Curt Jester: Mass Roulette

More like Russian Roulette....

poor Curt Jester....

Have you ever played Mass Roulette?

Here’s how:

• When visiting a city
• Use the MassTimes phone app or equivalent
• Let it find the closest Mass by location
• Go to that Mass

I played Mass Roulette this weekend when my wife and I were on a day trip to Orlando. After shopping I was wondering if we could catch a Mass while there and so I pulled out my phone and using the MassTimes app found a parish within a couple of miles and a Mass starting shortly.

In my own Mass sample data over the years I have certainly found a commonality of what you would expect when visiting a parish you have never gone to before. There is both the good and the bad to this.

The good is that over the years I have found that I encounter less and less outright liturgical abuses and such examples of these abuses that were more common are less so now. While of course the improvisational Mass where you are never sure of what is coming next still exist, mostly you find that the texts are read as per the text.

Though around this more solid bedrock you usually find some local wrinkle or some dubious practices. For example the group blessing of an object where the people along with the priest bless some object. Besides the seriously problematic fact that the priestly blessing is fundamentally different than a blessing the laity can give – just the site of a parish giving a seeming Nazi salute is disconcerting.

continue at Curt Jester... if you are a gambler...