I'm soliciting opinions, feelings, anger, whatever about the Eucharist that will be used in a book that will be entitled something like "How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist." I want to make it "real" so I'm putting it together from the ground up with all the feedback that I hear when I speak about the Mass to a wide variety of groups.
So I think their are three problem areas, but I'm open to expanding the list based on the feedback that I get here:
- Feelings and Reality: "I'm bored" "I don't like the pastor (or fill in the blank)" "I don't understand what's going on" "The preaching (or again fill in the blank) sucks" "I'm not being fed" "I don't believe in it" "I'm angry with the way things are done either correctly or incorrectly"
- The Wandering Mind: "I'm thinking about something else most of the time" "I find it impossible to concentrate"
- Real Abuses: "We use words that aren't in the Missal" "We shake hands at the beginning and in the middle" "(fill in the blank) "We hold hands during the Our Father" "The role of the priest and the laity is confused by the way the Eucharist is celebrated in our parish"
I would like to say with regard to #3 that sometimes people perceive and abuse where no real abuse is taking place, in defense of priests they sometime inherit a situation where certian things have been taking place in a parish and it is hard to stem the tide. I also think that many of the "abuses" have crept into the liturgy because of the items in #1 and attempts to make the liturgy more exciting or relevant, both huge mistakes. Such errors reveal that one doesn't understand the liturgy enough to know that it is the most amazing, exciting and relevant thing we will ever do in this earthly life!
Please link to this discussion on your blog, inviting your readers to participate in this discussion. Feel free to use the comments or to email me directly.
Thanks!
33 comments:
I am annoyed by priests who ad lib during the Eucharistic prayers. Is this legal?
I also don't like the "introduce yourself to your neighbor" time at the beginning of Mass.
I am tired of "cutesy" and inappropriate (to me) music.
Lynn
I'm bothered by 8 to 10 overweight middle aged women dressed for shopping at the nearest grocery mart, and the one old geezer who doesn't have a piece of clothing that matches, pretending to have the grace and authority to distribute the Eucharist to the 200-300 people in church. I bothered by this facade that involves the "laity" in an area where there is clearly no need, no justification, and no authority.
With regard to what I hear about what goes on, a lot bugs me. With regard to the parish where I belong, not very much, because I sought and found a parish where things are done well, in a very traditional setting. Even there, there are some great old Resurrectionist priests, well into retirement, who are quite conservative and whom I like very much, but who insist on beginning weekday Masses with "Good afternoon," or some such (to which the fifty or so congregants dutifully drone, "Good afternoon, father.") and end the Mass, after the "The Mass is Ended" with "Have a nice day." Added to the inanity of this is the incongruity of it coming from such fine celebrants. I must admit, I've come to expect such nonsense from a lot of priests, but not these guys!
Also, there should be a Mass in Latin -- Novus Ordo if you like, although Tridentine would be better -- in every parish in the world. Not just because I "like" it, but because the Latin language (and the Tridentine Rite, in my view) is essential to maintaining tradition in the Church. It's also unifying for a universal Church across innumerable cultures and vernaculars. Perhaps we're getting back to it; I think back fifteen years, and the Tridentine Mass was essentially "banned." I'm pleasantly amazed at how far back it's come, and how even opponents of it who clearly can't stand it nevertheless seem grudgingly resigned to it being "allowed" again.
I also think Eucharistic Ministers are dramatically overused. Taking Holy Communion to the homebound is laudable, although I think who is allowed to do it should be much more strictly supervised. But at Mass? I realize somebody has to distribute the Blood. But for the most part, short of a stadium setting, they're unnecessary, diminish the aura of sanctity that the Body and Blood should have.
I'll never forget reading about the "Theology on Tap" program in the Louisville Archdiocesan paper, which quoted a young woman who was saying how much she loved the program, was learning a lot about her faith, and was going to really try to attend Sunday Mass more often. "You don't go every Sunday?" asked the interviewer. "No," she answered, "some months I only go one Sunday a month, when I'm scheduled to be Eucharistic Minister."
Breathtaking.
Above windy post is by John Heavrin (I can't figure out how to sign in, and I forgot to put my name, and I'm not the 'John' who posted right above me.)
