The following comes from a January First Things article by George Weigel:
In all the sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council, is there any prescription more regularly violated than General Norm 22.3 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy? Which, in case you’ve forgotten, teaches that “no . . . person, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.”
If you’re a daily Mass attendant, the odds are that you hear that norm violated a dozen times a week. Sunday Mass people typically hear it violated two or three times a week, at least. Auto-editing or flat-out rewriting the prescribed text of the Mass is virtually epidemic among priests who attended seminary in the late Sixties, Seventies, or early Eighties; it’s less obvious among the younger clergy. But whether indulged by old, middle-aged, or young, it’s obnoxious and it’s an obstacle to prayer.
Such self-discipline on the part of celebrants would also help eliminate the clericalism (and worse) involved when Father Freelance, well, free-lances. For in metaphorically thumbing his nose at the Council’s clear injunction (not to mention the rubrics in the Missal), Father Freelance is de facto asserting his own superiority over the liturgy. And in doing so, he is, whether he intends it or not, downgrading the congregation’s role in offering right worship to the Thrice-Holy God.
It may come as a surprise to Father Freelance, but after more than four decades of priest-celebrants trying to be Johnny Carson, Bob Barker, Alex Trebek, or whomever, this act is getting very old. Father, you’re just not very good at it. Your freelancing is often banal, even silly. Moreover, you demean us by suggesting that we, the congregation, can’t handle the sacral language of the liturgy, and that we have to be jollied into participation. In fact, if you listen carefully, you’ll discover that congregational responses drop off when you invite a response in your terms, not the liturgy’s.
Why do you think Catholics are leaving the Novus Ordo Mass for the TLM ? It is because there is no showmanship going on. Young priests, and other priests are discovering the beauty of the TLM, where liturgy is something sacred, and not like an episode of THE GONG SHOW.
It was so much better, in the era before Vatican II, when the priest– our “alter Christus”– knew exactly who he was, and what his holy mission was, for Christ! A good priest was supposed to behave well, act professionally, as God’s holy servant, and he was supposed to offer goodwill, in Christ’s Name– and always be present to people, ready to listen and help! He was a chaste, celibate, devout man of prayer, with a gold wedding ring on his finger, married to God! He had an indelible mark on his soul, from the Sacrament of Holy Orders, that is unchangeable, and eternal! He always reverently and prayerfully FACED THE ALTAR OF GOD, when offering Holy Mass! A holy man, to admire and look up to!
Instead of just complaining, George Weigel should vote with his feet and find a faithful parish.
That may be more easily said than done. I have gone to numerous parishes around mine and have found their “improvements” on the liturgy to be even more egregious than those in my own. So I grit my teeth and stay here.
YOUNG priests are flocking to the TLM because all they knew before was the “man made” Novus Ordo. Now with the F.S.S.P., S.S.P.X. and Institute of Christ the King and other traditional societies made available these young men see the real Mass and not the Broadway Show called the Novus Ordo.
Daily Mass on EWTN does not violate that norm.
Some years ago I was in the unfortunate position of having to hear Mass Celebrated by a priest who used a loose-leaf folder instead of a missal. A self-proclaimed liturgist, trained in Paris, but ministering in the far North of England.
You do not attend Mass to be entertained. If a priest has a voice problem, and or speaks in a sad tone, that is NO excuse not to attend Mass. The Mass is not a circus, the Ed Sullivan show, or a rock concert. It is a sacred event where we worship God.
Faithful priests have a saying: “Do the red, say the black.” In the Roman Missal the rubrics of gestures and instructions for action are printed in red to guide the priest. The spoken texts are printed in black, and are to be said exactly as they are written. Whenever I am complimented for celebrating a reverent liturgy, the reverence is because I “do the red, say the black”.
THANK YOU FATHER!
Father, can you give an example of gestures for us that are in Red and then examples of spoken tones that are in Black. I believe you mean gestures such as, looking towards Heaven, proper folding on the hands, after the consecration keeping the thumb/index and middle fingers touching.
Spoken tone examples I would say, during the consecration a voice that is direct but soft, during the Lords Prayer a tone that is also direct and confident. For me a distraction is when these gestures and tones are the “Look at me everyone approach like evangelicals”, which has lead the lay to do the same during the sacrifice.
Yes, and thank you Father. A very good and holy priest once told me that when a priest celebrates the mass, those in the pews should not even be aware of or recall who he is.
I know this is wildly off topic, but…
I am so tired of all the applause during and after Mass — for the announcements, for the choir, etc. We are not attending a show, but a liturgy!
Makes me crazy. I hold my ears.
That’s a Major ABUSE!!
