Donr 6m Q7 Solesmes ... A | 3| | THE MASS from St. Pius V to Paul VI pn dE Guy Oury Dom monk of Solesmes THE MASS from St. Pius V to Paul VI 20941226-9 Solesmes 1975 fmprimi ! Ê t potest : Solesmes, die 29a Maii + £fr. Toannes Prou Abbas S. Petri de Solesmis Copyright Abbave Saint-Pierre de Solesmes 72300 . LS.B.N. ; 2-85274-013-3 Shortbread (France) } foreword For six years now, controversies have been going on about the Missal of St. Pius V. The articles and even the works published on this subject (those of M. Salleron and M. da Silveira in particular) would be enough to constitute a small library. Many of the authors claim that they have not yet received There is no relevant answer that really refutes the arguments put forward by them. Therefore, it seemed necessary, without any spirit of polemics, to compile a small sum proposing the essential answers that can be given to those who are painfully preoccupied with this problem. Answers of a canonical order, first of all, showing that the Missal of Paul VI was regularly promulgated (Î) and that the Missal of St. Pius V is no longer legitimately in use outside of a few particular cases provided for by the law of the Church. Answers of a theological order: the fundamental answer, first of all, drawn from the necessary rectitude of the faith of the Roman Church and its expression in public prayer, guaranteed by the ordinary magisterium (IIN); then a series of more analytical responses comparing the faith defined at Trent and the expression it has found in the new Ordo Missæ (IV). Answers of a liturgical nature, showing, on the basis of the historical evolution of the rites of the Roman Mass, how the recent reform is justified and how the new Ordo Missae fits without any real break into the liturgical tradition of the Roman Church. ; ÿ Answer finally to those who question the orthodoxy of the new Ordo Missæ because of the intention which presided over its elaboration (V). ecumenical which The appendices are intended to : - to justify, through a comparative study of the liturgies, some of the modifications introduced into the Eucharistic Prayer (the in, cise " Mysterium fidei, the " Hoc facite in meam commemorationem ", appendices I and IT); -- to bring some documents which seem enlightening (comparison of the Protestant Eucharistic Prayers in use today with the new Roman Canons, Preface of the Missal, texts attesting to the Church's permanent faith in the sacrificial and propitiatory character of the Eucharist, appendices IIT, IV, V, VI, VID. May these pages be useful to those who believe that the Church cannot fail in her faith and that the assistance of the Holy Spirit has been promised to her until the end of time. Î to USED SIGNS AAS: Acta Apostolicæ Sedis. BP: Acts of St. Pius X, Good News Edition DC Documentation catholique. Press. DZ : Denzinger : Enchiridion symbolorum. SOME TERMS DIFFICULT Canon: literally Rule of the Eucharist, designates the Prayer Eucharist as a whole. Anaphora literally Offering, designates the Eucharistic Prayer; tic in the East, Eucharistic Prayer: the central and essential part of the celebration of the Mass beginning with the dialogue of the Preface and ending at the conclusion of the Canon before the Our Father. Epiclesis: literally /invocation to the Holy Spirit, asking either for the consecration of the bread and wine or the fruitful reception of the sacrament. Anamnesis: literally Memory, the part of the Eucharistic Prayer which follows the consecration and which "remembers" the Passion, Resurrection, Glorification of Christ and His Return at the end of time. Intercession: recommendation to God of the Church's intentions in the Eucharistic Prayer, so that the fruits of the Eucharistic Sacrifice may be applied to all (even to non-communists). Doxology: literally Glorification, a prayer of adoration and praise addressed to the three divine Persons. Rites: gestures, words, sacred ceremonies used in the liturgy. Rit : particular liturgy (Milanese, Lyons, Hispanic or Mozarabic rituals), Gallican, Celtic, Byzantine, 9 antiochian, etc.). E S r Î e r e e rr e t r er e r r RE SS r RE r t e nr E ER e E = T e E S m in Î was the new missal regularly promulgated? In the Apostolic Constitution "Divino afflatu", by which he promulgated the new disposition of the Psalter, which, in so doing, he set out to revise the Breviary and the Missal of St. Pius V. Here is what he said in his own words: "The disposition of the Psalter being intimately connected with every divine Office and liturgy, there is no one who does not see that, by the decisions taken here, we have taken a first step towards the correction of the Roman Breviary and Missal. For a Council on this work we will soon set up a special or, as they say, a Commission of Scholars"! The reform was modest; it is nevertheless significant that this great pope did not judge that the work of St. Pius V was definitive and irreformable. -This was also the thought of Pius XII, since he profoundly reworked not the whole Missal, but that which forms the * heart of the liturgical year, the celebration of the Paschal Mystery The reform decreed by the Council It is in the wake of this reform that articles 50 to 58 of the Conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy, solemnly promoted by Pope Paul VI on 4 December, take their place. AAS 2. AAS 3, 1911, p. 633: BP 7, pp. 126-127. 47, 1955, p. 838; DC 52, 1955, c. u 1537 s. 1963; at the close of the 2nd Session. Without the reproductions It seems necessary to give at least a few extracts and an analysis of them in their integrity. They attest that the Fathers of the Council, like St. Pius X and Pius XII, did not think that ; The Missal of St. Pius V was the ultimate "ne; varietur" of the Roman liturgy. "Art. 50. The ritual of the Mass is to be revised in such a way that the proper role and the mutual connection of each of its parts are more clearly manifested and the active participation of the faithful is facilitated. While faithfully preserving the substance of the rites, they are to be simplified; those which have been duplicated or added without much use in the course of the ages are to be omitted; the following are to be re-established according to the ancient norm It is not necessary to go into too much detail, but the Conciliar Constitution goes on to outline the main lines of the reform: moreover, the reform of the Church is to be carried out in a way that is not only appropriate, but also necessary. Without going into too much detail, the Conciliar Constitution then outlines the main lines of the reform: more great variety of biblical readings distributed over a number of years to be determined (art. 51); insistence on the importance of the homily (art. 52); restoration of the Universal Prayer (art. 53); possibility of communion under both species (art. 55); concelebration (art. 57-58) Finally, unity The fundamental nature of the rites of the Mass was affirmed: "Art. 56. The two parts which in some way constitute the Mass, that is, the Liturgy of the Word and the Eucharistic Liturgy, are so closely united that they form a single act of worship. documents application The first was essentially transitory, a series of simplifications of the rubrics of the existing books; during this time the actual reform of the liturgical books continued; the publication of the latter was to mark the beginning of the second stage. It is in fact for a progressive reform that one opted from the first decrees of application; the advantages of the system n rrr The Have they always managed to compensate for the practical disadvantages? It is for others to say. The following documents are from the first stage: - the Motu-proprio " Sacram liturgiam " of January 25, 1964; - the Instruction " Inter œcumenici " of September 26, 1964; - the Ordo Missæ and the ritus servandus corrected of January 27 1965 - the Instruction "Tres abhinc annos" of May 4, 1967: - the new "Variationes in Ordine Missæ inducendæ" of May 18, 1967. " The second stage began with the promulgation of the "Ritus servandus in concelebratione Missæ" of 7 March 1965; then came the decree promulgating the three new Eucharistic Prayers and eight new Prefaces on 23 May 1968. Finally there was the Apostolic Constitution "Missale romanum" signed by the Holy Father on April 3, 1969, at the end of the elaboration of the Ordo Missae. The typical Latin edition of the new Missal and the Lectionary followed in the following months. Two very important reforms concerning the rite of the Mass itself had thus preceded the new Ordo Missae, the first by five years, the second by eleven months, without raising any particular problems or controversies. Now the introduction into the Roman liturgy of new Eucharistic Prayers was a more important event than the suppression of the "devotional prayers" pronounced by the priest (in a low voice) at the Offertory and Communion, for the Roman Canon had been the "sole rule" for the celebration of the Eucharist, with a few modifications, practically since the fifth century. But during the eleven months in which the use of these new Canons was permitted before the promulgation of the renewed Ordo Missæ, their perfect orthodoxy was not questioned, as indeed it always should have been. The "Missa normativa "at the Synod of 1967 On the other hand, discussions had already arisen concerning the first draft of the Ordo Missae which was presented to the Episcopal Synod of October 1967. 13 This project was given the name "Missa normativa", a term which was misunderstood at the time. This did not mean that Masses other than the "Missa normativa" (Mass celebrated in the presence of the people, with active participation of the ministers and the assembly) were a-normal Masses. The meaning was that this type of Mass would serve as a point of reference and that the other modes of celebration would be ordered around it. In the Missal of St. Pius V the true "Missa normativa" was, in fact, the Episcopal Mass sung with the participation of many ministers, a choir, and the congregation, not the low Mass said entirely by the priest, as most of the faithful saw it celebrated. On October 24, 1967, in the Sistine Chapel, the Synod Fathers therefore attended a "Missa normativa", celebrated in Italian by Father Bugnini, then Secretary of the Liturgical Consilium. The celebration lasted fifty-five minutes. Following this "experiment" (quite regular, since the Pope himself had requested it), a number of questions were put to the Fathers, namely four on 25 October and eight on 27 October; here are those concerning the Mass: - 25 October: 1. Do the Fathers think it opportune that, in the Latin liturgy, three other Eucharistic Prayers should be added to the Roman Canon which remains unchanged? Placet: 127; non placet: 22; placet juxta modum: 34. 2. Do the Fathers agree that in these new Eucharistic Prayers the formula for the consecration of the bread should be: "This is my body given up for you"? Placet: 110; not placet: 12; placet juxta modum: 61. 3. Do the Fathers find it opportune that in the new Eucharistic Prayers the formula for the consecration of the wine, Fincise, should be removed from "Mysterium fidei"? Placet: 93; not placet: 48; placet juxta modum: 42, 4. Do the Fathers deem it opportune to give the Episcopal Conferences the faculty of deciding whether to replace the Nicene-Constantinopolitan symbol by that of the Apostles? Placet: 142; not placet: 22; placet juxta modum: 19. 14 ÎÎ - October 27: 1. Does the general structure of the so-called "normative" Mass, as described in the Report and Response, meet with the agreement of the Fathers? Placet: 71; no placet: 43; placet juxta modum: 62; abstentions: 4. 2. Is it the wish of the Fathers that the Mass should always include a penitential act, varied in its forms and according to the liturgical seasons, in which all the faithful participate? Placet: 108: no placet: 23; abstentions: 10. placet juxta modum ; : 39 ; 3. Would the Fathers like the Mass to have three obligatory readings for an experimental period, so that after this probationary period and according to pastoral experience, the question of the number of readings can be satisfactorily settled? Placet: 72; mnon placet: 59; placet juxta modum: 41; abstentions: 8. 4. Does it please the Fathers that the Antiphons for the Entrance, the Offeritory and Communion may be replaced by appropriate hymns according to the judgment of the Episcopal Conferences and with texts approved by them? Placet: 126; no placet: 25; placet juxta modum: 19; abstentions: 103 The first set of questions on the Eucharistic Prayers was on the whole more favourably received than the second; but a placet juxta modum is not a no placet and does not add up to the total of votes against. Placet juxta modum means exactly: "Yes, to a certain extent", or "Yes, but", "Yes, with a reservation on a certain aspect of the question". When the draft has been revised to take into account the "modi" expressed, the vote Placet juxta modum normally becomes a placet sarzs restriction. It should be added that in most projects conceived by men, even eminent men, the solution proposed by a group or a commission cannot receive unconditional approval.3 DC 64, 1967, c. 2078. 15 Every text, every bill, even if accepted in principle, must be amended by those in charge; the opposite would be disturbing. For example, the Mass does not always include a penitential act, and this does not necessarily follow the liturgical times; the Mass does not always include three obligatory readings; the feria, memorials, and feasts include only two, and the Episcopal Conferences enjoy a certain latitude in dispensing with the third reading on Sundays and solemnities. The incision "Mysterium fidei" has remained in the liturgy of the Mass in the immediate vicinity of the words of the consecration of the chalice. It is not true, therefore, that the Synod and the Pope disapproved of the normative Mass, and that it resurfaced two years later by a clever trick of the mind without the knowledge of the Supreme Pontiff; it was used as a working outline: it was not taken up again as it stood. The "Ordo Missæ "of Paul VI On Holy Thursday 1969, the new "Ordo Missæ" being ready and the Missal about to be published, Pope Paul VI promoted the one and the other (the latter by anticipation) by the Apostolic Constitution "Missale romanum" (3 April 1969). The pontifical act praises the Missal of St. Pius V, and this eulogy does not have the tone of a funeral oration; it could not be otherwise, since many of its elements enter into the composition of the renewed Missal, enriched by the contribution of numerous ancient sources, still inaccessible at the time when St. Pius V had his own revision made. In the course of its long existence of four centuries the Missal of St. Pius V has produced numerous fruits; it has spiritually nourished generations of Christians and, spread to the in the most distant regions due to the foundation of new churches, it has been a sign and a powerful factor of unity, a bond between all Catholics of Latin rite. Let us quote the last paragraph of the Apostolic Constitution, in a translation which is intended to be very literal so as not to 16 betray the Pope's thought; the passage has indeed provoked controversies: "Finally, what we have outlined of on the subject of the new Roman Missal, we are pleased to deduce and clarify a particular point (quiddam). The point is this: "When our predecessor, St. Pius V, promulgated the editio princeps of the Roman Missal, he presented it to the Christian people as a factor (instrumentum) of liturgical unity and as the mark (signum) of authentic worship in the Church. In a similar way, even though, by mandate (de mandato) of the Second Vatican Council, we have adopted in this new Missal the possibility of legitimate differences and adaptations, we trust nevertheless that it will be received by the faithful as an aid to witness to and strengthen the mutual unity of all. In this way, through the great diversity of languages, one and the same prayer will be raised to the Father in heaven by our Supreme Pontiff, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, as incense of a sweet smell". Here is inserted an incision which is not found in the first printed booklet containing the Ordo Missæ, but only in the text which appeared shortly afterwards in the Acta Apostolicæ Sedis (Official Journal of the Holy See) and subsequently in all editions of the Missal: "We prescribe that this present Constitution shall come into force from the 30th of November of this year, that is to say, from the first Sunday of Advent. The conclusion of the Apostolic Constitution is identical in all the printed copies: "We desire that what we have decided and ordered be recognized as firm and effective, now and in the future, notwithstanding, if necessary, the Constitutions and Apostolic Orders given by our predecessors, and all other prescriptions, even those worthy of special mention and derogation from the law. Given in Rome, near St. Peter's, on April 3, 1969; Holy Thursday, sixth year The lack of vigour of the Missæ has not indicated in of our Pontificate". The incision mentioning the date of entry into the Constitution in the editio princeps of the "Ordo" shows the importance given to it, the date being the decree from Congregation the 17 of rites which go to is annexed to the Constitution and placed at the head of the Ordo Missæ*. For a simple decree of the Congregation of Rites would have sufficed to promulgate the Ordo Missæ: - Pius XII had the new liturgy of the three Holy Days promulgated by a simple decree of the Congregation of Rites on November 16, 1955, modifying at the same time a very important part of the Missal of St. Pius V; - John XXIII had the second part of the Roman Pontifical (containing the rites of consecration and blessing of sacred places and objects of worship) promulgated by a simple decree of the Congregation of Rites, on April 1" 1961, notwithstanding the bull "Ex quo in Ecclesia Dei" of February 10, 1596, stating that "at no time shall Paul VI himself frequently uses this procedure (c£ Ordo pænitentiæ, Ordo professionis religiosæ, Ordo de sacra communione, etc...). It is well known that St. Pius X, in the Apostolic Constitution "Promulgandi" of September 29, 1906, modified the mode of promulgation of the laws of the Church: "We wish," he said, "that the pontifical Constitutions, laws, decrees and other notifications both of the Supreme Pontiffs and of the Sacred Congregations and Offices should be inserted and published (in the Acta) and, for this reason alone, that they should be considered as legitimately promulgated whenever a promulgation is made. Much has been said about the absence of this clause in the first published booklet containing the Ordo Missæ. According to some, it was boldly said that the Apostolic VI, Paul's Constitution was completed by the French translator, and it would therefore be a forgery. In reality the authentic text of the Apostolic Constitution, the authoritative one to which one must refer, is the complete text, which represents Sedis; published in the Acta Apostolicæ certainly at the law, in accordance with the Latin comprising kept, to the device clausule of laws or the Missal complete. standards usual; the text all is to be compared, as it is inserted proportions in our Official Journal. The Holy Father has thus expressed in the constitutive act itself (the Apostolic Constitution) his clear will to legislate and therefore to oblige juridically; the same will is expressed also in the decrees of the Congregation for Divine Worship, published "de speciali mandato", which are annexed either to the Ordo Missæ, 18 The mode of promulgation of laws is therefore at the discretion of the Supreme Pontiff; laws must be received by the faithful regardless of the mode of their promulgation and regardless of their juridical form. In any case, the absence of the phrase "this present Constitution" does not transform the said Apostolic Constitution into a dubious (and therefore non-existent) law, since it is accompanied by a decree of the Congregation of Rites which would suffice on its own and which comes to give details of the date of application: "The Ordo Missæ having been renovated according to the decisions of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and having received the approval of the Supreme Pontiff by the Apostolic Constitution "Missale romanum" given on April 3, 1969, this Sacred Congregation by Special Mandate of the Supreme Pontiff promotes the said Ordo Missæ, decreeing that it will begin to enter into force from November 30 of this year 1969, on the 1" Sunday of Advent... Given on April 6, 1969." The decree is signed by Cardinal Gut, Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, and countersigned by the Secretary, Monsignor Antonelli. It cannot be disputed from these documents that the Ordo Missæ was really promulgated; the Ordo Missæ did come into force in the Latin text of the typical edition on 30 November 1969. Only permit or mandatory for all? "An Instruction of the Congregation of Rites, dated 20 October 1969, provided further clarification on the implementation of the Apostolic Constitution "Missale Romanum".6 The delays imposed by the work of translation and by the publication of the texts in the vernacular made it impossible to synchronize the implementation of the reform for the different linguistic areas. The delays imposed by the work of translation and by the publication of the texts in the vernacular made it impossible to synchronize the implementation of the reform in the different linguistic areas. Among other provisions we read: S. AAS 6. AAS 1, 1909, p. 5. 6i, 1969, p. 749; GOLD 31 Oct. 19 1969, p. 3. For the Ordo Missæ: "Î, From November 30, 1969, the Latin text of the renewed Ordo Missæ may be used. 2. The Episcopal Conferences will determine the day from which the Ordo Missæ may be used with the texts in the Latin language. vernacular. was not 7. The various Episcopal Conferences will determine the day on which it will be obligatory to use the Ordo Missæ, except in the cases provided for below; this day may not be postponed beyond 28 November 1971". These three paragraphs are perfectly clear. For the Ordo Missæ (not' for the Missal itself, whose typical edition is still in trade to this date), the Episcopal Conferences were mandated by the Holy See to determine the date on which the new vernacular Ordo would come into force, and the date on which the new Ordo for both Masses celebrated in the vernacular and Masses celebrated in Latin should be obligatorily used, except in cases provided for by law. For the Missal now: "9. The Latin text of the Roman Missal may be used as soon as it comes off the presses. 10. The various Episcopal Conferences will determine the day from which the translations of the new Missal can be used. This can be done in stages, using the translations as soon as they are approved; it is not necessary to wait until all the texts are translated into the vernacular" (some examples follow). "14. The various Episcopal Conferences will determine the day from which the texts of the new Roman Missal, except as provided below, must be used. It is advisable (Præstat) that this period of time should not be extended beyond November 28, 1971. Here again the Instruction is unambiguous; the Episcopal Conferences have a mandate from the Holy See to determine the date on which the texts of the new Missal will come into use in the vernacular and the date from which the new Missal in both Latin and the vernacular will become obligatory for all, except in the cases provided for by law. 20 The special cases provided for by law are as follows: "19. Elderly priests who celebrate privately (sine populo); those who would have serious difficulties in using the new Ordo Missæ, the new texts of the Missal or the Lectionary of the Mass may, with the consent of their Ordinary, retain the use of the present rites and texts. 20. 20. Particular cases, e.g., infirm priests, those suffering from illness or some other difficulty, are to be presented to the Congregation of Rites. Thus, for Masses without assistance, Ordinaries (bishops, major superiors of religious) may authorize elderly priests, or others who have difficulties, to use the Missal of St. Pius V with its ancient Ordo. But for all Masses with assistance, recourse must be had to Rome if the priest who is infirm, ill, or in a particular, difficult situation, wishes to use the Missal of St. Pius V. The Instruction of 20 October 1969 is also signed by Cardinal Gut, Prefect; RP. Bugnini replaced Monsignor Antonelli as Secretary of Rites. In France In accordance with this Instruction, the French episcopate issued an ordinance on November 12, 19697. By apostolic mandate, it determined the date of entry into force (permission) of the new books in French and the date on which the new books, both in French and in Latin, would become obligatory: "1. The use of the new Ordo Missae and the corresponding norms is aforesaid as from the first Sunday of Advent, 30 November 1969. It will be obligatory from January 1, 1970, except in special cases... 