In the Church today, there are those who say that the Bugnini fabricated Mass did not employ organic development—Pope Benedict XVI was of this school of thought.
There are others who say that the Bugnini fabricated Mass did employ organic development and get over it. Pope Francis was definitely of this school of thought.
But, your most brilliant humble blogger has his own brilliant but most humble thoughts on what organic development might have been if it had occurred for the Tridentine Liturgies.
Here are these brilliant but most humble assertions as it concerns implementing Sacrosanctum Concilium to the Tridentine liturgies:
1. As it concerns implementing “noble simplicity” there should not have been a revamping of the Order of the Mass but rather a pruning away of certain ceremonies associated with the various forms of the Pontifical Masses and even the normal parish Solemn Sung Mass with deacon and subdeacon. All the minutia surrounding which foot to use ascending to the altar, the kissing of the priest’s hands, the holding of the patten with a humeral veil and the ceremony of getting it to the altar and even not using the paten for the entire Canon of the Mass, could all have been simplified and pruned away. But the Order of the Mass, in its entirety, should never have been changed as it developed organically.
2. In terms of useless repetition, the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar could have been pruned back to eliminate the double comfiteors and absolutions, one for the priest and the other for the servers. The double ceremonies for the Communion of the Priest and then the Communion of the laity rightly should be combined as it is in the Bugnini Mass but not eliminating the triple Domini non sum dignus. It is essential, though, that the priest consumes the Holocaust first to complete the Sacrifice and only then the laity to receive Holy Communion as a share in that Sacrifice.
3. None of the private priestly prayers of the priest should have been eliminated. This was a chopping down, not a pruning and certainly not organic development. That these prayers are in the 1962 Missal is organic development.
4. To unify the actions of the priest with what the choir/laity are singing is organic development. For example in the sung Mass, as the choir/laity chant the Kryie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, the priest independently of that says these prayers. For the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo, after he says these prayers quickly, he sits to allow the choir/laity to complete their singing of these parts. And for the Sanctus, after he says it he jumps forward to say the first part of the Canon. Unifying these actions was accomplished in the 1964-65 Tridentine transitional Missal.
5. Saying the Canon in a loud voice rather than a low voice would be organic development.
6. Kneeling for Holy Communion in the Latin Rite was an organic development and should not have been nipped in the bud or branch!
7. Experiments with celebrating the Tridentine Mass facing the congregation occurred prior to Vatican II and this could be seen as an organic development but the ethos of how the Mass was celebrated facing the congregation never had the priest “playing” to the congregation of reading prayers as if to the congregation.
8. The manner of the Bugnini Liturgy of the Word is an organic development and could have been implemented in the Tridentine Mass and it was in the 64-65 Missal.
9. More lavish use of Scripture should never have ended with the Propers of the Mass as just one option, although the first, among some other subjective choices that are not Scripture. These should always be sung or said and when sung, it should be in Latin to preserve Latin and Gregorian Chant. Psalm 42 should not be eliminated from the PATFOTA except for Requiem Mass (which should have maintained its unique aspects) and during Passiontide. The Gloria Patri should not have been chopped down from the Mass at various points—that wasn’t organic development but destruction.
10. The expansion of the lectionary is certainly organic development but the ancient lectionary should have been maintained and the addition years of “b and c” should have been modeled on it.
11. In terms of including the laity in the sung Mass’s Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, which acts as a pre-Mass Penitential Act, the Entrance Chant could begin after all participated in the PATFOTA, pruned back as I suggest above. Thus after the PATFOTA, the priest ascends to the altar to reverence it and incense it, as the Introit is chanted and then after incensing the altar, the priest goes to the chair for the chanted Kyrie and Gloria and then he greets the laity with “The Lord be with you” at the chair and then prays the Collect at the chair. The Credo and Intercessions (which should be a prescribed litany) should be at the chair as well as the Prayer after Holy Communion, but the Dismissal and Final Blessing at the altar with the private prayers of the priest. (All of this would be an organic development.)
12. Additional votive Masses, Masses for particular needs, as well as additional prefaces are a part of organic development. The organic development of only one Canon in the Latin Rite Mass and said aloud or in low voice in Latin should have been maintained. Additional Eucharistic Prayers goes against noble simplicity and giving the priest choices that he makes alone in the Mass in terms of which Eucharistic Prayer and which Penitential Act creates a clericalism not in the Tridentine Mass.
13. Progressive solemnity based upon what the priest wants to do should be suppressed but more options of how the Sung Mass could be sung is wise. The Full Sung Mass would have the priest chant the Collect, Prayer over the Offerings (aloud) and Post Communion Prayer as well as the Preface dialogue and Preface. The Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Great Amen, Pater Noster and Agnus Dei would be chanted.
14. A partially sung Mass might see the priest not singing his parts but the laity’s parts are sung. Perhaps the Credo would not be chanted in some Masses.
15. The Low Mass, with no singing except for four hymns, could be recovered but the chanted Mass seen as the norm for the parish’s Principle Mass or Masses.
16. I think maintaining Latin and allowing some vernacular means that in the Sung Mass the Propers are always chanted in Gregorian Latin Chant and perhaps the Eucharistic Prayer in Latin as well as the Sanctus, Pater Noster and Agnus Dei. That would be organic development in allowing all else in the vernacular.
17. I don’t believe that the wholesale revamping of the Roman Calendar was organic development nor the changing of the orations of the Sunday Masses. All of that should have been maintained in its basic foundation.
No comments:
Post a Comment