What now virtually-abandoned liturgical practices from your youth do miss most?

[Anne1964]

no altar rails, but some people do receive Communion while kneeling

• Altar boys (not girls) with patens yes
• Sanctus bells yes
• Priests actually preaching from the pulpit (instead of wandering around like a talk show host) yes
• The priest purifying the sacred vessels at the altar yes
• The choir actually in the choir loft no choir loft
• Extra priests coming out at communion time to help distribute we are a one priest parish
• Confessions offered immediately before Mass only on Weds night
• Pre-Mass rosaries yes
• Post-Mass recitations of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel no, but sometimes Pre-Mass
• Post-Mass benedictions no
• May crownings yes

We also have incense at every Sunday Mass.

 

[lak611]

Churching is a special blessing the woman receives after her confinement is over after the delivery (hard to believe they didn’t leave the house for 40 days). Some women firmly believed that they couldn’t go to Mass until it had been done but that is not the case. I’ve heard it compared to the Jewish purification rite after childbirth but I’d have to see the prayers involved to see if there is any comparison. Googling tells me that churching isn’t just in the Catholic church and the Greek Orthodox churching prayer is certainly a purification prayer.

That explains why most people never heard of it. Nowadays, unless there are complications from delivery, nobody stays in the house for 40 days after giving birth. On a related note, if women were expected to stay in their house for 40 days after giving birth, did that mean mothers were absent for baptism of their babies? For instance, my grandmother was baptized 4 days after she was born. Would my great-grandmother have missed the baptism?

 

[Phemie]

That explains why most people never heard of it. Nowadays, unless there are complications from delivery, nobody stays in the house for 40 days after giving birth. On a related note, if women were expected to stay in their house for 40 days after giving birth, did that mean mothers were absent for baptism of their babies? For instance, my grandmother was baptized 4 days after she was born. Would my great-grandmother have missed the baptism?

Yes, moms were usually absent. I’m one of three and while I was at my baby brother’s baptism with my dad and my other brother (we were 4 & 5), Mom wasn’t. She never saw any of us baptized. Speaking to older women in my parish reveals that that was the case for them at their kids’ baptism.

At least where I come from there was always a woman honored by being named ‘carrier’ for want of a better translation. That woman usually held you while you were being baptized. My godmother and godfather were 12 & 10 respectively. IIRC, their mom, Dad’s sister, was my ‘carrier’.

Ironic, isn’t it, that the person who was probably going to be the most important in the child’s faith formation wasn’t even there when he/she received the sacrament that is the gateway to all the others.

 

[lak611]

Ironic, isn’t it, that the person who was probably going to be the most important in the child’s faith formation wasn’t even there when he/she received the sacrament that is the gateway to all the others.

That’s probably why “churching” and mothers not being present at baptism of their children has disappeared. Personally, I am glad that has changed. I think mothers should be at their children’s baptisms.

 

[daeve]

When my sister and I were born in the early 1950s, Mom was in the hospital at least 10 days for each of us. I was 15 days old when I was Baptized, same for Little Sis, so she wasn’t at those. Baby Sister was born in 1962, and Mom was there for that one.

When my kids were born (79 and 81), you were lucky to get 2 or 3 days in the hospital. I don’t know what they do now.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Since it is Lent, what I really miss is when all of the statues on the altar/side altars were draped in purple cloth on Passion Sunday. I also miss the uncovering of the crucifix during the Good Friday liturgy.

 

[Phemie]

When my sister and I were born in the early 1950s, Mom was in the hospital at least 10 days for each of us. I was 15 days old when I was Baptized, same for Little Sis, so she wasn’t at those. Baby Sister was born in 1962, and Mom was there for that one.

When my kids were born (79 and 81), you were lucky to get 2 or 3 days in the hospital. I don’t know what they do now.

Yes, pretty much the same with us ('54, '55, '58). I think mom was in for a week and we were baptized on the Sunday after she came home, a time when women were still pretty much expected to stay in the house until their 6 week check-up. I had my kids in 79, 82 & 84 and spent 5 days in with each. Now at the local hospital they’re lucky if they stay for a full 24 hours. It bothers me to see them send first time moms home after such a short time.

 

[daeve]

Yes, pretty much the same with us ('54, '55, '58). I think mom was in for a week and we were baptized on the Sunday after she came home, a time when women were still pretty much expected to stay in the house until their 6 week check-up. I had my kids in 79, 82 & 84 and spent 5 days in with each. Now at the local hospital they’re lucky if they stay for a full 24 hours. It bothers me to see them send first time moms home after such a short time.

You need the rest after childbirth! You might not get another good night’s sleep for 18 years.

 

[Jean_Anthony]

Please stay on topic, everyone. Take any side issues to new or existing threads. Thank you.

 

[older_mom]

I miss having a priest available for Confession. Since our priest has 2 parishes now Confession isn’t even heard in our Church now, We have to go to the other parish. Once a year it would be nice to have Confessions in our own parish .

 

[lak611]

I miss having a priest available for Confession. Since our priest has 2 parishes now Confession isn’t even heard in our Church now, We have to go to the other parish. Once a year it would be nice to have Confessions in our own parish .

I have Confession available every Saturday in my parish in the afternoon. I miss evening Confession on Thursday night before First Friday. I used to like going to Confession that night. It was really convenient, since it was at 7 pm. That was great because I was done with school or work. It was much more convenient than going on Saturday.

 

[Antonia_T]

In my country we no longer have confession, we have reconcilliation instead. There are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rite versions, with the 1st rite being very similar to what I as a child experienced as confession.

Unfortunately this 1st version is almost never practiced (where you use a confessional), the 2nd involves an open discussion with a priest and the 3rd rite involves general absolution to the whole congregation.

