Ah, I don't have to see this anymore, I see this... Deo Gratias!
Posted on 10/13/2005 7:17:36 AM PDT by Pyro7480
"Those Latin masses (or English in the case of the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite) were marriages of heaven and earth where the Bridegroom swept me away as His own and I received Him with joy and trembling and the leaping of my heart, aching to be truly with Him at all times and in all places and for ever, where Cherubim and Seraphim cry Alleluia and the Most Pure and Holy Mother of my Lord and God welcomes me as her daughter with her tangible embrace."
Not an "obligation" to go there, is it Maeve?
More from Elder Ephraim:
“When someone wants to present himself to the king, he prepares himself for days—that is, with an overall preparation in cleanliness, speech, approach, manners and so on—to attract the king’s sympathy and thus obtain the desired request. Corresponding to the incomparable difference between the two kings, every Christian ought to prepare for holy communion in order to obtain mercy and forgiveness.
Cunning, flattery, affectation and lies often adorn someone who approaches an earthly king so that he may obtain what he wants. Whereas holiness, a humble spirit, and simplicity of soul—which is more precious than perishable gold—must adorn the faithful Christian approaching the King of kings, Who looks upon the inner man.
Let us also prepare ourselves with purified intellects, and, aspiring to the mortification of our senses from the passions, let us enter together with the holy Apostles into the Mystical Supper in purity, and let us partake of our sweet Jesus, so that He may abide with us unto the endless ages of ages. Amen; so be it!
. . .
You should approach the divine Mystery with much compunction, contrition, and awareness of your sins. Great is the mercy of God, Who condescends to enter within you without abhorring the multitude of your sins. Instead, out of boundless love and affection He comes to sanctify you and count you worthy to become a child of His and a co-heir of His kingdom.”
Counsels from the Holy Mountain, pp. 410-11.
Well, I was talking about Craner's theology, which manifested itself in a concerted effort to remove all stone altars from the churches and replacing them with wooden tables. The point was that the Eucharist should be thought of as a meal, not a sacrifice. Many liberal Catholic priests talk this way, talk which is now being contradicted at the synod of bishops.
I'm not quite 50 yet, but we weren't allowed in the church without a head covering. I attended Catholic school and the Nuns would bobbypin a tissue on our heads before us girls stepped into the Church. No respect at all these days!
I was stunned a couple weeks ago when this happened. I hadn't seen it in forever and suddenly, the altar...umm, young men, they weren't really boys, but HS and college or seminary, were walking down the Sancuary steps with the plates in their hands.
"The Holy Council declares moreover: The Church has always had, in the dispensation of the sacraments, their substance being saved, the power to decide or to modify what she judges better to suit the spiritual utility of those who receive them or with respect to the sacraments themselves, according to the variety of circumstances, times and places.
*Your personal opinions about what H.M. Church is at liberty to legislate about is neither interesting nor does it evince sound theological insight.
Ah, I don't have to see this anymore, I see this... Deo Gratias!
50. The sacred liturgy does, in fact, include divine as well as human elements. The former, instituted as they have been by God, cannot be changed in any way by men. But the human components admit of various modifications, as the needs of the age, circumstance and the good of souls may require, and as the ecclesiastical hierarchy, under guidance of the Holy Spirit, may have authorized. This will explain the marvelous variety of Eastern and Western rites. Here is the reason for the gradual addition, through successive development, of particular religious customs and practices of piety only faintly discernible in earlier times. Hence likewise it happens from time to time that certain devotions long since forgotten are revived and practiced anew. All these developments attest the abiding life of the immaculate Spouse of Jesus Christ through these many centuries. They are the sacred language she uses, as the ages run their course, to profess to her divine Spouse her own faith along with that of the nations committed to her charge, and her own unfailing love. They furnish proof, besides, of the wisdom of the teaching method she employs to arouse and nourish constantly the "Christian instinct."
51. Several causes, really have been instrumental in the progress and development of the sacred liturgy during the long and glorious life of the Church.
52. Thus, for example, as Catholic doctrine on the Incarnate Word of God, the eucharistic sacrament and sacrifice, and Mary the Virgin Mother of God came to be determined with greater certitude and clarity, new ritual forms were introduced through which the acts of the liturgy proceeded to reproduce this brighter light issuing from the decrees of the teaching authority of the Church, and to reflect it, in a sense so that it might reach the minds and hearts of Christ's people more readily.
