I can certainly echo Schonbergian's experience. Both before I became Catholic in the early '80s and after having done so. Once in a while I will still be engaged to play at a Lutheran or an Episcopal church and the people and clergy are invariably friendly, welcoming, appreciative, and thankful for my having been there. I have only very rarely had this happen at a Catholic Church. The pastor and his wife of the large Lutheran church at which I was organist & choirmaster for fifteen years and that I left thirty-five years ago continues to attend all of my Houston recitals at Walsingham, St Basil's-UST, or elsewhere. Of all the Catholic priests I know only a very few ever bother to come, and that only rarely....far more inviting and warm...
"Come on in! The water's terrible!"
Trad personalities are like the liturgical rites they follow
Attendance almost doubled when weekend mass schedule went from 2 to 1in July ...
but this is not (necessarily) anything to do with the traditional Mass they attend. Remember, the list I started was in response to how the people are like the rite they attend.Self-righteous, arrogant, superior, insufferable, and far too full of themselves.
Which is not to say that they are all misfits, just that TLM draws them.They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, (Matt. 23:5 RSV)
(Matthew, 7:1-5)[1] Judge not, that you may not be judged, [2] For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. [3] And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? [4] Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye? [5] Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
I think what draws the off-the-beam folks to the EF is that it can turn into a ritualized costume party. The EF is full of externals and glittery trinkets, and that is an attraction.
Again, think you that the Novus Ordo is really different? Masses with people dressed up as clowns? Wearing football jerseys? With face-painting?
Or that the NO people never make judgments, never throw tantrums, never try to block those from the "other Mass"?
Again, something that comes up every time. In my 70 years, I have never seen any of these behaviors at any mass.
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.