Mass Changes–Part 2

Yesterday I posted a link on this topic from the “American Papist” page. Tonight I did add some ”extras” to it, such as my own comments which were published on his page, a nifty picture of the woman in question  (who, aside from the teeth, somewhat reminds me of the “Where’s the beef” Wendy’s lady from yesteryear–I reprinted both here as well for purposes of comparison)…and a link to the “supposedly Catholic” organization she represents.  She is well aware of the confusion she is attempting to cause here.

 

Please peruse through these and then share your comments/thoughts on the new translation with us all.  I find it awe-inspiring.  I have not talked to anyone who thinks otherwise, (other than learning of a small child named Lucy who slept through them, or so I have heard). My friend Lauri (Lucy’s mom) is more than welcome to address this issue further if need be:).

I am also attaching a link to the current bulletin from the Cathedral of St Paul, where I am privileged to be a member and which is the parish of our Archbishop.  I would call your attention to pages 6-7 of the bulletin, as they go through some other important details, not liturgical changes as such but rather a listing of certain “small abuses” which we as a parish are correcting at this time too.  I am proud that we as a parish and Archdiocese are utilizing this as a teachable moment to clean up our acts in small and large ways.  And what an opportunity this is to unify the American branch of the Roman Catholic Church!  We live in a powerful and exciting time.

http://content.seekandfind.com/bulletins/02/0126/20111127B.pdf

 

Mass Changes Only Massive to those who Oppose Rome…

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

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As usual, Thomas Peters, the “American Papist” hits the nail squarely on the head.  Aside from reading the article I also added a comment, which I have re-added below.  See what you think.  I have, as most of us, only experienced these changes for 3 days now but they are already becoming second nature–they are not that difficult.  But what they add to the dignity of the Mass is priceless. I am living in my “second childhood” in that this is the Mass I remember. And loved. And love.

OKIE DOKIE…These were my comments posted to  ”American Papist” page, where this article is found…the other comments are very interesting and worth a glance at too,  in that people seem very afraid of “judging” her. 

Good Catholics do not condemn others… and I agree we are not to judge her heart.  But she is not “confused” or just “poorly catechized.”  She is both of those to be sure, but she is also foisting that confusion on society and very deliberately making a name for herself and the organization she represents. We are allowed to judge the ACTIONS of others and must at times. That is where the sympathy has to end or at least be momentarily put aside.  I know about “confusion”–been there, done that, and some of it very publicly at times. 

If people had not come back to me and kindly said “we love you Richard, but you are wrong” I can only wonder how much more “confused” I would be today. It is not loving to be silent when someone is publicly ripping apart our Faith. Anyway here are my remarks:

First of all I am 56 years old in December.  When I was a small child the Mass was still in Latin. As it migrated towards English, there were 3 distinct phases, where there was gradually less Latin and more English.  I still have the 1965 Missal from that era, which we used when I was an altar server. If you compare the people’s parts of the Mass from then to the ones we just adopted, you would find you could very nearly use that Missal in Mass again today and follow along nicely. If this woman really has gone to Mass for “50 years” she would remember this too.  It is essentially the same. 

Some people are feeling a misguided (in my opinion) pity towards this woman. But she is not alone in her dissent. There are whole groups of people against this change. Why?  In most cases, if pressed, I believe you would find that the true fears are issues such as having to refer to God as “Father” during Mass instead of the “heavenly parent” and that somehow going back to a better but earlier Liturgy means the loss of freedom to “be a Catholic and do what I want.”   I do not know her heart obviously nor do I judge her soul.  But my hunch is that she is likely for the ordination of women, does not believe in calling the priests “Father” either and does not accept Transubstantiation, hence her statement of sarcasm regarding “water into wine.” 

Her bishop needs to take her aside, if he has not done so already, clearly review the teachings of the Church with her, and if she persists in her public campaign to then excommunicate her.  Here in our Archdiocese (St Paul/Minneapolis) this actually occurred with an entire local parish a few years ago–the priest was not even allowed to sit in the front by the altar,since they believed he needed to be considered an “equal,” and they even had occasional “priest-less liturgies” among other things.  But they also did a ton of good things for the poor and needy in our community and have for 30 years. That of course made the situation particularly volatile because so many people, including me, support that portion of what this fine but misguided group of people were doing.

Our wise Archbishop eventually issued gradual adjustments towards the traditional, with a timeline, and gave them public notice as to when this would occur. He then issued a letter, read from the pulpit, saying that those who could not accept this would no longer be in communion with the Church.  He gave them months to implement these changes.  Still it of course hit the papers, and caused all kinds of repercussions that would anything but pretty. The end result was that 200 people left, primarily the majority of the English-speaking community, but the parish is now thriving due to the Latino people who welcomed and supported the traditional calls to change back into the parish and community.  And the work for the poor still goes on.  It had to be incredibly tough on the one lone priest who enforced these changes to watch virtually all of the “white and feminist” activists leaving, week after week.  But that change brought this parish back to its roots–Catholicism. This woman needs to be stopped.

