Let’s put aside liturgical abuses on the post-Vatican II Mass. Let’s simply focus on a well-celebrated Mass where all the lay liturgical ministers are properly trained, properly dressed and properly choreographed.
Let’s put aside a Mass with music or without or with some.
Let’s put aside the various idioms of musical styles and focus only on the quality of the music sung from a technical point of view.
Let’s focus on prayer, the Word of God the Sacramental presence of the One Sacrifice of Christ in a glorified way and the Real Presence of Christ in a glorified way.
Let’s focus on our lives once we leave Mass and what they are like even on social media.
A well celebrated post-Vatican II Mass if approached in faith, hope and love will enable by God’s grace the person to encounter the Risen Christ, His love and gift of eternal salvation in heaven. His grace will help our faith to be nourished and sustained and we will be encouraged to practice our faith through good works at home, play and work.
But, and this is a big but, if we tear the Mass apart, complain bitterly about this, that and the other and whine about not having the Mass of the Ages because of mean old bishops who don’t get it, then Satan has his day with us, no?
10 comments:
So, no more complaining from you about the absence of the so-called Benedictine arrangement on candles...?
or when it is there or when it is ad orientem or behind a iconostasis for that matter! LOL
It’s bland, it’s boring, it fails to instill belief in the Real Presence, so Father K is in heaven!
I've thought this for some time now, work with what you have, and do it well. It's our reality, it could be improved, but it is still a grace filled prayer. Focus on that which we can control until that which is beyond our control is restored.
"the Mass of the Ages because of mean old bishops who don’t get it, then Satan has his day with us, no? "
I believe Pope Saint Paul VI first noticed that the smoke of Satan has entered the Church. That was post V 2.
Louis Bouyer, who worked on Bugnini's and Paul VI's Consilium, described the Novus Ordo as 'l'avorton que nous produisîmes'. He admitted that recasting from top to bottom and in a matter of months, a liturgy that had developed over two millennia, was hardly likely to produce a satisfactory result; all the same, there were elements of the reform which were worth saving and he envisaged their being incorporated in a future reform which he regarded as inevitable.
Just as the classic Roman Rite exists sui generis, so does the Novus Ordo (now in its third editio typica). It may be deficient in a number of respects, and comes with a large amount of unwelcome baggage, but provided it is celebrated in a manner consonant with liturgical tradition (and it's a big 'if') its integrity should be respected.
Of course this is my broken record. But...have an appendix that allows for yet another option for the Introductory Rite, the EF's. Allow the option of the older Offertory Prayers and allow the Roman Canon to have the older rubrics. Make clear ad orientem is perfectly permissible as well as kneeling for Holy Communion.
Nothing else needs to be changed in the OF Missal, just these added options and clarifications.
I am surprised St. John Paul II did not restore the EFs Offertory Prayers because he went out if his way to praise them
I am surprised Pope Benedict didn't do it since I suspect he is responsible for the Ordinariate's Missal although approved by Pope Francis. But alas!
Father McDonald, good point
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