What Bothers You Most About the Celebration of the Eucharist/Mass?

Note: I want to keep this at the top of my postings so that I can elicit as many comments/emails as possible. New postings may be below this one for that reason.

 

I'm soliciting opinions, feelings, anger, whatever about the Eucharist that will be used in a book that will be entitled something like "How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist." I want to make it "real" so I'm putting it together from the ground up with all the feedback that I hear when I speak about the Mass to a wide variety of groups.

 

So I think their are three problem areas, but I'm open to expanding the list based on the feedback that I get here:

 

1. Feelings and Reality: "I'm bored" "I don't like the pastor (or fill in the blank)" "I don't understand what's going on" "The preaching (or again fill in the blank) sucks" "I'm not being fed" "I don't believe in it" "I'm angry with the way things are done either correctly or incorrectly"
2. The Wandering Mind: "I'm thinking about something else most of the time" "I find it impossible to concentrate"
3.  Real Abuses: "We use words that aren't in the Missal" "We shake hands at the beginning and in the middle" "(fill in the blank) "We hold hands during the Our Father" "The role of the priest and the laity is confused by the way the Eucharist is celebrated in our parish"

I would like to say with regard to #3 that sometimes people perceive and abuse where no real abuse is taking place, in defense of priests they sometime inherit a situation where certian things have been taking place in a parish and it is hard to stem the tide. I also think that many of the "abuses" have crept into the liturgy because of the items in #1 and attempts to make the liturgy more exciting or relevant, both huge mistakes. Such errors reveal that one doesn't understand the liturgy enough to know that it is the most amazing, exciting and relevant thing we will ever do in this earthly life!

Please link to this discussion on your blog, inviting your readers to participate in this discussion. Feel free to use the comments or to email me directly.

Thanks!