My brother gets very hot under the collier when he hears non-cops, mainly lawyers and professors pontificate about how cops should do their jobs. “Never did it, couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it and don’t want their kids to do it.” he says. I think maybe the same critisism applies to Mr. Weigel..
No C&H you are wrong….it is the silence of the laity that has let the abuse at mass go on and on and on for decades… We don’t want to hear stupid jokes, or see the priest walk up and down the aisle like some 2nd rate showman… Its really very simple,, teach the hard truths of the Catholic Faith that will lead souls to heaven that’s it.
Fr. John Higgins honestly sets forth that “A priest can and should connect with the people.” The question arises, how does that “connect” in the “ordinary form” occur?
In a ground-breaking view of the New Liturgy written in 1967, famous V2 liturgist Fr. Robert Hovda claimed that the priest, in the New Mass must connect “with one’s eyes, as well as with one’s general demeanor”—a consequence of the curious “turning-around” of the altars or versus populum, yet another change never actually prescribed in V2’s Sacro. Concilium.
“One need not and one should not devour the congregation with one’s eyes. But there must be a constant exchange of interested, compassionate, encouraging looks, not only during reading and homily, but…
…not only during reading and homily, but also during song and prayer.” (“Worship,” v. 41:9, 1967)
This psychologically- and mentally-exhausting effort to support the new-found New-Mass concept of “presidency” by the priest rather defines the N.O. liturgy, with its highly-charged emotional, verbose, and personalized focus on “active” participation.
This is not an “attack” on the New Liturgy, & even less a “correction” aimed at Fr. Higgins, but a statement of fact. it is that the differences between the New Mass and the TLM, if it is a matter of the priest being required to “connect” with people, rather misses the obligation of the individual to “connect” with God our Lord and Christ His Son. But the New Mass,…
… But the New Mass, with its tendency to subjective and emotional-gratification-seeking feedback, lays this burden on the priest, strangely enough.
Just do yourself a favor and browse for the Latin Mass Directory after typing in “tradition”. You will be glad you did, get yourself acquainted with the Roman Catholic Church before it changed so drastically on account of V2. Yes there is so much to learn about our Roman Catholic Heritage that has intentionally faded since V2, all under the guise of modernization to entertain and keep the masses, not to worship the Lord in the manner He so directed i.e. the TLM. The bad fruits of V2 are its readily apparent loss in tens of millions of souls.
Of course, I concur that the Liturgy is not to be altered. (That said, there are “places” in the Liturgy at which variations are permitted, “according to the book.”) But, I’ve observed orthodox Catholics rightly denounce innovations they dislike, but approve of innovations they like (like adding in a Hail Mary or prayer to St. Michael during Mass). We lose credibility if we oppose only those innovations we don’t like or disagree with, but applaud those we like. Best to trust Christ’s Church and not innovate with the Liturgy.
Craig, Your comment that orthodox catholics . . . approve of innovations they like . .. Where have you seen this? In FSSP?, SSPV?, SSPX? CMRI? Where? I would gamble to say, not in the SSPV, SSPX, or CMRI Roman Catholic Parishes. I have attended TLMs in each of these last 3 groups and they all abide strictly to the rubrics of the TLM. There are modern parishes that advertise they conduct the Latin Mass and do “innovate” perhaps, but theirs is not the TLM; rather more like Paul VIth Mass or NO service in the latin language!
OBTW Jeanine, That key word to search on is not tradition but “traditio”. The directory is fantastic and I use it whenever I am going out of town.
Unfortunately, for many Novus Ordo Catholics, the high point of the Mass is NOT receiving Holy Communion, BUT, the kiss of peace. At this time, sometimes the choir sings some silly song (not hymn) while the congregation and the priest wander all over the church. I know it is forbidden for this to occur, but it is still goig on. Ave Maria Purrissima !
Jesusita, I know that you believe strongly what you post here, but it is exactly that attitude that is driving people away from the TLM, even if they might be tempted to try it. Who would want to go to church with folks that think everyone else is a lesser Catholic or being. I don’t hear of read about NO folks hating or denigrating folks who like the EF more than the NO. This will not change until we all come to the belief that both forms of the Mass are ok and that people should go to the one they prefer.
Well, Bob One, your anecdotal viewpoint that “I don’t hear or read about NO ‘folks’ hating or denigrating ‘folks’ who like the EF more” means you have selective hearing.
A lot of the rest of us hear the put-downs by NO ‘folk’ of “those who want the Old Ways”, “Old Catholics”, “Schismatics”, “Apostates”, etc, My personal favorite is: “S/he’s a Traditionalist, you know (arched expression accompanying)”.
I would just stick to your volunteer-work with the Bernie Sanders campaign, and you’ll be fine. Everyone like-minded there.