8. The texts of the new Missal may be used as soon as they are published. Their use will be obligatory from the first Sunday of Advent 1970. There is no abuse of power in this order; the decisions taken are in accordance with the mandate received from the Apostolic See. 7. D€ 66, 1969, p. 1078. 21 However, the forecasts for the publication of the Missal of Paul VI in Latin and its translations proved to be too optimistic. The Latin Missal was promulgated by a decree of the Congregation of Rites, now the Congregation for Divine Worship, dated 26 March 1970. The decree, signed by Cardinal Gut, stated again: "As for the use of the new Roman Missal, it is permitted from serve go to from Publishing Latin immediately that it will be It is entrusted to the care of the Episcopal Conferences to prepare the editions in the vernacular and to determine the date on which they will come into force after their confirmation by the Apostolic See". There is nothing in this decree about the date on which the new Missal would become obligatory. This had been sufficiently provided for in the Instruction of 20 October 1969, and the slowness of the translation work in some countries made it impossible to foresee when the Episcopal Conferences would be able to make the new Missal obligatory for both Latin and vernacular Masses, as they were to do. It became evident that the deadline of November 28, 1971, originally set in the optative (Præstat: it is better, it is more suitable, cf. supra) was not sufficiently distant for all the translations of the whole Missal to be ready and printed at that time in all countries. So the Congregation for Worship published on June 14 1971 Notification a in which on could read : "The Episcopal Conferences will see to it that the translation and publication of the liturgical books (including the Missal) in the local language are completed as soon as possible. However, in view of the particular difficulties involved in such publications, they shall fix the date on which the translations approved by them and confirmed by the Apostolic See may or should come into use in whole or in part. In France the Ordo Missæ of Paul VI was obligatory since January 1970 for Masses in Latin and Masses in French. The French texts of the new Missal which had already been published became obligatory from !" Sunday of Advent 1970; those which had not been published then were subsequently obligatory. 68, 1971, p. 610. 22 The Latin Missal was also obligatory in France from the first Sunday of Advent in 1970, without the need for a new ordinance. The Latin Missal in its entirety was also obligatory in France from the first Sunday of Advent 1970. When the work of translating the Missal was entirely completed, the Episcopal Assembly saw fit to renew its ordinance, the value of which had been repeatedly - and quite wrongly - contested; this is what it did at Lourdes in November 1974,9 "confirming its previous decision": "1. From the first Sunday of Advent 1974, in the celebration in French, the translations contained in the official French edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI should replace all the previous provisional translations. 2. In cases where the celebration in Latin is foreseen, only the Missal promulgated by Pope VI is to be used (with the exception of Masses celebrated privately by elderly or infirm priests or those who have serious difficulties in observing the new rite: these, with the permission of their Ordinary, may continue bration in to use from Missal from saint Magpie V). A new Notification from the Congregation for Worship had just been published on October 28, 1974, reminding everyone that when an Episcopal Conference made part or all of the new Missal obligatory, this applied both to the celebration of the language vernacular that for the celebration in Latin, and that the permissions granted by the Ordinaries to elderly priests wishing to continue to use the Missal of St. Pius V, could only be granted and used for Masses without assistance (sine populo). Thus the reform of Paui is it not VI not optional : nothing The Fathers who discussed and voted on the Constitution "Sacrosanctum Concilium" had the intention of carrying out a true reform; they were not content to propose it to those of the Church's members who were not in favour of it. 9. DC 71, 1974, p. 1014. Notitiæ No. 99, 1974, p. 353. 23 members from the Church which would like to welcome him; they have well No doubt they envisaged a legitimate pluralism, but within the renewed liturgy; not an alternative to the liturgy, but a legitimate pluralism. between the liturgy of that time and the liturgy after the Council. The renewed liturgy of the Church today is substantially in conformity with the provisions made by the Apostolic See as guarantor; it is henceforth Roman, whether it be celebrated in Latin The real thought from Paul the Fathers, we have promulgated this liturgy as the only liturgy of the Church or in the vernacular. VI But, it is claimed, Paul VI's thinking is at odds with the official acts which he himself signed or for which he gave a "special mandate" to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Faithful. The assertion is purely gratuitous. To close this chapter, here are some words pronounced by the Pope to the faithful, during the audiences he granted in November 1969 and in the summer of 1973; -unless one claims that the Pope continually speaks against his own thought, one cannot deny his testimony; November 19, 1969: "This reform imminent is responding to an official mandate from Church; it is an act of obedience; it shows that the Church is consistent with itself; it is a step forward in the It is a proof of fidelity and vitality which requires from all of us a prompt adherence. It is not an arbitrary decision; it is not a temporary or optional experiment; it is not an innovation of some dilettante; it is a law worked out by eminent liturgists after long discussion and study. We will do well to welcome it with joyful interest and to apply it punctually and unanimously", November 26, 1969: "We must see clearly the motives for which this serious 11. AAS 61, 1969, p. 777; DC 66, 1969, p. 1055. 24 | change has been introduced: obedience to the Council. This first motive is not simply canonical, in the sense that there is only an external precept; it is linked to the charism of liturgical action, that is to say, to the power and efficacy of the Church's prayer... It is the will of Christ, it is the breath of The liturgical reform promoted by the Council and specified by the competent authorities of the Church must be applied in a faithful, intelligent and diligent manner. Those who prevent it or thoughtlessly slow it down lose the providential opportunity of a It is the only way to bring about a true revival and a happy diffusion of the Catholic religion in our time. On the other hand, those who take advantage of the reformation to indulge in arbitrary experiments, scatter forces and hurt the sense of the Church. The time has come to observe intelligently and unanimously this solemn law Can it still be claimed that Paul VI accepted the liturgical reform only unwillingly, that the new Missal which bears his name was imposed on him against his will and that he gave in out of weariness? It would have to be proven that the words so clearly quoted above do not really correspond to his thoughts. And where would one go with such suppositions whose gratuitousness is equalled only by their incongruity? | ñ | 12. DC 66, 1969, p. 1102. 18. DE %, 1973, p. 756. 25 | ! | 2 is the missal of s. Pius is it really V repealed? There is no doubt that the Missal of Paul VI was truly and canonically promulgated; the legislation is perfectly clear and coherent; there are no flaws. The objections raised arise either from an incomplete knowledge of the legislative texts or from an error as to their true nature and scope. The power of the Church But what would be the value of the exposition contained in the first chapter if it were based on a false premise? Did the Council really have the right to decide on a revision of the ritual of the Mass of St. Pius V, and could Paul VI in good conscience promulgate a new Missei? There is a fundamental answer that has often been formulated on similar occasions: since the Church did it, it was within her power to do so. For a point of such importance that touches on faith and the economy of the sacraments, foundations The Church is necessarily guaranteed by the charism of infallibility, and benefits from the assistance promised to her own by the Lord: "And I am with you always, to the end of the age", the Lord told the disciples before leaving them (Mt 28:20). "The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you" (Jn 14:26). 27 The Church would no longer be the Church if, in such a solemn act as an Ecumenical Council, she could be so mistaken about her essential prerogatives; she would be no more than a human society among others, and our faith in her would no longer have an object : "Credo... licam Ecclesiam". "We know that this change, and repeal it unam that it sanctam has established, ", wrote Pius XIF catholicam . the Church in can and aposto too the the Constitution "The following is the entire passage: "If, in time, the container tradition of the instruments (i.e. the delivery of the wine and the paten containing the bread) chalice has been It is known that what the Church has established, she can now change and abrogate. In this respect the ritual of the Mass is in exactly the same situation as that of ordinations; the exact limits of the Church's power are known to us only by her practice; when she modifies a rite which some consider essential, it is because she has received from her Founder the necessary powers to do so; the theologian is content to receive the fact in order to give an account of it with the help of reason enlightened from above by faith, he does not dispute it either a priori or a posteriori. Was the Missal of St. Pius V promulgated "ne varietur " This is what many supporters of the pre-Reformation liturgy wrongly believe; in an attempt to prove it, they rely on the terms of the bull "Quo primum tempore" of St. Pius V dated July 14, 1570: "We forbid for the future and in perpetuity... that no other formulae should be sung or recited than those conforming to the Missal which we have published, even if (one has) obtained some dispensation by an inducement from the Apostolic See, by the fact of a custom, a privilege or even an oath, or by an Apostolic confirmation..." 1. AAS 40, 1948, pp. 5 f.; DC 45, 1948, c. 517, 28 î The pope, however, excepted those churches which had possessed their own liturgy for more than two hundred years. "By our present Constitution, which is valid in perpetuity, we have decided and order under penalty of curse that, for all the other churches mentioned above, the use of their own Missals be absolutely and totally rejected and that nothing be added or subtracted from the Missal that we have just edited" 2 or modified to our How was the bull of St. Pius V understood by his successors? It is enough to question the history of the liturgy; the demonstration will remain the same whether the modification is minimal or of importance. The new edition of Clement VIII, July 7, 1604 (Bull: "Cum Sanctissimum") corrects the sung pieces by holding account of the text of the St. Pius V followed Missarum. In 1634, by the Bull rubrics so to Revised Vulgate, while the Missal of the Old Antiphonal version "Si quid est", Urban VII reshuffles the reduce the transfer of the prevented parties. It would take too long to detail all the additions the Missal in the course of the XVII®, XVIII and XIX* centuries by the introduction of new feasts not contained in the one The liturgical reform of St. Pius V (and for good reason, when it is a question of saints later than him!), but let us pass to the contemporary period. The liturgical reform of St. Pius X, though partial, had its repercussions on the Missal; already the "Divino afflatu" of November 1911 and the Constitution "Abhinc duos annos" of October 23, 1913 brought a certain number of small modifications in the celebration of the Mass; the whole was codified in the "Additiones et variationes in rubricis Missalis" published by Benedict XV on July 25, 1920 in the new typical edition of the Missal. The last of the typical editions was that of John XXIII in 1962, which incorporated the modifications of his new Code of Rubrics; then came the Council. The Breviary and the Missal are living books which evolve, grow, or simplify according to the needs of the Church. Bullarium Romanum (ed. Gaude) 29 t. VII, Naples, 1882, p. 839 s. | l| Ï of which the responsible authority is the final judge. No Pope ever felt bound in his legislative power by the prohibitions contained in the Bull of St. Pius V; these prohibitions only withdrew from the Ordinaries of the Latin Church any right to add to or modify the liturgy without the express permission of the Holy See, which was henceforth constituted the sole legislator in this field. What exactly is the Missal of Paul VI, if not the Missal of St. Pius V, adapted, enriched and completed? If we were to compare it line by line, we would find in the Missal of Paul VI three quarters, if not nine tenths, of the content of the original Missal of St. Pius V. Do we want to add weight to the demonstration by comparing the pontifical texts concerning not the Missal but the Breviary? Two years before promulgating the corrected Missal, St. Pius V had in fact reformed the breviary, which he presented thus in the Buile "Quod a nobis" of July 7, 1568, the content of which is strangely reminiscent of that just quoted: "We order that our Breviary and form of praying and chanting be kept in all the churches throughout the world, monasteries, Orders and places, even-exempt, in which the Office must or is accustomed to be said according to the usage of the said Roman Church, except for the above-mentioned institution or custom exceeding two hundred years. Providing that this Breviary may not be changed at any time, either in whole or in part, nor may anything be added to or taken away from it, and that all those who are bound by law or custom to recite or chant the canonical hours according to the use and rite of the Roman Church... are expressly obliged henceforth and in perpetuity, to recite and chant the hours both by day and by night, in accordance with the prescription and form of this Roman Breviary, and that none of those on whom this duty is formally imposed, can comply with it except in this one form "3. 3 Such an interpretation was given to these clauses apparently exclusive of all progress and evolution: let us judge! The promulgation of the Breviary dates from 1568; thirty-four 3. Ib, p. 685 s. 30 ; el | H A;l Î years later a new and corrected edition of the Breviary appeared, promulgated by the Bull "Cum Ecclesia" of Clement VIIE, 10 May 1602. The new edition made numerous changes throughout the Breviary; first of all, the psalter now followed the revised version of the Vulgate according to the 1598 edition; quite a number of Matins readings were corrected: the general rubrics were retouched; there were also some changes of detail in the Antiphons, Responses and other pieces. In 1632 a new corrected edition of the Breviary appeared, that of Urban VIII; again the readings had been revised and corrected; but the most important overall modification was the introduction of the hymnal, which had been almost entirely rewritten; this hymnal was imposed on all those who used the Roman Breviary, and the old one was preserved only in a few particular liturgies. We cannot omit to speak of the new edition of St. Pius X; it modifies from top to bottom the distribution of the psalms among the Hours of the Office. St. Pius V had written: "This Breviary, at no time, can be changed in whole or in part". St. Pius X decides: "By the authority of the present letters, first of all we abolish the disposition of the psalter as it is at present in the Roman Breviary and we absojumentally forbid its use from the calendars of January of the year one thousand nine hundred and thirteen. "4 Thus, since St. Pius V, the Sovereign Pontiffs have not been afraid to change the Breviary of 1568 in a very notable way (one thinks of the editions of Urban VIII and St. Pius X); no Pope has thought himself bound by the "aliquid addendum" clause; and no one has thought to this day of evading obedience by accusing them of laying an unholy hand on the "intangible" work of St. Pius V. What one Pope has done, another can do. 4. AAS 3, 19H1, p. 633; BP 7, p. 31 127 Ï Î f Î\ à f Is the Missal of St. Pius V really abrogated? In the Bull of promulgation, St. Pius V explicitly declared that he abolished and forbade the use of other Missals The Apostolic Constitution of Paul VI is nothing of the kind; it merely promulgates his Missal without proscribing anything. But there is nothing of the kind in the Apostolic Constitution of Paul VI; he is content to promulgate his Missal without proscribing anything. There are several reasons for this: first of all, the terminology used by St. Pius V is proper to his time; secondly, Pope Paul VI leaves the use of the ancient Missal to the elderly priests who will ask their Ordinary for it for Masses without the use of the old Missal. î (cf. supra); then, the rite from saint Magpie V is In some exceptional circumstances, even for Masses with assistance, permission must be sought and obtained from the Congregation for Divine Worship. Thus, in 1972, two authorizations were granted for the Mass of St. Pius V in England, under the condition of avoiding any danger of division among the faithful"; to a similar request made in France by the scola of St. Gregory of Le Mans, the answer was given: "The question- must be submitted to the Ordinary of the diocese, to whose pastoral prudence it will belong to judge whether it is opportune to authorize the celebration of a Mass according to the unreformed Roman Missal, all danger of dissension and disturbance in the community of the faithful being averted." Another reason, this one peremptory, is that the obligatory character of the new Missal entails "ipso facto" the abandonment of the old Missal. The Decrees and Instructions of the Congregation for Worship have indicated, by special mandate of the Pope, the time limits within which this obligation falls on every priest: those to be decided by the Episcopal Conferences. A final reason is to be found in the very principles of law as set forth in canons 22 and 23 of the Code. The abrogation of a law occurs when a new law arises which suppresses the previous law in whole or in part. The new law may expressly state that it repeals the old law; in this case, the new law is repealed. DC 6. DC 69, 1972, pp. 147, 340. 70, 1973, p. 306. 32 é | assistance In such cases, the revocation is express, but this is not necessary; the new law is often content to make provisions that are incompatible with the old law; in such cases, there is tacit and implicit revocation, because the legislator's intention is necessarily that the old law be repealed insofar as it is incompatible with the new. A previous law is abrogated when the subsequent law enacted by the competent authority: a) expressly so states; b) if it is directly contrary to it; ©) if it completely reorders the matter of the first law. The law promulgating the Missal of Paul VL, which reorders the entire matter of the Missal of St. Pius V, necessarily entails the abrogation of the law which promulgated the Missal of 1570. The legislator may, however, grant indults, taking into account in effect the Missal of Saint Pius V (and dispensing It is therefore not necessary to use the new Missal!) for certain people in certain circumstances. This is precisely what he did, as we have just seen, The Customary Missal? saint Magpie V revels now from right In promulgating his Missal, St. Pius V expressly respected the particular liturgies which had been able to claim an autonomous existence for two centuries. He abolished any liturgical form that could claim to be based on an indult, custom, privilege, apostolic confirmation or other permission in good standing, "unless (the custom or permission) had been observed in a church by the celebration of Masses for more than two hundred years. Now it is four hundred years since the liturgy of St. Pius V has been observed in the Catholic Church. Has it not therefore acquired a customary right? Moreover, the Code of Canon Law, at the time of its promulgation in 1917, stated that when a custom contrary to the provisions of the Code and enjoying a possession of one hundred years, whether it concerns the universal Church or a particular community (region, diocese, human group), had not been expressly reprobated by the Code, it 33 "The use of the Missal of St. Pius V was not expressly disapproved by the Apostolic Constitution of Paui VI, and is therefore permitted by virtue of a four hundred year old possession. The use of the Missal of St. Pius V was not expressly reprobated by the Apostolic Constitution of Paui VI; it is therefore authorized, in virtue of a possession of four hundred years. To this it will be replied that the maintenance of a custom contrary to the Code never depends on those concerned alone; it may be tolerated; the wish of the legislator is to see it disappear; he admits, however, that, provisionally, it may be left in use if, for local or personal reasons in relation to the common good, its disappearance would present more inconveniences than advantages; it is understood that the maintenance will last only as long as reasons of person or place seem to demand it. It is better that the Ordinary should make his thoughts known; his silence, however, may be taken as a sign of tolerance of customary practice. But the promulgation of a new law does not transform the old one (that of St. Pius V} into an "immemorial" custom. Custom is a normative or objective rule of law, introduced by the use of there-community of the consent of the legislator. It is very precisely distinguished from law; it is often defined as 'quod sit sine scripto'; it is therefore of a different kind from written law, and a written law which has been abrogated cannot become a custom. Custom comes not from the legislator like law, but from the community, the legislator merely giving legal value to a usage spontaneously observed by the community. The observance of custom is based on the tacit consent of the members, a consent which is manifested by a uniform and constant practice. The liturgy of St. Pius V can in no way be equated with a universal custom existing at the time of the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law. One instance has been put forward: the Liturgy of St. Pius V is not for the moment a custom; it may become one and, not being expressly reprobated by law, it is reasonable and may derogate from an ecclesiastical law not provided with The of the clause prohibiting answer is not customs difficult; 34 for unborn (canon the establishment 27). of a custom, a real community is needed (the same one that would be to be the subject of a law); an individual or individuals without legal connection between them do not form a community; customary use must be has a character reasonable and it from right It is not lawful if the legislator makes it known officially or unofficially that he does not accept it; the custom must have been practised for a sufficient period of time without giving rise to difficulties. On pain of confusing absolutely primary concepts, it is not possible to equate a law that has just been repealed with an immemorial custom that it would be lawful to retain; if it were otherwise, the legislature would have legislated in vain. Moreover, to be perfectly logical with themselves, those who claim in the name of the Bull "Quo primum tempore" to preserve for their own use the liturgy of St. Pius V should use editions prior to that of Clement VIII, the first pope to introduce modifications, and refrain from celebrating the numerous feasts introduced into the liturgy since 1568-1570, such as the Immaculate Conception, the Sacred Heart, Christ the King, and others of lesser importance... The indult permanent If some faithful saint from do Magpie can V? claim at name If it is customary to maintain the liturgy of St. Pius V for their own use, do not priests have the unconditional right to celebrate according to the Missal of 1570? This seems to be clear from the very words of the Bull "Quo primum tempore " : ; "We concede and grant by apostolic authority by the tenor of these letters that the Missal may be freely and licitly used for Masses, both sung and recited, in any church whatsoever, without any scruples of conscience and without incurring any penalty, sentence or censure, and that it may be validly used freely and licitly in perpetuity. And in a similar manner, we have decided and declare that superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains and other priests of whatever name they may be designated, or religious of any Order, shall not 35 | i |Ï }H i may be required to celebrate Mass otherwise than as we have fixed, and that no one shall ever and at any time compel or force them to leave