ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS ACTUAL TEXT?
After the meeting with participants in the Assembly of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at the premises of the FAO in Rome, the Holy Father Francis returned to the Vatican where at midday, in the room adjacent to the Paul VI Hall, he received in audience the participants in the plenary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The following is the Pope’s address to those present:
Address of the Holy Father
Cardinals,
dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!
dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!
I am pleased to meet you on the occasion of your Plenary Assembly. I thank the Cardinal Prefect for the words he has addressed to me and I greet you all, members, collaborators and consultors of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
This Plenary comes at a significant time. Fifty years have passed since, on 8 May 1969, Saint Paul VI wished to establish the then Congregatio pro Cultu Divino, in order to give shape to the renewal desired by Vatican Council II. It was a matter of publishing the liturgical books according to the criteria and decisions of the Council Fathers, with a view to fostering, in the People of God, “active, conscious and pious” participation in the mysteries of Christ (cf. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, 48). The praying tradition of the Church needed renewed expressions, without losing anything of its millennial wealth, even rediscovering the treasures of its origins.
In the first months of that year the first fruits of the reform accomplished by the Apostolic See flourished for the benefit of the People of God. On precisely this date the Motu proprio Mysterii paschalis was promulgated regarding the Roman calendar and the liturgical year (14 February 1969); then, the important Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum (3 April 1969), with which the Holy Pope promulgated the Roman Missal. In the same year the Ordo Missae and various other Ordowere issued, including those relating to the baptism of the children, marriage and funerals. They were the first steps of a journey, to be continued with wise constancy.
In the first months of that year the first fruits of the reform accomplished by the Apostolic See flourished for the benefit of the People of God. On precisely this date the Motu proprio Mysterii paschalis was promulgated regarding the Roman calendar and the liturgical year (14 February 1969); then, the important Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum (3 April 1969), with which the Holy Pope promulgated the Roman Missal. In the same year the Ordo Missae and various other Ordowere issued, including those relating to the baptism of the children, marriage and funerals. They were the first steps of a journey, to be continued with wise constancy.
We know that it is not enough to change the liturgical books to improve the quality of the liturgy. To do this alone would be a deception. For life to be truly a praise pleasing to God, it is indeed necessary to change the heart. Christian conversion is oriented to this conversion, which is an encounter of life with the “God of the living” (Mt 22: 32). This is also the purpose of your work today, aimed at helping the Pope to carry out his ministry for the benefit of the Church in prayer all over the earth. In ecclesial communion both the Apostolic See and the Bishops’ Conferences operate in a spirit of cooperation, dialogue and synodality. In fact, the Holy See does not replace the bishops, but works with them to serve, in the richness of the various languages and cultures, the prayerful vocation of the Church in the world. The Motu proprio Magnum principium (3 September 2017) follows in this line; in it, I intended to promote, among other things, the need for “a constant collaboration filled with mutual trust, vigilant and creative, between the Episcopal Conferences and the dicastery of the Apostolic See which performs the task of promoting the sacred liturgy”. The hope is to continue on the path of mutual collaboration, aware of the responsibilities involved in ecclesial communion, in which unity and variety are united. It is a question of harmony.
Here we find also the challenge of formation, the specific object of your reflection. Speaking of formation, we can not forget, first of all, that the liturgy is life that forms, not an idea to be learned.
It is useful in this regard to remember that reality is more important than the idea (see Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 231-233). And it is good therefore, in the liturgy as in other areas of ecclesial life, not to end up favouring sterile ideological polarizations, which often arise when, considering our own ideas valid for all contexts, we tend to adopt an attitude of perennial dialectic towards who does not share them. Thus, starting perhaps from the desire to react to some insecurities in the current context, we risk then falling back into a past that no longer exists or of escaping into a presumed future.
The starting point is instead to recognize the reality of the sacred liturgy, a living treasure that can not be reduced to tastes, recipes and currents, but which should be welcomed with docility and promoted with love, as irreplaceable nourishment for the organic growth of the People of God.
The liturgy is not “the field of do-it-yourself”, but the epiphany of ecclesial communion. Therefore, “we”, and not “I”, resounds in prayers and gestures; the real community, not the ideal subject.
