The Novus Ordo Mass and Protestant Church Services

Earlier this week I had a group suggested to me by Facebook called Traditional Catholic Mothers. Here is the group's description:

From the Administrator: Hello Ladies, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up on what is going on with this group. As of a couple months ago our old administrator has left this group and handed over the administrative responsibilities to my sister Marrissa Garratt and I. We have had a lot of new member requests lately and many new members have joined in the last month. SO as a refresher here is what this group is for, it was founded as a place where we can share and enrich each other with the Traditional Catholic Faith. Anyone who attends a Latin Mass, or acknowledges the true Mass to be the Latin Mass is welcome for membership in this group. We will not tolerate any Novus Ordo!! So if you are sympathetic to the Novus Ordo and Vatican II, I suggest you leave this group and look for membership into another group as I will moderate what is posted and delete anything Novus Ordo! Please DO NOT post about what is happening in Rome and all that stuff, we are well aware of what is going on in the Vatican II church. We are also a Homeschooling group for those who Homeschool or are supportive of Homeschooling. Personally, my views are Sedevacantist, but I'm not here to enforce my views on anyone, again, we are not here for debate. I want this page to be a page about living the Traditional Catholic Faith, Homeschooling, and also a source for those new to the Traditional Faith who are trying to learn more about the One, True, Holy, Catholic Faith. Thank You!

Wow, right?! This is why I am occasionally tempted to get off FB altogether. It leads me to unfortunate places. This isn't the first time I've felt disturbed by the "traditional vs. progressive" debates and the hullabaloo over Vatican II. Once again I was sucked into surfing the internet for articles and conversations on these topics, and the more I read, the less serenity I was able to preserve. I read on a sedevacantist website (people who believe that the Chair of Peter is empty, that there hasn't been a real pope since at least Vatican II) that the only valid Mass is the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), that the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM) is evil (as was Vatican II); and that in fact the transubstantiation does not take place in the Novus Ordo. It became very difficult to discern what was true. I was too much in my head.

Other recurring themes were that the NOM lacks reverence and is filled with liturgical abuses, and that it has "Protestantized" the Catholic Church. Now, there is so much that could be discussed in the TLM vs. Novus Ordo debate that it simply would not fit into one blog post, even if I thought myself informed enough to take it on, which I do not. I've only even been to a TLM once. However, the reverence and Protestantization issues I can knowledgeably speak to. So what is reverence? According to Merriam-Webster, the first definition is  

honor or respect felt or shown :  deference; especially :  profound adoring awed respect.

I am a Protestant convert to the Catholic Faith. The first time I attended a Catholic Mass as an adult, I thought to myself, Wow, I didn't know Catholics were such Jesus freaks! This might sound incredibly irreverent, but I meant it as a sincere compliment. Considering that I had heard along the way in life that Catholics weren't real Christians, I was extremely struck by the reverence paid to Jesus in the Mass. The entire thing was saturated with Jesus. I can't say whether the TLM is even more reverent, because I honestly couldn't follow what was going on. I have a book coming to explain the TLM to me, and I plan to go again soon. 

Are the accusers against the NOM implying that the Novus Ordo is less reverent, for one reason, because they believe that it closely resembles a Protestant service? First of all, I have to wonder if most of these people have ever been practicing Protestants or even visited Protestant churches enough to have an educated opinion. Second, with there being something like 22,000 Protestant denominations and independent churches, I can't see how one could even make a sweeping generalization of comparison. And the implication that Protestants are less reverent Christians is quite presumptuous!

On the surface the NO Mass has similarities to some Protestant church services. That shouldn't be surprising, as we are worshiping the same Lord. When I started to attend Mass regularly, I was glad that the experience wasn't entirely foreign. The priest told bad jokes just like I was used to hearing from Protestant ministers! Scripture was read, hymns were sung, prayers were said, the priest gave a homily, which I took to be a sermon like I was familiar with, all done in English, and there was Holy Communion. But that's where things get radically different. Grape juice was always substituted for wine in the Protestant churches I attended, and the bread and juice were understood to be only symbolic of Jesus' body and blood. 

