The Latin, the most beautiful and logical language ever assembled, had a power that the Church has simply thrown away, much as it has traded Bach for tuneless teenagers with guitars.
Thje Mass is about communion with God; post-Vatican II it's abvout communion with your fellow fellow congregants, including the hug and the handshake you are now expected to bestow on total strangers.
When my son was preparing for Confirmation a few years ago, the lay preacher running the classes said (and this is an almost verbatim quote): "The Eucharist is the symbol of Our Lord."
Later, I stopped him and said. "you don't know what you're talking about. Protestants treat the wafer as a symbol, we see it as something rather more than that."
His reply: "Look, if you have a problem with your son going through with his Confirmation, that's OK. The church is a big tent."
A man charged with preparing soon-to-be adults in the Faith, and his attitude is 'Yeah, well, whatever suits."
No wonder the pews are mostly empty these days.
I've heard about that. (people saying the Eucharist is a "symbol" instead of what it really is: the body of our Lord)
I need advice. My 6 year old will be preparing for Holy Communion next year. I do NOT want him to take it in the hand, only on the tongue. I am afraid of a battle with his saying "Well, so and so says you CAN take it in the hand..."
Anyone know how to handle this? How to best explain it? I want to teach him reverence. (I even make him genuflect when we arrive in church and when we leave)
Whoops. Pardon the typos. Written in haste and heat of passion.