Thank you. Most Bishops speak more about appeals and fundraising than they do of Christ, the salvation of souls and the beautiful, graced filled, hopeful opportunities and sacraments our Lord in His infinite love and mercy has given us. We should never take the Mass for granted or discount its absolute necessity. Soccer and softball practice is no substitute for the graces, help and beauty of the Mass. When are called home I do not believe what sporting practices went to on Sunday mornings will carry much weight. The parents that prioritized worldly goals over obligations to God will not be in good shape. If approached correctly Mass is a serious but joyful event where we can give ourselves to God in a beautiful grace filled setting. We are entirely dependent on God and His gratuitous graces, ha we can no earn or merit. Going to Mass, if taught properly, is an obligation, but a joyful one. It is an opportunity to be grateful for all that we have, yet have no earned
If the bishops truly believed and taught the true faith, and that Christ is truly and fully present, body, blood soul and divinity in under he aspects of the bread and wine, there would be lines for miles to the mass. Also the great scandals of the Bishops would end.
Just today at Mass the visiting priest said that if you go to daily Mass and you’re not having the fruits of charity, then the Mass is worthless. I couldn’t believe my ears! The Mass is of inestimable value! I would have said if you’re not increasing in charity, you are failing to receive the graces God has for you in the Mass. I would never, ever, have said what he said. It hurt my heart!
Perhaps, but that couldn’t be construed from what he said. Words are important, and he said if we were attending Mass every day but not showing charity, the Mass was worthless. Hearing that phrase repeated over and over just stressed the word worthless associated with Mass. A priest ought to be more careful.
I was born a week after the end of Vatican II and I feel that this fact has greatly coloured my life.
Why was I not hearing all of this as I grew up?
My father faithfully took us girls to Mass week in week out even when it was really hard (as it often was) .I attended Catholic schools throughout . Noone at any point tried to teach me the Rosary, told me about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, explained to me why I should not receive Communion in a non-Catholic context, how I should live as a chaste young Catholic woman and what that looked like in practical terms, about the nature of sexuality, about why contraception was an evil, about the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. I never in all that time experienced Adoration or Benediction. I had burning questions but noone seemed to want to answer them.
It is then no wonder that most of the people of my age whom I know who were Baptised Catholic here in the UK, even of those who made their First Holy Communion and Confirmation, no longer attend Mass and indeed most would describe themselves as agnostic or atheist.
In short my generation in Southern Britain grew up in a virtual catechetical black hole.
And we seem to have learned no lessons at all. At our Parish Church, you could count on the fingers of one hand those between the ages of 16 and 30 who attend Mass; few of those Baptised Catholic get as far as First Holy Communion, of those most lapse as soon as they leave Primary school and for most of the remnant who make it to Confirmation, it seems to be the point at which the newly Confirmed decide that have now ticked all the boxes and can settle into Real Normal Life.. i.e football on Sundays instead of Mass, finding a sexual "partner" and working on improving their social approval score in a myriad of inventive ways. What else should they do? Noone ever told them not to. Noone ever presented the Faith as anything other as something you do on Sundays when you are a child to please your parents and teachers.
I vividly recall a local Bishop recounting the story of a mother and little boy he talked to at a reception. He remarked to the lad that may be he would be a Bishop himself one day. The mother recoiled at this suggestion and said she was sure he would have something more important to do.
A stunned catechist recently recounted that in the course of preparing candidates for Confirmation
they had been exploring the topic of abortion and that she had had to completely rethink her strategy because many had casually told her that they knew what they thought about that already; they were "pro-choice" I am not sure why the Bishop or the Catechist were surprised; after 15 years several hours a day in an environment in which secular materialism is drip-fed fed to them
in every resource they explore, in which the heros and heroines are routinely, exotically anti-heros and anti-heroines and when they hear nothing at all from the pulpit every Sunday to contradict the
secular agenda and the view that "my truth is not your truth", what on earth would you expect?
What you are doing is inexpressably important.
Why should a fourth and fifth generation have to suffer the dearth of reliable, practical spiritual formation, in which desert so many of us have been spiritually starving to death?
Is it any wonder that we have so few Priests and religious sisters? So few happiliy married husband and wives?
Please keep telling it like it is. This is like manna in the desert.
