For years and years I have been growing old
with a bunch of guys who meet at 6:30 on Wednesday mornings to deal with the
difficulties of discipleship. Too often, no matter where we start, we end up in
the matter of children and grandchildren who have not set foot inside of a
church since Confirmation. Or who now attend the Church of St. Jesus Without
the Cross. Catholic guilt has given way to Catholic tsouris.
On the Pray Tell site,
Anthony Ruff, OSB took up the issue the other day. I printed out
what he said to take to the Wednesday meeting, but the guy I wanted most to react to it was tied up with physical miseries, so I didn’t read it there. Instead,
I’m inviting you to read it here.
Father Ruff rests his thoughts
upon Psalm 30: “At night there are tears, but joy comes with the dawn.” That
risks coming off sounding like Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t worry, be happy." But
there is a long Christian line of similar sayings. Think of Julian of Norwich:
“All is well and all will be well and all manner of thing will be well.” Has Father Ruff found a cure for Catholic
tsouris? We consider that after the break.
People who meet
regularly get to know each other’s tics. One I am famous for is to comment that
the people who take “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church”
(Matt 16:18) most solemnly are the ones most likely to ignore the rest of that
sentence and to try to protect the church by imposing uniformity where they
should be celebrating diversity. The rest of the sentence, of course, is “and
the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” So we have Jesus’s
own word that there is nothing to panic about – Julian of Norwich (and Bobby
McFerrin) got it right. You have to take that to the bank along with what you
believe about the authority of the pope.
What Psalm 30 is saying
to Father Ruff is that the tears are OK; they are normal, but remember that
with the dawn comes something new. He dismisses “simplistic analysis” as a
coping strategy. Yeah, he says, maybe “the vernacular Mass facing the people …
drove them away,” or in an analysis from our men’s group, Sister’s insistence
on songs from Godspell for all occasions was the culprit. But that kind of
analysis is a distraction.
Embrace the sadness, Father
says, by trying to imagine the unexpected future. His futures are more liturgical
and less social justice-oriented than mine. I mean, home-backed altar bread in
smaller congregations would be nice, but it would be even nicer if homilists
felt free to talk about what Pope Francis wrote about the environment. Either would, of course, be better than what we have. Which is
declining attendance, an aging population and Christian hope fading in twilight.
Last Sunday, more than 60 percent of the congregation for the
noon Mass arrived after Mass began, well after in many cases. Is that even worth trying
to save or crying over?
A good time to repost this: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ordinary-sunday
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday, more than 60 percent of the congregation for the noon Mass arrived after Mass began
ReplyDeleteThat's a problem in my official parish down the street. When I was on pastoral council, people constantly complained. As well that many people left after communion, which is easy with this church design.
I told them that people have no reason to come early or stay late. So why not be just in time (or a little late) and why not beat the crowd to the door.
My favorite parish does not have much of a problem. Their choir practices before Mass. Many people come early for that. And the choir sings songs that the people know.
They have coffee and donuts after Mass. They have a coat room so it is easy to come and act like you are going to be there for a while.
The pastor is a scripture scholar. So a good homily goes a long with the familiar music which people can sing. He also sings the Eucharist Prayer each and every Mass. We also stand for it.
So the first thing to get people to Mass is to communicate by actions rather than words that it is important.
Almost all the people who come to Mass pray daily. About twice as many people as come Mass also pray daily. The problem is not with their relationship with the God, its their relationship to the clergy.
"From sour-faced saints and silly devotions, good Lord, preserve us!" St. Theresa of Avila
Delete"He who travels in the barque of Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room." Msgr. Ronald Knox
I try not to fall into griping about Our Young People. If and when the Church has something to say to them in language and symbol they understand, they will seek it out. For now, I do what I can to keep the doors open and not berate the kiddies for not showing up, though I have suggested to The Boy and Girl that not all Catholic parishes are as grim as the one in which he was raised.
