One of my favorites growing up...

Oh.. please say a prayer for the Aggie Baseball team!

PabloSerna said:

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Oh.. please say a prayer for the Aggie Baseball team!

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I'm offering the penance of being in Austin. Saw a kid in t.u. baseball apparel at the airport. Almost asked him if the Aggies were going to win in Omaha. Almost.

I've been on a Christian folk music kick lately

So, I have just gotten back from Mass, and I am going to give my honest unexaggerated opinion.

It was horrible, and if it is the standard for most non-traditional parishes I can see why the Church is dying.

For starters the church looked nothing like a church, it looked like an admin building at a camp ground. The interior was muted with a mod looking stations of the cross, a plain altar and flanking video screens.

I had gotten to Mass 80 minutes early as I was pleased they had confession. I was 12th in line (normally a good sign), they got through 8 confessions before mass started. Apparently no one teaches the "name and number of sins anything else and make an appointment" because everyone must have been there for therapy.

5 minutes before mass the Priest comes out of the confessional and says he'll be back after mass to hear the rest.

It goes downhill from here. The music for the procession in is literally some guy's cd track. They put the cd cover on the screens in case you're curious of who the musician is. Every response is accompanied by acoustic guitar, piano and song to a tone that vaguely resembled "all around the mulberry bush". The readers are all middle aged women wearing sleeveless shirts and some form of leather "nice" flip flop. Half of the congregation is in shorts and T-shirts.

During the readings they put a graphic up of Jesus in a boat on stormy seas. The homily is not about the gospel but about avoiding polarization and that we need to love everyone. The pastor seemed genuine and like he was a nice guy, he was also an Aggie. He said like the disciples in the boat only Jesus can calm the storm so we just need to hang on until he wakes up. We then sang the Lord's Prayer well everyone held hands.

I did not receive communion, but noticed some major dissonance. There was a female Eucharistic minister wearing a mantilla, which I thought an odd juxtaposition of traditional and wildly progressive. I saw someone kneeling to receive communion…..from a Eucharistic minister. It seems like people know what they're supposed to be doing but don't know why or for what reason.

The one bright spot of mass was a female altar server of about 10 who had Down's syndrome. I am not in favor of female altar servers (3/4 at this mass were female) but as Down's people are the closest thing to sinless this side of Heaven, I can make an exception. She radiated love for the Eucharist and it helped save what until then had been a fairly discouraging experience.

After communion the priest put the ciborium back in the tabernacle sideways? And gave us his blessing and sent us out.

He was good to his word and did come back to hear my confession which I appreciated. He seemed like a really nice and genuine guy, but did appear liberal and he had a bit of a lisp but I will not cast any aspersion upon him.

In short, really really sad if this is the mass most of Catholics go to. It reminded me of small budget Protestantism, all performance and no substance.

I will reiterate my statement; the traditional Latin mass will save the Church. Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. This was more like Lex Luthor

FIDO95 said:

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Jesus told me to tell you to answer the call and get yourself back in the pews tomorrow. Same place. Same "ambience". You can do it. We are all counting on you. John 15:13.

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Female alter servers!!!!!!! The horror!!!! Sounds like you need to go somewhere else with the Mass in Latin and Communion rails……

Quote:

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Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

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I have sung this song quite a bit at Mass…….

Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Yahweh's people dance for joy.
O come before the Lord.
And play for him on glad tambourines,
and let your trumpet sound.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Rise, O children, from your sleep
your Savior now has come.
He has turned your sorrow to joy,
and filled your soul with song.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Glad my soul for I have seen
the glory of the Lord.
The trumpet sounds the dead shall be raised.
I know my Savior lives.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.

B-1 83 said:

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Female alter servers!!!!!!! The horror!!!! Sounds like you need to go somewhere else with the Mass in Latin and Communion rails……

Quote:

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Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

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I have sung this song quite a bit at Mass…….

Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Yahweh's people dance for joy.
O come before the Lord.
And play for him on glad tambourines,
and let your trumpet sound.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Rise, O children, from your sleep
your Savior now has come.
He has turned your sorrow to joy,
and filled your soul with song.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Glad my soul for I have seen
the glory of the Lord.
The trumpet sounds the dead shall be raised.
I know my Savior lives.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.

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You know you might be on to something.

Serviam said:

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B-1 83 said:

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Female alter servers!!!!!!! The horror!!!! Sounds like you need to go somewhere else with the Mass in Latin and Communion rails……

Quote:

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Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

---

I have sung this song quite a bit at Mass…….

Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Yahweh's people dance for joy.
O come before the Lord.
And play for him on glad tambourines,
and let your trumpet sound.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Rise, O children, from your sleep
your Savior now has come.
He has turned your sorrow to joy,
and filled your soul with song.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Glad my soul for I have seen
the glory of the Lord.
The trumpet sounds the dead shall be raised.
I know my Savior lives.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.

