Grok:  you make a good point.  If our interacting with him only serves the purpose of fulfilling his service hours, then I’m not going to waste my time.

I can understand why Doug is having difficulties understanding what Catholics believe.  If defense of what Catholics believe is not presented in straight forward traditional language, it creates confusion.  Traditionally, non-Catholics either accept or reject it.  Either they convert or they go into one of the 50,000 different denominations; what ever suits their fancy.  The new modernists’ pastoral language makes it appear as though Catholic principles and precepts are open for discussion, and as if the Catholic Church has not spoken on matters just as the reading of Sacred Scripture.  Non Catholics poke holes in the new theological modernistic explanations.  What explanation could be more explicit and superior than to refer to the Creeds and to the Supreme Infallible Promulgations handed on in the Roman Catholic Church since the time when Christ personally taught His Apostles.  Here is a portion of the encyclical by Pope Pius XII, promulgated on September 30, 1943 to show Doug that it is a settled issue about Catholics reading the Bible.
DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU
Inspired by the Divine Spirit, the Sacred Writers composed those books, which God, in His paternal charity towards the human race, deigned to bestow on them in order “to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice: that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.”[1] This heaven-sent treasure Holy Church considers as the most precious source of doctrine on faith and morals. No wonder herefore that, as she received it intact from the hands of the Apostles, so she kept it with all care, defended it from every false and perverse interpretation and used it diligently as an instrument for securing the eternal salvation of souls, as almost countless documents in every age strikingly bear witness. In more recent times, however, since the divine origin and the correct interpretation of the Sacred Writings have been very specially called in question, the Church has with even greater zeal and care undertaken their defense and protection…………..
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12DIVIN.HTM

Did you notice that Doug didn’t respond to me? Could it be that I know too much? By conversing with him, we are in fact helping him get his required hours of ‘service’ in this month. Just as the pharisees, Doug won’t even accept Jesus Christ as who he said he was. When John chapter one says he is God, he said it means he was a god. Doug won’t admit that he believes Jesus is Michael the Archangel. Yes, that is right, if he is a faithful Jehovah’s Witness he MUST believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel.

Doug won’t even consider why the pharisees were so upset when he said he was equal to God and was to be honored just as much as the father in John 5:16-22. Can we honestly say that an angel would tell people these things? That would be blasphemy indeed and deserving of destruction by God. But if he is truly God, then it would make sense.

Why don’t you respond to what we say?  You have several faithful Catholics here who have told you that we hear the entire Bible over the course of two years just by going to Sunday Mass (it would be the whole Bible over the course of one year with daily Mass attendance).  We’ve told you that the Mass is chock full of prayers that come right out of the Bible.  We’ve told you that we read the Bible and aren’t ashamed to admit it (why anyone would be ashamed to admit it I have no idea…)  My parish has hosted Bible studies the entire 10 years I’ve been there.  So you’ve met some Catholics who don’t read the Bible?  As faithful Catholics, I would say that most of the people here know a lot more Catholics than you do, and I for one have never met a Catholic who would feel the need to read the Bible “discreetly”.  Why don’t you take your bigotry elsewhere, rather than popping in here very few days to remind us of it?

Claire: You skipped a step in our conversation.
“Bible study in your vernacular is no longer prohibited by the RCC” I said, because it was, for centuries; a capital offense at that. Fact of history.
“Reading the Bible was never prohibited by the Church” you said, missing the point.
“What I wrote- not what you think I wrote- is a fact of history” I said.
Then you skipped this: [‘Thanks for the correction, Doug. It means that my Church did in fact ban the very Bible it insists it ‘wrote’ for the people.]
“I have never met a Catholic who feels any need to read the Bible discreetly.” I have, many times. Some are afraid even to talk about it.
anna lisa: You’re more than “rusty”; there are several obvious, well-known inaccuracies in your statement about JW beliefs. Even the apostate here knows better. Remain blissful, hear?
Goliard: When have I used the NWT here? Unless otherwise etc., my quotes and cites are from the Douay at newadvent.org. My Philip is, well, Philip, and Paul and Peter and [Jesus’ half-brother] James and [ditto] Jude et al. And people who use them as well. Your disagreements on theology are with the Bible writers and our Lord himself, not with me.
As to translations, why does the Douay say, “And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord”? (Ex 34:29, L. cornuta, per “Saint” Jerome, than whom few were more learned.)

And my standard for results is Mt 7:16 and 7:20. Worldwide unity in peace, not Inquisitions, Crusades, Thirty Years’ Wars etc.
In future, to show respect for the blog, the discussion, and the Bible, please respond to what I say, not to the straw man in your mind.

Doug, this is easy service hours for you isn’t it. You don’t even have to go Door to Door when you are ‘ministering’ to us Catholics here. I have a question for you, if the Catholic Church was controlled by Satan, then why did Satan’s Church put together the Bible? Doesn’t make sense does it. Why don’t JWs practice their worship the way the early Christians do? Why don’t all JWs take in the Body and Blood of Christ at the memorial but only about one percent do, the Annointed.

Speaking of the annointed, my Father in law, who lives with my wife and I, was pioneering while making his step children work every night after school. They did most of the work while he sat in his Lazy Boy chair watching TV. My wife HATES Lazy Boy chairs to this day. But he is almost worshipped in the Kingdom Hall and at Conventions because he is one of the Annointed.

I was a Jehovah’s Witness for 30 years. What a waste of time and effort that was. Oh, sorry Doug, you can’t read this because I disassociated myself and I know you can’t read anything from one of us. But just in case you are still reading, I was wondering why you use a Catholic Book, the Bible, in the door to door ministry? Ok, maybe you place the Awake and some books most of the time but you do use that Catholic book.

I really feel sad for you, because like me, you are taught through hours and hours of training to think right. You never question why you are taught that the ‘Greek Scriptures’ (New Testament) were written for the ‘Annointed’ so you can ignore most of its reference to a heavenly hope for all, and eating the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so much more. You just believe what they tell you to believe rather than what the Bible tells us to believe. The ‘Other Sheep’ are not those who have a ‘earthly hope’. They are the Gentiles. It is so obvious in the Bible, if you read without your JW blinders, you would see that. Isn’t GOD worth reading the Bible as it was meant to be read? Don’t you want to serve God as he wants?

