You know, one of the reasons, among many, for the loss of Catholic Faith in so many historically Catholic, Catholics, has to be "contact traced" to the time when kneeling for Holy Communion was the norm in the Church for more than 1,500 years until the mid to late 1960's and then overnight altar railings ripped out, standing for Holy Communion as in a chow line, required and Eucharistic Ministers crowding the sanctuary as though they were want-to-be priests.
I firmly believe that standing, receiving on the run and receiving on the hand and not from a priest or deacon has eroded the reverence, awe and respect that Catholics once had for the Most Holy Eucharist, even if they struggled to believe in Transubstantiation.
I continue to believe that both ad orientem and kneeling for Holy Communion would begin a healthy recovery of true Catholic Faith in the Mass and Real Presences mandated for the Ordinary Form. But of the two, I would say that kneeling for Holy Communion is more important than ad orientem!
I firmly believe that standing, receiving on the run and receiving on the hand and not from a priest or deacon has eroded the reverence, awe and respect that Catholics once had for the Most Holy Eucharist, even if they struggled to believe in Transubstantiation.
I continue to believe that both ad orientem and kneeling for Holy Communion would begin a healthy recovery of true Catholic Faith in the Mass and Real Presences mandated for the Ordinary Form. But of the two, I would say that kneeling for Holy Communion is more important than ad orientem!
31 comments:
Thank you for sharing these magnificent and uplifting photos, Father McDonald.
Those photos are stunningly beautiful. They brought a tear to my eye........thank you for reminding us what REAL reverence looks like.
Spectacular church! When churches become destinations.
Ad orientem changes everything. All are unified at the altar as all face it and the New Jerusalem that it represents. The children in the photo seem to understand that - something far greater than themselves is taking place. At some point, perhaps some of the adults who have fallen behind the children might catch up.
As for kneeling, both my knees are shot so, I butt kneel when required or, just don't kneel at all. When in Rome, I can tolerate about 30 seconds before bone-on-bone pain becomes too much.
I know of this church absolutely stunning with the TLM!! They were going to shut it down but then they brought in the Traditional Latin Mass and low and behold it is FLOURISHING, which is always the case when a parish returns to the TLM to its proper place. Deo Gratis. P.S. As always YOUNG people galore.
Guys it's so easy to fix the problem in the Church it is right before the yours: It's called the TLM.
All the little girls in white. All the little boys . . . not so much.
Yes, let's bring back the "Good" Ol' Days.
Anonymous Kavanaugh,
Jealous?
Anonymous said...
All the little girls in white. All the little boys . . . not so much.
Yes, let's bring back the "Good" Ol' Days.
August 20, 2020 at 3:27 PM
Can never find any good in anything posted here...how the Church was.....how that spirit can be regained. I'm glad I'm not in your world and that of the other chronically negative "Anonymouses". It seems unbearably depressing.
I sit here in awe as I look at the beauty of this church how our ancestors German, Czechs, Slovaks, French, Irish, Italians, Poles, and Croatians like myself toiled and spent what very little money they had for these houses of God and yet a century later they were ripped out and tossed into dumpsters literally! Italian marble altar rails, statues, Gothic high altars, pews, confessionals ironically just like the Calvinists and Lutherans did to us during the Reformation and they say Vatican II told them to do this really??
Again it is always the TLM and scenes of reverence and properly dressed Catholics at a TLM that gets the Novus Ordonarians "triggered" and their utter distain for the Mass Of All Times. They tried to destroy it and usher in: clown masses, altar girls, female lay lectors, female "cantors" waving their arms in the air trying to get people to sing, hand holding, kiss of peace, guitars, pianos, drums, Life Teen Mass, communion in the hand while standing, Protestant music, men and women in black leotards prancing around the dinner table, and guess what it all failed, you cannot destroy the Mass that Christ gave His Church. There that was a mouthful but worth every bit.
Thank you for sharing this, Father! Beautiful!
Byz - My world - and this blog is most assuredly NOT my world - is a very beautiful place, not unbearably depressing as you suggest.
The world in which I live is a marvelous work of God, one for which I am grateful every day. This blog is a momentary distraction, a sideline, and, at times, a Side Show of grumpiness, uninformed piety, and anger.
I pay visits here to remind me of how beautiful the world in whch I live really is.
Anon/Fr. MJK,
If so beautiful, strange that you need a reminder from us.
A @ 8:32, you must live in some contrived Puritanical world, also inhabited by Hilary Clinton, both you and she put-out with the "deplorables" in our country and on my blog. Oddly enough, I think the Lord Jesus would prefer ministering to the deplorables here and elsewhere rather than the puritans in your world.
"A @ 8:32, you must live in some contrived Puritanical world, also inhabited by Hilary Clinton, both you and she put-out with the "deplorables" in our country and on my blog. Oddly enough, I think the Lord Jesus would prefer ministering to the deplorables here and elsewhere rather than the puritans in your world."
No, good Father, there's nothing Puritanical - a concept you misunderstand, but I digress - about the world I live in. There are, to use your word, not mine, deplorables here, too. The difference is, the delorables in my world know they are deplorables - standing in the need of prayer. Here, it is the "real" Catholics, the "traditional" Catholics who are quite convinced of their righteousness to the point of, for some, separating themselves from the Holy Father and the Church over which he presides.
