Posted on 03/10/2015 8:13:57 AM PDT by Salvation
When did this loss of piety start happening? I first I think after World War II and then I wonder if it started later.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
....And the pressures that come from the world.
Have we let them rob us of holiness?
I think it started with Vatican II and the new Mass, which does not focus on God and does not encourage piety or pious practices. Particularly the way it is generally done...
Sadly, in this age of high tech, it seems it does.
Even with the newer mass, slowly some pious practices are coming back.
But when that bunch came of age they had very different ideas. Tradition was "square". They had to find themselves. I think their parents never really burdened them with piety. They wanted them to be happy and so the parents just looked the other way.
Now here we sit. People back in the day would be mortified if they had one divorce, now they have multiple divorces and not only are they not embarrassed they demand that the Church change to accommodate them.
Then there is this need for things! No one wants to raise the few children they bring into the world. Day care at 6 weeks old all so the couple can have a bigger house to fight over when they split up. It goes on and on.
By way of example. My grand niece(not Catholic, not that it matters but let me just show how this goes, she also is employed).
She is now married, but has two children with a man she never married, now she has married and has one on the way plus a step child. Unknown whether the man she married was ever married to that child's mother. The niece is the product of a mom who had three kids with a man she never married, but married another man and had two more kids.
Her Mom's parents are both divorced and remarried. Her biological fathers parents are both divorced and remarried. Her step fathers parents are both divorced and remarried and the father of her first two children, his parents and all of his grandparents are divorced and remarried. So the children have 24 grandparents. How the Hell does anyone keep track of this let alone honor it?
You have some sound reasoning for me to ponder too. I don’t think we can blame it on any one thing, but a combination of things.
So many of our struggles in this modern era center on a loss of piety, a loss of love and duty owed to our families, community, Church, and nation.
(((
So very true. Yet another of Monsignor Pope’s brilliant essays.
Thanks for the ping.
Excellent points.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3266275/posts?page=23#23
And we wonder why persecution is returning.........pray for our country.
Back to the daily Rosary, folks, but I sense I am speaking to the choir.
It’s hard for people to have a sense of duty when they feel and have been told they are entitled to everything. That jack wagon in the white house is only a few years older then I am. My generation sucks as well.
**Pray for piety. Pray for the gift of strong and abiding love for family, Church, community, and nation.**
I was taught to put these in priority order in my life.
God, (Church)
Family
Country (community)
Job
Business
Other
Anyone else?
This is, I believe, a key point which sets our culture apart from that of classical Rome ... in a bad way. (We're different from them in some good ways, too.)
Classical philosophy, as exemplified by Cicero, emphasized duties and obligations, not rights and entitlements. The focus on "rights" promotes self-absorption; it also puts far too much emphasis on the feelings of the individual.
For example, a comment on FR stated that, "People have a right not to be bothered" by the presence of handicapped children at Mass. Obviously, the creation ex nihilo of a "right not to be bothered" by others is problematic, to say the least.
It is far more productive to say that adults have a duty to limit the disturbance their children cause to others, to an extent that depends on circumstances. No one can be excluded from attending Mass, unless he is a positive danger to others, but there is a duty to limit the disturbance to the extent reasonably possible. However, parents could reasonably conclude that their duty of consideration for others precludes their ever taking a child who is noisy (for whatever reason) to a movie theater.
Consider the newly-minted "right not to be offended." This is obviously nonsense. However, the duties of Christians - to be truthful, to restrain anger, to avoid ridicule and calumny - tend to limit the occasions in which they will offend others.
Take the "right" to food, clothing, shelter, education ... basically to a comfortable life with everything ... that is often proposed, or the right to "equality." Doesn't it make more sense to say that people have a duty to promote the general good of society by showing practical concern for others? Christians have a additional duty to manifest their love of neighbor sacrificially.
When sitting with my sister or even friends when the baby started up, the baby was passed along to the end and whoever was on the end took the baby for a walk. I do think that people should however bear in mind that the parents of handicapped kids and regular kids are doing their best most of the time and the rest of us need to have a little patience.
Funny story. I was at Adoration and there was a young mother there with 3 little ones. Two of whom were being very, very good. The baby on the other hand was really giggling and cooing and just making all kinds of racket. We all exited at the same time. The woman had not known I was there(I was behind her). She apologized to me. I told her I was pretty sure Jesus must have been there making the baby laugh. I was so moved that this young mother would even attempt to take time out of her day to go to the Adoration chapel with three little ones in tow. I hope whatever she was there for was granted to her.
I don’t see it that way. I was baptized as an adult into the Catholic Faith when Pope Pius the XII was in office. So since I became a Catholic, I have seen the reign of 8 Popes.
Going to Mass in the late “40’s”, it was quite common to see people praying the rosary during the time the Mass was being offered. That’s because many people did not have their own Mass books (no Missals in the pews then). We were able to follow the principal parts of the Mass if we had our own Mass books with Latin on the left page and our own language on the right page. However, we did not have access to the particular scripture readings for that particular Mass. There were not adequate “sound systems” at that time and unless one was in the rows closer to the front, it was difficult to hear the sermon well. People would often get up and go out with restless children and then come back in again, and then go out again! Things like that were the “church in motion”.
The “Novus Ordo” Mass, at it is often called on this forum, can be a time of wonderful grace for anyone who comes bringing love of God and the desire for grace with him to Mass.
Being Catholic during and right after the close of Vatican II did present challenges. But as for me and my household we kept on keeping on. We stayed at our parish through the tough, transitional times. We took the time to read the actual documents of the Vatican II council. They certainly do “encourage piety and pious practices”. In fact, the Council documents were, as they stated, the “call to universal holiness”; in short, we are all called to be holy.
The fact that there were those who misinterpreted or misrepresented the hopes of the Council is true. But for those of us who endured and remained, there is much hope. There is an encouraging rise in vocations-—long time coming, but now coming. The hope of seeing lay people take on the work and needs of the Church out in the working world where priests aren’t able to go, and where it’s right and proper for lay people to do so, is beginning to happen.
In my parish we have an active Legion of Mary; more than 20-30 people being prepared for Baptism and/or Confirmation on Holy Saturday every year. We have a great Knights of Columbus group, who among their many good works, help to give financial support to seminarians. We have Adoration every Friday, the rosary after every Mass, and Divine Mercy prayers in church every Wednesday. We have a great outreach to the poor in our parish. The school children not only attend Mass but they are prepared-—knowing the Gospel readings of the Mass for the day.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that every 400 years the Church renews itself...and went on to say that we were going through that time again and that we may come out with our numbers downsized, but with those who have remained, a stronger and more vibrant faith.
For those of us who loved our Catholic Faith through it all, we have “run the race, we have kept the Faith”.
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