What were the post-Vatican II changes like to live through?

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Some comments from one of the earliest Cistercians:
We know that the bishops, debtors to both the wise and unwise, use material beauty to arouse the devotion of a carnal people because they cannot do so by spiritual means. But we who have now come out of that people, we who have left the precious and lovely things of the world for Christ, we who, in order to win Christ, have reckoned all beautiful, sweet-smelling, fine-sounding, smooth-feeling, good-tasting things-- in short, all bodily delights–as so much dung, what do we expect to get out of them? Admiration from the foolish? Offerings from the ignorant? Or, scattered as we are among the gentiles, are we learning their tricks and serving their idols?

I shall speak plainly: Isn’t greed, a form of idolatry, responsible for all this? Aren’t we seeking contributions rather than spiritual profit? “How?” you ask. “In a strange and wonderful way,” I answer. Money is scattered about in such a way that it will multiply. It is spent so that it will increase. Pouring it out produces more of it. Faced with expensive but marvelous vanities, people are inspired to contribute rather than to pray. Thus riches attract riches and money produces more money. I don’t know why, but the wealthier a place, the readier people are to contribute to it. Just feast their eyes on gold-covered relics and their purses will open. Just show them a beautiful picture of some saint. The brighter the colors, the saintlier he’ll appear to them. Men rush to kiss and are invited to contribute. There is more admiration for beauty than veneration for sanctity. Thus churches are decorated, not simply with jeweled crowns, but with jeweled wheels illuminated as much by their precious stones as by their lamps. We see candelabra like big bronze trees, marvelously wrought, their gems glowing no less than their flames. What do you think is the purpose of such things? To gain the contrition of penitents or the admiration of spectators?

So many and so marvelous are the various shapes surrounding us that it is more pleasant to read the marble than the books, and to spend the whole day marveling over these things rather than meditating on the law of God. Good Lord! If we aren’t embarrassed by the silliness of it all, shouldn’t we at least be disgusted by the expense?
St Bernard of Clairvaux
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You know, at St. Bernard’s time, there was a major issue with simony and promoting indulgences to pay for lavish churches.

I doubt he would have much objection to St. So-and-so parish down the street bringing back a few of the statue that were taken out of their church in the 70’s.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
I doubt he would have much objection to St. So-and-so parish down the street bringing back a few of the statue that were taken out of their church in the 70’s.
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He clearly does not object to the adornment of churches. He just thinks ir is an expression of greed and antithetical to spirituality.

I do not agree with St Bernard, but I recognize that his sensibility is one of many attitudes toward architecture and decoration that exists within the Church. His austerity should not be dismissed as if it did not belong in the Church.
 
I haven’t read through all the posts but to answer the OP question. You are right, it was like a light switch went off. For me, I went to a Catholic grade school. We had sisters and several priests and learned the Catholic faith and it was a lifestyle for us and our neighbors. 1970’s hit, boom it was gone. In high school we had no more sisters, beautiful parishes were destroyed, Mass was totally different and my dad spend a lot of time moving from parish to parish trying to keep us in a parish that was as “reverent” as he could find. It effected my family members all in different ways.
 
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I’m still living through them and these past few years remind me that I am right back to the 80’s and 90’s…all those in the sixties and seventies have reincarnated.
 
Well a church is for the people of God and the Benedictines and Cistercians can do to their chapels what ever their rule of life likes. But we surly don’t have to do the same.
 
Nobody is suggesting otherwise. Just indicating that this is a valid approach in the Church, and in fact has been around for 1500 years.

It’s also my preference but that’s just me. I find overly ornate churches distracting. I prefer this


or this:


or this:

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or this:

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to this:
 
A wise old priest once said the glory and beauty of the Churches was so that when we walked in the door we felt a heavenly presence. A knowing that it was somewhere unlike the rest of the world. The beauty of the Church was to be a representative of heaven, and the angels and saints.
We lost a lot of that after Vatican II but there does seem to be a definite move to restore a lot of the beauty.
 
