The Best and the Favorite

My children sometimes talk about things Tom and I got right in our parenting. It’s a blessing that they notice these things and hope to include them in their own parenting.

The most recent example of this is my older son, Floyd, and older daughter, Blake, discussed how we led them through evaluating the media and music they liked. While they were growing up, we only watched one television show at a time as analyzing the messages, overt and implied, of an hour-long show was involved enough that more than one show at a time would have interfered with other activities. Even a show as inoffensive as the first four years of “Smallville” took quite a bit of time to dissect.

During their discussion Floyd said he was sometimes irritated when I asked him why he thought something was funny, but that it helped him understand humor better.  Blake noted that while we listened to many types of music, we were clear to differentiate what was merely enjoyable from what was actually high quality.

I am glad that we spent so much time teaching them to analyze the world around them. I believe that God created us to evaluate. Non-sinful things can be enjoyable without being high quality. I can enjoy a bouncy pop song that doesn’t have illicit lyrics while understanding it lacks the musical fluency of Bach. Some rock and roll can be attractive while completely lacking the compelling nature of Rachmaninov. My favorite TV show is “Burn Notice,” which combines action, humor, and character analyses. The best TV show is “Breaking Bad,” which is a five-season meditation on where the sin of anger takes us without God’s grace. Any high-quality media will have to include excellent writing and production-quality. Other than that, the rubric for each is different, and it is important to understand those differences.

This is equally true in the spiritual life. I have favorite prayers, songs, and devotions. I am attracted to certain kinds of practices and less so to others. A holy priest friend assured our congregation many years ago that we gained no merit from avoiding the sins that didn’t attract us. I told him, jokingly, that I had been counting on those non-schmuck points. Other than the rosary, I do not think there are devotions that we *ought* to pray if we don’t find them efficacious. But the Mother of God, herself, asked us to pray the rosary, so we probably ought to.

I do not have a favorite hymn, but older hymns tend to be my favorites because of their musical and lyrical merit. My youngest once became incensed because a modern missal watered down the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Music can be a powerful prayer, so it is very important to err toward Handel’s Messiah and away from pornographic pop and death metal.

Praying the rosary daily is a spiritual good. Meditation, chaplets, and novenas are all excellent and assist us in growing in holiness. Long have I engaged in shiny devotional syndrome and regularly add so many prayers that about once a year I must prune devotions and prayers from my list lest I begin rushing just to get through them all. The Church has hours and weeks’ worth of beautiful prayers. We might even have a favorite among all these, yet none of them can really compare to Mass.

Mass is the best. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The Mass is what brings us Him. Growing up protestant I heard regularly that God is everywhere. This is certainly a piece of the truth. He is everywhere and acknowledging that can assist us in seeing ourselves as loved into life and having each hair on our head numbered. It cannot, however, substitute for the power that is His holy, physical presence.  

Mass is incredibly moving. I cry regularly during several parts. Whether I’m at the Latin Mass or the Novus Ordo, He comes down as the unbloody sacrifice for us. It’s emotionally stunning. There’s nothing like it. Even on those days when I am neurotically stunted and detached from the power of the sacrifice, I go and participate as best I can, because the good of the Mass is not dependent upon my emotions.  

When we receive communion, we receive Him, body, blood, soul, and divinity into our body, blood, and soul. It is a deep unification and the thing He asked all of us to do at the Last Supper. If we do not receive Him, there is no life in us. Even if we cannot receive Him at a particular Mass, there is merit in participating. We can pray for spiritual communion, unite ourselves to him, and resolve to receive him physically as soon as possible.

I will never discourage people from any prayer. Many traditionalists caution against the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Luminous Mysteries, yet I’ve seen graces through those. We can have our favorite prayer, or hymn, or even our least favorite that we never pray. 

As long as we remember that Mass is the best of everything.