Many of these customs are no longer practiced because of our living situations in 2026. Among the hindrances is the distance from home to Mass and the infrequency of Masses. The chapel is open only for one Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation. Driving two hours for First Friday at midnight on Thursday, followed by two hours back for work and school on Friday isn’t going to happen. The same problem exists for “stopping for a visit” on the way home from school or work. It’s too far away and even if not, the chapel is locked up other than for Mass. Most city churches were open 24-7. Do that now and they’d be stripped bare, people coming in to do activities unrelated to spending time in God’s Presence. Young children and infants attend Mass with their parents because there is one Mass many miles away. Parents cannot go to separate Masses and leave the very young at home. Many people’s work and school schedules and commuting hours preclude lots of home devotions. If both parents must work to keep a roof overhead and food on the table, family time is seriously cut into. One might say unless you can’t live on one income, you shouldn’t marry. If that were to be a rule, only the wealthy would marry. There’d be lots of single Catholic adults out in the world. Become religious? Well, there are few seminaries and few convents. Tradition, outside of a handful of locations, lacks the social infrastructure that formerly supported Catholics. Socially, tradcats lack the family structure and networks of fellow Catholics. Lots of us come from religiously divided or “not religious” families.
There is nothing, however, preventing anyone from introducing some older customs in our homes or private lives. It doesn’t take much to get some Holy water to use before bed, or of praying the Rosary on the schedule suggested. One can do that even if they pray alone. (I use the customary schedule myself and just thought everyone did!) I generally read the small biographies of the Saints of the day in my missal in the evening.
The old customs are good to know. They were well suited to North American Catholics, especially to those in cities up through V2. As Catholics living in the 21st century, it is good to adapt Catholic customs to fit our present lives.
I’m wondering if CI members would like to share their present customs with others. Please write!
Topic: North American customs, traditions and devotions (Read 2961 times)