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8 years ago
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Roamin' Holy Week
What is normally a moving a spiritual end to Lent is not to be this year. I think I am fine with it but I suppose it comes when you don't feel at home in your parish and have no where to go for the Triduum. I hope to go to the Tenebrae in downtown Cincinnati tomorrow night but other than that, we are at a loss. Both my mother and I get skittish when they have women on the alter having their feet washed so unless I go to Old St. Mary's on Thursday, I will probably have to cringe through that somewhere. I was able to go to Mass and confession yesterday but being on this clomid, I have to wonder if I will be back "in the box" before Easter. My son is serving at the afternoon service on Good Friday but the parish we have been going for stations cannot have them this Friday(don't ask, not the priest's fault....OK, it starts with a "e" and ends with a "cumenical") This is the first year I can recall not having a place for the Triduum. But, I await God to lead us to where we are to go and I am praying for patience. The school situation may not work out either and then we will be in search once again. The classes at the present school are too larger(student/teacher ratio) for autistic kids(or any special needs kids for that matter). I am obviously rambling. I choose to blame it on the clomid. This was my last day I hope to be "out of sorts".
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7 comments:
Just read your blog. I have been a Catholic all my life, 63 years, and have been at my parish now for over 20. We have had 4 different priests in that time, some traditional, and one progressive. I have liked all 4 of them, have gotten along with them, and learned much of my faith from all of them. I dont understand this church shopping that so many "orthodox" Catholics do. Either your parish is your home or it is not. If it is not, then somewhere along the line you did not learn that to be Catholic is to be a part of a community, a family. Sometimes we dont agree with that family, sometimes we dont like everything that they do, but we dont run away from our family then. We pray for them, we talk to them, we try to help them be better than they are. I suppose you never learned that.
One more thing, as a teacher in Catholic and secular schools for 39 years before I retired last year, I can tell that you, like so many people today, have decided that you want private education and not Catholic education. In the good old days so many "orthodox" Catholics long for, 40 or 50 students would be taught in one room by one nun. You might consider that before you whine about class size. Oh well.
If you don't understand the "church shopping" why don't you try to find out why before attacking people who do? If you read my blog you would know I lost my faith for many years because I never learned the rosary, didn't know what adoration was, never heard Latin in a Mass(hymns or otherwise) and my entire faith was based on knowing the entire Glory & Praise hymnal backwards and forwards. And yes, I went to a "catholic" school and left with no concept of Christ, His church and didn't even know what sin was. I came back to the faith in my 20's.
My current parish has been my home for 10 years and we had beautiful sacred music, a reverent priest and wonderful devotions. That is all gone now. Church shopping has nothing to do with whether or not I like a priest. His personality is of no matter. If he follows the magestarium and doesn't try to make our parish "protestant" by being creative with the liturgy and hokey/bad music then I have no problem. If you don't agree with Catholic teaching, go find another church. I tire of lay people getting offended when a priest has a homily on abortion, co-habitation, homosexual lifestyles(really any sin), or birth control because they don't want to feel bad or guilty. If a priest isn't going to point out sin and human weakness, who is? Talk about sin, talk about confession, frequenting the sacraments...if I wanted friends, I would join a bowling league.
On the topic of school, if you know anything about autism you would know they can't thrive in a class that overwhelms them in size. Last year they had 13-18 students per teacher. This year my oldest autistic son has 31 in his class. That is a significant jump and his grades show it. He was an honor student. Any education that is not public is private and families sacrifice to send their children to private/Catholic schools. The money for more teachers and aides has all been spent on peace and justice garbage somewhere else in the diocese. Most of the nuns that used to be the main sorce of tachers have for the most part, left or are no longer interested in teaching(not all, but many). You must not have been around much in Catholic blogdom. My feelings are part of a vast number of Catholics from my generation.
By the way, Catholic doesn't mean "community". Here is the definition: Catholic - derived, through Latin, from the Greek adjective καθολικός, meaning "general", "universal" No where does it say "community". So before you want to pin the label "trouble maker" on me and people like me, why don't you try to hear our side for a change. You might learn something.
I have to say that I agree with Debs. This church shopping tears apart the parish and weakens it. We don't live in a perfect world and there is always going to be something that we don't particularly like. Hopping around from one parish to another without putting roots down doesn't do much for teaching our children the value of parish life either. I'm sure you have what you believe are valid reasons but objectively moving around from one parish to another without any stabililty can't be good for you, for your children and for the parish. Just a thought.
I posted a comment yesterday which I felt was respectful while not agreeing with you. If you are going to post only favorable comments to your way of thinking, perhaps you ought to reconsider your blog. It's easy to see why you are so disagreeable if things have to be your way and your way only.
First off, I never mentioned this being a new "lifestyle" for our family, it is temporary. I frequently "re-teach" my children in the car so they know the truth. No one did this to me as a child and I grew up not knowing what a sin is. As a parent, I have a right to teach my children the truth of the Catholic faith. If it weren't for my children in school, we would have left last summer. Teaching children the truth is of more importance than teaching them how to be part of a parish family. We have only been in the nomad state for a few months and I have admitted it is not ideal. If there are lies and things contrary to the faith being taught at a parish, I am in no obligation as a Catholic to take my family there. If it were only the bad music, we could surely suffer that. But lies and liturgigal abuses is not something to take lightly. If you are a liberal/cafeteria Catholic, such things are of no matter. But for our traditional Catholic family it doesn't work and going to Mass there is often an occasion of sin because I get upset. Since we are to avoid the "near occasion of sin" it becomes counter-productive to the faith I love. If a parish is simply a matter of personal taste then your arguement would be valid. We also have a diocese that has no traditional parishes left. If there was one, we would be members. We will settle and make a decision soon but until then, this works best for us.
I read your blog off and on and all I can say about this topic is that you and I have ALOT in common.
We(my family)are going through the something very similar. I refuse to have a "blind eye" to obvious wrongs just because they are done by a priest.
My Mass experience went from one of the most spiritual,fullfilling and spirit filled experinces to one that as you said, lead to the "occasion of sin".
We too are searching and hope to find a spirit filled parish again, by doing so we are not tearing apart our parish family, that, I am sorry to say has already been done.
Best of luck and peace be with you and your family.
30 not 31
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