….I have long been concerned that our lives are getting so crowded, so “noisy” with distractions, that we are losing our desire and even our ability for recollection and contemplation, for just being still and silent in the presence of God.
I have been reflecting a lot on this, and I will share more in the weeks and months to come. Here I want to suggest simply that it is time for us to rediscover a “Sabbath mindset.”
Most people today probably do not remember there was once a day of rest built in to our hectic weeks. For most of American history, in fact, offices and shops were closed on Sundays, and only essential work was permitted.
That practice was rooted in the biblical command to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy, a practice still upheld by many Jews and Christians, but generally forgotten in our secular world.
The Sabbath reminds us that in God’s plan for creation, there is meant to be a natural rhythm of labor and leisure; a time to work and a time to rest; a time for conversation and activity; and a time for silence and prayer.
We are not created to give our lives to work. We are created to give our lives to God and to our loved ones and neighbors. A Sabbath mindset can help us to keep our balance and perspective.
In a workaholic culture, it is an act of spiritual resistance to unplug from screens and devices, to step back for a little while from the pressures to produce.
Keeping the Lord’s Day holy means saying no to the “lordship” of the consumer economy, to the logic that working more and having more makes us more — more secure, more fulfilled, happier. It does not.
The Sabbath is “a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money,” as the Catechism says.
As Catholics, Sunday should be the first day of the week for us, not the last day of a weekend….
The above comes from a July 21 story in the Angelus News.
Why don’t you make Mass less boring, less secular, less trite, less insufferable and then maybe people would want to come to Mass? Make the Mass beautiful and sacred.
Many, many people under 35 who were raised Catholic have concluded that it’s more meaningful to shop, go to the movies, or ride dirt bikes on Sunday instead of going to Mass. When you see the abysmal quality of Mass in most parishes, particularly the horrible music, who can blame them?
Make Mass something that attracts people.
As for not working on Sunday, most clergy have no clue how hard it is for laity to get by. Don’t tell them not to work on Sunday. Maybe their boss is requiring them to take a Sunday shift. Many in the service industry have to do that.
You forgot less noisy too.
Anecdote fwiw. I used to go to an adoration chapel open 24×7. It was great. The pastor changed and had music piped in to the adoration chapel that could not be turned off. He did the same thing during confession. He’d come in, turn on the sound system and pipe in music while folks waited their turns. I did ask other parishoners about this odd dynamic and told that this was Father’s thing and he did that everywhere he went.
Ah, blessed and sacred silence, Lord.
It is one hour a week!
Thank you for your post Kevin T. Do you have a link to any masses on YouTube that you consider beautiful, especially in regards to music? Thank you
Archbishop Gomez, please listen to your people- especially the young Catholics. Some of us want to worship at a rock and roll Mass, some at a hip hop Mass. In New Orleans, a jazz Mass is celebrated every year. Let’s make the Mass more interesting for the youth and bring them back to the church.
Pretty much every Mass in South Orange County is a rock and roll Mass. Go there. It’s amateur hour, but it’s rock Christian music.
Young man, there is a time and place for just about everything, but music that is more connected with romance and secular things are really not suitable for Mass as it tends to stir up our lower passions more than our higher ones. Even children and young people need to learn to sit still at times and meditate more, Music that is written strictly for the Sacred Mass is better.
I have been told that one of the tunes used in the newer liturgy is from “My Little Pony”. That is inappropriate, just as a ‘hip, hop” mass would be. We need sacred lyrics created for sacred music (tunes). Psalms and other Biblical themes.
And God bless you, Carl. May you ever learn and come to know the knowledge of the truth.
Your at the foot of the cross at mass , some silence ,reverence and gratitude to God is what is needed. The mass is not a secular entertainment , under your suggestion it becomes entertainment not worship that would be open to abuse and constant change, how many would be gained by this “mass” ?. , Pandering and insulting young people with this wrong on so many levels, we should show them the dignity of a mass , again your at the foot of the cross , you should behave yourself as such.
I think Archbishop Gomez is on to something here. I am old enough to remember when gas stations and grocery stores were closed on Sunday. The signs on the closed businesses read “Closed. See you in church!” This was the practice even in Southern California. People who were essential workers and worked on Sundays were paid overtime wages. The greedy business people were behind the decision to open everything up on Sunday. The workers got the short end of the stick, family life has suffered and leisure time has mostly disappeared. It’s time to re-inculcate a sense of holiness on Sunday.
One problem with what you want is that America is no longer a Christian society. Sunday is just one of the two weekend days.
