Author Topic: Ashes Over Absolution? (Read 911 times)

stevusmagnus · « **on:** March 09, 2011, 05:01:23 PM »

I spoke to a girl who had ashes today and she said the local NO parish was having SIX services today. SIX! For an optional sacramental! Let me guess how many confessions the local NO parish had today. Zero! It happens every year. Lib churches have 12 ash services and pass around the basket every service to cash in on the pop ash fad. Meanwhile the priests are so busy handing out ashes, which don't forgive a single sin, that they have zero confessions. So no actual sacrament of PENANCE is received on THE premiere day of penance in the Church year.

Sigismund · « **Reply #1 on:** March 09, 2011, 05:46:34 PM »

Well, it seems to me that we should be happy people are getting a very important sacramental, even if there should be more people going to confession.

stevusmagnus · « **Reply #2 on:** March 09, 2011, 06:38:42 PM »

The sacramental has been gutted of most if not all meaning in the NO.

They've changed the words to "Turn away from sin and turn to the Lord" or some such genericism and the sacramental is administered in the midst of the the NO, which already plays down the propitiatory sacrifice and priests who don't preach on Hell or sin.

In a lot of NO parishes and among NO'ers the ashes are a sort of neat novelty you get to show off to people and get attention. Hence the incredible amount of Novus Ordites who go to receive ashes while not going to Mass regularly nor caring about the 10 commandments.

Sigismund · « **Reply #3 on:** March 09, 2011, 07:23:45 PM »

The priest who put ashes on my head today said, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The other form is an option. I prefer the traditional formula, but is there something wrong with being exhorted to turn way from sin, reform you life, and believe the Gospel?

stevusmagnus · « **Reply #4 on:** March 09, 2011, 07:29:04 PM »

Quote from: Sigismund

The priest who put ashes on my head today said, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The other form is an option. I prefer the traditional formula, but is there something wrong with being exhorted to turn way from sin, reform you life, and believe the Gospel?

Everything is an "option". That's part of the problem.
I wouldn't be surprised if "Don't Worry Be Happy" were the next option.

The other problem is the ridiculous emphasis put on the reception of ashes while confessions (inifintely more valuable to the soul) are ignored. Without true repentance and sacramental confession , ashes mean squat.

A common trick of the devil is to raise a lesser good over a higher good. Some Catholics are obsessed with getting ashes and haven't gone to confession in months.

stevusmagnus · « **Reply #5 on:** March 09, 2011, 07:33:51 PM »

Allow me to translate conciliar speak for you...

Quote

turn way from sin

No sin left except being judgmental and not nice to your neighbor. So if you are doing this, turn away.

Quote

reform you life

Volunteer at a soup kitchen and recognize that your capitalist greed and prejudices are oppressing the poor.

Quote

and believe the Gospel?

The Modernist Gospel of socialism, liberalism, relativism, rationalism, and indifferentism.

Sigismund · « **Reply #6 on:** March 09, 2011, 07:42:26 PM »

You presume way too much here. The priest at my parish, and the rites that occur in that church, do not bear even a passing resemblance to this.

LM · « **Reply #7 on:** March 09, 2011, 07:57:33 PM »

I agree with stevus.

Quote

Allow me to translate conciliar speak for you...

Quote:
turn way from sin

No sin left except being judgmental and not nice to your neighbor. So if you are doing this, turn away.

Quote:
reform you life

Volunteer at a soup kitchen and recognize that your capitalist greed and prejudices are oppressing the poor.

Quote:
and believe the Gospel?

The Modernist Gospel of socialism, liberalism, relativism, rationalism, and indifferentism.

Caminus · « **Reply #8 on:** March 09, 2011, 10:14:24 PM »

Quote from: stevusmagnus

I spoke to a girl who had ashes today and she said the local NO parish was having SIX services today. SIX! For an optional sacramental! Let me guess how many confessions the local NO parish had today. Zero! It happens every year. Lib churches have 12 ash services and pass around the basket every service to cash in on the pop ash fad. Meanwhile the priests are so busy handing out ashes, which don't forgive a single sin, that they have zero confessions. So no actual sacrament of PENANCE is received on THE premiere day of penance in the Church year.

Yes, it's a quaint rite, much like the blessing of animals they have dutifully retained. And when they are feeling doctrinaire, they beat the dead horse of so-called liberation theology for example. They strain at gnats while swallowing the camel. It's a sad day when priests are praised for saying things that any sane priest ought to be saying anyway. It's a bit like praising a grown adult for tying his shoes. When they are rediscovering the "kergyma" it says alot about their state of mind or when the so-called "CDF" has to issue a docuмent asserting the most basic doctrines concerning Jesus Christ.

CathMomof7 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 10, 2011, 08:04:22 AM »

Quote from: stevusmagnus

I spoke to a girl who had ashes today and she said the local NO parish was having SIX services today. SIX! For an optional sacramental! Let me guess how many confessions the local NO parish had today. Zero! It happens every year. Lib churches have 12 ash services and pass around the basket every service to cash in on the pop ash fad. Meanwhile the priests are so busy handing out ashes, which don't forgive a single sin, that they have zero confessions. So no actual sacrament of PENANCE is received on THE premiere day of penance in the Church year.

When we went to NO, I found this day to be most ridiculous. Our town is fairly small--actually it's 3 towns right next to each other-with a population of about 27,000. At the time there were 3 Churches. On Ash Wednesday, each Church had 3 or 4 Masses. The 6 PM Masses would be overflowing with people. Our priest, who was really old, would call them A & E Catholics--Ash Wednesday and Easter Catholics--because that is the only time they showed their faces. BUT, when you move the confessional to a closet in a hallway and you schedule "group" penance services, what do people expect. The "group" penance thing always made me cringe. We would have 6 or 7 priests "set up" at various spots around the Church and people would just file around and find an available priest. They "offer" this twice each year---during Advent and during Lent.

I believe that this is what they prefer, yet they complain that on Saturday at 3:45 pm nobody "shows" up for Confession.
:tinfoil: