Saturday, August 18, 2012
Not like with like
Some balloons were left in the church after the Traditional Latin Mass on the Assumption, one of the servers quipped they thought they had seen the Cardinal Graf Schönborn in church, it was some children of course. I thought it was a bit of mutual enrichment.
The video, above, was on one of those sites I find provocative, and I enjoy reading, there is a rather beautiful High Mass, I think being celebrated by the SSPX, it then moves Schönborn balloon Mass. It is not comparing like to like.
The TLM of today isn't the TLM of the Concilliar and pre-Concilliar period - thank God. From what I can see that was a period of experimentation and rubrical laxity, even Fr Paul Crane the founder of Christian Order had his altar on castors so it could be wheeled forward for ad populum celebration. The strict distinction of low and sung Mass had broken down somewhat, vernacular hymns were common, even the singing of the Ordinary at low Mass had crept in in places, as had the use of vernacular for the lections, at least in some places - a practice still in use by the SSPX on the continent and permitted by Summorum Pontificum. In many dioceses the rule was that from "amice to amice" low Mass should not exceed half an hour, which meant many priests left great junks out. Of course Pius XII had encouraged the "dialogue Mass" and various priests experimented with ways of getting the people involved.
Neither is the vision of the Novus Ordo in this video correct, personally I can't recall a time when I have held a balloon whilst in church, the Novus Ordo is not a lawless rubric free country. The idea that you make it up as you go along is sheer black propaganda, spread by both the extreme left and right.
Most of the Masses I celebrate, in either Form, are strictly according to the rubrics, including the turning from the altar to the people at the proper times. At a said Mass I read the entrance and communion antiphon, at a Mass where our choir is present, following the rubrics these are sung in preference to hymns, we also follow the rubric in singing the Gradual in preference to the Responsorial Psalm, because we have bought copies of the new Graduale, we even sing the Offertorium.
Because I hate the sign of a priest being surrounded by small children at Mass our servers are all men, people have the option according to the rubrics of the GIRM, if the wish and many of my younger parishioners do, of receiving Holy Communion kneeling.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Lord’s descent into the underworld
At Matins/the Office of Readings on Holy Saturday the Church gives us this 'ancient homily', I find it incredibly moving, it is abou...
-
A French newspaper has reported Pope Francis, once Benedict dies, will abrogate Summorum Pontificum and handover Old Rite's celebrat... -
I was at the Verona Opera Festival when Summorum Pontificum was published but it wasn't until All Souls Day that I first attempted to s... -
In a conversation with our bishop recently, I thought he said that some parishes in the diocese were already using the new ICEL translations...
15 comments:
"Because I hate the sign of a priest being surrounded by small children at Mass our servers are all men..."
Amen, bro.
The message that sends is that the priest is not really a man, but a kind of male mommy. Same thing with Children's Masses...infantilizes the whole liturgy.
Much as I enjoy having both forms celebrated at Mary Magdalen's, I live in hope that Mary Magdelene will have a Missa Cantata at some point.
A weekday Low Mass (no sermon and few communicants) shouldn't last more than half an hour, except on occasions such as Ember Days where there are more than two lections. The audible parts of the Mass were supposed to be read distinctly, but they were read at a normal reading pace, not proclaimed (and fifty years ago the Vulgate was familiar territory to celebrants). Competent servers - and they were usually boys; you normally encountered adult servers only at the Sunday Missa Cantata - were also quite brisk with the responses. The dialogue Mass slowed things down a bit and in fact showed up the weakness of the Missa Lecta. It would have been better to have reverted to the medieval practice of chanting the audible parts, and the responses, in a monotone.
The 'period of experimentation', at least in England, did not kick off until Paul VI had approved SC in 1963. Three years ago I served a Low Mass (in Brompton Oratory) for the first time in 45 years. It hadn't changed a bit.
There have been plenty of Missa Cantatas along with Solemn High Masses - just not every week.
Priest as social worker and friend has taken over from priest as alter Christus.
It is worse here in Great Britain than in America, where the lack of respect for priests has been created by themselves.
LOL on balloons as mutual enrichment...
Fr.,
Your comments on the Novus Ordo raised something in my mind.
Do I detect a “plot” to re-sanctify the Novus Ordo?
In my parish, subtle changes have been noticeable over the last year or so. Silent pauses after the sermon and Communion, emHCs receiving outside of the sanctuary, the number of hymns reduced from six to five, a bit of Latin now and then including the Salve Regina, admittedly sung as a hymn after Communion and not at the end of the Mass?, altar servers, all of them, receiving on the tongue. I’ve even seen increasing numbers of the faithful receive by mouth after a bow, or suitable gesture. What on earth is going on?
I jokingly raised this with one priest and he jokingly denied it.
But if I were a trendy “Spirit of VII”, type, I would be getting worried.
If only ALL priests would celebrate according to the rubrics (say the black & do the red) then life would be so much less irksome for those occasions when we cannot have EF Masses. My greatest difficulty is deciding which OF Mass to attend as it depends which priest is celebrating. How sad is that?
Jacobi, Not exactly but I think younger priest are bothering to read the rubrics, and the influence of BXVI teaching that Liturgy is something received from the Church not something made-up by a local church.
Also young people don't respond the music etc from their grandparents youth.
(How can 5/6 hymns be fitted into Mass?)
Fr Blake,
Hymns at entrance, collection, and sometimes three (honest!) during Communion, but now normally only two, and exit.
Being suspicious by nature, I support the “plot” theory. I think our Bishop has passed the word down the line.
Deo Gratias!
Fr.,
You wrote: "the influence of BXVI teaching that Liturgy is something received from the Church not something made-up by a local church."
This implicates the entire Novus Ordo, in case you did not realize. Bugnini concocting it with his protestant friends, and Paul VI signing off, does not make it "received from the Church."
'priest being surrounded by small children at Mass'
Depends how it's done. When I've seen a well drilled set of children as altar servers, predominantly boys, I see the next generation of priests in the making.
Well Matthew, there is the rub! Who has the duty of deciding what is to be received from the Church?
Is it me or you?
No: that cant be, that is what Protestants believe.
Is it a particular prophetic bishop?
Vatican II teaches that a bishop with his Church "is the Church in much fullness", but the history of the Church is littered with heretical bishops who have broken away.
Is the one authority to whom Our Lord has given authority "to bind and lose" and to feed his sheep?
Yes!
Where Peter is there is the Church, the Ark of Salvation.
This is the problem
Protestant sounds in the Catholic church.
I prefer to leave child-care during Mass to others.
The video did make me laugh out loud though! :-)
Post a Comment