I can't say that I have ever attended a clown Mass. In the seminary I did attend Masses in faculty apartments where no vestments were worn, we sat on the floor "Indian" style (hope that term isn't politically incorrect) and there were other aberrations.
But on the parish level, I don't think I have attended anything really, really bizarre in the Ordinary Form.
What I have experienced are the following, which are, in my book, bad liturgy or liturgical abuses:
1. Casualness of priest and laity
2. a lack attention to liturgical detail, like clean vestments
3. sloppiness
4. lack of reverence
5. Grotesque improvisation of the words and rituals of the Mass
6. Personality of the priest and lay ministers overpowering the ritual
I have experienced these things when I visit parishes on vacation. Music is a disaster in most parishes and song leaders and choirs at the front are a disaster in most parishes.
What are your experiences of so-called "bad" liturgies?
3 comments:
The worst liturgy I attended was a First Communion Mass, unfortunately. The kids baked the bread together the day before, and it was clearly not just wheat and water with a pinch of salt. It was an inch thick, soft and spongy. Brown clay vessels were used, even though gold-plated vessels were available. I did not partake.
I have also been to Masses with "liturgical dancers" wearing white wiccan robes. Some had long ribbons in their hands, others offered bowls of smoking incense to the four compass points. I have also been to a Mariachi Mass with liturgical dancers dressed in traditional Mexican dresses.
Everyone has seen dreadful things on Youtube (many of them from America) but this is hardly the norm. Sadly, most parish Masses are disheartening affairs and seem to have elevated mediocrity and lack of attention to detail into a guiding principle.
They are, in fact, aliturgical and even counter-liturgical, as liturgy was understood for at least a millennium and a half.
It is not acceptable, even by Novus Ordo standards, to recite in spoken voice the people's parts of the Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) while at the same time wasting musical resources on non-liturgical hymns (and most of the modern ones are toe-curlingly dreadful).
Fortunately, I don't have to endure it, and in the unlikely event of there being no alternative, I would stay at home.
Let's just put it this way, I've seen everything bad in Liturgy, in particularly in the Archdiocese of Liturgical Abuse...All of what you said and more...
Fortunately, these days in the UK, Liturgy is beautiful, and Vladyka Is a wonderful teacher of the Faith.
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