53. The subsequent advances in ecclesiastical discipline for the administering of the sacraments, that of penance for example; the institution and later suppression of the catechumenate; and again, the practice of eucharistic communion under a single species, adopted in the Latin Church; these developments were assuredly responsible in no little measure for the modification of the ancient ritual in the course of time, and for the gradual introduction of new rites considered more in accord with prevailing discipline in these matters.
54. Just as notable a contribution to this progressive transformation was made by devotional trends and practices not directly related to the sacred liturgy, which began to appear, by God's wonderful design, in later periods, and grew to be so popular. We may instance the spread and ever mounting ardor of devotion to the Blessed Eucharist, devotion to the most bitter passion of our Redeemer, devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the Virgin Mother of God and to her most chaste spouse.
55. Other manifestations of piety have also played their circumstantial part in this same liturgical development. Among them may be cited the public pilgrimages to the tombs of the martyrs prompted by motives of devotion, the special periods of fasting instituted for the same reason, and lastly, in this gracious city of Rome, the penitential recitation of the litanies during the "station" processions, in which even the Sovereign Pontiff frequently joined.
56. It is likewise easy to understand that the progress of the fine arts, those of architecture, painting and music above all, has exerted considerable influence on the choice and disposition of the various external features of the sacred liturgy.
57. The Church has further used her right of control over liturgical observance to protect the purity of divine worship against abuse from dangerous and imprudent innovations introduced by private individuals and particular churches. Thus it came about - during the 16th century, when usages and customs of this sort had become increasingly prevalent and exaggerated, and when private initiative in matters liturgical threatened to compromise the integrity of faith and devotion, to the great advantage of heretics and further spread of their errors - that in the year 1588, Our predecessor Sixtus V of immortal memory established the Sacred Congregation of Rites, charged with the defense of the legitimate rites of the Church and with the prohibition of any spurious innovation.[48] This body fulfills even today the official function of supervision and legislation with regard to all matters touching the sacred liturgy.[49]
58. It follows from this that the Sovereign Pontiff alone enjoys the right to recognize and establish any practice touching the worship of God, to introduce and approve new rites, as also to modify those he judges to require modification.[50] Bishops, for their part, have the right and duty carefully to watch over the exact observance of the prescriptions of the sacred canons respecting divine worship.[51] Private individuals, therefore, even though they be clerics, may not be left to decide for themselves in these holy and venerable matters, involving as they do the religious life of Christian society along with the exercise of the priesthood of Jesus Christ and worship of God; concerned as they are with the honor due to the Blessed Trinity, the Word Incarnate and His august mother and the other saints, and with the salvation of souls as well. For the same reason no private person has any authority to regulate external practices of this kind, which are intimately bound up with Church discipline and with the order, unity and concord of the Mystical Body and frequently even with the integrity of Catholic faith itself.
59. The Church is without question a living organism, and as an organism, in respect of the sacred liturgy also, she grows, matures, develops, adapts and accommodates herself to temporal needs and circumstances, provided only that the integrity of her doctrine be safeguarded. This notwithstanding, the temerity and daring of those who introduce novel liturgical practices, or call for the revival of obsolete rites out of harmony with prevailing laws and rubrics, deserve severe reproof. It has pained Us grievously to note, Venerable Brethren, that such innovations are actually being introduced, not merely in minor details but in matters of major importance as well. We instance, in point of fact, those who make use of the vernacular in the celebration of the august eucharistic sacrifice; those who transfer certain feast-days - which have been appointed and established after mature deliberation - to other dates; those, finally, who delete from the prayerbooks approved for public use the sacred texts of the Old Testament, deeming them little suited and inopportune for modern times.
60. The use of the Latin language, customary in a considerable portion of the Church, is a manifest and beautiful sign of unity, as well as an effective antidote for any corruption of doctrinal truth. In spite of this, the use of the mother tongue in connection with several of the rites may be of much advantage to the people. But the Apostolic See alone is empowered to grant this permission. It is forbidden, therefore, to take any action whatever of this nature without having requested and obtained such consent, since the sacred liturgy, as We have said, is entirely subject to the discretion and approval of the Holy See.
