“It is very important that we return as soon as
possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together
in the same direction – eastwards or at least towards the apse – to the Lord
who comes.” ... “I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible.”
He said that “prudence” and catechesis would be
necessary, but told pastors to have “confidence that this is something good for
the Church, something good for our people”.
“Your own pastoral judgement will determine how
and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of
Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not
delay’.
With these words, Robert Cardinal Sarah has
pushed further the argument for a "reform of the reform" of the
modernist liturgy forced upon the Catholic faithful by Paul VI.
What are we to think of this?
First, a suggestion is worthless, except that
it may indicate a future command to come and that this is to soften up the
troops, so to speak. You can count on objections and vehement fights against
it. All we in the English speaking world need to do is to recall the fight over
the correct translation of the Latin modernist liturgy into English.
Second, it is not going to save what Pope
Benedict XVI called, the "Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite" because it
is not enough.
The liturgy forced upon the Church by Paul VI
was so far and removed from anything the Council Fathers desired in
Sacrosanctum Concilium as to be nothing more than a complete break with the
past. The problem with this Novus Ordo Missae is the Novus Ordo Missae. It is
fundamentally flawed.
Nothing in the Council called for Mass facing
the people and in fact, the ability to face liturgical east is already in the
Missal where the priest is directed at the Orate Fratres and the Pax vobiscum,
to face the people. This presumes that he is not. The Missal and its Graduale
Romanum already provides for Gregorian chant, Latin Ordinary and text, incense,
beauty, and so on. Why is it not done?
The ability to reform the reform is already
there in every Missal and no priest needs permission to do it.
Fundamentally, turning the priest will fix
little without more.
The Offertory of the Mass is nothing more than
a minor Talumudic table blessing
Baruch atah Adonai Elohainu melech haolam hamotzli lechem min haaretz.Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the
earth.
Baruch atah Adonai Elohainu melech haolam borai pri haaitz.Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree.
It was put in the Mass by Anibale Bugnini after an
outrage by Paul VI because there was to be no resemblance of an Offertory in
Bugnini's, "Presentation of the Gifts." The priest would receive the
bread and wine from a contrived procession, prepare them and then say the
"Prayer over the Gifts" leading directly into the Preface. No
offertory prayer. No orate fratres. Paul VI demanded an Offertory and this is
what we got. A Jewish talmudic table blessing which replaced this:
Accept, O Holy father, Almighty and Eternal
God, this spotless host, which I, Your unworthy servant, offer to You, my
living and true God, to atone for my numberless sins, offences, and
negligences; on behalf of all here present and likewise for all faithful
Christians living and dead, that it may profit me and them as a means of
salvation to life everlasting. Amen.
O God, ✠ Who in creating man didst exalt his nature
very wonderfully and yet more wonderfully didst establish it anew; by the
Mystery signified in the mingling of this water and wine, grant us to have part
in the Godhead of Him Who hath deigned to become a partaker of our humanity,
Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of
salvation, entreating Thy mercy that our offering may ascend with a sweet
fragrance in the sight of Thy divine Majesty, for our own salvation, and for
that of the whole world. Amen.
Come Thou, the Sanctifier, Almighty and
Everlasting God, and bless ✠ this
sacrifice which is prepared for the glory of Thy holy Name.
How do you even begin to compare these prayers? Can an ardent defender of the modernist liturgy please explain it?
We are to believe that simply turning the
priest around will fix what is wrong?
The problems of the penitential rite options,
the Canon (Eucharistic Prayer) options and the actual orations themselves,
changed or deleted entirely from the ancient Missal are even greater problems
with the liturgy.
Until these options are removed, by order and
the I Confess, Offertory and Roman Canon are mandated by law, then there can be
no reform.
At the same time, we are to accept that girls
and women should still assist at the altar, women should have their feet washed
and communion should be given in the hand.
The Cardinal also said that people should
return to communion, kneeling.
Has he tried that in a typical parish?
I applaud Cardinal Sarah for this beginning. The reality is, this, the bishops will ignore it and priests who take this on without the leadership of their Ordinary will be pilloried.
It is a beginning.
It is not enough.