Doug, you don’t seem to understand what I meant by not having to read the Bible by myself.
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What I meant was that I read it together with the Church, which has been proclaiming it as a community for the better part of two millennia. My “Philip” is called the Magisterium, a body of teachings which has been built from the writings and example of the keenest minds and holiest souls throughout the long history of Christendom.
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I’ll stick with them over the unlettered men behind the New World Translation any day: a committee, most of whose members had no college education or training in ancient languages, led by Fred Franz, who took two years of Greek before dropping out of college, and who admitted in open court that he could not even attempt to translate Genesis 2:4.
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It beggars imagination to suggest that no one in Christian history had ever managed to correctly translate the Bible from Greek into any other language until this particular collection of Americans finally got it right circa 1950 AD. It also leaves unexplained the question of what authority the Watchtower Society is accepting by agreeing with historic Protestantism and Catholicism as to precisely what is contained in the New Testament…and in agreeing with historic Protestantism as to what goes in the Old.
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I frankly have more respect for the Mormons in this regard. At least the unique, unprecedented, and wildly heterodox divine revelations that gave birth to their faith was fruitful enough to produce a whole new body of scriptures, instead of restricting themselves to mistranslating the old.

@Doug, my ex step brother-in-law was a JW.  Poor guy ran himself ragged earning $$ for the “Watchtower” folks.  I really tried to show him how Jesus founded one church, promising to guide it until the end of time,and that there is an unbroken line of bishops from Peter himself to this day, but he had all the characteristics of one sucked into a cult: Hyper emotionalism, an extremely narrow list of scriptural quotes taken out of context, and some crazy ideas about Jesus that only a Mormon could compete with. It’s like listening to apocalyptic Scientology.  If someone spoofed me that actual, rational, human beings could go in for that (um, almost hilarious if it wasn’t so sad) snake-oil, I’d say “Not possible!”  Just beginning with the name of the cult speaks volumes.  The word “Jehovah” is a mistranslation of “Yahweh”, because that poor undereducated tailor, didn’t understand the language.  After predicting the end of the world two times he came up with the cheesiest explanations for his victims, as to why the dates came and went.  Doug, I’m recalling these things from 20 years ago when my ex-step-bro-in-law first gave me his books and tracts.  I’m a little rusty on some of the outrageous, apocalyptic JW b.s., but I’ll tell you what truly offends me the most about it: my step-bro-in-law was a broken person.  His mother had just died, and he was mentally disabled.  He worked tirelessly day in and day out, knocking on doors, spending all his money on those tracts he gave away, so he could feel like he had a family.  He was heartbroken that his Catholic mother would rot, and never have eternal life, and he was scared sh—less that he’d never make the 144,000 list of those who could be saved.  So smug Doug, you can shake the dust from your sandals when it comes to anna lisa in the NCR combox, K?  The merciful God I worship doesn’t resemble yours whatsoever.

You said that Bible reading in our vernacular is no longer prohibited, and we can do it discreetly.  Implying that we would feel the need to hide the fact that we read the Bible.  I have never met a Catholic who feels any need to read the Bible discreetly.

Claire: “Reading the Bible was never prohibited by the Church”
Re-read my statement, please. What I wrote- not what you think I wrote- is a fact of history.

anna lisa: I’ve seen Catholic Answers. Not impressed with its scriptural knowledge or its veracity. JWs always impressed me with both, as I’ve said. For example, see my post to Hadrian, above. Have you read all six scriptures I cited? Do they not say what I claimed for them? Do you NOT agree, for example, that Jesus is called the first witness? That Jesus called his Father “the only true God”? That Jesus claimed to have made his Father’s name manifest and known, and that he said he would continue to do so? If my claims were wrong then you should furnish contrary evidence from the Bible. As to the Mass, I once asked a Catholic householder if she would get her Bible so we could read the scriptures together. She left and came back with - a Missal! Many times I’ll ask a Catholic, ‘Do you have an interest in the Bible?’ as a conversation starter. MANY times the rueful reply is, ‘No ... we’re Catholic.’ That shouldn’t surprise anyone here, because one of your most forceful defenders just said, “I don’t have to read the Bible on my own.” Like you, he’s “happy to refer people to, say, Scott Hahn” instead of his own Bible. The one he says his Church gave him.
What do you make of Ps 37:29? Anything there that appeals? Are the various Bible translations of it contradictory, or is the message the same?
And, why WAS Moses pictured with horns?

@Doug, I have two suggestions for you.  Read up on the JWs through Catholic Answers.  When you are done with that, there is a wonderful set of books called “In Conversation With God” (Scepter Press) which follows the daily bible readings in the mass.  The biblical commentary and scholarship is top notch.  As Claire said, anyone who attends daily mass hears the entire bible.  I hope you can find your way home to the true sheepfold.

While I, too, was surprised and saddened by the cardinal’s interview, at least some of his comments must be considered contextually to be properly understood.  The interview was given in an Italian newspaper, spoken to an Italian reporter.  Sadly, some aspects of the cardinal’s interview do ring true for those who have spent a considerable amount of time inside the Italian church.  It is a commonplace in Italy that members of the clergy are usually more concerned with their own fiefdoms and power (all those cassocks) than they are about personal or communal holiness.  Even in small towns in Italy, it is not uncommon to see local priests parade around expecting to be treated like royalty and mainting an air of condescension and arrogance towards their flocks.  And no, I am not talking about the proper respect due to the clergy.  Italian interaction with the clergy is VERY different from the United States.  While not all Italian priests act this way, the number is far greater than one would expect.  There is certainly a sense of priestly entitlement In Italy that conflicts with priestly service.  So, insofar as Martini was criticizing this sensibility among his fellow Italian priests, he was sadly correct.

Reading the Bible was never prohibited by the Church, and no Catholic needs to read the Bible in secret, and every Catholic who attends Sunday Mass hears the entire Bible read over the course of two years.  So give up your futile attempts to prove that the Catholic Church is not Biblical.  I read the Bible every day, and I don’t feel the need to hide that fact from anyone.

wife, if you have all of life’s questions answered to your satisfaction, then be satisfied. Many of the rest of us do not, without a higher and more knowledgeable authority than man- any man.
Is the world we live in what God purposed for us? Why does God allow suffering? Why is the Gospel called “good news”, anyway? What is God’s kingdom? Where are the dead; can they help us or harm us? Why does an old Bible illustration show Moses wearing horns? (Well, that’s not such a big question.) :-)
I’ve found the Biblical answers to be clear, understandable, and useful in my daily life as well.
Bible study in your vernacular is no longer prohibited by the RCC; in any case it can be done discreetly, even online, so family and colleagues don’t find out.
Here’s an example, using another post:

Hadrian:
The first witness of Jehovah: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth.” Rev 1:5. Note “prince”, not God.
The first human witness of Jehovah: “That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel ... Yea I say to you: It shall be required of this generation.” Luke 11:51,52 Perhaps you know that the Greek word underlying “witness” is the one from which we take our word “martyr”. It meant originally anyone with constructive knowledge of an event or idea; certainly Abel qualified either way.
Does Jehovah have witnesses today? Such ones would have to act in harmony with the prayer that his name be hallowed [cleaned up] and that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in Heaven. Mt 6:9,10 I do so act, as do my associates who are my “Philips”. Acts 8:16 ff. Like him, they use the Bible to teach the Bible. Unlike today’s churches, they make known the name of the only true God, as Jesus does. John 17:3,6,26 Unlike the many “Protestant” churches, they are united worldwide even to the point of refusing to join in mens’ wars, which are supported by the churches’ military chaplains. John 13:34,35
Do you have any good news for us, or just more stories about “furniture” salesmen?
[My information says it was haberdashery.]
[That means men’s clothing.]

