My comment: The above description of the Easter Triduum and all the Sacraments of the Church is true but it is also too horizontal. All liturgies of the Church are horizontal in the sense that we join as Church, clergy and laity together, Jesus Christ our High Priest, but now Crucified and Risen in His Glorious Risen Body of which we have been made a part by Christ through Holy Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist.
It is He, the Head of the Church that we celebrate in the present, the eternal presence that transcends time and place. So the entire Church (Triumphant, Militant and Suffering) in a horizontal way is completely united to Christ the Crucified, Risen and Glorified High Priest, the One Who is, the I AM of eternity.
The Sacramental Liturgies of the Church, especially the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass propels us forward in Faith and Good Works as we make our pilgrimage to heaven accompanied by our Crucified and Risen Lord who points the way to God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is here that the "vertical" breaks the closed circle of the "horizontal" and moves us outside of idolatry and self-referential narcissism to God's love and generosity to us poor miserable sinners who fail so often when we think we are the center and not God the Most Holy Trinity.
The above quote is not wrong, but it exalts the Church in a horizontal way. When we buy into this theology hook, line and sinker, what happens when the "we" of Church, the horizontal aspect, fails so miserably as "we" did with the sex abuse scandal where nothing of God's taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us a new human community broken like bread for the world's life--a community rich in compassion steadfast in hope and fearless in the search for justice and peace is self-evident in the horizontal Church? People leave and look for something else that will satisfy their deepest longings.
But we have it or had it when the focus is on the vertical otherness of Christ, completely holy and at the same time taking on all our miserable sins that cause so much suffering to others and ourselves and would have led us to the fires of hell if not for God's saving acts in human history that transcends our sins, idolatry and narcissism. When the vertical is the focus and we see ourselves as sinners in need of being saved from the fires of hell, even the worst scandals of the Church make sense. Without this belief, nothing makes sense especially: God's taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us a new human community broken like bread for the world's life--a community rich in compassion steadfast in hope and fearless in the search for justice and peace.
Our Easter Sunday 12:10 PM Mass will be celebrated in the Extraordinary Form High Mass:
EXTRAORDINARY FORM HIGH MASS FOR
EASTER SUNDAY
The best way to actual participation
in this Ancient Use Form of the Mass is not to try to follow the priest or
choir verbatim but simply have a sense of what is being prayed or chanted. Most
important for actual participation in the EF Mass is to experience and
contemplate in our soul the mystical presence of Jesus Christ crucified and
risen for us poor miserable sinners. In other words, this Mass is not meant to
be an intellectual or cerebral pursuit but rather an affair of the mind, heart
and soul.
(Please refer to the
booklet for all the other English translations and directions)
RITE
OF SPRINKLING HOLY WATER: Vidi Aquum
Schola: I saw water flowing from
the right side of the temple, alleluia: and all they to whom that water came
were save, and they shall say, alleluia, alleluia (Priest sprinkles all with Easter Water)
P. Ostende nobis, Domine,
misericordiam tuam. All: Et salutare tuum
da nobis.
P. Domine, exaudi orationem neam.
All: Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
P. Oremus: Hear us, O holy Lord,
almighty Father, everlasting God, and vouchsafe to send Thy holy angel from
heaven, to guard, cherish, protect, visit and defend all that are assembled in
this place: Through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen (as
the priest changes from cope to chasuble, all kneel for the Prayers at
the Foot of the Altar, which are prayed quietly by the priest and ministers as
the schola chants the Introit.)
INTROIT: Psalm 138 18, 5, 6 I arose, and am still with Thee,
alleluia; Thou hast laid Thy hand upon me, alleluia; Thy knowledge is become
wonderful, alleluia, alleluia. -- (Ps. 138. 1, 2). Lord, Thou hast searched Me
and known Me; Thou knowest my sitting down and My rising up. V.: Glory to the
Father . . -- I arose, and am still with
Thee, alleluia . . .
KYRIE #105, Hymnal
GLORIA (Stand)
#106 Hymnal
COLLECT - O God, who, on this day, through Thine only-begotten
Son, hast conquered death, and thrown open to us the gate of everlasting life,
give effect by thine aid to our desires, which Thou dost anticipate and
inspire. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with
Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost . . .
EPISTLE I
Corinthians 5: 7, 8 (Sit)
GRADUAL Psalm
117: 24,1 This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad
in it. V.: Give praise unto the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth
for ever. Alleluia, alleluia. V.: (I Cor. 5. 7). Christ our Pasch is immolated.
SEQUENCE Christians!
to the Paschal Victim offer your thankful praises. The Lamb the sheep
redeemeth: Christ, who only is sinless, reconcileth sinners to the Father.
Death and life contended in that conflict stupendous: the Prince of Life, who
died, deathless reigneth. Speak, Mary, declaring what thou sawest wayfaring.
"The tomb of Christ who now liveth: and likewise the glory of the Risen.
Bright Angels
attesting, the shroud and napkin resting. Yea, Christ my hope is arisen: to
Galilee He goeth before you." We know that Christ is risen, henceforth
ever living: Have mercy, Victor King, pardon giving. Amen. Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mark
16:1-7 (Stand)
Homily (Sit)
CREDO: #213: Hymnal (Stand)
OFFERTORY ANTIPHON (Sit) Psalm
75: 9-10: The earth trembled and was still when God arose in judgment,
alleluia.
Offertory Anthem: Ave Verum (schola)
P: ORATE FRATRES (Stand)
All: Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de minibus
tuis ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utiltatem quoque nostrum, totiusque
Ecclesiae suae sanctae.
