A ''correspondant'' sent me this by email, and I thought it quite amusing and pertinent.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Just say no...
I make a point of not attending New Rite Masses. I went to three last year, on Ash Wednesday morning (because I had to work in the evening) - only because I consider the Lenten fast to be quite meaningless without the imposition of Ashes. I attended a Confirmation Mass in February or March, where I said something quite funny to a certain visitor, some readers might be amused to recall; and a Mass on St Patrick's day, since he is my patron. In 2008 I managed to avoid the New Rite for the whole year, which I was quite pleased about. Previous years were quite mixed. Before the Motu Proprio was issued (funny how we refer to Summorum Pontificum as the Motu Proprio, as if there were no previous ones!), I was hard put to it to find a decent Sunday Mass; so I would travel up to the Oratory on occasion for their 9:00am Mass - a Low Mass - but this proved too hard for me. So in a sense I gave up, and I treated Mondays at Maiden Lane as my ''Sunday'' Mass. Then things changed and I started going to Blackfen when the Old Rite was brought in, although it was a long time before anybody noticed that I was there.
A ''correspondant'' sent me this by email, and I thought it quite amusing and pertinent.
A ''correspondant'' sent me this by email, and I thought it quite amusing and pertinent.
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I disagree with your attitude on this, Patricius - whatever the imperfections in the liturgy, the Mass is still the Mass.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that posts such as this are what opponents of the Extraordinary Form use as ammunition.
Mac, I understand what you mean, although I would say that there is a danger in your view of complacency.
ReplyDeleteHowever, unlike opponents of the Old Rite, I would go to a New Rite Mass if I had to fulfill my obligation to attend Mass, such as on a Holyday. I can't imagine an opponent of the Old Rite ever attending one of those awful Latin Masses where the priest has his back to the people and mumbles prayers in a dead tongue...
Opponents of the extraordinary form will always be opponents - no matter how much you placate them. If the Mass is still the Mass, then there would no point in the fight for the old rite during the last 45 years.
ReplyDeleteI stopped going to the Novus Ordo when I read the famed Michael Davis triology and now only go, when there is absolutely nothing else available/special occasions such as weddings and funerals.
Patricius;
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but Mac is right. It's not to do with complacency, but with obedience to the Magisterium.
The Holy Father has clearly stated that both forms are equal parts of the patrimony of the Church, and equally valid.
Surely a faithful Catholic will therefore conform his/her Mass-going to that principle, not only in conformity with the Holy Father's clear wish, but also to avoid even the slightest suggestion of schism, which apparent disagreement with his remarks might cause.
But you said in your post that you DIDN'T go to Mass on Sundays, but went on Mondays instead... However, Church Law commands us to go on Sundays, whether the liturgy is to our taste or not. The tone of your posts suggests you considered Sunday Mass in the Ordinary Form to be unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting juxtaposition of this post to the previous one on the 'Octave'.
ReplyDeleteDoes not Pope Benedict celebrate the 'Novus Ordo' and was it not promulgated by one of his predecessors?
But you say yourself that you "treated Mondays at Maiden Lane as your 'Sunday' Mass"! And you're sneering at other Catholics.
ReplyDeletePatricius
ReplyDeleteI think that sometimes the only way is to vote with your feet.
You are very fortunate to to be able to be able to attend an EF Mass regularly - and on Sundays too, but it seems to involve a lot of travelling. Watch out for criticism from green Catholics who will be shocked at your carbon footprint! ;-)
Thank you all for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but my extremely low opinion of the New Rite will not change since I know something of 20th century liturgical reform. I do not sneer at other Catholics, as one of you said, and I'm sorry if that is how this post came across - it is often the case with me that people are offended at what I say when that is not my intention. There are one or two other reasons about my non-attendance of Sunday Mass but I will not elaborate that here.
I think that the Church will one day do away with the New Rite and admit that she made a very horrible mistake. What needs to happen is a rediscovery of what the Liturgical Movement was really about - more variety, splendour, majesty and beauty for the Liturgy and not ''understanding'' in the literal sense, or ''active participation'' in the sense of everybody actually doing things and making a riot; and this requires patience and hard work. This is after all the ancestral meaning of litourgia.
As for the danger of schism - I have never once questioned Church teaching. I generally leave that to opponents of the Old Rite...
Unfortunately, I can only fulfil most of my obligations by attending the New Rite, but I've always made it very clear that if I could never attend the New Rite again then I wouldn't. I don't pretend to like the New Rite and there is nothing which says that I have to like it. It's an inferior expression of the Catholic faith and wreeks of ecumenism. It's not that which was handed down to us by our fathers but rather is the product of someone who had a grudge against the Curia (liturgical change being his weapon against the Curia) and was probably a freemason.
ReplyDeleteI am always extremely weary of traditionalist (bearing in mind I am of a traditional mould) who I personally am not comfortable with the idea that the Church has committed error. I mean perhaps individual priest have committed error in the way they've celebrated it, but to say the Mass itself is some form of error, despite the Holy father celebrating it himself, I find deeply troubling and would also serve as ammunition by some against the Church as being free from error. I understand though that this idea of being free from error is largely attributed to doctrine and so on, but still.....
ReplyDeleteOk, my first sentence made no sense at all looking back at it.
ReplyDeleteIt should have said something like, "I am extremely weary of traditionalists who ask for the obliteration of the NO as this would suggest the Church has committed error in something which is fundamental to the life of the Church: the celebration of the Eucharist."