this Missal or to abrogate or modify the present Instruction, but that it shall always remain in force and valid in its entirety, notwithstanding previous decisions and Apostolic Constitutions and Ordinances. This "inalienable" privilege bears an uncanny resemblance to the argument that St. Pius V fixed the Roman Missal "ne varietur. In any case, the use to which it is put is quite new; "inoul" in the etymological sense of term. First of all, it has never applied to priests belonging to the Eastern rites, in spite of its universal appearance; wherever they celebrate, they are bound by canon law to conform to their own liturgical books; nor has the privilege ever applied to Latin priests belonging to a particular ritual, Mozarabic, Milanese, Latin-Slavic, Lyons, Cartusian, Dominican, Carmelite (of the Grand Order) etc. This is recorded in full in the Code in canon 818: "Being disapproved of any custom to the contrary, the priest celebrant is to observe with care and devotion the rubrics of his liturgical books, which he is to beware of adding of his own choice other ceremonies or prayers". Canon 819 may also be invoked: "The sacrifice of the Mass is to be celebrated in the liturgical language of each ritual approved by the Church. Once a priest belonged to a particular ritual, Latin or Oriental, he had no choice, unless induced by the Holy See, to adopt the Roman books; he had to conform to the books of his own ritual, even if he liked the Mass of St. Pius V better. As for the Latin priests of the Roman Rite, the Holy See Ï asked on several occasions to celebrate Mass in a different way No one has yet thought of availing himself of the so-called privilege in order to evade obedience. The prayers prescribed by Leo XIII after the last Gospel: who refused them in the name of the indult of St. Pius V? The liturgy of the three Holy Days fixed by Pius XII in 36 " V? Those who observe the Roman Rite," the Decree read, "are bound in future to observe the Ordo of Holy Week as it stands in the typical Vatican edition. "7 It was not necessary to wait four centuries to assert this alleged privilege; it is too late now, the prescription has come into play. Its true meaning, moreover, was that no authority inferior to that of the Supreme Pontiff could prescribe to a priest of Roman rite to celebrate Mass otherwise than St. Pius V had determined. But he or his successors The proof is that they did so, and that all Christians, all priests up to 1969, found this perfectly normal. Finally, is it necessary to specify that the promulgation of a new Ordo Missae does not imply any depreciation or condemnation of the old one; the Mass of St. Pius V has not been "condemned" any more than the Church condemned in the past the liturgy of St. Damasus, St. Gelasus, St. Gregory the Great, Innocent IIIS. She simply declared that the Missal of St. Pius V was no longer the basis of her prayer, except in exceptional cases. At the end of this flowery path, so picturesque, so endearing, so frequented in the past, she has placed a sign saying "No way". That's all there is to it. But if it does not in any way consider "condemning" the Missal of St. Pius V (this would be absurd, it would contradict itself) 7. AAS 47, 1955, p. 838; DC 52, 1955, c. 1537. It has sometimes been said that St. Pius V "canonized" the Missal he promulgated after the revision he made of the Romanility. Just as the canonization of a saint engages the infallibil'Ordo e and it is not possible to "de-canonize" him, so the Missal is not susceptible of "de-canonization". This is a play on words: To canonize a saint is to declare, by committing infallibility, that a member of the faithful is certainly part of the Church Triumphant, and that he should be honored publicly; to canonize a ritual is to make it a rule (canon) for the Church, and to declare by virtue of a decision of a disciplinary nature that it should be used by all; but discipline can change, and it necessarily changes in the long run; The judgment given by St. Pius V guaranteed the perfect orthodoxy of the ritual of the Mass used by the Roman Church and decided that all rituals must conform to this Ordo, unless they belong to another than the Roman ritual; the judgment of Paul VI guarantees the orthodoxy of the renewed ritual of the Mass in accordance with the Council's requirements and decides that all must conform to the Ordo unless they belong to a ritual other than the Roman Rite, or unless they have been granted special permission by the Holy See. 37 | j it can penalize those who use it improperly. just as the traffic officer fines or issues a ticket to the person who takes the road that has become "Sens j 38 rrn , ps r, prohibited". 3 the "ordo missae" of Paul VI as a testimony to an equivocal faith? So far, only the arguments put forward to deny the Mass of Paul VI any obligatory character have been examined; but these arguments of a canonical nature which are invoked, or those which may be invoked later, are merely a pretext, if not for all, then at least for the principal opponents of the renewed Mass; the fundamental motive lies elsewhere: the liturgy of Paul VI, it is said, puts the faith at risk. The fundamental motive is elsewhere: the liturgy of Paul VI, it is said, would endanger the faith. Sometimes, for example: "The Mass of Paul VI was composed by a group of Protestant theologians", or "It is not orthodox or at least gives rise to serious reservations". Sometimes the judgment is more nuanced: "The Mass of Paul VI can be said by a priest who does not believe in the Eucharist. "It is conceived in such a way that it is intended, by blurring the faith, to promote a false ecumenism. "It may be licit and valid, but the intention behind it makes it intrinsically evil and dangerous. The guarantee from master's degree If it was really so we understand that the faith of faithful Christians would be rightly alarmed; resistance would even become a duty. After enumerating the difficulties raised by A 39 question, saint Thomas used to to donate a " Sed This is a decisive argument of authority which wins acceptance in a matter of theology where human understanding is guided by the data of Revelation. By way of argument, we might quote a Canon of the Council of Trent, prior to the promulgation of the Mass by St. Pius V: "If anyone claims that the Canon of the Mass contains errors and must therefore be abolished, let it be anathema " (DZ 956). But, it will be said, this conciliar canon guarantees the perfect orthodoxy of the traditional Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Church and guarantees only it: what right does it have to apply it to the Mass of Paul VI, at the cost of a bold anachronism? Simply because the Mass of Paul VI with its new Eucharistic Prayers was promoted by the same Church with the same infallible authority which guarantees the orthodoxy of its prayer. The Roman Canon was pure of error because it was composed by the Roman Church as the norm of her prayer; but the Roman Church has not changed her nature since St. Gelasius, St. Gregory the Great, or St. Pius V, and if she adopts new elements of her official prayer which are just as important as the new Eucharistic Prayers or the Ordo Missæ, the same divine assistance will come into play in order to guarantee the orthodoxy of her prayer in the same way. So that it is perfectly legitimate to give the conciliar canon of Trent a new scope: "If anyone claims to find errors in the new Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Church, let him be anathema. To attack them in the name of a doctrinal presupposition is to place oneself in the same situation as the Reformed of the 16th century; on the contrary, it is their coherence with the defined doctrines that is important to discover. Dom Guéranger constantly returns to this fundamental argument in his Liturgical Institutions and Controversies; he proposes it in all its forms: "Rome," he writes, "is the vital force of the Catholic Church, because Rome is irremovable in her faith, because she is the foundation laid not by man, but by Jesus Christ. A liturgy conforming to that of Constantinople may be de facto orthodox; a liturgy 40 It is both orthodox in fact and in law, in conformity with that of Rome. "It alone is free from error, as is the case with The Church, in one century as in another, is constantly the organ of truth, and the purity of its liturgical forms is as divinely guaranteed in our day by the Holy Spirit as it was in the time of St. Celestine. If a reform was undertaken - and in the mind of the Abbot of Solesmes it could only concern the liturgy of In the words of St. Pius V, "it would be undertaken with sovereign authority, directed by that spirit which leads the Roman Pontiffs in matters of faith and general discipline, of which the liturgy is the expression". With regard to Spanish Adoptianism, which believed that it could argue in its favour certain ambiguous formulas of the Mozarabic liturgy, he wrote: "The heresy had hoped for a moment to rely on the words of a liturgy whose purity was not guaranteed, since it emanated from an authority which could not count on infallibility" *. The Roman liturgy, on the other hand, is guaranteed against doctrinal error, even in its manifestations or its questionable pronouncements. In fact, the liturgical authorities do not spare any criticism of the hymns composed by Ferreri and approved by a brief of Clement VII on December 11, 1525, whose use was authorized by the Apostolic See for more than forty years: (These hymns)," he writes, "are basically the work of a strong and pure inspiration which is and e, siqu clas ion dict la de que mas le ers trav à re enco t nnaî reco above all because they were approved by the Holy See which, if it later revoked this sanction, would never have given it if these hymns had not contained a pure doctrine. Is this the bias of an "unconditional" supporter of the papacy or the serene affirmation of a theologian who is sure of the foundations on which the Church is founded? 1878, vol. 2 Tb, 3 Ib, 4 Ib, 5, Ib, 6 Ib., I, t. t. t. t. t. Guéranger, I, p. 675. I, p. 200. IV, p. 379. I, p. 268. I, p. 356. Institutions liturgy, 41 2 ed., Paris-Brussels, 42 t st The liturgy is indeed a norm and an expression of faith, and it is so because it emanates from the 'ordinary' teaching authority of the Church. No doubt the faith value of the liturgy is not an unequivocal concept, and discernment is needed to determine what the Church imposes on the faith of the faithful in the liturgy, but the fact remains that when it is a question of such essential realities, so vital for the Church as the celebration of the Eucharist, it is impossible to admit that formulas of an imprecise or equivocal theology have crept into the liturgy of the Roman Church. The teaching which emerges from the liturgy has a particular character, in harmony with its own nature. It is a catechesis, but it is necessary to understand what kind of catechesis it is. The liturgy is much more than mere teaching, and its mode of proceeding is not didactic, except in certain cases. The liturgy has as its immediate, primary and determining aim to arouse an act of faith which blossoms into cultic homage. Its purpose is to make people pray, even when it gives formal teaching. But the formulas which it uses to arouse the prayer of Christians can be invoked as "theological sites", that is to say, as testimonies to the faith of the Church, and it can be held as a rule that the doctrinal authority of an element of the liturgy is in very particular dependence on the doctrinal authority possessed by the one who composed, approved or promulgated it; hence the privileged position of the liturgy of the Roman Church. A liturgy of episcopal right can unintentionally admit doctrinally dubious elements: only the ordinary doctrinal authority of the bishop who approved it is properly involved, not that of the episcopal body and of the universal Church. But the Roman liturgy is of pontifical right; without necessarily engaging the infallible authority pronouncing "ex cathedra", it is in close dependence on the ordinary magisterium. sé The liturgy as an expression of the Church's ordinary magisterium e Î1 bases his reasoning? The answer is not in doubt; Dom Guéranger speaks here as a theologian. he explicit approval given by the Pope to an entirely liturgical formula must make it be considered exempt from the same eur val la de va y H rs. mœu les and faith la t nan cer con ur erre of the ordinary magisterium. Lex orandi, For lex credendi the Church Roman " lex the saying orandi, lex credendi ", de lus icu Ind "l s dan ens agi pél les tre con le sièc V* au é mul for ne, tai qui d A r spe Pro t sain de le bab pro re œuv", Dei gratia , ion cis con de e forc à e upt abr e, mul for la; eur val sa e tout prend des must be quoted in full: "Let us consider the mysteries prayers spoken by the priests. Transmitted by the Apostles, they are ique hol cat e lis PÉg e tout s dan et er enti de mon le s dan és ébr cél la de toi la tue sti con re priè la de loi la que e sort e de teil foi "7. In its immediate context the adage does not have the scope of a general point to be established: the necessity of grace for the act of reading, the Eg que ion tat sta con la de t tan by in fact the it and faith; royé oct be faith la de don te that r for prayers, tre Apô les uis dep i auss e tell re, priè sa de law 'la is the' such si; es mm ho les to all and uit free nt eme pure don a is this grace la; faith sa de is standard ijust la vers che mar en e omm the h de ve iati init precedes any fication. rimer exp r for e mul for la de usé have ns gie olo thé les tard Plus la e port rgie litu la que e abl is inc t men olu abs té la véri on rgie litu la ant oge err int en qu' et lise l Eg de foi la marque de ôt dép au t ien art app qui ce ner cer dis ux mie is able to It is the only one that has the faith of the magisterium. it is the only one that has the faith of the magisterium. it is the only one that has the faith of the magisterium. n of a ion tat here xpl the e to ion goal tri con sa i auss can bring resexp te fai by sa de e stad au ue ven par ore enc doctrine non et e iqu lyr e ièr man sa to e rim exp her case r mie sion. In the pre she ond sec le s in; e ini def faith the de u ten con le ve deprecati les faithful e ndr pre ant do en n tio ini def a on anticipate awareness of the truth proclaims that it 7. DZ 139. 43 with the guarantee from In any case, it is clear that the liturgy of the Roman Church is in a privileged position because it is approved and promulgated by an authority which is the sole authority on the subject. However one approaches the question, it is clear that the liturgy of the Roman Church is in a privileged position by virtue of the fact that it is approved, promulgated and promoted by an authority which enjoys the charism of infallibility when it gives constant teaching. To try to discover an error in it is nonsense. It is the opposite approach that is required. Doctrinal teaching and the formulas of the liturgy are in necessary connection; being proclamation of the faith in the form of praise or in the form of action, the liturgy is an exercise of the Church's magisterium. The legitimate liturgy of the Roman Church is therefore guaranteed in the same way as the exercise of her magisterium by the assistance of the Holy Spirit and on the same conditions for everything that touches the very object of the faith. generalis In the next chapter we shall see the profound harmony between the teaching of the Council of Trent and the doctrine expressed in POrdo Missae, especially in the Eucharistic Prayers which form the heart and the most important and essential part of it. In this respect it is impossible to equate the teachings and practical directives given in the Institutio generalis with the very formulae of prayer of the Church acting in the most eminent exercise of her priestly power. One must be constantly on guard against the temptation of examining the formulas of the Church's prayer: to look for a collection of elaborate dogmatic definitions and to read them as such, picking out at every turn terms which are deemed to be equivocal when they are not. These expressions cannot be interpreted without taking into account the profound agreement which they support with the faith of the Church and the doctrine of which they are the illustration and which allows them to be explained correctly. Some," said the Holy Father in presenting the new Ordo Missæ, "may perhaps be impressed by this or that particular ceremony, by this or that 44 eeresenene The Institutio section a annex alteration or as a if they minimization were truths or hid final or But it is absolutely not so. Above all, because the rites and the rubric corresponding are not in themselves a definition of faith. Secondly, because with the new rite the Mass is and remains the same as it always has been, perhaps even more so in some of its aspects".8 Here the Holy Father was clearly alluding to the objections presented to him in the "Brief Critical Examination" of Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci, which he did not accept after giving them much thought. It is well known that Cardinal Ottaviani was later very unhappy about the use made of the work and the accompanying letter: "I regret that my name has been abused in a way I did not wish, by the publication of a letter which I had addressed to the Holy Father without authorizing anyone to publish it. I rejoiced deeply on reading the Holy Father's speeches on the questions of the new Ordo Missae and especially his doctrinal clarifications contained in his speeches at the public audiences of November 19 and 26; after which, I believe, no one can be more sincerely scandalized. As for the rest, it will be necessary to do a prudent and intelligent work of catechesis in order to remove some of the legitimate perplexities which the text may give rise to." The response to this request was the clarification of some passages of the "Institutio generalis"; The response to this request was the clarification of some passages in the Institutio generalis, which many theologians had given a doctrinal authority which it did not have, its role being to take the place of the rubricae generales of the Missal of St. Pius V, which were of a purely ceremonial nature and spoke explicitly neither of the real presence nor of the sacrifice nor of the priest's proper priestly power, for they rightly assumed that all this doctrine was known: "This presentation (Institutio generalis), declared 8, AAS 61, 1969, pp. 777 f.; DC 66, 1969, p. 1056. 9 DC 67, 1970, p. 343; cf. DC 67, 1970, pp. 215-216. contests the authenticity of this letter and has exposed Îtinéraires, Supplement to No. 142 of April 1970. 45 Mr. Jean its Madiran reasons in This is not to be considered a doctrinal or dogmatic document, but a pastoral and ritual Instruction describing the celebration and its parts, taking into account the doctrinal principles given in the above-mentioned documents (the Conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy, the Encyclical "Mysterium fidei" of 3 September 1965, the Instruction "Eucharisticum mysterium" of 25 May 1967). The rites in fact flow from this "!9, The Ordo Missæ liturgica of Paul doctrine and VI is not responsible of anarchy If one were to sum up the argument briefly, one would have to say that the Ordo Misseæ of Paul VI is not a testimony to an equivocal faith because it cannot be; it is not a petition of principle, it is an inescapable consequence of a traditional doctrine which the Church has always lived by, according to which the orthodoxy of her prayer is guaranteed by the very orthodoxy of her faith. There is no way out of this. But the Missal of Paul VI is criticized for the liturgical aberrations which can be seen in many parishes today, often accompanied by doctrinal aberrations. In fact, this state of affairs predates the publication of the Ordo Missæ, even though anarchy has spread since then; it is in the measure in which the norms laid down by this Ordo are unduly departed from that the aberrations occur: it is our experience that priests who show untimely creativity quite readily regard the liturgical laws as non-existent and certain essential points of the Creed as the dying beliefs of a bygone age. The Church has repeatedly affirmed that she intends to retain full initiative in the formulas intended to carry the public prayer of the Christian people; one cannot attribute to the liturgy of Paul VI what he himself positively disavowed; one need only refer to the Instruction on the Correct Application of the Conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy, published in the IF*. DC 67, 1970, p. 216. 46 by the Congregation for Divine Worship: "The liturgical texts composed by the Church are to be treated with the greatest respect; no one is permitted to make any change, substitution, deletion or addition to them on his or her own initiative. Some of the Eucharistic Prayers, composed as schemes for discussion among experts," added the unofficial commentator on the Instruction, "have been abused in liturgical actions. Others are sometimes so lacking in precision and doctrinal content that the validity of the Eucharistic celebrations in which they are used may be doubted. "1l Roman documents constantly remind us that the regulation of liturgical actions is not a matter for private persons - not for priests any more than for others; it is a prerogative of the Church as such, of which the celebrant is the minister and servant; the priest is at the service of the liturgy and of the Church's members. The Pope was no doubt deeply disappointed that the promulgation of the renewed liturgical books had not been sufficient to put an end to the anarchic initiatives of reform in the Church; in no case, however, should these be considered as the normal consequence of the new Ordo Missae: "The reform," said Paul VI, "puts an end to uncertainties, to discussions, to arbitrary and abusive initiatives. Once again it demands of all that uniformity of rites and sentiments which is proper to the Catholic Church, heir and continuator of the first Christian community... The unanimity of prayer in the Church is one of the signs and strengths of her unity and catholicity"!* The reform," he had stated shortly before, "presents dangers, especially that of arbitrariness and thus of the disintegration of the spiritual unity of the ecclesial society, of the quality of prayer and of the dignity of the liturgy. The many changes introduced into traditional and common prayer have given rise to this arbitrariness. It would, however, be most regrettable if the solicitude shown by the Church... 11, Notitie 1971, p. 17. 12. AAS 61, 196), p. 777, DC, 66, 47 1969, p. 1 056. This disorder, which unfortunately can be seen here and there, leads to the idea that there is no longer a common, fixed and obligatory rule in the Church's prayer and that each person can claim to organize or disorganize it as he pleases. In this case one should no longer speak of pluralism in the area of what is permitted, but of divergences, sometimes not only liturgical but substantial... This disorder, which unfortunately is to be observed here and there, is seriously detrimental to the Church: it hinders the disciplined and qualified reform which the Church authorizes!*It is quite unjust to attribute to the new Ordo Missae the disastrous effects on the faith which can only be observed in those who make good use of it and break away from it with a lightness which is equalled only by their thoughtlessness. If everyone would agree to return to the true liturgy of the Roman Church, their faith would find its normal expression, its support, its guarantee. Finally, I hope you won't mind my putting forward a hypothesis. In a vehement and spiritual article published in Le Figaro on January 24, 1975, Father Bruckberger was indignant: "While the most anarchic and profane liturgical initiatives, not to say the most profane, are multiplying just about everywhere in our churches.And even in our most venerable cathedrals, with the assent and sometimes the participation of certain bishops, it so happens that in the eyes of the French bishops only one ritual, one liturgy, one way of saying Mass is formally forbidden and practically excommunicated: the traditional Mass known as that of Saint Pius V. " 14, Why is that? Why has the coexistence of two rites in the Church and this particular form of pluralism, which is worthy of another, not been admitted? The answer is not difficult to find: if the requests in favor of the Mass of St. Pius V had not from the beginning taken the form of an unappealable doctrinal condemnation of the new Ordo Missae, the situation would have been quite different, and the climate of the discussion transformed. Since the requests - not to say the formal demands - were linked by the will of their authors to a challenge to the new Ordo Missae, the situation would have been quite different and the climate of the discussion would have been transformed. DC 66, 1969, p. 804 14. Figaro, Events and ideas, "Ite Missa 48 is ; "January 24 1975. Ï | In the case of the question of the orthodoxy of the renewed liturgy of the Roman Church, nothing could be done; the proponents of the Mass of St. Pius V have placed themselves in an untenable position, they have, as it were, sawn off the branch on which they stood. If they refuse the Ordo Missæ, they affirm, it is not "for reasons of convenience or personal preference, but for reasons of faith. In other words, they claim the Mass of St. Pius V while rejecting the magisterium of the Church as it is expressed through Paul VI. How is speaking today In these circumstances, should their request be granted? 