Friday, October 16, 2015

HOW YOU ARE HELPING KIKO

In his latest post, GET YOUR PARISH KIKO-FIED, Chuck White lays out several points recommended by Kiko's architects to "get rid of the sacrificial mentality of your parish." However, chances are that your parish has already rid itself of "the sacrificial mentality" and WITHOUT a neo even setting foot in it. Let's look:

1. Change your “altar” to a mere table

Since the 60's we've been hearing "the table of the Lord" instead of "the altar of God." Long ago, and before Kiko, we moved away from the High Altar atop "the three steps" 


to a table-looking thing that has edged ever closer to the people (and thus a "dinner" table and NOT an "altar") with some churches actually placing the "table" in the center (Santa Barbara) or almost in the center (St. Jude). And these churches are the among the most anti-neo. 


Santa Barbara Church vs Kiko's Temple
Note: This is not the fault of the parishioners. It's just an illustration of what we have already permitted - which is not very far from where Kiko believes the church should go. 

2. Convince your pastor to minimize the sacrificial language of the liturgy by always using Eucharistic Prayer #2.

Personally I can't remember the last time I went to a Sunday Mass (ordinary form) when the Eucharistic Prayer #2 or one of the "pastoral" alternates was not used instead of Eucharistic Prayer #1 (the "Roman Canon"), which the GIRM says is "especially suited for Sundays." So Kiko has already won if you regularly use EP2 on Sundays. 

3. Get rid of the notion of a “sacred” sanctuary that only serves to exclude the faithful.  One good way to do this is to have the parishioners do a lively dance immediately after Mass.  Bring them up into the sanctuary and dance around the  altar Eucharistic table.

Do any churches actually have sanctuaries any more? "Sanctuary" means "set apart." With the removal of the communion rail, there really is no place within the church that is physically set apart, and thus there is no sanctuary. And even where the rail is still present, it is not used for the distribution of communion and the laity freely enter the sanctuary like it is any other part of the church. 

And as for dancing around the altar - while it may not be directly "around" the altar, dancing occurs in parishes which actually pride themselves in keeping the neo out. Plus, dancing is every bit of an aberration as are the neo liturgical atrocities:
For that reason it (dance) cannot be introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever: that would be to inject into the liturgy one of the most desacralized and desacralizing elements; and so it would be equivalent to creating an atmosphere of profaneness which would easily recall to those present and to the participants in the celebration worldly places and situations. - Dance in the Liturgy, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments
4. Convince  your pastor to do away with offertory processions, if at all possible.  These epitomize the concept of “sacrificial mentality”!

Actually, no need to do anything now. The 1969 Mass of Paul VI pretty much eliminated most of the "sacrificial mentality" from the offertory already, paving the way for the Kiko's "happy meal eucharist." Learn about that here. It was one of the "developments" lamented by Benedict XVI in his quest for a hermeneutic of continuity" which we find in  "Summorum Pontificum" and its Accompanying Letter to the Bishops.

5. As much as possible, call your priests by their first names and teach your children to do so too. Reduce the use of incense and those silly candles.  Put flowers on the altar Eucharistic table instead. And finally, get that tabernacle out, or at least moved from front and center!  

LOL. He's describing the destruction of the church I grew up in in the 1960's and 70's. Father Last Name became Father First Name or just First Name. In fact, when I was at Loyola (Los Angeles), some of the priests insisted we use only their first names and rejected any use of "Father." Incense, candles, statutes...all OUT. Flowers, table, balloons, banners, guitars...all IN. And as for the tabernacle, good luck in trying to find it. Even where the tabernacle is still visible, if it is not in the center it is completely ignored. Do your own survey this Sunday and count how many people actually genuflect before the tabernacle as they walk in or out of the church (if it is not in the center.)

So let's say this again. Getting rid of Apuron and the NEO's will NOT bring your church back. Apuron and the Neo's only capitalized on what you ALREADY PERMITTED and even embraced! They had an easy time of it because we had long since already permitted the elimination of the "sacrificial mentality" from our Mass. So be sure that when you say that you "want your church back," you just don't mean your own position of importance in it. If so, then you might as well join the Kiko's. 



4 comments:

  1. The Mass is ended.

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  2. Neo presbyters prefer Eucharistic Prayer #2 as it reinforces their belief that the faithful departed have simply fallen asleep to awaken in paradise, hence no purgatory and no need for prayers for the souls of the dead.

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  3. i still hear the eucharistic prayer i ("the roman canon") here in my local parish in seattle, but only on special sundays and holy days. on even rarer occasions, at a few parishes, the priest would even say it in latin. the part i like the most about it is the mention of so many saints' names.

    i always thought the custom on guam of calling priests "fr (first name)" was because of the influence of the capuchins. perhaps pale' eric could shed some light on this?

    kiko seems to be trying to bring some byzantine-rite elements into his "liturgy" and "churches." i'm thinking about icons vs statues, less kneeling, and the lack of an elevated sanctuary (although actually, the sanctuary is completely separated from the congregation by the iconostasis). what he completely fails to understand is the theology behind the byzantine practice. i wonder what our byzantine-rite brethren think about this.

    perhaps that's one way to bring the neocats back: show them their corruption of byzantine forms, then show them--by our own example!--of what reverent latin rite liturgy and churches should be.

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    Replies
    1. It is true that in the case of Friars or Monks or nuns, the first name is used because upon entry into a monastic order, one essentially abandons his previous life. In the past this took the form of a whole different name. Thus Thomas Merton became "Father Louis." This also explains why many a nun had a man's name: Sister Mary Joseph. Diocesans are different. They are secular priests. They keep their name and just like any other address which shows respect we say Mr. Jones, Fr. Jones, Dr. Jones, etc. instead of "Tom".

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