www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall More Ordinariate Disappointment

Wasn't the establishment of the Ordinariates by Pope Benedict XVI suppose to help bridge the gap between the Mass in the OF and EF of the Roman Rite.

I prefered internal participation. As it is suppose to be in the Roman Rite.

Active participation internally, meaning praying the Mass. If you read the Popes book on the Liturgy, you will get some sense into what I mean. This of course being directed at the Roman Rite. As for lectoring, in my previous post, please disregard that. I didn't have enough time to edit my comment. Lectoring is definately fine for lay people. But everything else can lead to many abuses in the Roman Rite, from what I have observed.

And I highly doubt they would resemble what they came up with after 1970. Or what one would see at the LA Liturgical Congress, with Liturgical Dancers, incense bowls, dancing deacons and every other innovation.

Many "traditionalist" Catholics have dim or hazy memories of the pre-Conciliar Church, and seem to think that there was a much greater degree of reverence for the Mass then, than there is now. That may be the case, but Fr. Serge demonstrates that the degree of reverence then still left much to be desired. Specifically, he points to the Holy Table of the Altar. Under the pre-Vatican II rubrics, there were precise instructions for the materials, care, and positioning of the altar, but in point of fact, seldom were these implemented. Supposedly made of stone, most altars were in fact hollow wooden boxes (frequently marblized) and were, contrary to all prohibitions, often used for storage purposes.

He also points to the abuse of simultaneous services, recounting how he once visited a parish in which a Mass was in progress at the main altar, a second priest was addressing the congregation from the pulpit throughout the Mass, a third priest was distributing Holy Communion continuously at the altar rail, a marriage was taking place in one side chapel, and devotions were being held audibly in another side chapel, whilst in the midst of all this "pious chaos" several other priests attempted to hear confessions. He also notes that the Blessed Sacrament was enthroned in a monstrance on the main altar, even though the rubrics disapproved of the celebration of Mass in the presence of the enthroned Blessed Sacrament. Fr. Serge wryly observes that had anyone tried to point this out the parish priest, he would have been told to go elsewhere; he notes that the faithful who have attempted to point out abuses in the Novus Ordo have been similarly dismissed.

[A]ll prostestations to the contrary notwithstanding the real basis for the Novus Ordo is the Low Mass. He {Kelleher] follows this with a brief synopsis on the development of the low Mass; i.e., how it began as an abbreviated form of the Solemn Mass to be used when priests celebrated without the presence of a congregation, how it eventually became a public Mass, with the congregation worshipping however they pleased while the priest also prayed silently, and how music unrelated to the liturgical action was gradually inserted into the Low Mass. He observes that the Solemn (High) Mass came to be regarded as suitable only for the most important holy days, and generally a burden to be avoided. While every scholar knew that the Pontifical High Mass was the normative form of the Roman Liturgy, everyone's practical experience was the opposite: the Low Mass was normal, and the High Mass a rare aberration, which ordinary Catholics avoided at all costs.

He notes that in this century, attempts at reforming the Low Mass led to a variety of other abuses, starting with the so-called "Dialogue Mass" that originated in Germany in the 1920s, and which reached the US in the 1950s. The Dialogue Mass was a low Mass in which the entire congregation recited the responses once said silently by the acolytes. The existence of this hybrid made celebration of the High Mass even more rare, but worse, it encouraged misunderstanding of the congregational role in the Mass. For instance, the priest continued to read silently the Propers, which should have been sung by the congregation; the people did not recite the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, or Agnus Dei--all of which were still recited silently by the priest. At the same time, the people did recite the Suscipiat response to the Orate, Fratres--which rightfully are a dialogue between the celebrant and concelebrating presbyters.

Fr. Serge quotes Cardinal Heenan in a 1967 interview, in which Heenan said.


In other words, Low Mass is what matters, Music is a "trivial embellishment" that would drive people from the Church.