And please write with advice for young Catholics as to how to discern their calling and how to live a chaste life while they do so. Priests who have received their formation here in the UK just do not seem to talk about such things..and young people are left to swim or too often sink on their own.. Too few even have the words to explain how they feel when confronted with the expectations of the world and even of many of those older "Catholics" circles who take it as read that if theses young people are "normal" they will be living the life of apparent exuberance and confidence but actually of quiet desperation which is the lot of those with no faith.
I was born in 1973 in Seattle, in the US. I went to catholic school in the 80s and early 90s in the Archdiocese of Seattle. In 13 years of catholic education we barely heard about mortal sin,
salvation of one’s soul, about the liturgical year, what the Mass actually is (sacrifice), and we rarely received the sacraments, so being denied God’s grace. I am beginning to believe that Vatican II was not a catastrophic mistake, but was, in fact, a colossal success by the enemies of the Church.
it took me until my late thirties to understand just why my poor father was so reluctant to try and answer my questions when i was a young woman..I had had no idea that the Old Rite had in fact been actively suppressed..To be forced to go from timeless liturgy to guitars and Beatles beats, from silence to noise and from certainty to fashion .. and from one month to the next, I then understood he did not answer my questions because he was no longer sure what was set in stone and what was negotiable.. He just kept going to Mass in a bewildered way, trusting that if he gave us access to the Sacraments that somehow thing would work out. I'll never forget the times i saw him kneeling at the side chapel to Our Lady after Mass in the wake of yet another impossible week in mute appeal.
I try to focus on the prospect for renewal .. outrage can go one of two ways and I hope those of us who feel it as keenly as I do manage to use it positively as fuel for working for a reaffirmation of the timeless certainties which are our only way back to joy.
warmest regards,
Karen
If anything thinking of his bewilderement makes me even more outraged..
And if one seeks the deep reality of the essence of created being---of time and space, of energy and matter and light one comes to a greater appreciation of He through Whom all things were made.
Fr. Charles. McTague (RIP) visited Albert Einstein in the 1950s and they chatted for the better part of an hour on the subject of transubstantiation.
It's not by coincidence that there are two consecrations after the Holy Spirit descends, hovering above the altar at the epiclesis.
Pillar of cloud and pillar of fire...over the Tabernacle in the desert centered on the Ark of the Covenant
Fusion fires the sun...Padre Pio understood.
Fusion is sourced through, with and in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Now look again at E=mc^2 when the mass is at rest.
Thanks for a beautiful article regarding The Holy Mass and The Eucharist. One thing, among many, struck me. You only used the word “liturgy” a few times. It seems to me that the more I read from Catholic authors the more I realize that the word “Mass” is being replaced with the word “liturgy”. Intentional? Think how easy it would be to think, “Bummer, I missed “the liturgy” last Sunday”. Yet, more seeds of confusion.
Thank you, Bishop Strickland. We read recently, in the gospel of Marc 3, 22-30 that "if someone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, he will never be forgiven. He is culpable of a sin forever". The Lord Jesus Christ's Consécration Words spoken by Himself cannot be changed. If ever it were, the blasphemy would fall on the on us if we took part of the blasphem.
Thank you, our dear shepherd! I think because the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been trivialized ny removing the ancient beauty of the TLM, so many people have fallen away and instead attend ‘services’ of fellowship, all-are-saved, all-are-welcome with no faith denomination. Vatican II’s dumbing down has dumped many Catholics out. The only answer is a resurgence of the TLM celebrated more and more and everywhere.
Beautifully done as always Bishop Stickland, but what a heartbreaking opening:
"Unfortunately, though, it is a great tragedy of our time that the majority of baptized Catholics do not see the need to attend Mass on Sunday."
Assuming this is worldwide estimation, how bad is it thought to be in the U.S. ? Also, one has to think that a similar percentage commit mortal sin when they do receive communion?