19%Î. Gc<ärge5 " P. $ Vinson, The new Mass 49 and consciousness in Catholic, A traditional doctrine and new liturgical forms in the "ordo missae that reminded him Eucharistic celebration of May 25 the Instruction 1967 (Ami on the cult from mysterious 1967, p. 382), the Council of In this regard, the Church of St. Thomas prescribed that pastors should "frequently explain, either by themselves or by others, some part of what is read at Mass, and among other things to throw light on some aspect of the mystery of this most holy sacrifice" (Denz. 946). The prescription has lost none of its topicality; the new Ordinary of the Mass or "Ordo Missae" must be well understood in all its parts and explained, so that the doctrinal riches which underlie it may be brought to light! Some priests and laity have expressed concern and wondered whether some of the deletions are not the result of doctrinal warping and hidden agendas on the part of those entrusted by the Holy Father with the task of restoring the liturgy to conformity with the conciliar norms. Simplifications or deletions have partially obscured in the eyes of many the numerous enrichments from which the liturgy of the Mass has benefited. The following presentation will attempt to highlight them, or at least make an inventory of them. The "material" on which we shall work consists essentially of by the new Ordinary of the Mass : the prayers common. We shall avoid even mentioning the variable Prefaces, of which there are many. The study will therefore focus on the 1. art. 6, cf. Oss Rom, 31-x-69, st fixed parts of the new Mass adopted by the Roman Church and promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution "Missale romanum" of 3 April 19692, I SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND SACRIFICE OF THE CALVARY Î TO "Do this in memory of me. The first doctrinal chapter of Session XXII of the Council of Trent sets forth the following doctrine: - "At the last supper, on the night when he was about to be betrayed, in order to leave to the Church, his beloved Bride, as human nature requires, a visible sacrifice by which would be represented the bloody sacrifice which he was about to perform once for all on the cross, and by which the memory (of that bloody sacrifice) would remain until the end of time... the Lord offered to the Father his Body and Blood under the appearances of bread and wine... gave them to be eaten by his apostles...... and commanded them and their successors in the priesthood to offer them, saying: Do this in memory of me. (Denz. 938). The Eucharist is thus presented first of all, in the perspective of Trent, as a sacrifice, a memorial of the Passion, a representation of the bloody Sacrifice accomplished once and for all on the Chair, by which Christ renews through the hands of the priest the offering that he made of himself at that time. Sacrament of the Sacrifice of the Cross It is appropriate to give the words the full scope they have in the Church's sacramental doctrine; the Mass is not a celebration that only makes us remember the Passion of Christ, at the same as would be the case with a path cross or 2. The three new Canons, the introduction of the new Prayers, in Esprit et Vie, 1968, no. 29, pp. 463-475; Pour mieux comprendre la structure des Prières eucharistiques, ib, no. 49, pp. 723-732; La réforme fiturgique du Missel, ib, 1969, no. 29, pp. 461-478. 52 L cmmm 5! "Passion mysteries"; on this. The Mass is the a popular representation of the Church has never misunderstood It is a memorial of the Lord in the biblical sense of the word, that is to say, a reminder of the past which makes that past present. It is a representation of the Sacrifice of the Cross, in the sense that it has the het rac that "sus pas us ist Chr" The u. vea nou to t sen pre d ren the world on the cross is, through the word of the priest, returned to , my hom hom e r for e Father au ant ffr s'o l, ute l a on t sen pre u vea nou with the marks of his redeeming Passion. Far from the notions of memorial and representation (the French word is very weak) evacuating the reality of presence, they presuppose it, they require it so that the terms their full meaning. At Mass the work of our redemption is constantly being accomplished, for Christ is made truly present there, The Church is the source of the treasures of the Redemption and applies them to her. - In the mystery of the Eucharistic sacrifice, in which priests exercise their principal function, the work of our Redemption is unceasingly accomplished," reads the Vatican II decree "Presbyterorum ordinis" on the ministry and life of priests (P.O., This is also the case in the Constitution Lumen gentium (n. 3): "Whenever the sacrifice of the cross, by which Christ, our Passover, was slain (I Cor. 5:7), is made, it is the work of our redemption that is constantly being accomplished. If we give the word sacrament its full meaning of "sign", then we can truly say that the sacrament is a sign of our redemption. If we give the word sacrament its full meaning of "sign", we can truly say that the Mass is the sacrament of the Holy Spirit. Sacrifice of the Cross, because it makes really present what is It is the visible sign: the unique Sacrifice of the Lord on Calvary. Missale Romanum, Dom IX post 53 Pentecosten, Oratio super oblata. of the Lord which was a true sacrifice... in this aspect we call (the Eucharist) sacrifice (S. Th. IlIa, q. 73, a. 4). This sacrament is called sacrifice inasmuch as it represents the Passion of Christ even from ad 3). which is the host (or victim) healthy " (Zb. In question 73, art. 5, ad 2, he affirms that "the Eucharist is the perfect sacrament of the Lord's Passion insofar as it contains the 'Christum passum', the Christ who suffered, himself". The effect of the sacrament being in conformity with its meaning, St. Thomas teaches that "the effect which the Passion of Christ produced in the world, this sacrament realizes in man" (IIa, q. 79, a. . In other words, the sacrifice of the Mass is an actuation of the Passion of Christ in order to apply its effects to men who are far removed from it in time and space: "The celebration of this sacrament is a certain representative image of the Passion of Christ, which is his true immolation... by this sacrament we are made participants in the fruits of the Lord's Passion" (IMa, q. 83, a. 1). A summary of this teaching is found in art. 47 of the Constitution on the Liturgy: "Our Saviour, in the last supper, the night he was betrayed, instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood, in order to perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries, until he comes, and by here from à submit the Church, sound Wife the memorial of his death and resurrection". In the new " Ordo beloved, " This rich doctrine is present in the texts of the Ordinary of the Mass. From the Catholic perspective, any mention of the Passion at Mass sets in motion the doctrinal background just outlined; words that belong to the sacrificial vocabulary must be given their full meaning, since, according to the teaching of the Council of Trent, at Mass a true sacrifice is offered to God in the proper sense (Dz. 948). The "memorial" of the Passion makes men participants in the very fruits of the Passion; it is not enough to say of the 54 It is not enough to say that the Mass is a mere commemoration of the sacrifice made on the cross, but it is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It is not enough to say that it is a simple commemoration of the sacrifice made on the cross, but it is a commemoration of the sacrifice made on the cross, and it is not enough to say that it is a commemoration of the sacrifice made on the cross. true t men es utr of a en; " n tio emp Réd re not de e uvr the œ se these without t compli terms, that Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice, which benefits not only the communicants, but which one can also offer "for the living and for the dead, for sins, sorrows, satisfactions and others " (Dz. needs 950). Tel is it direction à e mm co se gli l euc s era Pri la s dan es éré ins s ion ess erc int aux donner et qui sont, de ce fait, spécifiquement distinetes de la Prière universelle. e mm co se gli l E t c es, effe en le, sel ver uni ère Pri la s Dan such which prays for all the intentions of its members; in Je enCanon, it is a "recommendation" to God of the int rifice sac du ts frui des on ati lic app ne d u vue en se, gli l E de ns tio cspe per La e. ell ent ram sac ité sal cau la de tu ver en e ctu ffe s'e qui tive is different, The Roman Canon gives the "offerings" qualifications ion, rat séc con la nt ava dès el ici rif saë re lai abu voc du nt eva rel - e ièr man ne tai cer ne d u - à déj t son des ran off les que parce des ran off les sur ns iso Ora The r. eni dev t von es ell that' this sign of sacridu Roman Missal, speak, they too, commonly of " rcession fices" and "hosts"). In the same way, a part of the inte anticipar , ion rat séc con la nt ava ue sit ain rom on of the Can pipro et e oir act isf sat eur val la to el app t san fai en t pation, all tiatory of the sacrifice that is going to be accomplished. des, ces ran off ces ... er pt ce ac d' s on li pp su s vou us No - " vous les us no d or ab d' ut To he, tac s san et nts sai s ice sacrif Te (" e... iqu hol cat ise Egl nte sai re vot r for presenton mie d ren qui ale tér tit n tio duc tra une ici a ner don igitur " : on compte sacrifice from from ("Memento text Latin praise itself). for the " We redemption "of the living). you from offer... their souls this " ration con la ès after elé ouv is icé rif sac du e and L'offr le vin du et n pai du s nce are app es sou t sen pré du qui a ren é is Maj use rie glo re vot à s ron off s Nou " : " sus " Christus pas 5s that which comes to us from your own gifts, the pure victim, the holy victim, the unblemished victim. And the Church - in the person of her priest - prays to God to accept it from his hands, since he has deigned to accept the prophetic announcements of this sacrifice: "the offerings of righteous Abel, the sacrifice of our father Abraham, and the gift of your great priest Melchisedec, a holy sacrifice, an undefiled victim. The Eucharistic Prayer TI first evokes the Passion of which the Mass is the memorial, in its Preface: "To accomplish your will perfectly and to acquire for you a people saint for (Redemption), he stretched out his hands in his Passion, destroying death and manifesting the resurrection. The memory of the Passion is again mentioned in the institution narrative: "at the hour when he was being delivered to the Passion"; and in the anamnesis: "Remembering his dead..." The Second Evangelical Prayer, as we know, derives directly from the Canon of Hippolytus of Rome, which reflects a state of doctrine that is still not very developed - even deliberately archaic. The sacrificial terms "properly so called" do not occur in it, so to speak. This limitation of the Canon of Hippolytus has been pointed out elsewhere * To compensate for this, the adaptation which has been made includes an intercession which the original lacked; it has the advantage of clearly marking the propitiatory character of the "representative" saerifice and the "memorial" of the Passion. The kinship of the third Canon with the traditional Roman Canon has been noted more than once; the sacrificial character is first mentioned in the Vere Sanctus, which quotes Malachi's prophecy of the new covenant offering (Mal. 1:11). In Chapter 1" of Session XXII of the Council of Trent, in reference to the Mass, the true sacrifice, we read: "This is the pure offering which cannot be defiled by any unworthiness or wickedness (malitia), and which the Lord announced through Malachi should be offered in every way to his Name, which was to become great among the nations" (Dz. 939), 4. Spirit and Life, 1968, n° 29, p. 468. 56 From sound on the side Lumen gentitm sign that " is priests to procure the edification of the (mystical) Body through the Eucharistic sacrifice, by fulfilling the words of God who says by the voice of the prophet: from the east to the west my name is great among the nations, and in every place a sacrifice and a pure offering is offered to my name" (n. 17). The anamnesis of the III* Eucharistic Prayer contains several In properly sacrificial terms: "Look upon the offering of your Church and, recognizing the victim by whose inmolation you wished to be appeased, grant to those who are satisfied with the Body and Blood of your Son, to be filled with the Holy Spirit...". And in the intercession, we read: "We pray you, Lord, that this victory which reconciles us to you may benefit the salvation and peace of the whole world...". The long development on the history of salvation which forms the "Post Sanctus" of the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer speaks of the "covenants offered repeatedly" to humanity to announce and prefigure the eternal covenant concluded in the Blood of Christ and of which the sacrifice of the Mass is the sign and memorial: "May the Holy Spirit deign to sanctify these offerings... so that we may celebrate this great mystery which (the Lord) himself has left us as a sign of the eternal covenant. The anamnesis is very explicit: "Therefore, Lord, celebrating at this time the memorial of our redemption, we recall the death of Christ... and... we offer you his Body and Blood as a sacrifice worthy of being received by you and beneficial to the whole world. Then: "Look, Lord, at the victim which you yourself have given to your Church". The Pauline incision: "This is my body which is given up for you" (I Cor 11:24) was introduced into the four institution narratives. It is a reminder of the sacrificial character of the Passion and of the Mass which is its memorial; it is the equivalent, in the first formula of consecration, of the development which concludes the second: "The Blood of the Covenant s7 | ; !| #f Ë ' The Roman Canon is perhaps the richest in sacrificial terms of the four Eucharistic Prayers. Of the four Eucharistic Prayers, the Roman Canon is undoubtedly the richest in sacrificial terms because of its very structure, which makes it repeat the same ideas several times in parallel or related developments ("Te igitur". "Hanc igitur"... and "Quam oblationem"; the double "Memento"; "Supra quæ"... But the other Eucharistic Prayers, especially III and IV®, make use of the same doctrine, the same vocabulary, and the intercession which follows the offering of the sacrifice, opportunely reminds us that the Mass is 'a true propitiatory sacrifice which benefits not only those who take part in it through sacramental communion, but also the whole Church, in all its members (including those members whose membership - real - will be manifested only in the other world). The four Eucharistic Prayers have been given preference because of their absolutely unique place in the celebration of the Mass. But two other prayers (or invitatories) emphasize the sacrificial character of the Mass: - the secret one at the Offertory, "In spiritu humiliratis....": "May our sacrifice ascend today to the Father's house". one, secret, at the Offertory, "In spiritu humiliratis": "May our sacrifice rise today in your presence in such a way that it is pleasing to you, Lord" (Dn., 3, 39); - the other is the dialogue between the celebrant and the congregation, which precedes the prayer over the offerings: "Pray, brothers, for that my sacrifice, which is also yours, deserves to be received from In their discrete place these doctrine that allows forms used in the Roman course for its Oraisons two texts come to make explicit a meaning to the many of the liturgical year by the liturgy on the offerings. 58 -epapeteae rrs God the Father Almighty. - May the Lord receive this sacrifice from your hands, for the praise and glory of his Name, for our benefit and that of all his holy Church. I SACERDOCE OF THE PRIEST AND SACERDOCE OF THE FAITHFUL " Sacrifice and priesthood are thus linked by a provision divine that in both of which must the new alliance, the Church exist in all law; since Catholic received out of œ.n s1w Hs "... In the divine institution the holy visible sacrifice of the Eucharist, it must be confessed that 'there is in it a new, visible and external priesthood' (Dz 957). The teaching of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIIT) is clear and perfectly formulated. The clarification in the Second Vatican Council of the traditional doctrine concerning the priesthood of the baptized (common to priests and all the faithful) does not detract from what the Church has done. "The common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood; although there is an essential difference between them, one is the same as the other. The one and the other, in fact, each according to its own mode, participate in the one priesthood of Christ. The one who has received the ministerial priesthood enjoys a sacred power to form and "sti Chri a son per in" e fair to al, rdot sace the peup le re dui con the Eucharistic sacrifice and offer it to God in the name of the people The faithful, on the other hand, by virtue of the royal priesthood which is theirs, The sacraments of the Church are a part of the offering of the Eucharist, and they exercise their duty to pray and to give thanks" (Lum. Gent., n. 10). The role of the Eucharist in the life of the Church is that of the Church. He is empowered to do so by the laying on of hands which Christdu ment stru the in fact a en and al rdot sace r voi pou le éré conf priest. He offers the sacrifice in the name of the Church and the faithful associate themselves with him, for they also have their own way of doing things *. S, Pius XII, Enc. Mediator Dei, in Solesmes Edition, vol. 1, no. 565. 59 to offer the sacrifice of a "The Liturgy ", Coll. Teacher. Priesthood and Eucharist The ministerial priesthood is so finalized by the Eucharistic sacrifice that the conciliar documents of Vatican It priests: - "In hesitated à y the mystery recognize from sacrifice have their primary function the function main Eucharistic.... "(Pr. Ord., n. 13). of priests - The proper ministry (of priests) consists principally in the Eucharist, which gives the Church her perfection (Ad. Gent., n. 39); -- "It is in the worship or Eucharistic synaxis that the sacred office (of priests) is exercised par excellence: there, acting in the name and place of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite the petitions of the faithful to the sacrifice of their head, making present and applying in the sacrifice of the Mass... the one Sacrifice of the New Will " (Lum. Gent. n. 39). It is in virtue of this doctrine that the Eucharistic Prayer, the heart of the Eucharistic celebration, everywhere and since time immemorial, belongs to the priest alone. The people unite with him in the acclamation of the 'Sanctus', the acclamation of the 'añatnesis', 'Mortem tuam annuntiamus', and the final 'Amen', to which St. Justin already gave a very special significance. The traditional Roman Canon also contains some verbal distinctions which clearly indicate the difference between the two priesthoods, the priests being designated by the word "servants" (mninister, servus), the faithful by that of "familia": "Here is the offering presented by us, your servants and all your holy people, we offer to your glorious Majesty..." ("Unde et memores"). ("Unde et memores"), and the "Nobis quoque": "To us also, sinners, your servants...". This last prayer is in fact the formula of intercession for the ministerial priesthood; in fact, after having asked for the application of the fruits of the sacrifice to the Church and its hierarchy (Te igitur), to the members especially those who are of the assembly that offer the sacrifice (I" Memento), 60 mts not L mn have Ë È ËF then at in the (2° deaths the Memento), and concelebrants priest (Nobis quoque) S. These are important nuances that we would have liked to see in the new Prayers Should Eucharistic. from hear Is it possible that the formula of the anmnesis of the Second Prayer is the only one that applies to the ministerial priesthood: "We offer you, Lord, the bread of life and the chalice of salvation, giving you thanks for having judged us worthy to stand before you and to serve you"? It is probable; it is not certain. At least the Ordinary of the Mass has been preserved - and This is the main reason for its retention - the "Orate fratres", the significance of which had already been noted by Pius XII in the encyclical Mediator Dei: "After the offering of the bread and wine, the minister of the sacrifice, turning to the people, says expressly: Pray, my brothers, that my sacrifice, which is also yours, may deserve to be received by God, the Father Almighty" (n. 566). Teaching of texts new liturgical The advantage of enriching the Prayers of the Canon by adding three new Eucharistic Prayers (and many Prefaces) is the possibility of expressing aspects of traditional doctrine virtually contained in the Roman Canon, but not made explicit by it. On the other hand, it is necessary to have recourse to the Roman Canon in order to make explicit certain facts of faith which are perhaps less apparent in the new Prayers. The Eucharistic Prayers are mutually supportive; there is no need to oppose one another, but rather to illuminate one by the other. The priesthood of the faithful enables them to unite themselves with the whole Church to the offering which the Lord makes of himself to his Father, to make it their own and to integrate their own offering into it. 6. We pro is faithful Mass, and if they cannot quibus of a themselves with state formula tibi formula offerimus from vel replacement, which the it contained tibi Gent. "(Lum. in offerunt first being the I "; à known as Memento the origin, when who had made the offering for the celebration did not take part in the celebration of it. 61 11). n. from it the the : - "The Church is concerned... to get the faithful... to offer the spotless victim not only by the hands of the priest, but with him, learn to offer themselves, and day by day be consumed by the mediation of Christ in unity with God and with one another, so that God may finally be all in all. (Sacr. Conc, n. 48). "By virtue of their royal priesthood, the faithful themselves contribute to the offering of the Eucharist" (LG, n. 11). Everything in their lives, activity, prayers, apostolic undertakings, daily work, trials, becomes "spiritual offerings pleasing to God through Jesus Christ, and in the Eucharistic celebration these offerings join the oblation of the Body of the Lord to be offered in all piety to the Father" (LG, n. 34). The conciliar texts allow us to go further. Just as the sacrifice of Calvary is the source of all supernatural life, so the sacrifice of the Mass is the true cause of the Christian's continual self-sacrifice. The grace which is the proper effect of the sacrament enables the Christian to identify himself with Christ the victim and to draw from him the divine energies which will enable him to realize daily the offering of himself at Mass: "The holy Eucharist contains the whole spiritual treasure of the Church, that is, Christ himself, our Passover and the living bread, he whose flesh, vivified by the Holy Spirit and life-giving, gives life to men, inviting and leading them to offer in union with him their own life, their work, the whole of creation" (Presb. Ord, n° 5). The new Eucharistic Prayers make it possible to reach the heart of the celebration of the Mass with this very fruitful doctrine. Man receives, but in order to return to the Father, the Principle without principle. According to a word of the Lord reported in the Acts of the Apostles, "there is more joy in giving than in receiving" (Acts 20:35). God's gift to mankind was so perfect, so total, that it confers, along with divine life, the power that makes up its greatness and its joy, to give back to God love for love, gift for gift. This is the thought that inspires the Eucharistic Prayers in the Prayer that follows the offering of the sacrifice: "May the Spirit make of us an eternal offering, so that 62 we may obtain the inheritance from your chosen ones" (the formula refers implicitly to the doctrine of good works, meritorious of eternal life) (Prayer IID. And Prayer IV: "who will participate in this wounded by the Holy Spirit living victim in Rm,, 12, 1; Eph, In your goodness, grant that all the one bread and this chalice may be made one body and be consumed in Christ to the praise of his glory (cf. 1, 12). Ix -... THE s "w FROM LORD The Constitution on the Liturgy dealt briefly with the various modes of the Lord's presence to his Church. The Encyclical Mysterium