The quality of homilies is very poor compared to evangelical sermons.
I've just discovered blogging and this is my first reply. :) Some things that really annoy me are the extreme casualness of altar servers--sauntering up to the altar, arms swinging at their sides, etc. Holding hands during the Our Father is another annoyance for me. Let's see...oh, watching all the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion gather around the altar is a real distraction. (BTW, they're still called Eucharistic Ministers at our parish.) I cringe when Father or an EMHC pats a child's head and then takes the host in his fingers for the next communicant. But my major complaint would be a loss of the sacredness of the Mass. At our parish, we seem more to celebrate ourselves as a faith filled community.
Best wishes and prayers for the success of your book project!
Pattiann
Our church has held to the basics pretty well but what makes it almost impossible for me to concentrate is when I wind up at the "family Mass". That is when no song is sung that has been written before 1965. I feel as if I'm in the middle of either a Coke commercial or Godspell ... neither is conducive to my worship. I spend the entire time fighting with myself in an attempt to ignore the externals and worship anyway.
[1] Simpy, "emotive", greeting-card organ music played during the Eucharistic prayer. The words of the Canmon are quite enough, thank you.
[2] Why isn't Eucharistic Prayer I (the old "Roman Canon"), with its full-blown litany of the saints, used more often? Yes, it's longer, yes if people don't listen, it might be "boring". I'm in my 40's though, and remember it as the Long Mass Prayer of my youth. Even though I'm not sure that I'd want to hear it all the time, I very much like it once in a while. Which brings me to ...
[3] Other Eucharistic Prayers. Okay, we have four, the one (IV) always used, the one (I) discussed above, and the others. But, there are others -- including one I heard once-upon-a-time, from Canada, for childrens' liturgies -- which might be allowed but which aren't familiar. To be filed under, let's discuss, teach me what the rules are, what are trhe pro's-&-con's. To just launch into something, at one of the most critical parts of the celebration, is, however, a bit jarring.
[4] At the Our Father, please, please -- pleeeeze -- instruct the congregation to put their hands down. If they want to close their eyes, okay, but the sight of people waving their arms and hands like antennae trying to get a good signal is frankly silly. (At least holding hands is familial, albeit a bit evangelical.)
[5] In which language are we supposed to recite the Our Father? I rarely use "art" as a verb, and "hallowed" and "thy" are archaic. No, let's not use the execrable inclusive version(s), but is it wrong to pray in English, "Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is Your name ..."? [In the language of Rahner und Kung, Kung, "Beten and rechnung immer in muttersprache."]
[6] How about a tiny little bit of liturgical history and explanation, maybe even cathechesis? The conenctions between the OT and Gospel readings are typically obvious, but the Epistle is typically just included, without comment.
I travel a lot so these comments don't apply to any one church
1: Parishoners gabbing in the church before mass.
2: Greet your neighbor routines
3: Find the tabernacle games
4: Leaving before the choir finishes (where is everyone going in such a hurry?)
5: Extraordinary ministers of Holy communion
6: Avoidance of Preaching on the Hard Stuff
and lastly the single biggest obstacle to my appreciation of the mass is:
7: AN UNCHARITABLE ATTITUDE THAT FAILS TO OVERLOOK (OR OFFER UP)THE ABOVE FAULTS IN WITNESS TO THE REALITY OF THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST ON THE ALTAR DURING THE SUPREME SACRIFICE OF THE MASS REGARDLESS OF THE "LITURGICAL ABUSES" PRESENT.
Kathleen
In a nutshell, preaching and music are the key elements to a Mass that brings us closer to God and God closer to us.
NOT fussy literal translations from Latin; NOT exclusively technical exegesis of the readings; NOT music that fails the Duke Ellington test -- "There are two types of music, good and bad, and you can tell them apart by listening."
Also...
NOT mumbled prayers; NOT music about me-me-me and us-us-us; NOT joy-joy happy-happy ain't-it-neat-that-we're-here songs and sermons.
We need language that is both idiomatic English and poetry -- hardly sounding like the Angelicaists' supposed cure of Latinate English that would have gotten a C- in my 9th-grade Latin class.
