GOD
SAVE US IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE
Whoever gives the homily must recognize that isn’t about himself, but that he is “giving voice to Jesus, he is preaching the word of Jesus,” the pope said.
https://www.archstl.org/popes-message-homilies-must-help-people-reflect-not-nap-1214
—Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service, “POPE’S MESSAGE: Homilies must help people reflect, not nap,” St. Louis Review, February 12-18, 2018
A good priest preaches the
Word of God—they don’t propagate their own insufferable idiosyncrasies,
childhood neuroses, pet peeves, social and political opinions run rampant,
blighted scientific ignorance, or overbearing religious partisanship inside the
Roman Catholic Church. Stick to a rooted, sound, tested, seasoned theology, and
you can’t go wrong.
Photo of ear plugs courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/2388120713
Gonzalinho
The celebration of the Holy Mass is a community prayer. It is a formal, structured liturgy that, among other purposes, is intended to give material expression to the prayer of the community.
ReplyDeleteIt is not the personal prayer of the priest except in the sense that he joins in the prayer of the community.
Before Vatican II, the understanding of the celebration of the liturgy was that it was supposed to “erase” the presence of the priest—if this were at all possible, and it isn’t—so that the priest would be reduced to a moving part, practically unnoticed, in a machine that would run mechanically and operate consistently.
Post-Vatican II, this unrealistic ideal has given way to a recognition of the unique personality of the priest and the manner in which he influences, for the better, we would hope, the celebration of the Holy Mass.
Unfortunately, following the liturgical reforms of the council, the greater leeway today given to the priest has swung the pendulum in the opposite direction by opening the door to another type of abuse, the excessively individualistic priest who intrudes upon community prayer and disturbs it.
We believe that the priest should as much as possible refrain from inserting his own highly personal prayers and especially his unduly disruptive, idiosyncratic manner when he celebrates the Holy Mass. The Holy Mass is the celebration of the community. It is not the eccentric, violative prayer of the priest.
“He must increase, I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
The priest should lead us to Christ. He will do so more effectively if he avoids pointing his finger at himself.
Gonzalinho
Off-color jokes have no place in a homily or anywhere else during the celebration of the Holy Mass.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
All this is forgivable but when it is a habit it requires the attention of the ordinary of the priest.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
When the priest habitually changes the Kyrie and in a manner that is violative, inserting his own personal confession of sins and his own particular expressions of contrition, it is very irritating and disruptive. The Kyrie is the prayer of the community, not the priest’s idiosyncratic personal prayer.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
Some relevant texts:
ReplyDelete“No priest is ever permitted to change any text in the Missal, and certainly he may not change the Eucharistic Prayer or the words of consecration.”
https://adoremus.org/2006/10/what-is-the-effect-of-the-priest-changing-the-words-of-the-mass-is-there-anything-we-can-do/
—Fr. John Flader, “Q&A – Can a priest change the prayers and parts of the Mass?” The Catholic Leader, July 12, 2022
“That is, the liturgy, and in this case especially the Mass, is not an action of the individual priest, but an action of Christ together with his Mystical Body, the Church.”
https://catholicleader.com.au/life/faith/qa-can-a-priest-change-the-prayers-and-parts-of-the-mass/
—The Editors, “What is the Effect of the Priest Changing the Words of the Mass? Is There Anything We Can Do?” Adoremus (October 15, 2006) 12(7)
Gonzalinho
“In the devil’s theology, the important thing is to be absolutely right and to prove everybody else is absolutely wrong.”—Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (2007), page 96
ReplyDeleteMerton is making a point that I believe is critical in the Roman Catholic Church: we have to respect the legitimate freedom of the members of the faithful. Many times, theological reality is not monadic but multifaceted, not writ in stone but dialectical. Therefore, let us respect and honor the exercise of legitimate freedom in the Church.
Gonzalinho
Merton wrote under religious obedience. His writings were reviewed by religious authorities before they were published. This arrangement protected him.
DeleteHe was not a devotional writer, meaning, someone who sought to foster traditional Roman Catholic piety among his readers. He was more of a Catholic intellectual, provocative and interesting to read. He wasn’t publicly regarded as a saint.
Maybe one reason some Catholics don’t like him is that he doesn't drop into their box of a pious writer or a saintly monk. A monk-writer like M. Basil Pennington would be better regarded in this respect, but he doesn’t have as large an audience.
