Posted on 07/16/2006 3:35:44 PM PDT by NYer
For all you liturgy-junkies, just a quick heads-up that another Vox Clara convocation begins in Rome on Monday.
The committee on English-language translations has doubled its meeting schedule this year to four sessions, and this one's order of business will be twofold. First up is the initial review on the amended translations of the Order of Mass approved by the episcopal conferences of the United States and Canada since VC last met at the end of May. As the amendments were approved gingerly, it has been said that the recognitio of the revised Order of Mass could be granted by late fall.
"...In a November letter to Vox Clara, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his wish that "the translation into English of the latest edition of the Missale Romanum may soon be completed, so that the faithful throughout the English-speaking world may benefit from the use of liturgical texts accurately rendered in accordance with the norms of the Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam." [More...]
Thanks
I know how you feel. Once upon a time, the hands of a priest were thought to be something special. They are, in a way, , the hands of Christ himself, and to receive the host from those hands was, again, special.
I'm always reduced to mush at the part of the ordination mass when the hands of the candidate are anointed with oil and the bishop makes three circles with chrism oil on each palm.
Having "Extraordinary" Eucharistic Ministers in the Latin Church was a huge mistake because I feel it diminishes the mystery of the Eucharist in the minds of the faithful.
In the Byzantine Catholic churches only ordained men may handle the Eucharist or sacred vessels because their hands have been properly consecrated.
Restricting the laity from touching the Eucharist with their hands reinforces its mystery and profound holiness.
For me going into a Novus Ordo temple and seeing laypeople touching the Eucharist is almost scandalous because there would be hell to pay if I did that in my Byzantine Catholic parish.
"Why did they remove the altar rails?"
I find that sort of funny, considering most Lutheran Churches I have attended still have altar rails. The same is true of many Anglican parishes.
Even some Methodist churches.
"Why did they remove the altar rails?"Let's see.........
To make it easier for all the EMHC's to get on the altar?
To make it easier for the life teeners to gather round' the altar?
To make it easier for the priest to leave the altar and wander all over the church during the sign of peace?
Because while they were ripping out the confessionals, they thought they might as well rip out the altar rails too since no one had to kneel to receive communion?
All of the above.
The creators of the Novus Ordo sacrificed some of the most beautiful prayers of the traditional Roman rite in its creation.
Here are just a few that I found inspiring as a new convert to Catholicism that were excised:
I found Psalm 42 at the foot of the altar to be a profound way of setting up the liturgical action. (i.e. the Mass is a mystical sacrifice, not a la di da social get together.) I think it is little wonder that the Anglican High Churchmen restored this Psalm 42 to their Protestant liturgy. Meaning, they saw it as a way of undoing the Protestant antipathy to the Mass as a sacrifice.
The priest's prayer before the Gospel:
Cleanse my heart and my lips, almighty God, who didst cleanse the lips of Isaiah the prophet with a live coal: so of thy gracious mercy vouchsafe to cleanse me, that I may worthily proclaim thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (I feel this prayer emphasizes the holiness of the Gospel message and the priest's humanity far better than the
revised rite.)
The liturgical actions in the former rite that emphasized the Mass as an office of sacrifice to the Lord more than the current rite. The current rite, unlike the former, is capable of having a Lutheran interpretation to it.
Had the revisers of the Roman Mass wanted an authentically Catholic way of simplifying the liturgy, they could have looked to simpler forms of the Roman liturgy such as the Carthusian usage.
The spirit of the Novus Ordo is not in keeping with the spirit of the apostolic liturgies from my experience; that is, the vertical sense of the sacred. It is a product of the
spirit of the nihilistic and narcissistic 1960s and 1970s.
The rubrics of the traditional Roman Mass could have been modified to encourage greater participation per Vatican II, or other ways of bringing the liturgy closer to the faithful could have been accomplished. Other aspects, such as the restoration of concelebration could have been introduced to the 1962 Missal.
Perhaps a modest restoration, such as the reimplementation of the 1965 Missal for a transition back to Tradition could be an option. http://traditionalromanmass.blogspot.com/
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