Some Jewish, Muslim, Seventh Day Adventists stores are always going to close their shops on Fridays and Saturdays if their owners are pious We are talking about Catholics here. Chick fil A, which is evangelical owned always closes Sundays. Why not Catholic owned shops? Catholics most often can get jobs that do not require working on Sundays. I did after the incidence in my first post. Even many department stores will let their Christians employees have Sundays off. Go to the Orthodox Jewish websites and see how they close down totally for Shabbat.
I totally agree with the Archbishop about the fact the only essential work should be done on Sunday. Wasn’t it the bishops who were telling us a year ago that Mass wasn’t essential, just to stay home and stay safe.
As head of the USCCB, Gomez said this:
“Today Pope Francis published Traditionis custodes, an Apostolic Letter issued motu proprio on the use of Latin liturgical texts approved prior to the reform of 1970. I welcome the Holy Father’s desire to foster unity among Catholics who celebrate the Roman Rite.
“As these new norms are implemented, I encourage my brother bishops to work with care, patience, justice, and charity as together we foster a Eucharistic renewal in our nation.”
Michael Kors! Coach!
Target and Walmart
I thought exclamation points weren’t allowed.
an archbishop speaks
sunday is for rest not work
the laity shrug
So what were we supposed to do ?
I think Archbishop Gomez is correct, but I would add one thing. I think we also would benefit from a Good Friday mindset as well.
Amen, Bishop Gomez. Amen. I once worked outside the home seven days a week and ended up in the hospital with a breakdown from exhaustion because I thought our family could not live on what we were already making. A whole lot of it went into taxes, too, to support other others who were not working. That taught me the lesson that we do need one day a week to worship our Maker and to rest and relax.
And yes, that should include certain feast days.
Maybe the Archbishop should start working more on Sundays. After all, right under his nose, the General Secretary of the USCCB was using a gay hookup app and going to gay clubs while traveling on official USCCB business.
It took lay Catholic vigilantes to discover this. If they worked on a Sunday to figure out what they did, good for them.
Every priest is suspect now. Every. One.
That this was going on for years… this long after the scandals, three years after the McCarrick revelations? Nothing has changed. The priests and bishops are a corrupt network that needs to be broken.
Every priest and every bishop are suspect. Every. One.
lay Catholic vigilantes?
Sorely needed. If the clergy won’t police themselves, if they won’t fix the corruption themselves, then the laity will have to exposed them, shame them, humiliate them, and use every trick in the book to get at them.
If that is how you want to be treated.
Servile work is not permitted on Sundays, unless necessary.
Also, how do you discover someone is using a gay hookup app unless you are using it?
I guess someone who uses the app could tell you.
Kind of reminds me of the old joke:
My father told me never to go to the strip club because I would see something I should not see.
I went and I saw my father in the first row.
The lay Catholic journalists who broke the story used phone location data to out the priest. Simply put, the priest consented to his location data being collected by and sold by Grindr when he installed the app on his phone. The journalists obtained large amounts of location data from a third-party in a legal, commercial manner (bought it, in other words), and upon analysis determined that a specific phone id would ping at USCCB offices, the priest’s family’s residences, and gay bars and clubs. It didn’t take much deduction to correlate that phone with the priest in question. That’s how it was done.
If people are doing that, we need some new laws.
No, we need some clergy who profess (and live) the faith.
There are two different standards-one for the people (used to be called heathens or pagans) who do not know Christ. Christians (the brethren) are held to higher standards. You pagan who does this-you want to teach them the Golden Rule. A member of the brethren who does this-you should flee.
I understand the temptation but ewwww…no.
Is it a sin? Scandal, it is sin to reveal another’s hidden sin without a just cause.
A Christian who uncovered this should have directly confronted the priest with an admonishment and in this case, probably notify the USCCB.
Putting it on the Internet is unjust.
Your heart is supposed to be a garden enclosed. If you find a weed there you are supposed to uproot it. Sins persist and it can take many years of fighting to eradicate them.
If you accidently came across sensitive information about someone, you need to pray and decide what to do. Probably telling a priests bishop is appropriate.
It is never appropriate to broadcast it to the world, except to protect others such as children and vulnerable adults.
Gossip is a sin. Harming the reputation of another is a sin.
Christ said let the weeds grow with the wheat. Not to uproot the weeds. Read the Bible. It’s there.
You refer to Matthew 13:30 which is explained by Christ in Matthew 13:38 as the weeds being the children of the evil one.
This refers to Matthew 13:22 where the weeds (thorns) choke off the Word of God. In this case the weeds are worldly cares and the lure of riches.
He was a supporter of Biden being denied communion, right?
This same website went after a bishop who is in favor of denying Communion.
Maybe they are just muckrakers.
I see they talked about it on The View.
Most fathers who say things like that have stopped doing the things they tell their children not to do. I remember the older song “The House of the Rising Sun”, where Eric Burton tells his son, “Don’t do what I have done.”
