Pray, pray, pray
IChThUS IMPRIMIS
[from Patriot Post.US]
"Rather than praying to God the same way you talk to your store-bound spouse-merely listing the things you want Him to get you-you should confine yourself to enumerating the blessings you already have. In fact, you could do it in alphabetical order-picking one blessing for every letter. If you follow my advice, your only problem will be choosing between the many blessings you have but rarely even think about... Self-pity and gratitude are mortal enemies. Where one exists the other cannot. Since both are highly contagious, individuals must choose gratitude before becoming too thankless to do otherwise." -Mike Adams
Kissing for peace . . .
. . . which is yet more on the Great "Shake, rattle" controversy -- handshake as kiss of peace before Catholic communion.
* Bob O. suggests kiss and non-kiss sections of church, the ushers asking your preference.
* Bob K. considers church ideal for meeting, greeting, and otherwise being nice to people.
* Margaret reminds us that church is for God, not us: Ask not what God can do for you but what you can do for God.
* D. says timing is all off: you greet fellow or sister worshipers (discreetly) at the start of mass, not in the middle of it.
* Jennifer has no use for "power" as used by Bob K. -- "our gathering of power from the spirit" -- and sees psychobabble in this.
* Bob K. notes that mass has changed with the centuries, defending how we do it now as in the tradition.
* Margaret (unpublished) shrinks from discouraging people from attending mass -- "Can a New Mass that so obscures its own meaning be from God?" she had asked. The pre-Vatican 2 mass "is still being said and is available to everyone," she adds.
Some good stuff here.
* Bob O's consumer-preference model reminds me of how the new mass was stuffed down our throats in the 70s, to the extent that Latin mass-sayers were made to stop, because they were drawing too many away from what liturgiologists thought was good for us.
* Bob K's meeting and greeting is a great idea -- outside of mass. Attempts at prayer go with socializing? Ridiculous.
* Margaret's bringing us up short with her revolutionary idea that we are not the center of the known universe is refreshing. So is her (unpublished) reference to accounting for herself "on judgment day" for steering anyone away from mass. Who now is concerned about judgment day? Is it a legitimate concern, or has it gone the way of the Latin mass? Maybe some expert can tell us.
* D. addresses the way kiss-handshaking is done, raising her small voice of reason as maybe a stopper or slowing-downer of ENTHUSIASM in the pews. Ronald Knox wrote a book about it, bringing English restraint to our impulses and compulsions.
* If Jennifer is going to spot psychobabble in public utterances by church people, however, she will have time for nothing else. My advice is to pick out the more egregious examples and pray hard for the perpetrators.
* Bob K's changing-mass concept leaves us wondering why this change and not that. What we have is "prescribed," Fr. Dietzen reminded us in his New World column. But we can question the prescription, I presume. There's something awry also in Bob K's saying our "faith" has changed, citing cardinals' fancy duds as something Jesus did not wear. "Faith"? Bob slipped, I'm sure; he does not want to say faith includes vestments.
Meanwhile, the kissing for peace continues as strong as ever, in its handshaking incarnation and -- it happened to me this morning -- in a two-hands-on-shoulder from the parish deacon in vestments. He left the altar and sought me out as I sat in back row off to the side, near the altar, sitting with ONE HAND OVER MY EYES TRYING MY DAMNEDEST TO LOOK PIOUSLY ABSORBED, climbed into the pew and did the shoulder bit. Next time I will have to keep eyes open so I can administer a forearm chop when he comes at me, determined to give me religion.
More on "Shake . . . "
Reader Jennifer finds Margaret's comment that we have "slipped from the meaning of Mass as sacrifice," etc. "so very true" and finds Bob K's use of "power," as in "our gathering of power from the spirit," misguided. "Next to 'love,'" she says, "'power' is the most seductive and misapplied word of our time." As for Margaret's asking rhetorically, "Can a New Mass that so obscures its own meaning be from God?" she agrees, adding pregnantly, "God does not do transactional analysis."
Reader Bob, responding to Margaret, does not think we have slipped in our grasp of the mass. Based on what he learned in high school in 1955, he considers the mass a distillation of centuries' practice. "There have been changes in many aspects of our faith over the centuries," Bob says, citing "the elaborate garments that our cardinals wear today" as clothing "certainly Jesus never wore."
