Devoted to the past

The Sacramento Bee | February 26, 2005 | Jennifer Garza

[siunevada]

"Ninety-nine percent of the Catholic people are very happy with the English Mass and do not want to go back," says Reese.

Go 'back'? If you are thirty years old how do you go 'back' to where you have never been? A bit disingenuous.

And how did a Sacramento Bee reporter think to seek out a comment on a small parish in Sacramento from the editor of America?

[Alma Marie]

"The priest faces the altar (away from parishioners) for part of the service and speaks a language that few understand."

OK, here is what consistently irks me - whenever I see an article mention the use of latin and how few understand it, they never mention that everyone has access to translations of every word.

Back in my Novus Ordo days I noticed early on that many of the prayers the priest said were not printed in my weekly missalette. Anyone else notice this? I feel I have much better access to ALL the prayers through a Latin/English missal than I ever did when I attended "mass" in the vernacular.

But here traditionalists are, portrayed once again like nostalgic bumpkins who have a gullible faith in a religious service they are too ignorant to understand. What a shame!

[pascendi]

"But we live in the present -- not the past!"

You sure? Look:

"There's a whole generation of young Catholics who came across the Tridentine Mass and feel as if their birthright was taken away from them," says Mary Kraychy, executive director of Ecclesei Dei, a national clearinghouse based in Illinois that distributes information about the Latin Mass. "They're taking it back."

I'd say we're living the present as well as the future.

We've got kids, and we're not afraid how to catechize them.

[murphE]

Go 'back'? If you are thirty years old how do you go 'back' to where you have never been?

The only mass I had ever known was the Novus Ordo. I had always thought the TLM was only the NO in Latin. It was a long journey to Tradition for me, and I am constantly learning more and more that I never knew. I will not bore you with the details, but I believe it was by God's grace. I had done nothing to merit it certainly, I believe I must have had someone in heaven interceding for me.

I had always heard that mass was the closest thing to heaven on earth but it wasn't until I assisted at a Solemn High Mass that I finally understood what that really meant.

And how did a Sacramento Bee reporter think to seek out a comment on a small parish in Sacramento from the editor of America?

I don't think that they did, for I have seen that very quote in a different newspaper article, posted on FR or Cruxnews.com. I bet that the author just quoted from that article. I think it was referring to a TLM in Detroit if I am not mistaken.

[VermiciousKnid]

If this kind of parish was available to me, I don't think I'd make it through the opening strains of the processional hymn without breaking down in tears of joy.

Regards,

[Cato1]

Yes, just revamped it last night and this morning

[siunevada]

I have seen that very quote in a different newspaper article

Okay, that seems more sensible. She cribbed the quote and didn't attribute the source rather than getting it directly.

Deep in the heart of many a 'journalist' lurks a frustrated soap opera writer. A news story is so much 'better' when there is 'conflict'.

[RFT1]

This is my former parish, and it is far more alive than any other parish I have been to. The past? The church is timeless, and from what I have seen, too many of the typical suburban parishes are simpily placesd where people go to mass and go home, without getting fed on a spirtual level. One will certainly not find that at St. Stephens.