CONFORMING TO STANDARD CHURCH 'ETIQUETTE'

I wear a mantilla to Mass. It's something above and beyond the call of duty, you might say, which I do to show reverence for the Eucharist. I decided to do it after hearing a homily which held up many of our 'pious' pre-Vatican II habits to ridicule and derision.

I was taken to task for that yesterday. To ram the message home today I was emailed a page from a book by Patrick Thomas McMahon, 'A Pattern for Life - The Rule of St Albert and the Carmelite Laity'. Father McMahon says:

"We should avoid extravagant displays of public piety. Our mannerisms in church or in any public place should conform to the standard etiquette that is expected ... we follow the guidelines of the local church. Where they kneel, we kneel. Where they stand, we stand. ... The Scriptures are our guide in the spiritual life."

First, it’s absurd to suggest that instead of obeying the Church with a capital ‘C’ we should follow the church - i.e. the local community - in whatever aberration they’ve fallen into. That just takes the cake.

In other words, if I’m asked to be what a church calls ‘a Special Minister’ (instead of Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, and all that the word ‘extraordinary’ implies) and they use paper towels to purify the chalice, against the advice of the bishop, I should use a paper towel too. Or if a priest sits down and expects me as ‘Special Minister’ to distribute Holy Communion instead of doing it himself, I should do so. Or if people are laughing and chatting in church, I should too. Or if they don’t bother to genuflect, neither should I. And so on and so on.

Perhaps Fr McMahon has never attended Mass in a church like the one where I did yesterday, a ‘Mass’ which I suspect was invalid, where the sacred vessels and the Body and Blood of Christ were passed around from hand to hand like bread and butter plates. Where the priest talks and laughs while celebrating Holy Mass. Because that’s "the standard etiquette that is expected", should I conform to it, and talk and laugh too?

Second, if I'm walking down Courtenay Place in Wellington - a public place - should I conform to the standard etiquette that's expected, i.e. wear next to nothing and get drunk and pass out?

Third, it’s absolutely not only the Scriptures which are “our guide in the spiritual life”. As a Catholic and a Carmelite I'm guided also by the Magisterium and Tradition of the Church and the saints – especially the Carmelite saints.

You can expect a more sympathetic hearing from me in regard to Fr McMahon when he’s canonised.

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