[Cousin Eddie]

Yeah, this is going to go over well.

[Clemenza]

Yeah, leave hand clapping and dancing to the hillbillies. We are a ROMAN Church after all!

[ArrogantBustard]

In further good news, Richmond VA bishop Walter Sullivan, one of the promoters of numerous liturgical abuses, has retired.

[Loyalist]

The Vatican files another circular on liturgy for the liturgists to file in their circular files.

[JohnnyZ]

Thank goodness. I have a personal rule against clapping withing 150 yards of a church.

[rdb3]

No dancing in the aisles or applause in church, please, we're Catholic.

Psalms 66:1 - Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:

Psalms 81:1 - Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Psalms 95:1 - O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Psalms 95:2 - Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Psalms 98:4 - Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Psalms 98:6 - With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

Psalms 100:1 - Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

---

Sounds as if a lot of the Psalms are thrown out here.

[January24th]

The Church is His people. His people are "sacred" but inanimate buildings never can be. The actions within a building can be sacred or profane without hurting the building a whit.

How can gratitude be considered abusive? If I celebrate God's goodness with laughing and dancing and clapping within my home, (I have, and I do) I gladden His heart, and mine. It is a sacred act. If I do it within an assembly, it should be agreed by all that it is not to draw attention to anything other than God's goodness. Decency and order still apply, but they don't have to be prohibitive.

As if the Church didn't have enough problems. Bringing outer order to a inner-disordered Church will not make the vessel clean. Clean the "inside," the heart of the Church, I believe is what Jesus told the church leaders of his day...

No wait,if that happens, there'll be some real joy and dancing and lightness of heart and gratitude...and holiness and accountability and reverent fear.

[JesseHousman]

I just returned from a trip to Eastern Europe that included travel in Poland where I attended Sunday mass.

The old, important parts of the mass, replaced subsequent to Vatican II with the vernacular, are sung in Latin there.

Handshaking is out.

When you enter the sanctuary you know something important is going to happen there because chit-chat is left at the door as worshippers kneel in prayerful preparation for the mass.

Our bishops had better get off the pot, because figures indicate that SSPX attendance figures are rising.

[machman]

Stop that! Stop that! You're not going into a song while I'm here.

[NeoCaveman]

.No dancing in the aisles or applause in church, please, we're Catholic. And we'd prefer altar boys to altar girls.

[Remole]

In an article published in America Magazine in the late 80's or early 90's, Andrew Greely uttered these words, which I often quote:

"True Liturgical Reform in the Cathoic Church in the United States will only begin when the Last Guitar is smashed over the head of the Last Liturgist."

[Protagoras]

But some conservative Catholics are against altar girls, saying their presence has eroded a traditional recruiting ground for priests.

Ill chosen words I'd say.

[Varda]

"Ironically, Pope John Paul 's sermons during masses, even those in St Peter's Basilica, are often interrupted by applause. "

Yep, It was in St. Peter's when I first heard clapping at mass. Unfortunately this practice has grown in the US. Our parish priest started this bad habit and now the congregation sometimes spontaneously breaks out in clapping after hymns (especially those sung by a children's choir).

[Petronski]

Meanwhile, "Bishop" Trautman of the Diocese of Erie (so called) is busy admonishing Catholics for kneeling during Mass. No kidding.

[wardaddy]

I'm not Catholic but enjoy their sense of tradition.

I attended a Pentacostal service for the first time in my life last Sunday here in Nashville at Cornerstone church.

I am unaccustomed to the quite modern music and expression and yes ...even one case of speaking in tongues which was quickly explained later to all of we visitors. I swear I heard some Ladino in the gibberish....but anyhow.

The preacher....an ex-convict from over 2 decades ago and born again preached the most socially conservative sermon I have heard since adulthood. He made me want to get up and shout a few Hallelujahs...lol.....spot on across the board.

So refreshing from all the apostate Protestant service I normally run across amongst your liberal "be nice is all that matters" crowd in middle and upper middle class environs.

I'm not sure I'd go every weekend.. ..a 2 hour service as well, but it was very inspiring. I would recommend any FReeper in middle Tennessee/SE Kenticky to try it....I-65 north at Old Hickory Blvd.

He has taken a 200 congregation and turned it into a 2500-3000 per Sunday church...incredible...some folks are hungry for the word.

just my 2 bits....more power to Catholics to cling to their traditions and purge the homosexuals!

[sinkspur]

Italian media reported that the initial reaction to the draft, circulated to the world's bishops, has been negative and the document may have to be at least partially modified.

You think?

I suspect there will be no ban against altar girls, and the practice of applauding during Mass will also be dropped, since the Pope himself is often applauded in St. Peter's, and has been for a hundred years.

[smith288]

Never cared for the funeral like atmosphere at Catholic Churches.... As Southern Baptists say

"Mass is boring....(always followed with) Bless their hearts"

(and no, i dont hate Catholics or the Pope... So save any knee jerk reactions)

[Paulus Invictus]

OOPS! This new order of things will mess up the mariachis that play loudly in Mexican cathedrals, not to mention the walk-on singers and musicians that make their messy masses into mass entertainment.

[irish_links]

The reportage is poorly worded, as one would expect from Reuters, but seems to suggest that some positive changes are in the offing. I am particularly heartened by the suggestion that the Vatican is retreating from its advocacy of communion in the hand. This is a slack practice that has led to many other inappropriate changes to the Mass and the configuration of the church, like the introduction of dreadful "pop" songs ("Morning has Broken" comes to mind)and the removal of the sanctuary from the center of the alter to a side alter, as is mentioned in another post.

Perhaps the seeds of orthodoxy that JP II has sown are beginning to take root in Rome. The germination of those seeds cannot come a day to soon.

[traditionalist]

According to the magazine, the draft says the use of girl altar servers should be avoided "unless there is a just pastoral cause"

The above illustrates perfectly the sick pattern of the post-Vatican 2 papacy. Issue all kinds of directives, but then insert loopholes so that no one has to follow them. If anyone thinks this document is going to change anything, I've got a bridge to sell.