One of the problems with being obsessively liturgically aware is that you notice every infraction or departure from the proper rubrics. That even when the correct information on postures is published in diocesan magazines or in the bulletins it is ignored. Any new liturgical fad is instantly picked up and transmitted everywhere. I get especially annoyed when I see members of the choir in the sanctuary doing the same. It is one thing to have liturgical ignorance in the average laity, but for it to be paraded in front for every one to follow is quite another. I suspect that if they actually put hand-holding during Our Father into the GIRM then everybody would then stop doing it.
I am not sure if the Holy See has approved the revised sacramentary that has the Orans posture as the designated posture during the Our Father. This posture will be anything but conductive to getting rid of the rampant hand-holding. Holding your hands out to the sides palms up will encourage people to grab your hands. I have considered using blessed joy buzzers in each palm to discourage this, but dismissed the idea. All this worry about rubrics though takes away from the worship of God in the Mass and I try not to obsess on the subject. I did wonder why these externals were so important to me and decided that it partly came from my military training.
Starting from boot camp we were taught to follow orders and be obedient no matter if the Officer or Chief was a jerk or not. We did not have to agree with the orders only obey them, except in the cases that they conflicted with other authority. We would follow the procedures since we learned that often times their were valid reasons behind what seemed like mindless and formalized systems. We would train and train to make sure that we could do important things quickly and correctly.
The most important thing in Catholic Worship is the Mass. To instill these concepts of obedience into the laity and instruct them in the proper celebration of the Mass, maybe we need a RCIA Boot Camp for new converts and something similar for others. We could have Drill Instructors to forcefully instruct the faithful. In boot camp we would march around endlessly making sure people marched in unison and correctly executed the various moves. We could do something similar with Liturgical Boot Camp for the Church Militant.
All right recruits. FORWARD MARCH. Strike your breast. OORAH! Column left harch!. Sign of the Cross. Full bow harch! Column halt!
You there mister – are you a future saint or a heretic.
Future saint sir.
I can’t hear you.
FUTURE SAINT SIR!!!
Do you call yourself a future saint and can’t even execute correctly a simple bow? I am ashamed to have you in this man’s church with your flabby liturgical moves, do you call that last maneuver a sign of the cross! It looked like you were only scratching your chest and I have seen it done better by apostates. Are you a mamma’s boy son?
No Sir!!!
What do you mean that you don’t show proper respect to your Mother Mary? Jesus gave her to all of us at the cross and you would refuse her intercession?
NO SIR, that’s not what I meant Sir!
Drop down and give me 200 Hail Marys with feeling.
Hail Mary….
You there laughing, Mr. Smarty Pants you think his punishment is something to laugh about. That’s a serious breach of charity for your fellow recruit. Drop down and recite the Nicene Creed backwards.
Amen, Come to world the of life…
All right you sorry excuses for Christian wannabes, fall out for inspection and present your Rosaries.
Excellent… Outstanding… What’s this – Private you call this taking care of your Rosary. Look at the dirt build up and the dull non-gleaming beads. You call yourself a prayer warrior but you don’t take care of your primary weapon the Rosary? You must keep your Rosary well maintained and properly oiled at all times and be ready to pray in any circumstance. Remember this Rosary might one day help to save your soul or the soul of other soldiers in the Church Militant
Fellow Christians and I use that term loosely. I am extremely disappointed by your execution of proper postures and knowledge of the Church. I have given my life to this man’s Church and I am not going to have a bunch of lax cafeteria type Catholics ruin my beloved Church. I want you all to reflect on your sorry state and run 20 laps while meditating on each mystery of the Rosary.
9 comments
I was never in the military (your post makes me especially glad I never went to boot camp), but I have the same mindset as you. When we are told to do something by legitimate higher-ups in their sphere of influence, then we ought to do it, whether the higher-up is some kid just out of the seminary or some doddering old fool.
One of the comforts I find in having uniformity from Mass to Mass and parish to parish, is that I can concentrate more fully on God’s word, the homily, and the manifestation of the Body and Blood of Christ. I don’t want to have to wonder if I am supposed to hold someone’s hand or stand, sit, or kneel or if I am going to be hugged by that large, sweaty guy beside me at the Sign of Peace. I like consistency in the procedures of the Mass, so my mind can be on the substance of the Mass.
It seems like this has been less and less the case, especially over the past 15 years or so.
I remember the Anglican nuns at my day school with the little clickers. When we processed into church EVERY DAY(!!!) we walked up the aisle, two by two, genuflected at the end of the pew, and filed silently in. We then pulled down the kneeler and knelt in silence until the organ sounded the first notes of the processional hymn.
I was horribly disappointed that the truth of Catholicism did not have the discipline of the High Church Anglicanism – but I could at least find a Mass everywhere in the world I went (rather than the generic protestant services I endured as a military ‘brat’).
This man’s Church? Sexist, I tell you! Sexist! I’m oppressed!
Still laughing. The rest of us only try to be half as funny as you, Jeff.
Shouldn’t that be “YES, FATHER SIR!”?
Jeff,
I see you had the special English-As-A-Second-Language” training from the USMC.
SIR:
You may shortly expect a visit from the Torquemada Knights of the Holy Inquisition. I suggest that you get your affairs in order.
The GIRM did not mandate the Orans position for the Pater. It only allows it.
I enjoyed your page.So would Mr. Chesterton. God Bless
Bill Smith
What we need is some of the nuns from the 50’s and 50’s. When they taught, we listened, and I can still recite parts of the Baltimore Catechism,
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