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Author Topic: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass  (Read 9028 times)

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Änσnymσus

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What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
« on: February 28, 2024, 08:03:02 AM »
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  • There are 2 priests where I go to Mass who speed through it. It’s not possible to follow along with the missal. I’m not in any position of influence or authority, and I don’t really know or speak to these priests personally. 

    I COULD bring it up to another priest who actually is in authority in the place but I don’t know if I should. 

    I asked someone who has been going there longer than I have and this stuff has been going on for years, so either no one has said anything about it this whole time, or if they have, the priests don’t care.

    I find this outrageous and it’s very hard being at these Masses, I’ve even wondered if I shouldn’t go when these priests celebrate it. 

    I even have concerns about the validity of it because they speed through the Consecration as well, it’s horrible. 

    I don’t know if one should just pray in these cases, or speak up. 


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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #1 on: February 28, 2024, 01:57:00 PM »
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  • Just write an anonymous letter to their superior stating that it’s not good for priests  to rush through Mass.  Give examples of how the saints and the Holy Mass.  please advise the priests to tend to the sheep.  

    Many priests who rush Mass mostly rush to worldly pursuits.  

    Worldly pleasures is why the Church and society is in crisis.  








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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #2 on: February 28, 2024, 02:23:23 PM »
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  • This is totally inexcusable, priests more than anyone should KNOW how Mass is to be celebrated and how the saints said it etc. They shouldn’t need to be reminded by laypeople about this.

    Offline Ladislaus

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #3 on: February 28, 2024, 02:26:31 PM »
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  • Before condeming the priest, please define "speeding through" a bit more concretely.  What you may consider too fast might be acceptable to others.  We find that when praying the Rosary as a group, where some people want to move more quickly, while others seem very slow by comparison and feel rushed ... so there's some subjectivity to it.

    I think that a priest could devoutly offer a Low Mass (minus sermons and distribution of Holy Communion to the faithful, depending on how many there are) in about 25 minutes.

    How long do these priests takes to offer Low Mass?

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #4 on: February 28, 2024, 02:27:04 PM »
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  • There are 2 priests where I go to Mass who speed through it. It’s not possible to follow along with the missal. I’m not in any position of influence or authority, and I don’t really know or speak to these priests personally.

    I COULD bring it up to another priest who actually is in authority in the place but I don’t know if I should.
    Is this Sunday Mass they speed through or Daily Mass? Is there a lot of people at Mass or just a few?

    I would ask the 2 priests directly if possible, if not, talk to the one with the authority. Not that he will actually do anything about it, although he might, but I would not be afraid to ask. Either way, it's not likely going to change anything and you may end up simply trying to follow as best as you can. 

    If you decide to ask, maybe you could phrase it something like this:
    Father, I am slow at everything, including praying my Mass prayers and am having trouble following along with Fr. "X," and am missing a lot of prayers, can you suggest a way for me to follow better? 


    Offline Matthew

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #5 on: February 28, 2024, 03:56:50 PM »
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  • Actually it's not just personal opinion -- I'm pretty sure the Church has a guideline for this -- at least that is what I learned in the seminary. I don't know the source however.

    30 minutes "amice to amice" or from the time the priest puts on the amice (the first piece of his Mass vestments) until he takes the amice off after Mass -- the last piece to be taken off. Vestments are first in, last off. Software developers will recognize this as a "stack" configuration.

    A sermon adds about 20-25 min. and Communion of the Faithful takes about 5 min. So a Sunday Mass should be about an hour. If it's a High Mass, you add about 15 more minutes for all the singing.
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    Offline Ladislaus

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #6 on: February 28, 2024, 04:26:03 PM »
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  • That sounds like about what I heard.  I was thinking along the lines of their going too fast "to follow" being subjective.  Are they going too fast to follow or is OP just too slow at following?  Hard to say without some objective detail about how long the Mass typically takes.  If the priest is done in 20, that would objectively indicate that he's going too fast.  But if he takes closer to 25-30, then I suggest that OP is just too slow at following the Mass.  In addition, there's no requirement to follow every word of the Mass, or read along with the priest.  But if it's just a question of OP reading, say, the Canon, very slowly, so that the priest could be getting to the Consecration while OP remains five minutes behind, it could just be that OP is wanting to read it slower than the priest is reading it and that there's nothing objetively wrong with the speed at which he's going.  I've known people who claimed that the public recitation of the Rosary was too fast when I thought it was normal/average, because those people simply like to or were used to praying much more slowly.

