For the majority of my life and my priesthood, I have been to or celebrated the Modern Roman Missal Mass.
As a priest, I have sought since 1980 to celebrate this Mass as the General Instruction legislates.
There are three locations where the actual Mass is to be celebrated according to the instructions of the Missal.
1. Following the entry of the priest and the ministers into the sanctuary, they make the proper reverence to the altar. The priest approaches the altar and then kisses it at the center.
2. Then he goes to the presiding chair and after the Entrance Chant, begins with the Sign of the Cross, greeting, introduction to the Penitential Act. Afterward, he offers the absolution and then the Gloria is sung and at the chair the Collect is prayed.
3. All sit and the Liturgy of the Word takes place at the ambo, with lay lectors reading the Old Testament and Epistle, a cantor leading the Psalm in a sung Mass, as well as the Gospel Acclamation. The Gospel is read at the ambo.
4. The priest gives the homily, either at the chair or the ambo, or another location.
5. The priest returns to the presiding chair and leads the Credo and the Universal Prayer, which is read by a deacon or layperson.
6. The the transition to the Liturgy of the Eucharist takes place. The offerings are brought to the celebrant and then he goes to the altar for the Offertory Prayers.
7. After the distribution of Holy Communion, the vessels are purified at the altar, a side table or after Mass in the sacristy.
8. The priest returns to the presiding chair, prays the Post Communion Prayer, blessing and dismissal. The celebrant then goes to the altar, kisses it and goes to the entrance to the sanctuary, makes the proper reverence to the altar/tabernacle and depart.
What I have highlighted above, is how I have celebrated the MRM for my entire priesthood for both daily and Sunday Mass.
However, since Covid or maybe even before, I am seeing more and more priests, young and old, celebrate the Introductory and Concluding Rites at the Altar and the Roman Missal is on the altar for the entire Mass and not just for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
There is very little choreography in the MRM compared to the TLM, which is itself a liturgical dance, a minuet, if you will
In a sense there is some choreography with the MRM is the priest moves from the altar to the presiding chiar to the ambo. But many, now, for whatever reason, don't preside from the chair any longer, but rather from the altar.
What is your experience in all of this?
17 comments:
The five parishes in my area...from the Chair.
Thank you.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Chair
yes I have seen more from the alter since covid. almost never before.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day Father McDonald etal
There is no concept in the Byzantine Churches of leading proceedings from the chair. Chairs are for sitting when one isn't performing a role or function. When our priests are leading prayers, and depending upon the liturgy being celebrated, they are before the holy table/altar, before the Royal Doors to the icon screen, before the tetrapod (the small "people's altar" upon which the icon of the day or season is placed", before the symbolic tomb during passiontide, at the door to the narthex for the final gospel prior to a deceased being taken from the church for the final time to their place of reposing, or other similar locations for baptisms/churching of infants etc. (wrapping this up as I think folks get the idea).
That said, I have noticed this phenomenon at several Roman parishes in my area. I like this development for the reasons mentioned above. It's aligned with Eastern praxis. I never cared for so much emphasis being placed on locating oneself before temporary furnishings for a material part of the liturgy. So, regardless of the mandates of the GIRM, my Eastern me likes this. My local Roman diocese, btw, is traditional in a muted/reserved way if that makes sense.
It always was, and remains more conservative relative to what I see going on elsewhere. To be fair, the neighboring diocese are similar. Really, very little "crazy" goes on here. Neither the people nor the clergy seem interested in some of the antics posted on this blog via photos or video. Thank goodness.
TJM,
Happy St. Valentine's day as well!
I think the use of the Chair is related to the Bishop’s throne. In chanted or Pontifical Masses, the bishop says the prayers at the foot of the altar and then goes to the throne for the Kyrie, Gloria and Collect. Not sure about the concluding rites though.
There is a provision in the new Mass for the Post Communion prayer to be said at the altar rather than at the chair.
Fr:
Our Pastor here at St Julie Billiart, Dartmouth MA, just started offering kneelers if communicants want to take communion in that way...similar to your photos here. There is s growing number of people using them but their positioning is awkward. I feel the two kneelers are too far, left and right of center, at the angle (as would be in these pictures) if you adjusted your kneelers left and right. I suggested a more center position like you had but he hasn't changed. I believe it would be presumptuous to share one of these photos with him. What do you think? Also, what are the standing "tables" each side of your kneelers? Are they intended for communicants who want to take communion in the hand as a kind of Paten? Thanks for your thoughts?
