I have no problem with Charismatic Catholics as long as it does not become the mainstream, taking away the historically Catholic Holy Mass. That is what happened in my area. Holding and lifting hands for the Our Father, happy lilting modern music are the norm at the parishes in my area.
Except my parish.
And that is why other parishes are closing and clustering while we are growing by leaps and bounds. We are the only parish in our Vicariate with six Holy Masses on Sundays. And each is overflowing our church.
This Sunday is my daughter’s First Holy Communion. We got four tickets for seats. There are two Holy Masses to accomodate all the children. Huge ceremonies, all the smells and bells. Because of Grandparents and Godparents, neither myself nor my older daughter will have seats (Dad will Usher). Do I mind? A little, but I am very blessed to be at a parish where we can fill the church, so life is good!
My parish had four First Communion Masses this past weekend. Poor old Father Hawker was exhausted by Sunday evening; he was holding on to the altar to stay upright!
Congratulations on your daughter’s Big Event! We don’t have a First Communicant this year, but will have Sally next year and probably Pat the following year, since he’s already been bumped up to 1st Grade.
My personal feeling is that people are attracted to your type of parish. The most orthodox priest we have here in my parish, who celebrates as much as he can in Latin (NO) and does things right, has by far the biggest crowds at his masses. People want that.
I think the problem in other parishes is not so much the flat out charismatics, but that there was a sort of “bleed over” of vaguely charismatic practices (i.e., sentimental, non-liturgical and sloppy) practices into the Mass. Of course, in many places, this was probably an improvement over the true sacrileges that occurred in the 1970’s and 80s or thereabouts.
I think if the MP goes through (which I am beginning to doubt) and a Tridentine Rite mass is offered in my parish, along with good preaching and things like more available Confession, we’re going to be truly amazed by how many people come out of the woodwork for it.
We don’t have tickets for our seats at First Communion, but I know our Church will be packed. Our priest is a die-hard reverent priest — and the people keep coming and coming! Our parish has grown by nearly 100 families in the last year. More if you count the Hispanics.