Great Blog Post About One Man Coming To Embrace The Traditional Mass

[Nihil Obstat]

That is very interesting. You are a very good writer, and even thought my own subjective experiences have been just about as radically different as they possibly could be, I still felt like I was right there with you experiencing the same feelings.

 

Looking back on it, would you change anything that you wrote back then?

[Gabriela]

That is very interesting. You are a very good writer, and even thought my own subjective experiences have been just about as radically different as they possibly could be, I still felt like I was right there with you experiencing the same feelings.

 

Looking back on it, would you change anything that you wrote back then?

 

Thank you. :-)

 

I wouldn't change anything. It's how I felt on a first encounter with the MEF. I wasn't even Catholic yet. I had next-to-no Catholic education (and still a great deal more than most cradle Catholics). It took time and extensive reading for me to start figuring out what was going on, why it's done that way, how to follow without torturing yourself, balancing trying to follow along with just letting go and praying privately, etc. More importantly, though, it took the grace of God to make me understand that the Mass is not, in fact, about how I feel, what I enjoy, what "speaks to me"—me me me me. It is about Him. It's Him giving Himself to us. Including me. But I should be focused on Him at Mass. Not on me. And now that I understand that, I feel that the MEF facilitates that better than the Novus Ordo.

 

Don't get me wrong: I do still enjoy real moments of grace and union with God at pious, reverent MOFs. Heck, I even have moments of extreme closeness to Him and the occasional spiritual/theological epiphany at the Mass at my home parish.

 

Looking back, though, I've formed the opinion that the process for me was kinda' like the "gateway drug" thing: The MOF was the "gateway Mass" to the MEF. These days, most people just do not have sufficient education, character formation, and culture (of the right kind) to appreciate the MEF "cold". They need a little segway. And I think that a good MOF can provide that. For me, it drew me closer to God, made me want more, made me long for deeper intimacy. Once I had those dispositions and desires, the MEF was the right place to go.

 

As for what I would have done had I been a Medieval wench... well, only He knows what would have been. I don't know enough history to say whether people jumped on the Luther bandwagon partially on account of the Mass. (I know a lot of other reasons, but I don't know if the Mass was a major one.) Still, when I consider that, for me, the major causes of my inability to appreciate the MEF were (1) lack of religious education, (2) spiritual immaturity, and (3) the "culture clash" between mainstream America and traditional Catholicism, I tend to think that I wouldn't have responded so differently as a Medieval wench. After all, the only thing that would have been significantly different for me would have been the culture: I would have been inundated with Catholic culture from birth. Of course, that may have also brought me more spiritual maturity. But it would not have increased my religious and theological education. (In fact, chances are I would have been quite ignorant.) So... I kinda' think that, even then, in the absence of a MOF to serve as a "gateway", I wouldn't have gotten much out of the MEF spiritually and likely would have sought that fulfillment elsewhere.

 

Then again, perhaps being totally ignorant of theology and liturgy but raised to be humble and God-fearing and reverent and unselfish would have given me that much more a sense of awe and love and fulfillment at the Medieval MEF, thus keeping me in the Church.

 

:idontknow:

 

Introducing the MOF did cause all kinds of problems, too. One wonders if it really serves most people as the "gateway Mass" to deeper spiritual longing, development, and fulfillment—to a true, closer personal relationship with God—that it did for me. So...

 

I dunno'. It just is what it is, I guess. :-)

Edited January 11, 2013 by curiousing