Kathleen- this one:
Doug ,
At least you’re keeping God in the conversation

1 Peter 3:15, Douay: But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, [I hope I do so]
being ready always [an imperative, isn’t it?]
to satisfy every one that asks you a reason of that hope which is in you. [And my hope is founded on “reasoning from the scriptures”.
Verse 16: But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience: [Other Bibles suggest ‘mildness and fear of insulting the other’.]
Some here are Catholics who read Peter, others are not.
And, speaking of names, I’m amazed at some usernames I’ve seen on blogs. Many are designed to demonstrate some literary erudition, I guess. I wonder about some; do they know anything about the personal lives of, say, goliards or Emperor Hadrian? :-)

To Simcha and all the Kathleens: In my classes (I’m a subsitute) we might have several boys or girls with the same names, with parent ‘editing’. (Today I had three variations on Alayiah.)
Drawing in the New Yorker: First day of school; teacher says, ‘Kirsten, Kirsten, Kristen, and Kirsten. You’ll have to change your names.’

No wait, I talked to some Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door the other day, and they say they have the truth and they are such ‘nice’ people. In fact, unless I join, I will be destroyed at Armagedon. They are nice people and have been around for over 100 years. They were started by a smart furniture salesman who really knew the scriptures. I think I will join them.

Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

So Doug,I was thinking of joining “The First Church of the Revival of the Dawning Revelation” that meets in a storefront down on State and Salsipuedes St. next to the 7-11.  They convinced me that they were in possession of the true and unerring voice of the Spirit.  Then I read what you wrote, which gave me an authentic burning in the bosom,and I decided I’d rather join *your* church because you clearly are in possession of the truth, no wait THE TRUTH, cause I got the burnin’ and the quakin’ too. Where do I sign up?

Doug ,
At least you’re keeping God in the conversation, which is good. God bless!

Goliard, the interpretations started at least as early as Acts ch. 8. The Ethiopian eunuch, a superior person, needed help in understanding Isa ch. 53. (Not for beginners; Rabbis still argue about it.) He was humble enough to accept help from Philip, who used the Bible to teach the Bible.
I’ve read Hahn; he’s not qualified to be my Philip.
And this:
1) I don’t have to read the Bible on my own.
confirms what I said about the majority of Catholics.
Are you passing along God’s written warnings to your people?

Doug,
Why would I want to follow the path to confusion like you and the other Protestants who belong to tens of thousands of different denominations that all disagree on the interpretation of the Bible. It is simple, one thing all of you Protestants have in common, you don’t agree with each other about anything. I tried your route and got even more confused. Finally I am back where I belong. I would rather belong to the one Christian religion that has more members than all of your Protestant religions put together. The main teachings of the Catholic Church haven’t changed because they don’t need to change. As the Bible says, ‘interpretations belong to God’.

Oh, and:
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5) I don’t have to explain why, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, he left us with a Church…but not a New Testament.

Doug, by “proof-texting”, I mean…well, proof-texting. As in the practice that is spoofed by the old joke that, wonderfully and unexpectedly, is related in the Wikipedia entry for “prooftext”:
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A man dissatisfied with his life decided to consult the Bible for guidance. Closing his eyes, he flipped the book open and pointed to a spot on the page. Opening his eyes, he read the verse under his finger. It read, “Then Judas went away and hanged himself.” (Matthew 27:5b) Closing his eyes again, the man randomly selected another verse. This one read, “Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” (Luke 10:37b)
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Also, I’m happy to refer people to, say, Scott Hahn because, being a Catholic:
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1) I don’t have to read the Bible on my own.
2) I don’t have to pretend that the one true way to interpret each part of the Bible will be made clear to me, just sitting on my own.
3) I don’t have to explain why following the procedure described in #2 has led to literally tens of thousands of rival sects and schools of thought…or why I’m so confident that I’m somehow one of the very few Christians in world history who can be trusted to have got it right.
4) I’m not too proud to point to people more expert than myself as a good source of information.

Catholics resist using the Bible for anything religious?  A Catholic Mass is about as Biblical as it gets.

Goliard, I know where I am. I’m on a site where people say, ‘Our church made the Bible’, and then resist using it for anything religious. Where people say, ‘We know the scriptures well’, then prove they don’t by their comments. Where people say ‘proof-texting’ when they mean ‘I don’t know about that; let me ask my priest/blogger/Scott Hahn.
The OP is titled “The Grip of Ritual”, a head which is more revealing than Ms Fisher realizes, no doubt. Part of my post pointed out that God’s word, which is history to me, describes the outcome of those religionists who relied on ritual, buildings, and other ‘walking by sight’ objects. Two of the comments quoted were from your God, Jesus. (You often fail to listen to him, also, I’ve found.) I replied appositely, using a Catholic Bible, to that OP. Your reply? ‘No fair- you’re proof-texting!!!’
The bad outcome was prophesied at least as early as Jer 31:31, and came true when those religionists (who were the real writers of the Bible: Rom 3:1,2) least expected it. That warning applies to those today who misrepresent God.
And, I’m not a Protestant. I’m a student of and user of the Bible, aka God’s word.

We just saw off one of our beautiful young priests who spent eight months with us.  He is already at his new inner-city parish in L.A.  He really made a huge impression on my family.  His enthusiasm, love, and honesty were utterly infectious. (He once cracked my teens and I up, telling us that he was “one kegger short of being president of his fraternity” in college) He was warm, engaging, and amazingly bright.  At his send off reception he candidly revealed to all of us, that when he arrived he was experiencing a “crisis of vocation”.  Happily this had been worked out over the months he (rested?) with us.  I was stunned.  Such a holy priest.  I’m not even sure what he meant by saying: “I had to learn not to live in an ivory tower”...I’m not sure what *he* meant, but when I asked him to bless our unborn baby (on the down-low so my mother wouldn’t find out and freak.) I told him earnestly, “I had to learn not to live in an ivory tower too…”  He looked surprised and we just nodded at each other.  Later on the way home, I remarked to my husband, “can you believe he had a ‘crisis of vocation’???  I thought about how my husband and I began praying a couple of years ago for all of the priests we know and love, every day at the beginning of our rosary, before mass.  I felt an immense relief that somehow, in our small way, instead of being a straw that breaks a camel’s back, we had been a straw to help build up our brother priest.  It makes me cry just to think about it.  We need to pray for our brother priests and Bishops.  It is so easy to tear down.  It is so *beautiful* to “build up”.

