A Hermeneutic of Discontinuity: Life as a Traditional Catholic in a Post-Christian World

Having survived -- so far as I can tell -- The Rapture this weekend, I'm struck by a couple of things I experienced.

The first was a discussion with an old friend who does not attend the Latin Mass, but who is increasingly dissatisfied with what passes for suburban post-modern Catholicism of the "I'm-OK-You're-OK-Anything-Goes--Except-Pre-Vatican-II-Catholicism" variety.

He's less than satisfied with the atrocious level of Catholic teaching at his parish, and pretty much most parishes he's visited. I happened to speak with his wife in a separate conversation, and she echoed the same sentiment about the lack of Catholics who seem to practice Catholicism. Specifically she was complaining about the lack of decency in dress at Sunday Mass -- halter tops and short-shorts and the like. When she wondered aloud whether there were any parishes where such things were not occurring, I responded "Well that doesn't happen in our [Latin Mass] parish." "But we're freaks, of course," I quickly added.

And then today on the way to Mass (across town to the ghetto where they keep us Traditional freaks -- for reasons unknown, it's pretty standard that the Latin Masses are relegated to the worst-possible areas of town all across America) we passed one of the local parishes, where I noticed several parishioners doing yard work around the parish sign, apparently oblivious of the 3rd Commandment's strictures against menial or servile physical labor on the Sabbath day. (Yes, I know they were undoubtedly well-intentioned, but couldn't someone have proposed doing this work on a Saturday instead?)

Everywhere you look, it seems that Catholicism is observed more in the breach than in actuality.

I really try to refrain from this sort of fuddy-duddy harumph-harumphing. Really I do. For one thing, there are seemingly no end of faults of my own to concentrate upon (Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.)

But it's getting more and more difficult to view Catholicism as it's preached and practiced in the Novus Ordo Missae (New Order of the Mass - the Ordinary Form) and as it's preached and practiced in the Traditionalist parishes and chapels around the country and pretend that the two versions are really one and the same Church.

In the one, you have a complete breakdown of traditional practices and devotions like Friday abstinence and the sacrament of Penance ("Confession"), and pathetically weak homilies about being nice. In the other, you have homilies about reality of Hell, and the need for sacrifice and penance from the laity, and reinforcement of the age-old Catholic teachings against contraception and divorce and the Commandments.

Don't know what to do about it, other than the old ever-necessary tools of prayer and penance. In today's homily my priest was railing about the need to be bold examples of the Church Militant in the world, rather than meekly observing the political-correctness which requires us to hide our Catholicism from the world.

I'll guess we should try both prayer-penance and militancy. Jesus does not require that we be successful, but He does require that we preach the Good News to all the world -- which would I suppose include the Catholics at the parish down the street, as well as the non-Catholics and the rest of the world.

So SSAD: the Triumph of Homosexual Propaganda

Got a couple of Twitter posts in the past two days that were promoting a local "Gay Pride" festival. (I prefer the term/acronym SSAD -- Same Sex Attraction Disorder to "gay".) The first of the posts was passed on by a perfectly nice young lady who often promotes local festivals, events, etc. around Tulsa. At first, I was a little taken aback -- you get to know people on a limited basis and probably don't know them as well as you think. (I know, I know -- it's the internet, what should I expect?) I would have liked to ignore it, but I just couldn't. So I sent the young lady a direct message (for those of you who don't "Twitter", a direct message goes only to the recipient sort of like a regular text message) expressing my disappointment, and then un-followed her future public posts. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a neutral reply back thanking me for the feedback, via direct message. (The young lady in question is nothing if not polite, and she should be commended for showing such obvious class and grace.) But no discussion of the subject matter. I suspect that she sees "Gay Pride" like most secularists as a civil rights matter. The next day I received more notices of the homosexual pride festival from other sources -- one of which was happily inviting people to visit the YWCA booth at the Gay Pride (yuck) festival. Think about that for a sec -- the YWCA, the Young Women's Christian Association is apparently promoting a festival which glorifies an objectively sinful behavior. These are the depths to which we've already sunk. Why should this be? Much of it is the triumph of secularism over religious belief, and secularism seems to be a fruit of the poisonous tree of relativism. The late great Pope John Paul II decried this philosophy in his landmark encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), when he noted the threat that relativism poses to our society and culture at large.) Relativists are able to believe contradictory mutually exclusive propositions (both "A" and "Not A") simultaneously, without so much as a blink. Where people have lost the common sense understanding that there is such a thing as objective truth, the whole culture is at risk. But it also seems to me that this has to do with a generational difference in the way homosexuality is viewed in society at large. The current generation -- a product of years of skillful and insidious propagandizing through the media -- has accepted that homosexuality is merely an acceptable alternative lifestyle, and not an objectively immoral or sinful (they seem to have little concept of the latter) behavior. That a whole generation could view something so objectively sinful as "normal" is testament to the success of 40 years of gay propaganda. But it's also proof that we have failed to publicly oppose it and speak out when confronted by it. Too often, we just "let it go" and silently cluck to ourselves. But what to do about it? I would suggest that we Catholics and Christians and even other non-Christian religions must necessarily push back. We must not be silent in the face of such things, but step out in courage to calmly and peacefully point out that such behavior is objectively wrong. We have to call attention to the fact that homosexuality is unnatural and a perversion which should draw pity, not pride. We cannot be silent. Lives are lost and a generation is the process of losing their very souls. At multiple apparitions in the 20th century, beginning with Fatima in 1917, the Virgin Mary has testified that more souls would be lost to sexual impurity (of which homosexuality is but one form, of course) than anything else. The Progressives rely on intimidating Christians into silence. Don't let them do it, for we remain silent we are betraying Christ. Speak up and speak out against these sins.

