Niches in hell... shrines of self-opinion and pride for the arrogant.
I forgot what I was looking for but I came across a 'Catholic' forum conversation - pronouncing the 'doctrine' Catholic women should not go to university or waste their money on higher education if they are going to be married. (Now I know where one of my friends gets his ideas! Ha ha!) The thread continued onto issues of modesty: should you be modest in the privacy of your home? In bed? The participants appeared to involve single men and women and the discussion had me wondering how mature or stable they might be. It was a world - or chat room - I never want to get involved in. Not that it makes any difference, the site was a 'sede' site - sedevacantist - although I'm told such discussions take place on other traditional Catholic sites as well. On the site I was reading, one fellow actually recommended his readers read Mel Gibson's dad's book on Catholicism. I know!
So anyway. The experience helped me see how there are little niches in cyberspace - little clubs or cliques, where the discussions which take place are peculiar to their special interests. Just like here at Abbey Roads.
To repeat what I said in an earlier post, 'don't go to strangers'... and I might add, don't get too weird - lay off the forums and Facebook and Twitter and blogs - it's an awful lot of biased chatter. Read the Catechism and Scripture instead - and try praying more. The rosary is good - 20 decades now. That should keep our meddlesome minds busy and grace-filled! Isn't that right Ros?
Photo: HUMAN ROCKS
At the end of the stony road of 2 km, which heads to the west at the 5th km of the asphalt road heading from Kızkalesi to Hüseyinler Village of Silifke, you reach the Devil's River. At the steep slope of this valley, in 9 niches on the surface of rocks, there are 11 men, 4 women, two children and one mountain goat embossment, coming from the 2nd century AD. - Source
I have now come to accept that people will not let you have peace and quiet in which to worship God on Sunday. They just will not. A family of what appeared to be "tradsters" (is that a word?) came into Mass fifteen minutes late with a loud army of children, all adorned w/ their mantillas, of course. I wonder: does it never, but never, occur to any of them that courtesy, civility and regard for one's neighbor are the hallmarks of charity? I had to forgo Holy Communion due to the resentment I felt at having the Holy Sacrfice of the Mass disrupted in this way. The problem with noise at Mass is that it creates a near occasion of sin. I wonder if these parents ever think on this?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if part of it is the stress of city living as well as the added stress of political, economic, social and religious issues these days? I wonder if you were really culpable for your 'feelings'? Next time maybe try to give yourself a break and approach communion - he always gives us peace.
DeleteWhen I'm like that, I try to recall how Christ walked in peace through the midst of those who wanted to stone him, or how he carried the cross amidst such tumult. Don't be too hard on yourself. God bless you!
Maria writes "The problem with noise at Mass is that it creates a near occasion of sin. I wonder if these parents ever think on this?"
DeleteAs a matter of fact I was thinking about it today.
My thought was as I listened to a baby crying was : I feel sorry for the baby who is crying and for the mother. But for those at Mass who bitch and moan about noisy children, mine and others, well, go to 'Halifax' or to an earlier Mass.
God made children with wills of their own.
I'm on the verge of chucking it all in! Social networking that is!
ReplyDeleteI quit Facebook long ago and never went on Twitter - which helps me remain blissfully ignorant about so much stuff I never needed to worry about in the first place. Although it would be useful for pushing buttons. Kidding!
DeleteMaria, it's very hard to keep a bunch of children quiet, even in a strict family who raised their children well. There are umpteen million ways for people to end up late for Mass, and it's almost unavoidable with small children no matter what the parents' efforts.
ReplyDeleteI usually just shrug it off and it doesn't bother me. Those parents obviously why through a lot of get their children to Mass, ad probably have good reasons to be late (last-minute emergencies, etc.). Of course, I don't know this particular family, but coming from such a large family myself, and having known several others, it's easy for me to assume they acted in good faith.
Everything at all is an occasion of sin for someone, especially when the sin is anger or resentment or envy. For me, in those cases I always assume the problem is mine, and that it's unfair to expect others to know every possible way they could cause sin in me. I once saw a woman who wrote that pretty women should not dress pretty or wear any makeup because it might incite envy in other women. That is madness. It's like saying someone should not use any talent because it might incite envy in others.
I'm sorry if I sound like a jerk. I just mean that the family should maybe be given some leeway - it may be easier for one person to control their feelings than for another person to control a gaggle of young children, despite all their efforts.
That's an okay comment Merc - I understand you.
DeleteI agree and wonder how much of her anger was provoked by their being " tradsters" ... If they weren't would her reaction have been different? Asking in all charity of course...
DeleteHey! I'd love if you could add a link to your blogroll for my blog: www.catholicheritage.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteIt would be really kind if you could let your readers know that we're out there and doing our best for the Faith of our Fathers (and Mothers).
God bless you!
