Even with all the controversies about how Bugnini stripped the Mass of its coherence, as well as of its solemnity and reverence, although it wasn’t truly all his fault what happened with his Mass after it went into effect, most Catholics, clergy and laity, knew what liturgical abuse was and named it as so.
Most of the most egregious liturgical abuses are not to be found in the Liturgical Order of the Mass of Bugnini, but rather heaped upon his Mass by the clergy after it was promulgated. Bugnini’s rubrics are weak and flimsy and may contribute to liturgical abuses, but I don’t think Bugnini desired liturgical abuses.
Not so today. Bishops and lower clergy along with the laity are so accustomed to liturgical abuses, they don’t realize that these are abuses.
For example, it is not foreseen in the Bugnini Mass, even in 1970, that there would be such wordiness and lunacy concerning these words at the “Introductory Rite for the Penitential Act” when in red it says: In these or similar words.
Today, we know that bishops and priests, using not similar words in the Missal, but a whole bunch of many unsimilar words instead, completely break the trajectory of Prayer begun with the Introit to launch into a barrage of words after the Greeting, not to introduce the Penitential Act, but to blab on, welcoming everyone, using secular greetings and giving a secular talk or a mini homily. This is a liturgical abuse, no? But no one, especially the bishops and priests doing it are even aware of it so common is this tripe today.
But here’s something I’ve gotten quite accustomed to doing and don’t realize how dumb and incoherent it is, although it may be a pastoral nicety. I thank Fr. Z for pointing this out.
It has to do with the blessings that bishops, priests and deacons give to those who approach to receive Holy Communion but aren’t able to do so, thus they seek a blessing instead. The Bugnini Mass does not encourage this as there is absolutely nothing in its missal to give directions on it or even suggesting it as a pastoral option! And certainly prior to the council, no one sought a blessing at Communion time, apart from receiving. It just wasn’t done. If you couldn’t go to Holy Communion you did not go to the altar railing. And even small children remained in the pew while their parents went to Holy Communion.
Fr. Z points out the incoherency of giving a blessing to non-communicants who approach the “minister of Holy Communion” at Communion time. The cleric is holding the ciborium in his left hand with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, in which the entire Most Holy Trinity is received, and then uses is free right hand to offer a blessing.
While it isn’t rubrical to bless anyone in the Communion line with the words, God bless you, and with no “Sign of the Cross” gesture from a lay EMHC, or an actual Sign of the Cross from the hand of a bishop, priest or deacons, it happens constantly in the Bugnini Mass and today even in the Ancient Ordo, but at least no lay people are doing it in the AO!
What is rubrical in the Ancient Ordo is for the bishop or priest to make the Sign of the Cross with the Host as he uses the formula said to the Communicant. This is kosher and it is the Lord’s blessing as in Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
While it is not rubrical in the AO Mass, It would be a coherent extension of the AO’s rubrics to bless non-communicants with the Host rather than the priestly hand at Communion time, no?
But liturgical abuses always bring incoherence to the Mass in whatever form, but it is far more prevelant in the Bugnini Mass, no?
6 comments:
Thank you for posting this. I imagine if Mass were in Latin, ad libbing would come to a screeching halt! There are very few Cardinal Bacci's!
Father; you are far far too kind to the infamous A. Bugnini.His first complete Novus Ordo was Celebrated in the Sistine Chapel in 1968 before the world's Bishops attending a Synod.This resulted in the Ottaviani Interventuon by the Cardinal of that name, on behalf of many of the bishop's.He warned Pope Paul VI that if that was the new Mass-they would fight a Global insurrection against it.As a result the new mass was hastily revised -what we got in 1969-which has been bad enough in itself.
Regarding seeking a "blessing" in the communion line....in my view, the priests are at fault here for not making a correction in their own churches...they let this go on...they should at least let the congregation know that they may come forward but they are not receiving a blessing.
I'm an EMHC and I sometimes feel like I give out more "blessings" than the body of our Lord. In my church I simply nod and say, "receive the Lord Jesus in your heart".
And then there's the folks who cross their arms and then stick out their hand for the body of Christ...like the want a "blessing" and communion...UGH!
Like where do this originate? Who thought it up? How did it now become a norm?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Father, years ago a Dominican priest post this -
Fr. XXXX XXXXX, OP
Father several years ago a Dominican priest posted this -
Liturgists: per liturgical law, what, if anything, ought an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion say to a child in line at Mass who is not receiving the Eucharist?
Some years ago the CDWDS discouraged giving blessings to those who can’t receive communion for various reasons.
Without making any gesture of blessing, therefore, I simply lean forward and say
“May God always be with you and guide you. Amen.”
Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion should be, how can I say this, "extraodinary." The routine use of these ministers where there is not a real and pressing need is itself an abuse, as the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments has stated numerous times.
In some churches, there are up to a dozen EMHCs not because they're needed, but because the pastor wants to "empower the laity" by giving them something to do. They also have one reader for the First Reading, a cantor for the responsorial psalm, a second reader for the Second Reading (and often the Prayers of the Faithful even if a Deacon is present and that's his job). Then there are the gift bearers, the ushers and the greeters (who are stationed at the entrance to say "Hi" as people come in. Let's not forget the sacristans, those charged with laundering the altar linens, those charged with decorating with the felt banners. One thing that would be very nice is a few who would watch infants and young children in a separate area while the parents are actually able to pay attention during the Mass. But alas, few parishes have that option.
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