Many thanks to our former parishioner Mr.Lovel Miguel to whom we sent this video in Houston, Texas for him to format it for my blog!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
FINALLY, THE REFORM OF THE REFORM OF THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF SAINT JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MARCH 19, 2012 AT 7:00 PM, OUR PATRON'S FEAST
Many thanks to our former parishioner Mr.Lovel Miguel to whom we sent this video in Houston, Texas for him to format it for my blog!
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25 comments:
I didn't get a commercial.
Anyways, it was truly a wonderful Mass, and the thing it conjures up most for me is how sinfully raped the liturgy was after the Council.
The only thing I have to say is that I wish you used the Roman Canon and in Latin! I was looking forward to that. Oh well. Magnificent Mass anyway.
Did you recite the Gloria and Credo while the choir were singing them? I ask because Schubert doesn't set the whole text. All credit to the choir and soloists, though. I've never seen the opening prayers done ad orientem; and it was most impressive, particularly the Confiteor. I know it's not strictly as per the GIRM, but the symbolism is far better when priest and people face the altar at this point.
I only wish the 'spare' deacon had sung the epistle and the Pax was given correctly!
What I was trying to do was to make this an Ordinary Form Mass (obviously though the Schubert's setting of the Mass made it anything but)I did have the Gloria and Credo in front of me, but to be honest, I'm not sure where this setting diverged too much from the original Latin text.
I wanted the Liturgy of the Word to be like it is in most parishes in the Ordinary Form with the exception of chanting the Gradual and Tract (it was during Lent).
As I watch the video (and it does help to see oneself and others celebrating the Mass) I wanted the sign of peace to be the sign of peace as meant in the OF and it is there that we clergy did not think it through prior to celebrating this Mass. As well, the deacons should have stood after the consecration and assisted with turning the pages of the missal and the other holding the chalice at the Through Him...
I did take some liberties with the rubrics as you note for the confieteor (and the people knelt for it through the Kyrie and on their own, but of course this is a group that comes to the EF Mass regularly). But I think it is entirely appropriate to kneel for the penitential act!
I also used the double genuflections at the consecrations and genuflected after the Through Him which should be restored in the OF I pray.
I though Holy communion went very well with the option of kneeling and intinction. I really have come to appreciate intinction and think it should be the norm for both the EF and OF Mass!
But I wanted to show that the OF Mass can look and feel and sound like the EF Mass. I hope to do this again but with a simple setting of the Mass and entirely in English and do it again entirely in Latin but as an OF Mass.
Also, I noted that the Introit was long enough for the procession of the clergy and the incensing of the altar. I wasn't sure how long it would last, so we should have rehearsed that too ahead of time.
Also, I think the Penitential Act could have been done as seen in the video and then I could have gone to the chair for the Kyrie, Gloria and Collect which would blend the EF and OF styles better. And I believe that in an EF Mass, the bishop always goes to his chair after the prayers at the foot of the altar, the singing of the Introit and incensing of the altar--he's at the chair for the Kyrie, Gloria and Collect.
The bishop does go to the throne for the Kyrie, Gloria and Collect. But that's because he's a bishop. I thought it was great just the way it was, Father, and I would love to be able to attend a Mass like that every Sunday. I wish to express again my ideas on the language of the Mass: there is absolutely no reason, none at all, why the unchanging parts of the Mass are in the vernacular. Sacrosanctum Concilium absolutely mandated the retaining of the Latin/Greek, and the unchanging parts of the Mass are obviously the most logical place to make this happen. The readings and Collects usually in the vernacular, fine, that makes sense. But the unchanging parts? Not a lick of sense.
I really enjoyed this. As an Orthodox priest I see a bit of our Byzantine Divine Liturgy in your Ad Orientem New Mass. Well done Father!
Congratulations on this achievement, and thanks for letting us share in the encouragement.
Beautifully celebrated Mass - visually, vocally, musically everything a Mass should be.
I do feel just a little bit sad, though, that Schubert's Mass in G is considered "difficult". It's an indication of how far we have fallen, musically speaking, and what a struggle it is going to be to get our birthright back.
Please don't get me wrong, it's a lovely setting and deservedly popular ever since it was written. But it isn't really difficult. Our high school chorus sang it back in the 70s, and it was composed for ordinary parish use.
Now that your choir knows it, keep using it on a regular basis! And for future special occasions, maybe learn a Byrd or Tallis four-voice Mass . . . or Mozart's Spaurmesse (a splendid little C major Mass that our parish uses for festivals).
Brick by brick, and note by note . . . .
