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I grew up years after VII. However, our little corner of Philadelphia escaped much of the storm for a good long while. I grew up with the Novus Ordo, but not like what it is today. And from what I hear, we missed out on all the wackiness that was floating around a number of places in the US in the 70's.

I had to move to the suburbs to find out what I was missing. I guess in the "bad old days", the priests ran /everything/. Us po' old lay folk couldn't do nothin' but kneel in the pews and mumble our rosaries.

Ok, does anyone else think this sounds like that cartoon when Bugs Bunny played baseball all by himself? You know, but it's the priest playing all the positions by himself during Mass? So Father said Mass AND played the organ AND sang all the parts in the choir himself AND collects the money AND set the linens and flowers? Really?

It took me going to a Traditional Mass to figure something out. Father can't have been making himself the center of attention for everyone at Mass, because he rarely faced them. But maybe I'm wrong, after all ex-nuns who run Religious Education programs all over this country say so.

So now, we're under the premise that this evil monopoly of the priesthood had to be broken. All of us laypeople needed to be "actively participating". But in reality, there is no such thing. In reality, we've gotten a new bureaucracy. We've gotten a bureaucracy of dissatisfied middle-aged married women who need to feel fulfilled. So now they're up on the altar (you see, I remember a time when you had a choir and a director who were in the back, so as not to compete with that Holy Sacrifice of the Mass thing). They're up on the altar, and they've exiled Father to some chair on the side. And the three times they do let him up to do something, they have to voice over him. So now, now they feel good about their lives, for at least a few hours. And now I have to duck and bob and weave to see Mass being offered.

That's just not right.

They've gotten to the point where there is no quiet. They can't even allow there to be some silence during the Consecration. Oh no, we have to sing through that in our smug little hand-gliding way. So instead of seeing the /hands/, the ones that hold aloft Our Precious Lord, I get to see the /hand/. And ya know what? That's just not right.

Now I'm sure NYer and Salvation are good people. I know they mean well, and I've given a good amount of thought and meditation to their advice. Thank you both for trying to help me be a better Catholic.

At the same time, I have to disagree. NYer talks about how to avoid sin, which is helpful for everyone to remember. In this case, however, I'm not sinning. Not every time a person gets ticked off is it a sin. I'm watching the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass be dismantled in slow motion, and I'm steamed. Being upset about such things is not sinful. Allowing these things to keep on without protest would be sinful. Besides, why must I sit in the back of the church and bury my head in my missal. Isn't that the very thing all these "reforms" were supposed remedy? Irony, thy name is parish liturgy committee.

Salvation says I need to count my blessings. This is true, I really should be grateful more for all that God has done for me. This, however, is not one of those times. It's not right to observe the tragedy going on and be glad it's not worse. I don't want to appear before Christ at my judgement and say, "Well, yeah, I saw what was happening but since they weren't making us do a conga-line to receive communion I felt pretty lucky."

I don't want to be glad it's not worse, and believe you me I know it could be. I want to see it get better. Now I can't just magically drive back all the abuse and scandal of the last thirty years all at once, but I have to start somewhere. So I'm starting with the hand. The hand has to go. The hand delenda est.