How about more Catholic stuff?
I am talking about Pope Benedict’s turn backward to the time before Vatican II, before all those liberal changes to hundred year old practices and traditions.
There was a big fight when those changes were first instituted but even my mother eventually gave in. But now Benedict is slowly allowing the old stuff to come back. He must feel that the old ways were better and that the Church needs to go back there and rid itself of all those free thinking, modern Catholics that don’t know how to shut up, listen and bow.
One big backward move is the re-introduction of the Latin Mass. This is the mass I was raised in and best remember. The few times I have been in the modern Catholic Church at the post Vatican II type of Mass, I felt like a twit among twits, constantly standing, sitting and kneeling as well as repeating inane sayings and singing the most god-awful songs I have ever heard. This was supposed to be a mass with popular participation but has evolved into a silly, meaningless exercise in dumb ritual with no substance, at least as far as I am concerned but whom in the hell am I?
I was intrigued by the reasons why so many people, even young, supposedly liberal, people prefer the old Latin Mass. I have always stated that the old Mass with it’s meaningless but oh so holy sounding, Latin language, its clouds of incense with the sounds of bells and oh, the raising of the “monstrance” as in “Adoration of the Eucharist” portion of the Mass – wow, made you feel like you were participating in something really sacred, really “other-worldly” or really spiritual; you believed that a holy “presence” was actually present at the event.
The priest has his back to the congregation as in “leading” the congregation in worshiping of the holy presence in the actual altar. He bows, kneels and kisses the altar turning to the people only to show the monstrance which hold the holy presence in the Eucharist host.
Remember the old Tarzan movies where wild looking people danced around some statue of some god. Usually you had some great bonfire going and they usually had some nubile female (Jane?) ready to sacrifice to the god to gain some favor for the people. I kind of think of the Latin Mass like that but maybe without the naked dancers and the bonfire; the premise was the same.
In my previous writings on the subject I have spoken of, what many believe is a pre-programmed predisposition on the part of humans to desire some form of religion or at least a belief in a higher power to make their lives more complete. In this way, they have no mysteries or unknowns to deal with; all can be attributed to a higher power.
Vatican II, was trying to bring the Church into the modern age by transforming the ages old superstitious and in some cases, backward traditions of the Church into a more liberal, individual and more participatory form of worship. It was clear to them that the Church could no longer remain in the Dark Ages and grow and prosper. Were they wrong?
Look at what faiths are growing and which ones are declining. Islam is growing like gangbusters and is based, for the most part, on Dark Age traditions that depend on their believers to obey and not think. Catholicism is also growing but mostly among the poor and uneducated. Liberal Protestantism is way down but fundamentalism is way up.
I feel Benedict in all his wisdom, has deduced the fact that religion and religious worship must cater to what the people really want. He recently stated that he would rather see the Church much smaller by getting rid of the doubters and questioners and just keep the true believers, those that do not question their religion or their religious leaders and just follow the path laid out in front of them; a path to heaven.
It also appears in the reports that I have read, that you don’t have to be an ignoramus to prefer the Catholicism of the past; young, supposedly intelligent people are being drawn to it also. Interesting…
I am talking about Pope Benedict’s turn backward to the time before Vatican II, before all those liberal changes to hundred year old practices and traditions.
There was a big fight when those changes were first instituted but even my mother eventually gave in. But now Benedict is slowly allowing the old stuff to come back. He must feel that the old ways were better and that the Church needs to go back there and rid itself of all those free thinking, modern Catholics that don’t know how to shut up, listen and bow.
One big backward move is the re-introduction of the Latin Mass. This is the mass I was raised in and best remember. The few times I have been in the modern Catholic Church at the post Vatican II type of Mass, I felt like a twit among twits, constantly standing, sitting and kneeling as well as repeating inane sayings and singing the most god-awful songs I have ever heard. This was supposed to be a mass with popular participation but has evolved into a silly, meaningless exercise in dumb ritual with no substance, at least as far as I am concerned but whom in the hell am I?
I was intrigued by the reasons why so many people, even young, supposedly liberal, people prefer the old Latin Mass. I have always stated that the old Mass with it’s meaningless but oh so holy sounding, Latin language, its clouds of incense with the sounds of bells and oh, the raising of the “monstrance” as in “Adoration of the Eucharist” portion of the Mass – wow, made you feel like you were participating in something really sacred, really “other-worldly” or really spiritual; you believed that a holy “presence” was actually present at the event.
The priest has his back to the congregation as in “leading” the congregation in worshiping of the holy presence in the actual altar. He bows, kneels and kisses the altar turning to the people only to show the monstrance which hold the holy presence in the Eucharist host.
Remember the old Tarzan movies where wild looking people danced around some statue of some god. Usually you had some great bonfire going and they usually had some nubile female (Jane?) ready to sacrifice to the god to gain some favor for the people. I kind of think of the Latin Mass like that but maybe without the naked dancers and the bonfire; the premise was the same.
In my previous writings on the subject I have spoken of, what many believe is a pre-programmed predisposition on the part of humans to desire some form of religion or at least a belief in a higher power to make their lives more complete. In this way, they have no mysteries or unknowns to deal with; all can be attributed to a higher power.
Vatican II, was trying to bring the Church into the modern age by transforming the ages old superstitious and in some cases, backward traditions of the Church into a more liberal, individual and more participatory form of worship. It was clear to them that the Church could no longer remain in the Dark Ages and grow and prosper. Were they wrong?
Look at what faiths are growing and which ones are declining. Islam is growing like gangbusters and is based, for the most part, on Dark Age traditions that depend on their believers to obey and not think. Catholicism is also growing but mostly among the poor and uneducated. Liberal Protestantism is way down but fundamentalism is way up.
I feel Benedict in all his wisdom, has deduced the fact that religion and religious worship must cater to what the people really want. He recently stated that he would rather see the Church much smaller by getting rid of the doubters and questioners and just keep the true believers, those that do not question their religion or their religious leaders and just follow the path laid out in front of them; a path to heaven.
It also appears in the reports that I have read, that you don’t have to be an ignoramus to prefer the Catholicism of the past; young, supposedly intelligent people are being drawn to it also. Interesting…
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