@Doug: Perhaps you mistook this for an evangelical Protestant website.
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We’re Catholics. We proclaim the Scriptures every single day in our churches. Our Church knows them well (as she should, as she’s the one who furnished them to the Christian world!).
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We’re not impressed by proof-texting. But thanks for playing. Have a glance at the Catholic Answers or Scott Hahn websites if you want to find answers to some of the more common sets of randomly-selected Bible verses that some Protestants mistake for a critique of Catholicism.

For years I wondered why people were scattering or no longer significantly Catholic.  One day I witnessed the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and since then I’ve discovered priests who are in agreement with Father Cekada and his book, “Work of Human Hands”.  It all makes sense the decline of Catholics, the decline in numbers of priests, nuns, and schools in the world today. This book deserves serious attention.

anna lisa,

Thank you, that is very encouraging. I hope to see it in our area as the new Bishop here tries to make the changes necessary. I pray for our Bishop, but not enough. Even though he is very orthodox, his staff who remain from the previous very liberal Bishop continue to influence or even block the Bishops efforts. Sometimes it can be like government bureaucracy that gets bogged down with those that don’t want to see change or don’t like the changes. In my brothers parish there was a situation like that it didn’t change until the book keeper got caught stealing church funds and then they did a little house cleaning.

We all need to be careful that we don’t allow Satan to work through us with even an unkind word. Likewise, Satan can work through even those who work in Church administration as we can see with the Vatileaks situation.

Thanks be to God who guides our Church through stormy waters.

anna lisa,
We’ve also had similar changes for the good at two university based churches.
I’d attended one over 30 years ago & had sworn to never go to Mass there again after witnessing the Blessed Sacrament passed through the congregation in a basket during Communion, just like you’d pass around chips at a picnic. That campus chapel has become a parish now & has wonderful, orthodox priests.There is great student participation.
Things can change for the better.

Exactly right, Cy! Our Catholic rituals shouldn’t be abandoned nor should they be clung to slavishly but be performed with mindfulness.

Rituals have two dimensions: a form and a spirit. Both are important. There are thousands of Catholics who haven’t prayed the Our Father or Hail Mary in years, yet could recite the words backward and forward. A number of them could make a good run at reciting the Nicene creed (old translation) though they don’t believe or practice anything in it.

In time the changes to the Liturgy, the “consubstantial” etc., will become as familiar as the “one in being with the Father” etc.

How many times have you made the sign of the cross mechanically without the least thought of what was going on or behind the words? Be honest!

Indeed one of the motivations for calling Vatican II (to have the church engage with the world) were multiple reports of Nazi concentration camp guards and other Nazi officials receiving the Eucharist. They were so disconnected from the spirit of Catholic rituals that they felt it was acceptable to participate in the sacramental life of the church and help fulfill Hitler’s genocidal dreams.

Here in Boston, Father John Geoghan over 30 years is estimated to have said over 1,000 masses; he is also estimated to have violated the sexual innocence of over 90 children. And Geoghan is only one of 159 priests and religious credibly accused/admitted sexually abusive priests in the Archdiocese of Boston’s recent history. (though to be fair, he is the worst of bad lot)

This isn’t a Catholic problem. As human beings it is unavoidable that certain things done or said hundreds or thousands of times become second nature or become rote. Every Sunday at the beginning of mass the priest acknowledges this by asking us to take a moment to recall our sins and put ourselves in the presence of God.

If we perceive our experience of a ritual to be empty of meaning, then it is our personal responsibility to fill it with God’s meaning, perhaps with the help of our priest and/or our brothers and sisters in Christ.

@Grok, Things are getting so much better.  One of the sweetest signs of spring is at our university parish.  It used to be the most liberal parish in our area.  Now it is run by two good priests that I grew up with.  Both are solid and beautifully faithful.  They both pray the rosary, encourage confession and preach solid doctrine.  On any given Sunday during the school year it is overflowing to standing room only.  There is a strong group of kids that go to daily mass.  Older members of the parish tell me that this is a huge turn around.  The RCIA program is packed.  Plenty of kids come up at communion to be blessed because they are considering becoming Catholics.  All of the prayers of the faithful are finding fertile ground! It is beautiful to see.  At our Jesuit parish downtown, we have been blessed with three, recently ordained young priests.  Their piety, intelligence, education and enthusiasm is amazing.  Thanks be to God.

Someone else knows “Don Camillo”!!!!!  They were such a great entertaining light read back then. So glad to hear they are still around! As to Cardinal Martini, he lived through some terrible times - the hundred years God gave to Satan according to Pope Leo XIIIth’s vision.  Satan wanted those hundred years to prove people only believed because God made them.  So faith has been under attack and the Cardinal saw the mass exodus from the faith in the late sixties and early seventies. So many priests didn’t even know what hit them and thought they personally were failing.  Pope Leo wrote the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel in the mid or late 1800s and asked all Churches to pray it.  When people left anyway many lost faith in the power of prayer. But we have a precedent to look at. Christ let everyone walk away who didn’t believe His words about the Eucharist.  He knows His Father has a plan and His Father is the hound of heaven and will seek the lost but He will not make a lie the truth.  Simcha you got a small taste of the kinds of things some of us hear on an almost daily basis.  It’s like we’ve forgotten how greatly God prizes fidelity and how often He punished the Israelites for turning away from Him for their own designs or their own idea of what was right and wrong. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Another issue what I experienced before I left the church such as priests that taught teachings against those of the Catholic Church. Sometimes it may have been just not telling Catholics what the Vatican taught. I know that in the church I attended as a child, the priest told parishioners that Contraceptive use was up to your conscience, etc. We can see how many priests believe in same sex marriage. Many times these priests are the only source Catholics have for what is a sin and what isn’t. Other priests are just afraid of alienating members that don’t believe the way the church does. If many priests either don’t tell them or don’t emphasize them, Catholics will just do the best they can.

Another thing is that Catholics are becoming more and more molded by the ever worsening moral condition and influence of the world. One can say that it is cult like when you refuse to adapt to the world but Jesus told us that if we are a part of the world, we can’t expect to be a part of Gods Kingdom.

Are those ‘Trads’ FSSP or SSPX? It seems to make a difference. Our priest (FSSP) encourages us to be open the the Novus Ordo when necessary and even though not as reverent and the NO being prone to abuse, encourages us to honor it just as we would the Tridentine mass. He is well liked by other non-Trad priests in the area. I would say that he would consider the kind of attitude you spoke of as not wrong and even sinful.

