can get confused and think holy days of obligation are days like Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. It doesn’t have to be the fault of instruction, though. Some people simply refuse to think certain actions on their part “matter”. Sometimes I think that is an entire world view issue, involving lots of underlying thinking patterns. I used to have that problem in spades.

A sidebar in the bulletin now and then might help in some parishes. But lots of priests will tell you that people don’t read the bulletin. It might well need to be from the ambo.

it makes me wonder at times whether people who are new and ‘innocent’ are better kept in the dark about the seriousness of missing Mass. After all, there is something called invincible ignorance which prevents a sin being mortal. I am aware that this is not the correct approach, it is just my gut reaction where those I care about are concerned. I think this is largely my PP’s attitude, so I can emphathise with him in his liberal stance in a way.

 

[Pug]

it makes me wonder at times whether people who are new and ‘innocent’ are better kept in the dark about the seriousness of missing Mass. After all, there is something called invincible ignorance which prevents a sin being mortal. I am aware that this is not the correct approach, it is just my gut reaction where those I care about are concerned. I think this is largely my PP’s attitude, so I can emphathise with him in his liberal stance in a way.

Yeah, I’ve had similar reactions myself. Also, sometimes I react by thinking it is unfair that more knowledge makes it more possible to sin, sort of making knowledge seem like a bad thing.

There is a scripture verse your post reminds me of,

Luke 12:48 But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.

There are lots of ways to apply this to what we are talking about. The surrounding context of that passage, for example, suggests to me it has in view those who are in charge over people, like priests or bishops.