Know What You Should Do at Mass and Why [barf alert---Freep this pastor!]

Church of the Holy Family bulletin, Diocese of Richmond ^ | Fr. Tom Quinlan

[constitutiongirl]

Amen. VERY UGLY. If you could see the hideous 'art' that passes for the tabernacle at St. Ed's in Richmond, you'd have nighmares.

[ninenot]

Sorry, but this "priest" is NOT preaching Catholicism. The Mass is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice on the Cross, not "Word and Meal."

"Word and Meal" was invented by Martin Luther, who was ripped off by Calvin, Zwingli, and others.

Please re-consider your "agreement" with this protestant who is fraudulently taking money from the Catholics.

[ninenot]

On this we will disagree vehemently. Allow me to quote, roughly: "suffer the little ones to come to Me."

He did not tell their mothers to take them to a crying room.

The reason this "priest" has such an unruly parish is that neither he (nor his parishioners) believe in the Real Presence and in what transpires at Mass.

He just happened to write a letter demonstrating his position clearly.

The parishioners act on their unbelief.

[ninenot]

Funeral Parlor, appropriately enough. Lots of dead souls about..

[ninenot]

I've decided that 'niceness' is no longer useful. When a locally-born Jebby heretic was allowed to preach at our Parish one Sunday, I simply dressed him down loudly right in the vestibule after Mass.

Turned a few heads. Screw 'em. The Jebby was NEVER allowed to preach again.

[TotusTuus]

must be that red hair - I still think the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day was written just for him.

King David was a red head!

[american colleen]

I knew his teeth looked way too white! ;-)

Like I said, it could be worse, his "beloved" dogs could be poodles.

We all have our own "way of the cross," inferior by far to His, but we do carry one. It ain't easy. I feel for you. We had Cardinal Law, personally he was a lovely man and talked an orthodox talk, but he did not walk the walk. The dissent here would stun you.

[american colleen]

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day

I love that book! Also "I love you this much" -- the one with the mother and her son as he grows older and so does she.

[yendu bwam]

Actually, while this is way over the top, there has been a downward movement in many Catholic Churches with regard to civility and respect and politeness during Mass. I have routinely seen kids eating breakfast in the pews; I have routinely heard people engaging in conversation during mass; people routinely, in our parish, leave the Church just as the final hymn starts to be sung. When children are misbehaving, parents seem increasingly reluctant to remove them - resulting in the priest trying to speak at times above the din of several children crying or having temper tantrums. In short, I have noticed over the years, a steady decline in respect for the Mass itself.

[Gophack]

You may very well be right. And the "Word and Meal" you mentioned makes me think this whole thing is a hoax. You think?

[jjm2111]

That is a pretty hideous sanctuary.

Oh, and for the record, when the priest's sermons start actually having a point, I'll make it a point to be on time for Mass.

Some days I'm almost tempted to jump up and start shouting at priests who need some serious public speaking lessons. HAVE A POINT!!! Don't babble on endlessly. If you see the ENTIRE CONGREGATION shifting in their seats, talking, sleeping, etc. STOP THE SERMON!!! Stop it in mid sentence if you have to. I'm of the opinion that a sermon should be no more than 10 minutes. 5 minutes is probably best.

/rant.

[jjm2111]

What's the difference between EEMs and EMs?

[B Knotts]

"EM" is a rather misleading shorthand for "EEM."

The point is that Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers are supposed to be just that: extraordinary. Unfortunately, in the American Church they have become rather ordinary.

The Vatican has instructed that:

"Extraordinary ministers may distribute Holy Communion at eucharistic celebrations only when there are no ordained ministers present or when those ordained ministers present at a liturgical celebration are truly unable to distribute Holy Communion. They may also exercise this function at eucharistic celebrations where there are particularly large numbers of the faithful and which would be excessively prolonged because of an insufficient number of ordained ministers to distribute Holy Communion."

Unfortunately, this is not followed much in the U.S.

[al_c]

They may also exercise this function at eucharistic celebrations where there are particularly large numbers of the faithful and which would be excessively prolonged because of an insufficient number of ordained ministers to distribute Holy Communion."

This seems to be the case at most parishes in the D/FW area. At my parish, we'd be there all day if the priest didn't have help.

[k omalley]

I have also lived in the diocese of Richmond. This is all so typical. I often wondered if perhaps I was really in a Methodist church or maybe even a Unitarian church.

[SoothingDave]

This seems to be the case at most parishes in the D/FW area. At my parish, we'd be there all day if the priest didn't have help.

Every Mass is extraordinarily crowded?

SD

[jjm2111]

Thank you.

[al_c]

Every Mass is extraordinarily crowded?

Yep. :o(
We have thousands of people in our parish ... one of the largest in the diocese.

Odd ... when we first moved here, we looked for a small parish but couldn't find one near our home. We visited St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and immediately knew it was the right parish despite the large numbers.

[al_c]

Also ... we don't have the large number of parishes (per capita) that you guys in Penn have. That tends to make each parish have a rather large population.