IF THE 1962 ROMAN MISSAL IS TO REMAIN IN A DARK DANK VATICAN MUSEUM'S BASEMENT; HOW CAN THE MODERN ROMAN MISSAL BE BROUGHT INTO LINE WITH WHAT VATICAN II ASKED?

There is a case to be made that Pope St. Paul VI's  committee of elite liturgists with an ideological agenda did not implement the vision of Vatican II for the Mass but rather their own agenda and duped Pope St. Paul VI to believe they accomplished what the Fathers of Vatican II mandated. 

One of the more important aspects Vatican II asked of the people of God was their active (actual) and conscious participation in the Mass. I remember well, as a child, that many of the laity were praying the Holy Rosary during Mass, although I was taught by the Sisters of Saint Joseph and my parents in the late 50's, how to use my personal St. Joseph Missal to follow the actual Mass and pray it. 

But the people in the pews usually did not sing or say the parts of the Mass that were meant for them. That needed and needs to be addressed. That could have been addressed, as it was, beginning in the late 50's with the Dialogue Mass and with the 1965 Roman Missal that included some vernacular while maintaining Latin for the Roman Canon and the quiet personal prayers of the priest. 

But what I would like to address is how the elite liturgical committee to manufacture a new Mass failed what Vatican II asked when the Fathers of Vatican II requested a more lavish use of Scripture. 

In fact and instead,  they reduced the Scriptures of the Mass!

Keep in mind, the Fathers of Vatican II did not foresee what Scripture there was in the Mass being eliminated and thus impoverishing the new Mass when it came to the Scriptures that were embedded in the Mass. 

What Scriptures are these, that the Modern Missal has eliminated and thus impoverished the Mass with a truncation of Scripture rather than a lavish use of them?

Gone from the Modern Roman Missal:

1. Psalm 42 at the Prayers at the foot of the altar

2. The prayer Aufer a nobis evokes Old Testament sacrifice with its reference to the Holy of Holies which the High Priest entered to offer the blood of the sacrificial victim.

3. The Introit which is from Sacred Scripture is made optional and is usually substituted with a non Scriptural metrical hymn and in a spoken Mass eliminated altogether.

4. The Modern Missal does expand the lectionary with a three year Sunday cycle and a two year daily Mass cycle and adds a reading in addition to the Epistle. However the tract, when prescribed in the TLM, is eliminated.

5. The Psalm reference in the prayer of the priest before chanting the Gospel completely eliminated: "Cleanse my heart and my lips, O Almighty God, Who did cleanse with a burning coal the lips of the prophet Isaiah; and keep in your loving kindness so to purify me that I may be enabled worthily to announce your Holy Gospel. through Christ our Lord. Amen."

6. The Offertory Antiphon made completely optional, either eliminated or some other hymn or anthem sung, but never said in a spoken Mass.

7. The lavabo prayer is so truncated as to remove from it Psalm 26:6-12.

8. The Communion antiphon becomes optional, either substituted by a metrical hymn or anthem or eliminated

9. The Last Gospel

All of these could be restored to the Modern Missal, along with saints names removed from some of the prayers of the Modern Missal. The Ordinariate's Missal, Divine Worship has already done this and thus the Modern Roman Missal could be re-enchanted in the same way.  

As a disclaimer, I do love the new lectionary and it has expanded my knowledge and love of both the Old and New Testament. However, many have commented that the Sunday cycle with the added Old Testament Reading, often rather long, is too much to digest and that the daily Mass cycle is better and should have been used for Sunday too as it is in the TLM.