fidei took up this teaching and developed it further, showing in the Eucharistic presence the most perfect realization of this "presence"; it is called "reile" by antonomasia. Christ is present to the prayer of his Church in virtue of the promise: "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, they will be present, 4 PRESENCE I m°y find at environment of them " (Mt. 18, 20). I is He is present as the inspirer of prayer and as its principal cause. - He is present to his preaching Church, since the Gospel she proclaims is the Word of God and this Word is proclaimed in the name and by the authority of Christ, the Word of God incarnate, and with his assistance. - In a still more sublime way, Christ is present to his Church, which in his name celebrates the sacrifice of the Mass... One stands in awe before these various modes of Christ's presence and finds in them the very mystery of FEglise to contemplate. However, the truly sublime mode according to which Christ is present to the Church in the sacrament of title is quite different, as if the other presences were not "real", 63 ' | ' | | but par excellence, because it is substantial and because, through it, Christ the God-Man makes himself entirely present. Eucharistic Presence The Council of Trent taught in the decree on the Eucharist : - The most holy Eucharist certainly has in common with the other sacraments the fact that it is the sign of a sacred reality and the "forma visiblis" of invisible grace. that in the Eucharist the author of sanctity is present before the sacrament is received (ante usum). There has always been a belief in the Church that immediately after the consecration the true Body of Our Lord and his true Blood are found (existe) under the appearance of bread and wine, together with his soul and divinity" (Dz. 876); ; The ceremonial of the Mass is a permanent protest of faith in the Real Presence realized by the double consecration; "the elevation after each of the consecrations has never had any other meaning than that of an affirmation of faith in the Real Presence; the genuflections have the same meaning, as do all the marks of respect with which the Eucharist is surrounded. The concrete determination of the marks of respect is usually linked to the forms of culture, to the different ways of thinking, feeling and expressing one's feelings. The marks of reverence have varied through the ages; they are not the same everywhere; the reverence itself remains the same beneath the surface modifications. The Catholics of the Eastern rites, whose faith in the Real Presence is the same as our own, know only the consecration exceptionally well; the ostention after the Elevation is done before Communion (as it was in the West before the twelfth century). In the West itself, the Carthusians, the Cirtercians and the Dominicans replace genuflection by a deep bow (outside the celebration of the Mass). from the l(Z'.2Paqu VI, Enc. reached. without that their "Mysterium fidei ", in Mass), 64 faith Doc. in undergoes Cath. 1965, no c. 1641 a E wP u Eu =s" "s The reduction of the genuflections in the post-conciliar Mass does not entail any diminution of doctrine. If one no longer believed in the Real Presence, one would have to suppress them all, giving precisely this meaning to the suppression; if there were only one, it would be too many in the hypothesis. Contemporary piety is less demonstrative than that of the medievalists, from whom we inherited the ceremonial before 1964. In an objection, St. Thomas asks: "In the sacraments of the Church nothing is to be done that is laughable. But one lends to laughter when one makes gesticulations: that is to say, the priest sometimes stretches out his arms, joins his hands, folds his fingers and bows... It still seems ridiculous that the priest should so often turn to the people and salute them "(IIla q. 83, a. S, ad 5 and 6). The answer he gives appeals to the symbolism of each of the gestures: "fiunt ad aliquid repræsentandum". This notion is absolutely fundamental for a correct understanding of the liturgy, but in the detail of the explanations St Thomas lapses into an allegorism that is confusing for modern minds. I not stay not less that the necessary and indispensable: - ceremonial ä such as as is "As it is in the nature of man not to be able to rise easily to the meditation of divine things without external help, the Church "pia mater" has established certain rites, for example, that certain things are pronounced at Mass in a low voice, others in a higher voice; she likewise uses ceremonies.... thanks to which and the majesty of so great a sacrifice devout ". Such is setting in value, and souls of faithful are excited to the contemplation of the very high realities contained in this sacrifice by these visible signs of religion and is the thought of of Trento Fathers (Dz. 943). The adjustments, the changes in detail, the simplifications made to the ceremonial by the competent authority certainly do not affect the essence of the ceremonial. There is no middle ground; if one no longer believed in the value ceremonial, it would have been necessary to prescribe that the ceremony be held in a sweater with a turtleneck between a tureen and a carafe. Moreover, faith in the Real Presence is expressed at Mass, 65 . | The new Ordinary of the Mass has preserved perfectly explicit formulas: the Oraisons de préparation à la Communion, the "Ecce Agnus Dei" which accompanies the ostension of the Phostia (the word is no longer true if one no longer believes in the Real Presence 1), the "Domine non sum . dignus" (does the Lord come under "our roof", in person, or only metaphorically!), and above all the "Corpus Christi" to which the communicant responds with an "Amen" which affirms his faith in the reality of the Body of Christ which is given. IV THE ROLE FROM THE SPIRIT SAINT The Nicene-Constantinopolitan symbol, directly dependent on the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew on this point, proclaims that "by the Holy Spirit the Son of God became incarnate from sent for Saviour the Virgin From even from Holy Spirit Prayer Marie and (that) he became man Eucharistic II and -Redeemer; and born of the Virgin : " You embodied ". - by Even we ". - have it the operation statement in the Post-Sanctus of Prayer IV: "Incarnate the operation of the Holy Spirit is born of the Virgin". by The tradition of the Church, drawing a parallel between the Eucharist and the Incarnation, has recognized in the miracle of transubstantiation an operation of the Holy Spirit, acting through the mediation of the priesthood of the Incarnate Word and the ministerial priesthood of the New Extension. Evocation in Alliance the which in is the extension and liturgy Generally speaking, the ancient Roman liturgy contains few texts that directly call for the intervention of the 66 -0 SD UO fÎ of the Holy Spirit. In order to make up for this deficiency - which is not total, far from it - after the thirteenth century, appeals to the Holy Spirit were multiplied in all the functions of consecration, by introducing the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus". In the Mass, the old Ordinary contained a prayer to the Holy Spirit in which the Holy Spirit, without being directly named, was invoked in view of the forthcoming consecration: "Come, Sanctifier, Almighty Eternal God, and bless this sacrifice prepared for your holy Name". In the newly introduced Eucharistic Prayers, the action of the Holy Spirit is emphasized mainly in two places: in the epiclesis (or invocation preceding the consecration), and in the prayer concerning the fruits of the Eucharist after the offering of the sacrifice. PE Before the consecration, the priest asks for the coming of the Spirit to consecrate the offerings: "Sanctify, therefore, we pray you, these offerings by the We pray: "Lord, deign to sanctify by the same Spirit these offerings which we have presented for your consecration, that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Prayer H). "We pray you ...... Lord, deign to sanctify by this same Spirit these offerings which we have presented for you to consecrate, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ" (Prayer IID). "May this same Spirit, we pray you, Lord, deign to sanctify these offerings, that they may become the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Prayer IV). After the consecration, the priest, in the name of the Church, asks that the faithful receive through sacramental communion the fullness of the Spirit which will not only unite them to the humanity of Jesus Christ which they have received, but through it to the Trinity. Spirit, Eucharist, Unit The Eucharist, the sacrament of unity, brings the Church together and in some way causes it. Now the unity of the Church has always been The Eucharist is a special relationship with the Person of the Spirit, as with his uncreated principle. The fruits of the Eucharist, unity, the gift of the Spirit, the gathering of the Church, are all data 67 The new Eucharistic Prayers bring together in very dense formulas: "We beg you to gather together in unity, through the Holy Spirit, those of us who share in the Body and Blood of Christ" (Prayer ID. "Grant that those who are satisfied with the Body and Blood from In your goodness, grant that all who partake of this one bread and chalice may be in one body" (TV Prayer). "In your goodness, grant that all who partake of this one bread and chalice may be in one body" (TV Prayer). | collected by the Holy Spirit The Lord, in his speech after the Last Supper, promised that the Spirit would come as another Paraclete (Jn., 14, 16). mer his work: "I tell you the truth go away, for if I do not go away, the Paraclete but if I do go away, I will send him to you... !! the whole truth... !! will glorify me, for will take for you The liturgy of concerning the role of Christ. The "Vere it is better that I should not come to you; will lead you to the it is of my good that he The Roman Mass contains several reminders of the Spirit in the completion of the work of the Sanctus -"'from Prayer III: "Through your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, you vivify and sanctify all beings by the working power of the Holy Spirit, and you never cease to gather your people. In the "Post-Sanctus" of Prayer IV, the same idea is taken up again, this time explicitly linked to the mystery of Pentecost: "So that in the future we may no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died and rose again for us (cf. 2 Cor 5:15), he has sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first gift to believers, in order to complete his work in the world by bringing to completion every act of sanctification. Since the eleventh century, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (at that time integrated into the Roman liturgy, which had been resistant to it until then), proclaimed the faith of the Church "in the Holy Spirit who is Lord and giver of life". Moreover, in a new Oration preparatory to Communion, the Ordinary of the Mass preserved, it was affirmed that the work of the Redemption was accomplished by Christ "cooperante Spiritu Sancto ". Such were the "Veni Sanctificator 68 " of Ë Ë Ê£ I have made "sæ Mis o Ord" in nci l that ons usi all lés ire rto l Offe to the person of the Spirit and his place in the economy of salvation. Now setting in the place best celebration. from light the Spirit in the place the life of the Church the more solemn from is the v AND THE EUCHARISTY THE CHURCH Vatican II has dealt several times with the relationship between the Eucharist and the Church. The Council of Trent affirmed that it is to the Church as the Chri le se jais a st that ", e imé n-a bie use Epo son ", such a Eucharistic sacrifice (Dz. 938). The Second Vatican Council shows in the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice the summit of the Church's life: "The Eucharistic sacrifice, it says, is . The Eucharistic sacrifice," it says, "is the highest form of life in the Church: Gent men (Lu ne tien Christian life and all of it is a source of joy). The Eucharist "gives the Church her perfection (Ad Gent. n. 39). The sacraments as well as the ecclesial ministries and the asqauàe The apostolic tasks are all "linked to the Eucharist and ordered to it" (Preb. Ord. n. 52. The life of the Church revolves around the Eucharist and its celebration, in which the Church finds the most vivid manifestation of her mystery and secret life: "The principal manifestation of the Church consists in the plenary participation of the same God in the whole of the liturgical life and activities" (Sacr. Conc., 41). Whenever the community of the altar is realized in dependence on the bishop, "the symbol of this is manifested without the unity of the Church, which is not possible" (L. G, n. 26). u> The Eucharist makes the Church &his Why the unity of the Church, if not because the Eucharist is itself God, because of the unity of the Church! Sacrament of unity with 69 | the Eucharist is the sacrament of unity of the members of the Body mystical. In the measure that each member approaches the center of the unity, it becomes closer to the other members. In the sixth century, St. Dorotheus of Gaza tried to make this truth understood by the famous comparison of the wheel; as one spoke approaches the center, it comes ever closer to the other spokes; thus among the members of the ecclesial body: "By actually participating in the Body and Blood of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are raised to communion with him and with one another... We thus become members of this Body, each in his own right being members of one another" (LG, no. 7). "Restored by the Body of Christ in the course of the sacred liturgy (the faithful) manifest in concrete form the unity of the People of God which this most great sacrament signifies in perfection and realizes admirably" (LG, no. 11). As a sign and cause of unity among the members of the Church "in via", the Eucharist also allows one to enter into communion with the Church in heaven; this is the meaning that should be given to the memory of the saints which precedes intercession: "The celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is the supreme means of our union with the worship of the Church in heaven, while, united in the same communion, we venerate the memory of the glorious Mary the Virgin, of St. Joseph, of the two blessed Apostles and Martyrs, and of all the saints. "8 When Peter Lombard tried to apply to the Eucharist the threefold scholastic distinction of sacramentum tantum, res et sacramentum, and res tantum, he recognized in the The Church is the final term of the sacrament in the sense that the Eucharist gives the Church its being 9. Saint Thomas affirms that the Eucharist is the 8 Lum, Gent. n° 50. On regrets that the adverb semper do go to find than in the Roman Canon. It would have been simple to include it in the new Eucharistic Prayers; its absence has no doctrinal significance since it is kept precisely in the Roman Canon. Mag. sent. IV L, dist. 8 cap. Nunc quid ibi. 70 and that ), tra con sed 2, a. 73, Q, a, (II " e nit the u of t in " sacrem Il 3). t. (ar " ue iq st my ps cor du e nit the u is t in em cr feffet du sa explains the name "commurion "or "synaxis " given The Eucharist is a "sacrament" (art. 4). It is a sacrament of the Church and of the Church itself, and it is a sacrament of the Church. unity (Prayer in body (Prayer III and IV). IN), to bring them together in a only Intercession for unity in and ts sen pre s re mb me ses dan e, chi rar hié sa s The Church in s, is it ed ess néc rs leu tous c ave ts, mor et s ant viv venir, ébration cél the de ent oul dec which this grâ de its fru des beneficiaries upent occ on ssi rce nte d i s ère pri Les e. iqu ist har euc of the mystery a large place in two the Canon sections, romain one where before they the go to ü find consecration, distributed in the other after. ent andt rejected es uit rod int nt me le el uv no es iqu ist har euc s The Prayer Le e. iqu log ce pla sa to , ion rat sec con la after intercession sa s dan not had pos n e which me Ro de te Canon d Hippoly ement which ni ma re le s dan ruee to en ale gin ori ion redact gave birth to the II° Eucharistic Prayer. TV and III s era Pri les '°, ké da Di la de ère pri la à Doing echo ouren se de nt life that ice rif sac du tu ver en u, ask Die ses s tou " him to r ne me ra de, ise Egl son r veler, de rassemble cherchent le qui x ceu s tou " ", e nd mo le s dan sés per dis children of a sincere heart. "The members of this group are very special, as they have a right to be mentioned in the E of s unt def. The The Church on par sée fes pro ne tri doc la t men ite lic imp supposes Christ, s dän nt ose rep who x ceu s fou À " : e oir purgat heur, bon du our sej le s dan, ons pri en s vou s give us access, n y s all that e pos sup qui (ce " x pai la de la de la light and have not yet reached). es qui iqu ist har euc s ère Pri les vel nou des e mêm de It goes 5, ed. H. Hemmer, G. Oger, À. Laurent. 1 eigaciegr X, | 10. Didaké are even more formal: "Admit them to see the light of your face" (Prayer IT), "welcome them into your kingdom" (Prayer IID. The embolism provided for in Prayers II and III for Masses celebrated for the deceased is a perfectly explicit affirmation of the Church's faith in the bodily resurrection: "Since he is a son by a death similar to the Î has been grafted on to your own, give it some (Prayers II and IIT). Prayer III goes on to add: "when he raises the dead from the earth in their flesh, and configures our humble bodies to his body of light (cf. Phil. 3:21). What is proclaimed in the symbol of faith on certain feast days becomes here a solemn affirmation of a precision in which nothing is missing. Nothing so clear-cut would be found in the ancient Ordinary of the Mass. The Eucharist is a means of entering into communion with the worship of the Church in heaven. The Roman Canon indicated this at "Communicantes" and "Nobis quoque". The new Prayers also ask God to make us share the fate of the saints in the light: - "May we obtain the inheritance with your chosen ones and first of all God... at "(Prayer of the very happy ID. Virgin Mary, Mother from -- With your Apostles and saints in your kingdom, or with the whole creation, delivered from the corruption of sin and death (cf. Rom. 6:18, 22; 1:21), we will glorify you" (Prayer IV). The Roman Canon and Prayer II take advantage of this mention of the triumphant Church to express the confidence of the earthly Church in the intercession of the saints, according to the constant teaching of the Magisterium and particularly of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV): "The Holy Synod instructs all bishops and all those who have the office and function of teaching... to instruct the faithful diligently, teaching them that the saints reigning with Christ offer their prayers to God for men (and) that it is good and useful to invoke them humbly" (Dz 984). As for the Angels, the newly introduced Prefaces are to be found at the end of the book. ; The texts are built on the type of the old ones, and the enumeration of the celestial hierarchies takes the same place. One cannot, under penalty of unduly lengthening this "illustration" of the traditional doctrine with the help of the texts of the the new Ordinary of the Mass, to develop all the aspects contained implicitly or explicitly in the Prayer of The Church. Suffice it to say here that the transcendence of God is wonderfully expressed in the Preface of the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer; that redemptive love is fully revealed in the Post-Sanctus of the same Eucharistic Prayer. The Church's faith in the Trinity is affirmed in the doxologies: the "Gloria in excelsis" or Great Doxology; in the profession of faith; in the "In nomine Patris" which opens the celebration and in the formulas of greeting borrowed from St. Paul, especially the first one (2 Cor 13:13; 2 Cor 31; 2 Cor 1:3); and in the blessing at the end of Mass. In contrast to the Roman Canon, which mentions only the Father and the Son, the new Eucharistic Prayers have a distinctly Trinitarian structure because of the presence of an ante-consecratory epiclesis and the prayer for a fruitful communion. While the formulas for humility are more numerous in the Roman Canon than in the new Eucharistic Prayers, the sense of sin is by no means absent from the new Ordinary of the Mass; suffice it to enumerate here all the places where it is mentioned: the Penitential Act, the Kyrie, the 'Gloria in excelsis'. It is sufficient to list here all the places where it is mentioned: the penitential act, the Kyrie, the "Gloria in excelsis", the introductory formula to the Gospel ("Munda cor") and the concluding formula ("Per evangelica dicta"), the Creed, the "In spiritu", the "Lava me", the "Libera" after the Sunday prayer, the "Agnus Dei", the prayers in preparation for Communion, the "Domine non sum dignus". All these elements derive from the old "Ordo": but the Eucharistic Prayer IV adds its own note, presenting original sin as a refusal of obedience to God; it further affirms that the Son of God assumed our mortal condition and became in all things like us, except for sin (cf. Phil. 2:7; Heb. 4:15); it evokes an eschatological perspective "where the whole creation will be delivered from sin and from the power of the Lord" (cf. Phil. 2:7; Heb. 4:15). and death "(c£. Rom., 6, 18, 22; 8, 21). 73 All whenever Christ is called a Redeemer, z e es 74 E sp = The texts implicitly assume the notion of sin. It cannot therefore be claimed that the new Ordinary of the Mass represents a doctrinal retreat from the old. Many new aspects are emphasised without any real attenuation of the old ones. The four Eucharistic Prayers complement and enlighten each other. From the convergence of the texts there emerges a better overall presentation of the Church's traditional doctrine on the Mass, so that The New Ordinary is a valuable theological resource. 5 missae " the new "ordo and the homogeneous evolution of rites There is only one Roman liturgy When did the world begin? An honest man of the XKVIII century with average education would not have hesitated: "About 6000 years ago". The geologists and paleantologists of the end of the 20th century give other impressive answers. But how many men and women still act as if the world had not existed before them! All things considered, similar reactions can be observed among many of the faithful and priests. The difference is that the great event which divides time has become for them the Council: there is a before and an after; for some, only the before counts, for others it is as if the birth certificate of the Church was neither Calvary nor Pentecost, but Vatican II. Before? one does not know any more; or rather if! before, one was not this, one was not that! in short, one thought everything in the wrong way and one did not understand anything about the Gospel. There is nothing more irritating than such a mentality: in the field of liturgy it has taken its toll. No doubt the Latin liturgy, the Roman liturgy, has undergone profound changes. In the Carolinian era cäns the merger had of marked elements a step Romans with : event are still not well known. |' ; the elements capital of which galli les specialists who are 1 ! 