These photos from 2014, just add the restored altar railing and it could have been today:
Sunday, March 20, 2016
DID YOUR PARISH FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF THE BENEDICTINE ALTAR ARRANGMENT POPE FRANCIS ALWAYS MODELS AND DID YOUR PARISH CHANT THE PASSION IN THREE PARTS AND DID YOUR PARISH GO OUTSIDE TO BLESS THE PALMS AND PROCESS INSIDE AND DID YOUR PARISH VEIL THE STATUES FOR PASSIONTIDE?
Of course my parish checks all above. For the last three years we have chanted the Gospel at our 9:30 AM and 12:10 PM Masses. Of course the statues are veiled. Of course we gathered outside for the blessing of the palms and of course, of course, we have the Benedictine Altar arrangement in continuity with Pope Francis! It doesn't get any better than that!
These photos from 2014, just add the restored altar railing and it could have been today:
These photos from 2014, just add the restored altar railing and it could have been today:
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Unfortunately, Passiontide, like the season of Septuagesima, does not exist in the Novus Ordo, and unless a church also celebrates the EF, or wants to make a gesture towards older custom, there is no requirement to veil images.
The Passion for some reason is not sung at the papal mass of Palm Sunday, although it is sung on Good Friday. The Kyrie is optional and it's good that it's been recently included. I do balk at the ghastly Italian responsorial psalm in the operatic style, but after the epistle there was a lovely polyphonic setting of the Gradual 'Christus factus est'. This replaces the older Rite's Gradual 'Tenuisti' but the long Tract 'Deus Deus meus, respice in me' is retained; however it is sung after the first reading as an alternative to the Responsorial Psalm.
This morning I attended a Low EF Mass but was conscious of the fact that it was not the traditional Roman Rite but an innovation of 1955 which was only in use for fifteen years.
Mass was beautiful. After Father blessed the palms everyone came up and knelt at the communion rail while Father gave each person some palms then the procession started and everyone filed out of their pews behind Father and processed around the interior of the church while All Glory Laud and Honor was sung. It was moving and beautiful. Of course this was not Novus Ordo, it was the Catholic Ordinariate of the Chair of Peter. If is was Novus Ordo there would be palm blessed on Saturday night for everyone to take on their way out of church.there would be no blessing, no procession, no solemnity just the same old Glory and Praise garbage that they do every Sunday.
I have the Ordinariate's missal (cost $500!)! I looked at the order for blessing palms and it is more complicated than our EF form of doing so in the solemn way. The blessing has a preface dialogue and a preface prayer in addition to the actual blessing. I am sure this must be an Anglican addition perhaps coming from the Sarum Rite????
I think I like the idea of giving palms that are blessed to those who receive them kneeling at the altar railing (similar to what is done at Candlemas in the EF when blessed candles are given to the laity at the altar railing). But having a full procession through the church with the priest afterward boggles my mind in terms of logistics in a church like mine if it is full.
Two candles on our altar here in Atlanta but an outdoor procession even though it felt more like February than March! Oh, if Easter could always fall in April!! March can still be iffy up here in north Georgia.
Anyone in Macon or elsewhere have an opinion on the "religious liberty" bill passed last week by the Georgia General Assembly? There has been criticism of the compromise version from both the Left and Right, but more so from the Left, which says it allows "discrimination"---even though the legislation only applies to faith-based organizations, not Joe's Deli, Hotel ABC or other private businesses. I have not heard either of the state's diocesan bishops make any statement about it.
Mr Nolan raises the 1955 reforms of Holy week. I think these reforms need to be re-examined. Like the post Counciliar reforms, these were accepted without an uprising in the Church because of the imbibed notion that the Church knows best. But in point of fact, it was not the Church, but rather Father Knows Best, that is Father Bugnini who was already greatly involved in the 1955 reforms.
