For years I’ve heard apocalyptic stories about how awful the “old days” were because Father would begin and end Low Mass in 20-minutes flat – an illustration of how uninspired liturgy was in the days before the New Pentecost. So I’m understandably astonished at Phil Lawler’s report (hat tip Pray Tell) on the ten-minute Mass in Ireland. You have to read this. When a culture has no time and no concern for sacred spaces and prayer…well, I’m not sure how to finish this sentence.
4 Replies to “The 10-minute Mass in Ireland”
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"When a culture has no time and no concern for sacred spaces and prayer…"
And you thought the problem was with people who only want a portion of their sacred music to be plainsong. Welcome to the real world of spiritual poverty.
Wow, that's amazing! I know several parishes in Long Island, NY offer so called "bullet Mass" in the morning or lunchtime for commuters and office workers. It usually takes 15 minutes (less than 20 minutes). But, 11 minutes! It is unbelievable.
"The Eucharistic Sacrifice is an act of love. A love that is always expressed in a rush, with an eye on the clock, is a love that will soon grow cold."
Premature transubstantiation?
I'm waiting for the day when the church starts buying up closed fast-food outlets and turning them into drive-through churches. Offer and confess at one window, get the Eucharist in styrofoam at the other.
Ah, I grew up on Long Island, and I every time I return I am struck by the very pronounced tendency for the congregation to rush their responses and parts competitively, that is, whoever gets done first is best kind of thing. It's very jarring. And there are priests who encourage this, though they are seem common than they used to be in my experience (I have indelible memories of a priest we universally called Fr Speedy in the 1960s and early 1970s, who said Sunday Mass in under 20 minutes – what I was told was that he simply carried his preconciliar practice forward to the new liturgy, trying to say Mass aloud as quickly as he used to be able to do when he was mumbling under breath; thus, this seemed to be a point of (baleful) continuity.)