Of course, I drive 100 miles every Sunday to go to the Tridentine mass so I would say most all of us see the spiritual benefit of it. No matter what, you are going to find some who almost look at it like sports, my team is better than yours! Most of us would even say that we feel that the abuses to the Novus Ordo and some ‘changes’ have lead to much of the apathy among many Catholics today. You know, like falling from 85% attendance to 25%, many leaving the Church completely, very few accessing Confession, etc. I now understand that many of the changes were due to liberal Bishops doing their own thing.
Most of us recognize that Pope Benedict is trying to correct some of those abuses.

My take on the Trads is that they range in character like homeschoolers.  There are the ones who quietly go about their business, who for emotional reasons prefer licit Latin masses. The extremists spout all kinds of craziness.  They are sanctimonious first and foremost, but their love of speaking about the end of the world, coming chastisements and hellfire, give them a pleasure like none other.  They seem mentally ill to me, or perhaps just exhibiting the behavior of those in cults. Their disdain for the rest of us is quite telling as to exactly *where* they’re coming from.

Grok Hadrian—I did say “some trads” in my original post, so I was not painting all with the same brush.  I have a distinct preference for the Latin Mass myself, but I cannot attend it most of the time.  However, I have interacted with trads who seem to believe that their dedication to tradition gives them the right to treat other Catholics (and even other trads) like dirt, as I feel Hat Lady did.  For instance, I’ve spoken with some who consider those like me a virtual apostate for daring to attend the “Satanic, Masonic, etc.” Novus Ordo Mass.  Like so much else in life, those who talk the loudest end up tarring the rest.  It is not fair, but it is true.

Or, perhaps Martini meant “2000 years.”
Ritual praying: “And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites**, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But you when you shall pray, enter into your chamber, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.” **N.b. he refers to the mainstream religionists of his day.

Ritual observances: Hosea 2:11 “And I will cause all [Jerusalem’s] mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.” Mt 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Mt 23:37,38 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate.” Col 2:14,16,17 “Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross ... Let no man therefore judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a festival day or of the new moon or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come: but the body is of Christ.”

Tradition lasts.  My father had pancreatic cancer and we knew the end was coming, so we (fortunately) were able to have a priest come for his final moments.  Father realized that my dad was unresponsive and asked us to receive Communion for him, but when Father began the prayers, my dad tried to lift his hand to bless himself!  The words reached him and his body responded.  By the time we were saying the Our Father, my dad had reached his last moments and left us just before we said “Give us this day our daily bread.”  I still think the timing was perfect because dad no longer needed daily bread.  Tradition and ritual are comforting and sustaining.

Dori Sedano, I will take you up on that. I pray for our priests at least twice a day.

To Rob B, sad to say, the load mouth ‘trads’ as you call them, seem to make us all look bad. I have just returned to the Church after 30 years, and it was a ‘trad’ priest and the ‘trad’ mass that really helped me come back. I have only met two ‘trads’ with the a lack of ‘charity’ that you talk about but they make sure everyone knows their view. Don’t paint us all with the same brush. Most of the ones I know started out trying to have the spirituality they needed through the Novus Ordo mass and praise those that love it. Most of us ‘trads’ just need the extra spiritual push that the reverence and other benefits of the Latin mass can give us.

I will pray for the priest who is so struggling with his faith. I challenge anyone who commented here today to start a Novena of the Divine Mercy for this priest and all of our Consecrated Religious. This highlights our need to pray, pray,PRAY for our priests!

re: my comment above. Uhhh… I just realized that last statement didn’t come out the way I intended: I meant that I agree with you that rituals are very, very important, as we ARE body and soul together. I wasn’t commenting on the amount of work left for you to do! I have way too much work ahead of me to look under the lid of your slow cooker, to borrow one of your excellent metaphors.

I also appreciated your reluctance to criticize a priest. You took just the right approach, in my mind. We pray and pray for our wonderful priests.

Awesome article! I love the ending in particular. And, of course, I agree with you. :)

Like some trads (though certainly not all trads), Hat Lady obviously believes that being a trad justifies a lack of charity.  Physician, heal thyself…

“I hope that my body will be worn out with ritual,  rubbed smooth with the repetitive motion of kneeling, crossing, blessing, saturated to the bone with the grace of the sacraments.

I have a lot of work ahead of me.”

So beautifully put!  Ditto :)

Between this article and the many excellent posts here, I am amazed that anyone would ever want to give up the Catholic rituals that we love so much.

Sometimes I say the meal prayer ‘Bless us O Lord’ and don’t think of the words, but even then it reminds me of who we rely on for all good things. Honestly, I say my own personal prayer after it just to ensure I am really talking to God but even that personal prayer can become routine.

God bless you all and our wonderful Catholic Church

One more thing. Yes, religious ritual can become repetitive and dull…and so can the rituals of sin. But just because we’re sleepwalking through our sin and not getting any thrill out of it anymore, doesn’t mean it’s not important whether we stop sinning or not. It’s critically important!
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It’s much the same with the rituals of our faith: whether we’re insensibly stumbling through or fervently inspired, whether we feel enriched or feel we’re “not getting anything out of it” (oh, how I cringe I hear that phrase), is surprisingly irrelevant to the question of whether we should keep doing it. Of course we should. We must.

Spot on, ma’am. Ritual and outward devotion is important, IMHO, because it is one of the most useful methods we possess of training our minds and our souls for interior devotion. Striking our breasts, genuflecting deeply, blessing ourselves with holy water: these are all things help to focus our minds on the mystery unfolding in our midst. True, like anything else, they can become dry and repetitive (and hence bereft of any value), but when done in a true spirit of piety, they reinforce physically the prayerful actions of our minds and souls. Our prayer becomes an action of our whole being: body, mind, and soul working in unison to give glory and praise to God.

After all, Christ did not suffer only from interior anguish during His Passion in atonement for our sins; He PHYSICALLY hung on the Cross, PHYSICALLY stretched out His hands to receive the nails, PHYSICALLY cried aloud to His Father. If we seek to imitate Christ, should we not as well offer up the actions of our bodies, just as He did?

Furthermore, careful, attentive ritual is an excellent tool for catechesis and witness. No one, not even a perfect stranger to the Faith, who watches the reverential actions of priest and laity in a properly-executed Mass can mistake what goes on for something that one would find in a theater or cinema (or in the churches of our separated brothers and sisters). Just as with Moses and the bush that burned without being consumed, it clues them in that here, something mysterious and otherworldly is transpiring.

@That Hat Lady - huh? Are you sure you’re commenting on the right article?

Our priest used that Gospel as an opportunity to explain a little of “why we do what we do,” focusing on why we stand for the Gospel reading and why we bless ourselves with holy water upon entering a church. Thanks to his explanations, my fellow parishioners and I understand those rituals better, and that makes them more meaningful and not “empty” at all.

Maybe she only reads the first half of your articles, I don’t know!

