I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 I had a bit of a reputation as a trouble maker at our previous parish.\u00a0 I own up to it and admit that I did a bit of rabble rousing.\u00a0 I made phone calls and wrote emails.\u00a0 I left notes for people and called things to their attention.\u00a0 I tried very hard to ignore the small stuff, but teaching the Protestant 10 Commandments in CCD or selling Native American fertility idols in the parish gift shop were too big to ignore.<\/p>\n
When I volunteered to help with the Confirmation classes, the Youth Director was warned that I was trouble.\u00a0 He told me so.\u00a0 I was militantly orthodox and stirred up controversy, they told him.\u00a0 Luckily, he chose to talk to me before dismissing me entirely, and we worked well together well for 3 years.<\/p>\n
I hate being that mom, the mom whose name makes people sigh.\u00a0 I want so badly to be the nice mom, the mom who smiles and the CCD teachers are glad to see in the halls.\u00a0 I\u2019m not destined to be, but I want it so badly.<\/p>\n
This past weekend at my eldest daughter\u2019s Confirmation class, her teacher repeatedly called the Mass boring.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t just making a personal opinion statement, she was teaching it as fact.\u00a0 She told her students, \u201cI was born in 1960 when all the Masses were in Latin. The people hated it because it was so boring. Eventually the Pope saw reason and let us have it in English so that the people could hopefully be interested and be able to pay attention instead of falling asleep\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only is that wrong in so many ways but I think (and I could be wrong here) that it\u2019s blasphemy.\u00a0 ( I looked it up and the 2nd definition in Mirriam Webster is\u00a0 \u201cirreverence toward something sacred or inviolable.\u201d)\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing if she\u2019s bored at Mass (that\u2019s between her and God), but to actually teach it to a class of teenagers is wrong in so many, many ways.\u00a0 As a friend of mine said, \u201cIf you were the devil and wanted to attack the souls of these children, what better way than to tell them that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is boring and not worth their time?\u201d<\/p>\n
The teacher topped off her discussion of the Mass this past Sunday by asking the kids to stand in for key people in the Mass in order to teach them the different parts.\u00a0 She asked one of the girls to come forward and take the part of the priest.\u00a0 \u201cPretend that it\u2019s 1000 years from now and you\u2019re the first woman priest. We finally get to do it,\u201d the student was told.\u00a0 When my daughter told me this, she asked \u201cMom, isn\u2019t that kinda like heresy to say that someday a woman could be a priest. .\u201d\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not kinda like heresy \u2013 it is heresy.<\/p>\n
I really didn\u2019t want to be the mom who wrote emails and made phone calls, but this is only the third class and I can\u2019t imagine that there will be a conversion here without some outside influence.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s me, so I sent a short email to the priests at our parish and asked for their guidance.\u00a0 My daughter needs to be Confirmed.\u00a0 She needs to take this class in order to be Confirmed.\u00a0 I can\u2019t see how a year of blasphemy, heresy and undermining her faith are going to help her in any way.\u00a0 What, I asked them, should I do?\u00a0 I\u2019m still waiting for their reply. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve promised my husband and myself to ignore the clueless and dumb things and only speak up when things are morally wrong.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to learn to be silent when you\u2019re used to being the loud voice, but I\u2019m working on it.\u00a0 It\u2019s even harder to learn to be the gentle voice when something you love so passionately is being degraded and torn apart from the inside.<\/p>\n
I keep reminding myself that God wins in the end.\u00a0 I know because He said so.\u00a0 It is not my job to be the sword of wrath but the quiet voice and the gentle nudge.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 I had a bit of a reputation as a trouble maker at our previous parish.\u00a0 I own up to it and admit that I did a bit of rabble rousing.\u00a0 I made phone calls and wrote emails.\u00a0 I left notes for people and called things to their attention.\u00a0 I tried very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n