How old are your traditions?

If I ever have tons of time available I might start a separate blog. It will be just a collection of all the comments I have received from people who are either shocked to see the Divine Worship Mass (which is the only one we use at St. George), or when they find out that I am one of the few married Catholic men who was given permission by the Pope to be ordained as a Priest.

For the time being, those stunning comments will show up here. I heard this one a while back: "That is an interesting Mass, but it is not for me; I like things more traditional". To which I assumed the person meant Traditional Latin Mass or maybe something from the Eastern Catholic traditions. Nope. This person's idea of "tradition" was singing hymns from the twentieth century. Wow! That traditional? Sixty years ago? That is archaic (just kidding).

Down deep, we all want tradition. The desire for familiarity is unavoidable in humans. Newness is interesting, but that with which we are familiar gives comfort in a way that the "new" never does. Children know this quite well ("Daddy, read the book again!"), but when we grow up it is common for us to lose that knowledge.

Some do not like traditions that are genuinely ancient (at least 1000 years) because they prefer traditions that they grew up with. This is not to say that a "new" tradition (something invented a century ago) is necessarily bad; it is just more properly referred to as contemporary than traditional. This is a symptom of the plague of the "new". When we find it common that people will refer to something that is fifty years old as a "classic" (like types of music), then it follows suit that people do not realize that tradition goes much further back then one's own personal experience.