Hat Lady, I’m a little confused by your comment, too.  Simcha comes across as having ample humility, and what makes you think that she only goes to Confession once/year?  Her article supports traditions and rituals, so why do you think she has a prejudice against traditional Catholics?

Oh, me oh my.  That Hat Lady has a special talent for reading exactly the opposite of every point I’m trying to make.  Writing with her in the audience is an excellent exercise.  It’s like when you’re learning to draw, and you have to fill in the background with dark and leave the shape of the subject blank.  Then you squint at it, and you’re like, “Yep, whaddaya know—that’s a hat lady.”  Hey, I don’t even know what I’m talking about.  But neither does that hat lady!

That hat lady- why so harsh? What makes you think Simcha hasn’t studied those things?

Anyway. I loved this article. I was definitely attracted to the rituals in the Catholic faith when I became Catholic eight years ago.  It is so important to me to have something physical to hold on to when the spiritual child in me is having a tantrum saying “I don’t wannnnna pray. I don’t feeeeelll like it”. And often I find our rituals contain the words and reverence that express faith and love of Christ in a way I couldn’t on my own.

“I have a lot of work ahead of me.” Yes, you certainly do. You can start by checking your prejudice against Trad Catholics at the church door. Next, you can actually study the Catholic faith and learn why we perform little rituals to show reverance for our Lord…you know, genuflecting in front of the exposed host, abstaining an hour before communion, etc. Last, you can go to confession more than once a year to allow God to show you what kind of person you *really* are in His sight—and develop a little humility in the process.

@Linda, in Northern CA they kneel after the Agnus Dei (San Fran Archdiocese)in Southern CA (LA Archdiocese)they do not.  I hope our new Archbishop changes that.

It was that rub, rub, rubbing that moved me to tears when I was entering the Church.  I found it absolutely mesmerizing, and so full of meaning.  It was truly my favorite part of the Mass before I was finally able to receive.  The time and care the priests took in handling everything the Precious Body and Blood have touched spoke volumes to me and helped me to grasp the truth of the Real Presence in a profound way.  Oh, please, let the rubbing continue!

Yikes! Was this priest from outside the diocese of Manchester?
Anna Lisa:  was this “mandate” for Cali only? I always heard the US parishes were mandated to continue kneeling all the way through to the great Amen.
Teresa L:  perfect!

The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility, rather it proves the offender’s inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for everyone else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
C.S. Lewis

Lest we forget the oft-quoted Latin phrase, “Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.”  Or, “the way we worship reflects what we believe, and determines the way we live.”  This fits in exactly what Brennan describes above.

WHO IS CARDINALE MARTINI?

Also, the Cardinal suffered from Parkinson’s disease, not Alzheimer’s.

Cardinal Martini used the word “pomposo.” It does not have the same connotation as the English “pompous” and would have been better translated as “stately” or “magnificent.” I think the Cardinal meant that religious fervor and generosity are lacking in spite of the magnificence of ritual. I don’t think he was expressing disdain for the rites of the Mass.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Cardinal Martini’s sentiments are all that uncommon among clerics and lay Catholics, at least the more progressive kind. And there are also Catholics who don’t necessarily dismiss ritual, but don’t believe that it really matters what form it takes.

In general, I’ve noticed that more “progressive” Catholics tend to hate traditional ritual, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that a liberal-leaning Bishop has ever had a fondness for it, to say the least. Part of the reason I think is that one cannot separate the faith from the liturgy or act as if you can have one without the other, any more than the doctrine of the Church can be separated from the incarnation of Christ and His life, death, and resurrection.

So, if a prelate is dissatisfied with the Church and believes she needs to change in some fundamental ways, such as her doctrines on sexuality or women priests, then naturally he will want to believe also that liturgy itself also needs to be updated to conform to modern times, just as doctrine does as well. And when he encounters traditional liturgy, art, and architecture he will hate it because to him it represents a throwback or “stuck in the mud” attitude. And it is an implicit rebuke to him as well because traditional liturgy tells him that the Church is not going to alter her fundamental doctrines and traditional liturgy represents (or incarnates) that truth.

Buckeye Pastor:  Yes!  I’ve noticed that too.  Even Protestant ministers seem to develop their own rituals.

A beautiful article.  On of your very best!  Thoughtful and moving.

Years ago I took aerobics.  One thing that I will always remember is that the instructor told us that you get more out of a routine you know than a new one.  That is because when you are trying to master something new and different, you have to put much of your energy into just learning the routine, whereas once you have mastered the “ritual,” you can focus you attention on doing it well.
I volunteer at a Pregnancy clinic where many of the other volunteers are Protestant.  Whenever we pray together at the beginning of our shifts, I usually find myself thinking more about what I am going to say than about what we are praying about.  On the other hand, when I say the rosary, my mind has the freedom to concentrate on the mysteries and their meaning while my mouth just goes on by habit.

Did you ever notice that the priests who improvise because they are anti-ritual, gradually lapse into a ritual all their own?  We simply can’t create something new, relevant, and thought-provoking Sunday after Suynday after Sunday.  We are ritualistic people.  If I’m going to be ritualistic (and I can’t be otherwise), I should do the rituals that have been hallowed by generations of the saints who went before, and sanctioned by the Church as truly expressive of what the Eucharist is.

As a former Protestant, I will state absolutely and non-negotiably that the ritual matters. Because *especially* when you’re alone, faithless, and rotten, you are at least better off spouting words whose meaning you have not fully comprehended and using your body on pure muscle memory than indulging whatever foul lie is filling your soul at that particular moment.

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll hear the bells at the consecration, or a word will strike your memory on a certain chord, or you’ll decide that it really IS good to genuflect because you are entering the presence of the Lord even though your toddlers are running down the aisle ahead of you, and you’ll wake up to the sacred for a moment and be changed.

anna lisa, have you ever been to a Tridentine Mass parish? Our Priest here in Colorado Springs shows the kind of reverence to the Holy Eucharist that you mention that you saw in Paris. Whether we recognize it or not, our priest is our spiritual leader and when they show that kind of reverence in mass, it effects the attitudes of all attending. I am amazed at how devoted and reverent our congregation is. There is at least an 85% attendance in mass, while the average Catholic church has a 25% attendance. We have a very financially poor but devoted congregation. Thank God for priests like ours.

Ah yes, Anna Lisa. As another member of LA Archdiocese the churches look the same here at the northern tip. Many still kneel after the Agnus Dei and its a big mess lacking unity (which is what the standing was supposed to do anyway?). Still hoping it may change back…..((sigh)).

You can tell how devoted to the Eucharist a priest is by how he handles communion. Does he do it with emotion and obvious devotion, or has it become empty ritual for him?

