As a last Advent preparation, I took my family to a Pauline Mass this morning, the Vigil of the Nativity. The parish is my wife’s old parish, near a relative with whom we’re staying. The parking lot was crowded for a daily Mass and there were likely 60 or so folks at this 9 am Mass.
Highlights:
-New altar, ambo, and tabernacle, now moved behind the altar. Each is inscribed with Latin Scripture verses
-Vested altar boy pulled a string to ring a bell at the opening of Mass
-Attendees recited the propers (including the Introit) out of their Magnificat booklets
-Father (the parochial vicar) left out “Communion of the Holy Spirit” at the opening salutation
-No confiteor
-Predictably, the “Instant Jesus” Eucharistic Prayer II was used (Lord you are holy, the font of all holiness, let your Spirit come upon these gifts…).
-The altar boy knelt to the left of the altar facing the altar and tabernacle, ringing bells at the consecration and again at the priest’s communion.
-At which point my focus was ruined by an Extraordinary Minister trooping up to the altar.
-The priest decided ad libitum to say that as God keeps his promises, so He promises that those who receive His body and blood will receive eternal life. This matches his Balthasarian rhetoric to my wife in Confession three years ago.
Following Mass, the pastor entered the church and informed the people queueing for confession that there were five priests available.
This parish stunted my growth in tradition for years.
I have always felt that their attitude and praxis turn tradition into a buffet, rather than humbly receiving and guarding the richness that has been handed down. It also turns tradition into a trivial matter of taste for anyone who doesn’t share the precise preferences of the parish.
If women can distribute Communion then the parish’s insistence on all male altar servers isn’t important. If basically no one goes to Hell then why follow the signs in their parking lot and show up to the March for Life? If we can deck out altars with Latin then opt out of the Roman Canon, ever using Latin in the liturgy, or singing chant, then traditional liturgy isn’t important.
And the people at this parish just seem like uptight folks who need a beer, given the “Revoke Biden’s citizenship” bumper sticker I saw in the parking lot. Doesn’t Biden receive Communion and in doing so receive surety of eternal life?
We don’t like altar boys, but we don’t want to tell adults that it’s not appropriate to use extraordinary ministers at a daily Mass when there are five priests in the building. We want our tabernacle behind the altar but don’t want to deal with complaints and the slow catechesis that come with celebrating Mass ad orientem. We like John Paul II’s moral teaching but we don’t like the discomfort involved with confronting the faithful about the reality of Hell and the fact that people do choose it. We like the aesthetics of Latin inscriptions but don’t want to teach the faithful and clergy how to use the ancient liturgical language regularly.
Catholics who accept Church moral teaching complain of cafeteria catholics, but why is that a surprising stance when the source and summit of our faith has become a buffet? For many, even those strong in faith, the Mass is the priest offering a communal meal to the people using one of many prayer combinations chosen to make the people feel comfortable.
We returned to find my relative amping the church buffet up to 11. She had her Episcopal church’s service on her phone in the background while wrapping gifts, and I heard Joy to the World resounding at 10 AM on the Vigil of the Nativity.
There is something humbling and spiritually edifying in placing oneself under a tradition that is not custom built. Tradition stands on its own merits and invites us to let go of the limits of our own opinions, culture, and time.
And so I look forward to midnight, where I will hear my pastor chant the opening sequence of the Roman Martyrology for Christmas Day, singing the specific amount of years after creation, after the Deluge, after King David, and after the founding of Rome that Christ was born. Grating to my modern ears, but balm to the soul.
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O God, thou Who gladden us year after year with the expectation of our redemption, grant that we, who now welcome with joy thy only-begotten Son as our Redeemer, may also gaze upon Him without fear when He comes as our judge, our Lord Jesus Christ
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