By the way, if you truly think I am being “harsh” with this “poor confused woman” please note the podium she is standing behind–”Call To Action.”  Then go to the following link and you can learn all about the group she represents.  It is, unfortunately, exactly as I thought.

http://www.cta-usa.org/

Face Book and “Friendship”

Image by Guillaume Paumier via Flickr

 

I have learned or perhaps re-learned a truly painful lesson regarding Face Book. “Friends” online are not always friends in life.  I am not talking about cyber-stalking or other such dangers either, but something quite different. Read on and you will see what I mean.

We each have a story to tell. I have told mine quite publicly and at times people have been kind enough to comment on it or encourage me to keep sharing.  So I do. Many times I have then added those same folks to my FB ”friends” list only to find that they are not interested in my friendship. Not at all. And the pain that causes is a deep-seated one, because a sense of betrayal tends to go along with it as well as losing contact with someone you have previously enjoyed speaking to.  But it happens frequently in this online world we have created and live in, and the rest of this post will give some suggestions (first of all to myself) on how to deal those situations when, not if, they arise.

On reflection today I have been asking myself some things I can do, both for me and others, to avoid such scenarios as what happened to me last night.  I was privately messaged by someone I respected greatly in the Faith who bluntly told me to “quit posting on his page every few days” and that he didn’t mind being my “occasional acquaintance” but otherwise basically to leave him alone.

What baffled me was that this same person has promoted my own story of return to the Faith to his other FB friends, called me his “good friend” on several occasions and even told me some personal things about his family and the like. I truly thought we were actual friends.  Perhaps he was reading some of my posts wrongly or just was tired of me for reasons I have yet to know.  I do not know and most likely never will, as he then blocked me after our discussion became rather heated on both sides.  What I do know is that it left me feeling physically ill.  I also have another FB ”friend” online who I had met through this person and found out that he too, although much more polite about it, felt pretty much exactly the same way about my posts.

So rather than wasting a perfectly good stomach ache, I decided to spend some time thinking through what could have made both of these young men feel as they did about me. Nothing is earth-shattering here, but I did find some take-aways and would like to pass them on to you for what they may be worth.

1)  Do not mistake “friendliness” for friendship. Online or in person. It just isn’t.  Does this mean you cannot have online friends that go beyond the Internet?  Not at all.  But it does mean to proceed with much caution, and slowly.  Someone may one day pour their heart out to you and it may be the alcohol or pot talking or the loneliness of that particular moment in their lives.  But it does not mean that they are inviting you into their lives. You may simply be the “replacement bartender.” Kind of kills the ego, but it is the truth.

2)  Be careful what you post.  In both of these cases, looking back at my own posts to them I realized that I had taken liberties–teasing them about things, or saying things that might have been construed as a put down at times.  That was never once my intent, but it does not matter once it is typed out in black and white.  You can mean something very good-naturedly but they do not see your face, hear the inflection of your voice, or otherwise have clues besides the hard, cold written words.  Know someone very well, and most of the time in person only, before you make off-handed jokes or comments that could unintentionally hurt.  Lesson learned. Indeed.

3)  I realized just today that I have a habit of not reading someone’s FB page or blog for several days, and then suddenly read it for 20-30 minutes or more, commenting on whatever I see that interests me.  I think that is perhaps the biggest mistake of all here.  To me, I am just ”catching up.”  However to that other person, and they are real people, by the way, just as I am or you are, I might seem to be “machine gunning” their FB page or blog  with all kinds of comments and unneccessary remarks, and in some cases on posts that they are no longer even interested in discussing. The post may be new to me but not them.  I have had that very thing done to me, and I do not like it either.  I was completely blind to the fact that I was doing this to others. Painful lesson learned.  And one I do not expect to forget.

Furthering this line of discussion, a well placed comment, here and there, is usually plenty in most cases.  And we all know people in the real-time world who speak just occasionally but when they do speak, their words bear weight as a result. Cyber comments lose their effectiveness too when peppered all over the place.  The person may also feel, right or wrong, a sense of obligation or guilt when they do not respond to each one individually.  I do not really think it was a matter of how many times a week I was commenting on my one FB friend’s page.  I think it was more that he was reading them all at once when he did sign on and I was probably overwhelming him with my presence when he had other things to do. There are many ways to over-stay one’s welcome, both in daily life or on the Internet.

4) Demand nothing. Again it may not be in the least intentional on your part, but it is their page, not yours. If they choose not to comment back on your remarks, let it go. Asking about an unresponded to comment can seem demanding, even if not meant to be. Or ask them in a private message if you may have said or done something amiss. What I may mean, as said already, in a good-natured way can look like “bitchiness” once it is in print.  Remember that person owes you exactly nothing.

