We all know that in many modern Roman Missal parishes, the liturgy is abysmal from accoutrements to the way of celebrating, casual and blah and a failure to follow even the minimal rubrics.
Belief in God is diminished as is belief in the real presence. Some believe it is just an “it” and a symbol of Christ. Others believe Christ is on the Host like a magic carpet. Others simply think it (and the word it is a problem, no?) is a spiritual reality but not physical. We can go on.
If the bishops had bothered to do surveys of those who regularly attend Mass using the Ancient Roman Missal, they would find thoroughly orthodox beliefs on God, the Church and the Most Holy Eucharist.
What is it about that Missal that preserves the Faith of the Church in the Most Holy Eucharist whereas the manner in which the modern Roman Missal is celebrated so diminishes the true Faith of the Church?
It is God-centered, formal, rigid, rubrical and an obsession with attention to detail. It is predictable from priest to priest, parish to parish, diocese to diocese and nation to nation. Not so the modern Roman Missal.
For example, when I made my First Holy Communion in 1961and at a formal “Low Mass”, as a 7 year old, I had to fast for three hours before that Mass. I had to kneel for Holy Communion, remember to tilt my head back, slightly stick out my tongue and reverently receive. I had to judge the appropriate time in which to swallow the Host, allowing the Host to dissolve on my tongue, without chewing, and then swallow without choking. I had to think of Jesus the whole time.
After receiving at the railing, I was to remain a moment or two thinking about our Lord, make the sign of the cross, return to the pew, kneel and swallow the Host properly. God forbid the Host stuck to the roof of my mouth and in no instance was I to use a finger to remove it!
And once home, I was to drink water, swish and swallow in case any particle of the Host remained in my mouth.
Going through all of that indicated the importance or gravity of what I was doing when receiving our Lord in Holy Communion.
Until the bishops look to ancient Roman Missal Masses and what its participants believe and why, we will go no where.
Simply telling priests and congregation to read the black and do the red in the Modern Missal and a return to Holy Communion, kneeling, at the rail and receiving on the tongue will accomplish much more than just one more complicated program that only a handful of Catholics, mostly professional ones, will appreciate.
And after all the efforts at implementing that program, for the majority of Modern Roman Missal Catholics the abysmal status quo will remain.
Sad!
6 comments:
Well said, Father McDonald. Most bishops are deeply invested in “tried and failed!” And they really don’t care. They would rather have no Catholics than faithful, Catholics who prefer the EF
Here's the thing... The strictures you recount regarding receiving communion - allow it to dissolve, determine when to swallow, no chewing allowed, remain kneeling, cleanse your mouth at home - have very little to do with receiving the Body of Christ in Communion. I'm glad you were told to think about Jesus, but, like you, I was far more concerned about the roof of the mouth issue...
Such rules were devised with good intent I suppose, but, as if often the case, they took on far too much importance, distracting from the Mystery (note the capital M) It may be somewhat analogous to the now defunct requirement that, when a priest folded his hands in prayer, the right thumb MUST be over the left thumb.
Regulations bring about order, but it's an artificial construct, one that doesn't flow from the essence of the Sacrament, but that is imposed to constrict behavior. I'm not an antinomian, but the legalism, flowing from clericalism, isn't going to fly in our times.
To me it wasn't a distraction, but emphasized "fear of the Lord" one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in terms of proper reverence.
I wonder what kind of memories children have today where they might not even receive their First Communion from a priest, but a lay minister, will receive on the hand and often being nervous, do so on the run and quickly popping the Host into their mouth in an unthinking way and see it as nothing more than a piece of bread that symbolizes Jesus.
The whole culture of reverence that the Ancient Roman Missal Mass inculcates into the faithful, even in its modern celebrations, is lacking completely in most Modern Missal parishes. And by this I mean a scrupulous concern for doing things properly and showing reverence is very specific and prescribed ways.
The phobia of rubrics in the new Missal and by so many today reflects a casual approach to God as a kind of Big Buddy but not much more for some.
If one understands "fear" to mean "afraid of being punished for doing something wrong," then why talk about sacramentality? It becomes basic discipline at that point.
Better to encourage a sense of reverence for, and awe and participation in, the Mystery, rather than artificial anxiety about making a mistake.
As for not chewing the host, we were told the same thing, then witnessed the priests chewing the host at every mass.
Fr K, another priest invested in “tried and failed” still can’t articulate why only about 30% of the folks who bother to come to Mass in the OF form believe in the Real Presence unless for him it’s a feature and not a bug
Fr. MJK,
Would it not be fair to mention that the priest celebrant consumes from the chalice enhancing the breaking-down of the elements relative to his communion. Then, the ablutions, further help to purify Fr's mouth?
In the Byzantine Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, the people are communed by a bishop, priest, or deacon. The consecrated elements are commingled in the chalice (for the people, not major order clerics) and distributed via a spoon. Immediately after being communed, and in some Orthodox jurisdictions, servers are waiting off to the side with a tray of small cups of wine that the communicant then uses to purify their mouths.
In either the Byzantine, or Roman situations, I do, like many, try to let that which I have received soften/begin to dissolve so as not to have a mouth full of particles by the time I get to my breakfast donut.
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