The reading of the Gospel at a low Mass
I'm 29 years old and didn't become a catholic until 2014 but somewhere along the way I heard that the readings were an offerings to God in the Liturgy of the Word like the Eucharist was an offering to God in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It made sense to me especially after seeing Tridentine Masses and realizing the Latin readings were for God and the English during the homily was for us. It was a gray parallel that helped teach me the meaning of the Eucharist-just as we offer God his own word that he gave us, we also offer the Eucharist, which we can only give because He gave it first. It really emphasizes the fact that we have nothing to give to God that He didn't already provide for us to be able to give it. It puts us in our rightful place regarding His love and our salvation.
My comments: And the Word of God is returned to us in the homily. At the Cathedral's EF Sunday Mass, a lector reads in English from the pulpit the readings as the priest offers the readings to our heavenly father in a low voice from the altar.
5 comments:
'At the Cathedral's EF Sunday Mass, a lector reads in English from the pulpit as the priest offers the readings to our heavenly father in a low voice from the altar.'
This is a highly dubious practice. First of all, the normative form of Mass is the Solemn Mass, where the epistle and gospel are sung by the subdeacon and deacon respectively. By 1962 the celebrant was no longer to read them at the altar. Secondly, there are no lay readers in the EF. An ordained or instituted Lector would not recite either epistle or gospel, only the preliminary readings on (say) Ember Days.
Proclaiming the epistle and gospel 'from the pulpit' in a Low Mass can only be done by the priest, since there is no deacon or subdeacon. It is not obligatory, but was usual on Sundays, preceding the sermon.
Who came up with this strange and irregular procedure?
John Nolan,
It is strange and a practice, one I am not familiar with at all. However, I suspect it has to do with the desire to be "efficient."
This is a beautifully videoed EF Missal Cantata from France about 5 or more years ago. please go to minute 17:10 where they do it as well:
https://youtu.be/c32brXXx5k8
Do not be fooled by what happens in France. That is not good guide for anyone.
At the SSPX church in Paris, St Nicolas du Chardonnet, every Mass, High, Low, Cantata, is a dialogue Mass: the congregation says the responses which should be reserved to the altar servers.
Mass at St Nicolas is jaw-droppingly, achingly beautiful, but no guide to correct form in the US, UK or anywhere else.
In a Missa Cantata the epistle and gospel are sung, not said in a low voice. It's hard on the celebrant, but remember that in the old days priests would have sung these in seminary as transitional subdeacon and deacon.
I have attended a Missa Cantata at the SSPX church in Brussels (which happens to be the Belgian national shrine). Immediately after singing the epistle, the priest turned to the people and read it in French. Ditto the Gospel.
In the video of the St Nicholas-du-Chardonnet Missa Cantata the vernacular readings are given by a priest, and although he does 'voice-over' the epistle (naughty!) he waits for the celebrant to finish singing the gospel before reading it in French.
By the way, lay readers are not lectors. The term refers (since 1972) to the instituted ministry which may be conferred on laymen (but not women).
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