Rortate Caeli reports the Holy See, PC Ecclesia Dei, has published a couple of DVDs demonstrating how to say low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. They can be seen on You Tube here. By now, by regular practice and watching others celebrate, I have become reasonably competant it doing that myself.
What I am not quite certain about and what other priests and bishops seem equally confused about is how to celebrate Mass according to the Ordinary Form.
No-one seems to know what should normative there, nor how to choose from the vast number of options. Someone said recently; from Brompton Oratory to the diocese of Linz we experience the variety of interpretations of the Roman Missal. Are all correct?
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Yes you are all correct as the freedom offered by the New Mass expects you - the priest with the parish - to celebrate the liturgy according to the local custom and needs of the parish. To be blunt, the Mass as commonly celebrated is a liturgy largely "formed" and "molded" and not one "received" and handed-down. The worship of the Jews was specified in minute detail, how much more should our worship be followed when we are offering up the very Body and Blood of Our Lord?
Without a "gold" standard that lays down the liturgy "from above", it allows the liturgy to be celebrated without any notion of proper God centred worship, with the liturgy formed by the whims of the "liturgical committee", and celebrated in wildly different ways according to who is behind it (not necessarily who is celebrating it!) This is why the reform of the New Mass will be extremely difficult as the problem is not really the end-product, but the mentality around it.
The "Cardinal Ottaviani Intevention" hits the nail on the head when talking about the unity of worship in this quotation:
"From the outset therefore the New Rite is launched as pluralistic and experimental, bound to time and place. Unity of worship, thus swept away for good and all, what will become of that unity of faith that went with it, and which, we were always told, was to be defended without compromise?"
+Bugnini and co intended the modern Roman Rite to be inherently anti-rubrical. I suppose that's why the MP alludes to the idea of enrichment, and tacitly legitimizes the importation of certain rubrics into the modern rite from the old. Sound custom is greater than law etc...
I know nothing of these subjects, I am ashamed to sy. This year, at Mass, I have been asking Our Lady to help me develop the correct attitude and attention etc. What I have noticed is not so much the way a thing is done, or left undone, but the Priest's role, and how precious this is to Mary. She really does view Priests as her sons.
Of course, you are going to have to take my word for this Father, as I have no scientific proof, just a change in my own attitudes towards the Clergy, which although were always respectful,I had never thought of Priests as children of Our Lady. I am sure the more a Priest's confidence in her protective love grows, the more he will celebrate Mass perfectly, as he himself is more and more transformed into Christ, without the need of approval from worldly eyes, who should be looking to the Father in heaven themselves when at Mass, and not trying to catch some slip up in detail, of the Priest. Golly, I just read through this, I am getting so grumpy and middle aged!!
By the way Father, in my last comment I didn't mean to imply that interpretation didn't matter, just that one's confidence in attempting to try different forms should be placed first in knowing how loved one is, not in the general laity's critique, which can never be satisfied completely(not on this earth anyway). I hear a lot of people knocking Priests and the way Mass is 'said' 'done', and it makes me sad.Our Lady is always watching tenderly.
"What I am not quite certain about and what other priests and bishops seem equally confused about is how to celebrate Mass according to the Ordinary Form. "
Father just say the black and do the red. Pick the best options. I.E. make sure to say the confiteor, and rule of thumb pick EP I -- do a sung Lamb of God and Kyrie -- these bits can even be done in Latin. Do plainchant Our Father. Do you have EMs and/or lectors? Make sure they come and go in an orderly fashion.
[BTW, Wed. night when I was at chant class, the choir mistress said that the Kyrie didn't need to be cut down to 6 exchanges, you can do the full 9.]
You can get a really nice mass that way, and chose the hymns carefully (but it sounds like you have a great choir from what I gather, so in your case that's probably not an issue.]
Only "be yourself" at the sermon, and of course in the parish hall afterwards. OTherwise try and do everything the same way every time.
Awesome...going to share with my priest friend who is curious to learn the EF.
I believe that reduction in options would be a very good thing for the OF. Especially for the Pentential Rite and the Propers.
Fr. Blake - as commented in the Rorate Caeli blog, there is an Italian web site that appears to have pulled together a number of instructional videos on celebrating the TLM:
http://www.maranatha.it/MissaleRomanum/video.htm
We've never had so many resources available to assist the spread of the Latin Mass!
Perhaps the best policy is, "If in doubt, don't!"
Recently I had the good fortune to attend Sunday Mass in the Ordinary form in Latin and English with chant at Prinknash Abbey and I think that any priest with any doubt as to how the mass should be celebrated today could do little better than to go there and watch. I feel sure that anyone who did so would appreciate that the dignity of the celebration flowed almost inevitably from the recollected manner in which the celebrants, ministers and community as a whole conducted themselves.
What I am not quite certain about and what other priests and bishops seem equally confused about is how to celebrate Mass according to the Ordinary Form.
It's quite simple really father: say the black and do the red as Fr Z would say.
If more help is needed those in doubt could purchase a copy of:Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite and Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year both by Bishop Peter Elliott
This takes me back to the early 50's,halfway through term-time when one was a lone server,it was good to do all the responses in a clear voice.
The congregation only consisted of a few plus the Brothers as it was 6am but worbetide anybody who had not learnt it properly.
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