Thoughts from an Uneducated Layperson, Volume 1

 

Miscellaneous religious thoughts, of which I am posting late.

The attached photo was taken, candidly (with attempts to censor all of the parishioners' from the photo for privacy considerations towards others, on this), while I attended mass at the Catholic Church of the Incarnation / Our Lady of Light in Dayton OH, on March 10th. Most of these other thoughts were jotted down on an electronic (phone) note app immediately following March 17th 2024 mass at my local church, and then pasted here, mostly verbatim, with additional commentary thrown in midway through #5 and beyond or so.

The formatting may be rougher than my preference but this is partly included here as-is to ensure that I release something in writing form. If things become too unpleasant to write, a habit can easily taper off.

This post may or may not be revised, or bear any correlation, with my opinions (in the future specifically). This may be understood as a writing exercise principally.

Thoughts from an Uneducated Layperson Vol. 1 (Revision 0).

#1. The title picture is from the inside of Our Lady of Lights in Dayton OH, a church I visited very recently. My thoughts are that it is very unaesthetic. To say much more than this, other than "why," would be rudely disparaging. I have, after all, only been there once.

Some things ought to be changed immediately. Keep the tabernacle in the center, so that when those bowing for communion, also bow to God in His House. Other things ought to be considered. One great thing about this church is that it made me realize my current theory in the symbolism of church decorating. Wood symbolizes life ("fruit of divine and working hands"), with stone, death (upon an altar, the crucifixion itself, the stone of the tomb being sealed), and colors for the resurection and the multitudes of dimensions in heaven. The fact that so many churches have a strong presence of wood, and stained glass, probably poses the right amounts of emphasis on how we might treat the gospel as a whole.

An additional picture of the outside of the church, taken off of Google Images for benefits of any readership's convenience, is included below.

Photo credit: Dayton Local [dot] com, link to image source.

The Church of Our Lady of Light is married to the stone look and should commit fully to stone and eternal life. Stain all pews gray, remove the wooden decorations behind, and the plants (save for roses, perhaps, for Mary). Replace the wooden statue of Mary with a porcelain one. And for all things good; this does not apply to the crucifix. It should be replaced immediately, with a wooden one, and a large one if doable. Maybe some of the lengths of metal above it would be difficult to remove.


#2, Receiving the body of Christ via hands is easily as good as by tongue. If anything the argument is just as strong that the priest's hand being so close to our tongues is as likely to depurify. It is true that even the smallest unit of the Eucharist (assuming the priest is in accordance with God and all rites are followed) is God, but if you subdivide that enough the practice can become autistic. God is not confined to a crumb, it is God, if not used for its purpose He can be released just as easily. We should have the faith that it is so.

#3: A good homily could probably be constructed, around the idea that Peter did not walk on water, he walked in Jesus's footsteps.

#4: The church removing the Blood of Christ during the Eucharist while in Covid may be the modern-day equivalent of Peter stumbling before the boat.


#5: The Vatican 2 practice of having the priest face the church instead of the back, tabernacle, cross etc. probably encouages us to focus on something that is there visible vs. something that we likely would not see as quickly (God's presence, the mass itself).

If the priest faces us, we may be inclined to direct and maintain our focus just short of ahead (which has theological and logistical issues, and is pragmatically unsustainable, but I am having difficulty reinventing this into words). The priest is to serve the mass.

The other point to this, is that it's possible this practice as a whole contributes to A: a quiet encouragement of distractions in the mass (the priest is the one presiding over us), and B: disgruntlement or a type of disillusionment with the priest himself (may foster thoughts or temptations such as the following: "this priest is a Sideshow-Bob and a blowhard, I will have better utility pointing out ambiguities and possible-heresies within this guy's homily to the person beside me and in talking during other portions of the mass. Theologically, this will make us both better Christians. Where else will we talk about such things, with a live example at that?").

Priests, in my experience and generally speaking, are earnest, good-hearted and work hard. But subconsciously our level of scrutiny is liable to increase, on some level, if we are enforcing (or it is enforced) in our minds, even the impression that individuality of the priest is the main draw to the mass. The old body language, I think, helped against this. My earlier description of a priest (hard working, earnest, good-hearted), like a friend too, is liable to fall under more scrutiny, if you spend so many more hours listening to that person than they you (non-recriprocal relationships), every week of your life, and it becomes heavier when this person is also in an office of moral authority.

Our instincts as people is to make eye contact. If the tabernacle isn't even central to the church then we are literally looking away from the manifested presence of God through the majority of the celebration of the mass. I don't have very much theological to insert here (at this time of writing). A talk between priest facing away and people facing too--where does this position God? Yes, God is among us, but God is also beyond us. That second message is inportant if we are to strive to become closer to Him.

We must remember that the true focus is necessarily always beyond the priest.

#6: If a priest has a tendency to hijack announcements for commentary, in literal terms, the audience is being held captive by their respect and by the instruction/beliefs of their shared religion. What might be gained in the name of "fellowship" should be underlined by that awareness.

#7: If you visit church as a family or group, the principal thing once returning to the car should be to ask all members to share their thoughts on the homily. Better to retain these things, and point out possible learning opportunities and areas of growth, than to shake it out of the head like a bad dream. The latter, and the Catholic church's alien attitude towards people who want to offer (non-sacriligious, within doctrine, within a learning environment) thoughts on scripture, is suicide to the current church body and is one of the chief reasons Catholics are hemorrhaging their youth to Baptists and other groups.

The other aspect is that a lot of *listening* is expected, but modern priests do very little to equip young parishioners to the struggles of our current climate. Very few priests have done anything to lend a voice to the truth that one can have and enforce laws national borders as a country and still be good and Christian, for example. To be a good Catholic in our day and age can often be a very lonely thing.

Posting 3:10 P.M. EST 3/23/24, Will Salsman