ReplyDelete“All is well and all will be well and all manner of thing will be well" has taken on a life of its own outside the context of the "Shewings." In the work, Julian wonders why God allowed there to be sin in the world. Christ replies that sin was necessary, but offers no explanations. He tells Julian that any number of things that seem wrong will be made right in the fullness of time for those who are saved. It's less a promise than an invitation to an inner dialogue with Christ, a call to faith.
I don't know if that makes sense.
"It's less a promise than an invitation to an inner dialogue with Christ, a call to faith." I like that thought.
DeleteTom, thanks for sharing the article by Anthony Ruff; it had some good thoughts. It's nice that you are able to get together with your old friends on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteJust a few random thoughts. I agree that people need to make the effort not to arrive late and leave early. Pope Francis had some words of advice about that. It is worth reading his talk, he does some good catechesis. I tend not to be too hard, though, on the late comers at least they are there, so there must be a desire at some level.
It is a gripe of mine when discussing Mass attendance that the fact that a large part of the congregation are senior citizens is always brought up. We're not chopped liver. I get that it's important to get the younger generation on board. But as Psalm 92 says, "The upright will flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a cedar of Lebanon. Planted in the house of Yahweh, they will flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they will still bear fruit, will remain fresh and green..." There are a lot of elders still bearing fruit, giving witness, and praying for the ones who are absent. I am still getting used to saying "we" rather than "they" when referring to seniors; realistically I'm no longer middle aged unless I plan to live to 130 or so!
Katherine, the pope is wise.
DeleteIn my theater reviewing days, Philadelphia would hold curtains if people were still coming in. So plays that were supposed to start at 8 started at 8:30. In New York, when they said 8 o'clock, if you weren't in the seat you were stuck in the lobby for 20 minutes or so, until there was a break. New York didn't care how much you paid:if you're late, you wait. Result: Hardly anyone was late,.
I am not depressed by the presence of the canes and walkers crowd; I'm there myself. But if you are planning for the future, say, and you bring in a program called That Man Is You, pitched toward young men starting or trying to hold together young families, and everyone calls it, correctly, That OldIs You, there is a problem. In most parishes, only 9 to 15 percent do anything beyond showing up most Sundays and throwing something in the collection. Our parish, for years, had many more active members than that, but they are dying and not being replaced. Our men's group weekly newsletter gets around a bit, and when we listed our deceased members in November, one of the kibbitzers said, "My gosh, you get up early on Wednesday morning, and the next year you are dead." It did sort of look like that.
Woops, my bad, I said the "Y" word in my quote from Ps.92 above. Should have read, "...planted in the house of the Lord..."
DeleteTom and Katherine - we have late arrivals at our parish, too, especially the late-Sunday-morning mass - I mostly-fondly refer to it as the "slacker mass". But then, at the 5 pm Saturday mass, the parking lot fills up 15 minutes before mass starts. But that crowd doesn't sing, while the late-Sunday-morning crowd raises the roof (or as close to that as ever happens in our parish).
DeleteI think the reasons people don't come on time are multiple and complicated, and I also personally struggle to make many appointments on time, so I'm generally sympathetic to the latecomers. I'm pleased they made it. I don't care how they're dressed, either, for whatever that's worth.
The word "busy", as in, "I lead a really busy life" covers many different activities, some of which may strike us as more important and urgent than others. On this topic, I guess my prayer is, Lead us not into the temptation to do something other than go to church on Sunday morning, and lead us not into judging others too much when they don't make it.
In my pre-V2 mass-going days, EVERYONE knew that if you arrived before the consecration and left after communion, you had "made the mass." Not need to deal with the starters and afters.
Delete"I think the reasons people don't come on time are multiple and complicated"
DeleteThere is a Mass I like to go to, but it starts 15 minutes after the time the meal starts at my dad's nursing home, whereas walking from one to the other takes 18 minutes. I visit my father, push his wheel chair down to the nursing home restaurant, greet a couple of residents on my way out, often one or the other stops me to exchange a word or two, and then I am systematically a few minutes late for Mass: although I have the urge to go when time becomes short, I force myself to be patient with the old folks. I hope no one at church will ever complain to me about my tardiness!
