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.

Bouncing Back Gently

Thursday I had my big left toenail removed by an Irish Catholic podiatrist. Having had this surgery before, I knew that the four numbing needles jabbed into the toe would hurt, but the good doctor assured me that he had just done this same thing to two 12-year-olds, and they were fine! Good for them. When he started to stick me with the needles and realized that he was, indeed, hurting me, he began apologizing profusely for having lied to me! I assured him that he did not have to apologize, but he said he did, having grown up with nuns and learning to be sorry for lying. I'm not making this up.

Saturday I belly danced for the first time since the original injury. I had only gotten back into the swing of things for a few weeks after finally healing from throwing my back out, when I knocked the toenail partially out of its socket. I did this on my screened front porch while moving a wicker chair, and I yelled really loudly. So loud I was embarrassed and ran back into the house. I had to cancel two of my dance classes. Lack of exercise results in giving me the blues, so I felt my way out of the melancholy to begin to gently dance again. Just to cycle through a warm up, some gentle drilling of basics, dancing improvisationally to an upbeat song, and cooling down with yoga. Such regular practice is centering, energizing, and strengthening, increasing flexibility and a positive body image. Not to mention the actual health and beauty benefits.

It is difficult when we are aware of what our bodies and souls need, yet we aren't able to give those things to ourselves for whatever reasons. This is when I surrender and offer it up to God for the blessing of someone in greater need. There is a place for suffering in my life, and it can benefit someone else. My faith keeps me from wallowing in self-pity or giving in to deep depression. But therein lies another source of melancholy--the fact that I reached my major goal of joining the Catholic Church. Now that this has been accomplished, I can just be Catholic! There is that sense of let down, kind of like after the build up to Christmas. My daughter is so excited to go to church this evening and have her 2nd Holy Communion. We both waited so long, and now we have our heart's desire. What does one do after one has achieved her heart's desire? After the wedding comes the long years of marriage.

So begins the gentle bouncing back from the dark, cold days of winter. Finally, it feels like spring. We will have flower after flower come up in the yard for the entire growing season. Then the leaves will turn color, and eventually it will be winter once more. It can be easy to take the tulips for granted right now, to think ahead to days spent at the pool, lounging with a good book. Even thinking of summer frazzles me a bit, though, as I feel pressure to decide if we will suspend all school work, or keep doing reading lessons as we have been. Part of me wants to jump into unschooling and flow with the current, while another part thinks that more structure is what we need! Oh bother, as Winnie-the-Pooh would say.

I have to remind myself that life has been very busy, and it is natural to be tired as a result of planning for big days and being physically wounded. Keeping it simple is the order of the day. Rest is necessary for recovery, and on Sundays it is a religious requirement! So I am off to lounge on my upstairs balcony, maybe with a bowl of ice cream.

  picnicking.blogspot.com

Gratitude

For Christians the question isn't whether or not God exists or if Christ is Lord—the question is how deeply those truths change your life.

— from Tweet Inspiration


I think I need to go back to the practice of making a list of 5 things each day for which I am grateful. I learned about this idea of keeping a gratitude journal in Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. When thinking about the "wildly rewarding life," I asked myself whether my life might already be wildly rewarding, and I just fail to recognize it.

First of all, I can partake of Holy Communion for spiritual nourishment almost every day of the week, if I choose to go to daily Mass. To have the right to receive the real food of the body and blood of Christ as a Catholic is truly wild. Is there a greater gift than this? That God is my Father, Jesus is my Brother, and Mary is my spiritual Mother is amazing grace. Is there a higher reward than this?

It seems that we are trained by our consumerist society to always want more. If I had this thing or that, if this one aspect of life were different, then everything would be perfect. What if, instead, we allow what we have in this present moment to be enough? The birds and squirrels in the yard are enough. My husband, child, dog, home, car, and furniture are enough. I have enough clothes, enough food, enough money, and enough love. I am pretty enough, smart enough, strong enough, talented enough, funny enough, young enough, and my weight is just fine, whatever it happens to be. My friends and my town are enough. This blog is good enough. My homeschooling is good enough. I am enough. You are enough. And our God is an awesome God.

Holy Communion through a Child's Eyes

 The Last Supper

Beezy's religious education class is currently preparing for their first sacrament of Holy Communion, which will take place at Mass on April 28.  "I can't wait to have the bread and wine, can you?" she asked me.  I will receive my First Communion at the Easter Vigil at the end of March.  I know that she will be bummed that she has to wait longer than me! Why the excitement? Is it because she will get to taste wine? No, she has already tasted wine, and she didn't like it.  It's because Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; that is, the bread becomes Jesus' body, and the wine becomes his blood. This is called transubstantiation, and it is understood literally.

When I was in my 20s, I scoffed at a young Catholic woman who tried to explain transubstantiation to me. "That's just silly!" I remarked. "It's only a symbol," I said with confidence.  "But that's what we believe," she answered in exasperation.  I show you my lack of humility and my arrogance, dear reader, to illustrate that we often fail to believe in things that we can't logically explain and understand.  But why believe that the bread and wine are really Jesus' body and blood at all?  Because Jesus said so, that's why.  I give you John 6: 52-58:

"The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.' "

And that's what Beezy told me.  Communion is so exciting because it makes you live forever! But this is a parable, the non-Catholic might argue.  First of all, from a literary standpoint, this is not a parable, and you will just have to take my word as a Bachelor of English for it.  Also, when Jesus teaches in parables, he always explains the metaphor. He says that this is like that, specifically using the simile language of "like" or "as" to clear up the listeners' confusion. He doesn't do that here.  In fact, "After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him (v. 66)." He doesn't call them back. He doesn't say, "Wait, I was speaking in parable! It was a metaphor!! Let me explain!!!"  He lets them go, for they have no faith.

Jesus always explains his parables, so this is evidently not a metaphorical story.  There is no plot; this passage is labeled as a discourse. And Jesus repeats himself five times in a row to make sure we get this!  This is of the utmost importance, a teaching not to be missed or brushed off as merely symbolic.  He expected his true disciples to believe even if they did not understand, yet he does eventually tell the twelve how, exactly, they will be able to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood.  I give you Matthew 26: 26-29:

"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.'  And he took the chalice, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.' "

Did Jesus say that the bread and wine were like his body and blood? No, he said, this is.  Again, no explanation of a parable, because this is no metaphor.  Holy Communion is the center of Catholic faith and worship.  It literally provides spiritual sustenance and eternal life.  It is Jesus abiding in us, and we in him, body, soul, and divinity.  And it is of undisputed historical record that the earliest Christians believed and practiced this, in the very first century of Christianity.  This is why I am joining the Catholic Church and raising my child Catholic.  She deserves this gift from the hand of our Lord and Savior, and this is Organic Mothering at its best!  I wish I could find that Catholic woman that I laughed at and apologize to her.  I thought I was right, but that was no excuse for my disrespect of her beliefs, and I rejoice that I was wrong after all!!  As Jesus' mother Mary said, "Do whatever he tells you."

Wedding Feast at Cana