We have the lovely "raising arms to Heaven" drama to cue the parishoners to sing. The responses are constantly changing so the group is always flat. It is horrid.
My hopes for an epiphany in this parish were dashed when I attended my first Education committee meeting (thanks everyone for your help), and was told that our new pastor had a series of small stokes just before coming to us. His short term memory is lacking.
Translation, the old pastor let the women of the parish be all touchie feelie and this will continue.
The head of the commitee stated that those who were raised when Vatican II was implimented have no knowledge of what so ever of true Catholic teachings. That made me pause. I have to find a way to tell her that one of her best friends who taught my daughter's 1st grade class, told a child that the wine was not "really" Christ's blood. Help me.
I know. I cry during mass. It breaks my heart to see the lack of respect for Jesus in the Tabernacle. The loud talking in the 'narthex' before mass; the talking in the pews. Mom's bringing cute little books for their children to read during the Mass and the cheerios for them to munch on. My mom would have NEVER done that. NO mom would have allowed that!
I don't remember being this sickened and dismayed by these things in the past. Was I so blind to what we have lost? I don't know what woke me up, but it is hard for me to attend mass anymore and feel as if it was meaningful. And since when did Catholic Churches start to feel different from one another? At one time, you could go to any Catholic Church anywhere and you were in familiar surroundings immediately. Now, one Catholic church is different from another.
Dropping the Latin was probably the first and biggest mistake. It was the commonality of language that tied us together all over the world. Now, even that has been lost.
I feel betrayed.
We are a divided church in more ways than one.
hah! WHen I go to the dreaded local parish with my family, there are enough of us to fill our own pew, so we are spared the handholding frenzy at the Peace. However, we are forced to witness what we like to call " raincatching": a whole sanctuary filled with people who appear to believe either a) they are concelebrating priests, or b)that it's raining and the roof is leaking. Either way, we refuse to participate. It's just too silly.