I attend a Catholic mass and a Presbyterian service every week. If we were solely attending on “worship style” the Presbyterian church would win hands down. There we sing hymns glorifying God, long prayers for the congregation, and solid sermons based on lengthy Bible passages.
At the mass, we sing silly “We Are the Church” songs, the prayers are the same every week, and the homily is fifteen minutes of nothing.
I get that Catholics get more out of mass because you believe Christ is being offered as a sacrifice, etc, but anyone who doesn’t understand or feel that is not really going to get much out of most masses I’ve attended.
Thank you! This is exactly what I'm talking about.
JenB:
That is precisely the problem, the We are the Church is a stupid hym and has no place in Catholic worship.
As for prayers, the entire Liturgy is a prayer and contains beautiful prayers, Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Agnus Dei along with the entire Canon of the Mass, the Lords Prayer. If the Homily is 15 minutes of nothing, then that is the problem with the Priest and I am sorry that is what you had to deal with.
And yes, I do believe the partaking of the Eucharist is communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord and it is a sacrament of his Body and Blodd that is, it is a visible sign of an invisible reality, i.e. Grace.
This is exactly right, which is the root of why I said it's understandable that many poorly catechized catholics leave the church for a better worship experience.
It is possible to have elevated liturgy with the Novus Ordo, it's just seldom done. How many catholics can explain what the "propers" of the mass are? I am guessing very few - maybe 0.1%.
IMHO the reason the Extraordinary form (Tridentine Latin Mass) is almost universally well celebrated today is that those who care enough to seek it out (laity) or learn to celebrate it (priests) are likely to want to have an elevated liturgy to begin with.
I used to go to a mass on Saturday and a protestant service on Sundays ... Then one day I realized I believed little of Catholic doctrine anymore so why was I going to a catholic mass?? I finally left..