For the first time ever, I saw a pre-1955 Good Friday Mass of the Pre-Sanctified. All of the pre-1955 Holy Week is being streamed online by, coincidentally, the FSSP parish of the late officer Talley, whose solemn Requiem was held at the Denver cathedral last Monday.
I was very moved by this ancient Good Friday liturgy, and, even from my computer, I knew I was "actively participating" with my heart and mind in the service from 1000 miles away, with the clergy and laity there. It was awesome!
After it had ended, I was shaking my head, and asking: "Who were the barbarians that destroyed it?" We all know the answer, the ivory tower promoters of their fabricated idea of "active participation" for the inferior masses.
In any case, one thing that also astounded me was that the (fairly large) church was full, with many kids and all, no one was wearing masks, and they had the traditional veneration of the Cross for everyone with its triple kneelings just before humbly kissing the feet of Our Saviour.
For anyone interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUifeYB9q0
Tonight, (yes, in the early evening) they will have the Paschal Vigil with the trikyrion (likely of Eastern origin), and the lighting of the Paschal Candle during the singing of the Exsultet, for which the latter was originally composed:
I thought the following might interest you, and maybe others?
From the biography “Evelyn Waugh” by Selina Hastings; pages 616-618:
“.........Pius XII had made a gesture in this direction (a desire by some for liturgical reform) with his reform of the Holy Week liturgy, much resented by Evelyn. At Downside for the Easter retreat of 1956 he had written in his diary, ‘ (the triduum was) rather boring since the new liturgy introduced for the first time this year leaves many hours unemployed.’ And in a later article for the SPECTATOR he complained bitterly of the new Holy Week services:
‘For centuries these had been enriched by devotions which were dear to the laity - the anticipation of the morning office of Tenenbrae, the vigil at the Altar of Repose, the Mass of the Presanctified........Now nothing happens before Thursday evening. All Friday morning is empty. There is an hour or so in church on Friday afternoon. All Saturday is quite blank until late at night. The Easter Mass is sung at midnight to a weary congregation who are constrained to ‘renew their baptismal vows’ in the vernacular and later repair to bed. The significance of Easter as a feast of dawn is quite lost.’
From page 618 of the above mentioned book by Selina Hastings:
Evelyn Waugh wrote to a close friend in the early 1960s (he died in 1966) :
....as the service proceeded in its familiar way I wondered how many of us wanted to see any change. The church is rather dark. The priest stood rather far away. His voice was not clear and the language he spoke was not that of everyday use. This was the Mass for whose restoration the Elizabethan martyrs had gone to the scaffold. St Augustine, St Thomas a Becket, St Thomas More, Challoner and Newman would have been perfectly at their ease among us...... ......I think it highly doubtful whether the average churchgoer either needs or desires to have complete intellectual, verbal comprehension of all that is said.....In most of the historic Churches the act of consecration takes place behind curtains or doors. The idea of crowding round the priest and watching all he does is quite alien there......Awe is the natural predisposition to prayer. When certain young theologians talk, as they do, of Holy Communion as “a social meal” they find little response in the hearts or minds of their less sophisticated brothers. ‘
I'm surprised that at Downside in 1956 Tenebrae was not sung in the morning of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which would have filled a few gaps. In some places even now, Tenebrae of Holy Thursday is anticipated the previous evening.
4 comments:
Good Friday past: pre-1955
For the first time ever, I saw a pre-1955 Good Friday Mass of the Pre-Sanctified. All of the pre-1955 Holy Week is being streamed online by, coincidentally, the FSSP parish of the late officer Talley, whose solemn Requiem was held at the Denver cathedral last Monday.
I was very moved by this ancient Good Friday liturgy, and, even from my computer, I knew I was "actively participating" with my heart and mind in the service from 1000 miles away, with the clergy and laity there. It was awesome!
After it had ended, I was shaking my head, and asking: "Who were the barbarians that destroyed it?" We all know the answer, the ivory tower promoters of their fabricated idea of "active participation" for the inferior masses.
In any case, one thing that also astounded me was that the (fairly large) church was full, with many kids and all, no one was wearing masks, and they had the traditional veneration of the Cross for everyone with its triple kneelings just before humbly kissing the feet of Our Saviour.
For anyone interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUifeYB9q0
Tonight, (yes, in the early evening) they will have the Paschal Vigil with the trikyrion (likely of Eastern origin), and the lighting of the Paschal Candle during the singing of the Exsultet, for which the latter was originally composed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYTyHcdwcWw
Victor,
Thanks for the above, including the link.
I thought the following might interest you, and maybe others?
From the biography “Evelyn Waugh” by Selina Hastings; pages 616-618:
“.........Pius XII had made a gesture in this direction (a desire by some for liturgical reform) with his reform of the Holy Week liturgy, much resented by Evelyn. At Downside for the Easter retreat of 1956 he had written in his diary, ‘ (the triduum was) rather boring since the new liturgy introduced for the first time this year leaves many hours unemployed.’ And in a later article for the SPECTATOR he complained bitterly of the new Holy Week services:
‘For centuries these had been enriched by devotions which were dear to the laity - the anticipation of the morning office of Tenenbrae, the vigil at the Altar of Repose, the Mass of the Presanctified........Now nothing happens before Thursday evening. All Friday morning is empty. There is an hour or so in church on Friday afternoon. All Saturday is quite blank until late at night. The Easter Mass is sung at midnight to a weary congregation who are constrained to ‘renew their baptismal vows’ in the vernacular and later repair to bed. The significance of Easter as a feast of dawn is quite lost.’
.........”
(To be continued)
From page 618 of the above mentioned book by Selina Hastings:
Evelyn Waugh wrote to a close friend in the early 1960s (he died in 1966) :
....as the service proceeded in its familiar way I wondered how many of us wanted to see any change. The church is rather dark. The priest stood rather far away. His voice was not clear and the language he spoke was not that of everyday use. This was the Mass for whose restoration the Elizabethan martyrs had gone to the scaffold. St Augustine, St Thomas a Becket, St Thomas More, Challoner and Newman would have been perfectly at their ease among us......
......I think it highly doubtful whether the average churchgoer either needs or desires to have complete intellectual, verbal comprehension of all that is said.....In most of the historic Churches the act of consecration takes place behind curtains or doors. The idea of crowding round the priest and watching all he does is quite alien there......Awe is the natural predisposition to prayer. When certain young theologians talk, as they do, of Holy Communion as “a social meal” they find little response in the hearts or minds of their less sophisticated brothers. ‘
(To be continued)
I'm surprised that at Downside in 1956 Tenebrae was not sung in the morning of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which would have filled a few gaps. In some places even now, Tenebrae of Holy Thursday is anticipated the previous evening.
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