We need music where the goal is not to always "lift me up" but rather to help God's fingers touch the soul. Listening to good music, well performed can accomplish this just as much as, say, expecting loud singing during the communion queue.
We need preaching whose goal is to make the word of God as physically and emotionally present as Jesus was during his life.
Finally, and most importantly, we need to worry about the things that are important and ignore the things that aren't. Two examples. (1) I will surely differ with many of the comments here in that it doesn't matter where the tabernacle is during Mass. I served enough side-altar masses many moons ago to know that the Mass itself -- in front of an empty spare tabernacle -- makes Christ present in a dynamic way that a full tabernacle in the lower church does not. (2) As much as I detest the handholding at the Lord's Prayer -- the sorry substitute for communion imported from evangelicals, who have nothing better -- I can tolerate others doing it.
Let's focus on the big things. Artistry in word and music. Intelligent preaching. Worthy music. That will make Mass not only be but APPEAR TO BE very important, no matter whether the church looks like Chartres or an airplane hangar.
I am appalled but not surprised by John Heavrin's comment that a Eucharistic Minister (we call them that)
goes to Mass once a month. I have encountered
numerous "graduates" of the RCIA program who have no idea that attendance at weekly Mass is an obligation. Comments from new Catholics: "I never said I'd go every week!"
Also: "I go to Mass when I feel like it."
How about a little catechesis from the altar?
Lynn
I don't like that we're to hold raised hands during the Our Father. I don't find it meaningful to try to grasp the hand of a frightened child or an adolescent girl or some other person I don't know. I was pleased when our priest gave me a way out, he said that he clasps his hands in front of himself, bows his head and closes his eyes to signal that he's not a hand-holder.
I am a Methodist going through RCIA to join the church. From reading, I know that eventually I must accept that the bread is the actual Body of Christ... this is a difficult step for me. It's confusing that some people take the bread AND the wine, others just take the bread. My priest explained that the each, both the bread and the wine, can be considered to contain both.
I am very happy with the seriousness I find in the Catholic Church. The Mass is treated with respect that I find missing elsewhere.
I guess my top favorite (in terms of abuses, that is) was doing "The Wave" at a Mass in the Syracuse area. Thankfully I was a visitor, and no, I didn't actually participate in this Rah Rah Jesus activity. Just watched in open-mouthed amazement. Or maybe it was Rah Rah Us. Hard to tell sometimes.
I don't like being instructed to stand for the consecration. I am routinely disobedient to this command, too. I don't care whose butt I have to stare at while kneeling at this part of the Mass.
I had difficulty locating the Stations of the Cross when my former parish built a new structure. After several weeks of looking I discovered them...underfoot! Yes, we trampled on the Stations at this church. Which helps explain why it is now a former parish. The tabernacle of course was in Solitary Confinement. If you could find it, you could worship! Otherwise, I guess, you just offer a prayer in a general Christ-like direction.
Would love to go to a Latin Mass but at the moment it's too big a commute with toddlers.
I think "communion hymns" can be distracting. I'm a musician, and I belong to a parish with good music, but I'd rather be focusing on my state rather than trying to follow the words and juggle a hymnal and the baby.
The other thing that bothers me is those occasions when the priest gives a just blasted awful homily. Fortunately that's rare in my parish, but it happened once with a guest priest and I was so angry that I didn't feel properly disposed and thus did not receive -- not, I hasten to add, because I object to sharing the church with sinners like myself but because I knew I should not go forward until I had collected myself. (It was a pretty bad homily.)
In my parish it seems as if the EMHCs operate like a union. They are focused only on performing their perceived role in the liturgy and have no sense of what is going on at the altar.
• At each Mass 2 of them approach go to the tabernacle (not in the sanctuary) and retrieve additional ciboria.
• Some will fraction hosts on the altar among the ciboria during the Angus Dei.
• If the priest does not offer the cup to the EMHCs there are some that will go to the altar and pick up the cup, self-communicate and then offer the cup to the others.
• Many will grab the cup or ciborium before the priest has a chance to hand it to them.
• If there is a concelebrating priest no EMHC will take it upon himself to sit down. Therefore, the concelebrant will usually sit in the sanctuary during communion.