Kathleen2 & Simcha,
My former parish choir had 3 members named Kathleen,including me.One of the other Kathleen’s even had my middle name,too.Generic Irish Catholic names rule!
So does Olivia it seems.
:)

That’s nothing - my daughter’s 7th/8th grade class has 19 people in it.  Four are named Olivia.

“Posted by Kathleen on Wednesday, Sep 5, 2012 11:41 AM (EST):

Oh, Oh. There are 2 “Kathleen”‘s again.
I need to change my username I guess.”

And that one’s not even me! I’ve been using Kathleen2 since the last time we both tried commenting on the same post!

You had a most profound insight.  Thank you for sharing it.  It has added something to my thinking, and that’s not a statement one makes often.

One thing that never “stuck” in So. Cal. was the mandate to remain standing after the Agnus Dei.  Half the congregation kneels, half doesn’t.  When I was in my early twenties my husband and I ducked into a vigil mass on a Saturday evening in Paris.  We didn’t realize that it was a monastery and also a Catholic, Eastern Rite.  The church was huge and beautiful. I believe they were singing the liturgy of the hours before the mass, their harmony was ethereal.  But what really took my breath away was how, at the moments in which we kneel for our western mass, they would literally prostrate themselves face-down on the floor.  They wore hooded capes over their cassocks which made this quite dramatic.  I felt scrubby and unworthy to be there, the air was literally electric with holiness.  But what my husband and I continue to talk about to this day, was receiving holy communion there.  At every single reception of the Holy Eucharist, the priest would actively adore and do homage to Christ the King, in his hands.  We will never forget this.  Never. never. never. It never ceases to be painful now when the priest says “body of Christ” in monotone, and deals the host like a card in a poker game.

Oh, Oh. There are 2 “Kathleen”‘s again.
I need to change my username I guess.
Anyway, I agree with susie’s comment. We’ve had younger priests who’ve shown the same reverence & it carries over to the parishoners.

The new young associate priests we have had over the past couple of years have been so attentive at the consecration - the way they bow over the hosts, hold it so reverently, slow down their words,  that it gives me so much hope for our church.  They obviously believe in the Real Presence and they have been trained accordingly.

Since I’m a musician…you know what a musician’s ritual is?  Practice. :) It’s repetitive.  It can be tedious and frustrating.  We don’t always feel like it.  But even prodigies don’t get better without it, and faking one’s way through the concert is an unsatisfying experience.

Thank you Simcha, well said. @Blog G. I wanted to cheer after what you wrote.  Ritual for ritual’s sake must be what the good Cardinal was lamenting.  Most of us are pretty isolated from some of the pomp and circumstance and complacency that can infect the self important.  This was a temptation that many a humble priest feared when they were elevated to be “princes” of the church. No wonder Bl. John Paul needed to sneak out of the Vatican from time to time.  I for one, find utter comfort in the rituals of our church. I want to cling to them like a mother’s skirt.  When our new pastor changes words it makes the congregation off balance and fumble in the timing of the responses. Another pastor we had, would sing the words of the consecration with so much operatic flair that it was somewhat embarrassing.  It was really distracting.  There was so much Fr. so-and-so there, that one had to strain to find Jesus. What I love about the new priests is their awe and reverence.  What I love about many of the old ones is their love and affection for the people.

Sure, some Catholics go through the motions with rituals without interior substance to back up their actions.  I’m sure I’ve been guilty of this on occasion.  But that’s no excuse to “throw out the baby with the bathwater”.  Human nature is what it is.  Sunday obligation can become a chore, or with the right attitude it can become a sacrifice and an opportunity.  As can the rituals and traditions of our faith.  I wasn’t thrilled with the new Mass changes (I hate change), but I see their value in helping us to take a step back and think about what we’re doing, rather than going on automatic pilot.  As disciplined adults, if we find ourselves merely going through the motions, we can remind ourselves about what the rituals stand for, change our attitude, and reap the benefits of the grace that is available to us.

Our bodily prayer is so important. I think it’s very easy to confuse interior goodness with intellectual goodness. If anything, the interior is expressed and educated first and foremost through our actions, our repetitions, our rhythm, the sounds we make and the other “superficial” aspects of life. These aren’t, of course, superficial at all; they come from the deepest and oldest parts of our human brain and psyche. It is the words and the thinking that are built on top of these basic and beautiful expressions of life. Hence the beauty and innocence of very young children: there is nothing pompous about the rituals of childhood play nor the way people who have learning disabilities express themselves often so joyfully through their routines.

We certainly sin with our bodies, so our bodies should be the first port of call for spiritual learning.

Another brilliant article, Simcha. Thank you.

This well done article and remarks from readers reminded me of an important fact for me. In this world of ‘cars’, ‘homes’, ‘tools’, ‘people’, all that can be seen and touched, sometimes it is hard to grasp God, who can not be physically seen or touched. The ritual, the physical beauty, and the reverence of historic Catholic Churches and the mass give us a physical taste of a spiritual reality and to me, this makes it easier to ‘grasp God’ and communicate with him.

This “statement” shocks you, and as a convert of 7 years, it scandlizes me. How can I defend my faith to my non Catholic family when our Bishops and Priests don’t believe what they are doing. Makes me so sad that Christ’s Church is full of empty. (and yes I am using empty as a noun)

Thank you for your very thoughtful reflections.  My faith is strengthened through the Catholic Liturgy.  My observance, to the best of my abilities (I am returning to the faith after a long and painful absence), reminds me how I must be disciplined (a Disciple).  It is through these rituals that I learn to carry over that discipline into every aspect of my life.  It is truly amazing how this seemingly restrictive activity is actually a gateway to perfect freedom.

Simcha didn’t say…but I’d lay serious money on the visiting priest being over 50. A new generation of priests and engaged laypeople are on their way, and they are rarely anything like that.
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They have little or no memory of the ‘60s or ‘70s or ‘80s. They were not recruited into the armies of any side of those wars and so did not go half-mad from years in the trenches. With proper formation (which is becoming much more common in the early 21st century than it was at the end of the 20th), they are capable of embracing good things and rejecting bad things, without regard to whether the things in question came from the “liberal” or “conservative” wings. Finally—unlike those of us in the increasingly invisible “Generation X”—many of them will wind up being entrusted with responsibility and authority at relatively young ages.
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The giant supertanker that is the Barque of Peter is turning, towards orthodoxy and towards the real (not the “spirit of”) Vatican II. In the Anglosphere especially, the corrected translation is a powerful new factor. These are hopeful days within the Church in America, even as (or perhaps partly because?) the situation in society at large becomes ever more threatening and grim.
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Nolite timere!

@Kathleen, love it!

