A priest once went to great lengths to emphasize to us that Sunday Mass doesn't begin when you walk into the door of the church. He said we should prepare for the Mass through our dressing and drive to the church. I think he meant we should consider the day totally a holy one and approach the Mass with preparation and dignity. Seems like a good way to look at things, doesn't it?
So, how come so much of the circus atmosphere in our churches today come at the suggestion of the celebrating priest? Nothing worse than trying to do a little praying before Mass and being disturbed by the joking and conversation by the priest as he awaits his 'cue' to begin.
It also seems that obeying the Rubrics assigned to the celebration of Mass would make life easy for the priest. Doesn't work that way as so many priests start adding or taking away bits and pieces of the set liturgy to make it 'friendlier' or 'in tune' with the times.
We hit a rock bottom level on piety and rubrics one Sunday. We were about to sit down for the readings and the priest stopped us short and insisted we all greet each other and welcome each other to our home. I always figured it was God's home, myself! At this point, we have shaken hands with the greeters when we came in the chuch and now were greeting pretty much the same people once more. Things got worse from that point!
We were informed that God is our Father so we are all princes and princesses. I always thought we were God's people and, since Jesus came to earth as a human, we were His brother and sisters. God didn't send His son down to impress the crowds with power and might so why would we be considered royalty? The priest sauntered up and down the aisles, elaborating on his theory in simple terms that we couldn't fail to understand. In other words, he tended to talk down to us like a class of small children. About 15 minutes later, we get to the Our Father and, guess what??? It is hand holding/greeting time, again. My husband figured we could have a goodbye greeting before Mass was dismissed along with the farewell greeters waiting at the back of the church.
I know most of these priests mean well but you have to wonder why they fear quiet prayer and moments of solitude during the Mass? While I'm on a rant, I do not think the dismissal at Mass should be changed to "Go the Mass is just beginning!" If we don't instill a sense of awe in our children, how can we bring them to continued belief?
No comments:
Post a Comment