Middleman,
**You and Distracted wrote: ** ***Distracted: *** ** I hate the hand-holding and the greeting each other during the Mass, [that and other] innovations of Vat[ican Council] II. I have had people shun me and shake hands with just about everyone else, as a way of paying me back for some slight they think I did to them. Seriously – a lot of people hate me just cuz I am not like them – it’s a long story – but in any case, even when I dont know anyone – when I have been to Churches while out of town, say – those who DO know each other shake their hands and smile at them, but then act like * – since they don’t know me … [not being] officially a member of their parish or whatever – I have leprosy or something.
This is VERY disruptive of the Mass… Frankly, this kind of favoritism makes me more misanthropic – although I have learned to ignore it. In fact, I like to sit in front where I can keep looking forward without having to do all that stupid nonsense.
So, I would be against this newfangled stuff even if it weren’t for the fact that it is an unncessary change the Church made (with the help of liberals, I might add) –
like I said before, as concerns Vat-II – Why change something that is beautiful already (the Mass)? [As the saying goes], “If it aint broke, don’t “fix” it”…
**Middleman: ****You seriously blame other people for all your own problems and sins?
You sound very troubled based upon what you wrote here. ]
Fie, Middleman, shame on your judgmental reaction to the real anguish that Distracted expresses! You do acknowledge that Distracted “sound[s to be] very troubled”, but then you taunt him with your prudish rebukes! Now, I do think that Distracted expresses some regrettable self-pity as well as truly terrible anguish; there is a bit of both, but you should not swing down like Tarzan from your post-
Novus Ordo-loving branch to strike out at him. It is such attitudes of layfolk like you, and the vulgarly “happy-clappy” tendy priests (and circles of laity who sympathise with the same things) who so cheapen the mass with their “seven-years-old birthday party” and sentimental antics – thank the Lord that not all of the clergy is like that! (though, let’s face it, others are) – which have driven may laymen and laywomen away from attending Church.
As for the
Novus Ordo and that “happy-clappy” behaviour and dreadfully banal music being the quintessence of Vaitican-II, I think that you need to sit back and reflect a bit. What were the Missals which appeared at the time of the Second Vatican Council? After all, the
Novus Ordo of 1970 was well after the end of Vatican II. I’ll answer that for you: Vatican II’s liturgy of the Mass were the 1962 and 1965 editions of the
Missale Romanum, not the
Novus Ordo, which was conceived and implemented – with a lot of dishonesty, secrecy, and chicanery – in1970, five long and difficult years of turmoil after Vatican II. The Council documents’ words about the Sacred Liturgy were fully expressed and codified in the
very traditional 1962 and
rather traditional 1965 Missals. The
Novus Ordo was a drastic (albeit, thankfull, not complete) departure from Church tradition and from the wholesome liturgical recommendations of Vatican II’s documents.
Now, I would ask, are you old enough to remember what the Mass was like before 1970 – before even 1965? Well, let me tell you, it was holy, majestic, and totally oriented to the glory and worship of God, and the Gregorian chant and most of the later composed music (e.g. the lovely Mass music of the “Caecilian Movement”) which adorned worship was chaste, beautiful, and respectful of what takes place in the Mass. The
Novus Ordo is a more mundane affair, indeed! As for the too frequently ghastly cheap and sentimental music written for it, it is to be execrated, not celebrated! Folks flocked to Sunday (and daily) Mass with the 1962 Latin and 1965 mixed Latin with vernacular Missals (and the ones which preceded Vatican II), while an appalling percentage of folk disobediently (but understandably) “voted with their feet” and stopped going to weekly Mass (as I myself, regrettably, did so for many years). Those are the fruits of the
Novus Ordo and that liturgy is not to be blamed or praised on the basis of the liturgical recommendations of Vatican II, but on the “liberal” spirit (Distracted is right to name it with the “L word”) of the cabal surrounding Pope Paul VI.
Now, we just have to realise, whether we exult in the 1970 liturgy or intensely dislike the
Novus Ordo, that we are living in a period of decline in the Church, one, by the way, that Pope Benedict VI rightly is trying to reverse. A faithful Catholic has to put up with what our sorry era confronts him, not to abandon ship. As Distracted puts it, regarding the 1970 Mass, s/he needs to “learn to ignore it”, somehow, so far as what is ugly and rather unseemly, and to pray for improvement, for the “Reform of the Reform” which His Holiness, Benedict XVI, is striving to codify and to implement. That does not mean, however, that one cannot (as Distracted has done) point out the failings of the 1970 liturgy and what is associated with it. In fact, I salute you, Distracted, for doing so! Also, I hope that you ever more find ways to cope with your malady, just as I hope that Holy Mother Church awakens from the stupour of post-conciliar madness, foppishness, and trivialty regarding too much of that which has been made to pertain to the Holy Liturgy of the Catholic Church.
Pax, Jerry Parker*
I have had people shun me and shake hands with just about everyone else… as a way of paying me back for some slight they think i did to them… seriously… a lot of people hate me just cuz i am not like them… (its a long story)… but in any case… even when i dont know anyone… when i have been to Churches while out of town, say… those who DO know each other… shake their hands and smile at them… but then act like … since they don’t know me… i am not officially a member of their parish or whatever… act like i have leprosy or something… 
But I do not have the disorder that you have but guess what? I am just like you I HATE the greeting eachother at mass. I guess its because we are just not used to it. But I still hate it.