Gonzalinho
HOLINESS OR NEUROSIS?
ReplyDelete‘BEING A NUN WAS THE GREAT LOVE STORY OF MY LIFE’: CATHERINE COLDSTREAM ON WHY SHE JOINED – THEN FLED – A CONVENT
By Kate Kellaway
The Guardian, February 25, 2024
…[Catherine] Coldstream is, in the book’s most horrifying chapter, beaten by one of the prioresses. She is abused for being the devoted person she is and for expressing her opinion, when asked, about the community’s need for reform. Would she now say that “Irene”, the prioress aggressor – supposedly a progressive – had become unhinged? “Irene was pushed too far. She assumed everyone would go with her and there was a mutiny. She became a jelly and spineless and started trying to please everyone. I think she lost her moral compass… I’ve never known why she beat me. We didn’t have conversations about it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/25/catherine-coldstream-cloistered-my-years-as-a-nun-god-interview
Cloistered life can be genuinely fulfilling, but living it properly is an exceptional challenge. The monkey wrench in this case appears to have been deficient leadership, resulting in destructive factionalism.
I wonder if a more psychologically healthy and flexible attitude of the leaders towards the exercise of religious freedom by community members might have helped. But then again, maybe not. Not everyone is built to live in a hothouse.
Gonzalinho
GENDER ABUSE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
ReplyDeleteAn Argentine judge recognizes gender abuse suffered for years by 20 nuns in a breakthrough ruling
By Almudena Calatrava
AP News
Updated 8:10 AM GMT+8, April 6, 2024
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge on Friday ruled that 20 cloistered nuns had suffered abuse for more than two decades at the hands of high-ranking clergy in the country’s conservative north, and ordered the accused archbishop and church officials to undergo psychological treatment and training in gender discrimination.
The ruling in the homeland of Pope Francis cast a spotlight on the long-standing of abuse of nuns by priests and bishops in the Catholic Church.
Though long overshadowed by other church scandals, such abuses in religious life are increasingly being aired and denounced as a result of nuns feeling emboldened by the #MeToo movement, which has a corollary in the church, #NunsToo.
“I conclude and affirm that the nuns have suffered acts of gender violence religiously, physically, psychologically and economically for more than 20 years,” Judge Carolina Cáceres said in the ruling from Salta in northwestern Argentina.
She also ordered the verdict be conveyed to Francis.
The four accused clergy members have denied committing any violence. The archbishop’s lawyer, Eduardo Romani, dismissed Friday’s ruling as baseless and vowed to appeal. Still, he said, the archbishop would abide by the order to receive treatment and anti-discrimination training through a local NGO “whether or not he agrees with its basis.”
The nuns’ lawyer hailed the verdict as unprecedented in Argentina in recognizing the plaintiffs’ plight and the deeper problem of gender discrimination.
“It shatters the ‘status quo’ because it targets a person with a great deal of power,” said José Viola, the lawyer.
…complaints have largely fallen on deaf ears at the Vatican and in the rigid all-male hierarchy at the local level in Argentina, apparently prompting the nuns in Salta to seek remedy in the secular justice system. A similar dynamic played out when the clergy abuse of minors scandal first erupted decades ago and victims turned to the courts because of inaction by church authorities.
…Their complaints cited a range of mistreatment including verbal insults, threats, humiliation and physical — although not sexual — assault.
The nuns describe archbishop Mario Cargnello as grabbing, slapping and shaking women. At one point, they said, Cargnello squeezed the lips of a nun to silence her. At another, he pounced on a nun, striking her as he struggled to snatch a camera from her hands. They also accused Cargello of borrowing nuns’ money without paying them back.
Cáceres, the judge, described the instances as “physical and psychological gender violence.”
-----
Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
https://apnews.com/article/argentina-nuns-abuse-vatican-pope-metoo-79273d907d2f75e2ade6feae10ec3d81
“A similar dynamic played out when the clergy abuse of minors scandal first erupted decades ago and victims turned to the courts because of inaction by church authorities.”
Abuse is not only sexual. There are other forms of abuse that share a basic similarity, according to the science of psychology.
