When I attend Mass as a concelebrant or merely in the congregation, it drives me to grave distraction when the following happens, and consistently:
1. The Mass begins with the Introit or a substituted hymn which is the beginning of the formal prayer of the Church and the needed contemplation necessary for prayer and worship.
2. As soon as the celebrant makes his way to the chair, he continues the prayer after the chant by say, “Let us begin, In the Name...” as though the Sign of the Cross and greeting begin the Mass and not the chant!
3. Then this dastardly interruption to the contemplation of prayer and worship happens: the priest acting as a talk show host says hello or good morning in the most secular way possible and then proceeds to tell us what is coming up in the show, like a mini homily on the readings we are about to hear or some other such nonsense. Then he returns to prayer after concluding, let us return to our celebration by introducing the Penitential Act!
What rubbish and what a sacrilege that the Prayer of the Mass be interrupted by such tripe!
I realized this while I was praying Morning Prayer with my iPad i-Breviary. The hymn which is a part of morning prayer, not superfluous, occurs not before "O God, come to my assistance..." but after the Gloria Patri. Could you imagine in a formal chanting of Morning Prayer in a chapel, that the celebrant after the opening hymn of Morning Prayer, introducing himself, saying good morning folks and then explains the psalms and reading? What nonsense and corruption of the true nature of contemplative prayer in the official liturgies of the Church!
3 comments:
that's why I avoid "Mass Lite" aka the OF, as much as possible. Since the OF is generally in the vernacular, why is such commentary necessary anyway? Just more evidence of clericalism on steroids
Sadly, most priests know only the Novus Ordo and the distorted hermeneutic which usually accompanies it. Don't expect any degree of liturgical sensibility or even knowledge.
Oh, Father! Were you at my parish last week? If you were, you forgot to mention that because of the "mini homily introduction" we skip the Penitential Act altogether and immediately go to the Kyrie like it's the fourth option for the Penitential Act.
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