75 | gienne The transformations brought about by the Council and after the Council, however, surpass it in importance. However, the transformations brought about by the Council and after the Council surpass it in importance. The Council, in fact, based on the work of the liturgists of the end of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and on the pastoral experience of half a century, undertook a more radical reform of the Church. He gave modern languages an unprecedented place in the Roman liturgy, and was at the origin of: The adoption of new Eucharistic Prayers, the reopening of such important rites as the ordination of bishops and priests, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. A period of profound and accelerated change seemed to be opening up and the effects of this change were keenly felt by all. In reality, the changes made do not affect the essence of the Church. Even if we confine ourselves to the latter, it is not difficult to see the close relationship between the old rites and the new, despite appearances. The Holy Father said to the members of the Consilium who were preparing the new Ordo Missae (1968): "We must not think that liturgical renewal consists in rejecting the sacred patrimony of past times and admitting any novelty. You know well what the intention of the Council Fathers was at that time The innovations had to be in harmony with the sound tradition in such a way as to "bring out the new forms from the already existing ones by a sort of organic development". Consequently, we can call wise the reform that will be able to harmonize adequately what is Let us make a recommendation that is close to our hearts. Make sure that your work does not stray too far from tradition It is not because of any historical or local interest, nor because of any desire for power, that we are urged to make this recommendation. It is not from any historical or local interest, nor from any desire for power, that we are led to make this recommendation to you, but because it is based on theological and constitutional reasons of the Church, which has in Rome the centre of its unity and catholicity. eternal and truly Catholic your work, not to his praise, 76 but the Ë n es from nt and % * the Church to that of and for the glory of the Christ, our Redeemer"! e Father ntSai du nes sig con les que ble sem il at, ult res A voir le onnée, le cti san t men ale fin a il that e uvr the œ : s life sui have been, for fié con r voi l a ès after é gu ul om pr and vé or pr ap a il that' Missel la de ne tri doc la r pou on ti ga re ng Co la to , ime ult a revision la to pre pro ion dit tra la de e abl is have inc ue rq my faith, carries the liturgy Roman. consent - What for consideration The texts of the new those which the facts. not are point convinced Missal are in greater number in il s mai ; V Pie de ain rom sel Mis du x ceu que nt comparableme would be wrong to say that there is, of course, however, from the liturgy We can speak without caution of a "new liturgy"; new texts; most of them straight from the patristic era - the golden age - of the centuries when it produced its most beautiful masterpieces. vantes sui t son VI i Pau de sel Mis du s rce sou les s gro En sie tre tes sus this ion nes ga s sel Mis les s ver tra à er, iti hér V, Pie nt sai de sel Mis 1. The medieval plenaries, the Gregorian Sacramentary. nt 2. The earlier Roman liturgical books, mainly raSac le and ien anc enasi gél ";le cle siè I VII du ens asi les gél mentaire of Verona (called "Leonian "), all discovered : and edited of holy revisers the; centuries XVIII and XVII® of the courts to Pius V had not known these authentically Roman sources. es air ent rem Sac s ien anc les e ndr moi n tio por pro une s 3, Dan t par nde gra une r for ent lem éga us onn inc es, iqu pan francs et his au XVI: siècie. cans lli -ga neo res liv les es, fac Pré et ns iso Ora es lqu que r Pou 4. In the XV century, it was the first time that the Church had been in a position to do so, but it was the first time that the Church had been in a position to do so, and it was the first time that the Church had been in a position to do so. 1. AAS 60, 1968, pp. 732 f. (Speech 77 from 14 October 1968). The Ï/ |! !€ development of the Roman Mass through the ages The proper object of this chapter is not to show how the Missal itself has been enriched; it is more modest. In order to show the continuity of the Ordo Missæ of Paul VI with the earlier rites, the development of the Roman Mass will be outlined in order to see how it fits organically into the tradition as a result of a homogeneous evolution. The first is an analytical study of the development of the rites in the new Ordo Missae, indicating the position of each in relation to the Ordo. The other, synthetic, would be content to give a rapid outline of the two-thousand-year evolution of the Roman Mass, indicating the date of appearance of the various rites, the enrichment or the progressive transformations from the initial nucleus. It is this second method which will be preferred here: it is more suggestive, more telling, and gives to each element its proportionate importance-in its relation to the whole. For the first six centuries at least the evolution cannot be From time to time a vestige appears, providing information on the progress made, the transformations carried out, without revealing the secret of the evolution. The more so as these vestiges do not necessarily come from the same monument. The historian finds himself in the same perplexity as the archaeologist in interpreting the data provided by his excavations; is this wall the vestige of an autonomous complex that has now disappeared, or did it continue to be used in the later building, which was itself reworked several times? The how of the passage from one form to another often escapes us; the hypotheses painstakingly built remain in the state of hypotheses without ever or almost without becoming certainties. In the end, we know the moments of an evolution, not its continuous lines, because of the scarcity of documents; there is now little hope of discovering many unpublished works. A liturgical book is essentially "useful"; once it is no longer used for celebrations, no one is concerned about its 78 conservation; have Celtic liturgy, the most must be added to the VHI century. The description of ff century in its ar roman quernent Churches The of diagram country in the books from lak Thus disappeared most of the ancient Gallican books, and' it large number of the earlier Roman books; the Mass made by St. Justin in the middle of the Apology to the Emperors is not specified: it applies, it seems, to the whole of the Mediterranean is most so much elementary because of the Orient saint that Justin do of the West. has not The only purpose of the book was to make known what was going on in the Christian assemblies in order to destroy absurd prejudices. First of all, the Memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are read "while there is still time", the homily of the head of the assembly exhorts the faithful "to put these beautiful lessons into practice"; then comes the Prayer for all the intentions of the Church; it is made standing "for us (Christians), for the baptized (neophytes) and for all the others who are everywhere in the world". The members of the community exchange the kiss of peace; then are presented the s, the bread and the cup of soaked wine to the celebrant who pronounces on the offerings a long and abundant Consecratory Prayer expressing praise and glory to the Trinity in the form of thanksgiving; the people respond with a unanimous Amen; after which the deacons distribute communion and the collection of alms is made; what is collected is brought to the presider; the relief is distributed to the orphans and widows of the Christian community. This is the initial pattern in which the Liturgy of the Word, the Universal Prayer, the Kiss of Peace, the Presentation of Gifts, the Eucharistic Prayer and Communion are easily discerned. With St. Hippolytus in the 2nd century, it is indeed a Mass celebrated in Rome, but it is difficult to affirm that it is the Roman Mass, Hippolytus having, it seems, many ties with Egypt, Alexandria in particular. The Liturgy of the Word is not mentioned, but we find in the order the Kiss of Peace, the Presentation of the offerings by the deacons to the bishop (the faithful do not yet intervene), the Eucharistic Prayer, the Eucharistic Celebration and the Mass. ant ue snt me dient at; 30sfines its. w'il sa mtn 79 Ë The transition from Greek to Latin, both in epigraphy (inscriptions) and in the liturgy, was not sudden; it seems to have taken half a century; Africa had preceded Rome on this path. With the help of various documents one can guess what the Roman Mass might have been like in the fourth century; it begins directly with the greeting of the celebrant and the readings interspersed with hymns, somewhat in the manner of the liturgy of 80 e the rulers, for the others", followed by the Kiss of Peace and the Offering by the faithful; there is a recommendation to God of the offerings (Super oblata). The Eucharistic Prayer, as known from the writings of St. Ambrose, is an early state of the Roman Canon, much briefer than that of the fifth century; nothing in particular has come down to us about the rites of Communion; at the end of the Mass there is mention of the greeting to the congregation and then the dismissal. This ensemble was soon to be completed by two elements: an Alleluia without verse before the Gospel, introduced perhaps by St. Damasus, and the Sunday Prayer as a prayer of preparation for Communion (and it seems to have played this role already in Africa at the time of St. Cyprian). In the fifth century the Mass begins to take on a more familiar face. First of all, the three prayers of the Mass are attested at this time, with a fourth which concludes the Universal Prayer. The Eucharistic Prayer takes on a form very close to that which it will keep until our time E Good Friday; after the homily, the Universal Prayer takes place, in which requests are presented to God "for the people, for J i The Eucharistic Prayer, which begins with the dialogue of the Preface and ends with a Doxology, an optional blessing of the fruits of the earth (oil, cheese, olives), and fairly extensive communion prayers, is celebrated in Greek like that of St. Justin. The Eucharistic Prayer has been preserved; it has influenced several Eastern writers of anaphors and is used as it is by the Ethiopian liturgy under the name of the Anaphora of the Apostles; it is this which, taken up and completed, has become the II* Eucharistic Prayer of the Ordo Missæ. In the second half of the third century, the mn ÊË days; it ends with a gesture of offering (small elevation). The Kiss of Peace is carried from the Offertory to Communion. Finally, a short litany appears at the beginning of the Mass. The processional chants are soon added to the meditative chant after the readings: first the Reponsory of the Offertory with its verses, then the Communion Psalm, very quickly accompanied by an Antiphon, and finally the Entrance chant. The Mass concludes with a Benediction in the form of an Oration over the people (Super populum). The Mass at the time of St. Gregory the Great is quite (590-604). The Pope fixes the mode of execution of the litany at the beginning of the Mass; the hymn "Gloria in excelsis", sung by the Orientals at the Office of Lauds, appears, reserved at first for the great feasts and for episcopal Masses only. The Pope compiles the Canon: with the exception of the incision "Mysterium fidei" which will appear only later in the words of the consecration of the wine; with the exception also of the intermediate conclusions in the course of the Eucharistic Prayer, it is the Canon as the West has known it for fourteen centuries; it is not long before not indeed to supplant the. Variable Eucharistic prayers, very numerous in the Hispanic and Gallican liturgies. St. Gregory moves the Parer noster to be sung just after the Doxology of the Canon, with an introduction and an embolism. The first is one of the oldest rites of the Eucharist, whose raison d'être is both practical and symbolic (Fractio panis); the second predates the time of St Gregory, and is intended to "signify" communion between several celebrants and several Eucharistic celebrations separated in space or time. The seventh and eighth centuries were a time when the influence of The arriving celebrant prostrates himself, then goes up the procession of the Gospel, which is followed by a prayer. exercised in Rome and had a: luminary, incense, differentiated mulliturgical marks and sompà the altar at the beginning of the Mass, kiss; the incense is used at the takes more relief. A first the washing of the hands is introduced before the Offering; the fraction 81 A ritual ablution of the chalice appears after communion and before the rites of copclusion. The Carolingian period and the centuries that followed (7th-10th, then 10th-10th centuries) brought only minor additions, except for the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, introduced first in Frankish lands around 798-800, and then in Rome only in the 10th century, and the Sequence after the Alleluia, the use of which St. Pius V would try to limit. A wide variety of forms are given to the priest to recite silently, varying from one church to the apostle; they will not be of Saint Pius V accompanying persons definitively fixed than in time sacred; prayers of the prayers of preparation before Mass, taking of the vestments prayer hs this preparing for communion; more ablutions accompanied by formulas. The celebrant took the habit of silently blessing the congregation with a sign of the cross before leaving it and returning to the "i "secretarium" (the ancient "Oratio super popylum" having disappeared); there were also prayers of thanksgiving provided after Mass for the celebrant (Canticle of the Three Children, Psalm 150, verses and orations), even though the ritual of the Mass had not yet completed its evolution. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw tc a confession at the foot of the altar, making explicit the feelings of humility, penitence and reverence contained in the gesture of prostration; secret prayers preceding the kiss of peace or new prayers and rituals are still being born: everything first the incensing of the altar at the Entrance and Offertory; the prayer of preparation for the Gospel (Munda cor); the various prayers of the Offertory are organized, they had appeared at the end of the previous period; the Lavabo (the first being preserved only at the Pontifical Masses), the Orate fratres, the elevation of the host after the consecration. The elevation of the chalice after the consecration and the recitation of the Prologue of the Gospel of St. John at the end of the Mass with the Placeat (Primitive Prayers of Thanksgiving, to be said after leaving the altar) were the last enrichments made in the 14th century. 82 | | $ The Problem of the Offertory A few details concerning the prayers of the OVF will not be superfluous. Essentially the rites of the Offertory consist of a procession of offerings accompanied by In all the processions of the Mass, a chant, the placing of the offerings on the altar, which evolved into a formal gesture of offering, and a solemn Oration "super oblata". The preparation of the offerings near the altar or on the altar itself was made necessary by the structure of the Roman Mass. elsewhere in the East, and in Gaul in earlier times, the preparation was done before the Mass, and it was enough to go and solemnly fetch the already prepared offerings and bring them while the congregation was preparing for the Offertory. In this case, the priest performed a song (the Great Entrance of the Orientals to the sound of the Cherubikon). The preparation at the altar prescribed in the Missal of St. Pius V is done according to a rite adopted by the Roman Curia in the twelfth century: the priest unfolds the corporal, without a formula (there were many formulas in the past); the offering of the bread is accompanied by the "-Suscipe sancte Pater" which Pon sees appearing for the first time in the Carolingian "Liber precationum" compiled on the orders of Charles the Bald. The blessing of the water without a formula had for a long time an autonomous formula, which varied greatly according to the church. The offering of the chalice has been autonomous since the fourteenth century; previously the priests usually offered the host and wine together, as in the Cartusian or Dominican liturgy. The "Supplices te rogamus" is a formula borrowed from a Mozarabic Eucharistic Prayer; it must have been adopted first in Narbonne Gaul. "In spiritu humilitatis" is a serpural quotation from the Book of Daniel (Dan. 3:39); it is followed by a kind of epiclesis addressed to the Holy Spirit: the need for a prayer of this type was felt because of the absence of an explicit epiclesis within the Roman Canon itself; according to Berthold de 83 by the makes from adoption from -- Suscipe sancta Trinitas: combining the anamnesis, the offering of the sacrifice, the memory of the triumphant Church, the intercession and the conclusion which follow the consecration. It is sufficient to open the Mozarabic "Liber Sacramentorum", the "Missale Gothicum" or the "Missale Gallicanum vetus" to find passages parallel to these three prayers in the innumerable (fragmented) Eucharistic Prayers they contain; indeed, it is known that the Gallican-Mozarabic tradition used variable elements for the Eucharistic Prayers, articulated and ordered around a few fixed parts; the three of the institution, the "Contestatio elements were fixed the Sanctus, the u t - meséiisia SS TT words the institution, the conclusion; the vaPreface elements before the Sanctus (called "IMlatio"), the "Post-Sanctus" before the Post-Pridie words after them. 84 e e Es E Eucharistic) r Canon (or Prayer three prayers : P Constance (-1100) it would be a prayer of Gallican origin; it is probably a true epiclesis taken from a Eucharistic Prayer. In its complex form the rite of incensing in the Ordo of St. Pius V was the result of a development begun in the course of the eleventh century; the formula for the blessing of the incense appears in an eleventh-century Sacramentary from Mainz; the accompanying prayers are verses from psalms chosen for this purpose. The "Lavabo" in this place has primarily a practical reason after the incensing; it also has a symbolic justification which has been retained since it became common to all Masses. The prayer "Suscipe sancta Trinitas" of which Berthold of . The prayer "Suscipe sancta Trinitas", whose Gallican origin is guaranteed by Berthold of Constance in his Microloge, shows by its very structure that it is an ancient element of the Eucharistic Prayer; thus, in the course of the Offertory in the Ordo of St. Pius V, numerous themes proper to the Eucharistic Prayer were already evoked. â ï t e Each of the prayers of the Offertoite in the Missal of St. Pius V has its own history and prehistory; their combination into a whole took place in the liturgical books of the Italian peninsula in the course of the twelfth century, and perhaps even in the other churches of the West until the eleventh and sixteenth centuries different sets were preserved. By way of example or illustration, here are the roffertory prayers in the printed Cluny Missal of 1523: "Quid retribuam Domino...", "Suscipe sancta Trinitas", "Lavabo", "In spiritu humilitatis", "Orate fratres"; one could multiply examples of this kind. Not all the particular liturgies gave way to that of St. Pius V; without speaking of the Ambrosian and Lyons liturgies, whose origin is very ancient, several religious families have preserved their particular rites; so as a complement to what has just been shown, will it not be these de oire fert d Of res priè les nt deme rapi er diqu d in le inuti fiturgies which have subsisted parallel to that of St. Pius V. In Milan : the Offertory prayers are very developed; there is a prayer for the offering of the bread "Suscipe, clementissime t exivi sti Chri e later De " ion mixt d'im ule form une ", r Pate de este prot t bran célé le elle laqu dans ogie apol une ", uis sang his indignity, then the "Suscipe sancta Trinitas" which has a variant for Sundays and feasts; Then comes a blessing of the offerings and the incensing ; the Credo concludes the Offertory. In Lyon according to the Misel of 1737 : the Offertory begins with the verse " Quid retribuam Domino ", there is a double formula of preparation of the offerings " Ego sum panis vivus " for the fran d'of e prièr the wine, the for " i nostr ni Domi e later De " bread, de e followed n, Cano of the " em tion obla Hanc " of the ante vari a de est " In spiritu humilitatis " and of the " Veni sanctificator " ; the end of LaPOffertoire is very close to the Mass of Saint Pius V: "vabo", "Suscipe Sancta Trinitas", "Orate pro me fratres". In the Carthusian Missal of 1713, there is no such thing; when the priest puts "(as in "De latere Domini" Lavabo" which follows the Offering for 85 The Offertory is performed with water in the chalice (as it is said in Lyon). À! / Luther was still a Catholic when he celebrated according to the Augustinian liturgy, and what formulas were used in But this would take us too far. By this simple outline we can guess what the extreme variety of the rites and prayers of Offertory in the late Middle Ages may have been; it is undoubtedly a sign of the recent character of all This part of the liturgy of the Mass; not a common source, but the expression of an autonomous research of each local church. Its reorganization does not touch the essence of the Mass, the Ordo Missæ renovated The Ordo Missae of Paul VI is organically inserted into the general history of the Roman Mass. In contrast to what had happened up to now, it did not proceed by adding new rites, but rather by simplifying them, so that the main lines of the celebration would stand out better and be easier to discern. We remember the content of art. 50 of the Conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy, but let us quote it once again, for it will help us to understand the options made: "The ritual of the Mass will be revised in such a way that the proper role and the mutual connection of each of the parts will be more clearly manifested, and that the pious and active participation of the faithful will be facilitated. While the substance of the rites will be faithfully preserved, they will be simplified: the following will be omitted 86 r L < r e his criticism of the Offertory. can be be better the south; it would be understandable p the churches of Germany mts It would be interesting to find out what was the Offertory of which sn In spiritu humilitatis": it is finally P "Orate fratres". Among the Dominicans: the Offertory, also very brief, begins with the "Quid retribuam": the gesture of offering is accompanied by a very brief "Suscipe sancta Trinitas", the "Lavabo", "In spiritu humilitatis" and the "Orate fratres". Among the Grand Carmelites: the "Suscipe sancta Trinitas" is the offering formula; there is a blessing of the offerings as in Milan, the "Lavabo", "In spiritu humilitatis" and the "Orate fratres"; those which, in the course of the ages were redoubled bu' were added without great utility; one will re-establish according to' the ariciénnie norm of the holy Fathers certain things which have disappeared - under" the opportune ones will appear that where measure the in time, of the reached or necessary ". The Mass of Paul VI is not the result of eliminations bread and that of the vid, the incense certain one nt ielleme artific revive not made brutal; it; well itleale said epoch of one that, Roman state of the Mass dvaient them that they because nus mainte were vaux mediated rites and that they sèque intrin cation justifi a t they had reason to be, the tlouble elede thus; ble placed irrem on foncti a exerçaient vation ! ;i Î |; *ë q after the consecration from the toire, I Offer to and ment of the Mass ' . Credo.. chant of the univerPrayer the of that was s ration restau des The first ne it if: totaie was never had n selle. The disappearance of the rites of the parMmi re Gregoi saint de ith the Vernacular language in e subsisted had it Mass, the de officials of the parish domini e liturgi the in its place integrated into it had it then ; s century XVT and XV° its until the of the prayers the par enté represented etic catech type the whole of skeletal little e someone form a under nir prone to the etion Instru 1'° the par decree was tic. The restoration of the Consti tution of the ation applied in legislative if not this; 1964 September 26 many of the pretext became is prayer this admirable in less where more nages testify to ession places either to the expr tapan statio manife the to either e, the Eglis of e liturgi relationship with it; The Church has a long history of the liturgy, and the spirit of the liturgy can, in respect of the liturgical rite, give the world a new way of thinking and acting, and the spirit of the liturgy can, in respect of the liturgy, give the world a new way of thinking and acting. The Missal of Paul VI was restored and a second one should serve as a model. It had also been faithful to the occasion through the celebration of special Masses (notably the Masses for the dead). the beginning of the Mass. 87 In the Ordo Missæ promulgated in 1969, the changes from the Mass of St. Pius V affect mainly the rites of preparation, offering and fraction. The preparation : the antiques prayers at bottom from the altar have This begins, as has been said, with the prostration of the celebrant before the altar, while the scola and the people perform the Entrance Antiphon and Psalm: the prostration was soon accompanied by an apology or prayer in which the celebrant protested his unworthiness and implored God's mercy; the apology was at first presented in the form of a long formula; it was later reduced; at the end of its evolution it was no more than a Confiteor, completed by preparatory verses in dialogue between the celebrant and his ministers. Until recently, the assembly was not concerned by these prayers; they were the due to the only The celebrant and his ministers; the congregation joined in the singing of the scola. At low Masses the silence of the congregation gave them more prominence: they could not pass unnoticed: When you see the priest at the foot of the altar, considering him bent over as he makes his confession while saying the Confiteor," we read in an unpublished method for attending Mass dating from the seventeenth century, "you will imagine Jesus Christ bent over under the burden of our sins and our woes, and humiliating himself for this in the presence of his Father... The pastoral effort to increase the participation of the faithful, having taken as its basis the low Mass, the prayers at the foot of the altar, originally reserved for the celebrant and his server, have paradoxically become one of the privileged moments of active participation; the faithful have derived many spiritual benefits from this, since they too need a more active participation. Alençon, minic Healthy Library (1609-1655) muünicipale, theologian from 88 ms. Towers. 