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

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Those of you who have most of the things listed are really blessed. I guess California is too liberal for those practices to have been retained, and yes, I miss them. (These bishops seem so eager to rip out altar rails, the old high altars, and move tabernacles. :mad: ) Also parish missions were great, remember those- Lent, Advent, etc.?

You’re right to wonder, Lepanto, about the next generation - or this one for that matter!
 
I miss all that you’ve stated. I also miss the veils for women and everyone taking communion on the tongue.
 
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 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?
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I don’t miss most of these because my parish does all of these listed below:)
  • 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
Pre-Mass rosaries
  • Post-Mass recitations of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel (We Actually do this before Mass at the end of the Rosary:) )
Post-Mass benedictions
  • May crownings
 
JimG said:
Hmm, maybe some women would like to be churched. But there’s probably not a big demand for bringing back this pracitce.
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And it will be especially in low demand by women who’ve never even heard of it!
 
Lepanto said:
Another would be the “churching” of women. Never seen it.

If not for my own reading and CAF I might not even have ever heard of these practices despite having attended numerous parishes over the past several decades.
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That seems to have been very much a regional devotion – and not many have seen it because the women used to do it alone. I’d never heard of it until I came to this parish in 1997 and heard a woman in her late 60s talking about asking for it after her last child was born and having the priest look at her with a big question mark on his face. When she explained he told her she didn’t need it. While it was an optional devotion the women around here certainly thought they couldn’t come back to Mass unless it was done.

It wasn’t something that was done where I grew up.
 
Phemie said:
That seems to have been very much a regional devotion – and not many have seen it because the women used to do it alone. I’d never heard of it until I came to this parish in 1997 and heard a woman in her late 60s talking about asking for it after her last child was born and having the priest look at her with a big question mark on his face. When she explained he told her she didn’t need it. While it was an optional devotion the women around here certainly thought they couldn’t come back to Mass unless it was done.

It wasn’t something that was done where I grew up.
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“…and heard a woman in her late 60s talking about asking for it after her last child was born…”

When I read this I thought you meant her last child had been born in her late 60s…I HOPE you meant she was talking about it in her late 60s, and her last child had been born many moons earlier.
 
daeve said:
“…and heard a woman in her late 60s talking about asking for it after her last child was born…”

When I read this I thought you meant her last child had been born in her late 60s…I HOPE you meant she was talking about it in her late 60s, and her last child had been born many moons earlier.
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Yes, she was talking about a baby born many years ago, in fact I think said ‘baby’ is only a few years younger than I.
 
Phemie said:
Yes, she was talking about a baby born many years ago, in fact I think said ‘baby’ is only a few years younger than I.
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Well, that’s a relief. That could have scared a lot of old girls out there if it was the other way around.
 
Lepanto said:
  • Sanctus bells
  • Priests actually preaching from the pulpit (instead of wandering around like a talk show host)
  • The choir actually in the choir loft
  • Confessions offered immediately before Mass
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We have all of the above, plus I have attended masses in my travels that have the purification, and more.

There is hope. When you travel, you might want to do some research to get the more traditional church locations.
 
ac_claire said:
When I was a kid, in the 80’s in New Mexico, everyone received communion on the tongue. No controversy, it wasn’t even a question; there was no other option. I wish it was still like that.

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. Because I know either way is fine…but I prefer it the old way.
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I’m an EMHC and prefer the tongue, myself. That said, I don’t think it’s taking a stand to do so. While I mainly distribute the Blood of Christ, I sometimes have to distribute the Body, and people do receive on the tongue. No one blinks.

I’m a bit of a rebel, since I will occasionally genuflect in line prior to receiving Communion if I am not helping out as an EMHC.

👍
 
Well I’m a woman who has never heard of it. What is ‘churching’?

And by the way, to those who want to see a return to all male alter servers, remember Jesus included several women in his followers. I really don’t see the problem with girls taking part in the liturgy in this manner. Who are we to deny them the opportunity?

Not all change is bad.

Antonia T.
 
Antonia_T said:
And by the way, to those who want to see a return to all male alter servers, remember Jesus included several women in his followers. I really don’t see the problem with girls taking part in the liturgy in this manner. Who are we to deny them the opportunity?
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Because being an altar server was always a precursor to discerning/preparing for the priesthood. A girl has no path there, so while it’s “nice” that they serve, it doesn’t lead anywhere for them.

Anyway - I don’t want to derail this discussion. There are probably a dozen threads about girl servers, I’m sure you can see much lively discussion on those threads.

~Liza
 
Antonia_T said:
Well I’m a woman who has never heard of it. What is ‘churching’?

Antonia T.
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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.
 
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