Dedications

A parishioner was once very sweetly, courteously and lovingly requested by the Parish Priest, to not read the theme of the reading. Something which is there in the gospel. Then the reading ends with something like 'The word of the Lord', where the reader read as 'This is the word of our Lord'. Something that sounded more personal of a God which is ours, was requested to read as it is printed. So is the theme of the gospel printed. Then reading the responsorial psalm, not to guide the congregation to say the response?

Who makes these bloody rules? Earlier after communion, the announcements used to be read, followed by the final blessing. Which changed to a part of the final prayer, then the congregation made to sit and then rise again for the final blessings. What was the problem with earlier format? Did the Church realise that the congregation gets bored with the sermon of the priests and even the way they say mass, so make them exercise a bit to stay awake?

Responses like when the priest says "The Lord be with you and peace be with you" responded by the congregation "and also with your spirit", which was earlier said as "and also with you". Why is the priest not giving the prayer to the spirit of the congregation that the congregation has to respond the prayer reciprocated to his spirit? Like dying vocations, are the spirit of the priest dying that they need the congregation to charge it? Prayers getting changed like the 'I confess', where a line changed to read as 'thru my fault' repeated thrice? Was once not enough for God to hear? Then to strike the chest thrice as the congregation says it? Even communion serving has become a confusion, some parishioners take it served on the tongue, some take in-between two fingers,.some take it handed over in their palm. All this because we wanted to ape the western culture of mass.or a diktat by a white idiot in Rome. A simple Lord's prayer became a passage out of Shakespeare's writing.

Francis as a Pope is someone who has realised that vocations do lack the quality of preaching which can enrich the congregation in faith and belief. Time is now the priests stop telling laity how to read and what to read, instead showcase the laity in how they lead their daily lives. Are they involved with the laity? How many times do they meet Parsihoners and spend time with families? Is it just one ritual of few minutes spent in a year to bless homes? Not to mention financial scams, land frauds, sexual crimes of the clergy, where they don't have the courage to preach how they are failing the Church.

Thank God that Francis is requesting the clergy to cut down their boring sermons to 8 minutes. Wish it could be 8 seconds. 

Select the below link to open the news article 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/12/pope-francis-priests-homilies-short-people-fall-asleep

Ideally priests be requested to shut up, stop preaching and start reaching the flock who they are a sheperd to. No sheperd has ever give a sermon to his flock of sheep.

# posted by Sunny Fernandes @ 8:31 PM