The noble and sober Fraction Rite of the Ancient Latin Mass:
The overblown and inebriated "Breaking of the Bread" at the Modern Vernacular Mass:
Adaptations of the Modern Roman Missal have led to things that are not in the modern Roman Missal, things that are bloated, drunk, overrated and distracting to what is important in both the Modern and Ancient versions of the Roman Missal and its celebration.
Even the now disgraced, criminal and decease Archbishop Rembert Weakland decried, while the Archbishop of Milwaukee, that modern liturgical practices not foreseen by the Modern Roman Missal were taking on more importance than the Real Presence of Christ and His Sacrifice at Mass.
Big signs and symbols, flamboyant body movements of the priest and everyone else, bread that is leaven and with other ingredients than just wheat flour and water, capable of being broken during the Mass into enough pieces for all to receive from the one loaf become the center of "faith" to the neglect of Jesus Christ and His one Sacrifice made present at every Mass in a glorified and palatable way!
2 comments:
Just take a gander at the cathedral in Millwaukee. Enough said.
Liturgy has become so balkanized in the West that attempts to discuss liturgy with some westerners is difficult.
Necessity and degree of flamboyance/drama as opposed to concrete actions and the dignified execution thereof is the subject of debate, much disagreement and criticism of those on both sides of the spectrum.
Personally, and as an Easterner, I feel that Roman NO liturgy is in shambles. It's choreography, rubrics, orientation, emphasis, physical appearance both through vestiture and structures and at times, its appallingly grating music make reasonable discussion about impossible. Solution? No idea. I'd go back to where it last worked, the TLM and try again. The wailing and gnashing of teeth by the entrenched establishment and lay adherents of an ideology would likely split the Church similar to the Syro Malabars, or the SSPX. Perhaps ordinariates for all is the non-solution solution. Mind you, there are many, many good and holy people and priests adhering to the NO as is their right per the current books and norms within the Roman Church. How one reconciles that with tradition and subsequent rupture will be the challenge. For those who claim there isn't rupture because the Church no longer requires fancy shoe buckles, gloves, mile long trains, gold straws, conjoined digits, beeswax concentrations, nodes on chalices, you name it, to me, are oversimplifying the obvious big-picture consequences of change on steriods and the negative outcome to Christ's Church and the adherents thereof.
We had a Catholic chaplain who made a great show of elevation of the Host as well as the Cup to the extent he would raise the Cup until he was holding it by the base with only the fingers of one hand. I attended a Protestant wedding where the priestess made a great show of elevating a large loaf of what appeared to be sourdough bread that broke with a mouthwatering crunch, probably showering everyone at her altar with breadcrumbs. My wife began to panic looking for an exit but I reminded her that we had only the weekend before attended a performance The Rite of Spring and that we were safe as long as everyone remained clothed.
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