Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Just the usual

A bishop for whom I had a lot of respect once told me that he got complaints about liturgical abuse but when he investigated them he found they were without substance. I said I was glad to hear that was the case but I had seen plenty. Unfortunately that bishop is no longer with us but here are a few abuses, which I found on gloria.tv, to be going on with. My question is are these people `inexorably distancing themselves from the Church` and can we look forward to something being done about it?


9 comments:

berenike said...

Yersss. But the books were the result of something, and I expect whatever in them is undesirable is the result of whatever it is that produced the abuse of the books as well. Does that make any sense?

English Pastor said...

Father, it is not just these gimmicks that have distorted the liturgy but the flouting of simple-to-follow rules like retaining the communion plate, ensuring the lectern is not used for appeal talks or eulogies at funerals, using extra-ordinary ministers only in real necessity, with priests ad-libbing during the Canon of the Mass (make us grow in love with Benedict our Pope, N our Bishop and all the clergy...and all the people of God" (EP II). There are so many minor abuses that they cannot all be enumerated here, and when one plays with any aspect of the rubrics the mentality sets in that we can play with it all. Sadly, the Mass has indeed become the community gathering to celebrate its own giftedness as praise of God, rather than the celebrating of God's gift to us in Christ Jesus Our Lord -the gift of salvation.

gemoftheocean said...

I might give the priest with the camoflage chasuble a pass, IF he was in a war zone at the time! Green being a liturgical color AND in a battle zone it's been known for Mass to be celebrated on the hood of a jeep well before Vatican II. :-D

I could also forgive the first Communion kids around the altar - and I'd go a little light on one or two of those Polish Masses. People seem to forget that there was a time when NO new churches were being built and the church was persecuted there. I am thinking in particular of that Mass out in the field where the priest was correctly dressed. It could be that that low table was all they had.

I guess Gloria TV would have also had a hissy fit if they had caught St. Therese of Lisieux playing with her Mass set! [I have a picture of me age 2 with a US football helmet on my head too, didn't mean I had a hope in Hades of being drafted by the NFL!]

But I think it's perfectly fine to throw a something at any and all liturgical dancers. Just on General Principles. No questions!

Richard S Rainbow said...

I am considering trying to obtain copyright on Rainbow logos as my part in the fight against such abuses!

Fr Michael Brown said...

Yes Karen some of these scenes are not so extreme but thought most of it was useful. I`ve seen pictures of wartime Masses. However I thought it was worth putting it on for the many strange scenes depicted there.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Yes that makes sense Berenike. I`m not critising the OF but jut these all too common distortions of what the Mass is about.

gemoftheocean said...

Oh, and the priest smiling while giving Communion. Who knows? He may be giving it to a recent penitent who'd been away from the sacraments for a long time and came back!

I bet Jesus would have smiled as he hoisted that "lost sheep" on his shoulders!

berenike said...

Father,

I'm not sure, but I have a vague feeling that my comment was intended for a different comment thread - I seem to remember it was a reply to some snarky comment by a commenter ... Sorry!

Fr Michael Brown said...

Karen, the smiley priest was a minor issue I thought although I think on the whole it is best for the priest to be concentrating on distributing Holy Communion rather than smiling at people but sometimes it does happen. What I wouldn`t like is being smiled at every time I went to receive Communion.