I miss Confession, with its partial annonimity, structured format and penitence.

Antonia T.

 

[Phemie]

In my country we no longer have confession, we have reconcilliation instead. There are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rite versions, with the 1st rite being very similar to what I as a child experienced as confession.

Unfortunately this 1st version is almost never practiced (where you use a confessional), the 2nd involves an open discussion with a priest and the 3rd rite involves general absolution to the whole congregation.

I miss Confession, with its partial annonimity, structured format and penitence.

Antonia T.

We had Form 3 for years but that stopped in 2002.

Even Form 2 of the rite should provide for anonymity if that’s the penitent’s choice. Canon Law is clear on that.

If we only have one priest for Form 2 he uses the reconciliation room which has a screen/curtain when you first go in and you can opt to go no further. If you wish, you can go around the curtain and have a face to face confession.

If there is more than one priest it’s not unusual to see many of the older folk wait to go to the reconciliation room rather than to go to another of the priests who is at a station thas no provision for anonymity.

I remember when we first started having Form 2 back in the 60s. Although there were many stations from which priests heard confession, there was always a prie-Dieu with a screen built in.

 

[thistle]

These were all things which I regularly experienced in my post-Vatican II youth (the 1970s), yet, for the most part, I haven’t seen in two decades.

In no particular order:

• Receiving communion at altar rails
• Altar boys (not girls) with patens
• Sanctus bells
• Priests actually preaching from the pulpit (instead of wandering around like a talk show host)
• The priest purifying the sacred vessels at the altar (however I recently saw an Indian priest at one local parish doing this)
• The choir actually in the choir loft
• Extra priests coming out at communion time to help distribute
• Confessions offered immediately before Mass
• Pre-Mass rosaries
• Post-Mass recitations of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel
• Post-Mass benedictions
• May crownings

I’ve barely experienced any of them in the last 20 years despite the fact that I attend Mass at many parishes in my travels…and despite the fact that Vatican II NEVER abolished any of these practices!

What now virtually-abandoned liturgical practices from your youth do miss most?

You should come to the Philippines then as all of the list of things you never see are the norm here.

 

[Donna_Mc]

I miss kneeling at the altar to receive Communion.

 

[Lepanto]

Another practice (not necessarily liturgical) that I’ve never seen is the use of Mass Cards.

I’ve heard of them, but never seen them.

 

[Phemie]

Another practice (not necessarily liturgical) that I’ve never seen is the use of Mass Cards.

I’ve heard of them, but never seen them.

Can you explain what you mean by Mass Cards? To me that means a card that is given to someone when you’ve requested that a Mass be said in their intention. We go through dozens of those each year. They are usually used when offering a Mass for someone who’s died, but they can also be sent to a living person for whom you’ve requested a Mass.

 

[KAL]

We have communion rails at parishes in Mpls. St. Paul, but only two parishes use the Communion Rail. St. Agnes Catholic Church in St. Paul always uses the communion rail for Holy Communion, they have all boy altar boys, bells, Rosary, Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a pulpit, a high altar, Latin Norvus Ordo Masses, (not Tridentine yet, but soon, I hope), in other words, very Orthodox.

The other parish is St. Agustine in So. St. Paul. The Tridentine Mass is celebrated every Sunday at 11:30 am, and the neighboring parish, Holy Trinity, has Tridentine Masses during the week. The same pastor at both parishes.

By the way, does anyone know of a fairly orthodox parish in Seattle, WA where I can attend Mass that is legitimate and faithful to the Majesterium.

 

[benedictgal]

We had Form 3 for years but that stopped in 2002.

General absolution is to be done only in extreme cases of emergency. It was probably stopped in your neck of the woods becasue of the 2000 Circular letter on Penance that the Holy See issued to cure the Australians of this abuse:

1. In giving consideration to the authenitic discipline of the Church concerning “general absolution”, the recent interdicasterial meeting of the Roman Curia with a representation of Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Australia noted that:

. . . communal celebrations have not infrequently occasioned an illegitimate use of general absolution. This illegitimate use, like other abuses in the administration of the Sacrament of Penance, is to be eliminated.

The teaching of the Church is reflected in precise terms in the requirements of the Code of Canon Law (cf. esp. canons 959-964). In particular it is clear that “A sufficient necessity is not … considered to exist when confessors cannot be available merely because of a great gathering of penitents, such as can occur on some major feastday or pilgrimage” (canon 961, § 1, 2°).

The bishops will exercise renewed vigilance on these matters for the future, aware that departures from the authentic tradition do great wrong to the Church and to individual Catholics.10

1. With respect to the administration of “general absolution”, the exclusive authority enjoyed by diocesan bishops to determine whether a grave necessity is truly present in a given case in their diocese 11 ***does not permit them “to change the required conditions, to substitute other conditions for those given, or to determine grave necessity according to their personal criteria however worthy.”***12 Indeed, the Diocesan Bishop makes "this judgment graviter onerata conscientia, and with full respect for the law and the practice of the Church."13

It’s kind of hard to miss something that the Church said was wrong from the get go. Now as far as legitimate, but, abandoned, liturgical practices that I miss, these would also include:

-praying the Traditional Stations of the Cross on Lenten Fridays (preceded by the meatless soup suppers in the parish hall);

-having a good chunk of silence during Holy Hour;

-visiting seven churches on Holy Thursday night onboard a trolley

This last one was a lot of fun when we did it as a parish. We had our routes mapped out and were back by midnight.

 

[JimG]

The Credo sung in Latin.

I’ve heard a lot of different sung English Credo’s. But none match the one that used to be done every Sunday in Gregorian chant by the choir. The only drawback was that the priest always had to start it off by singing the first line: ‘Credo in unum Deum.’ And we all know that priests can’t carry a tune. It’s an ordination requirement.