When we look back to nostalgic past tendencies or wish to impose them again, there is the risk of placing the part before the whole, the “I” before the People of God, the abstract before the concrete, ideology before communion and, fundamentally, the worldly before the spiritual.
In this sense, the title of your assembly is valuable: The liturgical formation of the People of God. The task that awaits us is indeed essentially that of spreading among the People of God the splendour of the living mystery of the Lord, Who makes Himself manifest in the liturgy. Speaking of liturgical formation in the People of God means first and foremost being aware of the indispensable role the liturgy holds in the Church and for the Church. And then, concretely helping the People of God to interiorize better the prayer of the Church, to love it as an experience of encounter with the Lord and with brothers who, in the light of this, rediscover its content and observe its rites.
Since the liturgy is an experience extended to the conversion of life through the assimilation of the Lord’s way of thinking and behaving, liturgical formation can not be limited to simply offering knowledge – this is a mistake – though necessary, on liturgical books, nor even to protect the dutiful fulfilment of the ritual disciplines.
In order for the liturgy to fulfil its formative and transforming function, it is necessary that the pastors and the laity be introduced to their meaning and symbolic language, including art, song and music in the service of the mystery celebrated, even silence. The Catechism of the Catholic Church itself adopts the mystagogical way to illustrate the liturgy, valuing its prayers and signs. Mystagogy: this is a suitable way to enter the mystery of the liturgy, in the living encounter with the crucified and risen Lord. Mystagogy means discovering the new life we have received in the People of God through the Sacraments, and continually rediscovering the beauty of renewing it.
Regarding the stages of formation, we know from experience that, in addition to the initial phase, it is necessary to cultivate the ongoing formation of the clergy and laity, especially those who are involved in the ministries serving the liturgy. Formation not once, but continuing. As for the ordained ministers, also in view of a healthy ars celebrandi, the Council’s appeal is valid: “A prime need, therefore, is that attention be directed, first of all, to the liturgical instruction of the clergy” (Apostolic Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14). First of all. The educational responsibilities are shared, even if the individual dioceses are more closely involved in the operational phase. Your reflection will help the dicastery to develop guidelines and indications to offer, in a spirit of service, to those – episcopal conferences, dioceses, training institutes, journals – who have the responsibility of taking care of and accompanying the liturgical formation of the People of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are all called to deepen and revive our liturgical formation. The liturgy is in fact the main road through which Christian life passes through every phase of its growth. You therefore have before you a great and beautiful task: to work so that the People of God may rediscover the beauty of meeting the Lord in the celebration of His mysteries and, by meeting Him, have life in His name. I thank you for your efforts and I bless you, asking you to always reserve for me a place – a large one! – in your prayer.
12 comments:
Maybe Santita should look at articles like this to give him a clue:
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/02/tradition-is-for-young-17-pontifical.html#.XGWvSVxKjyQ
Difficult to read and to discern the "nuance," but dance, there ought to be something about dance.....
I deleted the previous post I had on this as it was only a summary. Now i have posted the complete text.
Here though, are two posts that were from the other post now deleted:
PF said, "“We know that it is not enough to change the liturgical books to improve the quality of the liturgy." Well, it seems that would be an awfully good place to start. Let's try it. THAT would be a bombshell! Otherwise, this is nothing more than the usual empty "We must"...."We should"...."We need".... on BOMBSHELL: POPE SPEAKS ON LITURGY TO CARDINAL SARAH AND THE CONGREGATION FOR DIVINE WORSHIP! WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THAT?
ByzRC
at 12:59 PM
It may be the way the article is written, but what he is saying is disjointed, presenting a series of confusing one-liners. Yet there is something that stands out overall. He seems to be in part challenging the liturgical reform as it was done by the Consilium, the enclave of the Liturgical Movement (LM)at the time. The LM wanted to and succeeded in changing the books in order to change people's hearts at the liturgy. It has generally been a failure, and I think Francis is alluding to this. Why else would he say "liturgy is life that forms, and not an idea to learn”? One needs to recall how important it was for the LM and the Consilium to address the intellect in order to get into the hearts of people. The problem is, of course, that he is still stuck within the categories proposed by the LM. For instance, the conversio ad Dominum he speaks about is fine and St Augustine made it a pillar of his teaching. But that refers to the individual in union with God, not the People of on BOMBSHELL: POPE SPEAKS ON LITURGY TO CARDINAL SARAH AND THE CONGREGATION FOR DIVINE WORSHIP! WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THAT?
