There are many days when I wonder if I should read anything in the newspaper other than the section A and B headlines. Since I was about 9 or 10, I enjoyed reading the paper front to back including the style section and I retain this habit today.
Our area Sunday paper has a sectionin the Style Section where they have an in-depth profile of a couple that recently married. It reviews how they met and some details of the wedding. Given that DH and I met through science fiction fandom our story probably would have been a natural had this feature existed at the time, but I digress.
So this past week, it was a couple who married in a Jewish ceremony, complete with a ketubah (or elaborately decorated marriage contract), huppah (the "tent" under which the Jewish marriage ceremony takes place, the blessings.....but neither one was Jewish. One was raised Episcopalian and the other Catholic. The operative word probably being "raised". A comment attributed to the one with the Catholic background was "I've been to a Catholic wedding, and they seem boring. It's just like church"
Based on the remainder of the article, the couple wanted "something unique" that "spoke to them" etc. Now assuming this quote was accurate, we see a sad example of the lack of catechesis into the very nature of marriage and the beautiful and powerful way that a Catholic wedding makes true two hearts and lives becoming one. I would not be surprised if this is also a result of the lack luster music and liturgical aspects of masses in too many parishes hit by the "spirit" of Vatican II". I would also bet money that he has never experienced the beauty and transcendence of an EF nuptual mass much less an EF mass, but even the OF wedding services and masses I have attended have been special and very different than other services or masses, because of the sacrament being celebrated. The individualism and personality can be expressed in the music and the readings (for the OF) and in the bridesmaid's dresses, but it should really be expressed in the reception.
There is also the issue of co-opting traditions not your own or your families because you think they are "neat", which is addressed in the article. I think many Asian wedding outfits are gorgeous (especially Japanese and Indian), but I was not running out to buy a sari or kimono when I married. The bigger issue is the tragedy of someone, ostensibly raised with the benefits of the sacraments, who seems to have no knowledge of the transcendence that is a sacramental wedding. When the marriage is sacramental, God gives special graces to the married couple, which if they act in cooperation, can assist them in the struggles of their lives as children of God and in the struggles of their vocation.
The "just church" comment strikes me as the comment of one who has not experienced the mass as the wonder that it is can be when celebrated as actually intended in the OF as well as the EF.
Showing posts with label Arizona Catholic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arizona Catholic. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Yes Virginia, it should be altar boys not altar servers
Perhaps I am getting a little nudge from above regarding my blogging efforts. I was looking through today's Washington Post and I saw an above the fold picture in the local section of a woman holding two young girls. It looked like there had been some terrible tragedy to befall the family. Then I looked at the headline- A Northern Virginia parish had decided to move away from female altar servers and to return to an all male altar boy corp dressed in cassocks. That is what lead this woman to look so doleful and "traumatized." In fact, they stopped attending that church and were driving long distances in order to find a church that did have altar girls.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html
Quick background, the diocese in question was one of the last two in the U.S. to decide to allow female altar servers when that permission was granted in the 1980's. When they made the change, the bishop allowed each priest to make the decision for his parish and the majority of parishes in this diocese do have all male altar boy. They also currently have 35 or 36 seminarians in formation. Fr. Zuhlsdorf, the Arizona Catholic blog and Fr. Longenecker have much more articulate postings regarding many of the good solid reasons for having an male altar boys. The priest in this Virginia parish is allowing currently trained girls to continue and has restored the boys to wearing a cassock instead of the horrible white albs tied with rope that are ubiquitous in your typical OF parish.
For the record, my daughter WILL NOT be an altar serviette. Luckily, due to attending the TLM on Sundays and being careful which OF masses we attend during the week, I have been able to minimize her exposure to this phenomenon. This is not because I am oppressing my child. From the looks of the woman in the article and the comments of another woman whose daughter they are the victims of the 1970's plus catechisis that holds: 1)active participation means everyone must be doing something pretty much every second of mass. 2) the more people on the altar "actively participating" the better and 3)its not fair. All of which adds up to the Kindergarten Approach to Liturgy i.e. everyone has to have a turn or its not fair.
