WHEN LITURGIES COLLIDE

Polly Karp — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:53:50 -0600

Does anyone else ever wonder what God thinks of Catholics fighting over which form of worship is the most pleasing to Him? Does he get weary hearing about it? Since I became a devotee of the Latin mass two years ago I began to notice constant bickering on message boards between traditional Catholics who attend the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and those who prefer the Ordinary Form. It can get simply sinful. Here are my impressions of some common volleys in the battle between who is doing things right, the Extraordinary Form Catholics (EFC) or the Ordinary Form Catholics (OFC).

OFC: Who understands Latin? English is best at Mass.

EFC: Latin is the beautiful official language of the Church, of the Mass heard by great saints for, well for certainly more than 40 years. I hear your new Mass has to be revised?

OFC: You people aren't welcoming. Your ushers look like bouncers.

EFC: Do you read the news? Your churches could use a few bouncers.

OFC: You're elitist, judgemental; all about rules that don't matter that much.

EFC: Worship has always required rules, since Old Testament times. Did Zechariah turn his back to the Holy of Holies and offer incense facing the people? Where is your tabernacle anyway?

OFC: Would you have that old man at daily mass, on his way to work at Walmart wear a tie? He probably doesn't own one.

EFC: The clothes I've seen at your Masses I wouldn't even wear to Walmart, yet you wear them to God's house.

OFC: We have fellowship. We talk before and after Mass.

EFC: We pray before and after Mass.

OFC: You're living in the past.

EFC: You're living in lukewarmness.

OFC: You worship a liturgy.

EFC: You worship each other.

OFC: Do not.

EFC: Do too.

OFC: Do not.

EFC: Do too.

Ummm, Catholics bashing each other. The devil is pleased. Are there three sides to this war, your side, their side, and the right side? I don't know. From my ordinary Catholic in the pew perspective, I'm thinking Jesus might say: "Children, these things don't matter so much that you should bring your gift to the altar while having something against your brother." I attend both forms of the Mass because I cannot attend a daily Latin mass. One day as I was there, worrying about which liturgy was the "right" one, the acceptable one, my eyes fell on these words in my Latin Mass missal, from Daniel 3:40: "For those who trust in you cannot be put to shame." So I trust I am where He wants me to be, on any day of the week.

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Robyn Broyles — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:10:38 -0600

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WHEN LITURGIES COLLIDE

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