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Beauty doesn’t have to be gaudy though. Of the above photos, the first one is the abbey church at Tre Fontane in Rome (Trappist); the second is another Trappist church, the Abbey of Val Notre Dame in rural Québec. The third is Blessed Sacrament chapel at the abbey I belong to, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac in Québec. The third is the abbey church of the same abbey (consecrated in 1994).
These are all firmly in the monastic tradition, from very old (Tre Fontane, 13th century) to very modern, to illustrate that it is a solid, ancient tradition.

The Blessed Sacrament chapel is my favourite place in the abbey; the silence and the soft light make it the perfect place to meditate and pray in the presence of Our Lord. It inspired me in designing my own private oratory in my home:

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CRV said:
Such a blessing to have a separate designated space!
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Thanks, yes it is. I had it built 13 years ago when I started working from home a large percentage of the time; I had an office/study made in a spare room, and took advantage of the occasion to put in that oratory. BTW that oratory hears more Latin in a day than the average parish does in many years 😉
mrsdizzyd said:
That is magnificent! Wow!
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I’m less fond of it. It’s the main abbey Church at Monte Cassino in Italy, the abbey founded by Saint Benedict himself (there are numerous other chapels in the abbey as well, one of which I really like). It was in fact built on US dime after WWII. The US bombed the abbey in the mistaken belief that the Germans were camped there. They had been but had cleared out. The German commandant was in fact himself a Benedictine oblate and knowing the Americans were closing in, had trucked all of the abbey’s treasures (including some very old manuscripts and antiphonaries) to the Vatican for safekeeping, in an act of grand chivalry.

The Americans essentially bombed it into gravel, and after the war had it rebuilt at their expense. The result you see above is considered quite scandalous in the Benedictine world, it’s not in keeping with Benedictine simplicity. The legend has it that the officer placed in charge of the rebuilding was secretly an anti-Catholic freemason and overdid the decor specifically to be scandalous. But don’t take that as cash, it’s kind of one of those “Bugnini was a freemason” unverifiable assertions.

I can add that the theme of the next Benedictine World Oblate Congress (2021) was chosen at that abbey (but not in the Church!). But I won’t spoil the surprise! We had Mass on that day, but in the abbot’s chapel. It was an OF Mass, in English, but necessarily facing the altar (I won’t say facing East, as the main abbey Church faces east but the abbot’s chapel altar is at 90 deg. thus facing North), because it was not a free-standing altar but against the wall.
 
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OraLabora said:
I’m less fond of it.
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I understand. But, for me, I couldn’t help but contemplate God in a space like that. No matter where the eye lands there is something to meditate on… something to contemplate. It’s almost like the iconostasis at an Eastern church. I cannot help but be drawn into the mystery.
 
@OraLabora
For an Adoration Chapel I prefer the simple settings as you indicated in the first few photos. These rightly draw the eye to the focus of us being there - God Himself, the sacrifice of the Mass - with nothing to distract the eye. All true, but in my opinion there is nothing to help lift ones’ mind and heart and spirit (excepting God Himself).

But my preference for a parish Church is one with statues (to remind me to ask for their intercessions), beautiful lifelike stations of the cross rather than ones painted to blend in with the cream walls - all to give glory to God. This type of Church helps me lift my mind to focus on heavenly things and to leave the secular world and all its problems at the door, for however briefly a time that may be.

And as someone else said above - and to my mind these things help distinguish a Catholic Church from any other denominational worship space.

If only I would be so blessed to have the opportunity to worship in one of these magnificent Churches pictured in this thread.
 
OraLabora said:
The Blessed Sacrament chapel is my favourite place in the abbey; the silence and the soft light make it the perfect place to meditate and pray in the presence of Our Lord. It inspired me in designing my own private oratory in my home:
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I like this. It is very nice.
 
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