Tom, these photos were taken during the pandemic and because of Covid hysteria, we had hand sanitizer on those stands next to the kneelers in case we touched a tongue or hand while distributing. I don’t like the kneelers unless you have very heavy ones that won’t move when the communicant pushes themselves up to leave. We placed our kneelers which are light weight against the first steps to keep the from moving and those distributing stood on the step next to the kneeler. It worked well for those kneeling or standing.
I am sorry that this is off topic, but I think some here might find this interesting-
Having recently read Douglas Murray’s “The Madness of Crowds” and “The War on the West” I tried to do what Murray suggested:
Ie: I googled “White couples” and then “straight couples” and then click images and it is amazing how quickly Google will provide one with images of inter racial couples and LGBT couples…..while if one were to google something different like “Asian couples” Google will then actually give you images of what you ask for.
I am now off to Google “Catholic couples” and see what are the first 20 to 30 images that Google displays.
Google is the enemy
The idea of the priest as 'presider' rather than 'celebrant' with his own special Chair dates from 1964 (Inter Oecumenici) along with the near-universal adoption of versus populum and vernacularization. Overnight it changed the dynamic of the Mass, and was intended to do so. After all, one cannot preside over, or dialogue with, an assembly unless one faces it.
Those churches which celebrate 'ad orientem' position the sedilia on the epistle side facing liturgical north; this is the traditional arrangement but one might as well (in the OF) pray the Collect from the altar, thus dispensing with the need for a server to hold the missal. The option of conducting the concluding rite from the altar (GIRM 164/165) would seem to be a sensible one.
TJM,
It is VERY strange. Google “straight couples” and the first photo is a heterosexual black couple, the second is a photo of a lesbian couple with a child and the fourth is a black gay couple. It gets predictably stranger. Google “straight white couples” and soon a photo/image is a close up of a knuckle with HATE written on it. Third is an image of a black couple. Soon there are photos of mixed race couples and then a gay couple (one black, one white) holding 2 black children.
Yet, if any people are interested in searching for photos of Asian couples they are not aggravated or re-educated. Straight people of Asian descent do not need to be shown a diversity of mixed race couples or have photos of gays thrown at them. At no point will Google try to rewire their view of what a couple is or what the average relationship might look like - like they do for those searching for heteronormative or white couples.
Paul,
One of my European friends asked, based on watching American TV, whether Whites were a minority in the US now because commercials give this impression. This change became pronounced after St. Fentanyl died. We went from wanting to make groups of people “look like America” to oversampling of minorities, including sexual ones. The “ look like America” crowd overlooked this “sacred” criteria when it came to professional sports!
TJM,
I’d like to suggest you and/or your European friends Google “European art”.
It might be expected that the first images to come up would be the the Mona Lisa or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers or something similar but NO the first image that can come up is by Diego Velazquez and it is NOT Las Meninas or his great portrait of Pope Innocent X but a portrait of his assistant, Juan de Pajero, who was black.
The first image we are given of a Madonna and Child - it is a black Madonna.
It is amazing how many portraits there are of black people.
I could give further examples, but when one googles European art one is not given a truthful representation of history, Europe or art. What we are given is representative of what some influential tech people might like to see. The history of European art is not a fifth or two fifths or a half about black representation - portraits of black people in European art were actually very unusual until recent decades when the populations of Europe began to change.
Also, anyone can Google “black men” and then simply get images of black men BUT Google “white men” and one is given images of white and black men - AND often the images of white men are of people convicted of crimes with taglines such as “beware of the average white man” and “White men are bad”.
Likewise, if one googles “white couples” or “straight white couples” it is not just that one is given images of mixed race couples and lesbian and gay couples but the tags to such images and photos can be “straight couples can learn from gay couples” or “why gay couples tend to be happier than straight couples”.
This is not only strange but sinister.
Paul,
Yet we have corrupt bishops and priests who have bought into this Marxist crap. They are going to Hell if they do not repent. I am wealthy and no longer contribute to Peter’s Pence nor diocesan funds. If the Church in the US had not abandoned authentic Catholicism, the US Church would have plenty of money for its works. One fraud posts here
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