After forty years wandering around in the NO desert I finally found a monastery where the priest offers the traditional Mass and teachings.I have been going there for three years now but I'm increasingly worried that his sermons although generally very good tend towards Jansenism. He says things like real Catholics don't drink, smoke or dance.This is Puritanism not Catholicism.
I understand that the difference between Catholicism and Puritanism is that Catholics do not regard alcohol as an evil but a good but if you want you can give up a good, alcohol, for a higher good . That is Catholic.
I remember Catholicism before Vatican II. We dressed modestly like everyone else at the time, we didn't dress like Amish. Our parents (Irish Catholics) drank,smoked,danced and put bets on the horse races. They were good catholics that didn''t contracept, divorce or have children outside marriage.I feel just as unhappy seeing people going to Mass dressed up like Puritans as I did when I used to got the NO Masses and women would wear backless dresses and the men bermudas .
Most of the women remind me of the "Beatas"who were also a part of the Catholic Church in the fifties . I know in this awful modern world it is probably tempting to go to the other extreme in terms of dress and behavior but I'm worried that this leads to vainglory.
I feel very divided. I just go for the Mass and don't stay around to socialise withe the rest of the community.But as far as I know Jansenism is just as much a heresy as Liberalism. Has anyone come across this situation and how did they deal with it?