Gonzalinho
ADJUDICATION PROCESS NEEDS REFORM
ReplyDeleteCatholic nuns in Texas are defying the Pope and could be excommunicated amid what they say is a “hostile takeover” of their monastery.
The row, which was sparked after the local bishop accused the chief nun of breaking her vow of chastity, has gone on for over a year and shows no signs of stopping.
The Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington rejected the authority of Bishop Michael Olson and denied the claims about their Mother Prioress.
Now it appears they are even resisting an order from the Holy See.
…In April 2023, Bishop Olson, the diocese says, received a report that Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach had violated her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the area.
The Arlington nuns mounted a furious defence of their Mother Prioress and filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Bishop Olson and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.
They claimed to have been subjected to “aggression, humiliation and spiritual manipulation” as a result of the "attitudes and ambitions" of Bishop Olson.
They also said they no longer recognised his authority and banned him and his officials from setting foot on monastery property.
…That brings us to April this year.
Seeking to put an end to the feud between the nuns and Bishop Olson, the Vatican ordered the Texas monastery to submit to the authority of a Carmelite association of monasteries.
The letter to the Texas monastery, dated 18 April 2024, said this was supposed to “restore order” and the nuns were told to “regularize” their relationship with Bishop Olson and withdraw their allegations against him.
But two days later the nuns issued a fierce rebuttal, saying that the entrustment of the monastery to the Carmelite Association of Christ the King was “in effect a hostile takeover that we cannot in conscience accept”.
They informed the Carmelite association that neither its president nor any of her delegates were welcome at their monastery.
In the statement, the nuns said they “accept without reserve” the authority of Pope Francis.
“We wish nothing more than to live our vocation in peace and tranquillity with and under the legitimate pastors of the Church," they added.
“We take Pope Francis at his word when he invited consecrated women ‘to fight when, in some cases, they are treated unfairly, even within the Church… At times, by men of the Church.’”
https://news.sky.com/story/texan-chastity-scandal-and-a-hostile-takeover-the-nuns-defying-pope-francis-13126256
—Michael Drummond, “Texan chastity scandal and a ‘hostile takeover’ - the nuns defying Pope Francis,” Sky News, May 2, 2024
Adjudication process needs to be reformed—it comes across as strikingly prejudicial to the nuns. The current process doesn’t seem fair—it’s unduly biased in favor of the allegations of the male hierarchy, leans inordinately toward their exercise of extraordinary power over the lives of the women, and most especially, it doesn’t give the female religious community a fair hearing.
Possibly, reform should move in the direction of learning from and implementing best practice secular procedures.
Gonzalinho
The power of the male hierarchy is only one factor in the adjudication of this issue. A key factor here is the absence of due process—it is really glaring to those who are trained in legal procedure—so that the process works out unfairly. In addition, there is high value property involved—and the rights of the religious community over the property—that are being taken over without due process.
DeleteThe prioress should face a fair trial and not a summary judgment from a single man, the bishop. The process in its present form is appallingly unjust, and I've seen it happen in other cases.
The principal issue is that of alleged sexual misconduct of the prioress. She should face a fair trial. There should be a just process for removing her temporarily from office until the trial is concluded. However, in this case, drastic punishment—the confiscation in effect of community property and the breakup of the community—is mandated without a fair trial or due process. It’s not the first or last time. The institution is grossly abusive in this and other cases.
I say that the deficiency of due process in the institution of the Roman Catholic Church is a grave defect historically and presently. It requires major reform.
Gonzalinho
A CASE OF SPIRITUAL ABUSE
ReplyDeleteAn Argentine judge on Friday ruled that 20 cloistered nuns had suffered abuse for more than two decades at the hands of high-ranking clergy in the country’s conservative north, and ordered the accused archbishop and church officials to undergo psychological treatment and training in gender discrimination.
The ruling in the homeland of Pope Francis cast a spotlight on the long-standing of abuse of nuns by priests and bishops in the Catholic Church.
Though long overshadowed by other church scandals, such abuses in religious life are increasingly being aired and denounced as a result of nuns feeling emboldened by the #MeToo movement, which has a corollary in the church, #NunsToo.
“I conclude and affirm that the nuns have suffered acts of gender violence religiously, physically, psychologically and economically for more than 20 years,” Judge Carolina Cáceres said in the ruling from Salta in northwestern Argentina.
