Time to Restore the Sense of the Sacred: To Love the Liturgy is to Love the Lord Comments
The Church is made visible in many ways: in its charitable work, in mission projects, in the personal apostolate that every Christian must realize in his or her own environment. But the place where it is fully experienced as a Church is in the liturgy: it is the act in which we believe that God enters into our reality and we can meet Him, we can touch Him. It is the act in which we come into contact with God, He comes to us, and we are ... Continue Reading
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Language is important. The new translation of the Mass is to most English speaking people unintelligible in many places. I challenge anyone to listen to the reading of the prayers and be able, without stud,y to repeat the main theme of the prayers. Literal translation of Latin does not communicate to most people. Yes we pray what we believe, but if we cannot understand what we pray, how do we know what we believe?
The return to the old communion rail or kneeling for communion will not bring greater attraction to Catholic liturgy. Seminaries may be filled with people who think otherwise, but when one fifth of the population of the United States has no affiliation with religion, we may need to look deeper at what attracts people to liturgical worship of any kind.
right on Deacon. I'm about 2/3 done with that book right now. It was suggested by a priest after conversation. It explains in the book why this priest I know has a different position during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. (some people may be put off by this they think it a new way of doing things) Your last paragraph is exactly what this priest was saying to me.
when you grow up with the Liturgy, it is many times taken for granted. Like the sun rising over the landscape is taken for granted by a child who sees it every day. Then you take a breath, stop and really see the beauty of it-try and understand it. It is more beautiful than facing east watching the sun come up over the horizon. a true and awesome Sunrise.
Good article, Deacon Keith, but you fail to mention that liturgy is part of Tradition with a capital "T." The Holy Mass was handed down to us from St Peter and the Apostles and developed organically over time. As Cardinal Ratzinger stated in the past, the Novus Ordo Mass was, at least partly, a rupture. He called it a "banal...artificial...on the spot product." No pope and no bishop has the right to change a liturgical rite because it was handed down to them. According to Msgr. Klaus Gamber, Ratzinger's favorite liturgist, Paul VI "destroyed the Roman Rite."
Certainly the New Mass is still a Mass that gives worship and praise to the Father through Christ in the Holy Ghost, but it was illicitly put in place. If Paul VI wanted the venacular, then why not just translate the Traditional Latin Mass into the Mother Tongue of the people? If Paul VI wanted to simplify things a bit and cut out some accidentals of the Traditional Rite, why not just do it that way? The Mass of Vatican II can be found in the 1964 MIssal that was produced a year before the council closed. The 1964 Missal was the counciliar reform of the 1962 Missal. It was approved by all and was basically the Old Mass reformed organically. Why then later, did Paul VI create a totally new ritual for Mass in 1969? He called it the Novus Ordo...a New Order of Mass. Popes are not allowed to do such things...they are called to preserve the Faith and the official rituals of the Church...in his case the Latin Rite. The only hope in the area of liturgy is to go back to the council and to the Mass of the council. The New Mass, even when said beautifully is still a rupture with the past and an illicitly formed Mass.
What ever happened to the old "We kneel to pray, we sit to be instructed, we stand to praise"?
Why should we not be "humbly and devoutly" kneeling when we pray, especially for our litanies and the Agnus Dei? And with the possible exception of a large outdoor mass, why should we not be humbly and devoutly kneeling to receive communion?