SECRET - We
beseech Thee, O Lord, accept the prayers of Thy people together with the
Sacrifice they offer, that what has been begun by the Paschal Mysteries, by Thy
working may profit us unto eternal healing. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy
Son, who liveth and reigneth . . . . .
PREFACE
(Preface for Easter) -It it truly meet and just, right and for our salvation,
at all times to praise Thee, O Lord, but more gloriously especially this day
when Christ our Pasch was sacrificed. For He is the Lamb Who hath taken away
the sins of the world: Who by dying hath destroyed our death: and by rising
again hath restored us to life. And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with
Thrones and Dominations, and with all the hosts of the heavenly army, we sing
the hymn of Thy glory, evermore saying:
SANCTUS:
#119, Hymnal (Please kneel at the beginning of the Sanctus.)
PATER
NOSTER (Stand) Page 86, hymnal
AGNUS DEI: #120,
Hymnal (Kneel)
Communion Hymn: #709, Panis Angelicus (In the
Extraordinary Form of the Mass, Holy Communion is received kneeling at the
altar railing and only on the tongue.)
COMMUNION ANTIPHON: I Corinthians 5: 7, 8: Christ our Pasch is immolated, alleluia:
therefore let us feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
POST COMMUNION PRAYER (Stand)
- Pour forth upon us, O Lord, the spirit of Thy love, that, by Thy loving
kindness, Thou mayest make to be of one mind those whom Thou hast satisfied
with the Paschal Sacraments. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth
and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost . . .
P. Ite Missa Est, Alleluia,
Alleluia Alleluia
All: Deo Gratias, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Alleluia
SOLEMN BLESSING (Kneel)
LAST GOSPEL (Stand)
RECESSIONAL HYMN: Jesus
Christ is Risen Today, Hymnal #589
4 comments:
Mitchell says: "That is why the Church's long tradition insists that what happened once in history passes over into the mystery of the Church's liturgical/sacramental celebrations."
This is hardly a "horizontal" description of the Paschal Mystery.
In you own comment, you say: "It is He, the Head of the Church that we celebrate in the present, the eternal presence that transcends time and place." Isn't this what Mitchell is saying - "...what happened once in history passes over into the Church's liturgical/sacramental celebrations."?
Mitchell says, "They celebrate not what once happened to Jesus but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, and gifted with the Spirit of holiness."
You mock his comment, saying, "When we buy into this theology hook, line and sinker, what happens when the "we" of Church, the horizontal aspect, fails so miserably as "we" did with the sex abuse scandal where nothing of God's taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us a new human community broken like bread for the world's life--a community rich in compassion steadfast in hope and fearless in the search for justice and peace is self-evident in the horizontal Church?" But all you've done is describe the reality of sin and the need for on-going conversion.
Mitchell isn't wrong nor is he overemphasizing the horizontal when he speaks of being "called to conversion" from the very sins you mention in order to make his comment look bad. He's stating the goal of the Paschal Mystery, which is a very vertical understanding. Christ's Paschal Mystery can transform us.
There is nothing in Mitchell's quote that says or suggests that we should not, "...see ourselves as sinners in need of being saved from the fires of hell,...". In fact, he states, "They [We] celebrate God's taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us a new human community broken like bread for the world's life--a community rich in compassion steadfast in hope and fearless in the search for justice and peace."
God's "taking possession of our hearts" is conversion from sin.
God's recreation of a broken humanity is a conversion from sin.
Holding up the image of, "...a community rich in compassion steadfast in hope and fearless in the search for justice and peace" is a challenge to ACT once we have accepted and been changed by God's grace.
I do not denigrate the horizontal but exalt it when it ceases to be a self-enclosed, congratulatory, self-referential circle. These two paragraphs of mine must be taken together to understand the point I am making about taking a hammer to the self-enclosed, congratulatory, self-referential circle that so many parishes have become especially in their so-called reformed Mass:
The Sacramental Liturgies of the Church, especially the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass propels us forward in Faith and Good Works as we make our pilgrimage to heaven accompanied by our Crucified and Risen Lord who points the way to God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is here that the "vertical" breaks the closed circle of the "horizontal" and moves us outside of idolatry and self-referential narcissism to God's love and generosity to us poor miserable sinners who fail so often when we think we are the center and not God the Most Holy Trinity.
The above quote is not wrong, but it exalts the Church in a horizontal way. When we buy into this theology hook, line and sinker, what happens when the "we" of Church, the horizontal aspect, fails so miserably as "we" did with the sex abuse scandal where nothing of God's taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us a new human community broken like bread for the world's life--a community rich in compassion steadfast in hope and fearless in the search for justice and peace is self-evident in the horizontal Church? People leave and look for something else that will satisfy their deepest longings.
I don't think parishes have "closed circles" as you and others describe them.
As I have stated previously, calling a circle "closed" is like calling a square "four-sided." It is of the nature of a circle to be closed and it is of the nature of a square to be four-sided. No big deal. (An "open" circle is an arc, but I digress...)
I don't know any parish whose worship you would describe as belonging to the "closed circle" variety that excludes, or even thinks to exclude, Christ and the need for salvation that comes only from Him and through the Church.
If, at the center of the circle, Christ is found, praised, worshipped, and adored, then the notion that "circular" worship excludes Him is shown to be a straw man.
The "closed circle" argument sounds convincing, but only until one starts to think about it beyond polemics and the wielding of hammers. And we know about people with hammers: "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." (If a person is familiar with a certain, single subject, or has with them a certain, single instrument, they may have a confirmation bias to believe that it is the answer to/involved in everything.)
But, we know that there's more than one way to skin a cat...
You missed out the Alleluia 'Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus', one of the greatest pieces in the Gregorian repertory and one of the greatest pieces of music ever written - although its first millennium composer will be for ever anonymous.
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