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Wednesday, May 20, 2020

How Do You Treat Holy Things? Are Sacramentals a Prop for a Comic Strip?


I got into a discussion on my parish's Facebook page over the Michigan priest who used a squirt gun to "bless" his parishioners. Someone posted the picture praising what the priest did. "Way to go, Father," one lady wrote. 


I disagreed saying it was irreverent and turned something holy into a joke. A young man called it "novel" and wrote that being different and out of the ordinary didn't make it irreverent.  That's a true statement, but in this case the "novelty," like the "novel" coronavirus, is a bad mutation. That it's gone viral just makes it worse. 

I'm sure the parish has an asperges set to bless the congregation from six to ten feet away, so why did he choose to use a squirt gun? I can only presume he thought he was being cute and funny. But it was the act of a showman. 

Is it any wonder congregations turn the church into a three ring circus with laughing and chatting in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament? Two thirds don't believe in the Real Presence. Which picture shows respect for the holy? Fr. Timothy Pelc's above or Pope Benedict's below? 

When I recall the devotions of the past, like 40 Hours I can only mourn what's been lost and bless the priests of the past who taught us to be reverent. Lord, please restore poor Holy Mother Church. St. Jean Vianney, pray for us.


4 comments:

  1. I totallly agree with you. That's why I read your blog because you know what should be held higher then fun and laughter. I had spoken to our priest about some 'new' ways of doing things and now he runs from me. That's fine with me, He just doesn't understand. Forgive him Lord, he knows not what he does. Even if he repents and is forgiven, look at all the people he has dragged down with him.

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  2. A squirt gun is not a "worthy vehicle" with which to bless people with holy water because holy water must be given/taken with the proper disposition.

    "The first thing, O man, that you have to venerate is the age of the waters in that their substance is ancient; the second, their dignity, in that they were the seat of the Divine Spirit, more pleasing to Him, no doubt, than all the other existing elements. For the darkness was total thus far, shapeless, without the ornament of stars; and the abyss gloomy; and the earth unfurnished; and the heaven unwrought: water alone - always a perfect, gladsome, simple material substance, pure in itself - supplied a worthy vehicle to God." Tertullian

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  3. Just to clarify. He was blessing the Easter food baskets although I don't think that changes anything.

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  4. Have Catholic’s ever seriously wondered why Our Lady of Fatima, God’s only human creature conceived without sin is purported to have said that God wishes to establish worldwide devotion to her immaculate heart and backed it up by causing by Divine power God’s created sun to perform revolutions in the heavens. The miracle of Fatima would have been even greater (seen worldwide?) if the Freemason mayor had not arrested the children.

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