“Christ truly nourishes us with his body and blood in holy Communion and, in the patristic era, it was compared to maternal breastfeeding,” he said.”
This is true...and in the patristic era people received communion standing up, like we still do in Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy.
“”If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would ‘fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,’” wrote Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, quoting from the First Letter to the Corinthians.”
Sort of like this?
“”When we journeyed among the Bulgars, we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The Bulgarian bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no happiness among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful stench. Their religion is not good. Then we went among the Germans, and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no glory there. Then we went on to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. Every man, after tasting something sweet, is afterward unwilling to accept that which is bitter, and therefore we cannot dwell longer here.” Then the vassals spoke and said, “If the Greek faith were evil, it would not have been adopted by your grandmother Olga, who was wiser than all other men.”
Oh, right, that was an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, not an N.O. folk mass under the direction Sr. Trixie and her electric guitar. Do you suppose some pagan who went to an N.O. folk mass or better yet a clown mass where the laity knelt to receive communion would be so impressed as to believe that God dwelt there with men?
I don’t.
That's a really nonsensical comparison.
You asked: “Do you suppose some pagan who went to an N.O. folk mass or better yet a clown mass where the laity knelt to receive communion would be so impressed as to believe that God dwelt there with men?”
Nope. I also don’t think that same pagan would believe God dwelt with men when he sees Eastern Orthodox monks stand in the Church of the Nativity and beat each other with sticks.
Point taken?
Show me one of those.
I think you're conflating traditional Latin piety (which is different than Greek piety, not better, not worse, just different) with notorious abuses which have arisen in some places in the absence of that traditional piety.
Your post surprises and disappoints me, K. I thought you were in favor of, e.g., the restoration of the Tridentine Latin Mass. I can assure you that people at the TLM do not receive standing, and there are no clowns involved.
K., over Christmas vacation I attended Divine Liturgy at a Ukrainian Catholic church, and then two days later a solemn high Latin TLM at a Latin Rite church. Both were equally beautiful, equally reverent, and equally holy.
The tradition in the Latin Church has ALWAYS been to receive the Body of Christ, kneeling. THAT is the penultimate sign of their reverence. The Easterners receive communion standing, an equal sign of reverence, since communion is by intinction.
Do you suppose some pagan who went to an N.O. folk mass or better yet a clown mass where the laity knelt to receive communion would be so impressed as to believe that God dwelt there with men?
This is totally out of character for you but not surprising. Your disdain for the Western Church and the papacy is often manifested in your posts. Perhaps you need to revisit this thread.