Good fathers and mothers stop doing those things, hoping their children learn from their own mistakes (sins) and not do the same things and suffer the same consequences. Most all of us have been “prodigals” at times.
Totally and completely irrelevant to this story. Focus your attention on the subject. And are you seriously trying to blame the archbishop for the misconduct of. someone employed by the massive USCCB bureaucracy? That’s guilt by association and highly improper.
They’re all in the network. They all cover for each other and promote their compromised friends. This guy had a rep even when he was at the Pontifical North American College, but somehow he still manages to become the general secretary of the USCCB?
The same journalists just revealed they uncovered more gay app use at rectories in Newark, New Jersey. Cardinal “nighty-night baby” Tobin had no comment.
Get rid of the filth in the clergy.
Our religious leaders believe that going to a Latin Mass is a cause of scandal. It is all about priorities.
Why do people misrepresent things?
Why do people repeat things?
Bishop gomez’ overseas boss just shipwrecked the last great hope for a prayerful mass,the one port in the storm,the TLM. It now is heaving, tilted and battered with prospects of a final scuttling in view after watching the smoke clear. He will consult once again,soon to see if , any are still clinging to the flotsam. I don’t thnk he is well known for half-measures, and will act again ,shortly.
Over seas boss?
Sigh
What else do you think the pope is?
The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church. But he not a boss of the other bishops. He is the source of unity so he has a place of authority in the Catholic Church that none of the other bishops have.
You should read the Catechism. Paragraph 880 and on.
I don’t know whether people are speaking ignorantly because they are ignorant or because they are arrogant.
Why should people listen to the Church or to an archbishop? Hardly anyone is a real Christian anymore. The Catholic church seems medieval to most people. They don’t get it. They don’t understand why people would want to do all that. The Church doesn’t show any sign of relevance to the modern world. Why give up Sunday work or fun? For what? Show me what difference it makes to observe the Sabbath. Seems to me that most Catholics aren’t any different from people who don’t go to Mass, so what difference does Mass make?
It depends on your income level, too.
Where I live, people do take Sundays off. They are Christians.
But a lot of people eat out or shop, so others have to work.
You might be Catholic so you are used to it, but people who are not around it on a daily basis can tell that something is different about Catholics. Whether in how they treat people better, how they refuse to hold grudges, how they avoid vices, how they listen when others talk, how they share and are not greedy, how they avoid talking bad about others- and yes there are many failures from Catholics.
The more Catholics keep holy the Lord’s Day the better we will be, the better the world will be, the better others will be.
It works. Don’t get discouraged.
if bishops apparently are not too worked up
over aggressive pro=abort politicians taking
Communion, why get worked up over going to the mall?
too bad these guys have totally squandered
their moral authority over, at least, the last half century
That’s precisely it: the bishops have no moral authority anymore.
Jesus has all moral authority. Jesus is the Son of God. Keep the 10 Commanments.
But they for some reason think they still have it , let’s stop calling them excellency, your grace, and just call them Father where deserved , they need to be brought to a place of humility and service .
A Classic from Maria Von Trapp:
https://vontrapp.wordpress.com/category/celebrating-with-the-family-in-heaven/the-land-without-a-sunday/
Clueless.
That was a pretty good movie.
As if.
Anonymous and Anne T: thanks for your feedback. A friend is a music composer and she has written some sacred, Christian hip hop music suitable for liturgy. One track even includes some Gregorian chant lyrics in Latin! I still think using this type of music would bring young people back to the Church. Remember- all music was once new.
Hip hop music does not belong in church. Hip hop music, by definition, is not suitable for liturgy. Profaning the Mass by using that music will not bring young people back to church, it will invite their sneers. The Church has given guidance about what kind of music suits the liturgy.
Watch this for “Catholic hip-hop”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNE8X8xAGFM
You really think that belongs at Mass? It’s cringey.
Any priest who allowed that music at Mass should have his faculties suspended and offered remedial education about liturgy.
When Catholics imitate popular culture, trying to be relevant, and they introduce pop culture into liturgy they just look ridiculous.
I have no problem with new sacred music as long as it is suitable and done at the proper time.
God bless.
There’s nothing sacred about hip-hop or rap.
I did not say there was. I just refused to get into this argument. Got it! Let those who know more about it solve it.
I am sorry for being so curt. I did listen to the video that Kevin T. posted. If I am correct, there were no vulgar terms or heretical teachings in the rap that the young men were using. That is if I am correct, as it was hard to hear all the words, and I was not sure of the meaning of all the words. That said, would I want it at a mass? The answer is no, but I would see no problem with the young men entertaining themselves in a church hall while playing basketball or such, or making records of it. Just my thoughts.
Kevin T: “cringey” is your opinion…and it is not shared by everyone.