She also ordered the verdict be conveyed to Francis.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
A CASE OF SPIRITUAL ABUSE
DeleteContinued
The four accused clergy members have denied committing any violence. The archbishop’s lawyer, Eduardo Romani, dismissed Friday’s ruling as baseless and vowed to appeal. Still, he said, the archbishop would abide by the order to receive treatment and anti-discrimination training through a local NGO “whether or not he agrees with its basis.”
The nuns’ lawyer hailed the verdict as unprecedented in Argentina in recognizing the plaintiffs’ plight and the deeper problem of gender discrimination.
“It shatters the ‘status quo’ because it targets a person with a great deal of power,” said José Viola, the lawyer.
In recent years, several prominent cases have emerged involving nuns, laywomen or consecrated women denouncing spiritual, psychological, physical or sexual abuse by once-exalted priests.
But complaints have largely fallen on deaf ears at the Vatican and in the rigid all-male hierarchy at the local level in Argentina, apparently prompting the nuns in Salta to seek remedy in the secular justice system. A similar dynamic played out when the clergy abuse of minors scandal first erupted decades ago and victims turned to the courts because of inaction by church authorities.
…Their complaints cited a range of mistreatment including verbal insults, threats, humiliation and physical — although not sexual — assault.
The nuns describe archbishop Mario Cargnello as grabbing, slapping and shaking women. At one point, they said, Cargnello squeezed the lips of a nun to silence her. At another, he pounced on a nun, striking her as he struggled to snatch a camera from her hands. They also accused Cargello of borrowing nuns’ money without paying them back.
Cáceres, the judge, described the instances as “physical and psychological gender violence.”
https://apnews.com/article/argentina-nuns-abuse-vatican-pope-metoo-79273d907d2f75e2ade6feae10ec3d81
—Almudena Calatrava, “An Argentine judge recognizes gender abuse suffered for years by 20 nuns in a breakthrough ruling,” AP, April 6, 2024
“A similar dynamic played out when the clergy abuse of minors scandal first erupted decades ago and victims turned to the courts because of inaction by church authorities.”
Abuse is not only sexual. There are other forms of abuse that share a basic similarity, according to the science of psychology.
“Squeezing the lips of a nun to silence her”
It’s like a Tom and Jerry cartoon or a black comedy movie à la Quentin Tarantino—and it’s even worse if it’s true.
Gonzalinho
SILENT ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
ReplyDeleteDuring the Holy Hour in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the faithful should be given space to pray in silence and contemplation. The priest should allow time for silent prayer and not literally fill the hour with uninterrupted recitals of vocal prayers and liturgy like crayola filling in the pages of a children’s coloring book.
The priest shouldn’t fill the hour with vocal prayers that disturb the silent adoration of the others.
Gonzalinho
THE LISTENING CHURCH
ReplyDeleteA working document for the final gathering later this year of Pope Francis’s controversial Synod of Bishops on synodality makes no clear mention of female ordination, priestly celibacy or the married priesthood. It also makes no overt references to the LGBTQ+ community.
Presented 9 July in a news conference, the official working document – called an Instrumentum Laboris – for the second Rome-based session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality later this year, marks an official end to a three-year process. And what may strike some observers as most notable is what the document doesn’t say, as opposed to what it does.
At the close of last year’s initial session, a synthesis document summarising the month-long discussion was widely considered to be a disappointment for those hoping the synod would urge action on issues such as married priests, women’s ordination and the welcome of LGBTQ+ individuals, which were among the most emotional and contested discussion topics.
Those unhappy with that synthesis document will also likely be nonplussed by the working document for this year’s gathering, as it steers clear of similar areas.
On women, like the synthesis document, the instrumentum laboris recognises a widespread desire to see women in roles of leadership and governance more often, and to foster a greater inclusion of women. But it doesn’t offer any specifics in terms of women’s priestly ordination or the female diaconate.
...On the women’s diaconate, the document noted that some bishops’ conferences called for access to it, while others voiced opposition, before saying only that “On this issue, which will not be the subject of the work of the second session, it is good that theological reflection should continue, on an appropriate timescale and in the appropriate ways”.
