We have received some beautiful photos from readers showing Christmas Masses. If you took any photos of the church where you went to Mass, please send them in so we can share them with everyone. Send them to me at gen@cleansingfire.org.
Thus far, we have a nice spread of photos from the 4:30 PM Mass at Our Lady of Victory. Thank you!
Our very own Mike has just supplied us with some beautiful photos from Holy Cross. A warm thanks to him, too!
Holy Cross:
Tags: Keeping Christ in Christmas, Liturgy, Orthodoxy at Work
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The Christmas mass of anticipation at OLV was beautiful. I don’t think I have ever seen that many people there before and the homilymthat Father A gave was excellent. You just can’t beat it when you hear the truth in a homily. God Bless Father A and the wonderful staff.
I was unfortunate to witness something very disturbing during mass by a man sitting behind us. I happened to glance back during communion and noticed this person with a sucker in his mouth. He then got in line for communion with the sucker still in his mouth, and he was in father A’s line no less. When he was about the 7th or 8th person in line he put the sucker in his pocket and it was not noticed by father ( Oh how I wish it had ).
What is the proper course of action when we see something like this?
This might rub some people the wrong way but as orthodox and reverent has OLV masses are, I have never witnessed such a blatant abuse of the sacrament in my entire life attending Traditional Masses (~35 years). In fact, I have seen more than one person denied the sacrament in the past. I realize that Father A would have done something had he seen the guy, it’s more of a commentary on the mindset of people so poorly instructed in the faith which, in my opinion, you are much more likely to see at an Ordinary Form mass than a Extraordinary Form.
I was surprised that Father A did not make an announcement about people being spiritually prepared since you have a good number of people who are making their rare appearance to mass on Christmas.
I don’t think there were a great number of rare attendees at OLV, since it’s a personal parish…there were certainly some, however
If I was sitting in front of him and saw that, I would have said something! I’snt it our responsibilty? In that situation I’d have to take a chance at being wrong! I have a feeling no one would mind! Especially Father! Oh how I wish Father A saw that!
Beautiful images! I hope more will be sent in.
OLV/SJ is very beautiful and spiritual during this time of year!
It’s beautiful year-round!
RE: person with a sucker
If I saw a person take the Sacrament and then not consume it I would act but in the case of the sucker it’s between the man and God. The breaking of the fast does nothing to the Sacrament; the fast is a discipline for the person. Possibly approaching the man could set off a disturbance. The priest, however, if he saw the person sucking on candy should at least quietly and gently question the man but I don’t think the priest should refuse to give Communion to the man.
I don’t consider it a problematic breaking of the fast if, for example, a person with a bad cough controls the coughing at Mass by sucking on a cough drop, or consumes a Tums if they have an acid reflux attack at Mass.
the church was beautiful and the music was fantastic! Thank you to everyone involved!
I took my parents to a presbyterian church which worships in the gym of a school earlier in the night. The contrast between these 2 services was just remarkable.
Ben. Did you parents also attend Midnight Mass at OLV?
Patiently waiting for some St. Stanislaus or St Michael pictures (lol). Hope to visit both churches soon.
I watched a few minutes of Midnight Mass from Holy Cross on the Internet.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge – some people are prescribed medical lollipops to take at certain times of the day – maybe this member of the faithful who was worshipping with his fellow Christians had a legitimate reason to break the Eucharistic fast http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090808095103AAes2nW
Choirloft, no my parents didn’t come, but they’ve been to OLV several times. I think the amount of Catholicity on display is a bit much for them (although they don’t really say so).
Regarding the man with a sucker, after witnessing the disposition of this man throughout the mass, I think most would come to the conclusion that it was probably not a medical situation. Besides, if there is a medical reason to break fast it’s very atypical to schedule medication in the middle of mass right before communion, wouldn’t you say?
Interstate Catholic said, “I watched a few minutes of Midnight Mass from Holy Cross on the Internet.”
How good was the audio and video quality?
I ask because I was the guy manning the equipment at the HC Midnight Mass and Satan seemed to be doing his best to thwart our efforts. We were supposed to go live at 11:30 when the choir started singing hymns and carols, but the breaker on the circuit feeding the sound system and our wireless router let go about 11:25 and it took maybe 20 minutes to diagnose and fix the problem. Also, there were what I thought were a couple of minor issues with the computer/software controlling the cameras which I don’t believe affected the internet feed.
Mike,
The video/audio seemed fine when I logged on about 11:55. I admit I only watched about 15 mnutes (I attended mass earlier that evening at my home parish). Nice decorations at Holy Cross, hope to stop there for weekend mass someday.
PLJ…regarding the man with a sucker in his mouth, there may be a logical explination.
At Holy Spirit mass the other day I noticed a similiar situation. There was a woman with a tumbler of liquid that she drank out of before and after communion.
This leads me to believe that some people for medical reasons, due to drugs that they may take, are left with little to no saliva production. The use of the “sucker” and “tumbler filled with liquid” may serve to facilitate receiving of the eucharist, otherwise it may be difficult if not impossible to receive communion.
This I know to be fact from having to work with patients that we were required to give artificial saliva to.
Has anyone asked the gentleman with the sucker why he is doing what he is doing or are we assuming?
God Bless
Beautiful, just beautiful!