*the asterisk is a qualifier in that I am only talking about the ones that I have personally attended*
I attended Mass with one of my children at St Anne Catholic Church in Tomball this morning as the rest of the household was feeling sick. St Anne is closest to my house, and as I didn't want to leave my sick family for very long, it was the best way to fulfill the obligation.
The church is fairly small with pews that hold around 400-500 parishioners and then two elevated wings up a staircase that each hold about 50 people. The church was packed (good sign) and there was SRO at the time of mass.
For what seemed to be a decent sized community I was shocked that the parish has only 1 priest, and there was no deacon assisting at the mass. The priests name is Fr.Tommy, and while he seemed very friendly and folksy did not exhibit the type of solemnity nor reverence that I am used to.
He said all the words of the liturgy in the exact same conversational language, and after every response from the laity he would say "thank you" which I thought was odd. He did seem very popular, and his homily on the Epiphany was well received, even if it didn't really speak about the gospel much and instead told the tale of a fictional "4th wiseman", who spent 33 years trying to find Christ and got held up doing acts of charity. When he finally reaches Christ, it's the day of the crucifixion and he's hit in the head by a falling roof slate and Christ takes him to heaven with him. Sweet story, nice message but inappropriate.
The biggest issue I have is with how communion is done. The priest calls down the Holy Spirit and changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, and then distributes communion to the EMHC before handing them their own chalice or ciborium. The EMHC were a mix of men and women and all were nicely dressed and acted reverently but what struck me most, was the absolute non chalance exhibited by the laity when the EMHC would walk past them to go to their communion station at different points in the church.
The body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, King of Kings, is passing by your location, and you don't even acknowledge it? You don't prostrate yourself, or kneel or even bow your head as God passes by?
It may seem like a small thing but to me this is the biggest indictment of the entire thought process of the church post Vatican II. The Eucharist is the center of our faith, and it seems as a church, we are fine with treating it as regular bread and wine. I don't blame the laity, this is what we're being taught by Bishops who worry that kneeling while receiving will "disrupt the flow" of communion, by parishes that don't have reconciliation available before every Mass, and by priests who give a cursory wipe down of the vessels post communion, instead of taking the time to ensure every piece of our precious Lord's body and blood has been consumed.
It's an absolute travesty. I am extremely depressed. Come Lord Jesus.
I attended Mass with one of my children at St Anne Catholic Church in Tomball this morning as the rest of the household was feeling sick. St Anne is closest to my house, and as I didn't want to leave my sick family for very long, it was the best way to fulfill the obligation.
The church is fairly small with pews that hold around 400-500 parishioners and then two elevated wings up a staircase that each hold about 50 people. The church was packed (good sign) and there was SRO at the time of mass.
For what seemed to be a decent sized community I was shocked that the parish has only 1 priest, and there was no deacon assisting at the mass. The priests name is Fr.Tommy, and while he seemed very friendly and folksy did not exhibit the type of solemnity nor reverence that I am used to.
He said all the words of the liturgy in the exact same conversational language, and after every response from the laity he would say "thank you" which I thought was odd. He did seem very popular, and his homily on the Epiphany was well received, even if it didn't really speak about the gospel much and instead told the tale of a fictional "4th wiseman", who spent 33 years trying to find Christ and got held up doing acts of charity. When he finally reaches Christ, it's the day of the crucifixion and he's hit in the head by a falling roof slate and Christ takes him to heaven with him. Sweet story, nice message but inappropriate.
The biggest issue I have is with how communion is done. The priest calls down the Holy Spirit and changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, and then distributes communion to the EMHC before handing them their own chalice or ciborium. The EMHC were a mix of men and women and all were nicely dressed and acted reverently but what struck me most, was the absolute non chalance exhibited by the laity when the EMHC would walk past them to go to their communion station at different points in the church.
The body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, King of Kings, is passing by your location, and you don't even acknowledge it? You don't prostrate yourself, or kneel or even bow your head as God passes by?
It may seem like a small thing but to me this is the biggest indictment of the entire thought process of the church post Vatican II. The Eucharist is the center of our faith, and it seems as a church, we are fine with treating it as regular bread and wine. I don't blame the laity, this is what we're being taught by Bishops who worry that kneeling while receiving will "disrupt the flow" of communion, by parishes that don't have reconciliation available before every Mass, and by priests who give a cursory wipe down of the vessels post communion, instead of taking the time to ensure every piece of our precious Lord's body and blood has been consumed.
It's an absolute travesty. I am extremely depressed. Come Lord Jesus.