All these quibbles are really irrelevant (mine included) since what you have here is an exemplar of the 'hermeneutic of continuity'. In the dark days of the 1970s I understood, by going to the London Oratory, that the changes in the Mass did not mean the abandonment of objectivity (ad orientem helps), Latin, and the musical treasury of the Western Church. Otherwise I would probably have been a lapsed believer, and even now I go out of my way to avoid your average parish Mass since it is to me an occasion of sin, namely Anger.
John I know exactly how you feel. When I visit other parishes and at random, for example on vacation, I am driven to distraction but what is lacking, even the simplest attention to detail would resolve. In he Palm Beach Diocese I attended a Mass at a famous Church and left because of what I saw and experienced as I got so angry, I couldn't justify remaining. That is the first and only time though that I did that.
Thank you Father and all those who participated for a most prayerful and holy Mass. The Schubert setting was perfect.
I wish we could have the Ordinary Form done this way at our parish.
It was beautiful and again I thank you and all those who made this possible.
Nice to hear the Gospel chanted in English, far better than hearing it in chanted in Latin and following the English.
A splendid celebration.
Concerning intinction: the English hierarchy have not authorized it (I suspect because it means receiving on the tongue and the vast army of mostly female EMs would be deprived of a quasi-liturgical role they should not be exercising anyway) but I think it's the best way for the laity to receive in both kinds. Receiving from the Chalice has Anglican assocations, whereas intinction brings us closer to our Eastern brethren. Keep up the good work!
Awesome :)...Sounds like a step forward for the high OF Mass on Sundays that should be like this
John, I wasn't aware that the bishops have to authorize intinction. It is in the GIRM, and it is most decidedly not an American adaptation or anything.
"But I wanted to show that the OF Mass can look and feel and sound like the EF Mass."
At the risk of labeling you a liturgical crossdresser, why would want to dress the OF up to look feel and sound like something it is not. It is what it is and no dressing up will fool extraordinary form congregations.
I will concede though that it might be a great help to ordinary form congregations as a more devotional looking, devotional feeling and devotional sounding transitional form. A stepping stone to the real thing, if you will.
Yes, Ma Tucker, but if we are going to have the NO we can at least try to afford it as much dignity as possible. If the thing is here to stay, then let's make it as Catholic as possible lest people think they are at the Methodist church. LOL!
This is exquisite! Thank you for sharing it! May God reward you!
@ytc
You're right regarding intinction. Self-intinction, which sprang up in not a few parishes, was reprobated, but back in the 1980s the English bishops obtained an indult allowing Communion in both kinds at all masses indiscriminately. Intinction was discouraged, because they actually wanted lots of EMHC, preferably female. But they couldn't ban it.
The use of EMHC in a way that has been described as a liturgical abuse by Redemptionis Sacramentum occurs on a daily basis in Westminster Cathedral.
@Ma Tucker
The OF allows for 'graduated solemnity' but was clearly intended to be sung, the authoritative text is the Latin one, the preferred chants are those in the Graduale which was rearranged for the Novus Ordo in 1974, Gregorian Chant and sacred polyphony are especially mentioned in the GIRM (the former to be given "first place") and the rubrics imply ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Word. In its most solemn form it does indeed resemble the EF in many respects, but these resemblances are sui generis. Versus populum informal 'folk' masses with no Latin were commonplace by 1967, three years before the Novus Ordo came in.
John,
You make fair points but I'm sure you are aware that you are being a little selective in your quotes regarding what is to be allow at the Novus Ordo.
For me personally, I came to the Extraordinary Form via a comparison of text. No amount of dressing up can change the text. The Novus Ordo needs to go and that's that. When it will go is in God's hands but go it will. In the meantime by all means let good priests everywhere try their best to make it look as devotional as possible in line with the Extraordinary Form. This will ease its passage to oblivion and strengthen the faithful at the same time.
Ma Tucker (love that moniker), you seem so confident that the NO will go. Any basis for feeling this way other than hope and zeal?
I am mildly surprised that no one has brought up the fact that you have a priest functioning as a deacon (which I have no problem with - all priests are deacons, but not all deacons are priests.) As you know, this is a matter of controversy in the NO. It has been suggested (though, not proved, at least to my satisfaction) that priests can not wear the dalmatic and serve as deacons at the ordinary form of the mass.
That was awesome, Father. So awesome. It's one of my great prayers that all the crud allowed into the Mass like the priest facing the people, altar girls, Holy Communion standing and in the hand, and other such things, will all be banned again, preferably in the near future.
But God bless you for this beautiful liturgy, and God bless you since you understand what the Mass is. I only wish my church would have a Mass like this! Maybe if the Ordinary Form were mandated like this everywhere, some schismatic traditionalists would come back!
Father, may I borrow the picture of the elevation of the Precious Blood? I want to post it on Facebook; it's beautiful.
Certainly! Be my guest and pray for me. God bless and Happy Thanksgiving!
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