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You know you might be on to something.

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Never took you for a Haughen, Haas, and Schutte fan boy.

747Ag said:

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Serviam said:

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B-1 83 said:

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Female alter servers!!!!!!! The horror!!!! Sounds like you need to go somewhere else with the Mass in Latin and Communion rails……

Quote:

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Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

---

I have sung this song quite a bit at Mass…….

Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Yahweh's people dance for joy.
O come before the Lord.
And play for him on glad tambourines,
and let your trumpet sound.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Rise, O children, from your sleep
your Savior now has come.
He has turned your sorrow to joy,
and filled your soul with song.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Glad my soul for I have seen
the glory of the Lord.
The trumpet sounds the dead shall be raised.
I know my Savior lives.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.

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You know you might be on to something.

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Never took you for a Haughen, Haas, and Schutte fan boy.

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For my money it doesn't get any better than hearing Jesse Manibusan beseech God to open different sensory orifices repeatedly.

Serviam said:

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Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

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I take it you have never attended a charismatic Catholic event?

UTExan said:

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Serviam said:

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Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

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I take it you have never attended a charismatic Catholic event?

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No I have not. There is a Catholic Charismatic center in Houston, but I have not heard good things.

aggietony2010 said:

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747Ag said:

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Serviam said:

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B-1 83 said:

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Female alter servers!!!!!!! The horror!!!! Sounds like you need to go somewhere else with the Mass in Latin and Communion rails……

Quote:

---

Please pray for me. I will give a report after I return. I am worried there will be banjo and tambourine.

---

I have sung this song quite a bit at Mass…….

Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Yahweh's people dance for joy.
O come before the Lord.
And play for him on glad tambourines,
and let your trumpet sound.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Rise, O children, from your sleep
your Savior now has come.
He has turned your sorrow to joy,
and filled your soul with song.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.
Glad my soul for I have seen
the glory of the Lord.
The trumpet sounds the dead shall be raised.
I know my Savior lives.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
singing alleluia.

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You know you might be on to something.

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Never took you for a Haughen, Haas, and Schutte fan boy.

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Deep down every one just wants the mass setting to be "Missa My Little Pony."

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For the unitiated...

Serviam said:

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PabloSerna said:

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One of my favorites growing up...

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I think some praise music is Good for recreational listening as long as it isn't overly Protestant (although I prefer Classical or Opera) but it shouldn't be at mass.

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From the same channel... "Missa 25 or 6 to 4"

Curious…Is there a particular reason you chose to attend Mass at this parish? For the record your recap above is pretty spot on. The priest/pastor is a genuinely nice man who does care deeply for his flock.

I live in the area and we attend the other NO parish which tends to be more conservative. Many of the Masses are chanted and the reverence for the Eucharist is obvious. It's not Latin, but it is the NO done well. We celebrated a 6AM candle light mass a couple of weeks ago on the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Everything was chanted, priest was ad orientem, we had the relic of St. Anthony out for veneration, and we were in our chapel that hosts the relics of more than 30 Saints including wood from the True Cross.

My suggestion for you is next time you are in The Woodlands and need to attend a NO Mass, go to St Anthony. I do hate the fact that with the NO this lends itself to this even being an issue, but it does.

Faithful Ag said:

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Curious…Is there a particular reason you chose to attend Mass at this parish? For the record your recap above is pretty spot on. The priest/pastor is a genuinely nice man who does care deeply for his flock.

I live in the area and we attend the other NO parish which tends to be more conservative. Many of the Masses are chanted and the reverence for the Eucharist is obvious. It's not Latin, but it is the NO done well. We celebrated a 6AM candle light mass a couple of weeks ago on the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Everything was chanted, priest was ad orientem, we had the relic of St. Anthony out for veneration, and we were in our chapel that hosts the relics of more than 30 Saints including wood from the True Cross.

My suggestion for you is next time you are in The Woodlands and need to attend a NO Mass, go to St Anthony. I do hate the fact that with the NO this lends itself to this even being an issue, but it does.

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My wife has a "girls weekend" for all of our female family members at our house once a year and it was this weekend, so I used some of my Marriott points and booked a room at the Marriot water-way so they could have the whole house to themselves (my wife and I have only daughters).

Her family has unfortunately fallen away from the Church so they planned for the guys to come back and have activities on Sunday (without thinking about mass), so I needed to go to Mass on Saturday evening and used MassTimes.com and saw that SSJ was closest to the hotel, I was also intrigued to see what a "folk mass" entailed so it was a bit of a fact finding mission as well.

I should have probably just gone to St.Michael's at 8:30 on Sunday, but I would have missed the breakfast and our Catholicism is still a bone of contention so I tried to use prudence and avoid conflict where necessary within the family.

