Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Narcissistic Priests Who Mess with the Mass
I'm working on an article for the summer issue of the Les Femmes newsletter. (I just sent out the Spring issue, but with our Texas kids coming for most of the summer, I will have little time to do it once we hit July. So I'm in my get an early start mode.) Doing research I came across an interesting article that attributes "messing with the Mass" to psychological narcissism of priests. I found it fascinating and convincing. It fits with the general narcissism of the culture. Need evidence? Spend a day on Facebook and see the thousands of photos young people put up of themselves often in provocative and suggestive poses. Attention-seeking is the epidemic of our me-me-me culture. Check out the article here and see what you think.
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Humility is the opposite of Narcissism and there is no saintliness without humility.
ReplyDeleteWe live in hedonistic times. Looking out for number one is the mantra of our times. Everyone for themselves and the devil take the hindmost. It is ironic that the gospel says that the first shall be last and the last first. So it is more likely that the devil is going to take those in front.
The publican in the back striking his breast and saying "Lord have mercy on me a sinner" was the one with the right perspective.
"The Mass should take us out of the present — should have a transcendent timelessness — and should also give us an awareness of the long traditions of the Church which precede us."
ReplyDeleteDuring Mass, time is irrelevant. I first experienced this truth while attending a chanted Divine Liturgy in a Ukrainian Catholic parish. I experience it at a properly celebrated Mass.
I know a parish here in Minneapolis that I won't go to unless I can't get anywhere else; simply because their "Masses" don't do what they should -- don't even begin to do it. It's sad. The congregation is being cheated and they don't even know it.
Some of what you and the others said is in Christopher Dawson's book The Formation of Christendom which I'm reading, and talked about a bit in a recent post.
Thanks for a great post!
Hey! It's not our Mass; it's not the Church's Mass. It's the priest's Mass, so he can improve, improvise, change, modify, jazz up, or cut down as he sees fit. Obedience doesn't mean marching in lock-step with the Magisterium ; it means obedience to his "inner child", the one who says "Let me do it, let me do it."
ReplyDeleteI think the two Vitzes, the writers of the article, "hit the nail right on the head". I could not have said it better. Most of us go to Mass to worship God and get away from "the rat race" and the constant noise and have some time with the Lord. Instead we get more of the same in many churches.
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