Monday, August 06, 2007

I have been trying to say Mass: pars tertia


I have been refreshing my Latin, which has been fun, there is lots of stuff on-line. Have a look at Simplicissimus, it is fairly painless, as it is done by the Latin Mass Society, it deals with liturgical Latin, rather than Caesar, catapults and telling slaves what to do, I think it is quite good.
To improve my vocabulary, I've been reading the Clementine Vulgate the ancient version used in the liturgy, pray for the devout soul who put it on-line, it is wonderful to have whole thing. It is good to compare it to the Neo-Vulgate, the modern, Latin Catholic Bible.

The other thing which started yesterday, it is still a work in progess, is www.sanctamissa.org (saturno tip to Fr Z), it has been produced by the St John Cantius community; pictures, videos and texts, it could be very useful.
A friend of mine who celebrates the older form, says he knows of few priests who celebrate it correctly, he might have a few problems with the rather expansives gestures of the priest in the videos, for my part I find that cramped orantes position you are supposed adopt quite painful, especially keeping your thumb in next to your forefinger, it is easier after the consecration, when it bends, finger tip to thumb tip, but still holding them turned, so you can see your palm - it hurts.

3 comments:

Dr. Peter H. Wright said...

Many thanks to Father Ray for "pars tertia".

The on-line tutorial courtesy of the Canons of St. John Cantius seems an excellent aid. With its video clips, I would say it's indispensible. A reading of the rubrics is of course very necessary, but one picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.

Taken in conjunction with the words of the Missal, it becomes clear WHY one bows at this point, or crosses oneslf at that point.
The "why ?" precedes the "when ?"
So the celebrant has no need to memorise these actions. He knows when to perform them.
"How" is, I'm afraid, a matter of learning. There is no other way. But it comes with time.

But it is soon seen that the actions and prayers are all one.
This is how the congregation actively participates in the Mass : by following the words and action of the priest in their hand Missals. It does annoy me to be told that active participation is possible only in English with the celebrant turned towards the people.

I had a look at the Latin Mass Society on-line Latin tutorial "Simplicissimus".
It's a bit different from learning classical Latin, isn't it ?
You know, how Caesar conquered Gaul, etc.
But very useful. Dr. Byrne must have put in a lot of hard work on it.

Well, I would say with these aids, Fr. Ray is surging ahead.
I wish him every success.
I'm glad to see so many priests taking up the same challenge.
God bless them all.
But let us all remeber to pray for our priets : the power of prayer is indeed great. And they need all the help they can get.

Father John Boyle said...

I see you now have the extroardinary form monthly in your church. I presume you have taken the plunge. Well done. (You have done a lot more research than I ever have!)

Fr Ray Blake said...

Fr Durham FSSP celebrates the monthly Mass here, he motors down from Reading for the Mass.

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