I read the revised posting hoping my initial reaction would be changed. Unfortunately, it was not. This sounds, in part, like PF again pushing his "no nostalgia/backpedaling" agenda. It is curious to me that the NO requires regular coaching and meetings of this sort. I never hear or, see this in the context of the EF or, the Divine Liturgy. Both are mostly, if not wholly accepted, respected and cherished. If I were selling a product that due to poor acceptance and sales, required this much positive reinforcement (without changing the product), I would go out of business. To some extent, isn't the same happening here?
ByzRC,
Yes, you are correct. Let's face it, the OF is the "Edsel" of liturgical rites.
TJM -
LOL! I was going to use the Edsel as my example...
I think that this is a good text for the following reasons:
1. It rejects the dichotomy that the Praytellers make between the church's patrimony and active participation, saying that such participation should be attained without losing anything
2. It takes a jab at those who see the liturgy today in terms of "some presumed future." Which to me my ears at least refers to those who see the missal of Paul VI as still not radical enough and see a future in which no strong distinction is made between the ordained and non-ordained, kneeling is gone and so is the offertory, the words of institution are just another part of the Eucharistic prayer which is proclaimed extemporaneously by the presider and to which assembly responds with refrains, everyone approaches the off-center table and helps themselves to the bread and wine. Not a few praytellers want some or all of these elements and want all of the pesky compromises present in the missal of Paul VI to be eliminated and speak of their vision as if it is already contained in Vatican II's "deep structure". The pope in contrast seems to want people to accept the liturgical books as they are warts and all.
Before, Vatican Disaster II, the Mass was referred to as the sacrament of unity. Since then, we fight almost constantly about how Mass should be celebrated, which language, which songs to sing, which crew needs to be in the sanctuary, etc., ad nauseam. Great job, Paul VI!!!!
Now TJM, don't forget that VII has been canonized. Thanks St. Paul VI!
ByzRC,
Of course. I am waiting for PF to be canonized while alive! The Vatican certainly has cheapened the whole notion of Canonization
The bishop of Rome is sound and fury signifying nothing as usual. Contained in the rubble of this address is the seed of an intellectual idea that will take us no where. We cannot go back....we cannot go forward....the rules are not sufficient but, laughingly we need to be formed by a liturgy that has no past nor seems to promise any future. What Francis refuses to understand about the traditionalists is they feel an obligation to transmit the faith through a liturgy that stood the test of time. They do not want to go back. In fact they use the www rather effectively to reach their audiences.Who are also tech savy. It is so intellectually dishonest of him or anyone else to accuse them of nostalgia. Traditionalists attend these Masses because it renders the faith as a contemporary presence in their lives, as they struggle with the here and now. Many if these Masses have young families who are looking towards the future and their eventual salvation. They are not looking back. What the bishop of Rome fails to understand about the pray tell crowd is they have no faith in anyone expect themselves. They cannot wait to further destroy the Mass because even in its present valid but non licet form, its strong residue of belief frustrates their own egocentric tendencies...Like Luther or Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera the only truth they recognize is their own and they refuse to submit to any objective reality that contradicts their own inner feelings or enlightenment...they are fancy dress Quakers. My prediction is that the major fruits of this will be schism...the traditionalists if left alone would not cause trouble...but the pray tell crowd is hell bent on driving out of the Church anyone who though not a ultra traditionalist dares doubt or question their agenda for the church of the future
Unknown,
Well said. Heaven forbid we "look back" and rediscover a liturgy that nourished the Faith for centuries. I see it in my own Irish, Catholic family. Since Vatican Disaster II, over time, less and less of them attend Mass regularly any more, if at all. The OF is just not compelling unless it is dressed up to look and feel like the EF, and then I would say, why not just go to the EF?
The "Pray Sniff" crowd are just a bunch of latter day Cranmers (but at least Cranmer used edifying English).
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