...Since last December, that group has heard several presentations from women on how to better include women in the life and leadership of the church, including proposals for the diaconate. However, Pope Francis earlier this year, when asked in an interview with CBS, if women would ever be ordained priests or deacons, responded that this would not happen.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE LISTENING CHURCH
DeleteContinued
...The document also does not include any mention of “homosexual”, sexual “orientation”, or “gay”, but offers a general acknowledgement of a desire from all continents “concerning people who, for different reasons, are or feel excluded or on the margins of the ecclesial community or who struggle to find full recognition of their dignity and gifts within it”.
“This lack of welcome leaves them feeling rejected, hinders their journey of faith and encounter with the Lord, and deprives the Church of their contribution to mission,” the document says.
...On the abuse issue, the document faulted clericalism as a cause of abuse and acknowledged calls for greater transparency and accountability.
“In our time, the demand for transparency and accountability in and by the Church has come about as a result of the loss of credibility due to financial scandals and, even more so, sexual abuse and other abuses of minors and vulnerable persons,” the document said.
For the church to be more synodal, and thus more welcoming, the document said, “accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority”.
...The document said the practice of accountability to superiors has been a common practice in the Church, while “the dimension of accountability of authority to the community must be recovered”.
...It is expected that this October’s concluding synod session will produce a final document to be submitted to the Pope for reflection and a potential apostolic exhortation, as has been the case in the past.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/synod-draft-surprises-by-omitting-womens-ordination-married-priests-and-lgbt-references/
—Elise Ann Allen/ Crux, “Synod draft surprises by omitting women’s ordination, married priests and LGBT,” Catholic Herald, July 9, 2024
Synodality—it shows itself as a very good process that respects the spiritual integrity of the faithful and exercises the authority of the hierarchy with greater and improved restraint and careful judgment. It indicates a more refined attitude of listening, especially on the part of the hierarchy, which in the past has sometimes shown, frankly speaking, almost knee-jerk deafness.
Gonzalinho
REACTIONARY CHURCH
ReplyDeleteA press release issued by the Vatican to the media on July 5 declared that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was being excommunicated for schism latae sententiae, that is, because of the very action taken by the excommunicated person. It stated that “his public statements manifesting his refusal to recognise and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council are well known.”
Viganò is a vociferous critic of Pope Francis.
Disagreement with papal enunciations is not a new phenomenon.
…With Pope Francis it is different. Disagreement is not only vociferous; it is also continuous and offered by important members of the hierarchy, including cardinals and bishops.
One would ask: Why is this happening?
…I would like to emphasise a phenomenon that causes good people to close themselves to new, more fruitful ways of looking at things.
In the early 1960s, we had Vatican II. Many were happy with the way of the council. They not only appreciated the new liturgy in the vernacular but also the council’s opening to other Christians, to non-Christians and to the world. Most of all, they appreciated the new model of Church, no longer a Noah’s Ark as the only place of salvation but as a pilgrim community of believers moving towards God.
Some were not prepared for the council’s dramatic changes. They felt disorientated. Prior to the council, there was clarity; people knew the doctrine and the morality. After the council, it seemed to them that clarity was lost. Tenets of the faith were being reinterpreted, as in the case of the Church itself. The abolition of the Tridentine mass was seen as a symbol of this betrayal. The most noted dissenter was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who, later, founded the society of St Pope Pius X.
The council coincided with the early stages of the process of secularisation. The churches began to empty. In reality, the council was propitious in preparing the Church for these changes, but some believed that the loss of faith was a consequence of the council.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
REACTIONARY CHURCH
DeleteContinued
Then came Pope John Paul II. He came from a Church that was not only very traditional but also the only bulwark against communism and continuously under attack. When you’re fighting, orders cannot be questioned. Pope John Paul preferred clarity.
His pronouncements were rather dogmatic, leaving little room for different thought. The synods, which Pope Paul VI had set up “in order to help me lead the Church”, often became more like briefing sessions. They were heavily populated by bishops from the Roman Curia, with certain topics not subject matter for discussion.
This was the Church that Pope Francis was elected to govern.
…Pope Francis considered it to be his task to give a new life to the documents of the council and, especially, to Lumen Gentium and its new vision of the Church, with its insistence that the Church is not just the hierarchy but a community of every baptised person, all of whom recipients of the gift of Holy Spirit. The Council on Synodality, with the inclusion of non-bishops with the right to vote, is the greatest expression of this new vision. This upset many but it brings Lumen Gentium to its logical actualisation.
