Last Sunday, I went to the 9 a.m. English Mass in the Ordinary Form. My family and I went early in the morning and entered the Church. As usual before Mass begins, I knelt and started my prayer intention for the Mass. My intentions are for my older brother who is currently in the ICU, unity among my family members, Tridentine Mass in my local dioceses, for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, the repentance of sinners and peace for the world.
I also prayed that there will be no liturgical abuses in this Mass and no distracting, annoying commotion during the Mass. After I finished my prayer intentions, I sat back in my pews and wait for the Mass to start. There are two different choir groups for the English mass in my parish. The actual English choir group is a great choir, they sing Latin hymns, Latin hymns in English, they sing for the Holy Hour , they use the organ as an instrument and I always call them the Schola Cantorum of my parish. I'm pretty sure that they knew the rubrics of the Mass more than the priests!(joking) The other one is an English charismatic group which I don't prefer them to be the choir for any mass in my parish. They are noisy, distracting and instead of using the organ for Mass, they'll bring other types of instruments that are not considered as sacred instruments.
Back to the story(and ranting), I saw the choir members(charismatic group) started entering the Church and sitting on the choir pews. I was thinking to myself, "Oh my goodness, these people again? They were the choirs last week at Mass and it was horrible! They'll sing during Mass again?" And those type of thinking bombarded my mind prior to Mass and I started to feel upset. Not long after that, they brought in a keyboard, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tambourine and a cajon(little box that acts like a hand drum). The moment I saw those instruments were brought into the Church, I totally freaked out! Hello? I don't expect people to do concerts during the Holy Mass!
With a heavy heart, I calmed myself down and prepared for the Mass to begin. When the Mass begins, they sang the entrance hymn, which I consider not a hymn, it was more like a catchy-concert song which was so noisy.. The percussion and guitars were too loud! And all the songs they sang were modernized, including the psalm! All I can say is there were liturgical abuses everywhere!
I know I do not have the rights to judge them, but I don't see the reason why I shouldn't do anything to stop their wrongdoings. The whole congregation would not know the actual rubrics, theology and tradition of the Catholic Church's Holy Sacrifice of the Mass if we, the lay people do not stand up for the TRUTH.
We need the Ordinary Form of the Mass to be celebrated like this:
With a heavy heart, I calmed myself down and prepared for the Mass to begin. When the Mass begins, they sang the entrance hymn, which I consider not a hymn, it was more like a catchy-concert song which was so noisy.. The percussion and guitars were too loud! And all the songs they sang were modernized, including the psalm! All I can say is there were liturgical abuses everywhere!
I know I do not have the rights to judge them, but I don't see the reason why I shouldn't do anything to stop their wrongdoings. The whole congregation would not know the actual rubrics, theology and tradition of the Catholic Church's Holy Sacrifice of the Mass if we, the lay people do not stand up for the TRUTH.
We need the Ordinary Form of the Mass to be celebrated like this:
-Ordinary Form of the Mass in 'ad orientem', Korea.
Masses celebrated not according to the rubrics like this should be condemned by the Church:
-The Mass is not the time for us to perform aerobics for the people!
-Lay people holding the bread for consecration? For what? Immodest clothes and no veil?
-Stop holding each other hands during the Our Father. It's only a gesture for the priests to do!
We need the Tridentine Mass too:
-This is what we call the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!
-Credits to ThePinoyCatholic, Fr. Z, and other Catholic blogs for the images.-
Deus Misereatur,
-DiscerningCath-