61. The same reasoning holds in the case of some persons who are bent on the restoration of all the ancient rites and ceremonies indiscriminately. The liturgy of the early ages is most certainly worthy of all veneration. But ancient usage must not be esteemed more suitable and proper, either in its own right or in its significance for later times and new situations, on the simple ground that it carries the savor and aroma of antiquity. 62. Assuredly it is a wise and most laudable thing to return in spirit and affection to the sources of the sacred liturgy. For research in this field of study, by tracing it back to its origins, contributes valuable assistance towards a more thorough and careful investigation of the significance of feast-days, and of the meaning of the texts and sacred ceremonies employed on their occasion. But it is neither wise nor laudable to reduce everything to antiquity by every possible device. Thus, to cite some instances, one would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive tableform; were he to want black excluded as a color for the liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Churches; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the divine Redeemer's body shows no trace of His cruel sufferings; and lastly were he to disdain and reject polyphonic music or singing in parts, even where it conforms to regulations issued by the Holy See. 63. Clearly no sincere Catholic can refuse to accept the formulation of Christian doctrine more recently elaborated and proclaimed as dogmas by the Church, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit with abundant fruit for souls, because it pleases him to hark back to the old formulas. No more can any Catholic in his right senses repudiate existing legislation of the Church to revert to prescriptions based on the earliest sources of canon law. Just as obviously unwise and mistaken is the zeal of one who in matters liturgical would go back to the rites and usage of antiquity, discarding the new patterns introduced by disposition of divine Providence to meet the changes of circumstances and situation.
65. In every measure taken, then, let proper contact with the ecclesiastical hierarchy be maintained. Let no one arrogate to himself the right to make regulations and impose them on others at will. Only the Sovereign Pontiff, as the successor of Saint Peter, charged by the divine Redeemer with the feeding of His entire flock,[54] and with him, in obedience to the Apostolic See, the bishops "whom the Holy Ghost has placed . . . to rule the Church of God,"[55] have the right and the duty to govern the Christian people. Consequently, Venerable Brethren, whenever you assert your authority - even on occasion with wholesome severity - you are not merely acquitting yourselves of your duty; you are defending the very will of the Founder of the Church.
Petition, Adoration, Reparation, Thanksgiving. My prayer before Mass helps me to recollect myself. As I entered the Church (and I think a Church ought have VIP Status; Verticality,Iconography, Permanance) and Blessed myself with Holy Water, I began to leave mundanity and mediocrity behind.
. I address myself to all parts of the Mass and try to elevate my soul for what it is I am about to participate in.
I am a Redeemed Christian standing at the altar with Jesus offering the Perfect Sacrifice of the New Covenant to God as an act of propitiation and to call down upon us all the Graces necessary to speed us on the way to Salvation and I eat the New Covenant Meal, Jesus, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity so as to become more like Him and to advance theosis and to extinguish venial sins
I could add a lot more but that is, in essence, my understanding of what Mass is all about
Brother K, I don't think too many of my Christian brothers and sisters are as spiritually advanced as you so you have to cut them some slack :)
Bap Kennedy: VAMPIRE by Bap Kennedy Domestic Blues, 1998
You only come around in night
Well I really shoulda known
Serves me right
Never invite a vampire into your home
I m' not the worst, I'm not the best
I'm in between like all the rest
But you've got to go
Never invite a vampire into your home
*Brother K, most of us Christians are like the bolded text of Bap's song.
Not too many are going to appreciate/apprehend Liturgy as well as you do.
So, my desire is Liturgy which makes the Mysteries of our Faith inviting to the many absent a compromising secularization
I know we disagree about Liturgy being reformed to address a particular people/culture/epoch (What one could call the "accidents" of the Mass) but I don't think we disagree at all re the Substance of Liturgy- The D.L. is the action of Jesus as both Priest and Victim...And the Eucharist. D.L/Mass is both a Sacrifice and a Sacred Banquet and too infrequently, imo, the Church has failed to inform its members about this truth
Well, Justin and tertullian aren't in a position here to be writing canons. They are merely illuminating the practices extant in their own day.