The entire Catholic Faith, and the central reason for the Mass, pivots on the belief in the Real Presence of Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the transubstantiated bread and wine. Grape juice is never substituted for wine. The bread must be wheat. The bread and wine must be properly consecrated by a bishop or priest, who obtains the power to do so through apostolic succession. The lineage of the bishops and priests today (via their connection by ordination) can be traced back all the way to the 12 apostles. Where did Peter end up going after Jesus' Ascension and where was he subsequently martyred? Rome, my friends, Rome. Peter was the first pope, which means he was the first head bishop. Pope means "papa", a term of endearment. 

I don't think Protestants are any less reverent as people of God than are Catholics. Reverence is an attitude of the heart. A greatly significant difference is that a Protestant minister would have no power to change the bread and wine into the Real Presence of Jesus. The Eucharist is a re-enactment which makes present, today, the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is an un-bloody sacrifice, as well as a memorial meal. This key difference in belief renders Catholicism and Protestantism into virtually two different religions. Differences aside, I have never experienced Communion in a Protestant Church that was not done with great reverence.

The only place in the Novus Ordo where I question the suitability for reverence is the practice of singing a hymn during Communion. Usually my family sits close to the front of the church, so my attention is divided between singing and keeping an eye out for when it's time to stand up and get in the Communion line. Then when I get back to my seat, I have to try to locate where everyone is at in the song. This is so distracting, and at a time when we should be focused on receiving our Lord. I think silence during Communion would be more reverent, but that's my opinion, not a fact. I do my best by simply not singing the hymn at that time and praying when I get back to my seat. The song distracts me from my prayers, but it is what it is. And sometimes it's a hymn I love, and I go ahead and sing. 

To wrap it up, I had been praying on my concerns, and yesterday I went into the adoration chapel to pray to Jesus before the tabernacle, where the consecrated host that hasn't been consumed yet is stored. As soon as I walked in, the Presence swept over me. I felt it in my bones. Without doubt, Jesus was there, not just spiritually, but in the unique form of transubstantiated, Eucharistic bread. The Novus Ordo is valid. It should really be enough for the doubters and dissenters that the Church says the NO Mass is valid. The risk of Protestantization occurs when Catholics stop respecting the authority of the Church!

I rejoice that through this trial (and it is Lent, after all!) I had the opportunity to offer up my suffering and to experience a renewal of my faith. I started reading a book I have owned since my conversion, The How-To Book of the Mass by Michael Dubruiel, to deepen my understanding of the Novus Ordo. There are many other differences between Protestant and Catholic worship, which perhaps I will explore in a future post. But for now I am consoled that the Catholicity has not been removed from the Church. She remains the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

Carrying the Cross

After I received Communion at Mass today, I looked up at Jesus on the cross, as I usually do, and made the sign of the cross. But today, I really noticed Jesus on the cross in a new way. I am currently experiencing the heaviest cross I have ever been given to bear in my life. When I looked up at Jesus, it was as if he saw me. And I have no doubt that he did. He showed me that in his pain and agony, there was great strength. Power. All the power in heaven and on earth. I felt him saying, See me up here, on this cross, and know that I am in you. Know that there is nothing that I will give you to bear that I will not also give you the strength to withstand. 

I had been thinking during this current crisis that God must believe I am very strong to have given me such a great trial and responsibility. He must have much confidence in me. But maybe the more accurate reality is that he is strong, and that it is his strength that he is giving me. When I looked up at Jesus on the cross, I had just received him in the Eucharist, his Real Presence--body, blood, soul and divinity. The Gospel reading was from John 6, which makes so clear that Jesus commands us to eat of his body and drink of his blood, literally. I heard these verses again on the way home in the car on the radio, said by a priest with a lovely accent during a Latin Mass. I am supposed to pay attention to these verses, to hold them close to my heart, to understand that it is here, in the Blessed Sacrament, in the consecrated bread and wine, that I will receive my strength and be nourished in every way.

