(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) When the Mass is presented as something casual, entertaining, or improvisational, the whole point of it disappears. If the priest conducts himself as if Christ were not truly present in the Eucharist, why should the lay people in his parish think the Eucharist means anything? Why should they bother to go to Mass at all?...[C]lose to two-thirds of American Catholics say they don’t believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist – and many of those are among the twenty-five percent who still attend Mass…it’s up to the laity to know the laws about texts, gestures, the sacred objects used, and the proper conduct of the Mass; to obey those laws; and to see that the clergy obeys them, too. It’s up to us to call our priests back to due reverence when it comes to matters of taste that aren’t covered by law. Kevin Orlin Johnson, Ph.D.
“The truth hurts sometimes. If we are going to be taught by God, the fisherman, we first need to be captured by Him. And His hook is going to have a bite. Of course, it's going to hurt.” - Father Donald Calloway, MIC