Monday, April 10, 2006

Critical Mass: Preludes

Ever notice how with the Super Bowl, the pre-game hoopla on television goes for longer hours than the game itself? The possible announcement concerning the 1962 Missale Romanum seems to be setting a similar tone.

Father John Zuhlsdorf provides some thoughtful commentary in his post entitled "Tridentine Signs of the Times," which is well worth reading:

"First and foremost, we know that Pope Benedict has been in the past very favorable to celebrations of the older form of Mass. He has celebrated the older Mass on occasion while still Cardinal. He has written of the older Mass in his liturgical writings...

Pope Benedict has sharply changed the style of papal Masses, the presence of His Excellency Piero Marini... notwithstanding...

A couple things are important to note. First, there has been a large shift of gravity in the Curia. People have been replaced with others having very different and more flexible ideas about liturgy...

Cardinal Arinze recently gave a talk in London that was very hard hitting and rather traditional sounding, suggesting in fact that genuflection before the Blessed Sacrament really ought to be even in Mass... and the tabernacle belongs in the center of our view in churches...

His Holiness is not a harsh man. He hasn’t ever moved abruptly in matters of discipline... in one work on liturgy he wrote years ago, he spoke about the issue of the position of the altar and the
ad orientem Mass...

However, he carefully stated that we must avoid the sort of abrupt changes like those after the Council which caused so many of our present woes..."


(Caution: Does not read well on all browsers. Recommend Firefox over Safari for Mac users.)

From this, we might determine that the Holy Father's agenda transcends the issue of one set of books versus another. This is an important point for those whose attention is focused solely on "the Old Mass" This has to do with restoring the sacred in the liturgy of the Western church, while recognizing that an ecumenical council -- well, happened.

Stay tuned...

(UPDATE: This just in from Catholic News Agency via Shawn Tribe. It's getting warmer...)

2 comments:

Dad29 said...

You've nailed it. It's not about "Latin" or "English" (or french, german, mandarin...)

It's about "sacred time, sacred space, sacred language, ...."

David L Alexander said...

"Sacred time, sacred space, sacred language..."

All of which are possible with the reformed liturgy -- in theory. We have lost that ability in practice, and we have to find it. Benedict XVI has known all this, has said all this. This is his moment, and ours with him.