Bishop: "Let chaos storm! When will it stop, change after change in liturgy? Never!"

Catholic Diocese of Dodge City ^ | Most Rev. Ronald M. Gilmore, Bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City

[Polycarp]

Most Rev. Ronald Gilmore, DD

Ordained & Installed

Bishop of Dodge City

July 16, 1998

Learn More About Bishop Gilmore

The bishop's column for May 4, 2003:
 

My Dear People, When will it stop, this change after change after change in our liturgy? Will it never end? In a word, No. When the Spirit came, a new time began. It was the time of the dispensation of the Mystery, of its communication. It was the time of what the Fathers called the Sacramental Economy. So long as time lasts, this dispensing, this communicating, this deepening, this changing will go on. The Fathers saw the liturgy as Christ’s own Paschal Mystery made present through words and through signs. It was a unique event. It happened once for all. It occurred in time, but it draws all time up into itself, as the massive circling winds draw the things of the earth up into themselves. Time is not time unless it flows on. Slowly, gradually, haltingly, stop and start, by guess and by gosh: it can do no other except to flow on. It cannot be rushed. It cannot be slowed. Time is ... Time. Mystery is not mystery unless it unfolds. Here, there, one small group, one whole parish, this one woman, that one man: it can do no other except to unfold in its own slow and secret way. It cannot be forced. It cannot be foreseen. Mystery is ... Mystery. And that Mystery, again, is like unto a whirlwind. It is a large and powerful storm that is beyond us. As Frost said: Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form. In the liturgy, the Church gives place to this once and still powerful storm. Not only does she give it place, she also gives it form. She tells us how she wants to express and to communicate this Mystery in our brief string of time. It is her Mystery, after all, and she knows best how to enter it and how to let it unfold. The New General Instruction of the Roman Missal gathers up the best of the horizontal development of the last forty years, the full and active and conscious participation the Council sought. It gathers up too the vertical development of all our two thousand years: the notion of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the sheer grace of it all, the wild power of it all, the slow unfolding of it all. The liturgy is the Mystery clothed in Time, in our time. I trust we shall soon feel at ease with the drape and the feel and the fit. -- Most Rev. Ronald M. Gilmore Bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City

[ninenot]

There's a difference???

Oh--yours is in italics!!!!

[EverOnward]

Serious question (totally unrelated to topic -- kind of):

What is the protocol for a NON-Catholic attending Mass? Is a non-Catholic expected to stand, sit, kneel, genuflect, make the sign of the cross? Need help. As a non-Catholic I prefer to sit respectfully and feel foolish doing more.

[k omalley]

"What is the protocol for a non-Catholic attending Mass."

According to the good bishop it will depend on the day of the week and which way the winds of the spirit are blowing.

Seriously, follow the lead of the rest of the congregation and sit, kneel, or stand when they do. If you don't feel comfortable genuflecting or making a sign of the cross you don't need to do so.

[Tantumergo]

"Is the bishop wearing makeup?"

There was an old bishop called Gilmore
Tarted up like a Dodge City bar whore
Asked "Is your hair died?"
"Oh gosh no!" he denied
Its as real as the rugs that my Gran wore.

[k omalley]

"You cannot step into the same river twice".
Heraclitus

"You cannot step into the same Mass twice".
Bishop Gilmore

[potlatch]

I think he missed his 'true calling', as a Poet. He might be a good one to go to for confesson though, LOL!

[BlackElk]

Maybe Archbishop Dolan can recommend a new bishop for Fort Worth to replace the execrable Bishop Delaney. If a Catholic is appointed, maybe Fort Worth can get a straight priest to run its BOY SCOUT program and some new deacons as well.

Note that since Sinkspur went running to mommy crying about criticism and requested that I no longer ping him, I will not ping him but I won't stop reminding everyone of his behavior, his refusal to back up the claim that Delaney "dealt with" Father Fudgie, his "old pal" from Rhode Island or the fact that Sinkspur is a sorry example of a Catholic deacon with his knee-jerk attacks on the pope.

Maybe, he will move to Dodge City now. What do you think?

[kstewskis]

Ahh, tie-dyes, birkenstocks, and smell of clove ciggies (you know, the incense cigarettes). See, there's this place in AZ called Sedona...

Crystal swingers! LOL!

[narses]

What more needs to be said? Chaos is King, Our Lord is unseated. The smell of Satan is in the Vatican and in the Church.

[Salvation]

**When will it stop, this change after change after change in our liturgy? Will it never end? In a word, No.**

I hope it won't stop. We have a living church made up of you, me and others like us along with the priests, deacons, bishops, cardinals and Pope. We are changing all the time. If the Catholic Church stops changing then it will be a dead church.

We need to stop living in past memories of Latin Masses, etc.!

[Salvation]

And yet the usage of Holy Ghost was changed to Holy Spirit because the word 'Ghost' conjured up pictures of evil spirits.

Personally I find Holy Spirit much more befitting the description of burning tongues of fire that enlivened a group of frightened Apostles, disciples and the Blessed Virgin on Pentecost.

May the Holy Spirit be our guide!

[Salvation]

General Instruction of the Roman Missal [G. I. R. M.]

[Salvation]

I don't think it's time for the Bishop to get out of Dodge. I think he is telling the people and priests in the diocese to take note and put their Masses back in order according to the new GIRM.

This is coming down from the Vatican and the Bishops have a limited time to shape up.

Have you read any of the articles about it? Or have you read the GIRM?

[Salvation]

The Our Father is a personal prayer between oneself and his or her Father in Heaven. It is a vertical prayer straight to God, while I do not necessarily agree with raising my hands I have often help them outward palms up to (as in a gesture to receive God's messages into the palms of my hands).

The Our Father is not a community prayer so holding hands within the community is not necessary.

[Salvation]

On hand holding

Questions and Answers about GIRM #112

112. QUERY 2: In some places there is a current practice whereby those taking part in the Mass replace the giving of the sign of peace at the deacon's invitation by holding hands during the singing of the Lord's Prayer. Is this acceptable?

REPLY: The prolonged holding of hands is of itself a sign of communion rather than of peace. Further, it is a liturgical gesture introduced spontaneously but on personal initiative; it is not in the rubrics. Nor is there any clear explanation of why the sign of peace at the invitation: "Let us offer each other the sign of peace" should be supplanted in order to bring a different gesture with less meaning into another part of the Mass: the sign of peace is filled with meaning, graciousness, and Christian inspiration. Any substitution for it must be repudiated: Not 11 (1975) 226.

[Flora McDonald]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh, sorry, must be respectful.
Ahem.



BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Thorondir]

I'm with you, my brother. This bIshOp is an embarassing, anti-Cathollic, new-age buffoon. God help us!

Dominus vobiscum.

[Smocker]

Now I know why the name: HOLY GHOST was changed to Holy Spirit. Somehow talking about the Spirit coming sounds much better than the Ghost coming. or the Ghost moved me. or the Ghost is among us.

[k omalley]

So, when my parish institutes "handwashing" on Holy Thursday
in place of the washing of the feet in the spirit of Vatican II, as one of my parishes truly did, I should rejoice that the Church is ever changing?

[Loyalist]

Have you read any of the articles about it? Or have you read the GIRM?

Yes, and what GIRM amounts to is little more than damage control.