Bob One is right. The only one who is even called schismatic are those who follow the illicitly ordained Bishops of Lefebvre. Official documents of the Church call that a schismatic act.
Few if any on CCD disparage those who want a more quiet, devout liturgy, one with more latin or more chant, communion on the tongue kneeling, or even those who favor the TLM.
But the aspersions cast upon those who prefer the Ordinary Form have been told we are bringing down the Church, sometimes we are told we are not True Catholics, or that our Masses are not The Mass for All Times. Admit it, Steve, it’s the traditionalists who disparage the rest, not the other way around.
Then again, with other people, it isn’t selective-hearing, it is sheer deafness.
“Steve, it’s the traditionalists who disparage the rest, not the other way around.” Once again YFC gets it wrong, try requesting the TLM from pant-suited feminist cabal that runs many of the NO parishes and see what happens. Go read Commonweal YFC and tell me what those people think of the TLM.. BTW the SSPX is not schism not matter how much you want it to be…
You know, it is a rather vacuous, if not downright comic, to complain about “aspersions” against the N.O. Liturgy as it “not [being] the Mass for All Times”—-when the N.O. was in fact created in 1969, making it exactly 47 years old this year (Barack Obama is older than this liturgy)—being itself fabricated by secret committee.
To this day, we do not know all the members on that committee: some of them were: Annibale Bugnini, disgraced Abp. Rembert Weakland, and 6 Protestant observers (one, a Taize leader who later became a Catholic priest, Max Thurian, who later bitterly lamented the loss of mystery in the Traditional Catholic Mass “of the ages”). But a Mass constructed in 1969 can hardly be a “Mass for All Time”.
Cansius, My reference was explicitly to the discussion on CCD. Which we can all see, witness, and quote. I’m not sure I have seen any pant-suited feminist here on CCD. Who would that be? What did he or she say here on CCD that makes me “wrong”?
BTW – the original ordinations of the 4 bishops was described by the Vatican as a schismatic act. The schismatic nature of the actions of SSPX was referred to in Vatican documents as late as 2015.
Steve Phoenix, the Mass was created by the Holy Spirit. It is part of God’s eternal plan for our Salvation. It is the greatest act of Mercy as it is the continuation of the Sacrifice that the Son of God made to His Father on Calvary. Please stop re-oping His Wounds with your unbelief. Pray for faith.
MC, if you want to drink the waters of Lethe and ambiguously assert that “the Mass (i.e, the 1969 creation) was created by the Holy Spirit”, when it is manifestly a different liturgy; when in fact V2 eye-witness Msgr. Klaus Gamber states that the Council Fathers never conceived of a new Missal, let alone a New Mass (“The Reform of the Roman Liturgy”); when the Consilium committee destroyed or concealed records of their proceedings (cf. Historian Robert De Mattei); when you equalize the Traditional Latin Mass, confirmed by St. Ambrose (d.397), St. Gregory the Great (d. 603), P. Innocent III (d.1216), S Pius V, and St. Charles Borromeo, with a secretive creation of disgraced Abps. Bugnini (who opposed any mention of “sacrifice” in the New…
“sacrifice”–your word–in the New Rite—he even wanted to delete the “Orate Fratres”/”Pray, Brethren” prayer) and Rembert Weakland (read Weakland’s own biography—he describes the stealth “experimental liturgies” held at night, for Paul VI in January 1969 in the Sistine Chapel)—then do not think that your culpable ignorance will save you. We are all bound to know the truth, and that includes you too.
And a memorial meal at a table is a human commemoration—cf. Thomas Cranmer on the matter; a Catholic altar is for divine sacrifice. You choose.
The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the Cross, because it is IT’S memorial and because it applies its fruit..
Christ, our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer Himself to God the Father by His death on the altar of the Cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because His Priesthood was not to end with His Death, at the Last Supper, “on the night He was betrayed”, He wanted to leave to His beloved Spouse the Church a visible Sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody Sacrifice which He was to accomplish once for all on the Cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world and its salutary power be applied to the…
YFC writes ” I’m not sure I have seen any pant-suited feminist here on CCD. Who would that be?” Well….it’s not me! I either wear jeans or if the ocaission calls for something a little dressier, a nice skirt and blouse. For Sundays I have a couple of “church lady” outfits.
By FAITH, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.
CCC143
Fine, MC, par. 1366 of the CCC is what you are quoting at me, which we all agree on. The Q. is however, is this theology in fact what was intended by the Bugnini-Weakland Consilium and its 6 Protestant observers? The answer is a resounding “no”. In fact in the original GIRM document, Bugnini used the term “the Lord’s Supper”, an exact phrase of Thomas Cranmer, Henry VIII’s heretic archbishop, who hated the Mass as sacrifice.