• If there are not enough ciboria for all of the EMHCs one will nip off into the sacristy and retrieve an empty one. Then two of them will fraction the hosts at the altar.
I have observed all of these abuses since Redemptionis Sacramentum was issued. I have to assume that these people have not been properly catechized regarding their role or these things would not go on. It seems that their only concern is that they will be at their station. Reverence for the Eucharist is secondary.
I feel a general rejection from the Church community for trying to following its liturgical laws.
The archbishop in Melbourne sits for the Gloria. The litugical books say to stand for it. I am the only one in the congregation who does.
I have been instituted as a lector. The liturigcal books say in the absence of an instituted lector someone other people do the readings. At the cathedral I have pursued this. But I am rejected, non-instituted readers are used.
I am particularly concerned about the effect of these kinds of inconsistencies on those in formation for the priesthood.
I wrote recently about what bothers me at http://www.romanrite.com/lineamenta.html
John Lilburne
My biggest pet peeve is the insistence of most choirs to rehearse with full instrumentation, in full view of the parishoners, moments before Mass starts. Hearing the guitarist call out "what's my chord" accompanied by various jarring starts and stops doesn't help put one in the right state of mind. In my opinion, there is far too little respect and reverence for the Mass. This ain't social hour, folks! It all goes back to the horizontal vs vertical worship debate, but that's for a another time and place.
I would like to see a Priest instruct / re-instruct people on just what the Eucharist is.
I was one of MANY pew sitters who never really realized that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ!! How awesome is that!!
I'm sure most or all of the commenters understand this, but when I was fully instructed I was awe-struck!
All those years mindlessly going up to communion because I thought Jesus wanted us to do this in rememberence of Him - just a symbol - ho hum.
Educate!! Too many people leave the Catholic Church to find Jesus -- HE'S RIGHT THERE, EVERY DAY, WAITING, WANTING US TO WANT HIM. I just wish I knew that instead of the "God is Love" stuff I was taught.
Michael, I'm tired and not too patient to register, but wanted you to know a Sister Patricia, a Poor Clare nun in Spokane Washington, has just finished a book, "201 Inspirational Stories of the Eucharist" to be published in September 2004. Here is the website:
http://eucharist101.com/booksale.html
I get a daily Peace Card from Sister Pat and enjoy her down to earth comments immensely. Her daily musings are a great example to me of my own ups and downs in life and that things usually work out.
Last year she did a similar book on stories of the Rosary.
There is much I like about the Eucharist. it is timeless and beautiful and is my connection to God through the person of Jesus.
I would like to join the RC church.
I asked if I could join at the local RC church last November and the church secretary said, "You're too late. The class started in September. You can't join."
Fortunately, I found from Catholic friends that this secretary is rude to everyone. It was not just me. My friends would be happy to "sponsor" me in, but I would have to wait until fall.
So, trust other Catholics and not in the church administrative office.
I attended mass a number of times. I have epilepsy, but I have never been as bizarre as some of the folks who do this strange dance before they choose their seats. I've not tried to duplicate this gesture fearing I would fall over and still not get it right. So, I simply enter through the back door and sit in the last pew.
Don't you know an older woman watched me and when I sat, she let out a very audible sigh. She faced the front with an angry face, had a one legged fit and sat in a chair with a thump. Then she turned as if to see if I was looking at her, and I was.
It was winter. She wore a fur coat. I had a wool coat with only a couple of holes in it. I kind of knew how St. Francis must have felt. Being poor in a wealthy church made me happy inside. I wondered why the other people in the back row sat there.
So, don't trust the wealthy looking Catholics, but bond with the poor ones.
I couldn't find where we were in the prayer book, so I didn't participate in anything that wasn't devoted to memory. The priest invited all to come forward for communion, but I sat, as did one other silent woman in my row.
the priest seemed to truly love the Eucharist. It was beautiful and done with honor.
Well, it's nearly September, so I can ask my Catholic friends if they will sponsor me into this exclusive club. If God's willing, I will be Roman Catholic. If not, I will continue to take communion at an Anglican church and look at the RC from afar.
Anita
Anita: God bless and my prayers are with you. I hope you are able to convert soon because something in your post got to me and I would like for you to be my Catholic sister and share in the joy of my Catholic family.
