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

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brotherhrolf said:
I grew up with all of these things and my parish retains or has reinstated many of them. The choir is back up in the loft and the old statues are being returned. The altar rails? Sigh. No.

But everything that has been cited, I have missed for the last 40 years.

I miss serving Novena to OLPH and seeing my mother kneeling out in the congregation. She passed away (Eternal Rest grant unto her O Lord) in 2001 and my sister and I looked through her 1962 St. Joseph Missal and found her Novena to OLPH pamphlet - so well worn and aged. And I remembered Benediction and I could hear in my mind voices singing “O Salutaris Hostia” and “Tantum Ergo”. I could hear the “clink” of the censor and I could smell the incense. And I could hear the priest chant:

Panem de coelo praestitisti eis. And everyone replying:
Omne delectamentum in se habentem.

I can still see that pamphlet in my mind’s eye and I remember and long for the Church in which I grew up.
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Your post reminded me of the Novenas to Our Lady of Perpetual Help that my Mother-in-Law said for my husband…then her teenage son. To say he was a bit wild during his high school years could be an understatement, yet he went to college, worked hard & we married just after his gradutation & my own. Next month, we will have been married for 45 yrs. & I’m sure that her Novenas have a lot to do with the fact that he has been a wonderful Husband, Father & Grandfather. She was a convert. Though she was raised in a Catholic Orphanage, she did not convert until her own marriage. She became one of the finest Catholics I’ve ever known.
 
The confeitor

Parishioners who didn’t dress like they’re at the beach and didn’t act like they’re at a party.
 
I didn’t read all the post so if this has already been stated, I’m not a copy-cat.

The Traditional Latin Mass!
 
I receive in my hand now, because it’s what 98% of the other people do, and I don’t think I should draw attention to myself or “take a stand” on this issue…

…I truly doubt that receiving on the tongue will ‘draw attention to you’…please don’t abandon a time honored practice for fear of others’ indescretions…and perhaps you’ll even embolden others to follow your example…
 
I found a very old-fashioned church that was moved from the older portion of Detroit to Sterling Heights in Michigan that does all of these things and I feel like a child again. Saint Cyril and Methodius, they even have statues and place the host on your tongue with the patens under your chin and everything…you walk in and the smell of a million lit candles just makes you feel like you are truly in God’s house…

I especially love the confession before each mass. Can the Lord make it any easier?
  • 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
 
  • Receiving communion at altar rails
    -unfortunatly no, my parish doesn’t have any. I wish it did.
    Alas, it was built in the 60s.
  • Altar boys (not girls) with patens
    -YES my parish always uses patens and the altar servers
    are male 99% of the time. There are two girls, but they
    never serve.
  • Sanctus bells
    -yes, at every Mass. Hallelujah. I can’t imagine them not
    being used, I guess i’m pampered.
  • Priests actually preaching from the pulpit (instead of wandering around like a talk show host)
    -Yup. Fr never leaves the pulpit.
  • The priest purifying the sacred vessels at the altar (however I recently saw an Indian priest at one local parish doing this)
    -Yes, and Fr. never has anyone else do it for him.
  • The choir actually in the choir loft
    -we don’t have a loft because our church was built by
    modernists, but the choir is off to the side in a choir
    ‘area’.
  • Extra priests coming out at communion time to help distribute
    -only got one priest.
  • Confessions offered immediately before Mass
    -nope
  • Pre-Mass rosaries-nope
  • Post-Mass recitations of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel-nope
  • Post-Mass benedictions-nope
  • May crownings
    -yes yes, its a pretty big deal here, the big carved wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin gets put in a more prominent place and it gets crowned by the students from the parish school.
I’m really lucky though, my parish is considered archaic and ridiculously traditional by Seattle/west coast standards.

I long for a parish with altar rails. When I receive First Communion, I have permission to kneel anyway.
 
Lepanto said:
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 Rails? Parish was built long after Vatican 2, which [supposedly] outlawed them
-Sanctus bells
I miss them. But the “Happy-Clappy” parishioners would hate them.
  • Priests actually preaching from the pulpit (instead of wandering around like a talk show host)
    Amen. Priest walks all over the sanctuary.
  • The choir actually in the choir loft
    What choir? We have a contemporary praise and worship band. It would be nice to even have a choir, period, even if there was no choir loft.
  • Confessions offered immediately before Mass
    Other than the communal confession during Lent, does my parish even offer confessions at all?
  • Pre-Mass rosaries
    Most in my parish don’t even know how to pray the rosary
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?
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