Why the lost their minds

I have managed to catch a cold which is now in my chest. Trying to remember to offer it up, which is always a challenge for me, possibly because the concept of offering up your daily aches, frustrations, etc was not exactly taught in Baptist or Methodist circles.

I also now have an 18 year old at home as my son had a birthday last week. Still trying to figure out how time went by that quickly. I am also in disbelief that next week is Thanksgiving! We are heading home for the holidays (Graeters & Masseys!) and looking forward to daily mass in a beautiful church using a communion rail and a 9am TLM (instead of the crack 'o dawn or afternoon (nap time) ghetto.

I have been able to catch up on a few blogs and posts and it has been interesting. One of the things that has happened since I started attending the TLM is I understand much more the attitudes of some of those in the traditional camp. I don't condone extremism, but with knowledge has come understanding. There are not many people who could take years, even decades of being told they were wrong and what they were requesting (TLM's) was reactionary and backwards and wrong unscathed. It is hard to know that what you are being told is wrong because you actually read the documents (Latin was no longer the language of the church, masses is various languages was unity and Gregorian chant was out), and live with knowing the majority of people are being told the wrong thing and have listened.

It is hard to look to the saints, but there are many examples of those who were criticized or thought to be wrong, who were later vindicated. Take strength in that and pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict. Unity is better and stronger than dis-unity and make no mistake, we are under severe attack.

Continuity- it is there folks, if you are not blinded by the 60's

An interesting post in this blog. Thanks to Bishop Morlino for standing up to priest who are just trying to insure that the parish's and souls in their responsibility are oriented towards God. http://badgercatholic.blogspot.com/2010/11/bp-morlinos-letter-to-platteville.html

As is evident from the hysteria of many who are full of doom and gloom over the forthcoming new mass translation, there are many who are so deep in the misinformation and mis-steps towards translations, the faith, catechesis that any hint that the way things were in 1979 is they way they should be now is anathema. Unfortunately, there are many who do not see that our current crisis in so many areas, can and is being remedied by finding the "babies that were too often thrown out with the bathwater."

I was able to attend a N.O. Latin mass last night. I actually thought it might be a TLM since the bulletin said Latin, but the parish uses the Adoremus Hymnal (yea!)and seeing the altar servers preparations it was not hard to figure out that it would be a N.O. mass. It was the Latin N.O. mass I have attended in some time and other than the readings and the introductory and closing prayers, the mass was in Latin. I always follow the mass more closely in Latin than in English (since I don't have to "think" when I am at a regular N.O. mass). Really made me happy that in a year and a couple of weeks we can say farewell to an English translation that really does not do justice to the Latin or the true meaning of the mass. As I said in my first posts, I do prefer the TLM, but my reality is that except for rare occasions, my daily mass experience is the English N.O.

We are so Blessed- we have the luxury to disagree about liturgy

We begin the month of November, the month of Holy Souls, with news of a horrible crime against the faithful in Iraq. I am angry, but mindful of our duty to pray for the poor souls in purgatory. The sufferings of the Church in the Middle East illustrates how easy is our life here in the U.S. on so many levels. Our brothers and sisters in Iraq and other countries in the Middle East are surrounded by misguided people who, have no regard for their own, much less the people of God.

No one here has to endure physical fear of going to mass. Even in the "worst" crime ridden neighborhood, you can at least go to mass during the day. We even have the luxury of disagreeing about the music and form of the mass.

Let us remember to pray for those killed in the massacre the other day, pray for an end to the violence and to pray for all of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.