OUR CULTURE OF HURT FEELINGS APPLIED TO MOTHER’S DAY MASS (I KID YOU NOT!) MOTHER’S DAY IS SO HARD ESPECIALLY FOR POOR PRIESTS AT MASS (I KID YOU NOT!)

This is the best medicine for our culture of snowflakes and hurt feeling:

Below I copy a post from The Deacon’s Bench which has a link to a longer commentary.

In my own American experience of Mother’s Day, I have never heard of anyone complaining about honoring mothers. In fact, Mother’s Day is more sentimental and better celebrated than Father’s Day, where dads seem to get the short end of the stick. 

But the article below speaks about all the pain some people have on Mother’s Day because life is broken by original and actual sin. Thus if they feel pain over how bad or how dead their mothers were/are or that moms have lost a child to death, or the child is in prison or the child is just simply a bum and no good for nothing, we should then not hurt the feelings of those who hate mothers or mothers who hate their children. 

REALLY!

But, there is one point I agree. The Modern Vernacular Mass parish makes too much of Mother’s Day and in the most sentimental way possible. This is not the case with the TLM.

However, I think it is wise to speak about mothers during the Mass but always starting with Our Blessed Mother, the perfect mother. What Catholic complains about our Blessed Mother. 

Then offer mothers a blessing, but have everyone stand, not just mothers. Don’t ask for applause for all our mothers. NO APPLAUSE DURING MASS. 

Don’t have a long welcome and commentary of any kind prior to the Penitential Act. DON’T EVER DO THAT!

But has anyone ever complained bitterly about honoring Mothers on Mother’s Day at Mass?

Here’s the Deacon’s Bench post with a link:

BEHIND THE FLOWERS AND SENTIMENT, MOTHER’S DAY IS VERY HARD FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE – PERHAPS IT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT HOLIDAY OUT THERE FOR PEOPLE IN PAIN.

---

Amy Welborn has this to say: 

Over the years, American sentimental pop culture creeps into the peripheries of liturgical observance, and quite often, here we are at Mass on the second Sunday of May, with the expectation that the Moms present must be honored.

I mean…I went to the trouble to go to Mass for the first time in four months to make her happy…you’d better honor her….

This is problematic, however, and it’s also one of those situations in which the celebrant often feels that he just can’t win. No matter what he does, someone will be angry with him, be hurt, or feel excluded.

Because behind the flowers and sentiment, Mother’s Day is very hard for a lot of people – perhaps it’s the most difficult holiday out there for people in pain.

So when Father invites all the moms present to stand for their blessing at the end of Mass and the congregation applauds….who is hurting?

• • Infertile couples
  • Post-abortive women
  • Post-miscarriage women
  • Women whose children have died
  • People who have been abused by their mothers
  • People with terrible mothers, even short of outright abuse
  • Women who have placed children for adoption
  • People who’ve recently lost their mothers. Or not so recently.

Women who are not now and might never be biological or adoptive mothers and who wonder about that and are not sure about how they feel about it.

And then there are those of us who value our role as mothers, but who really think Mother’s Day is lame.

( I was talking to my oldest (40) the other day and he said, “When’s Mother’s Day?” “This Sunday,” I responded. “Okay, don’t worry, I won’t call you.” “Good. Thanks.”)

So inviting Mothers to stand up, be blessed and applauding them (the worst) at Mass might be, yes, fraught.

It’s not that people should expect to be sheltered from the consequences of their choices and all that life has handed them when the enter the church doorway.

The Catholic way is the opposite of that – after all, the fundamental question every one of us carries is that of death, and every time we enter a Catholic church we are hit with that truth, sometimes more than life-sized.

What should a priest (or deacon) do? Read the rest.