To some, the rediscovered clarity brought about by the government of the two previous popes was lost once again and their anxiety re-emerged.
This had started ages before. What God had required of the Israelites was for them to be faithful, like God was faithful to them. This was clear and vague at the same time: How do we be faithful? Seeking certainty, they invented a checklist.
Jesus reiterated that the only sacrosanct law was that of love.
https://timesofmalta.com/article/resistance-pope-francis.1095693
—Fr. Alfred Micallef, “Resistance to Pope Francis,” Times of Malta (July 23, 2024)
Saint John Paul II’s was a Church where rigorists, fundamentalists, and cultists thrived. Ambiguity is an ineradicable and necessary part of the universe. Neurotics of a certain type cannot live with it.
Why do we have to be sure about EVERYTHING? Good God. It’s a neurosis.
Gonzalinho
Anyone who has suffered lasting lifetime damage because of a depraved and poisonous religious fundamentalism running unchecked throughout the Roman Catholic Church will seek to place our understanding of the religion on a properly informed foundation, thoughtfully reasoned.
DeleteGonzalinho
I don’t believe Saint John Paul II was particularly “clear” in some of his writings, as post hoc analysts have in fact observed. His use of the term “capitalism” in Centesimus Annus (1991), for example, was ambiguous and ill-defined.
DeleteGonzalinho
THOUGHT CONTROL: A DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF CULTS
ReplyDelete6 Sociological Characteristics of Cults
[2] Exclusivism
Cults often believe that they alone have the truth. The cult views itself as the single means of salvation on earth; to leave the group is to endanger one’s soul....
…[4] Opposition to Independent Thinking
Some cultic groups discourage members from thinking independently. The “thinking,” as it were, has already been done for them by the cult leadership; the proper response is merely to submit....
Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups – Revised
- Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished. …
- The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry, or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Cult Mind Control
…As employed by the most destructive cults, mind control seeks nothing less than to disrupt an individual’s authentic identity and reconstruct it in the image of the cult leader. I developed the BITE model to help people determine whether or not a group is practicing destructive mind control. The BITE model helps people understand how cults suppress individual member's uniqueness and creativity. BITE stands for the cult’s control of an individual’s Behavior, Intellect, Thoughts, and Emotions.
…The BITE Model
I. Behavior Control
II. Information Control
III. Thought Control
IV. Emotional Control
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/placeholder.html
Gonzalinho
LET’S STICK TO THE RUBRICS
ReplyDelete“Benedict XVI often recalled that the liturgy is not supposed to be a work of personal creativity. If we make the liturgy for ourselves, it moves away from the divine; it becomes a ridiculous, vulgar, boring theatrical game. We end up with liturgies that resemble variety shows, an amusing Sunday party at which to relax together after a week of work and cares of all sorts. Once that happens, the faithful go back home, after the celebration of the Eucharist, without having encountered God personally or having heard him in the inmost depths of their hearts.”—Robert Cardinal Sarah
From the book GOD OR NOTHING
Quote cited here:
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/05/30/cardinal-sarah-in-facing-liturgical-east-we-experience-the-primacy-of-god-and-of-adoration/
—Carl E. Olson, “Cardinal Sarah: In facing liturgical East, we experience ‘the primacy of God and of adoration,’” The Catholic World Report (May 30, 2016)
The priest should not insert their own personal prayers into the liturgy of the Mass. It’s very disruptive to the prayer of the community, and besides, it is contrary to the rubrics of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002) and other official Vatican directives.
The priest can insert their own pious sentiments into their own personal prayer—maybe they don’t do this salutary practice because they lack good habits of regular daily silent prayer, what’s denoted as “meditation.”
I suggest that when the priest inserts his own personal prayers in the liturgy of the Mass, it shows ill discipline and inconsideration for the faithful of the community.
I place a lot of effort into concentrating during the Mass, so if the priest resorts to this practice habitually, it negatively affects my prayer during the Mass and my prayer life generally.
Gonzalinho
SILENT PREPARATION BEFORE MASS
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe we should strive to maintain silence before the celebration of the Mass. At least 10 minutes of silence. It shouldn’t be disrupted by vocal prayers, which can be scheduled at another time.
Gonzalinho