Maeve
Such good thoughts, Terry. Unfortunately, I would rather stone the family. Aren't I just the soul of charity lol? I think that the noise in our Churches is just a reflection of the overall coarsening of our culture. I have concluded that young parents must literally not understand that Churches are meant to be places of silence and reverence. Would they really subject people to this disruption if they understood that Church is not intended to host a party at Chuck E Cheese?
ReplyDeleteWhy should they know any better? No one explains this to them. Certainly not priests. I was pleasantly suprised to recently hear a Carmelite nun say what I have thought for some time: it is the responsibility of priests to instruct the faithful about what is and what is not acceptable behavior in Church. I just don't think that Mass should be an endurance test or some sort spiritual olympics wherein I consider myself victorious if I leave w/ a migraine and have refrained from asking these parents to leave their screaming children at home.
Mercury: I understand your thoughts. This subject has been nearly bludgeoned to death in blogdom and I am a lone voice. I always lose the debate.
20 decades?! Mary only gave us 15!
ReplyDeleteWhat!
good comment, mercury. fr. emmerich of the 12-step review has often said, that if someone does something that has nothing really to do with you and you get all angry & upset and put out, the problem is with you (read: me). so i'm learning over & over when something pushes my buttons, i have to ask why (identify the cause within me), and deal with it. one of my big buttons that gets pushed is when someone comes from behind me in traffic, goes round, then rushes to get in front of me only to stop at the red light in front of us. grrrr lol.
ReplyDeleteMaria should go to a traditionalist parish.
ReplyDeleteTraditionalist parish Masses are typically loaded with children and dead silent.
Most families whack their children into submission or use some other distasteful means of keeping little one from moving or making a sound.
As opposed to making my children miserable, I prefer to stand outside and let my little ones run down the hall, much to the annoyance of the Jansenists which gives me the double pleasure of watching my little ones while causing unhappiness where it is deserved.
My children have all grown up loving to go to Mass and when old enough ride their bikes to daily Mass, I wonder if part of that is because I did not make Mass a time of misery and spankings who knows what other punishments. I look for results for the long run, my children are only young for a short while.
I agree and wonder how much of her anger was provoked by their being " tradsters" ... If they weren't would her reaction have been different? Asking in all charity of course...
ReplyDeleteKatharine: With regard to your above posted commentary, I should say that, rather ironically, it is young families with children, those whom I suppose others would caricature as "tradsters" who, in my experience, are unsurpassed in their egregious indifference and thoughtless of others. They hold a candle to no one in their boorish behavior. They take first place. I would also add that I am what anyone would consider orthodox in my faith. I take my Catholicism straight up ;)
"And here comes a difficult question: what has happened to silence in our churches? Many people ask this. When the late Canon Duncan Stone, as a young priest in the 1940s, visited a parish in the Highlands, he was struck to often find thirty or forty people kneeling there in silent prayer. Now often there is talking up to the very beginning of Mass, and it starts again immediately afterwards. But what is a church for, and why do we go there? We go to meet the Lord and the Lord comes to meet us. ‘The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!’ said the prophet Habakkuk. Surely the silent sacramental presence of the Lord in the tabernacle should lead us to silence? We need to focus ourselves and put aside distractions before the Mass begins. We want to prepare to hear the word of the Lord in the readings and homily. Surely we need a quiet mind to connect to the great Eucharistic Prayer? And when we receive Holy Communion, surely we want to listen to what the Lord God has to say, ‘the voice that speaks of peace’? Being together in this way can make us one – the Body of Christ – quite as effectively as words.
ReplyDelete***A wise elderly priest of the diocese said recently, ‘Two people talking stop forty people praying.’***
‘Create silence!’ I don’t want to be misunderstood. We all understand about babies. Nor are we meant to come and go from church as cold isolated individuals, uninterested in one another. We want our parishes to be warm and welcoming places. We want to meet and greet and speak with one another. There are arrangements to be made, items of news to be shared, messages to be passed. A good word is above the best gift, says the Bible. But it is a question of where and when. Better in the porch than at the back of the church. Better after the Mass in a hall or a room. There is a time and place for speaking and a time and place for silence. In the church itself, so far as possible, silence should prevail. It should be the norm before and after Mass, and at other times as well. When there is a real need to say something, let it be done as quietly as can be. At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries. And then the Mass, with its words and music and movement and its own moments of silence, will become more real. It will unite us at a deeper level, and those who visit our churches will sense the Holy One amongst us.
‘Create silence!’ It is an imperative. May the Word coming forth from silence find our silence waiting for him like a crib! ‘The devil’, said St Ambrose, ‘loves noise; Christ looks for silence.’
Yours sincerely in Him,
+ Hugh, O. S. B.
Bishop of Aberdeen
7 December 2011
Do read the rest of Bishop Hugh's Pastoral Letter dated December 10 on the Archdiocesan website:
Bishop's » Diocese of Aberdeen
www.dioceseofaberdeen.org/?cat=3&paged=3