Today also happened to be the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. We had a guest priest who taught us the origin of this feast. The story was about a priest who once doubted the Real Presence in the Eucharist. While he was saying Mass, blood dropped from the host onto a cloth on the altar. This relic is paraded through the streets of Italy on this feast day. After the homily, the guest priest shared a really long mission speech asking for donations. I was anxious to just have Communion and get home to make sure everything was okay, and I couldn't believe how long the man talked!

But now it occurs to me. I have learned in Catholicism that there is a purpose to my suffering. I can offer it up to bless those in greater need. The children in poverty in third world countries that I heard about today have a greater need than mine. For food, shelter, education, and the basic necessities of life. To keep the boys out of a life of terrorism and the girls from a life of forced prostitution. I gave a donation in the envelope and wrote my prayer request. I can offer up my suffering for these children, and it will bless them, and what I am going through will mean something good and real. It will help someone else. And the person who opens the envelope will make my intentions known and make sure that my family is prayed for. Knowing these things, perhaps I will avoid despair.

The gift of the Catholic Church is endless. It is eternal, this one, true, holy, universal and apostalic Church. This is the Church Jesus built on the Rock named Peter, the apostle who denied him three times. This flawed, fearful, unfaithful man was the first Pope. The one given the keys to the kingdom by our Lord. Jesus is now trusting me, just as I am, with a great task. That's the other thing he seemed to be saying from the cross, that I can do this difficult thing just as I am. He is with me and in me. I don't have to be perfect, because he is perfecting me in his way, in his time. He has guided and will continue to guide me in my decisions, even if others don't understand them or think I am making the wrong choices.

In hindsight, we might see what we could have done differently, and we can learn from our mistakes and grow to be the persons God has created us to be. When we find ourselves in a crisis or difficult situation, we can pray and then do the best with what we have, with what we know, with what our instincts and the Holy Spirit lead us to do. Decisions are not made with 20/20 hindsight, but rather in the present moment. I made a phone call today that resulted in someone else being upset, yet the person who responded to the call delivered, in perfect kindness and compassion, a much needed message and important information. I believe, therefore, that it was a good decision, and that the message given was of divine intervention. We often have to feel our way as things unfold, to navigate a new challenge in very stormy seas, but we don't have to do it alone.

We are, each and every one of us, specially designed by our Father with a unique personality, with particular strengths and talents. Everyone has his or her own genius and purpose in life. I am not supposed to be different from who I am, from the person I was created to be, and neither are you. We also all have human weaknesses, which are not necessarily defects of personality or character, but rather raw material that God uses, along with our stronger qualities, to draw us closer to him. Every imperfection has its brilliance on the other side of the coin. For example, patience is the virtuous side of stubbornness. Both reflect a strong will and the ability to wait. We are all sinners, and every single sinner is called to become a saint.

There is an old hymn that has the lyrics, Just As I Am. As the 12 Step adage goes, what other people think of me is none of my business. We can only be forgiven in the exact measure that we forgive others. Living with endless remorse, regret, guilt, shame, blame, resentment, fear, doubt, and worry can only keep us from the mission given us by Christ. The Sacrament of Confession gives us the opportunity to bring our sins to Jesus and know that we are absolved of them. I am reminding myself right now, and you, to go to Confession often! We then do our penance, make the amends to others that we can, and move on. We must learn to see Christ in ourselves and all others, and accept ourselves and one another just as we are.

And here's a neat thing I have experienced my whole life. People have often remarked on the qualities of patience, compassion, empathy, and understanding that they saw and admired in me. What if the good things people say about us really are true? What if we believed our advocates, even a little, and allowed the condemning voices to pass through, and let them go? We might be able to move mountains.

A retired priest that I am very fond of who still occasionally says the Mass loves to recite the poetry of Mary Oliver.  I will leave you with my personal favorite, "Wild Geese":


You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
In the family of things.

Belief.

Upon pondering the vocation of the contemplative mother, it seems that the subject of belief is a natural place to start. As Catholics, it is our duty to know our faith. Here is the Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son,
our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell.
On the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand
of God the Father Almighty; from there he shall
come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.

