During my prayers this morning a thought came to me…Like many Catholics I am trying to be faithful in a crazy time.. Now… I don’t know many Catholics (I could count them on my hand) who don’t think the new mass is valid.. But I have meet many who think it is less than the TLM mass..

At the time of Jesus.. the temple worship was largely corrupt.. Herod was the Jewish High priest.. and a group of faithful largely celibate Jews took refuse at the Dead Sea.. because they believed the temple worship had been throughly corrupted.. St John the Baptist came from this group at the dead sea. so at their best they were reformers and awaiting the Messiah. St John the Baptist would have revered the temple.. It was John the Baptist that confronted Herod..maybe in an attempt to help restore the true purpose of the temple.

So it is one thing to seek purification and and another thing to declare the whole thing corrupt.

Lets look at Mary Jesus and Joseph.. Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple 40days after Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph meet Simeon the faithful high priest, and Anna who prayed and fasted night and day in the temple.

Mary Jesus and Joseph like every faithful Jew went to the Temple 3 times a year.. One of these times during the feast of Passover when Jesus was 12 years old. We remember this in the 5th joyful mystery of the rosary.

Now I think there is a parallel to the Temple TLM Mass Novus Ordo Mass.. and what we are going through today.. Now many Jews probably many but not all at the Dead Sea, who fled the Temple worship because they thought it was corrupt and beyond reformation. But Mary and Joseph were faithful to the temple worship. Mary and Joseph could be example for us.. that it is one thing to spend too much times looking at what is wrong with the Church.. and quite another thing trying to be faithful to God. If the Temple had been throughly corrupted then Mary and Joseph would not have gone to present Jesus when He was a baby and when He was 12 years old, and for that matter coin with Mary and Joseph 3 times a year to the temple every year of His Life.

How Mary and Joseph viewed the Temple could to give us pause when We too quickly attack the Church. Yes does the Church need reform Yes Yes Yes.. But Mary and Joseph serve as beautiful example of simple people today who simply try to be faithful to God.. and these simple faithfilled people go to both the TLM and Novus Ordo Mass.

Just my thought today