We prayed Papa Francisco's Year of Mercy Prayer at Mass Every Week
  • So I guess it was as a reward that this Advent we finally get to change mass parts from Mass of St. So-And-So to the new popular Mass for the Something of the Something. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    We kind of let the year of mercy fall in the cracks somewhere and didn't do anything for it. I buried that awful song that was written for it.
    Thanked by 2Continuousbass Ben
  • Doesn't the Year of Mercy end on Christ the King, in two weeks?
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,295
    There are more than two weeks until Christ the King in the OF calendar.
  • I forget when it ends but hopefully someone out there is already reaping the benefits of mercy, etc. It's been bitter-sweet with the Mass of St. Fancy Pants. We've been doing it for too long and choir members were starting to quit. Finally someone at the "diocese" level recommended Mass of Swaying Movements and our pastor has made his decree.
  • I know how you feel Continuousbass, I've been there, too.
    Thanked by 1Continuousbass
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    At our parish, we were merciful enough to our parishoners that we ignored the year of mercy [ / purplebold ]
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    The quality of mercy is not strained...
    Thanked by 2tsoapm CHGiffen
  • There are more than two weeks until Christ the King in the OF calendar


    Indeed. This is my point: why the rush to put to bed a year which still has three weeks in November plus 2 in October:?
  • No rush to get there, as I don't really mind the whole ordeal. I suppose this was in the spirit of "welcome to pre-seasonal music ministry meeting season".
  • We prayed that prayer communally before Mass until May when our new pastor - who had until then been the parochial vicar of this same parish for the last 3 years - took over and axed it because he felt (a) it was too long for regular communal recitation (which I think so, too, IMHO) and (b) has the mindset that, as he puts it, "we do what Holy Mother Church asks us to do - nothing more and nothing less," which in my current diocese is very refreshing to hear, even if it upsets the hippies who want to hold hands during the Pater Noster (still working on that one) and would rather have a campfire and sing Kum-ba-yah instead of an altar and sing Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth.

    As for the "hymn" - we used it once so we could say we did use it; we all hated it.
  • even if it upsets the hippies who want to hold hands during the Pater Noster


    Our bishop has decreed that this stop, except among family members. So, that's at least something, but of course, people still do it all over the place without thinking, and of course, the priests aren't going to be checking on this, nor enforcing anything.

    Since you mentioned hippies, I was mentioning to a colleague the other day that, at least where we are, the "crowd favorites" all fall into one of the following categories: either they 1. sound like something Native American, 2. sound like something Celtic, or 3. sound like 70s rock. These are the songs that if they aren't played often enough, some people will go through a withdrawal of sorts, and gripe to the Pastor that they haven't heard such and such song in a while, or someone will confront the DM, asking why they haven't heard such and such song in a while.
  • Reval
    Posts: 180
    I really don't like these lines:
    "You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness
    in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error:"

    Grrr - - it just feels disrespectful to me. The subtext seems to be "Those arrogant priests! They wouldn't feel any compassion for anyone, so good thing they're weak and they screw up all the time too".
    But maybe I'm reading something into it...
  • It's a quote from Hebrews 5, though. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.
  • Reval
    Posts: 180
    Thank you Andrew - - I learn a great deal here! Still - - I wish there was something more positive in there about priests...
  • tsoapm
    Posts: 79
    St. Paul talks a lot about weakness in 2 Corinthians too:
    12:5,7–9
    [A]bout myself I will not boast, except about my weaknesses. [… A] thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

    13:9
    For we rejoice when we are weak but you are strong. What we pray for is your improvement.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,371
    I wish there was something more positive in there about priests...
    There isn't anything in the bible about priests as the church now has them (though there is about the leaders/shepherds of the people). This passage is about Jesus Christ, and is written to converts who would understand priests as the Jewish priesthood.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Right, so all this is very familiar territory -- priestly sacrifice, priestly weakness, Christ as the perfect sinless high priest, Melchizedek (because He was a Judahite not a Levite), etc etc.

    Sure, the Catholic Priesthood isn't the same thing as the old temple priesthood, in part because, exactly as Hebrews (8:6) says, the Christian sacrifice isn't the same, it's better. Fact remains though that in the prayer under discussion, Hebrews 5:2 is quoted directly, referring to Christian priests in general, who surely do share as ministers in the perfect high priesthood of Christ. As Aquinas says.
    Thanked by 1a_f_hawkins