I typed that from memory. I prefer this over the Nicene Creed, because it is much shorter and easier to memorize. The Apostles' Creed is also recited at the beginning of the Rosary. Either creed is a simple statement of faith from which all of the Church's teachings flow.

Recently I have been looking for a definite answer to the question, Must we believe everything the Church teaches? Certain experiences I had in RCIA were nagging at the back of my mind, perhaps because I was aware this fall of the beginning of the new class of students interested in becoming Catholic. I had heard from a couple of staff members the statement, "I don't believe everything the Church teaches." This was even said of our priest, but he never said such a thing himself. I did take the question to another priest, because I was concerned about what seemed to be a case of the "cafeteria Catholic", who picks and chooses which teachings he will follow from the buffet. To my surprise, I was assured that there aren't that many teachings that we must believe, so in that respect it would be okay to be a cafeteria Catholic!

Still not satisfied, I sought clarification from our priest on the particular point of birth control, and from the RCIA director regarding the general statements made about not believing everything the Church teaches. I was assured that the program was completely in line with the Church's Magisterium. Some small "t" traditions, which are changeable by the Church to best serve the current needs of the laity at whatever point in history we are at, were cited. Also referred to were the "levels of faith" that one may progress through on one's faith journey, with the result at higher levels of a lesser need for rules and regulations. I was left wondering if the only teachings which Catholics are absolutely required to believe are those items labeled as definitive dogma.

Through this whole experience I felt like I wasn't being given a straight answer. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit will often help us get to the truth in an indirect way, through what is sometimes called synchronicity. In other words, there are no coincidences. Everything is connected, and sometimes we see with uncommon clarity a solution to a problem, or we are led in a particular direction, by a series of events or encounters with people. This is what happened in this case.

I called another homeschooling mother whose child was visiting at my house to get directions to bring her child home. One landmark given was a Catholic church the location of which I had not previously known. I told her how happy I was that I would now know how to get there, so I could visit that church for Mass. It turned out that the other mother had grown up Catholic and was even confirmed, but she is now Protestant. As you can imagine, this conversation was very interesting, and she asked me an unexpected question. Very simply, "Do you believe all of it?" For a brief moment it seemed like a funny question. After all, why would I have converted if I didn't believe everything the Church teaches? So my answer was, without reservation, "Yes".

The subject of the transubstantiation of the Eucharistic bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ came up, and I shared that it was the Bible that actually led me to believe this was true. I cited the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6. I think that this was the first time since I've become Catholic that I have been a witness of my faith to a non-Catholic. I am certain that it was the Holy Spirit, speaking through my friend, who was asking me point blank, "Woman, do you believe?" Wow, what an amazing experience!

Sure, there are those things about which the Church allows varying opinions. And certainly our faith will deepen, our understanding will grow, and we will have doubts along the way. But even if we don't understand or fully agree with an official teaching, as Catholics we are bound to accept the authority of the Church. Must we believe everything she teaches? The answer is yes. It isn't a question of some arbitrary "levels" of faith, which by the way, is not a teaching of the Church. It's a matter of obedience to Christ through obedience to his Church. Is this the Church which Jesus built upon the rock named Peter--to whom he gave the keys to the Kingdom--against which he said the gates of hell would not prevail (Matt. 16:18)? Is this indeed the Church that Jesus called "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1Tim. 3:15), to which any disputes about the Christian faith must be taken?

When I came to believe that the Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded, the Church which traces its history (and it is a matter of history) back to the 12 apostles, then there was no other Church to which I could belong. And if I can't answer, Yes, I believe everything she teaches, then I know I've got some serious soul searching to do.

St. Peter

"Manna for the Temple": Of Prayers and Saints

Last night after Mass I showed Father J. a "Lady of All Nations" prayer card I had sent to me from an online group. The prayer is based on a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a woman in Amsterdam. It reads,
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now your Spirit over the earth. Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all Nations, that they may be preserved from degeneration, disaster, and war. May the Lady of All Nations, the Blessed Virgin Mary, be our Advocate! Amen."