The Lord Jesus is open to "deplorables" anywhere He encounters them - in a boat on the sea, at the well, in the Temple courtyard, walking along a street under a sycamore tree. He is open even to the deploables who frequent this echo chamber for a pick-me-up when their spirits are flagging.
God is good, and getting better!
Anon 8:32 (who lives in his own little world):
“Everything is beautiful in its own way,”
—Ray Stevens, 1970
Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now if you live in the real world...
Hey Byz,
This tune by Andrea Bocelli was used in the New Movie out about Fatima. It really does lift the mood. Its about the "gift" of life....even when things aren't so great....the Glorias are majestic!
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Andrea+Bocelli+For+The+Gift+of+Life+Gloria&view=detail&mid=87B1E54A86ED577D2ACF87B1E54A86ED577D2ACF&FORM=VIRE0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dAndrea%2bBocelli%2bFor%2bThe%2bGift%2bof%2bLife%2bGloria%26form%3dANSPH1%26refig%3d461d0fe3ad5b4395aeba6a28bf7ce05e%26pc%3dU531%26sp%3d-1%26ghc%3d1%26pq%3dandrea%2bbocelli%2bfor%2bthe%2bgift%2bof%2blife%2bgloria%26sc%3d0-42%26qs%3dn%26sk%3d%26cvid%3d461d0fe3ad5b4395aeba6a28bf7ce05e
I didn't know I was a deplorable until Hilary lectured me and half the country on it.
Anonymous @10:21
How can God possibly get better than Who He is? God doesn't need " sound bites" that make Him sound like a commercial for some new and improved product.
Anon 12:14.
What God doesn't need is superfluous "quotation marks."
What we know about God, including what God has revealed to us, we know through the lens of our own humanity. Our knowledge of God's Trinitarian nature we understand, to the degree that we can, through the use of our human languages. Czechs call God Trojice, Norwegians say treenighet, the Welsh y Drindod, and the Nepali ट्रिनिटी.
God, in the Divine nature, doesn't get better. God, as I perceive, understand, and describe Him, certainly does. As I seek His forgiveness, I understand him to be more forgiving. As I look for the counsel of the Holy Spirit, I find God to be more forthcoming. As I am drawn more deeply into the mystery of the Trinity, God becomes more inviting and welcoming.
Anonymous 2:38
Yes that is exactly it....its about you and your lens and I think I can safely say that for the rest of us as well. The statement "God is good and getting better" does not make that point clear and still sounds like a "sound bite".
Glad to see you know the difference.
'I pay visits here to remind me of how beautiful the world in which I live really is'
Sanctimonious and platitudinous twaddle. You don't simply visit this site, you repeatedly comment on it because it gives you an opportunity to be contumacious and uncharitable while skulking under the cover of anonymity.
If this blog is a sideshow of grumpiness, uninformed piety and anger, your comments have certainly contributed to it, and the solipsistic little homily at 2:38 appears somewhat hypocritical. For your next pseudonym might I suggest Uriah Heep?
To quote Chesterton: 'For your God or dream or devil you will answer, not to me.'
Anon 4:38 - And you don't have a lens? Of course you do, as is made perfectly clear (that's a funny - clear...lens - get it?) by your comment.
We ALL have lenses through which we perceive and understand the world and the God who created it. That I perceive and understand God through my lens doesn't mean it is about me. It is still God who is the center, the goal, the source.
John - You do get worked up when someone uses a word in a way you don't like, don't you? Yes, I visit here.
As for your oh-so-self-righteous accusations, we will wait for you to make similar comments about other regular VISITORS to this blog who LIVE to be uncharitable and contumacious.
Solipsistic? No, that's clearly projection on your part.
Hey Anonymous 7:10AM
I believe I did say I have a lens when I said: Its about you and your lens and I think I can safely say that for the rest of us as well.
It is still God at the Center Yes.......but He remains unchanged. It is WE who change the more we encounter God. So we (hopefully) are getting better everyday the more we perceive God at work in our lives. God is not the one getting better.
The sound bite comment stands.
Anonymous Kavanaugh is wracking up a number of critics today, a new record, yet he is obsessed like Captain Ahab on one person whom I dare not speak his name for fear of triggering him!
Anon 7:30 - Yes, YOU see God through a lens - we all do!
Yes, God is unchanging, but I (and you and others) have a perception of God that, I hope, grows and expands - changes - as we change.
God is good, and getting better!
Then what you are saying is it is OUR PERCEPTION that changes NOT GOD.
Sound bite alert!
God does not change because our perception of Him changes. He is always Good and cannot get better than Himself because He is God.
I would say it is is you Anonymous, through and by the grace of God, having a better relationship with God. God is not getting better, you are.
Anonymous at 7:10 a.m. your response of “I know you are, but what am I?” Gave me an idea of how you can distinguish yourself from all the other Anonymi On this blog. Pee Wee Herman is no longer in use and it sorta fits.
Normally a homily is not about the person giving it. Therefore, 'solipsistic' is a fair description. Bloviating about one's personal relationship with God is usually a mark of self-righteousness. Charismatics and 'born-again' Christians have this in spades, which is why they are so tiresome. Sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy usually go hand in hand, which is why I studiously avoid the former. Self-opinionated? Maybe. Self-righteous? Never.
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