The main question, of course, is why those specific reforms were thought necessary after 1,200 years. The Liturgical Movement had had its effect, but not in its original idea of having everyone be more knowledgeable about the sacred liturgy; rather it was by taking a 180 degree turn, that of changing the liturgy so that it could become more understood by the lowest common denominator of the laity. In other words, active participation meant simplifying the liturgy, rather than learning more about the liturgy as it had been handed down through the ages.
Most of these changes were incorporated into the Novus Ordo. What needs to be re-examined is:
The radical simplification of the Palm Sunday ceremony of the blessing of the palms.
The introduction of the foot washing into the Mass of Holy Thursday, which has now become problematic when a priest washes the feet of females in many cultures.
The changes regarding the Paschal candle at the vigil, which, when compared to the old rite, seems to have made the candle a sort of idol, I am sorry to say, as well as a contrived spectacle.
There was of course the time change for those Masses of the Triduum to be celebrated in the evening which necessitated a radical change in the rules for fasting for the reception of Communion; the laity receiving Communion often was part of that active participation mantra of the faithful doing something at Mass that the Novus Ordo is founded on. Yet, by changing the rules of fasting that way, the sacredness of the Communion was perhaps somewhat compromised. Indeed, who ever thinks of mortal sins anymore when going for Communion?
Anonymous, the London Oratory celebrates Palm Sunday in the Novus Ordo and has done so for the past 45 years. The procession is impressive, the Passion is chanted in Latin with the choir singing the turba choruses, the rest of the Mass is in Latin with exquisite music and there is standing room only. All of the Holy Week services are celebrated in the same manner, (including Tenebrae) and the music sung does not vary much from year to year. Their Easter Vigil is the most spectacular liturgy I have ever seen (and on this day spectacular is what is needed!) St Peter's, Rome, doesn't even come close.
The EF (pro tem.) has to be according to 1955 which was imposed by Bugnini and was cordially disliked by Cardinal Heenan and Pope John XXIII among others. I don't see the point in doing it.
Statement of Most Rev. Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Atlanta and Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., Bishop of Savannah, regarding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
March 18, 2015
“The Catholic bishops of Georgia support religious freedom as a fundamental right contained in the constitutions of the United States and the State of Georgia. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has long supported the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and many bishops in the United States have supported similar legislation in State legislatures. The Catholic bishops of Georgia support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a means for establishing a framework for evaluating freedom of religion claims. However, the bishops oppose any support or implementation of RFRA in a way that will discriminate against any individual.”
At the FSSP parish in the Atlanta Diocese, altar in the gym with 6 candles, blessing there. Kneel to take palm from the priest by kissing his hand then the palm. Red vestments, procession to the church. The sub deacon knocked on the church door three times with the processional cross for the procession to gain entry to the church. Vestment change to violet in the sanctuary and then solemn mass completed. All music Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony. Everything was veiled. An unbelievable experience.
My parish priest explained the 1962 Holy Week similarly as did John Nolan. He described it as a "joke" and pined for the fjords of the older Holy Week.
At my parish in Atlanta we had the blessing of palms outside (in the cold wind!), but no chanting at all except for choir singing All Glory, Laud and Honor while processing into church. No chanting by clergy for entire Mass, and EPII.
For some odd reason everything has been veiled since the beginning of Lent, but at least it was veiled!
Mallen
With regard to my earlier question on the religious liberty legislation passed last Wednesday by the Georgia Legislature, that version is different from the one about which the bishops were speaking last year. So I haven't heard what they think of the new (improved?) version, HB 757. But the liberals seem to dislike the bill more than the conservatives do...
There's been no new statement regarding RFRA as none is needed. What the Bishops said in 2015 obtains today with the current legislation.
What is interesting, as Fr McDonald has noticed, is that the Ordinariate Missal restores some aspects of the pre-1955 Ordo. This is not part of the Anglican patrimony; in fact the English (Knott) Missal in its last edition (early 1960s) incorporated the 1955 changes to Holy Week.
So if the Ordinariate Missal is a Trojan horse, it threatens the 1962 Missal as well as that of 1970.
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