As an after thought to the last post, I thought that I would discuss the idea that what and how you pray says a lot about what you believe.
Take for example the storms that hit the Church after the Vatican II council (Which I will point out for the 10000th time was needed by the Church)
When the liturgy was wrenched from its traditional foundations, many people’s faith was damaged, and what is real sad is that this is something that is really not talked about all that much. After Vatican II, mass attendance dropped like a lead balloon, and it has continued to drop to the point where 25% of those who are Catholic attend services on a weekly basis at this point in time.
Critics of Vatican II like to point out the missing 75% as the fruits of Vatican II, but what I believe really happened was, again, the implementation of Vatican II was handled very poorly, so poorly that many people simply didn’t understand what had happened. Couple this with the experimental period that followed and you have a recipe for disaster.
Even in my own little corner of the East we have had issues with our liturgy and our Bishops who have thought "Mary and Joesph Eastern Catholic are too stupid to understand English" have handed us some changes that, for me, are still too hard to stomach.
Which brings me to the point of the title of the post which is Lex orandi, Lex credendi, which very loosely translates into as the law of prayer is the law of belief. If the Liturgy is rushed, the music is bad, the vestments look cheap, then you aren’t going to get a hell of a lot of buy in to the whole worship thing.
Example… If I were a priest, and I decided that the Vestments weren’t that important and I said mass in a 1970s Corduroy Leisure Suit, with the lapels out to my shoulders, My chalice was a 8oz Batman drinking glass from Burger King, and the rest of the tools of my trade were along the same lines… There is a good chance that quite a few in my congregation would notice this. If they happened to mention it, I might say something about "How God loves us all, and doesn’t need all those trappings." and they go away shaking their head and possibly go home and never come back.
Or this could happen
Yes… just brings us closer to the greatness of God… NOT…
God doesn’t need those trappings… Yes… that is a correct answer… The REAL answer is that we, humans, need them and need them badly. For some reason we are wired to know that if something is important then we invest a heck of a lot into it. Don’t believe this? Then check out some youth sports sometime, and watch the parents. See where their gold is stored…
There is a reason why The Emissaries from Russia were awestruck when they entered Hagia Sophia, because the worship of God is supposed to be Awe Inspiring.