Fantasy: Invite him to dinner. Ice cream appetizer. Main course beef, white wine in a coffee cup, utensils reversed left to right, no napkin. Yep, ritual is a distraction.

ok, so I cried when I read this…a lot.  The only good, true and beautiful thing I count on every day is the Mass.  The beauty of it are the rituals because for me, it goes back to the crucifixion…the most important moment in the history of the world.  And I get to remember it everyday and try to live my life like He did because His life was the ultimate sacrifice. For us. I cannot imagine how unhappy that Cardinal must have been if he said that, how could he not have been transformed daily by that beautiful ritual…

I know a group of Italian Oblates and they were so sad when Cardinal Martini died as they had loved him.  And I’d had some of his books recommended by a perfectly orthodox priest I know.  So I was flummoxed by that interview - until I learned he’d died from Alzheimer’s and that interview was right before his death.  Then it made more sense to me why he’d been loved and trusted by some quite trustworthy folks.  Too bad this will end up being in the public mind as his lifelong view.
Anyway, yes to the ritual.  I’ve often wondered at funerals and the bedsides of the dying what on earth people do without the ritual of the rosary; there’s just nothing else to do and you can’t really think - but there’s still something to hold on to.

Well said Simcha!

I should also add that as Catholics, “what we pray is what we believe.”  Ritual—particularly ritual that we know is pretty much “the same everywhere” in terms of the rubrics of the Mass—makes it accessible to all of us at all times what it is that we believe.  Ironically,all of the low-church decrying of ritual with an emphasis on liturgical “creativity” left up to priest and congregation can (and does) obscure a lot of what we profess to believe.  While one must study the faith in order for it to be nourished, living it—and even thinking with it—is not reducible only to study.  ...besides, one might point out that straining at the bit of received ritual, received faith, and received wisdom is also just as much ritualistic for some, and is as old as the hills.  The more interesting question is what any ritual points beyond itself towards:  what is the end of all of this?

I thought the exact same thing before I even got to your second to last paragraph: God was sending you a very clear message that what he said in the homily was wrong.

Beautiful article.

Sit down with your kids and watch the original version of the Karate Kid.  When they question the value of ritual, tell them “Wax on, wax off.  You have no idea how much of value you are learning.”

Is a Kiss a ritual? Should we give up kissing our wife and children because it is just an empty ritual? NO. Just as the rituals of the Church are not empty. No, what is empty is those who do not use that ritual as a door to a deeper spirituality. Just as a kiss can become an empty gesture, we must keep that love for God alive, using that ritual as an expression of that love. Every time we genuflection to God we must remember how we love him.

I like TeresaL came back to the Catholic Church after three decades of wondering, looking for God. I too am back, drawn back by the ritual and reverence of the Tridentine Mass. I drive 100 miles to attend every Sunday but it gives me that extra boost I need to stay close to God in a world that ever tries to take us off the course.

God Bless our Catholic Church and all it has given us through its Traditions.

There is a basic and (I believe) God-given need for ritual in us humans; and where it doesn’t exist, we will create it.  I don’t think Cardinal Martini was criticizing ritual, per se, or even Catholic ritual; he was criticizing empty ritual, devoid of meaning for those who practice it.

In other words, ritual is important not in and of itself, but because of what it produces - faithfulness, an acknowledgement of our human weakness and tendency to stray, a reverence for those things that are eternal.  Where you have people employing ritual but not enjoying its fruits, that is where ritual becomes pompous.

Now I WOULD say that there can be such a thing as TOO MUCH ritual, as we interfaith families can sadly attest…

The words you quoted from Cardinal Martini made me sad also, and I’m glad you put words to what I wasn’t able to verbalize, and more.  I feel fortunate in the priests that we have also.  There are a few of our younger priests who take extra-deliberate care of the vessels, their hands, anything that might have come in contact with the Body or Blood of Christ.  It’s noticeable; they do not rush or treat it as routine.  Indeed, they rub and rub, and you know what?  The actions of these men, their mindful attention to ritual, help me focus even more clearly on the meaning, gift, and miracle of the Eucharist.

Yes.  “It’s not reverent or fair to nitpick and criticize and second guess everything a priest does”. His personality is his own.

Beautiful post, Simcha.  Yes, there was definitely a lesson in there - and I wonder if the thought had even crossed the mind of the priest, much less reflected upon it vis-a-vis his homily. 
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I cannot fathom how the late Cardinal Martini failed to recognise the value of the so-called ‘pompous ritual’ of the Church - the very thing about the Latin Mass that drew me back to my faith after decades away - the Tridentine Mass that has been called ‘the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven.’  How the Cardinal arrived at his scathing critiques truly baffles me.  This, from a cardinal, no less. As you say, no matter how many graces he may have received, he was still only human.  (And of course, the liberal/leftist wing of the Church lost no time in pushing him as their poster boy for even more radical ‘reform’ of the Church.  Ahh, truly tough times for the Catholic Church!) 
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Don’t they realise that it was due to all these post-Conciliar ‘reforms’ that we now have some extreme examples of the liturgical shipwreck that pass for a ‘Catholic Mass’ in some parts of the West? With the consequent vacuum of belief and faith among today’s nominal Catholics?

One of the more memorable lines from previous posts was about saying the “Hail Mary”.  And what if it doesn’t “work”, just keep saying it.

Beautiful, and so very well put!  I attend both the OF and the EF, and so I notice the different rhythms to both.  And it is ritual—again, not the sum total of the faith—that provides that rhythm.  Again, as you’ve put it so aptly, this is the rhythm of obedience;  it is also re-orientation towards God.  I noticed whilst attending the EF and taking what I’ve learned there about the Mass itself to the OF to help me pray the latter more intently that as Catholics, we’re meant to pray with everything we’ve got:  our hearts, our minds, our bodies;  every gift that God has given us, every joy and suffering.  The ritual and therefore rhythm of the Mass, the public prayer of the Church, and indeed any set prayer of the Church, draws us out of ourselves and redirects us;  indeed, pulls us into a rhythm that does not belong to us.

Wow.  I’m very glad for your sake and for the sake of your children that this was a rare occurrence from a visiting priest.  I pity his parishioners who have to hear these messages repeatedly.

Very beautiful, thank you.

My husband (gosh, he is my favorite, and I really, really, really mean that so deeply in my bones)always tells the kids that their bodies CAN’T lie.  We are not souls trapped in our bodies- but soul and body together, right?  Our words can say one thing while we really believe another, but our bodies are a reflection of what’s in our hearts.  And if we’re having a hard time changing what’s in our hearts, start by forcing our bodies to do what we’re supposed to do.  This is why physical ritual is so very, very important.  That poor priest’s misinterpretation of that passage makes me sad because, well, he is sad.  If he would just let the joy in!  “Do not harden your hearts…”

Beautiful article. :)

I’m sure the priest dropping the Host (good Lord!) wasn’t an accident. What I mean is, he didn’t do it on purpose but the Lord is sending a message through him.