Sometimes someone delays me more than usual, then I run from the nursing home to the church, and arrive not only late but also with unsightly beads of sweat running down my face. I have not seen anyone else do that. Maybe their lives are less tightly constrained, or maybe they give up on Mass when that happens.
I think those performing the corporal acts of mercy and are late for or miss Mass get a pass. God bless you and your dad, Claire.
DeleteI posted a couple of comments under Fr. Ruff's post over at Pray Tell, and no use repeating them here. Suffice it to say that my patience for "Ah, woe is me, this situation is entirely beyond our control" has its limits. We've been given a Great Commission and might want to consider carrying it out.
ReplyDeleteJim, Wow! There weren't that many responses on Pray Tell when I read it. To your point there, I don't think Father Ruff is counseling passivity. I know I'm not. But you can't think outside the box if you consider the Great Commission to be that we return to the good old days of Bishop Sheen on the tube, 60 for Confirmation, filled churches on Holydaysofobl'gation (as we used to say) and, as Rita Ferrone wrote, a lot of lying and covering up.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Jesus expected us to be servicing a lot of people who believe in a Catholicism of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation, Christmas and Easter if convenient, and call a priest for mom when she is dying. If you look at what we say Mass is, you would expect us to treat it like New Yorkers treat theater (see above), not like Philadelphians. If the congregation is acting like Philadelphia, maybe it's time to lock the doors when the procession begins. We'd lose a lot that way. But maybe that is part of the change that leads to a new dawn.
"I don't think Jesus expected us to be servicing a lot of people who believe in a Catholicism of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation, Christmas and Easter if convenient, and call a priest for mom when she is dying."
ReplyDeleteI think those are EXACTLY the people we should be servicing. Those with tenuous connections to the Church often don't know why it still attracts them, if only when "convenient."
My guess is that, less than feeling the Church inconveniences them, many just feel uncomfortable there. They are struggling with Church teaching that seems not to address the mess that is modern family and single life.
Isn't it up to us to bring them in deeper?
The Great Commission isn't about bringing in the people who are already there, is it? Or just shutting the doors to keep them out if they don't want to play right?
Just speaking from my own experience, I am a better Christian as a lapsed Catholic than I was as an every-Sunday Anglican. I try harder to live the faith I have and struggle with the faith I don't have. Catholicism is very hard if you weren't raised that way. For me it's an aspiration rather than a done deal.
DeleteNone of these "come home" efforts are speaking to the things I care about. But I do care.
"I think those are EXACTLY the people we should be servicing. Those with tenuous connections to the Church often don't know why it still attracts them, if only when "convenient."
DeleteWell, let's see. They have been exposed to what we have. It didn't take, or they'd be on time once in awhile. They have exposed their children to baptism and confirmation, and that was the last we saw of their children. While we are exerting ourselves for them, others are making the break official -- possibly because we are running a church for the half-committed. I know pastors like to say the C&Es somehow validate what we do 52 weeks a year. But if that's all there is, lets find some place where we can go dancing.
No, we don't all have the same experiences as you did. I wasn't raised a Catholic, for example. The RCIA experience differs by parish. And I expect the upbringing of Cradle Catholics also differs.
DeleteAnd there are many reasons things don't "take" in some kind of prescribed manner. The varied lives of the saints and their conversions speak to that, no?
I'm not exactly sure what you want to see happen here. Bill Donohue and Company have always advocated for that "smaller more faithful" church. Benefits are that your prayer is not disturbed by latecomers, and you could move to a smaller building that's cheaper on the upkeep.
Jean, I am an usher. My Sundays are for service. No one disturbs my prayer then because I gave up on trying that long ago. I go to Mass during the week to pray.
DeleteI am not exactly sure what I want to see happen, either. I do think that, whether I want it or not, the church is going to come through this night smaller. I am not interested in the Benedict option because I don't see any Benedict, especially among its promoters. And I sure don't count Bill Donohue as an ally in anything. I am not advocating leaving seekers like you to your own devices and building a church for my needs, i.e., ego. I do think seekers are more likely to find something when Catholic communities actually do something besides count communion wafers. But where I am actually going with this is that the church is going to change, but it is not going away even if it no longer looks as it did in 1950, 1963 or 1980, take your pick.
