Today I attended 9am Mass at St Martin of Tours in Gaithersburg MD - a neighboring parish. Towards the end of Mass, the priest announced that next week was their annual picnic and that at that Mass, he wanted foreign-born parishioners to give the Prayers of the Faithful - in their native languages. Of course the whole idea is to "celebrate diversity", but frankly I believe that Holy Mass is not the proper venue for "diversity worship". The focus is on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ - that and that alone. Once other ancillary things start being insinuated therein, the people's proper focus is distracted and diluted. Besides, what's the good of listening to what amounts to gibberish? If they're serious about wanting prayers, they'll put them forth in the common language of the locality. That common language is English. To my readers who regularly worship at the altar of "political correctness", please get over your attack of vapors. It's simply a fact that English is the common language of the United States of America.
When I returned home, I saw an account of something similar at Connecticut Catholic Corner. I won't rehash her piece here. I suggest you read it. I think she's spot on when she speaks of the focus being removed from Jesus Christ and placed on mutual back-slapping. No good comes from that - certainly none that will make a difference in the eternal salvation of anyone. We need to stop tolerating this nonsense in our parishes.
Maybe They Can Have a Bake Sale?
20 minutes ago
best argument I've heard against the "gibberish" of Mass in Latin fine for those of us who know Latin, but ironically we aren't the ones who are trying to revive it as you say: if we are serious about prayer, we will pray in the language of the locality good for you
ReplyDeleteExcellent point!
ReplyDelete