All this stuff that the modernists like to point to to justify communion inn the hand is all well and good. But it is largely a smoke screen for a totally different agenda than was on the minds of the ancients. The ancient Church often allowed , or even stipulated, receiving in the hand, it was, as Justin Martyr's excerpt makes clear, primarily motivated in bringing the Sacred Species home to the sick, or, in times of persecution (still raging in both his and Tertullian's time), to people who could not sneak away to the liturgy, or were too impeded by fear.
No such motivations exist in the Western Church today (yet), and an appeal to the older practice was disingenuously made by proponents 30-40 years ago. By modern times, a "tradition of reverence" had long since established itself in the West, whereby the "reverent" consumption of the Host was diectly on the tongue. The sudden push for an appeal to an older form was, in conjunction with many other things calculated to reduce the belief in the Real Presence, simply a shock mechanism designed to diminish the Eucharist.
Communion in the hand, standing to receive (in the West; in the East, this has always been done, with a different sense for what constitutes reverence), incessant references to Communion as a "meal" (again, misusing an ancient sensibility with different implications today) conducted at a "table of the Lord" rather than an "altar of sacrifice," and a host of other diminishing agents to the Western concepts of the Real Presence, all run hand-in-hand.
The saddest things is, after thirty+ years of this, that the majority of the bishops seem clueless when asked "what happened" to Catholic belief in the Real Presence! Reading poll after poll indicating that only 30% (!!) of Catholics believe in transubstantiation should provoke an honest, introspective investigation by the bishops of the underlying poor catechesis and minimalist liturgical example leading to this statistic. It *should*, but it evidently *hasn't*. Please, God, may the synod currently underway bear fruit in this regard, if not by the bishops' own initiative, then by Benedict XVI's own direct intervention.
I see that you must be one those charitable Novus Ordo conservatives.
And before you quote St Augustine and others to the effect of the need for "tough love," I can tell you from my own observations in sveeral quarters, including discussions with many cradle Catholics that a lot of the problems in the Church today stem, psychologically, from those in the pre-conciliar time who dispensed "tough love"--only it meant all tough and no love.
With regard to the replied to post and the one following it, with lots of highlighted portions from Mediator Dei, none of which I disagree with, of course, I do not question the power of the Pope or the bishops to legislate changes to the accidents of the rite, just the wisdom of some of them in the post-conciliar implementation of the Council's own very good document on the liturgy.
In spite of our differences on this matter, I would ask your prayers for me, and promise to do the same for you.
Post 52 really should have been a response to post 34, not 33. That is why I lead with a clarification about Justin, Tertullian, and "canons." Sorry if there was confusion about this.
Thank you for transribing it!
I was just posting some relevant facts to illuminate the historical backdrop to this opinion piece. It is too little known by the average Christian.
I can make the arguement the ancients receiving in the hand were far more Christian than the Christians receiving on the tongue while kneeling. While psoture is obviously important it is secondaary to a right interior disposition.
I think the focus on the dual aspect of the Mass to be a boon to the Church. For too long, the Sacrificial Nature of the Mass has been over=emphasized, imo. And as you probably know, the Church has emphasized different parts of the Mass in different epochs (see Jungmann's classic study.
FWIW, I think the knowledge of the average Christian about the Real Presence is probably not dissimilar to what went before.
All we have to do is read Trent and what the Bishops there were forced to contend with in the Liturgues back then - ignorance, worldliness, superstition, poor mass attendance, loud talking during Mass, worldly music etc.
There is nothing new under the sun. The "crisis" in the Church is, imo, constant. And by noting what I think, I don't in any way discourage Bishops from fulfilling their Duties to Teach, Rule, and Sanctify. Far from it.
I am Blessed to be in a Parish with a Pastor who is a genius. He is charismatic, knows the Bible inside out, and preaches the fulness of Christ every Sunday. I am talking sin, heaven, hell, vice, virtue etc. He also demands we tithe and he has a mission in So. America we all contribute to.
The fact is, I feel genuine sorrow for most Christians in AmChurch. They are nowhere near as blessed as I am
As to your observations on the post-conciliar changes I agree. But, I think we are on the right path back to Liturgical probity. And I thnk we have the Pope for this time re this matter. But, like God, our sweet Jesus on Earth,the Pope,works through volunteers. He needs the Bishops to cooperate and discharge their duties with zeal and fidelity.