OK... makes me sad when I see priests sit out Holy Communion and let the EEMs do what any priest should be honored and eager to do. I see this all the time in all different parishes and I also know in my home parish the priests sit in the rectory and read the Sunday papers when they could nip over to the parish for five minutes and give out Communion. I've asked about this and have been told that they don't want to interfere with prescheduled EEM volunteers who donate their time to do this ministry. Well, whatever. Ok. If it isn't important enough for Fr. so and so, why is anyone surprised at the level of Eucharistic understanding among the laity.
I recently found a holy priest who says a lovely, plain Mass in a hospital setting (he's the hospital chaplain) but who, in his homilies always includes some part of Catholic teaching... confession, purgatory, sin, baptism, saint of the day, etc., - I can't tell you how much this has helped my children in their faith (me too, sometimes).
Choirs on or near the altar. Just don't belong there. Very distracting, poor acoustics and show-timey. Replace the side choir areas with some of the back row pews and relocate the choir to the back of the church or up in the loft where they belong.
'Presider' chair at the middle front of the altar where the tabernacle (used to) belong. 'Nuff said on that.
The music bugs me horribly... too modern, too me centered but I realize that is probably a matter of personal taste. I do hate to see the traditional hymns being lost though. They are a connection to our 2000 year old tradition.
I find it confusing when everything is referred to as "the Eucharist" - Holy Communion, Sacrifice of the Mass or both together.
Fake 'greeters', mutual community welcoming at the beginning of Masses, etc. But I don't like the hand shake either, so maybe that's me. I love being with my Catholic brothers and sisters but it seems like any blessed silence and peaceful coexistence is shortly shattered by a forced physical and oral recognition of one another.
But!!! I am so blessed to be Catholic and there is no other place to go!
Peace, Michael.
Good luck on your book. For what its worth, my big problem with the Mass is a lack of commitment to it. It should rank above running prep schools. Musicians should be better trained and compensated. Sacred art should be encouraged. People expect that rules are the only thing you need to do it right.
What really bothers me is when people start talking or leave before the closing song is finished at the end of Mass. They've been there through the whole Mass, can't they stand still and sing during the closing song? Instead, I hear chatter start from the back of the church and work its way up, and I see people genuflecting and leaving the pews around me while I'm still trying to sing the closing song. Suddenly, while Mass is technically still in progress, the church goes from sacred space to country club.
It just doesn't work for me.
Our parish recently started having a mass in Spanish every Saturday night at 8PM. There are about fifty Hispanics who attend and sit in the front pews of the church. Some of my Hispanic friends invited me to attend this mass and I went and sat about six pews back. The musicians stood near one of the front confessionals and played their guitars through several HUGE speakers placed just in front of the first pew. I have never heard such LOUD music in any church before, and I am a musician in another church. It just seems to me to be so unnecessary to have all that amplification for a small group sitting right up front in the church. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. And the other thing that bugs me is to see several small children racing back and forth in the aisles while the priest is saying mass. The parents just ignore them, and the mass goes on. This just may be their custom, but I personally think it shows a lack of respect. Now I'm wondering WHO'S IN CHARGE?
Calvin
A reply to Nathan.
Technically speaking, the Mass ends when the deacon or priest sings or says "Go in peace ..." and the assembled congregation responds "Thanks be to God." If you were to look carefully at the sacramentary you'd notice there is no mention of a closing song, recessional hymn, or anything else that follows the dismissal. Nor was there anything in the Tridentine liturgy to be sung after the dismissal (although the blessing and last Gospel did follow for the priest).
The recessional hymn seems to be a vestige of the 'hymn sandwich' low Mass that developed in the US during the late Tridentine period. The people sang hymns at the opening procession, the offertory, communion and the end while the real action, the spoken low Mass, occurred on the other side of the altar rail.
Michael,
Wow, what a lot of problem areas.
I feel very positive about our celebration, it 'suffers' (as I am sure some would see it - but not me) from having lots of quite noisy children, no latin, some singing - mainly hymns we know.... and its all wonderful - how else could I want to celebrate the Eucharist than among my neighbours.
