Suffering Brings You Closer To God...

...That's what I had to keep reminding myself yesterday morning as I attended mass at St. Martha Parish in Akron, Ohio. I'm no Liturgics expert, but I'm very confident that there were many liturgical violations.

I should have known it was going to be bad when I walked in and saw this:

Yes, that is carpet you see and yes that is gold lame curtains (I don't know how to get an accent mark over the "e" in lame, but the word without the accent is a perfect description). To the right of the picture is more lame curtains flowing from the ceiling down and around a crucifix.

When I saw all this, I instantly thought of Mahony fest!

Now, I must explain, that the outside appearance is that of a nice red brick church. If I had seen the inside first, I would not have gone there. Also, we arrived ten minutes before the service began and we had no clue where any other Catholic churches were, so we stayed, hoping that it wouldn't be so bad.

It was.

To begin with, there was absolutely no reverence shown prior to the beginning of mass. People were talking to one another as if they were about to watch a movie at a movie theatre. Forget about being respectful to people trying to pray. There was also talking during the offertory.

One of the worse parts was when the priest sang the entire Eucharistic prayer (up to the Our Father) as if he was singing show tunes. Even the prayers were sung in that manner with the chorus, I mean congregation singing the response a la Broadway.

After the Agnus Dei (which was a horrible arrangement as well. What ever happened to Gregorian Chant?!) the congregation remained standing instead of kneeling and stayed standing until they got in line for communion.

Through the whole mass I kept praying for the parish and the priest that they would realize their errors and would show due reverence to God in their worship. I was also very thankful that the sacraments work ex opere operato.

I did a little research on St. Martha's Parish of Akron, Ohio and I found some things that confirm my suspicions.

First I took a look at their website and saw that they have listed under their Caring Ministries: Gay & Lesbian Catholics & Families.

Then I did a google search and found this website and this article. St. Martha's is listed on both.

I guess the only thing I can do now is to continue to pray for them and look for a different church to go to the next time I visit my Uncle in Akron.