Tuesday, September 22, 2009
I Guess It's Not Just the Lutherans
Egad, there's a part of me that wants to find solace in seeing that even in the Church of Rome there is liturgical abuse and chicanery going on (not to say sacrilege), but there's another part that simply recoils, while my skin crawls. This is really creepy. I know these bobble head larger than life puppets are going to give me nightmares tonight. (HT: Trent Sebits)
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I know most of you will have turned it off by then, but the liturgical dance with the thurible at the 3:20 min. mark takes some skills!
ReplyDeleteBoy, does that Chasuble look out of place or what? Note that the priest looks old enough to have probably been around before Vat.II, which means he probably knows the Latin Mass by heart…and yet?
Trent Sebits
This reminds me of the Quinceanera Mass I attended this summer at our local RC parish. My daughter was one of the "honored attendants" (her friend, Tonya, was the Quinceanera). While the creepy puppets were not included, the liturgy sounded a little like this one. It was like a mixture of reggae and Barry Manilow, or something - hard to describe. Contemporary "praise" songs were sung. "Liturgical dancing" was done. Clapping and bobbing up and down by the "audience." The bread and wine were paraded down the aisle and danced to the altar. It was simply awful.
ReplyDeleteBut, the worst part of it all was that Tonya was "communed" first and then she distributed the bread to all who went forward. A 15-year-old girl, who hadn't set foot in her church for years, and really has no clue what the Christian faith is all about (I've talked with her, believe me - no clue), served "communion" during this "mass." And, everyone was invited. The "priest" said all who believe in Jesus were welcomed at the Table.
So, I watched people I knew who belonged to the local Baptist, Church of God, Nazarene, Seventh-Day Adventist, and, believe it or not, WELS, congregations go forward and receive. It was a sad sight to witness.
Later, at the reception, my wife and I sat at a table with a few ladies who were members of that parish. Curious, I asked them if what had happened that day was unique, and they said that it was nothing out of the ordinary; that they "worship" like that every week.
So, yeah, it ain't just the Lutherans. Lord, have mercy!
darn hippies
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. That'll bring in the young people, pastor. Just watch.
ReplyDeleteFr. Barnum Bailey
ReplyDeleteWow. The heads look like they were lifted from Easter Island. Wow. I'm speechless...
ReplyDeleteI've seen worse, much worse than this actually. Makes me want to retch.
ReplyDeleteUh...the Roman Church has been committed much worse liturgical abuse for a long time. It's called the Canon of the Mass and saying masses for the dead.
ReplyDelete"has been committing" I need to proofread better.
ReplyDeleteDear Matt:
ReplyDeleteYou know, I disagree. The canon of the Mass could be ignored ("felicitous inconsistency") by believers who have come to Mass - but reverent worship is simply impossible during such spectacles as these.
I believe the Real Presence is unquestioningly there during the Tridentine Mass, but honestly, if the whole purpose is to put on a show, I'm not really sure if this is any different than an actor portraying a "Mass" on a stage.
The old Mass allows for pious people who don't know better. These abominations can in no way be understood as anything holy and supernatural.
Dude, that's some mad censer skills.
ReplyDelete+HRC
Over at the Bad Vestments blog, it is noted that this is "one part of a small, left wing Catholic group."
ReplyDeleteThere are Catholic denominations, such as the Liberal Catholic Church, that do not fall under Rome's auspices, although they claim Historic Succession to Peter.
This group is meeting in a hotel ballroom or some kind of public space like a banquet hall.
Does anyone know anything else about this group, such as why they are in this kind of space, or what end of Catholicism they are on?
Rome allows some crazy stuff (see Rev. Messer's comments above) yet this seems even beyond those reaches.
Iggy Antiochus
What is wrong with old people??? Seriously, I always thought that most oldies had there stuff together, that they were past such foolishness, that they were respectable, etc. Look at how many gray hairs are dancing about like common idiots!!! I guess in my almost 30 years the quality of oldies has seriously gone downhill.
ReplyDeleteRev. J.A. Roemke
Although I've seen a lot of weird stuff going on in church I've never seen anything like this and I really hope this does not exist here in Sweden. But I'm afraid if it doesn't, it won't take long until it does. I wonder what on earth is the purpose of these puppies? Can anyone clarify?
ReplyDeleteExactly Rev. Roemke. I watched the first 4 minutes solid because I kept expecting some of them to flat walk out on such a ridiculous spectacle. I was sadly disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI knew it. I knew I was going to have nightmares. I can't get those ghastly heads out of my mind.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way the canon of the mass is anything like this.
This is sheer abomination and sacrilege. And as such, it illustrates in no uncertain terms how interconnected style and substance are. I'd love to see someone try to defend this practice. I wasn't listening too carefully to the words, but for the sake of argument, let's say they were all pure and holy. Would that make it right?
Those bobble heads are totally creeping me out. I need to see an exorcist or something.
Don't forget that it is today's old folks who bore and raised the boomers. In an effort to shield their children from the hard life they endured in the 1930s, they spoiled them. Hence the flower children and Woodstock. Sadly, the boomers who are now in their fifties and sixties are still pushing their elderly parents around. I would guess that the old folks in the vid have been convinced that this "worship" is what you need to do to keep young people around. Why? Because their kids "grew up" and left the church because it wasn't fun. In truth, the boomers never grew up. They still want everyone to accomodate and entertain them. I've never had anyone under sixty ask why we don't have contemporary worship, complain that we "don't have enough young people," and demand more youth-oriented activity. Imagine that.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely looks like one of the splinter groups that have left Rome to "have it their way."
