Mute witness as the normative stance to the joy of the Eucharist

In interesting comment about Ireland from an American visitor:

For generations, this nation has accepted mute witness as the normative stance to the joy of the Eucharist, even though the compass-point documents of the Second Vatican Council state clearly: "full, conscious, active participation".

... [these documents] were written as a global exhortation.. There was no asterisk at the end of the statement, saying "Oh, by the way, a few of you English speaking countries are off the hook". The documents were written as a worldwide standard: a standard of participative, encouraging, collaborative joy, irregardless of the nation or the nation's history.

Ref:  NDGuitarPilgrim - http://ndguitarpilgrim.blogspot.ie/2012/06/most-profound-gesture.html


Sadly most of the Irish people I've met don't actually see worldwide standards as applying to them - unless they can make money by applying them (eg GMP etc in the medical device industry).  I can't help but wonder if the idea of a worldwide standard doesn't actually just make them turn up their noses and think "No" - just to oppose what's suggested, rather than to understand the wisdom of how it could apply to them.

One day, I watched as a cantor who, having tried lots of other approaches, said to a congregation "If it was the pub, ye would sing" - and it's true, they would have.   It wasn't difficult music, they had the words, I'm sure they knew it - they just didn't want to participate in anything except silent individual prayer (at best) so no one , but no one, could make them.