Rita Ferrone had a good analysis of some of the factors of what's gone wrong over on Pray Tell.
DeleteI would add that a lot of parishes are run by a few individuals who are mouthy and opinionated, and who shut down new ideas. I asked the Church Ladies if they would like knitters at their Wednesday quilting group, and they said "no, there's no interest."
M'okay.
I could have pushed back, but I've been pushing back against these battle axes for 18 years, since The Boy was a preschooler, and I'm tired of it.
An ailing old doubter like me is not gonna make a lot of difference at this point. It's their parish, and they can have it. I leave it to younger heads to fight the power. :-)
Jean, I am with you that we should take people however they come, whenever they come. Like the father in the Prodigal Son story, we could even rush out to greet them. I am also with Tom that providing sacramental services without wishing for more and deeper engagement isn't really the discipleship ideal. My idea is that we find ways to invite the late or occasional attendees to become more engaged. I think that's at least as much art as science, and I'm not particularly adept at it. But we have to be open to trying, and if we see an opportunity to invite someone, we should take it. Just my view.
DeleteBack in the days before everybody started dying (and before a fantasist pastor drove many away; he is gone and suing the bishop now), we had 103 different "ministries" in the parish, from the food pantry and community organization to a group that showed up for all funerals and the women who made the blankets we give to every newly baptized baby. The number of ministries has been cut approximately in half by death and loss, but even now no dodo can control involvement in the parish.
DeleteA sucke.., new parishioner showed up this morning to say hello. Before the "o" he had been signed up for the Christ Renews His Parish retreat next month, the K of C (an arm of the Republican Party, but a lot of the members don't know that and just do good) and the charismatic prayer group. When I left, the head of the food pantry was drawing a bead on him.
Jim, Our pastor attempted a jolly bunch of New Year's Resolutions in the Bulletin. Number One was "getting to Mass on time." That was one week before the counter clicker told the story of 89 in by "The Lord be with you" for a Mass that would eventually total a congregation of 235 (plus two who arrived and settled into the ushers' pew while we were putting the collection in the safe.
An expression I'm running into lately is "woke". I did a little research and found that it originated in African American parlance, meaning becoming aware of social and racial issues. It also seems to have come into general use as just meaning "aware". I think we could use the term "awakened" without fear of cultural appropriation. What we need are "awakened" Christians. I wish I knew how to get people there. A family member who was a not-very-diligent Mass attender had a risky open-heart surgery. I noticed that it made him a much more awakened Catholic. Sometimes a brush with death reminds someone of what they already know.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is an encounter with Jesus Christ that awakens people. None of these things are under our control, but I can pray that at least I don't get in the way of someone's awakening.
Fear of hell works wonders! Raber feels that Catholics don't talk enough about eternal punishments and consequences. He can be a barrel of laughs sometimes.
DeleteOTOH, one of my support group people suggested that each night we write down the people who have helped us that day. Eye-roll.
But the whole point of the group is to try new things to pull you out of the self-centeredness that comes with illness, so, OK, I tried it.
It did adjust my outlook in some fairly profound ways that I need not belabor here. What strikes me, though, is how seldom anyone from our parish turns up on that list.
I guess it speaks to Tom's point about parishes "doing something besides count communion wafers."
If I had to write down the people who helped me during a day, most of the time it would be the people at work who also drive me crazy with their nonstop Fox News political commentary.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/search?q=the+world+is+waiting+for+the+sunrise&rlz=1C1AYBJ_enUS768US768&oq=THE+WORLD+IS+WAITING+FRO+THE+SUNRISE&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.8662j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I enjoyed every second of it!
DeleteJimmy Mac, Thank you. That song became my first tenor banjo solo in my musical days.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j714N05_SeQ
DeleteAnd her it is on an accordion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tz0B-CebZM
DeleteIf I coulda grinned like Aoki I might not be here today. But you know the old only question that no one has ever asked: "Is that the banjo player's Lamborghini?"
Delete