In the mass "we commemorate and relive the sacrifice Jesus endured. . . . At different parts of the mass, we share different aspects of our mystery and our community together." At the start "we say hello to God." Then "we read and listen and contemplate our readings; we transubstantiate [sic]; we share the body and blood, we greet and acknowledge one another, we . . . [receive] and share a blessing. At various points we put our words into song -- joyous, sad, reflective depending on the season, the occasion,etc. At the end, we move with our beliefs out into the world to . . . try to be a force for good in the market place." The Mass has many aspects, including "beauty and seriousness . . . enlargement of our spirit and acknowledgement of the goodness of the others who are with us in Christ."
Catholic? No problem
If you are a good Catholic girl at any # of Catholic colleges, or a bad one, for that matter, your school's web site will help you get an abortion. Hey, no problem. We're inclusive. Read about it here.
Comment on comment on "Shake . . . "
This points up the divide, in terms of religion as
therapy vs. as sacrifice, people-centered vs.
God-centered, that separates Catholics. It's from
Reader Margaret, reacting to Bob K's enthusiastic
endorsement of the kiss of peace as widely practiced:
We've slipped from the meaning of Mass as
sacrifice, not as gathering for celebration. The idea
of "our gathering of power from the spirit" sums up
the problem. The New Mass is about what God can do
for us - bless us, empower us, help us, raise us up on
eagle's wings, etc. . . But the traditional Mass is a
sacrifice, the reenactment of Calvary where the
emphasis is on God and giving Him thanks and
adoration. Can a New Mass that so obscures its own
meaning be from God?
Shake, rattle, COMMENT
Pointed, piquant comments on "Shake . . . ":
====================================
Sometimes it is good for Christians to reach out . . . and communicate with each other. The MASS is as good a time as any and better than most to do so. It is when we GATHER TOGETHER to worship and celebrate the Transubstantiation and our gathering of power from the spirit . . . . If we can't talk to each other (whom we see and know and who are standing right next to us), how can we talk to the Lord (Whom we . . . have not seen or cannot see) or to the world (whom we are to evangelize)? At that time of [mass], I make it a point to talk to those near me -- the wheel chair kid, the three African-Americans who always sit in the last pew, being shy [in] an all-white congregation, older women I know who are widows, and some teen-agers who rarely come -- in each case to make them feel welcome.
-- Bob K.
==============================
The logical moment to greet each other is when entering one's favorite pew and finding another "regular" there, or if I'm there and the regular comes in after me. That's when I greet folks, but I don't shake their hand because it's not a natural gesture in that spot -- the person kneeling or sitting, or walking in to sit or pray. To the regular lady in the pew in front of me, I kneel and whisper in her ear as she sits in the pew. I find out how she's feeling because I know she has a heart problem. She tells me a few of her aches and complaints, including about her husband in the pew with her, who she says doesn't show her any compassion. I wave hi across a section of pews to friends as they come in. That's normal "greeting" and wishing-well time.
Why can't a bunch of bishops realize shaking hands in the middle of mass after being cheek to jowl with everyone for 25 minutes is not natural? What do you think a survey in church would disclose about hand-shaking?
-- D
=========================
My physician daughter shrugs aside the germ question, saying, "Just remember to wash your
hands as soon as you get home." But what about passing a neighbor's germs on to another? Saying, "I'm sorry but I've got a bad cold," and pointing to your throat will work once in a while, but every Sunday? How about wearing a sign that says, "UNCLEAN" or "UNSOCIABLE"?
The problem's not too bad in parishes that haven't been brain-washed too long by a liberal pastor. But for parishes that have been, the only solution is: Avoid them. I've been in some that had enough empty pews to allow enthusiasts to kiss-hug-shake everybody in reach, then scramble church-wide for more fellow enthusiasts or victims. It usually took up to five minutes before the church settled down.
The worst are churches where everybody is expected to hold hands and daisy-chain across aisles, etc., during the WHOLE Our Father. As someone who had to attend one too many rallies during the sixties where we had to pretend we were all one downtrodden race, hold hands, sway in rhythm and sing "We shall overcome," I have a strong aversion to this.
Looking straight ahead and holding on to the pew with a death grip doesn't always work. I've had a bright young thing give me a sharp rap in the ribs to let me know this kind of thing isn't tolerated.
