Some who bring up the offerings hide their faces:
Others have no shame:
Okay, I’ve been ranting about things added to the “noble simplicity” of the Modern Mass that don’t need to be added, either because it is alien to the Roman Mass or makes no sense to anyone or the symbolism intended is lost.
Some of these added things, make the Mass seem as though it is lasting for an eternity.
The one thing that adds time and makes no sense to modern minds, like mine, is the offertory procession.
Let’s talk about the normal one, the presentation of the offerings.
Why do the laity need to drag the bread and wine, and only a portion to be used, to the altar from the entrance of the church and usually behind a server with the Processional Cross. And because of fears of embezzlement or theft, the financial offering is no longer brought forward as it is sealed in a tamper proof bag and placed in a safe in the usher’s locked closet.
Why not just have a server or two, who, by the way, are laity, drag the offerings from the credence table to the altar? Wouldn’t that save time? Does anyone really get a high from the supposed symbolism of the offerings being brought by procession to the altar and if a long aisle it takes forever to get to the altar? Are the laity thinking to themselves, with chills going down their spine, “wow, these came from my blood, sweat and tears, how kool!”
And what about the times the usher failed to find someone so the ushers do it????
And what about the Chrism Mass. Do the various oils to be blessed need to be processed down the long, long aisle of cathedrals and presented to the bishop? What the “H” is that all about? And the time it takes to do so! It seems like an eternity!
Why can’t the oils be dragged by the servers without ceremony, who, by the way, are laity, to the place where the bishop blesses these? Do we have to make a ritual out of everything especially when it makes the Mass seem like an eternity to complete?
Can’t we have some liturgical Common sense and noble simplicity in the modern Mass?
13 comments:
In my diocese it is no longer done, a casualty of the pandemic. Deo Gratias!
It always has struck me as a jarring interlude of "Here Come The Influential People In The Parish" procession, and otherwise simply embarrassing when I have been drafted for such by the parish production staff to plug a hole in the entertainment line-up where their attitude more a, "you should be honored to be filling in for the Influential".....I came there to pray.
Also, when being drafted, the smiling attitude that if the draftee does not agree, that they are helping wreck the Mass production, and nobody wants a wrecked Mass, do they?
If a parish must hunt and peck to find willing audience participation members, this MIGHT be a major clue to those running things that the parish as a whole does not want audience participation, but instead wants a holy Mass.
Again, pandering. "Look here you stupid superficial laypeople. We're going to make you feel important."
No thanks.
Like Bob said, I came to pray.
It was always a cheesy practice
Oh, yes, it's just something for "stupid superficial laypeople," just for the, "Influential People In The Parish," or just to, "plug a hole in the entertainment line-up."
It's so, "alien to the Roman Mass."
What complete rot.
— Presentation of the gifts assumed great importance in the early church.
St. Cyprian, martyred in Africa in 258, chided those who came to Mass and received the Eucharist but made no offering of their own: “You are wealthy and rich, and do you think that you celebrate the Lord’s Supper, not at all considering the offering? Who comes to the Lord’s Supper without a sacrifice, and yet take part of the sacrifice which the poor man has offered? Consider in the Gospel the widow . . .”
St. Augustine was impressed by a fifth-century procession of gifts in Rome in which the faithful brought from their own homes things from their kitchen tables. (After handling all the gifts, no wonder the priest had to wash his hands!)
Augustine called this an “admirable exchange” — for their gifts God gave back Jesus. Our present prayer over the gifts from the sixth day in the octave of Christmas uses Augustine’s language: “Lord, receive our gifts in this wonderful exchange: from all you have given us we bring you these gifts, and in return, you give us yourself.”
Dropping all but the second Eucharistic prayer would speed things up, if that is really your goal. It's not, but if it were...
For the record, I used the first Eucharistic prayer at all masses I celebrated with week with the proper insert.
Father K, you are mixing apples with elephants...
Cyprian and Augustine were speaking of offerings to the Church for its and its parishoner's physical support....more akin to collection plate and poor box.
And apples and elephants, I mean a procession to present gifts for Church and parishoner support is not the same thing as interrupting ever Sunday Mass for an inevitable SLOW and LOOONG parade of a handful of people where lay members presume to be part of the liturgical action by also handling the bread and wine with great hokey solemnity....Pompous And Circumstantial should be playing.
An usher bringing up the collection plate with no special fanfare to interrupt Mass would do the same thing of what those you quote approved, and I'm pretty sure Cyprian and Augustine would have been bored to tears swiftly with what is done today and found it just as tacky as the huge majority not lining up to play at local parishes.
Fr K also votes for abortion as healthcare so he is hardly a reputable source. His party is all in for abortion as their election strategy this Fall and fake Catholic Biden has announced hus determination to restore baby killing nationally.
Bob - The particulars of any element of the ancient liturgy - entrance, introit, cycle of readings, vestments, vessels, music - are not going to be the same as those of today. That the particulars of the offertory procession are different should come as no surprise.
You are right, Cyprian and Augustine are speaking of, "...offerings to the Church for its and its parishoner's physical support." But there is, as Augustine and Cyprian note, more than mere "physical support" here.
In our parish the offertory procession includes the bread, wine, and water, along with the baskets containing the collection. It is neither SLOW nor LOOONG, no one is "presuming" to be a part of the liturgical action any more than someone responding "And with your Spirit" is so presuming, and no one even thinks of playing Elgar's composition at that time.
Fake Catholic priest spouts more meaningless drivel!
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