re quality of catholic liturgy in article apr athos rutgers edu creps lateran ucs indiana edu stephen a creps writes in article apr athos rutgers edu jemurray magnus acs ohio state edu john e murray writes on palm sunday at our parish we were invited to take the role of jesus in the passion i declined to participate last year at the liturgy meeting i pointed out how we crucify christ by our sins so therefore it is appropriate that we retain the role of the crowd but to no avail musicians readers and so on new things are introduced in the course of the liturgy and since no one knows what s happening the new things have to be explained and pretty soon instead of doing a lot of the mass we re just sitting there listening or spacing out in my case to how the mass is about to be done in my mind i lay the blame on liturgy committees made up of lay people to be aware of the lord s presence as a former catholic and now as a very active lutheran it is some of the innovations of the mass which made me leave the catholic church and return to the more traditional catholic chuch the lutherans i spent many years as a lector reading the passion parts as appropriate in the catholic church and i found it very meaningful our lutheran parish just instituted the tenebrae service for good friday and i was the lector for a paraphrased passion which was exceptional i heard and learned things that i have previously overlooked in the gospels yet those facts were always there as a matter of interest the pastor and i were talking about the differences between the rc and lutheran church during holy week over breakfast easter sunday as a member of a liturgy committee i can tell you that the problem is certain people dominating who want to try out all kinds of innovations the priests don t seem even to want to make any decisions of their own in many cases i guess it s easier to try something new than it is to refuse to allow it my wife is the member of the liturgy committee in the family called music and worship at our church our pastor does have control of this committee but listens very carefully to the committee s suggestions it needs a strong hand to lead and guide to keep the intent and the message clear and strong as it should be through lent and the rest of the liturgical year additional reason for my leaving the catholic faith lack of any selfless spiritual guidance by priests in my parishes aka wishy washy as you may gather from my comments i feel that it is very important ir regardless of denominational guidelines to have a service mass which promotes the true reason that we are gathered there i am quite comfortable in a traditional mass with receiving holy communion on the tongue the sacrament of penance not reconciliation stations of the cross so on and so forth the reason other types of masses and parishes exist is because these feelings are not shared by everyone i want more people to attend church and to find the lord but i don t want them attending a show it s not my church works hard to have a meaningful service during lent on wednesdays but follow traditional lutheran book of worship guidelines where things are changed or omitted during lent such as the hymn of praise it is noted so that we are aware of the reasons that it is not there quite frankly it is very hard for a non catholic to go to a mass and fit in my dear wife never could former methodist and holy week masses and vigils would intimidate the daylights out of a non catholic those catholics who have beared with me this far understand what i mean please keep in mind why we are there to gather together in worship not to worry about how something is done or not done if there is something wrong that you feel needs addressing by all means talk to your priest or pastor i have only ever met one who wouldn t listen they are there to provide spiritual guidance and to help use them my differences with the catholic church are much more fundamental but my decision to change faiths was done with prayer intervention and sessions with priests and ministers in christ kershner kershner wyatt kwyatt ccscola columbiasc ncr com my opinions are my own and aren t necessarily my employer s
