John Chuchman engages in a little satire today — some satirical prayers that some of our bishops might seem to be addressing to God at the moment. This reflection sits so well with the breaking news commentary we are running on Catholica today from Allan Patience [LINK]. Where in the dickens did this logic come from that constantly appeasing the remnant sector of the Catholic baptised who confuse the search for truth with some kind of search for certitude from authority figures is the way to bring the "the good news" to ALL of humankind?

Bishops' Prayer

Dear God,
Please forgive the Laity.

They actually had begun to think
the Liturgy was theirs.

They forgot that it is the clergy's
and that they are allowed to witness it
and participate
only in the way
we prescribe.

Forgive the common language,
Forgive the applause,
Forgive females at the altar,
Forgive the singing of popular songs,
Forgive the enculturation
of the liturgy entrusted to us your Bishops
by the Vatican.

Dear God,
Please forgive the Laity.

They actually had begun to think
that the group assembled at Liturgy
was part of the Eucharistic Consecration.

They forgot
that the consecration of bread and wine
requires a special power
given only to the ordained
by us Bishops
the only true successors to the Apostles.

Forgive them
for misunderstanding
Jesus’ call to priesthood of the laity.

Dear God,
Help us to restore the liturgy
to what you intended.

Help us to make it
a Ceremony above and beyond and apart from the laity,
one which they witness from afar
and attend in the prescribed manner.

Dear God,
Help us not slip back
to the times when the Church had no
professional clergy
and liturgy was celebrated in homes
by laity.

Help us return to the times
when clergy were deemed
Representatives of Christ
with special powers and honors
and Liturgy was celebrated
in one official language
in one official manner
as Jesus would have wished.

Dear God, please . . .

In the meantime,
we will undo all the harmful changes
since Vatican II
that have made liturgy so . . .

IMAGE SOURCE:
The image used in today's headline is a random image selected from Google images of a Bishop at prayer. The reflection by John Chuchman is not to be taken as some reflection on the particular bishop chosen for the illustration. (For the curious his name is Bishop Joseph P. McFadden and he has recently been installed as the Bishop of Harrisburg in the United States: www.hbgdiocese.org. The background used to support John Chuchman's reflection has been sourced from stock.xchng one of the sources for free images on the net provided by people who voluntarily upload their work for others to share. Daniel Cubillas who is located in Spain provided today's image. A gallery of Daniel's freely available images can be found at: www.sxc.hu/gallery/dcubillas.

John Chuchman

[Index of Commentaries by John Chuchman]