Today we went to mass in town. We had a visiting priest who, in addition to celebrating the Mass, was there to tell us about the organization for which he is a chaplain. He introduced himself, after Mass had begun, giving a 3-4 minute talk on what he does and what his organization does.
Does anyone else find this bothersome? It belongs in the homily, not the Introductory Rite, Father. Per the GIRM (The General Instruction of the Roman Missal):
The prayers were rushed and we prayed “In Jesus Name” for the Collects, not what was printed in the missalette. When we got to the offertory and preparation of gifts, he held up both the patten and the chalice up at the same time, silently praying the “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.” and “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.”. Quite a gift, to be able to pray both prayers at the same time! When he washed his hands, he did not say “Lord, wash away my iniquities, cleanse me from my sin.”, he said something including all of us and our “faults”.
Let me quote Father Z here “Say the Black, Do the Red!”.
I am sure that it comes as no surprise that he rushed through the Eucharistic Prayers, using contractions and not allowing any time for Adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Actually, at one point, I pulled out the missalette, to make sure he was not skipping spots.
I was really bothered by the drive thru feeling of the Mass this morning and have spent a good part of the day pondering why. One thought that kept coming to me was: Here is a man, a priest, who spends his life working for an organization that does great things for the poor. He sees suffering day in and day out, suffering that I could never imagine. One would think that in the suffering he sees, he would realize that it is in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Source and Summit of our Faith, that one draws his or her strength to make it through the suffering and celebrate the Mass much more reverently.
I realize that part of my job, as a lay woman in the church, is to pray for our priests and pray that they may become more holy and faithful to our Lord.
AMEN! We attended a Parish south of us that seems to be the new location for many former Marionites. To our dismay, it was “farwell to Fr. ___” who apparently got re-assigned. The entire homily was a farwell speech. No mention of the gospel. Ironically enough, the gospel this week was about humility and guess what the congregation did after his farewell speech? You guessed it: a standing round of applause. There was one family that didn’t stand up and clap – I’m a member of that family. Maybe he didn’t preach on humility because he hasn’t learned what it is yet? Too bad the congregation wasn’t well-formed enough to realize that if they were going to stand and cheer at ANYTHING, it should have been when the Real Presence made His entrance. What a shame and a sin that our dear priests are formed to believe that they are little boys who will recieve pats on the back and rounds of applause if they tell funny jokes and make people smile. That’s one thing I can say for our Pastor: he doesn’t give a rat’s ____what people think of him! Humble? I think so. Ill-formed – yes for the most part, but there to do his job – not win a popularity contest- that’s for sure. More acts of reparation needed…..