Thank you for the recommendation, sounds like St. Anthony's is the place to go in a pinch next time.

Yes…I've never been to St Michael's but it's something I do plan on doing as I've heard great things. Before they moved to their new permanent location St. Michael's worshiped at St. Anthony. Several of our friends attend there regularly.

We have been blessed at St. Anthony the past several years with Fr. Jesse and Fr. David Hust. Unfortunately we are losing Fr. David this week. He has been an amazing priest who has made a significant impact in his 3 years with us. I hope we don't lose what we have gained the past several years with his influence. If we had a few more years with him I know St. Anthony would have become the model of what a reverent NO Mass should be. Hopefully we don't regress.

I will tell you that SSJ has also made significant progress in the past 15 years and is actually a younger, more vibrant parish today than it was prior to Fr. Pat. That being said I try not to attend SSJ because of the things you mentioned above.


https://www.instagram.com/p/C8CaqJEM21g/?igsh=MXdpejFkaXh4bnB0Yw==

Link above to post and picture of that Mass

Faithful Ag said:

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I will tell you that SSJ has also made significant progress in the past 15 years and is actually a younger, more vibrant parish today than it was prior to Fr. Pat. That being said I try not to attend SSJ because of the things you mentioned above.

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I definitely agree with your first line there. It is not our home parish, but I sometimes attend there when I attend a weekday/holy day mass. I really like Father Pat, and their weekday/Sunday masses. What Fr. Pat can't change is that this church was built during the 'ugly years' of Catholic church construction. There's only so much you can do there.

RAB91 said:

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Faithful Ag said:

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I will tell you that SSJ has also made significant progress in the past 15 years and is actually a younger, more vibrant parish today than it was prior to Fr. Pat. That being said I try not to attend SSJ because of the things you mentioned above.

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I definitely agree with your first line there. It is not our home parish, but I sometimes attend there when I attend a weekday/holy day mass. I really like Father Pat, and their weekday/Sunday masses. What Fr. Pat can't change is that this church was built during the 'ugly years' of Catholic church construction. There's only so much you can do there.

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I was going to guess that the Church was built in the mid 70's to 80's, it had that "we're hip cool and definitely not your grandmother's catholic church" vibe to it.

747Ag said:

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Where we live (central Florida), most church buildings are of the newer, hip, and spiffy variety. Cruciform is out. Around the altar is in. Choir lofts are out. Choirs up front are in. Why use a hymnal when we got projectors and screens? Tabernacles off to the side. Thankfully, I know of several doing things to rectify the interior beauty and especially placing the Tabernacle front and center.

This week, we've been at the parish at which Mrs. 747 and I were wed (Austin area). A good experience overall. The choir is musically talented. The musical selections were all over the spectrum... a chant or two, traditional hymns, and a couple of modern songs. The modern selections, while excellently executed, still should have been done outside the Mass in my opinion. However, this is all tremendous improvement where the parish was over 20 years ago (liturgical dance, family servers, less proficient choirs, and waiting two years after first Eucharist to receive first confession). I will credit my in-laws, in part, for driving changes to the music. Lastly, Tabernacle was restored to the center some years ago.

Lastly, please pray for the repose of the soul of my nephew (23 yrs) and the whole clan as we lay him to rest tomorrow.

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God rest his soul

I've been to mass there many times. Solid Deacon homilies.

Athanasius said:

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I've been to mass there many times. Solid Deacon homilies.

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Not sure if serious

Why should the tabernacle not be located in special place of reverence such as a side chapel? Just curious.

I have been to exactly 1 TLM and while I agree the reverence was a beautiful aspect- I cannot say it was any more than other masses I have attended. That is like saying the holy water is holier at this church than that church.

I usually attend mass at Ascension Catholic Church in Bastrop, TX. There are so many people, it is standing room only. This past Sunday, Fr. Jim actually asked the congregation to come to Saturday vigil mass because it has less than 200 and plenty of room.

The church is very much a 70's style right down to the abstract stain glass windows. What is undeniable is presence of God. I go, not because of the aesthetics, but to give thanks. I close my eyes a lot. Just so they don't wander too much. So listening to the word and liturgy takes on a greater emphasis I feel.

Maybe it is just me, but I focus more on a Last Supper in heaven kind of thing. Definitely the Supper of Lamb like Scott Hahn describes.

Something I have done lately is to take the whole family out to eat lunch afterwards. I have adult kids, some home from college, and trying to get them to go to mass can be trying. I now say, "Mom, Carlos, Soph, Rol, and I are going to mass at 10- we are going to Chapala's afterwards, my treat- wanna go with us?" It usually works. It costs like $150, but I get to have most of my kids join us.

The younger ones know they have to go. It is a house rule. But I told the older ones I would respect their religious views as long as we all go to Easter mass or Christmas mass together. So far so good.