So I lost 2 FB friends–but I did actually gain something from it other than missing the first Sunday Mass in Advent and physical pain as a result of my stomach condition, which did actually go into flare-up mode over this.  It is certainly possible in either case that something else was going on in their lives that I did not know about besides. Perhaps some off-hand comment set off an anger that would not normally be there, I am not sure. What I do know is that I very much regret the situation, and that I could have handled it better. Then again so could they have. But even the recent past is the past.  And yet once more  the biggest re-learned lesson is not to trust everything you read, even when someone calls you a “good friend.”

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Why Advent???

We have a month to prepare for Christmas.  And when I say prepare I am not talking about “black Friday” sales, which kind of tree to use (live or artificial) and who to invite as well as how to strategically seat them so that the political arguments will stay at a dull roar.

I am looking at, and saying to myself first of all, how do I till the soil of this hardened heart for the coming of Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

But He came already, you say! True. And He comes to us again each time we pray, at home or together, go to Mass or Divine Liturgy and receive the Holy Eucharist (His body, blood, soul and Divinity–which by the way is far more than “eating Jesus” as some mockingly and erroneously think).  It is more about the marital union of those 4 aspects of who He is with and then inside our own body, blood, soul and God given divine nature,  infused into us through Christian baptism and kept through true repentance. Then in that silent intimacy comes a bathing of oneness with the Divine unmatched anywhere on earth. Dare I say it is a “holy climax” of He and each of us personally, even though millions around the world are receiving Him just as we do at that same moment?  I do dare.

But in any case He has been here already, and still is.  So why ask Him to come yet again as a baby? Why do we need to commemorate His Incarnation and birth?  Just give us the turkey and beer and a good game to watch, and a day off of work.  Is not that enough?  Not if you believe in Advent.

Advent hearkens us to His two earthly comings, the first one in a manger in Bethlehem, and the second one to reign forever and ever in a “new heavens and a new earth.” It draws the connecting line between the two, and the entire of the Church age and all of Christian history is covered in this one holy season, beginning to end. If all we want is football and pumpkin pie we miss the entire point and just lose our hard-earned money besides.  Advent helps us allow God to cleanse us of all these things which we hang onto.  It is the looking to Jesus, both “author and finisher” of our Faith as the Epistle to the Hebrews eloquently tells us.

And amazingly it is the one time each year where our Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ join us who are Catholic or Orthodox Christians in honoring  Mary, the Theotokos, or “God bearer.” The humble virgin maiden who said “fiat” or “yes” to God asks us to do  the same this year and each year.  And that “fiat” is our greatest hope for renewed Christian unity. In fact it is the only one.

Two Thanksgiving Greetings…and two ideas of “America”

First of all the purpose of this post is not to politicize Thanksgiving or to even suggest which party to support. Well it wasn’t when I started writing this anyway…

What these two videos show, however, is a drastic difference in personal and political philosophy. One says to keep God out of the marketplace and attributes Thanksgiving to “being lucky.”  It offends no one but says nothing either.

The other honors God, which was the purpose of this holiday originally and remains so to this day.  And both of the greeters are non-white so it is not an issue of which one is being “multicultural.”  It is a matter of which one represents American traditional values, which are life (all life I would add, born, unborn and in between) liberty (freedom to do what we should, not always what we want), and the pursuit of happiness (impossible without a strong free enterprise system starting with personal ownership and strong state and local involvement in government).

 

I leave it to you to listen and then decide.  And I would again offer a “Blessed Thanksgiving” to each of you, family and friends, of either or no party. I am thankful for your presence in my lives.

Image via Wikipedia

THANKSGIVING and the “RIGHT TO LIFE”

The other day I posted something regarding the opposite end of life, that is for those of us who have more days behind us than in front of us. It was called “Ageism, Rome and the New Media.”  In it I mention a young friend of mine, also name Richard, who lost his battle with stomach cancer around 2 years ago but not his battle for the happy death we ask for from St Joseph.

His widow now has a new family, and Jennifer kindly allowed me to post these two photographs of her yet-to-be-born baby!  I am thrilled for her.  She has been through a huge amount by anyone’s standards, but as a new Catholic whose husband wasted away in front of us all, before their 30th birthday, I cannot begin to imagine her pain and the test to her Faith.  Still somehow she has gone on.

And look at the results…and may I add Jennifer is a woman (so for those of you bent on my not speaking out since I am male, try to recover please), not in the higher income brackets by a long shot, and could have easily decided to “choose” (in other words terminate) this pregnancy.  And few might have blamed her with the hardships of life she still faces.  But she did not. How kewl is that?

People wonder how I can be “pro-life” rather than “choice” and my real question is, looking at these beautiful pictures, how can you not be?

Congratulations to my friend Jennifer, her new love, and yes Richard Lemke, who I know prays for them daily from above. God bless you all.

http://catholicboyrichard.wordpress.com/2011/11/21

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Finally on another note, Cecile Richards, daughter of late Governor Ann Richards of Texas and President of Planned Parenthood, is “upset” these days…I would get the violins but in this near Depression caused by our Federal government I cannot afford them anyway…

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/most-difficult-year-in-our-history-laments-planned-parenthood-president

The truth hurts, Cecile.  Planned Parenthood is on its way out. Lord let it be so!