Two friends of mine from different parts of the country, settled into a parish of their liking, more or less, picked up to move to other parts of the country, leaving their parishes behind and encountering a terrifying situation in looking for a new parish. Both of them are in a state of complete shock.
They are bouncing from parish to parish only to find liturgy after liturgy dominated by pop music and liturgy directors with heads full of mush, places completely untouched by the reform of the reform. They describe themselves as living in a liturgical house of mirrors in which crazy and menacing heads of Marty Haugen haunt them at every turn. It is driving both of them batty, and even to despair. They tell stories of the most shocking sort, week to week, and are both at their wits' end.
Moves can do this to you. One's perspective on whether Catholic liturgy is getting better or worse--whether it is time for panic or calm improvements--depends in large part, if not wholly, on one's local situation. People in good situations tend to have an exaggerated sense of the well being of American Catholic liturgy. People in awful situations ere in the other direction, assuming that there is no hope.
For this reason, we all work very hard to find liturgical environments that are suitable to our sensibilities and then feel a bit of comfort, only to have this completely upset when we move across the country into an unfamiliar place and encounter that horrible reality that Catholic liturgy in the United States really is in a relentless state of emergency. You can at this point make up a statistic, but I'm guessing that something like 85% of Catholic Masses in this country stand in complete violation to the letter and spirit of the Roman Rite.
I have no answers here to provide. But clearly despair is not an option. Neither is dropping out. Once you rule out those two options, you realize something important. Our generation has been called to work at the margins to do whatever we can, in our own time, wherever we happen to find ourselves.
I would counsel getting involved in the parish, even if it means singing bad music for a time or teaching CCD under a mixed-up DRE or otherwise making a contribution in the spirit of love and sacrifice. After a time, opportunities will present themselves for starting a chant schola, opening a new bookstore, recommending a new text, or starting a new group or ministry, or whatever. This are positive ways to turn a bad situation into a slightly better one. This way you can prepare a path for the future.
Another friend of mine five years ago found himself in a dreadful situation and didn't know what to do. But he stuck it out and kept working from within the parish in every way he could. Then one day a new pastor came, and he was seeking out people who could be leaders to take the parish in a new direction. Next month, that very parish will have a Tridentine Mass and he will assist. My friend's support was invaluable.
There are ways to make a difference where you are. Think of it as Providence at work: you are being called to assist the reform. There is nothing to be gained by regretting that you don't live in the 15th century or longing for the stability you have known in the past. You must look to a brighter future and work and pray as the means to make it happen.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Welcome to Town, the Real World
Jeffrey TuckerMore recent articles:
Durandus on the First Sunday of LentGregory DiPippo
The following excerpts are taken from the sixth book of William Durandus’ Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, chapter 32, 6-11. There are fewer ellipses than usual, but perhaps a bit more paraphrasing.This is the time of Christian warfare, in which the devil rises up against us more strongly. Therefore, lest anyone despair, the Church sings the introit...
The Station of the First Friday of LentGregory DiPippo
Many of the stories that form the corpus of Lenten Scriptural readings in the traditional Roman Rite are frequently depicted in frescoes in the catacombs, and on early Christian sarcophagi. We may safely assume that such readings were already part of the Roman Church’s lectionary before the end of the persecutions and the building of the earliest ...
Happy Feast of Saint Thomas AquinasPeter Kwasniewski
Today is the traditional feastday of St. Thomas Aquinas, Common Doctor of the Catholic Church, Patron of All Catholic Schools. March 7 is the birthday of the Angelic Doctor into eternal life, at the age of 49, en route to the General Council at Lyons. In his honor, it seems fitting to share the story of his death, as told by Bernard Gui in the Vi...
Cardinal Roche Repudiates Traditionis CustodesGregory DiPippo
Ever since Traditionis Custodes was issued more than 3½ years ago, its defenders have struggled to come up with a rationale for why it was issued at all. This is hardly surprising. The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, in repudiation of which it was written, was the fruit of decades of careful meditation on the Church’s liturgy problem, on the part...
Concilium’s Attack on Confession (Part 4.2): Mortal Sins Before Communion? No Problem!Gregory DiPippo
This is the second part of an article which we published on Tuesday, Mr Phillip Campbell’s investigation into what the writers of the “progressive” theological journal Concilium were saying about reform of the sacrament of Confession in the years which immediately followed the most recent ecumenical council. This installment is a detailed considera...
Ash Wednesday 2025Gregory DiPippo
Dómine, non secundum peccáta nostra, quae fécimus nos: neque secundum iniquitátes nostras retríbuas nobis. V. Dómine, ne memíneris iniquitátum nostrárum antiquárum: cito antícipent nos misericórdiae tuae, quia páuperes facti sumus nimis. Hic genuflectitur V. Adjuva nos, Deus, salutáris noster: et propter gloriam nóminis tui, Dómine, líbera nos: et...
What Might Christ Say to Us in the Confessional?Peter Kwasniewski
We enter today into the chief penitential season of the Latin Church’s liturgical year. After the loosening up of the 1960s, it isn’t very penitential anymore, although one might well think that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are worse than ever because no one has built up a habit of fasting, and so we hit those days like a car without shock absorbe...
Concilium’s Attack on Confession (Part 4.1): Mortal Sins Before Communion? No Problem!Gregory DiPippo
On Shrove Tuesday of last year, we began a series which Mr Phillip Campbell, author of the blog Unam Sanctam Catholicam, has very kindly shared with NLM. It is the result of his investigation into what the writers of the “progressive” theological journal Concilium were saying about reform of the sacrament of Confession in the years which immediatel...
David Clayton to Speak in Tyler, Texas, Tuesday, March 11thDavid Clayton
The Way of Beauty - Spirituality for Creatives and Creativity for AllMarch 11th, 6pm at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 423 S Broadway, Tyler, Texas Reception to follow across the street at the Stabat Mater AtelierNext Tuesday evening, I will give a talk at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Tyler, Texas,on The Way of Be...
The Great Canon of St Andrew of CreteGregory DiPippo
In the Byzantine Rite, today is the first day of Great Lent, traditionally known as Clean Monday. As I have described before in various articles, it is the long-standing custom of the rite that the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on the weekdays of Lent, except on the feast of the Annunciation. In compensation, the Divine Office is lengthened in v...
