famuladomini

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“The 1960s reformers had no chance of success since their goal was recasting from top to bottom—and in a few months!—an entire liturgy which had required twenty centuries to develop.”

- Professor Louis Bouyer, close friend of Pope Saint Paul VI.

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I know this might ruffle some feathers but I haven't gone to Latin mass in a couple of weekends and have gone to my NO parish instead, and maybe it's a coincidence with this being a very busy season for my work but I have been very spiritually unmotivated lately. really looking forward to being in a Latin mass parish this weekend because I know it will revive and rejuvenate my desire to pray and frequent the sacraments during the rest of the week

[famuladomini]

On active participation in the Roman Rites.

Today in the chapel as I was looking up at crucified Christ, I had a thought about the connection between Our Lady and St. John at the foot of the Cross and us, the faithful, in the Holy Mass.

We are called to pray at Mass and silently observe the Passion and Sacrifice of our Lord, just as the B.V.M. and St. John witnessed the death of our Redeemer on the Holy Cross. In this way we actively participate in the Holy Mass by offering our hearts and personal prayers to God, who is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Novus Ordo, however, does not provide the faithful with enough opportunities for mental prayer and offering. Instead the NO emphasises dialogue between the celebrating priest and the congregation in the name of ‘active participation’. It seems as if the responses are there merely for the sake of participation and creating a community. But where does this leave space for the faithful to meditate on the mysteries of our Lord present in the Holy Mass? For Mass is not about us trying to create a sense of community, instead it is foremost about the Perfect Sacrifice that Christ made when He willingly died on the Cross for the redemption of the souls of the world.

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“We turn to the East when we stand to pray, since this is where the sun and the stars rise. It is not, of course, as if God were there alone and had forsaken the rest of creation. Rather, when these earthly bodies of ours are turned towards the more excellent, heavenly bodies, our minds are thereby prompted to turn towards the most excellent being, that is, to our Lord.”

- St. Augustine of Hippo

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Laetare Ierusalem!

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Laus tibi, Christe, Rex aeternae gloriae.

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Do you believe in palm reading?

no but I believe in psalm reading

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Oh, to be a nun watering a garden

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Traditional Benedictine monastery.

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My favorite prayers are the ones written by saints that confess the depravity of the soul.

“And I, deplorable as I am, dare to receive Your whole Body […]”

“[…] and that You may remain as You have said with me, thrice-wretched as I am,”

“See my depression, and see how great is my trouble: take from me all my sins, O God of all, […]”

“for a relief from the burden of my many sins; for a protection from all diabolical practices; for a restraint and a check on my evil and wicked way of life;”

“May receiving Your awe-inspiring, immaculate Mysteries be to me, wretched sinner, not for judgment, O loving Lord; may it rather be to me for immortal and everlasting life.”

“As You once said it, O Christ, so let it be to me Your worthless servant: […]”

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Blessed feast of Saint Benedict, the father of western monasticism!

Oremus.

Intercessio nos, quæsumus, Domine, beati Benedicti Abbatis commendet: ut, quod nostris meritis non valemus, eius patrocinio assequamur. Per Dominum nostrum.

[famuladomini]

I've been thinking about when Jesus resurrects Jairus' daughter, and how the first thing he does is tell them to feed her. I sort of feel like her sometimes, like that's kind of my relationship with the Eucharist. Everytime I fall Jesus brings me back to like and feeds me with himself. I've been seeing the Eucharist in so many bible passages lately, like the banquet after the prodigal son comes back, or the bread that's given to Elias when he's desperate and wants to die. God left so many clues and when I read them I just feel so much joy knowing He truly wants to come to me in the Eucharist, even if I don't feel worthy of it.

[famuladomini]

Have you ever heard the claim that the Mass of Paul VI - often called Novus Ordo, currently the most commonly celebrated Mass in the Roman Rite - was deliberately “Protestantized”? Maybe that sounds like a wild conspiracy theory. But even wild theories have some starting point. Why would anyone say that?

When the Protestant sects first began separating in earnest from the Catholic Faith and remaking the Sunday obligation in their own image, they: 

- Removed the high altar and put a small table in the middle of the sanctuary for an altar instead. “Luther’s table” was to be made of wood, not stone, because this is a meal, not Our Lord’s expiatory sacrifice. - Obliterated the Roman Canon, for the same reason. This was one of Luther’s first steps; even though initially his “masses” remained similar seeming to the Roman Rite, it was understood by all that the Mass had been gutted and destroyed with the removal of the Roman Canon. - Insisted that the faithful receive the “sacred symbols” under both kinds, standing, in the hand - as a direct repudiation to the Real Presence, the Mass as sacrifice, and Holy Orders. - Denied the sacrament holy orders, reducing the priest to a preacher; there was no difference between “minister”/”celebrant”/”presider” and laity. - Engaged in wholesale iconoclasm: whitewashed murals, destroyed or junked statues and paintings, desecrated sacred objects - including turning altar slabs into paving stones - and otherwise cleaned the churches out of sacred art. - Scrapped Latin as the sacred language, because it was recognized as the single greatest obstacle to the reforms. - Re-wrote a new liturgy from whole cloth; in England, Cranmer achieved this over a period of years, each time introducing a new liturgy that was less and less Catholic until it was undeniably Protestant. - Stopped saying “Mass,” instead calling the event “liturgy” or “communion service” or “the Lord’s supper.” - Wrote new hymns - to replace the vast repertoire of sacred music that was instantly lost to use with the rejection of Latin; to solidify the new doctrine; to exaggerate, with singing together, a feeling of community in this new form. - Argued that these beliefs and practices were the way the Christian faith used to be, but had been obscured by centuries of Popish invention.

When Anibale Bugnini, primary architect of the Novus Ordo, and his committees began creating the succession of forms that would become the new Mass promulgated by Paul VI, and throughout the course of the Novus Ordo’s implementation, he and his followers:

- see list above.

Bugnini, 1965: “We must strip from our Catholic prayers and our Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our separated brethren, that is, for Protestants.”  Bugnini, 1974: “[The reform is] a major conquest of the Roman Catholic Church.”  (x)

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“But the Tridentine Mass only dates from the Council of Trent!” A common misunderstanding. The so-called Tridentine Mass was a codification of the ancient Mass, in direct response to Protestant heresies. Quote: “In the strict sense there is no “Tridentine Mass,” for at least at the conclusion of the Council of Trent, there was no creation of a new Mass order; and the “Missal of St. Pius V” is nothing else but the Missal of the Roman Curia, which had seen the light in Rome over ten centuries earlier, and which had been introduced by the Franciscans into many Western countries.  The changes made at the time by St. Pius V were so minimal that they can be noticed only by a specialist.” From Gamber, Reform of the Roman Liturgy (x)

“But… the Novus Ordo is Mass! It’s valid!” I’m so glad you mentioned the v-word. Stay tuned for a second post on this topic, in which we will discover what validity means and doesn’t mean, and why it’s not a magic bullet that makes all of the problems outlined above disappear.

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Some online sources for further reading:  

The Protestant Revolution in England (audio) What I Didn’t Know About Bugnini and the Liturgy Cathedrals: Era to Era (FB page; lots of photos) Fr. Hunwicke, Hermeneutic of Continuity Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Revisiting Paul VI’s Apologia for the New Mass Quotes from Gamber’s Reform of the Roman Liturgy Mary Cuff, The Disposable Modern Hymn

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The cells of nuns.

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