I too celebrate both forms of the Mass and I post two that I celebrated on Saturday, the morning Mass and the Sunday's Vigil of Saturday.
When I have the correct dispositioin for both, although both certainly have their differences and ethos, I experience the same spiritual benefits for my soul, my Catholic spirituality and my Catholic Faith and morals. THE SAME.
It truly is the disposition of the priest who celebrates which counts for the graces or lack thereof that he receives in every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass he celebrates.
When facing the congregation, as in the first video, having the "Benedictine altar arrangement" helps me immensely to realize I AM a priest in God's holy of holies sanctuary offering the one Sacrifice of Jesus to God the Father, but in a glorified and unbloody, beautiful, not horrible way. That is true in both forms of the Mass and in the Ordinary Form, no matter the language.
I appreciate Fr. "Onion's" observations, but he makes me cry crocodile tears with the fumes of his hyperbole!
Dear Cardinal Cupich: The implementation of Traditionis Custodes in the Archdiocese of Chicago
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla (Onion, literally translated)
14 comments:
Father Ferguson from England posted this little reminder about Cardinal Cupich:
"and let’s not forget Cardinal Cupich, when he was bishop of Spokane, forbidding his priests and seminarians from engaging in peaceful protests at abortuaries because it might send the wrong message. Seminarians were also strongly discouraged (e.g. outright forbidden) from attending prolife marches."
TJM, we don't know the context of all of this and we do know that media outlets report half truths to promote their particular bias against people and institutions. It happens unfortunately in the Church too and maybe in this case.
Father Ferguson is a straight up guy and you may be familiar with his blog The Hermeneutic of Continuity. You may also recall how Cupich locked out an EF community from a church so they could not celebrate the Triduum. Cupich was also a protege of McCarrick. I was in the Archdiocese of Chicago and am very familiar with his agenda
The new Order of Mass is a hybridization of Catholic and Protestant worship; and that's akin to pounding a square peg into a round hole. It's a poorly thought out experiment that has failed, and dismally so. What do the statistics tell us ?
William, I don’t think you are correct. Vatican II and Pope Paul VI’s revision of the Mass caused Protestant liturgical Churches to copy our revised liturgy, especially Lutherans and Episcopalians, not the other way around. They also adopted and adapted our revised and expanded lectionary.
The problem of Protestantization is not in the order or form of the Mass, but its modern music and borrowing Protestant hymns. However, if one followed the post-Vatican II Graduale Romanum and sang all the propers of the Mass and not substitute Protestant hymns for these, there would be absolutely nothing Protestant about the Mass revised after Vatican, absolutely nothing.
Father McDonald,
All true, but unfortunately we have bishops and priests that do not follow what you are saying. When the money runs out they may finally get it. Or they will be dead. Whichever comes first.
Last week BBC Radio 3 - the classical music station - broadcast a 24-hour sequence of music called 'Music for the Hours' based on the eight monastic hours of the day, from Matins to Compline. It was compiled by Peter Philips and the Tallis Scholars and featured plainchant (including St Hildegard of Bingen), Renaissance polyphony and works by more recent composers.
This morning I heard on the car radio a setting of the Credo for choir, soloists and orchestra which I had never heard before but could date to the beginning of the 19th century. It wasn't Beethoven, Hummel or either of the Haydn brothers so I had to wait until the end to find out who composed it (Cherubini, in fact).
Why do I mention this? Simply to remind people that the liturgy of the Catholic Church transcends confessional boundaries and is part of our cultural heritage, which is not limited to western Europe; it is the universal patrimony of mankind. In 1971 those prominent in the arts who signed the petition to Paul VI to allow the Tridentine Mass which resulted in the 'Agatha Christie Indult' were not all Catholics; they included Protestants (among them two Anglican bishops), Jews and agnostics.
TJM - Don't you mean Fr Finigan?
