Once again I celebrated a pure Requiem Mass for All Souls Day, one of the few times that I have done so as the Ordinary Form Funeral Mass has gotten so corrupt and it doesn't have to be. The Mass I speak of is the Extraordinary Form's Requiem. It is a pure delight in the most somber way to delight in a Requiem.
By pure and uncorrupted, I mean we sung the Requiem all of it and I realize just how impoverished our Ordinary Form Funeral Masses are today, not just from stupid hymns that are chosen that are sappy and non-liturgical but also instrumentation and ethos. Some Ordinary Form Funeral Masses even become "Celebrations of Life." How stupid can we get?
How many times and ad nauseam have we heard "Be Not Afraid" or "On Eagle Wings" accompanied by guitar or piano, yes at a funeral no less, replacing the official Introit which is:
"Eternal rest give to them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them Ps. 64:1-2: An hymn, O God, becometh thee in Sion; and a vow shall be paid to thee in Jerusalem : hear my prayer; all flesh shall come to thee. Eternal rest."
And it is permissible to replace the Responsorial Psalm with the Gradual and Tract and omitting the silly Alleluia during the Funeral Rite:
Gradual:
"Eternal rest give to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. = The just shall be in ever-lasting remembrance, he shall not fear the evil hearing."
Tract:
"Absolve, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from every bond of sins. = And by the help of thy grace may they be enabled to escape the judge-ment of punishment. = And enjoy the happiness of light eternal."
And as a Sequence prior to the Reading of the Gospel, it is permissible to recover the Dies Irae. This would certainly make us more sober and somber at funeral Masses!
Day of wrath and doom impending,
David’s word with Sibyl’s blending,
Heav’n and earth in ashes ending.
O what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
When from heav’n the judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth.
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth’s sepulchres it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.
Death is struck, and nature quaking,
All creation is awaking,
To its judge an answer making.
Lo, the book exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded,
Thence shall judgement be awarded.
When the judge His seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing?
King of majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.
Think, kind Jesus, my salvation
Caused thy wondrous Incarnation,
Leave me not to reprobation.
Faint and weary thou hast sought me,
On the cross of suffering bought me,
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?
Righteous judge, for sin’s pollution,
Grant thy gift of absolution,
Ere that day of retribution.
And What about this for the Offertory anthem:
Guilty now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning,
Spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning.
Through the sinful woman [Magdalene] shriven,
Through the dying thief forgiven,
Thou to me an hope hast given.
Worthless are my pray’rs and sighing,
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
Rescue me from fires undying.
With thy sheep a place provide me,
From the goats afar divide me,
To thy right hand do thou guide me.
When the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me with thy saints surrounded.
Low I kneel with heart’s submission,
See, like ashes, my contrition,
Help me in my last condition.
Ah! that day of tears and mourning,
From the dust of earth returning.
Man for judgement must prepare him
Spare, O God, in mercy spare him.
Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest,
Grant them thine eternal rest. Amen.
Have you sung this at the Communion Procession, or simply heard "Amazing Grace?"
Grant, Lord, that what we have taken with our mouth we may receive with a pure mind; and of a temporal gift may it become to us an eternal remedy. May thy Body, O Lord, which I have received, and thy Blood which I have drunk, cleave to my bowels; and grant that no stain of sin may remain in me, who have been refreshed with pure and holy sacra-ments, Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.
Why in the world those who made up the Ordinary Form thought the wimpy "Rite of Farewell" would be better than "The Rite of Absolution" at the end of the Requiem is beyond me:
Priest: Enter not into judgement with thy servant, O Lord; for, unless thou grant him forgiveness of all his sins, no man shall be justified in thy sight. Wherefore suf-fer not, we beseech thee, the sentence thou pronouncest in judgement upon one whom the faithful prayer of thy Christian people commendeth to thee, to be a doom which shall crush him utterly. Rather succour him by thy gracious favour, that he now escape the judgement of retribution, who, in his lifetime, was sealed with the seal of the holy Trinity. Who livest.
The cantor or schola: Deliver me, O Lord, from everlasting death in that dreadful day; when heaven and earth shall quake; when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire. = I tremble and I am sore afraid, for the judgement and the wrath to come. When heaven and earth shall quake. = O that day! that day of wrath, of woe and of tribulation! a great day and exceeding bitter, when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire. = Eternal rest give unto him/her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him/her. + Deliver me … by fire. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
= Our Father (silently until) and lead us not into temptation
+ But deliver us from evil.
= From the gate of hell.
+ Deliver his/her soul, O Lord.
= May he/she rest in peace.
+ Amen.
