Okay, Vatican II was supposed to bring the Mass more in line with the masses - no pun intended. Fine, they translated the Mass, shortened, changed my beloved Mass but I try to be obedient with what is supposed to come out of Rome. It seems to me, however, that once the window was opened, too many people took advantage of it.
One of my first exposures to the 'new and better' was being sent on a Search for a weekend. Only three from our CCD program volunteered to attend only because our parents SAID we volunteered. The first thing they did was to take away our watches and then kept us up to all hours of the early morning to kind of break down our inhibitions. THEN, they wanted us to talk and 'share'. I heard a lot of stupid rambling because we were exhausted and just wanted to escape to our uncomfortable bunks.
The next day, we had talks which were very forgettable and were asked to break into small groups of three to 'share'. The two girls that went to the Search with me and I stuck together. The last day of the weekend, we were told that we didn't seem open to sharing . . . and they were quite correct!
There were a lot of group games with a lot of rough and tumble horseplay. There was a thin, older teen who was always in the midst of it, being dragged around by the teen boys, joking, grabbing, etc. Found out she was SISTER Ruth. Amazing what happens when you don't have the respect of a habit.
The worst of the whole 'adventure' into modern Catholicism was the music for our literally impromptu Masses. I always felt the music would have been better enjoyed by a campfire with a roasting marshmallow at hand.
This event happened years and years ago and I have never forgotten it and it did make an impact on my life . . . I shudder whenever I recall that wretched weekend! My two friends and I did not fit in, were told we did not fit in, and rejoiced in the fact that we did not fit in.
The older I have gotten, the more I realized that bringing down the Faith to MY level didn't encourage me to ascend to a higher level. Comfort is everything when you are a teen, so why change?
