Anyone else observe this?
I Saw the Same Thing
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Even our local Methodist Church had noontime distribution of ashes.
My office manager is Methodist. She said they never observed Ash Wednesday when she was a kid and now it is a big deal.
God, I hope so. It has been such a heartache seeing the low attendance lately. Last Sunday was our first mask-free in months, so that could trigger a turnaround. I think of the grace – and the sanity – that Mass attendance has brought me over the past two years and I can’t imagine how people have lived without it.
If the local churches do not capitalize on these next 6 weeks with real homilies on real matters, then Easter will resume to be a ceremonial service with a bunny hiding eggs all over the landscape. Start out with an apology for being spineless wimps for the past two yrs. Not all, but some of the clergy, need to drop the collar and try social work. Wife went to the local service and saw mostly faces she didnt recognize.
There is here a cruel dilemma before us. If we promoted justice and charity among men, we should be playing directly into the Enemy’s hands; but if we guide them to the opposite behaviour, this sooner or later produces (for He permits it to produce) a war or a revolution, and the undisguisable issue of cowardice or courage awakes thousands of men from moral stupor.
This, indeed, is probably one of the Enemy’s motives for creating a dangerous world—a world in which moral issues really come to the point. -CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
And, one might add to the above, such danger awakens men to their need for church and faith.
We also noticed more folks at Mass than at any other non-Christmas, non-Easter Mass. Really quite crowded, first for the scheduled Rosary (11:30), then for Mass (noon) and ashes, and a subordinate distribution of ashes in the early evening drew another 50 folks, for us quite a few. Nothing like a threat of nuclear war to get the piety juices flowing. Wonderful, wonderful! as Lawrence Welk might say.
Facing one’s mortality tends to concentrate the mind.
I’m so old. I remember when the Churches were chock-a-block full during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
O to return to the heady days of $1.43 gasoline and peace.
For this we thank Joe Biden’s evil handlers.
It would be great to have people come back. Side note, all the families at our church chose to go to parishes that were more family friendly(no forced masking and normal behavior) during covid. The TLM gained so many people during the last two years!
Today was a disappointment in this regard. My assessment might be wrong because I showed up a little earlier than usual, but our parish seemed sparser than on recent Sundays. I should note that our parish had been a bit of a magnet for years (I’m actually closer to a different parish) because we had a saintly pastor. We’ve been in a transition since he left, and I’d guess that’s affecting our turnout. I’m praying that our people are being fed elsewhere.