167: the author in is Do preparation to become aware of their sinful state before the celebration of the Lord's memorial. The editors of the Ordo Missæ sought a way of not -nothing to sacrifice, neither the entrance rites with their festive character, nor the rites of preparation with their penitential character. The result is what has been called the "penitential act" concerning the whole assembly after the chanting of the entrance and the rite of incensing the altar; the celebrant, having greeted the assembly with the Dominus vobiscum or a greeting from the Pauline Epistles (used in the Byzantine liturgy before the beginning of the anaphora), begins with it an abbreviated Confiteor or other formulae; The act is concluded with the Kyrie eleison; nothing is abandoned, therefore, either of the solemnity of the entrance rite, or of the acquisitions of contemporary liturgical pastoral care, which had shown the benefit that the congregation can derive from its participation in the "prayers at the foot of the altar"; the evolution remains homogeneous. Offering: In its structure the Offertory was presented as a kind of anticipated offering of the Body and Blood of Christ of which the bread and wine are already in some way the signs: "What remains until the Preface," we read in the method quoted above, "is the Offertory in which the bread and wine which has been presented by the faithful are offered to God, because in former times ftall Christians offered something at the altar to contribute to this divine sacrifice. And as bread and wine are the two things which most usually sustain man's life, by this offering one testifies to God that one recognizes him as the author of all good things, and even of life, by offering him the principal things which sustain. And because it is no longer the custom to make these offerings materially, we must make them in spirit and bring to the altar all that we hold most dear, our understanding, our thoughts, our heart, our desires and our loves, so that as the Son of God goes to be entirely immortal, so he will be the author of all things. Lf The new rite advises an effective restoration of the offering by the faithful. The prayer pronounced by the celebrant to accompany his gesture of offering the bread is a blessing to God, the giver of the fruits of the earth which, transformed by the work of men into the material of the sacrifice, will be raised in a few moments to the dignity of the Eucharistic offering; The celebrant then says "In spiritu humilitatis" and, if there is no incensation, immediately proceeds to the washing of the hands, accompanied by a short psalmic formula from the "Miserere". The "Suscipe sancta Trinitas", too close to the Eucharistic Prayer in content and form, is omitted; the celebrant immediately invites the faithful to pray for him with the traditional formula "Orate fratres"; This formula has been retained in preference to the Oremus because of its explicit allusion to the sacrificial character of the Mass, and also because of the clear distinction it makes between the royal priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood of the priest, which are not on the same level; nuances which, unfortunately, have disappeared in the translation. Peace and Fraction: The rites of the exchange of the sign of peace and of the fraction have been reordered to avoid overlap. The Pater is followed by an abbreviated embolism which ends with the doxological acclamation used in many liturgies and a vestige of the liturgical usage of the apostolic era. Then the celebrant says aloud or sings the oration of peace "Domine Jesu Christe"; a solemn oration of peace is indeed a constant in various liturgies; Rome must have had such an oration in the fourth to fifth centuries. The oration is concluded by the greeting "Pax Domini". Only then is the breaking of the bread nion while that is preceded by the choir of a sings preparation 3 Ib. 90 the Agnus Dei. personal, The Commu le celebrant having the: choice between two formulas medieval of devotion, bequeathed by the Missal of St. Pius V. The invitation to Communion very traditional (cf. the "Sancta sanctis " of the old In the new Missal, the "Venite populi" of Lyon) takes the form of a scriptural quotation from the Apocalypse (Rev 19:9): "Beati qui ad cenam Agni vocati sunt", showing in the Eucharistic banquet (the "holy table") the anticipation and pre-tasting of the eschatological feast. The first contact with the rites of peace, fraction, communion a pu give a some print from coldness from This is due to the disappearance of the many devotional prayers that had accompanied each of the priest's gestures since the Middle Ages; this is especially noticeable at Mass celebrated privately: But the new Ordo presents a general line superior to the old one; instead of overlapping, the rites of peace and fraction have recovered their proper unity, their well-defined structure; the restoration of the fraction (the host is really broken to be eaten by several) 'and of peace, where possible, gives to this whole part of the Mass a meaning which it was formerly more difficult to perceive and which escaped a great number of the faithful; and these rites concern them immediately. One cannot seriously criticize the very structure of the Mass as it appears in the Ordo of Paul VI; it would be a case of a few in which it is applied (or not applied faithfully) that would leave much to be desired; therein lies the main source of the uneasiness. In fact, it is up to each celebrant to discover the style of the celebration which best suits the community he is helping; it is up to the celebrant to decide on a certain number of norms; the fact remains that the liturgy is very demanding; with the spirit of routine and fantasy, one ends up with disastrous results. The old legis", me for " aine cert une e me deta son par it osa imp on lati vel nou le; es ent ici def eurs aill par ons ati ébr cél aux même Ordo fait conflance au goût des prêtres, à leur noblesse innée, lées à leur sens du sacré et de ce qui convient aux " assemb 91 " of the Lord"; it brings much in the way of liturgical knowledge, but supposes in the priests of the one It requires constant attention to the needs of their community and careful preparation of all things. TI requires that celebrants have a keen psychological sense of what is appropriate and what is not. Did he not aim too high? Sometimes one wonders. But are not its very demands a permanent invitation to strive to rise above mediocrity, to rise to the proposed ideal? For Plato, since the gods are good and beautiful at the same time, the ceremonies by which men honour them must not only be good and the cooking must be good, but they must also be beautiful. What was necessary for the Greek philosopher, who was so keen on harmony, is infinitely more important in the Christian economy, where the thrice-holy God has manifested both his incomprehensible goodness and his infinite beauty. Such a homage can be rendered with the new rites of the Mass as perfectly as with the old; it is enough to take the means. 92 the "ordo missae" of Paul VI and the separated brothers Three difficulties mentioned in Chapter III have remained without a direct answer; it is time to come back to them and see if they are sufficient to motivate a refusal to adhere to all the positive aspects which have just been brought to light. They are as follows: 1. Protestant theologians are said to have collaborated in the drafting of the Ordo Missæ of Paul VI; this can only reflect their theology and bring into the Catholic Church the errors of the Reformation. 2. Some Protestant pastors, including the sub-prior of Taizé, and M. Siegvalt, professor of dogmatics at the Protestant Faculty of Theology in Strasbourg, consider that they can henceforth use the present words and rites without any particular difficulty, whereas they were unable to do so with the Tridentine Mass; it is therefore the case that the Ordo Missae reflects a Protestant theology of the Mass. 3. 3. The new Mass is ecumenical in intent, and is so conceived that the speaker may, in the words of the new Canons, regard it as either a renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary in the Eucharist or merely a commemoration. In the first case, it is the Mass that is celebrated, in the second the Last Supper. The third difficulty has already been largely answered, especially in Chapter IV; it is true, however, that in a certain sense the new Ordo is ecumenical in scope; it has not been necessary for it to introduce ambiguities 93 This intention will be emphasized in the present chapter. As for the first two difficulties, they can be answered quickly. and the use of Pope John XXITI took the initiative to invite many observers to the conciliar sessions. No one has ever claimed that the Constitutions and Decrees were voted by them and that they took an active part in the debates. The "Consillum" for liturgical reform was able to invite some liturgical specialists from the Christian confessions as observers, without the Ordo Missae of Paul VI being their work. The objection is not serious, even if they had been asked for their opinion on some specific point of their speciality; there are certain problems concerning the "functioning" of a rite for which it is not necessary to have complete faith in the Eucharist; the organisers of the Olympic Games could also have given useful advice. The Ordo Missæ, moreover, passed through the hands of the theologians of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before being promulgated. The second difficulty is more specious. It might be answered by a parallel proposition: some Anglican pastors use the Rite of St. Pius V without any trouble of conscience and, what is more, in Latin; is this a reason for us Catholics to reject it! When they do so, they are only committing themselves, not the Anglican confession as such, which intends to stick to the thirty-nine articles. In the same way, the sub-prior of Taizé and the few pastors who show themselves to be in favour of the new Ordo Missæ are far from representing the whole of the Lutheran and Reformed confessions; there have been very clear reactions in the opposite direction, so that no conclusion of any value can be drawn. It would be good practice to interview the persons concerned and ask them to explain fully their thinking, the meaning they intended to give to their statements 94 | q Û Ê Ss Observers at the Council and the Consilium, the Ordo Missæ by the Protestants which were then put on the spot. Since we cannot afford to do so here, a few remarks will make up for it. Several Reformed denominations have been the scene for some decades of a liturgical movement which has some similarities with the movement which arose in Catholic lands at the beginning of the century. A specialist in the history of Protestantism, himself a Protestant, E.G. Léonard, wrote around 1964: "The liturgical renewal covers the whole of worship life and seems to reflect a concern for the priestly character of the ministry and the person of the pastor. The pastor is no longer the one of the faithful who "presides" over the service... he becomes... an "officiant"; the milestones of the clerical line also pass through "ordination" (and The liturgical renewal is centered on the sacrament... Protestantism as a whole, however, is in favor of maintaining the tradition, and this in all countries. The few statements made about Paul VI's Ordo Missæ come essentially from this milieu and do not affect the Protestant mass. For their part, Catholics tend to transpose their mental categories onto Protestantism and consider it as a block, a coherent whole. In Protestantism, the great ancestors of the XV century are considered more as initiators of a spiritual movement than as doctors; one easily distances oneself from what they have taught or affirmed; they were the masters of an evangelical renewal, but they referred their followers to the Gospel interpreted on the basis of free examination, to the Word of God, not to their own interpretation of it; it is very improper to speak of "orthodoxy" within the Protestant denominations; by definition there is no magisterium. 1. E.G. Leonard, History and Renewal, Paris, 1964, general of p. 601-602. 95 Protestantism, t. II, Decline The true ecumenical significance of the Ordo Missæ The er sip dis to r bue tri con pu a sæ Mis o Ord vel nou le s presented dan they that e gên la sme here hol cat du s che pro ts tan tes chez les pro ne a cel; V Pie nt sai de uel rit du d gar l'é à ore enc nt aie ouv épr signif not that the Mass from always or now the he of me iti leg done to t all either he n bie te, tan tes Cène pro s san ", ur gne Sei du as Rep " de m no le l, Pau nt sai donner, with d exaps tem is he s Mai le. nel ion dit tra ne tri doc la de ier ren n rie sæ de Mis rdo l O de ue iq en um œc tée por la t men ide rap miner des ui cel que ure nat me mê de est me is en um œc Cet Paui VI me is en um œc x fau du pas ève rel ne il: res iai cil documents con ales et ent dam fon es enc erg div les ter amo esc à ait ter sis con uel leq és. ult fic dif les t men ide luc r ine xam d e u lie au ns tio osi les opp VI se l Pau 9, 196 r life jan 22 du e enc udi l a de rs cou Au des é nit l u to it lla vai tra which t tan tes pro aut a pleased to quote He said, "The ses whose cho des r for men ias ous nth s'e iqu hol cat les is that t don ce t in nn do an ab they that, ivi noc la u onn rec we have rpou e Father nt Sai Le". e anc ort imp 'l' rtuve eco we have red ge ai nta ava s san e, vil ser de itu ait a là st C'e " t vai sui ore enc de itu att ne d u ant other dir en ons rri pou s Nou dignity. aux é nit l'u ir abl ret d ten pre that ui d h our auj more widespread fact, nous s nou qui do Cre Le e. iqu hol cat ité ver la de ens dep vescti spe per ces s dan ble sem es, iqu hol cat et ens éti chr définit é. nit l'u de ion rat tau res la à e abl ont urm ins e acl bst l o là become . ves gra fort and s era severe t for ces gen exi des e pos do Certes le Cre things and é lit rea la de on nsi ehe mpr nco d i pei s sou s Mai ultés fic dif des on uti sol lä é, nt the u of se cau la de on his de tra s de ité ver les ier rif bag to ter sis con t rai sau ne do Cre au attachées la de que iri emp ue tiq pra la que ire uso ill ir spo l e faith in discimes nor de and e iqu mat dog le upu scr de e llé yes dep é rit cha 2 sto apo ion tut sti Con la 9, 196 r life jan 22 of is The allocution nt Sai au pas son fai Ne il. apr 3 du " m nu ma ro e lique " Missal tout à au t tou du dit tre con t s it es it ser pen de re nju l i Father 2. DC | 66, 1969, p. 203. 96 two months cunement interval. The new Ordo Missæ do raised It does not level differences and oppositions; it does not sacrifice Catholic doctrine; it simply highlights a greater number of fundamental aspects of the Eucharist, |2 are (fortunately!) Lutheran confessions The old anaphora even in the current between all that was | and Calvinist. of St. Hippolytus, composed in Rome in the third century, is a venerable text used without much modification in It was translated into Latin in patristic times, along with various parts of the Didascalia of the Apostles, perhaps for liturgical purposes. Very close in content and structure to the Jewish blessings from which the initial outline of the Christian Eucharistic Prayer developed, it has been admired by many liturgists of various denominations. In the sixteenth century the Protestants reformed the liturgy, and especially the Eucharistic Prayer, in the name of dogmatic presuppositions, without reference to living Tradition. They have since returned to more traditional forms thanks to a better knowledge of Christian antiquity and the liturgy of the patristic period; among the sources of inspiration for their new Eucharistic Prayers the Canon of Hippolytus holds a privileged place; its extreme popularity comes from the fact that it is entirely centred on Christ and the Paschal Mystery; in it one gathers the echo of St. Paul: "By his blood Christ has become our peace, who from the two has made one people" (Eph. The great sobriety of expression of this Canon, which comes from the early patristic ages, from the time of St. Cyprian and Origen, does not detract from the richness of its | Ë | Ê ! | ; some of which we Î content. The III Eucharistic Prayer is not directly derived from an ancient model; it is an anaphora whose biblical inspiration is united with the combined influences of the West (Roman, Gallican, Mozarabic tradition) and the Antiochian liturgies. It insists on the universal character of the Redemption and presents the salvation and peace so desired by people today, 97 rrr as the fruit of the Savior's sacrifice rendered present in the The great missionary intention, the salvation of the world in its universality, is explicitly expressed in the Eucharistic celebration. The universal character of the Redemption is affirmed: the whole world is embraced in a single glance, from east to west, with all the members of the human family, those who are far away and those who are near. Nothing human is absent from its perspective, and the goal assigned is the eschatological gathering where all the saved will see clearly that they owe their salvation to the one Savior Jesus Christ and to his one Church. With the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer, the Eastern tradition becomes familiar to the Latin Church; it owes much to the anaphora of the Antiochian liturgy, both in its arrangement and in its lyrical expression, which is of great scope. The model it follows is the anaphora of St. Basil in his Alexandrian recension, but various complements allow us to guess, through it, what the richness of the Eucharistic celebrations of the East is. It invites us to contemplate the mystery of God's love in a Johannine climate, through the blessings of creation and then throughout history of salvation where the incomparable tenderness of the God "friend of men", pursuing a creature who constantly evades him before consenting to surrender to the supreme manifestation of love on Calvary. All the interventions of the Lord in the history of humanity to ward off sin and rebellion are admirably evoked. In addition, the Trinitarian structure of the thanksgiving is well brought out, as is the rule in the great Eucharistic Prayers of Antioch and Syria. The prayer for unity recalls that which the Lord said at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday evening. Thus the ecumenical intention behind the reform of the Ordo Missae did not result in a lessening of doctrine, but rather in a widening of perspectives. A liturgy such as the communion service in the Prayer Book of 1549, written by Cranmer for the Anglican Church, was an equivocal ritual: the Archbishop of Canterbury had wanted to retain the general structure and wording of the old 98 The Roman liturgy, which he had translated into an admirable language, but a number of alterations had introduced into it a Eucharistic doctrine with a Lutheran flavour; a Catholic interpretation remained possible - and some were then taken in by it - but the one-sided insistence on the absolute uniqueness of Christ's non-repeatable offering, the suppression of the rite of elevation, the absence of terms expressing explicitly the Poffrande of the sacrifice made really present, the affirmation of the "Eucharistic" and the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic" of the "Eucharistic that the sacrifice is only a sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving in which the Christian presents himself to God as a reasonable offering, testify to a Protestant desire to break with with the doctrine this one* ; and to blur the line between in the Ordo Missæ of Paul VI; it is not in this It can be said to be ecumenical. Today the various Protestant denominations are adopting Eucharistic Prayers inspired by the traditional models, while respecting more scrupulously the doctrine to which they bear witness and their structure. One can only rejoice at such a development, which would have been unthinkable in the 15th and early 15th centuries. The starting point was the break with the liturgical tradition of the West where theyToday, patristic studies are leading them to return to more traditional types of Eucharistic prayer in form and content. If their Eucharistic faith, through a happy conversion, were one day to come into agreement with that of the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, they would be able to do so.3 Here is a good place to recall what Pascal said: "We believe that the substance of the bread, being changed and transubstantiated into that of the body of Our Lord, Jesus Christ is really present in it. This is one of the truths. Another is that this sacrament is also a figure of the cross and of glory, and one of the two. This is the Catholic faith which commemorates these two truths which seem to be opposed. "The heresy of today (Luther?) not conceiving that this sacrament contains both the presence of Jesus Christ and His figure, and that it is a sacrifice and a commemoration of a sacrifice, believes that one of these truths cannot be admitted without excluding the other for the sake of the other. this reason, "They hold to this point alone, that in this they are not heretics. They are not heretics." This is the truth, and hence they tell us the passages of the Fathers that say, "Finally, they are heretics. 99 ; sacrament is figurative; and think we exclude make so many objections on they deny the presence: and in (Pascal, Thoughts, n° 862). They will have been helped by their own return to the patristic sources, and not by any alleged doctrinal compromises of the Catholic Church in the formulation of its officinal prayer. Ë Ï | 100 conclusion | The promulgation of the Missal of Paul VI is an indisputable fact: if we study chronologically the series of acts of the Holy See concerning it, there can be no doubt that it is a legal one. The only Misset currently authorized in the Catholic Church for the Roman Rite, unless specifically permitted by the Holy Father. The seat for Masses with the participation of the people, the Ordinary for elderly or sick priests celebrating privately. Attacks on its orthodoxy are inadmissible; at stake is the very notion of the nature of the prayer in the official eg. A careful examination of the new Eucharistic Prayers proves their perfect coherence with the doctrine defined at |Ê Thirty. The Ordo Missæ ' of Paul VI represents a moment It is not an arbitrary construction based on more or less heterodox abstract ideas. It is the only way to express the various complementary aspects of the traditional Eucharistic doctrine which the whole Church has lived since its origins both in the West and in the East. !; | | It is legitimate to work and even to fight with perseverance for the triumph of the beauty of worship and to be very demanding on this point. It is legitimate to work and even to fight with perseverance for the triumph of the beauty of worship and to be very demanding in this regard: "The celebration of divine worship, of Holy Mass, is always something very serious," said Paul VI. It must be prepared and celebrated with great care in every aspect, including the external aspect (gravity, dignity, timing, duration, course); the word must always be simple and sacred. The ministers of religion have a great responsibility in this respect, both in terms of execution and example. The assembly of the faithful must also collaborate in the dignified development of sacred worship by its punctuality, its dress, its silence and especially its participation. This is the main point of the liturgical reform. Everything has been said, but how much remains to be done! It is quite normal to express a predilection for the traditional language of the Roman Church. When its understanding is assured immediately or mediately, it is more than any other factor of elevation; it possesses its own efficiency in nourishing the poetic sense, the aesthetic sense and respect: it is the language par excellence of spirituality; it is at the same time a powerful factor of unity, both interior and visible. It is to be hoped that the bishops of France, each in his own diocese, will show themselves attentive to the needs of those of their faithful who desire, who even feel a deep need, to participate in the Mass in the language of the Roman Church. 2 As for chant, the renewed liturgy, even when celebrated in French, is compatible with the maintenance of the Gregorian, wherever the congregation shows itself capable of singing it and alternating with a scola. The praise the Holy Father has given it, the encouragement he has lavished on those who cultivate it, can no longer be counted: "When you celebrate the sacred liturgy with due attention and piety," he said in 1973 to the Benedictine abbots, "you must hear the very sweet voice of the Church singing, and this must never cease to resound 1. DC 70, 1973, p. 736. 