Give me the celebrant who knows the whole greeting of peace is optional and skips it, Save me from the celebrant who, contrary to Vatican directions, leaves the altar and parades down the middle aisle, handshaking both ways.
I'm not hardline on this, though, Why don't ushers just greet Mass-goers and ask, "Kissing or non-kissing?" and wave us to the appropriate pew?
-- Bob O.
==========================
I enjoyed your writing about "shake time." In many non-Catholic churches, "prayers and concerns of the people" is an integral part of a church service. Parishioner participation in the issuing of those concerns sometimes becomes quite senseless (and long-winded), especially when issues are brought up that are out of the realm of the purpose for prayer.
-- Nancy
Shake . . .
. . . rattle and roll? Nope. Shake hand with all your neighbors, and kiss the colleens all? Nope. Shake with fear for the judgment to come, you the unrepentant sinner? Nope. SHAKE AND SAY, "THE PEACE OF CHRIST BE WITH YOU"? YES!
It happens at mass after the Our Father, a.k.a. Lord's Prayer, during which you may have held hands in a show of solidarity against Satan or watched others do so. It's SHAKE TIME. I liken it to violating a library's sacred silence by turning to another, hand out, extorting response.
My friend Jake (not his real name) intends to bring his cell phone with him and threaten to call 9-1-1 the next time he is approached while trying in his admittedly clumsy way to commune with the Almighty. I am working to dissuade him.
A Catholic New World reader put it to Question Corner priest Rev. John Dietzen, 12/18/05: "I've had my arthritic fingers crushed. I've had parishioners blow their nose and then offer their hand to me. . . . I'm tempted to isolate myself in back [of church]. . . . [T]his . . . scenario is unnecessary and superfluous."
Father John, calling up an old reformer's argument, says this scenario is not new. They did it this way in the middle ages (just before they stuck poniard between ribs) and, hey, in New Testament times (when they hugged for warmth in catacombs). Late middle ages, the kiss of peace went for priests only (uh-oh), but it is now (for, say, 40 years?) "prescribed."
A "sign of peace" is called for. There are "deep roots" here. Handshake, embrace, or kiss may not be "the perfect" sign of peace, "but it can still carry a message we need to understand if we are to celebrate the Eucharist together as Christ intended." Which implies, of course, that before 40 years ago we were not celebrating the Eucharist as Christ intended. Which means we were lied to when we were told the church was perfect? Oy.
Arthritis got you down? Just look at the one next to you and, without extending your hand, say, "Peace be with you." "No one will be offended," adds Father John. How does he know that?
So doing, handshake refused in the manner of Adrian Monk the germ-phobic TV detective (who often has some quick explaining to do, as to the black man who took offense), "you will be sharing a moment of the Mass that can be most prayerful and precious." Ah. When was the last time Father John celebrated the Eucharist in a pew anyhow?
As for "prayerful and precious," how about the codger, arthritic or not, who has found the peace of Christ all by himself, including a resolve to be nicer to people, and has to shatter it with a smile and nod not just to those on either side of him but to lots of others, some of them climbing over pews to get to him? That's one to stump Question Corners throughout the land.
Il papa, yes!
Want to hear very encouraging things about Benedict XVI? Go here, to Gates of Vienna, for a rich discussion of him as human, even humanist -- he had journalist Oriana Fallaci, an atheist indicted for dissing Islam, over for tea and crumpets and loves cats and Mozart -- and as not Euro-politically correct as regards Islamists. He sent a smart Brit to Egypt as his ambassador, for instance. He's anti-bureaucratic and has Romanists quaking or at least shivering. He's committed to moving from strength, as in making his first pilgrimage to Australia, which with U.S. is the most Christian country -- forget Europe, of course, and Canada has gone multicultural and Islamist-tolerant.
And the 15 new cardinals, barely reported, include the bishop of Hong Kong, a tough critic of Beijing as at Tiananmen. "This Pope is a keeper," says the Gates man, and lots more. Pajamas Media led me to him. Go there for lots of good stuff.
Ditch cross, add millstone
Seminary driver
The seminary student, now ex-seminary student, at St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL, who drove the car that crashed on seminary grounds last September pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and aggravated DUI and faces up to 10 years in prison, vs. the 28 he could have gotten if found guilty by a jury. He had swerved to avoid a deer, said Colleen Dolan for the Chicago archdiocese. Two passengers were killed. A third faces trial for impersonating a police officer.