= O Lord, hear my prayer.
+ And let my cry come to thee.
= The Lord be with you.
+ And with thy spirit
Priest: Let us pray. O God, the creator and redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids departed the remission of all their sins; that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired. Who liveth.
= Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord.
+ And let perpetual light shine upon them.
= May they rest in peace.
+ Amen.
Then at the Recession with the body instead of "Faith of Our Fathers or some other hymnal nonsense what about what is prescribe:
"May the Angels lead you into paradise: may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May a choir of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest."
7 comments:
"Why in the world those who made up the Ordinary Form thought ... "
I wonder, Fr. McDonald, whether you still think they had good intentions, in that they wanted to make the Mass better preserve the traditional beliefs of Catholics? Or do you think that--as I believe Msgr. Bugnini indicated in his autobiography--their intent was to use changes in the liturgy to change the beliefs of Catholics?
In either event, is it not the latter that actually occurred?
Fixed iPhoneisms:
This is the what people need to hear. Our current Liturgical offerings remind me of a fighter preparing for a fight and having his coach fill his head with nonsense about how great he is and can over come anything. He is in for a rude and painful shock. Went to the local OF parish today due to wife's sickness. The priest there, the one who said if you wanted to be a Wiccan it was OK with him, told about the Jeffrey Long near death article in Time magazine. In it there is a companion spirit that tells the dead Dr. Long that "he can do nothing wrong." This was a great cause for joy in the priest. This made sense to me as he always uses the Kyrie vice the Confiteor and scrupulously avoids sins a personal obligations, rather they are burdens Christ will lift from us if we let him. No admission of guilt or ownership of the sin. Sigh. This is where we are and it is not preparing us for Death.
The traditional chants for the Requiem Mass may of course be used in the Ordinary Form. Strictly speaking the Alleluia should replace the Tract outside Lent (the GR gives five options, including one, Ego vos elegi, for priests and religious). In practice this is not always adhered to. The Dies Irae was removed in 1965 - those who think that the interim missal was the best thing since sliced bread should remember this and the other things which were dumped - but survives in a modified form in the Office. However, it can be used as an option using the same rationale which would allow the inclusion of 'On Eagle's Wings'.
There is a much greater choice of chants in the OF. The standardized EF Requiem Mass as we know it dates from Trent; the earliest extant polyphonic Missa pro Defunctis (Ockeghem, 15th century) has Si ambulem for the Gradual and Sicut cervus for the Tract, both of which are now given as options.
The Libera me in the revised GR has a different text to the familiar one. However, the existence of neumes from both St Gall and Laon show this to have been an early composition. In contrast the traditional Tract, Absolve Domine, is not neumed, whereas the three alternatives, De profundis, Qui seminat and Sicut cervus are. All share the same mode (VIII) and melodic outline, and the De profundis is in my opinion the finest from a chant point of view.
All this is of course worlds away from the average Catholic funeral which seems to based on the premises that a) most of those attending will be lapsed or non-Catholic b) the family should be given a choice as to the hymns and songs, since it is their 'do' and c) black vestments and mention of judgement or purgatory would be too upsetting. I have had to sit through some utterly awful ones, with friends and family delivering toe-curling and theologically illiterate eulogies on the lines of "she's now an angel in heaven". There have been occasions where the family have sprinkled the coffin with Guinness rather than Holy Water.
John, let me say, vis a vis your many and knowledgeable posts here, that your devotion to the Church and your passion for the Liturgy as expressed in your writing are uplifting and strengthening to many of us who seek further understanding. This is not to mention your theological and liturgical erudition. I appreciate both your considerable knowledge of Catholic Dogma and liturgics and your clear and unequivocal explanation of them...oh, did I mention your patient and mild-mannered polemics...that, too.
Your efforts mark a true evangelism/ecumenism that is often missed by those who are captivated by the theologically wrong-headed and rah-rah "social gospel" crowd.
May God continue to bless you in your work.
Gene, thank you for your comments, although you are far too flattering. I don't know much about theology (my academic qualifications are in history and war studies) and was spurred to take an interest in liturgy because the general consensus in the 1970s was that it was a bottom-up DIY product. I never believed that, and was right not to do so.
The post-V2 Church failed people like me who are not overly devout, pietistic or enthusiastic. It became a club for the 'committed' and the more noise you made the better. I hate modern 'liturgies' with their subjective community-centered platitudes and tin-pan-alley music and go out of my way to avoid them.
It's good to hear these profoundly traditional requiem propers repeated during the (unofficial) octave of All Souls, during which several days are ferias on which a Mass for the Dead is ordinarily celebrated.
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