ReplyDeleteIroncally, when I was Catholic I found that some of the most liberal priests were those ordained before Vatican II.
Christine
Excuse me, but saying the canon of the Mass isn't a blasphemous thing is just blind. The canon of the Mass isn't the Great Thanksgiving in LBW. Re-sacrificing the body and blood of Christ to pay for sins is sick. Get beyond aesthetics.
ReplyDeleteI think that we are having a hard time recognizing that the baby boomers are, by and large, old people. There were some really oldies in that vid, but we also have to remember, as Christine mentioned, the really liberal ones are those who brought us up to the 60's and vactican 2. The baby boomers did not just sprout up out of a perfect "greatest" generation. There was and is plenty that is not great, praisworthy or honorable about those from that generation, as this video so aptly demonstrates.
ReplyDeleteDear John:
ReplyDeleteI don't know anyone who said the old canon wasn't blasphemous.
But under those circumstances, the canon (which was for the most part prayed by the priest in silence) was easier to live with for those in attendance who held to a "felicitous inconsistency" and trusted solely in Jesus for salvation than these modern Vatican II spectacles which make a complete and total mockery of the Real Presence, and do so not only audibly, but complete with disturbing imagery and things that people cannot help but see and participate in.
OK, now I remember -- the video did look familiar. Puppets and Call To Action.
ReplyDeletehttp://209.157.64.200/focus/f-religion/2012552/posts
Christine
This just reminds me of St. Paul's words:"when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse...when you meet together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat..."
ReplyDeleteHow is this ever allowed is just beyond my comprehension.
I was fully expecting to hear "The Age of Aquarius" or "Hair" for a while there....yuck.....
ReplyDeleteOn the Canon, it was not worse for the people, for they never heard it. Chemnitz in Examen notes several fine parts of the Canon and he notes the parts that are objectionable. The unobjectionable parts were even formed into a "Prayer of the Church" by the Red Book of King John III of Sweden. The Canon is not monolithic; it is a series of collects, truthfully, all of which are not of equal value.
ReplyDeleteHere's the form it more or less took in the Red Book. Note this preceded the Preface:
ReplyDeleteLet us pray.
Almighty eternal God, You have promised the Spirit of grace and prayer. We beseech You to grant him to us, that we according to your commandment and promise may call upon you in spirit and in truth: let your Holy Spirit rule our hearts, for without Him we cannot be pleasing to You.
You, therefore, O most merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, do we supplicants beg and entreat to regard our prayers as acceptable and that You would deign to hear them, in particular these which we are offering to You on behalf of Your holy catholic Church: which may You deign to reconcile, protect, unite and guide over the whole orb of the earth: together with all government ecclesiastical and political, of whosoever preeminent dignity and name, and all the orthodox in belief and the cultivators of the catholic and apostolic faith.
O Lord God, who wills that Your Son’s holy and most worthy Supper should be unto us a pledge and assurance of Your mercy: awaken our heart, that we who celebrate the same His Supper may have a salutary remembrance of Your benefits, and humbly give you true and due thanks, glory, honor, and praise for evermore.
Help us Your servants and Your people that we may hereby remember the holy, pure, immaculate, and blessed offering of Your Son, which He made upon the cross for us, and worthily celebrate the mystery of His new testament and eternal covenant.
Bless and sanctify with the power of Your Holy Spirit that which is prepared and set apart for this holy use, bread and wine, that rightly used it may be unto us the body and blood of Your Son, the food of eternal life, which we may desire and seek with greatest longing. Through the same Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns in one Godhead from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.
Perhaps off the topic, but I wonder what folks would think of the Pastor offering such a prayer privately as the congregation sang the Sanctus?
ReplyDeleteWeedon,
ReplyDeleteUm... unless your organist plays really slowly, you'd have to pray really fast.
Also, not to be Eric-the-Amazing-Minimialist, but what would be the benefit (other than the simple benefit of prayer, but indeed, then, any prayer during any part of the service, ex corde or ordered would be beneficial) of having such a prayer, or re-introducing it?
Fr. BFE,
I hate to point this out, but as you are the pastor in your locale, I'm guessing you are the de facto exorcist on hand. . . exorcist exorcize thyself?
Rev. Brown
ReplyDeleteIf I were seriously to require an exorcist, I of course would have to seek out my father confessor.
Oh but wait: it's the Missouri Synod, the only church in the world where the pastor is his own pastor and absolves himself. I wonder what he would do if he found himself to be impenitent . . .
Fr. BFE,
ReplyDeleteSeek district or synodical office, and thus be free to have someone else be his pastor >=o)
Or, one could go all monk-style Luther and self-flagellate.
And as you point out - you have a father confessor. You have a pastor -- but I'm guessing you are "too busy" with what you are doing to show up at his church on Sunday. . . all the typical excuses.
(In seriousness, in an ideal setting, each congregation would as a matter of course have multiple clergy - precisely so that our pastors could also be hearers of the Word as well)