Let me help you out further: liturgical expert, Josef Jungmann, and an actual member of the Consilium stated unequivocally “The Roman Rite as we knew it no longer exists. Case closed.
By the way, some people attribute a similar quote to V2 expert, Fr. Joseph Gelineau also:
” Fr. Joseph Gélineau S.J., a Council peritus and liberal apologist for the new liturgy, states in his book “Demain la Liturgie” (1976 MD p.77-8): “To tell the truth, it is a different liturgy of the Mass. This needs to be said without ambiguity. The Roman Rite as we knew it no longer exists. It has been destroyed… [the former edifice]… appears to-day either as a ruin, or the partial substructure of a different building.” (Don Pietro Leone, “The Roman Rite”, quoted in Rorate Coeli BlogSpot, 10/18/2011)
YFC I do not care who or what you were referring to … I was stating facts something you are blind to because it does not fit your pro-gay leftist template…..
C&H your snark does not impress me, you also are blind to facts because they upset your leftist pro gay world view…..
Why think twice about what whoever intended?
It is God’s will that is done.
Belgian archbishop: ‘Time has come’ for Pope Francis to defend Church’s Tradition | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/belgian-archbishop-time-has-come-for-pope-francis-to-defend-churchs-traditi
Oh-oh, Catherine, your (as usual) astute link on Belgian Primate Card. Leonard who notes the continued decline of this once-most-Catholic country, under Card. Danneels, a lion of V2, and his co-rebel hierarchy (specifically contra Humanae Vitae):
“Seventy percent of [Belgians] under-thirties now declare they have no link whatsoever with the Catholic Church and only 25 percent of marriages involve a religious ceremony. The decline accelerated under Cardinal Danneels, who was Primate of Belgium between 1979 and 2010: he was of the vein of the majority of Belgian bishops who openly defied the teaching of Paul VI on contraception in Humanæ vitæ in 1968.
Pope Francis raises the stakes for Catholics unwilling to accept ‘change’ | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-raises-the-stakes-for-catholics-unwilling-to-accept-change
“Then again, with other people, it isn’t selective-hearing, it is sheer deafness.”
Thank you, Steve Phoenix. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You. ”
Vox Cantoris: So who is this Jason Welle, EssJay and why is he being ordained to the priesthood?
https://voxcantor.blogspot.com/2016/01/so-who-is-this-jason-welle-essjay-and.html?m=1
Bob One, You appear to have that erroneous modern, liberal, twisted view point that Roman Catholics practicing tradition think they are better than V2 members. Its time you liberals, stop and listen carefully what we Roman Catholics practicing tradition have been trying to say. It is a matter of right and wrong. By their fruits you shall know them says the Lord. Look at the fruits of V2, national surveys show 2/3rds of “practicing” V2 members don’t believe in the transubstantiation anymore, 3/4ths of “kind-of-practicing” V2 members don’t go to NO services regularly, and finally 10s of millions worldwide of V2 members have lost their faith, some joining protestant sects, many gone agnostic, and some becoming atheists.
Three fallacies here. The first is that these things are not fruits of Vatican II.
Second, Jesus was talking about persons when He said “by their fruits you shall know them.” Not the Church, which is his Mystical Body and cannot err.
Third, you have no idea what the rate of these “fruits” would be without Vatican II.
If you are a person who attends a parish of “Roman Catholics practicing tradition” (and I am assuming that means a parish that has not been established by the Catholic Church) you probably DO know a lot of people who left the Church because of Vatican II. And so the “fruits of Vatican II” story makes sense to you. The people I know who have lost the faith quit attending because the Church forbids something that they want to do (birth control, same sex marriage, re-marriage after divorce, getting married on the beach, abortion,) or because they honestly do not believe what the Catholic Church teaches. They don’t believe in God, or if they do, they don’t think He cares if they go to Church. And the more threatening the religion is…
“The great problem of contemporary liturgical life (apathy towards worship, boredom, lack of vitality and participation) stems from the fact that the celebration has sometimes lost its character as mystery, which fosters the spirit of adoration. We often encounter an inflation of words, explanations and comments, homilies too long and poorly prepared, which leaves little room for the mystery being celebrated… ”
–Max Thurian, essay “Liturgy & Contemplation”, 1996 (Thurian was a member of Bugnini’s secret Consilium committee that constructed the famous “New Mass” of Paul VI)
Cardinal Zen against the Vatican diplomacy in China
“The innocent children were killed, the angel told Joseph to take Mary and Child fleeing to safety. But today our diplomats might advise Joseph to go and groped a dialogue with Herod?”.
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2016/01/11/il-cardinale-zen-contro-la-diplomazia-vaticana-in-cina/&usg=ALkJrhgcPhC6gtztfclWGz1sr3-Udg7Vww