Thank you. Most Bishops speak more about appeals and fundraising than they do of Christ, the salvation of souls and the beautiful, graced filled, hopeful opportunities and sacraments our Lord in His infinite love and mercy has given us. We should never take the Mass for granted or discount its absolute necessity. Soccer and softball practice is no substitute for the graces, help and beauty of the Mass. When are called home I do not believe what sporting practices went to on Sunday mornings will carry much weight. The parents that prioritized worldly goals over obligations to God will not be in good shape. If approached correctly Mass is a serious but joyful event where we can give ourselves to God in a beautiful grace filled setting. We are entirely dependent on God and His gratuitous graces, ha we can no earn or merit. Going to Mass, if taught properly, is an obligation, but a joyful one. It is an opportunity to be grateful for all that we have, yet have no earned
If the bishops truly believed and taught the true faith, and that Christ is truly and fully present, body, blood soul and divinity in under he aspects of the bread and wine, there would be lines for miles to the mass. Also the great scandals of the Bishops would end.
Thanks for the encouragement, Your Excellency! It is good to remind us that the Mass is a true sacrifice and thus, true worship!
Thank you Bishop Strickland. 🙏🙏
Just today at Mass the visiting priest said that if you go to daily Mass and you’re not having the fruits of charity, then the Mass is worthless. I couldn’t believe my ears! The Mass is of inestimable value! I would have said if you’re not increasing in charity, you are failing to receive the graces God has for you in the Mass. I would never, ever, have said what he said. It hurt my heart!
Maybe he meant that a person who does not have the fruit of charity is not allowing the graces from assisting at Mass to affect them.
Perhaps, but that couldn’t be construed from what he said. Words are important, and he said if we were attending Mass every day but not showing charity, the Mass was worthless. Hearing that phrase repeated over and over just stressed the word worthless associated with Mass. A priest ought to be more careful.
Thank you.
I was born a week after the end of Vatican II and I feel that this fact has greatly coloured my life.
Why was I not hearing all of this as I grew up?
My father faithfully took us girls to Mass week in week out even when it was really hard (as it often was) .I attended Catholic schools throughout . Noone at any point tried to teach me the Rosary, told me about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, explained to me why I should not receive Communion in a non-Catholic context, how I should live as a chaste young Catholic woman and what that looked like in practical terms, about the nature of sexuality, about why contraception was an evil, about the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. I never in all that time experienced Adoration or Benediction. I had burning questions but noone seemed to want to answer them.
It is then no wonder that most of the people of my age whom I know who were Baptised Catholic here in the UK, even of those who made their First Holy Communion and Confirmation, no longer attend Mass and indeed most would describe themselves as agnostic or atheist.
In short my generation in Southern Britain grew up in a virtual catechetical black hole.
And we seem to have learned no lessons at all. At our Parish Church, you could count on the fingers of one hand those between the ages of 16 and 30 who attend Mass; few of those Baptised Catholic get as far as First Holy Communion, of those most lapse as soon as they leave Primary school and for most of the remnant who make it to Confirmation, it seems to be the point at which the newly Confirmed decide that have now ticked all the boxes and can settle into Real Normal Life.. i.e football on Sundays instead of Mass, finding a sexual "partner" and working on improving their social approval score in a myriad of inventive ways. What else should they do? Noone ever told them not to. Noone ever presented the Faith as anything other as something you do on Sundays when you are a child to please your parents and teachers.
I vividly recall a local Bishop recounting the story of a mother and little boy he talked to at a reception. He remarked to the lad that may be he would be a Bishop himself one day. The mother recoiled at this suggestion and said she was sure he would have something more important to do.
A stunned catechist recently recounted that in the course of preparing candidates for Confirmation
they had been exploring the topic of abortion and that she had had to completely rethink her strategy because many had casually told her that they knew what they thought about that already; they were "pro-choice" I am not sure why the Bishop or the Catechist were surprised; after 15 years several hours a day in an environment in which secular materialism is drip-fed fed to them
in every resource they explore, in which the heros and heroines are routinely, exotically anti-heros and anti-heroines and when they hear nothing at all from the pulpit every Sunday to contradict the
secular agenda and the view that "my truth is not your truth", what on earth would you expect?
What you are doing is inexpressably important.
Why should a fourth and fifth generation have to suffer the dearth of reliable, practical spiritual formation, in which desert so many of us have been spiritually starving to death?
Is it any wonder that we have so few Priests and religious sisters? So few happiliy married husband and wives?
Please keep telling it like it is. This is like manna in the desert.