The reality is, God made humans male and female and He made us to complement each other. Men cannot carry and bear children. It's not "unfair" to men that they do not get to share in that aspect of creation that God has granted to women. Men have other gifts they bring as the father. My point being, there are too many attempts to erase the differences between the sexes and the differences in what we have been called to do and to be as members of the body of Christ. Christ chose to call only men to the priesthood. That is not a policy and it cannot change, period. Being able to be an altar boy is not the only factor in a vocation to the priesthood, of course, but it is a key factor for many men. The "the black robes" or cassocks as we call them, are a clerical garment, which is why only the boys are now wearing them, and that is because direct service at the altar to assist the priest as he offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, can be critical to helping a boy or young man, be and remain open to a priestly vocation to which he may be called. In this day of families kept artificially small and 24/7 noise from computers, televisions and phones there is much working against vocation development.
The third to fourth grade is usually when most parish's allow training to be altar servers and it is also a time when children are really keying into differences and is a healthy and necessary stage. Girls can have a tendency to take over due to the fact that they generally mature faster, which can lead to them dominating the altar server corp and making it less attractive for boys and especially for older- high school aged boys. My parish back home always retained an all male server corp and are also notable for always having a server corp where the oldest "aged out" when they left for college instead of largely stopping service before high school rather than serve surrounded by grade school boys and numerous grade and middle school girls.
Here are some good post about the issue in general"
Fr. Z
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/06/kerfuffle-wisconsin-parish-nixes-altar-girls-predictable-outrage-ensues-before-sanity-prevails/
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/05/quaeritur-female-altar-servers/
Fr. Longenecker
http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/2008/10/altar-girls.html
http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/longenecker/08853.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html
Quick background, the diocese in question was one of the last two in the U.S. to decide to allow female altar servers when that permission was granted in the 1980's. When they made the change, the bishop allowed each priest to make the decision for his parish and the majority of parishes in this diocese do have all male altar boy. They also currently have 35 or 36 seminarians in formation. Fr. Zuhlsdorf, the Arizona Catholic blog and Fr. Longenecker have much more articulate postings regarding many of the good solid reasons for having an male altar boys. The priest in this Virginia parish is allowing currently trained girls to continue and has restored the boys to wearing a cassock instead of the horrible white albs tied with rope that are ubiquitous in your typical OF parish.
For the record, my daughter WILL NOT be an altar serviette. Luckily, due to attending the TLM on Sundays and being careful which OF masses we attend during the week, I have been able to minimize her exposure to this phenomenon. This is not because I am oppressing my child. From the looks of the woman in the article and the comments of another woman whose daughter they are the victims of the 1970's plus catechisis that holds: 1)active participation means everyone must be doing something pretty much every second of mass. 2) the more people on the altar "actively participating" the better and 3)its not fair. All of which adds up to the Kindergarten Approach to Liturgy i.e. everyone has to have a turn or its not fair.
The reality is, God made humans male and female and He made us to complement each other. Men cannot carry and bear children. It's not "unfair" to men that they do not get to share in that aspect of creation that God has granted to women. Men have other gifts they bring as the father. My point being, there are too many attempts to erase the differences between the sexes and the differences in what we have been called to do and to be as members of the body of Christ. Christ chose to call only men to the priesthood. That is not a policy and it cannot change, period. Being able to be an altar boy is not the only factor in a vocation to the priesthood, of course, but it is a key factor for many men. The "the black robes" or cassocks as we call them, are a clerical garment, which is why only the boys are now wearing them, and that is because direct service at the altar to assist the priest as he offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, can be critical to helping a boy or young man, be and remain open to a priestly vocation to which he may be called. In this day of families kept artificially small and 24/7 noise from computers, televisions and phones there is much working against vocation development.
The third to fourth grade is usually when most parish's allow training to be altar servers and it is also a time when children are really keying into differences and is a healthy and necessary stage. Girls can have a tendency to take over due to the fact that they generally mature faster, which can lead to them dominating the altar server corp and making it less attractive for boys and especially for older- high school aged boys. My parish back home always retained an all male server corp and are also notable for always having a server corp where the oldest "aged out" when they left for college instead of largely stopping service before high school rather than serve surrounded by grade school boys and numerous grade and middle school girls.
Here are some good post about the issue in general"
Fr. Z
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/06/kerfuffle-wisconsin-parish-nixes-altar-girls-predictable-outrage-ensues-before-sanity-prevails/
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/05/quaeritur-female-altar-servers/
Fr. Longenecker
http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/2008/10/altar-girls.html
http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/longenecker/08853.html
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