American Catholicism
ok... I am calm, cool, and collected. I just wanted to mark that down in case I become otherwise over the course of this post.
it seems as though the united states conference of catholic bishops (usccb) has this burning desire to form their own little subsection of the catholic church, with their own rules, regulations, beliefs, etc. that's ridiculous. we already have the most exceptions to the rules of any other country. we have millions of unnecessary emhc_s, we started the altargirl fiasco that got turned into a concession, we can wash women's feet on holy thursday, holy days of obligation don't apply to us if they are on a saturday or a monday (even though for the rest of the world, it's a mortal sin to miss mass on that day), our "catholic" schools are getting crappier every year and nothing's being done, we "get" to stand instead of kneel during the most sacred part of mass when God comes down to earth in the form of bread and wine, in general we're just going downhill.
Dear Most Reverent U.S. Bishops,
Why do you have this passionate yearning to do everything except what Holy Mother Church wants us to? Why do you consistently present your people with mangled liturgy when we have a defined, undeniable right to authentic liturgy accoring to the proper rubrics from Rome? Why are you condemning us to a life of ignorance, devoid of opportunities to learn, share, grow in, and pass on our faith that about 40 years ago were available to everyone? American Catholics are like dogs under the table, only getting the scraps that fall from their master's hands. With the Phoenician woman, we ask you to please heal us of this grievous wound.
Yours in Christ,
A Young Catholic
even our modern churches are terrible. the architecture is more akin to costco or home depot than anything that raises our thoughts to heaven and the divine. I am hardly inspired to prayer or sacred contemplation when staring at a flat, whitewashed wall with an enormous slice of maroon fabric pasted on it. this is God's house, and we are in charge of furnishing it. what happened to the beauty? can nothing be ornate? where did the sublimeness, the grandeur, the splendor, go? we have precious little that is awe-inspiring anymore. when a guy comes in off the street, he should think, "hey, somethng really important and holy happens in here," not "hey, where's the projector? I wanna see RAMBO!" I kneel in a cloth-draped white box and people expect me to think wow, catholics really care about God. !
vatican II promised me latin, gregorian chant and other "real music," ad orientem, truth, and reverence, among other things. well, where did it all go? cos I want to run after it and make my home there. catholic education is supposed to educate catholics about catholicism in order to produce mature, intelligent, faithful people. that's a laugh. we're taught, "God is love, be nice to people, Jesus was this one cool guy, the Old Testament is about Jews, there's this book called the Bible that has religious stuff written in it, other religions are pretty cool too, and oh yeah, be nice to people." what a joke. ha ha ha. everyone's in on it except the poor little brainwashed, uneducated, stumbling idiots who go through that tripe. religious education through parishes is even worse, if it's possible. their curriculum is solely, "God loves you no matter what, be nice to people, and you yourself are the most important authority when it comes to making decisions." what cock and bull.
I have a few burning desires of my own (not in any particular order): teach proper english to high schoolers, teach proper Catholicism to everyone, worship God the way we ought to worship Him, get married and have kids and raise them properly. if it weren't for the last one, I'd become a nun in a heartbeat, provided I found an order I could live with (see post on the nun controversy). I've been looking through the old Bourdage yearbooks, starting with 1964, and have been drooling over what they had that we don't anymore - Latin classes, authentic religion classes (I can read what's written on the boards in the pictures), headcoverings and gender segregation during school Masses, may crownings, sodalities, habits on the dozens of religious teachers, priests nuns and brothers running around like nobody's business, chant taught in choir class, altarboys in cassocks and surplices, ahhhh!!!!! (plus we used to have a rifle club, how cool is that??)
anyway I have to go because I am dead tired and I have to make hot cross buns ... today actually. Good Friday. wish me luck, that yeast appears to be tricky!
=^.^=
it seems as though the united states conference of catholic bishops (usccb) has this burning desire to form their own little subsection of the catholic church, with their own rules, regulations, beliefs, etc. that's ridiculous. we already have the most exceptions to the rules of any other country. we have millions of unnecessary emhc_s, we started the altargirl fiasco that got turned into a concession, we can wash women's feet on holy thursday, holy days of obligation don't apply to us if they are on a saturday or a monday (even though for the rest of the world, it's a mortal sin to miss mass on that day), our "catholic" schools are getting crappier every year and nothing's being done, we "get" to stand instead of kneel during the most sacred part of mass when God comes down to earth in the form of bread and wine, in general we're just going downhill.
Dear Most Reverent U.S. Bishops,
Why do you have this passionate yearning to do everything except what Holy Mother Church wants us to? Why do you consistently present your people with mangled liturgy when we have a defined, undeniable right to authentic liturgy accoring to the proper rubrics from Rome? Why are you condemning us to a life of ignorance, devoid of opportunities to learn, share, grow in, and pass on our faith that about 40 years ago were available to everyone? American Catholics are like dogs under the table, only getting the scraps that fall from their master's hands. With the Phoenician woman, we ask you to please heal us of this grievous wound.
Yours in Christ,
A Young Catholic
even our modern churches are terrible. the architecture is more akin to costco or home depot than anything that raises our thoughts to heaven and the divine. I am hardly inspired to prayer or sacred contemplation when staring at a flat, whitewashed wall with an enormous slice of maroon fabric pasted on it. this is God's house, and we are in charge of furnishing it. what happened to the beauty? can nothing be ornate? where did the sublimeness, the grandeur, the splendor, go? we have precious little that is awe-inspiring anymore. when a guy comes in off the street, he should think, "hey, somethng really important and holy happens in here," not "hey, where's the projector? I wanna see RAMBO!" I kneel in a cloth-draped white box and people expect me to think wow, catholics really care about God. !
vatican II promised me latin, gregorian chant and other "real music," ad orientem, truth, and reverence, among other things. well, where did it all go? cos I want to run after it and make my home there. catholic education is supposed to educate catholics about catholicism in order to produce mature, intelligent, faithful people. that's a laugh. we're taught, "God is love, be nice to people, Jesus was this one cool guy, the Old Testament is about Jews, there's this book called the Bible that has religious stuff written in it, other religions are pretty cool too, and oh yeah, be nice to people." what a joke. ha ha ha. everyone's in on it except the poor little brainwashed, uneducated, stumbling idiots who go through that tripe. religious education through parishes is even worse, if it's possible. their curriculum is solely, "God loves you no matter what, be nice to people, and you yourself are the most important authority when it comes to making decisions." what cock and bull.
I have a few burning desires of my own (not in any particular order): teach proper english to high schoolers, teach proper Catholicism to everyone, worship God the way we ought to worship Him, get married and have kids and raise them properly. if it weren't for the last one, I'd become a nun in a heartbeat, provided I found an order I could live with (see post on the nun controversy). I've been looking through the old Bourdage yearbooks, starting with 1964, and have been drooling over what they had that we don't anymore - Latin classes, authentic religion classes (I can read what's written on the boards in the pictures), headcoverings and gender segregation during school Masses, may crownings, sodalities, habits on the dozens of religious teachers, priests nuns and brothers running around like nobody's business, chant taught in choir class, altarboys in cassocks and surplices, ahhhh!!!!! (plus we used to have a rifle club, how cool is that??)
anyway I have to go because I am dead tired and I have to make hot cross buns ... today actually. Good Friday. wish me luck, that yeast appears to be tricky!
=^.^=