And please write with advice for young Catholics as to how to discern their calling and how to live a chaste life while they do so. Priests who have received their formation here in the UK just do not seem to talk about such things..and young people are left to swim or too often sink on their own.. Too few even have the words to explain how they feel when confronted with the expectations of the world and even of many of those older "Catholics" circles who take it as read that if theses young people are "normal" they will be living the life of apparent exuberance and confidence but actually of quiet desperation which is the lot of those with no faith.
May you be richly blessed for your witness,
Karen in Cambridge, UK
***************************************************
Karen,
I was born in 1973 in Seattle, in the US. I went to catholic school in the 80s and early 90s in the Archdiocese of Seattle. In 13 years of catholic education we barely heard about mortal sin,
salvation of one’s soul, about the liturgical year, what the Mass actually is (sacrifice), and we rarely received the sacraments, so being denied God’s grace. I am beginning to believe that Vatican II was not a catastrophic mistake, but was, in fact, a colossal success by the enemies of the Church.
Thanks William,
it took me until my late thirties to understand just why my poor father was so reluctant to try and answer my questions when i was a young woman..I had had no idea that the Old Rite had in fact been actively suppressed..To be forced to go from timeless liturgy to guitars and Beatles beats, from silence to noise and from certainty to fashion .. and from one month to the next, I then understood he did not answer my questions because he was no longer sure what was set in stone and what was negotiable.. He just kept going to Mass in a bewildered way, trusting that if he gave us access to the Sacraments that somehow thing would work out. I'll never forget the times i saw him kneeling at the side chapel to Our Lady after Mass in the wake of yet another impossible week in mute appeal.
I try to focus on the prospect for renewal .. outrage can go one of two ways and I hope those of us who feel it as keenly as I do manage to use it positively as fuel for working for a reaffirmation of the timeless certainties which are our only way back to joy.
warmest regards,
Karen
If anything thinking of his bewilderement makes me even more outraged..
And if one seeks the deep reality of the essence of created being---of time and space, of energy and matter and light one comes to a greater appreciation of He through Whom all things were made.
Fr. Charles. McTague (RIP) visited Albert Einstein in the 1950s and they chatted for the better part of an hour on the subject of transubstantiation.
It's not by coincidence that there are two consecrations after the Holy Spirit descends, hovering above the altar at the epiclesis.
Pillar of cloud and pillar of fire...over the Tabernacle in the desert centered on the Ark of the Covenant
Fusion fires the sun...Padre Pio understood.
Fusion is sourced through, with and in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Now look again at E=mc^2 when the mass is at rest.
Bishop Strickland, you are one of the people I pray for by name❤️
Clarity is charity. Thank you.
Lovely!
Thanks for a beautiful article regarding The Holy Mass and The Eucharist. One thing, among many, struck me. You only used the word “liturgy” a few times. It seems to me that the more I read from Catholic authors the more I realize that the word “Mass” is being replaced with the word “liturgy”. Intentional? Think how easy it would be to think, “Bummer, I missed “the liturgy” last Sunday”. Yet, more seeds of confusion.
Thank you, Bishop Strickland. We read recently, in the gospel of Marc 3, 22-30 that "if someone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, he will never be forgiven. He is culpable of a sin forever". The Lord Jesus Christ's Consécration Words spoken by Himself cannot be changed. If ever it were, the blasphemy would fall on the on us if we took part of the blasphem.
“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” ~ Gustav Mahler
I heard this quote some few days ago. It instantly made me think of our current circumstances in the Church, with the Pope's suppression of TLM.
Praise & thanksgiving for Bishop Strickland. May God keep him safe and strong.
Thank you, our dear shepherd! I think because the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been trivialized ny removing the ancient beauty of the TLM, so many people have fallen away and instead attend ‘services’ of fellowship, all-are-saved, all-are-welcome with no faith denomination. Vatican II’s dumbing down has dumped many Catholics out. The only answer is a resurgence of the TLM celebrated more and more and everywhere.
Thank you Bishop Strickland for your insight and witness to the faith. Would that more of our clergy do likewise.
St Joseph, Terror of demons, pray for us.
Beautifully done as always Bishop Stickland, but what a heartbreaking opening:
"Unfortunately, though, it is a great tragedy of our time that the majority of baptized Catholics do not see the need to attend Mass on Sunday."
Assuming this is worldwide estimation, how bad is it thought to be in the U.S. ? Also, one has to think that a similar percentage commit mortal sin when they do receive communion?
May God always bless and guide you!