On retreat just over a week ago, we asked "who is my neighbour", and seeing God in Neighbour, and Neighbour in God, was the key to our behaviour and acceptance of what is happening around us.
I suppose we are especially blessed with a priest who copes with the little difficulties life throws in - including forgetful altar servers (I was one myself !) and noisy kids.
We shouldn't be inventing it as we go along and we need the gentle training and adult education to remind us of what our celebration is.
But, in answer to the question... Problems, what problems.
God bless
Steve (UK cradle for over 50 years)
My biggest problem is the general lack of reverence, especially during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. And, boy, it burns my britches when a PRIEST rushes through the most significant portion of the Mass and doesn't adequately reflect (through actions and tone of voice) the awesomeness taking place at the Consecration.
Re: the wandering mind
Heh! Can't blame that on today's Church! One of my favorite poems is an anonymous Irish monk's lines on how his mind kept wandering during Mass; and I think every mystic has commented on having the same trouble. Sometimes it just happens.
It would be nice, though, if people got more instruction on how to deal with this. A lot of kids and adults don't seem to know that they're supposed to stay quiet and at least do their best to pay attention during Mass. There are plenty of strategies and devotions to help oneself focus, but you can't expect everyone to learn them just by osmosis.
Hey, Amy! Why not do a kid's book on "My Family and I Go to Mass"? You could simultaneously explain church manners and the Eucharist, with pictures! The prayer book I got for First Communion had the explanation and photos, and so did an old pre-VII booklet my mom had. But I don't think I've ever seen one for toddlers (a decent one, anyway), and I've never seen a book on church manners. (And I liked pictures much better than photos as a kid. They seemed more real.) If you wrote it in some rhythmic way that kids could remember, the only problem parents would have would be stopping their kids from shushing all and sundry!
Re: other problems
We do have a lot of noisy kids and parents, and sometimes that really does get distracting. But on the whole, my parish doesn't have trouble celebrating the Mass reverently.
The whole Tabernacle thing -- I hate it when the Tabernacle or Tabernacle Chapel is behind where you sit. That is just super creepy and rude -- turning your back on the King.
Actually, choirs traditionally _were_ closer to the altar than the people. Look where the choir stalls are in an old cathedral, or a religious order's church. But in those cases, the choir is sitting at a 90 degree angle to the congregation, singing at the altar, or the area behind or in front of the altar. I like lofts too, but they did come later. I prefer the feeling that I am singing to God rather than to the congregation -- well, except in proclamatory moments like singing the Psalm, I guess.
I don't like it when we don't use the psalm in the lectionary. We're supposed to be getting the scripture, not a song. But that's not happened since our new music director came in, joy joy! (Although we have had psalms cut short by a verse or so instead, by order of the pastor...argh!)
On any given Sunday, though, I think it's my attitude more likely to be at fault than the presentation of the Mass. I need to work on getting back the reverence of my childhood and adolescence, when I brushed these annoyances aside and kept my attention fixed on the prayer and the Real Presence.
There are several categories of unordained people who can take themselves too seriously and fail to conduct themselves with reverence.
1. EMs
2. Lectors
3. Choirs and choir directors who think it's all about them.
Music. We use the OCP hymnals and they are filled with wretched songs. Musically sappy or theologically unsound. I am just so sad that centuries of great Catholic music are being neglected. I can hear them at the concert series at the local Presbyterian church, however, so I suppose all is not lost.
I have become aware that it's not always the fault of the music director, priests can often overrule the music selections for a given Mass.
By the way, I have two teenagers. They HATE guitars at Mass, and most of the groovy OCP music from the 60s and 70s just does not put them in the proper frame of mind for worship.
Cellphones and beepers at Mass bother me.
