Posted on 06/02/2005 11:17:53 AM PDT by Pyro7480
This picture was taken during the distribution of the Blessed Sacrament. You can see the large wicker baskets on top of and by the table. If you look carefully, you can see a priest, dressed in a white robe/alb, distributing communion from one of the smaller wicker baskets.
Catholic ping!
Your SISTER'S "liturgy"?
I know what she meant, but the Freudian slip is extremely revealing...
Good "on the scene" reporting Pyro, you should post this on AQ. Brian's got one of his there now.
Aplogies because I certainly don't know Pyro's sister, but I thought that was a strange comment also.
When it comes to offering communion, my brother's three-hour (I kid you not) catechumenate Mass was the nadir. The seminarians who were serving as deacons took the small baskets you described to each each pew and passed them around like collection baskets. Everyone was expected to self-communicate, and at least half weren't even Christian, never mind Catholic.
Thanks, I just did. The HTML didn't work though.
I would have flipped out.
Did the priest(s) ad-lib parts of the Mass too? Seems like the make up your own Mass texts nonsense would go hand-in-glove with all the other abuses you reported.
I think your decision to not go to Communion was probably the right one. If it had been me, I would have made the same decision. Not because it was invalid (in which case there is no cause for alarm), but because my interior dispositions would have been severely disrupted to properly receive Our Lord. I'm sure this was your reasoning as well.
Now, contrast this with the Mass we attended last Sunday! Among other great things, my favorite was when Fr. Jackson reiterated that no applause is to be done in church! And he said it in a straightfoward, non-obtrusive way...see, it's not that hard to accomplish proper reverence at Mass. On the other hand, it seems quite an exercise of the imagination to produce the abuses you observed.
Dear Pyro,
You were exactly right in your take on things and in not receiving Communion at such a travesty. When I've traveled and been at "parishes" where similar conduct occurs, I do just as you did (and have the exact same feelings). If I see silliness , I stay to meet Sunday Obligation and that is all. Mother Angelica on a recent ETWN rerun of her classic shows put it well - "there was a time when you could go anywhere and what was taught and believed was the same and the Mass was conducted the same....but now......" Bravo to you for not participating in such a display. May God bless you!
Speaking of the Mass from Sunday, I should have my pictures from that soon too. I will post them.
Two thoughts -
Papal Masses were notorious for these kinds of abuses.
The real problem is the lack of faith which is displayed by the abuses at the Villanova Mass. They don't have a clue they are doing anything wrong. Two generations have been improperly catechized. That's the real scandal. Solve the root of the problem and the externals disappear.
Well, ultimately, I was thinking of papal Masses prior to 1965. But that is a good point, as well as your second point.
I'm looking forward to see the pictures you took of Fr. Magiera's Mass.
Back to your post...Is Villanova U in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia? Have you thought about sending your pictures along w/ a note of grievance to Cardinal Rigali?
I thought about doing that right after the Mass. Do you think he will do anything about it though?
I understand your hesitance. My wife prodded me about doing the same thing about a lot of the abuses we've seen in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Whether or not he actually does something is really out of our hands, but we have the responsibility to stand up for the truth. I think it helps to remember the saying, "The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
I just wrote a letter two weeks ago to the priest who is in charge of liturgical directives here in Baltimore. I have yet to receive a reply, but I know this priest is one of the good guys (a sheep among the ravenous wolves of the chancery).
...no applause is to be done in church!
^^
Oh, how I wish that were said in my parish. Just recently the congregation was asked -- by the priest! -- to applaud a kid who had just received his First Communion. It's appalling, and I refuse to do it.
....parents and relatives were encouraged to extend their hands in unison with the priest.
**
I have been subjected to such nonsense at my church.
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