There was a book sale after Mass, and I purchased a Rosary for my daughter. As I was talking to Father J. about teaching it to her, and showing him the prayer card, he explained that the purpose of any devotions is to bring us closer to Christ, so they should be Christological in nature. This particular prayer, for me, ties into the theme of living a holy life and how that relates to caring for our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, and by extension, caring for Mother Earth. The ways in which we take care of ourselves, our environment, and our children, and how we relate to God and other peoples of the world socially, politically, and economically are completely intertwined. Our inner lives manifest outwardly and vice versa.

So for this "Manna for the Temple" series, let me focus now on prayer. One big difference between the Catholic and Protestant approach to prayer is that Protestants pray, while Catholics say prayers. That isn't to say that Catholics only recite memorized prayers. But the only memorized prayer I ever learned as a Protestant was the "Our Father", which of course Catholics also use. What I am finding is that we are sometimes limited in how to pray and what to pray for, so a memorized prayer helps me to focus myself on God without distraction. This includes the Rosary and those repetitious, memorized prayers. There are also prayers to the saints, of which Mary is the highest.

Why pray to a saint? Because the saints are the "great cloud of witnesses" spoken of in the Bible who are praying for us! In The Secrets of Mary, author Janice T. Connell explains that Mary "asks us to rely upon God at all times. She reminds us that God sends His angels and saints to comfort and guide us while we dwell in our bodies on earth. If we speak fewer words and listen with our hearts, we can become aware of God's heavenly Kingdom all around us." The purpose of devotions to Mary and the saints is to lead us to a closer relationship with Jesus. Through learning of the lives of the saints and how God worked in their lives, we receive various glimpses of God's grace as delivered through those individuals, and so a particular saint's story may resonate with us and help to magnify God's love for us.

St. Monica, who was the mother of St. Augustine, is the patron saint of married women and mothers. By her  prayers, faith, and holy example, and through appearances of the Virgin Mary to her, Monica lead her wayward husband and son to God. Once a womanizing drunk who lead a life of sinful pleasure, Augustine became a holy man of God and is one of the most prolific Christian writers of all time. Here is the Prayer to Saint Monica:  "Exemplary Mother of great Saint Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen."

Protestant Christians for the most part have no problem with listening to Christian music in order to draw closer to God, but they usually balk at visual images, statues, candles, incense, holy water, rosaries, etc... Why should this be? One does not worship these things, any more than one worships music. If I light a candle in front of a plaque of Jesus and Mary and say the prayer on the back of a holy card, I add tangible elements of the spiritual realm to my day. If I am struggling with inspiration to do my housework, it helps to burn incense and play some devotional music. When a Catholic enters the church sanctuary, dipping one's fingers into holy water and making the sign of the cross reminds a person that he or she is entering the presence of the Lord. The Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ shared by the congregation, is the center of Catholic worship ever single week, rather than a church service centered on the sermon of the minister, with Communion taken only a few times a year. The physical and the eternal are not separate. Never have I attended a church as Christ-centered as the Catholic Church, and perhaps this connection between things you can see and touch and the invisible realm of the holy is the reason.

As a homeschooling mother, St. Monica and the Virgin Mary give me excellent examples to follow. I will leave you with the "Parents Prayer" found on the back of a holy card picturing Mary, Joseph, and the child Jesus. May you have a blessed day!

"MOST LOVING FATHER, THE EXAMPLE OF PARENTHOOD, TEACH US WHAT TO GIVE AND WHAT TO WITHHOLD. SHOW US WHEN TO REPROVE AND WHEN TO PRAISE. MAKE US GENTLE AND CONSIDERATE YET FIRM AND WATCHFUL. KEEP US FROM WEAK INDULGENCE, OR FROM GREAT SEVERITY. GIVE US THE COURAGE TO BE DISLIKED SOMETIMES BY OUR CHILDREN, WHEN WE MUST DO NECESSARY THINGS WHICH ARE DISPLEASING IN THEIR EYES. GIVE US THE IMAGINATION TO ENTER INTO THEIR WORLD IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND AND GUIDE THEM. GIVE US ALL THE VIRTUES WE NEED TO LEAD THEM BY WORD AND EXAMPLE IN THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. AMEN!"