Pray for the day when Pope Benedict's common sense is no longer canceled but promoted by the current generation of the Hierarchy and all clergy and laity!
I pray for the day when TC is repealed by a future pope and the pope sets into motion once again Pope Benedict’s vision for a third Roman Missal which will be “renewal in continuity” also known as the “hermeneutic of continuity”.
Until that day arrives, I remain miffed that those in the “New Liturgical Movement” aren’t promoting the reform of the reform of the Modern Missal by “reading the black and doing the red.”
There also needs to be a renewed emphasis on traditional piety and devotion during Mass as well as demanding that bishops and priests stop ad-libbing any part of the Mass and to keep their mouth shut when they are tempted to become chatty at any point in the Mass. They must be told that their chattiness at any part of the Mass is destructive to the trajectory of prayer, contemplation and mysticism. If it were done in the Ancient Latin Mass, that chattiness would destroy liturgical prayer too!
Bishops and priests must be trained to “read only the black and do the red”! That will go a long way in implementing the Modern Roman Missal as Vatican II envisioned it within generalities!
Apart from that, these things must be recovered:
1. Gregorian Chant for the propers of the Mass, introit, offertory and Communion antiphons
2. A recovery of the style and ethos of chanting the Mass
3. A recovery of distinctions in the style of the Mass, with the concepts of Low, High and Solemn High and what all that means
4. A recovery of kneeling for Holy Communion
5. A recovery of sacred silence while liturgical action is occurring not independent of it
6. A recovery of ad orientem at least for the Liturgy of the Eucharist
7. A recovery of appreciation and promotion of liturgies of the Church with more than a 1,000 year tradition
8. Overcoming the Balkanization of the Liturgy by language and culture thus dividing Catholics even in the same parish rather than uniting them!
5 comments:
Father, I totally agree with you.As someone sitting in the pews,I have watched (at times almost in tears)the slow train wreck of the last 55 years.I should very much like someone to be adult enough to take ownership for the utter disaster.Failed Catechesis is part of the problem, a complete lack of reference and the absence of belief in Sanctifying Grace the others.
I am all for everything you list. The new Mass could be overhauled for the next 25yrs and finally accomplish those goals. Or, the new Mass could be ditched and the old Mass made mandatory, far simpler.
Of course, going by Latin Mass total attendence figures prior to His Holiness The Lord High Executioner's fiat, attendence would be a tiny fraction of current shrinking numbers with widely diffused and much smaller parishes (but that would fit well with shrinking priestly vocations).
And also leaves aside the time required to make and provide translations to all the poor and fastest growing Catholic populations who lack resources to provide them.
Given the shrinking parish system so succesfully implemented in the West, such translations being provided would be tough to afford for many of them as well, and unlikely current printing capacity up to such an order.
Which takes us back to 25yrs of overhaul....maybe 50....if no major shake-ups such as His Holiness The Lord High Executioner's longed for streamlined corporate merger of Western major brands of Presbyterian, Lutheran, United Methodist, Church of England/Episcopalian and Roman Catholic under the exciting new brand of PinkX (so long as they agree to not interfere with the Roman retirement planning system).
Personally, I am for the smaller but alive Church, and somehow helping poorer growing areas get their missals. They would likely appreciate the help and perhaps remember us fondly when they dominate the world as we fade into the sunset of might-have-beens.
Communion in the hand while standing! Dropping a the sacred host on the floor is a common occurrence; it happened again this weekend. To Catholics of a certain vintage, this is heart wrenching (putting it gently). Before all the Council nonsense it rarely if ever happened; and it caused quite the kerfuffle when it did. The Rx: on the tongue while kneeling at altar rail!
As for my above 25-50yr comments, consider the "loose" translation of the Paul VI Mass, its revision, the 2011 revision of our translation, the Liturgy Of The Hours publication, our "loose" translation, the LOTH revision, which new translation yet to be finalized/approved, the NAB and then NAB revised, and the revision then ordered and still incomplete, upon which the LOTH and Missal will need match...
And all this on a Mass from 50yrs ago....and if the Mass revised now...
'Tis why I think using ALL the books from before, say, 1947 and Pius XII mucking about in them, mucking which has never ceased since, surely would be simpler, It was under Pius XII that vernacular use exploded....any changes made before then were rare and exceedingly minor.
Of course, this will NEVER happen...not EVER.
Amen, Father! I'll add that we need ruthless suppression of clown Masses, which somehow are still going on in the Western Church. And there I was, assured that only rad trads complain about this one clown Mass put on by Episcopalians in the 1970s.
Nick
Post a Comment