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #7 on: February 28, 2024, 04:43:22 PM »
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  • This is totally inexcusable, priests more than anyone should KNOW how Mass is to be celebrated and how the saints said it etc. They shouldn’t need to be reminded by laypeople about this.
    Priests know that abusing children is mortal sin and lay people should be outraged. 


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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #8 on: February 28, 2024, 06:20:23 PM »
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  • I once read that Pope St. Pius X would offer Mass from amice to amice in 20 minutes, no sermon obviously.

    Online SimpleMan

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #9 on: February 28, 2024, 07:12:34 PM »
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  • Priests know that abusing children is mortal sin and lay people should be outraged.
     
    I'm not following how this comment, while true, has anything to do with the present discussion.

    Online SimpleMan

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #10 on: February 28, 2024, 07:21:37 PM »
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  • There's a balance to be struck between "speeding through a Mass" and a Mass that is too long.

    I may be wrong to say this, but I find the concept (aside from a High Mass with schola and the like, which is longer by necessity) of "a longer Mass is a better Mass" to be a Novus Ordo way of thinking.  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass doesn't need to be belabored to death.  The priest offers Mass, there is a short sermon, there may or may not be some fairly perfunctory singing, and that's it.

    The Novus Ordo approach smacks of Protestantism, where the hymns and the sermon are basically all they have, and people are attracted to the various sects by how excellent each of those things are.  Many of those congregations are either cults of personality around a preacher, or the church [sic] people go to because they were raised in it and that's where their family has gone for generations.  (Seeking out a denomination that doesn't condemn the circuмstances of one's lifestyle is also a selling point.)


    Offline Giovanni Berto

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #11 on: February 28, 2024, 08:08:54 PM »
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  • Quote
    Liguori was consecrated Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1762...He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes. 
    Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonsus_Liguori


    15 minutes was long enough for St. Alphonsus. Considering his weight as a moral theologian, it would be wise to follow him.

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #12 on: February 28, 2024, 08:11:38 PM »
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  • Before condeming the priest, please define "speeding through" a bit more concretely.  What you may consider too fast might be acceptable to others.  We find that when praying the Rosary as a group, where some people want to move more quickly, while others seem very slow by comparison and feel rushed ... so there's some subjectivity to it.

    I think that a priest could devoutly offer a Low Mass (minus sermons and distribution of Holy Communion to the faithful, depending on how many there are) in about 25 minutes.

    How long do these priests takes to offer Low Mass?
    I haven’t timed it, I will. 

    I’m not a slow reader by any means.

    There are 4 priests where I go. The other two say it in a way that you can clearly hear every word they say and it’s very easy to follow along and yet it’s not too slow. They rarely have to repeat words. 

    The other two, on the other hand, fumble very often and have to repeat themselves. 

    Psalm 42 is super fast (like without separating each word), the Aufer a nobis and Oramus Te are lightning quick and I can’t finish them before they’re already walking to the epistle side whereas with the other two priests I can. 

    Kyrie is very fast. 

    Gloria too. 

    The collects and readings are a LITTLE slower. 

    Signs of the cross are VERY fast. 

    Genuflections and Elevation are very fast.

    They don’t seem to pause for a bit before starting the Consecration (like the other two). In fact it happens that not even the servers are ready; the priests bend forwards very quickly before the servers can even bow themselves but with the other two the servers are always in sync. 

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #13 on: February 28, 2024, 08:20:48 PM »
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  • Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonsus_Liguori


    15 minutes was long enough for St. Alphonsus. Considering his weight as a moral theologian, it would be wise to follow him.
    His book on the Mass says he gave his priests 30 minutes to say the Mass, and keep in mind that back then there were no Leonine prayers at the end.

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    Re: What to do with priest who speeds through the Mass
    « Reply #14 on: February 28, 2024, 08:29:10 PM »
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  • By the way, I’m not the only one who thinks they’re fast. I’ve asked 3 others and they all agree they’re too fast.