Two things that I find sorely lacking: (1) some catechesis; it sure would be nice to hear some of the Catholic teachings reiterated and explained – for people like me who grew up in another faith and converted to Catholicism in the late ‘70s, it sure would be helpful to hear all the stuff I missed in my RCIA class (but that’s a whole ‘nother topic!). And (2) silence; it always seems that the Mass is chock full of music, bustle, noise, hurry-up that there is no time for reflection – even after communion, the period for silent reflection is no more than a minute – tops. I get the feeling I’m being hurried out the door so the next group can come in.
people who come late to Mass (and I mean LATE) - one couple strolls in at all times - once during the closing hymn
priests with thick accents - I can't appreciate the homily when I'm struggling to make out individual words - caused, obviously, by the U.S. having to bring in priests from all over the world
onee priest saying "in my mind, on my lips, in my heart" before the Gospel - never heard that from anyone else
second collections - interfere with what should be quiet time after communion - any supplementary offering should be combined with the regular collection
folks who slam kneelers down (and up) just because they're too lazy to carefully move them
announcements - they're already in the bulletin and are forgotten five minutes after we hear them anyways
the whole "sit/kneel/stand" thing, especially around Communion time - here I blame the priests (and their bishops), because they're supposed to be in charge during Mass, but never give any guidance
the holding hands, grip and grin, etc...
A lot of things used to bother me that don't anymore. I think that most priests intend to say a reverent mass and most people go to church to worship, and most people who choose the music etc are trying to help them do that according to their own lights. I think one ought to try not to be too attached to a particular style of worship and to accept that there just is not one correct style. I also think that unless it is in some way one's responsibility, one should not be worrying too much about whether something is "by the book" or not.
I like holding hands at the Our Father..and this has been done at almost every mass I have been to since I became a Catholic 30 years ago. In fact, when I first went trembling into a Catholic church for mass, and stood in the back, it was a great comfort to me when someone took my hand at the Our Father and smiled.
In my parish almost everyone who is standing somewhere that they don't have people on both side of them, lifts up their hands at the Our Father. My understanding is that this was an early way to pray...lifting up one's hands to heaven. The hands together gesture for prayer is just another gesture...there is no reason why one should be superior to or more reverant than, the other. I think my parish does this because there was a strong Catholic charismatic group there for a while and the most devout people in the parish went to it, and brought some of its style back to the regular parish masses. I find myself feeling very joyful many times, singing the Our Father holding hands or with uplifted hands. I remember when that same music for the Our Father bothered me as quite insipid. I think that musically, some of it is. But everyone knows it and custom and association has made it part of worship for me.
I still have moments myself when I can't let go of music and ways of doing things that I am used to, which seemed beautiful to me. What really bugs me....at the Easter Vigil, they think the Exultet is better with melodramatic piano riffs played under it. It is seldom the priest that sings it. One year, someone tried to make it sound like a country music song. These things probably are not that important. But this was one time when I couldn't appreciate that. I am also attached to singing St. Thomas's eucharistic hymn on Holy Thursday for the procession with the host. Is it called Pange Lingua---in English it starts "Sing my tongue..." This year some tuneless modern hymn "Watch with me" was sung. They still sang St. Thomas's hymn at the very end, just a few stanzas of it, but by that point I was so upset..... I THINK it is wrong to get so upset by these things, and most of the time, I just sing out those bouncy cheerful theologically confusing hymns with the intention of joining my fellow Catholics in praise and prayer...although I do point out to my daughter that some of the words make no sense...
By the way, my husband is an Episcopalian, and I also attend the Episcopal church with him (I go to mass Saturday evening...as well as mornings all the other days of the week ...but on Sunday I go to the Episcopal church with him. THEY kneel to say the Our Father. They kneel for the consecration and all the prayers around it. (my Catholic parish doesn't even have kneelers) They follow their Book of Common Prayer liturgy exactly...they have beautiful vestments, use incense.... kneel at the altar rail for communion. They sing older hymns, not all wonderful poetically but almost all better musically and theologically than the recent ones. I also like this style of worship.
At one point it was the only one I could accept. I think I have grown to be able to worship in more than one style, with more than one type of music, and be at peace with it------MOST of the time.
Susan Peterson
What bothers me most? Banal Masses modelled after a talk show or other entertainment, instead of after the Heavenly Liturgy.
If I want to be entertained, I can watch TV. I don't want to be entertained at Mass. I want to see the Mysterious, to partake of the Eternal -- to worship in unison with the Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven. This unity is broken if we substitute our own little fads for the prayers of the Mass, or treat the Mass like the priest, or the choir, or Oprah, is the star instead of Jesus Christ.
I've blogged a detailed wish list here.--Peony Moss
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