A BEAUTIFUL NOVUS ORDO MASS—BUT, BUT, BUT…

Here in the Low Country of South Carolina, I celebrate Masses at two parishes on a regular basis, Holy Family Church on the south end of Hilton Head Island and Saint Gregory the Great Church 20 miles away in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Normally, my Sunday Mass is in Bluffton. However, in both parishes care is given to make sure that the Masses are celebrated well and reverently.

Keep in mind, that Holy Family Church is a relatively small parish but has a full church that seats more than 900 each Sunday at almost every Mass, especially in the summertime. It is tourist parish and Catholics on vacation here do go to Mass!

St. Gregory the Great is not a tourist parish but home to thousands of retirees from the northeast and other places. It is the largest parish in the number of registered households in the Diocese of Charleston, my adopted diocese. While most of the households are “empty nesters” there is a significant number of young families out of the nearly 7,000 registered households. 

At both parishes there is robust “actual” participation both in song, spoken words and interior participation. 

On Sunday, January 4, I celebrated two Masses at St. Gregory’s at 7 AM and 9 AM. Both packed and the 9 AM with an overflow at their parish center with about 200 participating by live stream, ugh!

But the participation, both external and interior is grand and is facilitated by the vernacular, in this case, English. 

I chanted all my priestly parts and the congregation chanted/sung there’s too. I used the Roman Canon with the Epiphany insert (communicantes) and even chanted the epiclesis and consecrations! This Mass was as high as you can get in the Novus Ordo, except incense was not used. 

The congregation chanted robustly the English Pater Noster also and without accompaniment. 

The Masses are not sloppy, banal or on the fly. It is by the Roman Missal. 

But, but, but…

In my view, perhaps not the congregation’s view, something is missing. That something is transcendence, mystery and awe.

It isn’t due to the lack of Latin.

It isn’t because there is actual participation, interior and exterior.

It isn’t because of the Mass itself and its texts. 

In my most humble opinion it is because it is completely facing the nave.

It is because Holy Communion is received standing and on the move and with two communion stations at the opposite end of the church building by the entrance doors, making it easy for communicants to receive and go, like through a drive through at Wendy’s. 

And I will be bold here, there isn’t sacred silence while a sacred action is taking place. Let me be really bold—we need the Eucharistic Prayer, whichever one is chosen, to be said in a low voice, in Latin, ad orientem and with the congregation engaged in the sacredness of that grand silence and contemplation. 

That’s my critique and two cents worth.