As to being a this or that N.O. Conservative, I reject the label. I am a Christian Catholic
Pope Benedict XV Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum
22. The success of every society of men, for whatever purpose it is formed, is bound up with the harmony of the members in the interests of the common cause. Hence We must devote Our earnest endeavours to appease dissension and strife, of whatever character, amongst Catholics, and to prevent new dissensions arising, so that there may be unity of ideas and of action amongst all. The enemies of God and of the Church are perfectly well aware that any internal quarrel amongst Catholics is a real victory for them. Hence it is their usual practice when they see Catholics strongly united, to endeavour by cleverly sowing the seeds of discord, to break up that union. And would that the result had not frequently justified their hopes, to the great detriment of the interests of religion! Hence, therefore, whenever legitimate authority has once given a clear command, let no one transgress that command, because it does not happen to commend itself to him; but let each one subject his own opinion to the authority of him who is his superior, and obey him as a matter of conscience. Again, let no private individual, whether in books or in the press, or in public speeches, take upon himself the position of an authoritative teacher in the Church. All know to whom the teaching authority of the Church has been given by God: he, then, possesses a perfect right to speak as he wishes and when he thinks it opportune. The duty of others is to hearken to him reverently when he speaks and to carry out what he says.
23. As regards matters in which without harm to faith or discipline-in the absence of any authoritative intervention of the Apostolic See- there is room for divergent opinions, it is clearly the right of everyone to express and defend his own opinion. But in such discussions no expressions should be used which might constitute serious breaches of charity; let each one freely defend his own opinion, but let it be done with due moderation, so that no one should consider himself entitled to affix on those who merely do not agree with his ideas the stigma of disloyalty to faith or to discipline.
24. It is, moreover, Our will that Catholics should abstain from certain appellations which have recently been brought into use to distinguish one group of Catholics from another. They are to be avoided not only as "profane novelties of words," out of harmony with both truth and justice, but also because they give rise to great trouble and confusion among Catholics. Such is the nature of Catholicism that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole or as a whole rejected: "This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly; he cannot be saved" (Athanas. Creed). There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism: it is quite enough for each one to proclaim "Christian is my name and Catholic my surname," only let him endeavour to be in reality what he calls himself.
There is nothing new under the sun. The "crisis" in the Church is, imo, constant. And by noting what I think, I don't in any way discourage Bishops from fulfilling their Duties to Teach, Rule, and Sanctify. Far from it.
You know, that is really a good point. That is why I admire St. Philip Neri, who almost single-handedly changed the people of the city of Rome for the better.
Dear brother, thank you for your kind post and the accompanying text from our Holy Father. I stand corrected (fraternally) on this matter and entirely subscribe to what you, and the Holy Father, have written there. He is such a gift from God to the Church at this time.
All the best.
"Brother K, I don't think too many of my Christian brothers and sisters are as spiritually advanced as you so you have to cut them some slack :)"
Unh huh! As I have said before, +John Chrysostomos to the contrary notwithstanding, I am the greatest of sinners.
"Not too many are going to appreciate/apprehend Liturgy as well as you do."
I don't understand at all what is happening during the Divine Liturgy but I do experience it, experience existence on the Eighth Day! Any Christian can do that, a little "unclouding" of the nous, and I do mean a little, is all it takes. I am no saint and I have no special knowledge of things. I try to worship our Triune God the way my ancestors have for 1800 years or so and live out that Faith 1/100th as well as my peasant ancestors did.
"The D.L. is the action of Jesus as both Priest and Victim...And the Eucharist. D.L/Mass is both a Sacrifice and a Sacred Banquet and too infrequently, imo, the Church has failed to inform its members about this truth"
The Church doesn't need special programs to teach us to repent, to "fear God" first for His didactic corrections and later for fear of our own human nature leading us from God. Every Latin Rite or Eastern Rite or Orthodox Christian knows this. Once we arrive at a point of "perfect fear", which really is true love of God, the Liturgy/Mass becomes living in the Eighth Day, which is more real in every important sense of the word than the other seven. The Church doesn't inform us of these things, God's grace allows us to experience and know these things.
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