I think we need to agree that the NO is not, in principal, the problem. An ad orientem NO with traditional hymns is reasonably close to the older books. A NO celebrated facing the people can be equally beautiful despite my preference for ad orientem. To me, the problem is the haphazard approach to ars celebrandi in many places, muddled theology from the perspectives of protestant hymns and architecture. The problem is compounded by some bishops and priests who have their own agenda, or are mostly indifferent. Say the black do the red would work wonders.
Yesterday, I attended a very reverent NO in a well appointed church as other obligations have had me splitting my time between the east and west. This is not an extremist parish, just very large and liturgically conservative. The priest wore a below the knee Roman style chasuble along with a maniple. It was organic and natural. The archbishop who assists on weekends vests in more contemporary vestments but, celebrates beautifully. The pastor, a friend of mine for years, has implemented a calendar of liturgies that provides variety, beauty and honestly, something to look forward to in what's become a cathedral-like setting. My point, externals are prevalent but, not obtrusive to the point of distracting from either the work or the prayer. A catafalque is not likely to ever appear in this parish and my eastern sensibilities have me on the fence in terms of how I feel about them but, this parish and what's portrayed on this blog seem like a good way forward.
My gut reaction is like William’s, but I can see where it is still Catholic. It is my personal experience to see the Liturgy abused so that it not only allowed non-Catholic sentiments but taught them to a naive laity. Although the music is what eventually ran me off, it was the clearly non-Catholic lyrics that I put behind me.
So was there a ground swell of dissatisfaction with the liturgy and teachings of the Church that instigated Vatican II? It seems to be a lengthy answer to questions that were not asked. I am also more dedicated to Latin than ever because of its accuracy. I can see where Americans may have yearned for a liturgy in our vernacular, but we are one of very few countries where the use of different languages for certain situations or for simple commerce are not common. So where was the beef?
The loose rubrics of the OF Mass allow for too much ad libbing, changing bodily gestures and the GIRM allows for omitting the proper propers and substitute hymns of dubious Catholic theology and ethos or sentiment.
So too, the reckovations of older churches and new builds that look very Protestant and altars that look like tables.
But, the OF can be very EF-like but one has t work at it. And that in and of itself is its weakness. But think about this, if the EF Mass allowed for ad libbing, substituting the propers and creativity, it would be in the same boat especially celebrated in a non Catholic looking space.
Benedict XVI told the priest of Rome what was done to the liturgy at V-2 (2-24-2013 --his farewell address): "... there was no interest in the liturgy an act of faith, but as something to be made understandable, similar to a community activity, something profane. And we know that there was a trend, which was also hysterical;y based, that said: Sacredness is a pagan thing, possibly even from the Old Testament. In the New Testament the only important thing is that Christ died outside: that is, outside the gates, that is, in the secular world. Sacredness ended up as profanity even ion worship: worship is not worship but an act that brings people together, communal participation and thus participation as activity. And kit was so, also, in the matter of Scripture: Scripture is a book, historical, to treat historically and nothing else, and so on."
Make of this what you will. The ocean of words said and written about the Council and also about the Liturgy by now has reached epic proportions. No one living today can understands what was intended because the Council lacked direction, or rather there were competing trajectories which have never been rationalized, tied into a neat package so that every one could finally make it his own. The Liturgy was a product of a political process not a clear, lucid inspiration by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit had anything to do with it you can be sure the war over the Liturgy would have been over long ago. Yet, it goes on without an end in sight.
Fr McDonald, respectfully, is appearance the concern? Or is it the result? And content is king, it should contain nothing contradicting the catechism and should reenforce it. So the Methodists have a ‘traditional’ service that looks a lot like a Catholic Mass, and so do the Lutherans. If they are identical in every respect does it matter? Conversely, can we Catholics strike the rock with our staff anyway we please and not incur justified divine wrath?
rcg
Not under the current Papacy. The Bologna school rules!
John Nolan,
Of course Father Finigan. Wonderful man
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