Mass365: Ash Wednesday

And so it begins - Ash Wednesday, the first day of our Lenten season of fasting and penance. On this day (and Good Friday also) Roman Catholics 14 through 60 are obliged under pain of sin to fast and abstain from meat.

Ash Wednesday is also the day each year when Catholics receive the mark of Jesus Christ - a cross - on their foreheads, causing their non-Catholic friends and colleagues to do double-takes all day long. The usual greeting begins, "Did you know you've got something on your ....?" (You'd think you'd get used to it, but after a short dozen years as a Catholic, I haven't.)

Contrary to common opinion, although the fast and abstinence are mandatory, Mass attendance is not this day, i.e., it's not a holy day of obligation like Easter and Christmas. That doesn't stop millions upon millions who do not normally attend Mass during the week from showing up this day.

That was certainly the case today at Holy Family Cathedral, where Mass was celebrated by our wonderful orthodox bishop His Excellency Edward Slattery. The cathedral was overflowing -- in fact, there was literally no room to add anyone else. I've only seen it that full one other time -- when the monks at Clear Creek were there for Solemn Vespers a couple of years ago.

In addition to the beautiful liturgy -- full of the highest, and most solemn hymns of the Church -- Bishop Slattery surprised me by performing the Mass "ad orientem" (literally "to the East") -- the traditional way of facing the altar instead of the congregation. I'd noticed when I came in that the free-standing altar where the New Mass is normally celebrated, was covered with special linens and set up with the traditional six beeswax candles -- a throwback to the pre-Vatican II rubrics of the Mass -- and wondered whether this meant the Mass would be celebrated ad orientem. ("Can it be?" I thought to myself.) Yes, it was. And it was very moving and dignified.

I'm sure that not everyone there understood what this meant, but I did and I thank God for the opportunity to see this solemn celebration conducted with such dignity and grace as it should be. (Deo gratias.) I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but once more I am forced by charity to acknowledge what a wonderful bishop we have (and thanks also to Msgr. Patrick Brankin - who was no doubt instrumental in arranging this.) We are fortunate beyond measure here in the Diocese of Tulsa.

Bonum, Verum, Pulchrum: Solemn Vespers at Holy Family Cathedral

We have so much to be thankful for in the Diocese of Tulsa. Our good bishop, the Rev. Edward Slattery, together with Monsignor Patrick Brankin and a stable full of pious and holy priests, has done much to restore the proper dignity and beauty to the liturgy here. One example of that is the Solemn High Vespers held at the Cathedral on the last Sunday of every month. Here's a video taken in August 2008. (Fast forward to the 2:10 mark for the opening hymn, Tantum Ergo.) I was privileged (and refreshed) once again to attend this very evening with my eldest son. It capped off a weekend which began with the sublime beauty of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy Saturday evening, continued with the subdued and reverent grace of the low Tridentine Mass this afternoon and concluded with the new Mass at the Newman Center (for my son's weekly obligation) after vespers. I am so thankful that I live where I live and for all that God has allowed me to experience. Deo gratias!

Mass365

So it was New Year's Eve and we were at Mass at the Church of the Madelene for Mass. I had been thinking about New Year's resolutions (see my earlier "Ten Resolutions" post) and then it came to me: how wonderful it would be to go to Mass every day in the new year -- 365 days of Mass. As a sometimes traditionalist Catholic, I have in the past been given over to a certain critical view of the state of the Catholic church. To be sure, that criticism has been moderated in recent years - partly because I began to go to daily Mass (not every day) at the Novus Ordo mass downtown, close to my law office. It was the experience of praying and worshiping with a group of obviously holy people -- daily Mass attendees are there, of course, because they want to be -- that began to change my theretofore Pharisaical view of the new Mass. These people, the same ones over and over again, seemed oblivious to the many obvious (to me, anyway) deficiencies of the Novus Ordo. They just seemed to want to be there and receive Christ. Over time, that experience had a wonderfully moderating effect on me. No longer did I immediately assume that my fellow Catholics who attended the Novus Ordo were stupid or ignorant of the important issues of the Church, and I eventually came to realize that people who attend the new Mass were not necessarily irreligious. Clearly they were not lacking in piety. Their good example thus brought me back to the realization of the holy effect of the Sacrifice of the Mass -- whether it is conducting in English or Latin. Anyway, it was against this backdrop that I found myself at Mass New Year's Eve, and inspiration struck. How interesting would it be to chronicle the effect of going to Mass for 365 days in a row - an entire year of daily Mass. I'd never attempted anything like it before - in fact, I was on a roll if I could make it two days in row. Later the additional idea occurred of blogging about the experience, and still later - actually going to Mass at every parish in the Diocese of Tulsa. And so that's what I've been doing ever since. This is obviously an introductory post, but watch this space for discussion of what I found at Madelene, at Holy Family Cathedral, and at St. Joseph's Vietnamese Catholic Church -- all in Tulsa proper. I've got a good feeling about this project. Join me as I experience the sacrifice of the Mass every day this year. This is going to be good.

COMING SOON! Project Mass365

Had an epiphany (no pun intended) at Mass on New Year's Eve: along with my resolution to attend daily Mass, why not blog about my experiences as I go through the year? So far, I'm 2 for 2 -- see tomorrow's post for December 31, 2008 Mass at the Church of the Madalene, and what I observed there. More to come