My husband went downstate to meet my mother-in-law and had the munchkins with him (another story I don’t even want to talk about). I had to work, but chilled with my family afterwards. My family’s routine is to go to the 4 o’clock Mass at the Church my father is assigned to. The pastor there has limited my father’s deacon work to reading the Gospel at 4 o’clock Mass and doing funerals. (This guy is very insightful that he limits the responsibilities of a deacon with terminal cancer to doing funerals).
The Gospel was the Transfiguration. The pastor’s Gospel was this (not verbatum, just from memory).
Want the condensed version today? (Everyone laughed and says yes. Oh that silly pastor, you know he is a good pastor because he is so witty). Recently philanthropist Warren Buffet gave 30 million dollars to the Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is a foundation that helps people and does good and charitable works around the world. The reason he did this is because he said “Bill, I have this money and want to do something good with it. If I give it to you, you have a better chance of transforming it into something better.”
That is the message of the Transfiguration. We have to be like Warren Buffet and transform what we have into something better.”
And that was it.
Later at Communion, I genuflected before receiving. I always do and have done so for years. I wait for the person in front of me to receive, while they are receiving, I kneel for a second (unless of course if I am at the Traditional Latin Mass). After Mass my father got yelled at because someone in his family genuflected, and the Bishop (supposedly) has specifically said we cannot genuflect before receiving. We are to bow. My father was upset because he got reprimanded and told me we should just be obedient to the Bishop (i.e. don’t make waves and make my life harder).
The pastor should have said something to me,and addressed me as an adult, not yelled at my father (my mother told my father as much as well). As always, people never realize how psycho they are when they show that relationships with people are not about manipulating or controlling them. How nuts is it to scream at a 33-year-old woman’s father because she kneeled at Communion?
I still have not heard of this edict from the Bishop, only when I go to Mass with my family. When I am not with them, I go out of my way to avoid parishes that are about the Pastor’s therapy, and not about Jesus (we have a lot of those in Albany). So I actually still see things like kneeling during the consecration, homilies that have to do with the Gospel, and communion received in the mouth. Although altar boys are pretty much a thing of the past around here.
My mother said next weeks homiliy will probably again be about the evils of genuflecting. Most of his homilies are about someone doing something that he doesn’t like, and lecturing the parish about it.
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Funny how they’re all about the “diversity” until someone wants to genuflect or receive Holy Communion on the tongue.
In general, most people who declare “diversity” are always about “do it my way or else”.
We have one of those as well. He told us all to stop our bow before reception, since he was sick of hitting people when they stood up with the host. It’s aggravating, to be sure.
since he was sick of hitting people when they stood up with the host.
That is why when I genuflect, I do so when the person in front of me is still receiving.
Your bishop sounds like a right dimwit Pansy and the local priest as big a fool. Your father should tell him oh so politely to like it or lump it. I always understood that geneflecting towards the tabernacle was standard and as a priest he should encourage it.
Maybe tell the priest it’s part of your culture and if you’re forbidden to do it you’ll feel marginalized?
Isn’t fun having a deacon as a father(or father in law)! I share your joy. We recently dropped out of Religious Ed. Can’t wait till the DRE calls my FIL.
Maybe tell the priest it’s part of your culture and if you’re forbidden to do it you’ll feel marginalized?
I wouldn’t tell the priest anything (unless of course he chose to say something to me instead of lecturing my father). This diocese makes life bad for clergy who are even minorly outspokenly orthodox.
I was more upset by his homily. Why do these eugenic organizations get a thumbs up from the pulpit?
De-lurking to say a)big *sigh* on the homily b)so bizarre to get ‘told’ on at 33 and c) still, is this really what the Bishop has declared? bc if so, I really do feel it should be respected.
If you find out this is not in fact something the Bishop has instated, maybe you could write a very polite note to the pastor referring him to the Archdiocesan document or whatever, where it says genuflecting before communion os OK.
We are in a great parish now, but have been in some seriously mixed up ones so feel your frustration. One time I bowed before receiving, something our Bishop encourages, and the EM said to me, very loudly, “honey you don’t have to bow to me!” I was really shaken up, distracted and yes embarrased. After Mass, I tracked her down in the Narthex and tried to explain that I wasn’t bowing to her, I was showing respect for my Lord in the Eucharist. I don’t think she registered one word. I can’t blame her personally though, she really didn’t ‘get it’. That parish was all about loosey goosey feel good ‘formation’.
c) still, is this really what the Bishop has declared? bc if so, I really do feel it should be respected.
Of course I would obey. But I have never heard this except only in this one parish. I do not practice this to tick anyone off, it has become a habit. I picked it up in the Fiji islands. Granted, everyone there did it, and it is more rare here, and perhaps I should take that as a hint and follow suit, but it such a lovely practice. Especially when I am at a Mass such as the one I described, I feel it helps me keep focused on the Eucharist.
I am wondering where I could look this up. I probably should. This priest says very strange things at times and claims they come from some higher up authority, like how we are not to kneel any longer during the Consecration, and I have yet to hear such things in parishes that have more normal Mass. His Easter Homily was about Easter fashions and how we should watch “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. So maybe I am wrong, but I take much of what he says when I am a guest at his parish with a grain of salt.
Also, the “you don’t have to bow to me” thing is something I see a lot around here. The idea that serving in a position in Mass (or in the parish) is about that person’s therapy and not about God.
I totally don’t think you were doing it to tick anyone off. I think it is a lovely and reverent way to receive.
In any case this pastor needs some serious prayers. I forget sometimes how good we have it around here. We are in Atlanta and it is a thriving diocese overall with a few wacky arenas, but for the most part lots of faithful, orthodox, Eucharist loving folks.
The whole ‘don’t bow to me’ thing happend right after I came back into the Church and I was all fervent and gung-ho and it just stung all the more. Not that I am not fervent and gung ho anymore though!
You keep kneeling sister! Maybe get a permission note from the Bishop next time to present to the pastor just before Mass 😉
Well Tracy,
FWIW, I am online on our diocesan website looking for something from the Bishop. You have a point (and I know better). I should look it up before complaining, and I am coming up empty handed.
I found one long letter from the Bishop entitled “The Mission of the Contemporary Parish� and skimming through the whole thing, there is little in the way of substance (you know, this is allowed, that is not), but a whole lot of “perspective� (if that makes any sense).
I have to stop reading though because I keep stumbling on passages like this:
“Father Gerald Vann, the renowned writer and preacher, once shocked his audience when he said, “ I don’t believe in the doctrines, dogmas and teachings of the Catholic Church,� Then pausing, he added, “Rather, I believe through them in the living reality beyond, in the person of Jesus Christ.�
I don’t know what that means.
In general, most people who declare “diversity” are always about “do it my way or else”
In my experience, it has been most people who declare “diversity” are always about doing it any way except for the traditional way. Like what’s been done for years has got to be thrown out the window, unless it is what’s been done for years in someone else’s culture. I think in general, our society is adolescent… it’s still rebelling against it’s parents, but everyone else’s (other cultures’) parents are okay.
Did the priest even GET what the tranfiguration was all about?