Loading ...
I’m sure everyone knows by now about the no-hard-words camp winning the day in the USCCB’s vote over the new missal. Depressing stuff, but here’s the part that fascinates me. We’ve all seen the news stories quoting Shirley what’s-her-name and other “John and Mary” Catholics who want the more “accessible” language in the Mass. Now, what kind of person do you have to be to want to go on record as being too stupid or lazy to look up a word?
“English is such a hard language! Please keep words small for dim-witted people like me who can’t keep up!” It’s just sort of hard to figure why you’d want to be the poster child for that campaign, isn’t it? Did they pay them, perhaps?
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Shirley wants easy words because she misunderstands her role at Holy Mass. Most lay Catholics shouldn’t be even reading hand missals at all. Let the priest do his job. God is listening to the priest. God is listening to the laity through the priest. Most Catholics would be better served taking the 45 minutes during Mass every Sunday to silently, prayerfully, and individually make their acts of contrition for their sins, petitioning for graces, or meditating on something holy.
This is one of those old controversies that Trads frequently like to rehash. I have no drum to beat here, and I certainly don’t think it’s necessary for the laity to be glued to their missals following every word of every Mass, but it does seem to me far from ideal to just blithely go your whole life without bothering about the words at all. They’re beautiful, they’re at the heart of the Church, and as a Catholic you should get to know them at least a bit. You’ll be able to assist at Mass much better when you have some inkling what’s going on there. If following along at Mass itself is difficult for whatever reason (because your children need constant attention, because your priest does Mass turbo-style and you can’t keep up, because you don’t know a lot of the words, etc.) you might try going over them sometime at home, with a dictionary at your elbow if need be. But there’s surely a reason why the Church wants the faithful to be AT MASS at least once a week, rather than just praying rosaries at home for the intentions of their priest.
It doesn’t seem too much to just read the three readings at home before Mass either, if that is the main concern. It’s not like the readings are a surprise at Mass.