2. See Notification 1971, Notitiæ, from 1971, p. 215. the Congregation 102 for the cult divine, _ 16 June e in your monasteries. Even the ommes liturgy from the Church of today are that, and e soulm the ve élè qui t an ch ce de ble here ind ce for sensibles à la dod'a ts en im nt se les e im pr ex e. 3 grace ur ne ig Se le r re no ho ur po ris rep ent s ort eff But the fruits of ter por t in uv pe ne e té an ch ie urg lit e bl no to a beautiful and in ge, Siè ntSai du ns io at nt ie or aux té éli fid ine that in ia ple is which e vé no re ie urg lit la de. nce ice ret l'acceptance without today the only Roman. -ë ë @ ;| 3, Address of October Iron, p. 956. 1973 at Les Abbés 103 Benedictines, DC 70, 1973, Appendix | the incision "mysterium fidei" in the words of the consecration | I! is not easy to make history of the incise "Mysterium fidei" in the words of consecration of the wine. It is peculiar to the West and has a parallel only in certain anaphora of the Ethiopian liturgy in the form of exclamations in the same place (the liturgy of St. John bears "Admirable . prodigy", that of St. Gregory of Alexandria "True beverage of life"). Its origin is unquestionably Roman; the Hispanic liturgy does not have it; the ancient Gallican liturgy adopted it under the influence of Rome. The incise did not yet exist in the fourth century; this is known from the archaic redaction of the Roman Canon which St. Ambrose left in his "De Sacramentis"; it was certainly in use in the fifth century, for it witnesses manuscripts of the Canon is found in the most, ancient Roman; it misses in return in several more recent witnesses (of IX*, X° and even XI* s.), It is between these two extreme limits, the IV° and the VIF century, that "Mysterium fidei "was added. The apostle had The sacred minister is the depository and dispenser of the mystery of faith, that is, of the whole body of truths hidden in past centuries and then divinely revealed to men by Jesus Christ, with the consequences which they entail for the conduct of man. The deacons were entrusted very early on, during the celebrations of the Eucharist, with the task of giving the faithful communion under the species of wine; they were constituted dispensers of the chalice. Thus it came about that the Eucharistic chalice was related to the 104 tary; osi dep it tua sti con Jes l Pau nt sai t don " faith the of " mystery ver le mysser con t ven doi s cre dia Les " : n tio éta rpr nte l i where o The Eucharist is a symbol of faith with a pure conscience. The interpretation that has tended to prevail since the time that the is n) Lyo de rus Flo s dan to already uve tro la (on ne rolingien témys on ati orm nsf tra la e, sti ari uch l E s dan li mystery accomp Blood of the and ps Cor to wine of the and n pai du nce sta sub la de rieuse en qu' ce ci Voi le. The only faith that is perceived as being Christ, is called "On": Key II XI au e nd Me de nd ra Du said se and mystery of faith (the Eucharist) because we see a cho believe, de e onn ord s nou On re. The Eucharist is a mystery of faith (the Eucharist) because we see a choice to believe, of the onn ord s we On re. aut a nd re mp co en n the o that the r for that you sis sub ne faith the car er, cut dis not we dare ribué to att t men sse do it write a e cit it and "; s hée cac things of e tèr mys lle ppe l a on qu'dit re goi Gré nt Sai " : Saint Gregory in that, te sis con ut sal re not que ire cro ons dev nou que ce foi par , ire à-d stc'e u, lie pas n a ent rem sac ce foi la s san ou parce que ment " te lè mp co s pri com e e e têtr peu ne e tèr mys ce foi, la sans (Durand, Rationale, liv. IV, chap. 42, n. 20). de on rti nse l'i que neu vai con it éta on ue, tiq las scoue poq A l'é des ps tem au have rem ion rat séc con de s ole par les incise dans l'ancien à e irm aff HI nt oce Inn e pap le que ce st c e s, Apôtre s nous Vo " : 2 120 re mb ve no 29 le n, Jea n, Lyo archbishop of the form to e ss Me la de n no Ca e" -l ns da uté ajo a' who ez demand nstra il d an qu a rim exp me mê ilu ist Chr le that words g, this San son and ps Cor son in wine le and n pai le a nti sta sub ons voy s nou ité ver En é.. rim exp did not lis ngé that avcun evangeles by its omi been have that its cho de up co au be a y that it nou que and ur, gne Sei du es act des t soi s, ole by lists soit. oles and by en s tre Apô les par e uit ens plé sup été ir avo lisons en actes" (DZ 414). In this way, the Church will be able to see the truth of the Gospel and to make it clear that the Church is not only a place of faith, but also a place of faith in the Church. The Church will be able to see the truth of the Gospel and to make it clear that the Church is not only a place of faith, but also a place of faith in the Church and in the Church. 698 Z (D r veu du Sau s ion cis pre es lqu que nt era ort app ils 1), 144 r rie feb Syrians (4 s, on n me Ar the r for ret dec le ns Da " : s re ai nt me lé mp co glise l'E t don s ole by me for la ) is a cat pli (ex pas précisé tres, a Apô des nt eme ign nse l e et é rit uto l a sur dee fon e, ain rom g du San du and ps Cor du ion rat séc con la s dan usé always Lord; we this" (DZ 715). have But raw suitable the Fathers 105 have from insert it unwilling in impose the one at the The Church, however, has not changed the wording of this form in the liturgical practice of the East, recognizing the value of the Eastern traditions and their perfect orthodoxy; the "Mysterium fidei" was not considered to be part of the essence of the sacrament itself. When the Church changes something in the discipline of the sacraments, it is a sure sign that the essence of the sacrament È The difference is not to be found in the element which has been modified; it is to be found at a deeper level. This would be the place to quote again the words of Pius XIT about the tradition of the instruments in the conferring of the sacrament of Orders: "If in time it was necessary even for the validity, by the will and precept of the Church, it is known that what she has established, the Church can also change and abrogate" (Apostolic Constitution "Sacramentum ordinis", 30 November 1947) 106 Annex 2 Is "hoc facite in meam commemorationem" a simple narration or a celebration of the Eucharist? In the Roman Canon as it had been handed down from past centuries, the consecration of the chalice was concluded with a reworded quotation from St. Paul: "Whenever you do this, you shall do it in remembrance of me, Hæc quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam facietis. St. Paui had written in his account of the Institution of the Eucharist: "Whenever this bread and you eat in the story of St. Paul that you drink this cut, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (I Cor. 11:26); on the other hand, the words of institution in the Roman Canon did not end with: "Do this in remembrance of me," which, moreover, is found neither in St. Matthew nor in St. Mark, but in St. Luke (Luke 22:19) and (I Cor. 11, 24 and 25). In doing so, the Roman Canon conformed to the Western tradition as attested by the Ambrosian Canon, the Stowe Missal (a Celtic recension of the Roman Canon), and the Verona fragments. The new Ordo Missæ of Paul VI changed the wording of the incision for the four Eucharistic Prayers; the celebrant now says: "Hoc facite in mean commemorationem. Do this in memory of me". This was thought to be a clear doctrinal intention; the new Ordo would simply repeat the Lord's words, as one does in a narrative; it would be a simple recitation of the past, without anything happening at present; the celebrant would be remembering the institution of the Eucharist in the Protestant way, not celebrating the sacrament. With the ancient wording of the Canon 107 In the Roman text, on the other hand, no equivocation was possible; the Lord's words were effective; the celebrant merely added, "Whenever you do this, you shall do it in remembrance of me. The charge against the new wording is serious; is it well-founded? Before affirming anything about liturgy, it is good practice to consult the practice of churches that have an integral faith in the Eucharist and have never been influenced by the Protestant Reformation. It so happens that the great majority of the known Eucharistic Prayers follow the words of consecration with the order of reiteration in the form: "Hoc facite in mean commemorationem", in the same way as in the Ordo of Paul VI; the new Roman wording cannot therefore be interpreted from the Protestant perspective, which is absolutely alien to it.It is for an ecumenical reason that the "Hoc facite" has replaced the "Haec quotiescsumque", but in order to join the practice of the Eastern Churches whose faith in the Eucharist is complete, not in order to turn the Catholic "Mass" into a Protestant "Supper". 108 Appendix 3 the Eucharistic prayers of the Protestant churches Three constants are found in the Eucharistic Prayers used in the various Protestant denominations: the Eucharist is not the sacrifice of Christ properly speaking; the Eucharistic celebration has no propitiatory character; the Body and Blood of Christ are not made substantially present in the "Eucharistic bread and wine. The order of worship in use in the Reformed churches of France shows this well; the Eucharist is not sacrifice itself, it is only the commemoration of the unique and perfect sacrifice offered once for all on Calvary; for the Christian it is the means, not of offering the sacrifice of Christ, but of offering himself as a spiritual sacrifice; thus the celebration of the Eucharist is properly the Christian's own pacrifice, not the sacrifice of Christ: "Holy and righteous Father, in commemorating here the unique sacrifice and perfect offered once and for all on the cross by Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the joy of his resurrection and the expectation of his coming, we offer ourselves to you as a living and holy sacrifice... "Send your Holy Spirit upon us so that by receiving this bread and cup we may be given communion with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lutheran Lord's Supper in use in France includes a Eucharistic Prayer, but this has no oblation formula (the Eu charistie not being a sacrifice offered to God), nor intercession for the Church, nor prayer for the dead (the Eucharistic celebration not being propitiatory). 109 In 1969, the Eucharistic Prayer used in Taizé left no room for ambiguity either; the offering made by the Christian is not that of Christ's sacrifice, only the commemoration of it: "Everything comes from you and our only offering is to recall your wonders and your gifts". What is presented to God is not the Body and Blood of Christ made substantially present, but the signs of the sacrifice of Calvary: "We present to you, O Lord of glory, as our thanksgiving and our intercession, the signs of the eternal sacrifice of the Christ, unique and perfect, living and holy, the bread of life that comes down from heaven. And what goes up from earth to heaven at the time of the celebration of the Eucharist is essentially the Christian's praise and thanksgiving: "In your love and mercy, accept our praise and prayer in Christ, as you were pleased to accept the gifts of your righteous servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham our father and that of Melchisedech ....". In the light of these expressions of incomplete faith, the formulas of the three new Catholic Eucharistic Prayers take on their full significance: IF, - "We offer it, Lord, the bread of life and the cup of salvation... Humbly we ask that, having partaken of the Body and Blood of Christ... HE - "We present this living and holy offering to give you thanks. Look, Lord, at the sacrifice of your Church and deign to recognize in it that of your Son... When we are nourished by his Body and Blood and filled with a single body and a only e IV. - "We offer him his Body and Blood, the sacrifice that is worthy of you and saves the world...." The Catholic faith as solemnly defined at the Council of Trent shines through in these unambiguous texts, which contrast sharply with the formulas used in the official Prayers of the Protestant churches. A similar observation can be made if we examine the Catholic formulas illustrating the propitiatory character of the Mass or Eucharistic celebration: 1L - To the old Canon of Hippolytus was added an inter r P, to be 110 Ar r Holy Spirit, grant us spirit in Christ," which, as has been said, does not duplicate the Universal Prayer. TI, - "And now, we beseech thee, Sexgneur, speak sacrifice which we reconciles avéc you "(Latin : " By' this Host of our reconciliation"), extend to the whole world: salvation and peace". TV. - And now, Lord, remember all those for whom we offer the sacrifice" (Latin: "for whom we offer this oblation"). It is obvious that such formulas remain incomprehensible if one does not admit that the sacrifice of the Mass is a true propitiatory sacrifice according to the constant teaching of the Church as defined by the Council of Trent; there is no equivocation possible. ; 111 ; Appendix 4 the introduction to the "institutio generalis" of the Roman missal The complete edition of the Roman Missal, solemnly delivered to the Pope on the day of Pentecost 1970, includes, by his order, a certain number of additions to the Ordo Missæ, P'Institutio generalis is preceded by a preface, which is translated as follows: 1. At the time of celebrating with his disciples the Paschal meal, during which he instituted the sacrifice of his body and of his Christ the Lord commanded that a large room be prepared and that the adorned (Lk 22:12). The Church has always considered that this order concerned her when she ruled on the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist, in order to prepare souls, places, rites and texts. The present norms prescribed in In accordance with the will of the Ecumenical Council Vatican I! and the new Missal which will henceforth be used by the Church of the Roman Rite to celebrate Mass, are a new proof of the Church's solicitude, faith and unchanged love for the great Eucharistic mystery; they attest to her tradition continuous and uninterrupted, although some new elements have been introduced. Testimonial faith of a unchanged 2. The sacrificial nature of the Mass, solemnly affirmed by the Council of Trent in accordance with the whole tradition of the Church, was again proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council, which pronounced the following words concerning the Mass: 1. Session XXII, 17 Sept. 1562. 112 significant : " À the last instituted-: Saviour our Last Supper, the Eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood, by which I would be perpetuated throughout the centuries as the sacrifice of the son se, Egli son à fié con et, nne vie l qu''i ce à qu' jus rrésu sa de et t mor sa de al ori mém le e, imé n-a épouse bie rection ". that e, cil Con le par mes ter ces en né eig ens a Ce qui se. In Mes la de es mul for les par é rim exp rs jou is e meme du ce tan sen e cett par e ifié sign ent sém res exp ne tri doc effet, la This is the only time that Cha": nie leo e air ent ram Sac s ac n tio emp réd re not de e uvr l ée. ébr cél cst victim in the e just and ct exa re tai men com son uve tro"°*, t fold com re, ready t effe en i es-c cell de rs cou au ; es iqu ist har Prayers euc in the name u Die vers rné tou e, nès nam l'a de s ole by the t çan non pro et ant viv e ific sacr le e offr and these grâ rend him , e and ffr the o ire to d stc'e t, healthy it and s, ised apa be read vou a me -mê lui u Die le uel laq lation de ifite sacr un nt sil ist Chr du g San le et ps Cor le que r for prie pleasing to the Father and beneficial to the whole world 5. Thus in the new Missal the law of prayer of the Church the that tit aver s nou who faith, sa de e ent man per law la responds to the el ent ram sac nt eme ell ouv ren its and x croi la de e ific sacr e and ffr d o e mod le sauf se, cho e mêm e ct e alone a Mass are Seiist Chr le that such men cra 'sa ent emi ell ouv ren; ent fér dif is who gneur instituted at the Last Supper and ordered to his apostles to the is se Mes la, makes this of ; him of e oir mem en er er cel de and ion iat pit pro de ce, grâ de on cti d a e, ang lou de e times sacrific of satisfaction. Seidu le real ce sen pre la de e tèr mys ux lle vei 3. The sea by the u vea nou to e irm aff es, iqu ist har euc s èce esp les s sou ur gne " ère ist mag du nts ume doc res aut les and T6 n-I ica Vat Council which le n selo mes ter es mêm les s dan and sense e mêm le s dan en Council of Trent had proposed them to the faith ", is put dogm. de Ecclesia, st. Con cf, ; 47 n. SC ia, urg Lit ra Sac de 2. Const. PO nn, 2, 4, S. LG nn. 3, 28; Decr. de Presbyt. ministerio et vita 3, Sacram. Veronense, ed. Mohiberg, n. 93. 4. C£. Prayer Eucharistic 7.C£ XII, Enc. nn. 7, 47; generis, Humani Decr. AAS 42, from Presbyt. 1950, p. 570-571 ; fession of Pro ; 9 -76 762 p. 1965 57, AAS i, fide ium ter Mys . Paul VI, Enc truction sur_le cuite Ins ; 3 .44 442 g , 1968 60, AAS , 1968 n jui 29 du foi AAS 59, 1967, p- 543, 9, 3°f, nn. 67, ! mai 25 e, iqu ist har euc e tèr x51';17 mys 8. C£. Session XXII, 11 Oct. || IIE. S. Cf. Eucharistic Prayer IV. & Const. de Sacra Liturgia, SC terio et vita, PO, nn. 5, I8. Magpie | 1551. 113 } Î Î|!! l !! This is evident in the celebration of the Mass, not only in the words of consecration by which Christ is made present through transubstantiation, but also in the marks of sovereign respect which are expressed during the Eucharistic liturgy. For this very reason the Christian people are called to venerate this admirable sacrament in a special way by their adoration on Holy Thursday and in the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. 4. As to the nature of the ministerial priesthood proper to the priest The role of the priest, who offers the sacrifice in the person of Christ and presides over the assembly of the holy people, is highlighted by the very form of the rite, by the eminent place and function of the priest. The aspects of this function are enumerated and detailed in a clear and abundant way in the thanksgiving of the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, precisely on that day when the institution of the priesthood is commemorated. In this thanksgiving the conferring of priestly power by the laying on of hands is highlighted, and the power itself is described, each of its functions being mentioned, a power which is the prolongation of the power of Christ, the High Priest of the New Testament. S. But by the very nature of the ministerial priesthood, another very important priesthood is placed in its proper light; it is the royal priesthood of the faithful, whose spiritual sacrifice is consummated in union with the sacrifice of Christ, the only Mediator, through the ministry of the priests . Indeed, the celebration of the Eucharist is an action of the whole Church, in which each one accomplishes not only that, but also all that is due to him, according to his rank in the people of God. For this reason, it has been arranged that certain This is the people of God, acquired by the blood of Christ, gathered together by the people of God. This people, in fact, is the people of God, acquired by the blood of Christ, gathered present by à the Lord, God the people who give thanks by offering their sacrifice, communion to the body that it be holy by its 9. Decr. from Presbyt. fed prayers from from its speech, all the people family called human, à in Christ for the mystery of salvation, a people that finally finds its unity through the blood of Christ. This people, although it is of good origin, is continually growing in holiness ministerio and vita, 114 OP n. 2. mystery to the e eus ctu fru and ive act e, ent sci con n tio ipa tic by the par eucharistic 19, A unbroken tradition is highlighted rdo l O ls that on sel pes nci pri les ncé eno a 6. When he si before aus é ret dec a I n-I ica Vat e cil Con le , isé rev ait ser Missæ on sel " is abl ret nt aie ser es rit ins rta .ce que se cho toute autre termes les ant tis uti , "'! nts sai des e iqu ant me la nor Quo " ue liq sto tre let sa s dan V Pie nt sai mêmes de trisel Mis le 0 157 en gué mul pro was the uel laq by " um im pr s dan er jug t little on , me me e bal ver tre con ren te this dentin. By four it dep en s, ain rom s sel Mis x deu les ure mes what ditra that uni and me one s in nt tre con ren se centuries elapsed, ion, on dit tra te this de es ern int ts men élé les e min exa n the o Si tion. sereu heu is r mie pre the n bie com p comprend me me me du other. par t men ève ach son à t dui con t en em bl ua rq ma re and ment à ve ati rel e iqu hol cat faith la where s ile fic dif si ps tem les 7, Dans à la el, éri ist min oce erd sac au se, Mes la de e ell ici rif sac ure la nat euchaprésence réelle et permanente du Christ sous les espèces ention int r pou d bor d a eu a V Pie nt sai il, The most recent tradition of the Church is to preserve the rites that have been unjustly fought against by the people of the world, and to make them the only ones that can be used to support the little salt that is in the sacred bed. In the case of the Bible, it is not a matter of a single word, but of a single word, which is the same as the one used in the Bible, which is the same as the one used in the Bible, which is the same as the one used in the Bible. he "Fathers of the Norsemen" te this, ire tra con au h our Auj 8. V, which the correctors of the Missal of St. Pe ès Apr s celebrated. In 1571 the Gregorian sacramentary was published, and the old liturgical books were published in a critical manner, as well as a number of prayers of considerable spiritual value that had not been known until then. Similarly, the traditions of the early centuries, prior to 10. Const. il.1b. n. of Sacra 50. Liturgia, SC n. f1. 115 The origins of the rites of the East and West are now better known, since so many liturgical documents have been found. Moreover, the progress of patristic studies has shed on the theology of the eucharistic mystery the light of the doctrine of the best Fathers of all Christian antiquity, such as St. Irenaeus, St. Ambrose, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. John Chrysostom. The "norm of the holy Fathers" therefore requires not only the preservation of what has been handed down to us by the ancients closest to us, but also a deeper understanding and examination of the past ages of the Church and of all the ways in which her unique faith has been manifested in the many different forms of human and collective worship which have flourished in the Semitic, Greek and Latin regions. A wider investigation enables us to see how the Holy Spirit grants the people of God a marvelous fidelity in the preservation of the unchanging deposit of faith, although the variety of prayers and rites is very great. Adaptation Ï ;E | ËÏ on the terms news 10. The new Missal, therefore, in so far as it bears witness to the law of prayer of the Roman Church and protects the deposit of faith handed down by the last Councils, marks a milestone of great importance in the liturgical tradition. When the 'Fathers of the Second Vatican Council renewed the dogmatic affirmations of the Council of Trent, they spoke in a very different world age; for this reason, in pastoral matters, they were able to bring about programmes and decisions' which no one had been able to foresee four centuries earlier. 11 Already the Council of Trento had recognized the great usefulness The Council, however, could not draw all the consequences of the catechetical content of the celebration of the Mass with regard to the use of the vernacular languages. In fact, many people demanded permission to use the vernacular in the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice; in view of such a demand, the Council, considering the circumstances of the time, deemed it its duty to recall once again the traditional doctrine of the Church, according to which the Eucharistic sacrifice is first of all an action of Christ himself.116 the e qu t fai du s pa nd pe de ne re op even whose efficacy es rm te these en da ci de il oi qu ur po faithful participate in it. It is nnne ie nt co e ss Me la e qu en Bi " : s re su both firm and me ru pa not has it , èle fid le up pe le ur a great teaching po en t em ct in st di in ée br lé cé t soi le 'el qu' expédient aux Pères de on ti na am nd co la cé on on pr a il langue vernaculaire "? And of ie rt pa e a where e in ma ro se li Eg l' de e rit which would maintain: " Le ix vo à es dit nt so on ti ra ec ns co la Canon et les paroles de e êtr t doi e ss Me La ": en bi ou; " né basse, doit être condamn Néanmoins, !*. In the case of the "re ai ul ac rn ve ue ng la en ée br lé cé necessarily vernaue ng la de e ag us l' t ai is rd te in il where at the very moment er nn do de rs eu st pa x au t ai nn do or e it cular at Mass, the Conc du is eb br les e qu in Af " : a rt po op nt me a catechesis at mo e nn do or de no sy nt sai ce ... im fa la of Christ do not suffer uer iq pl ex d' es soum d' ge ar ch t on that ux ce us to pastors and to all self s, me me mê xeu r pa t soi e, ss Me la frequently during and e, ss Me la to lu is that e os ch e by others, some, ic if cr sa nt sai s trè ce de e èr st my le put in light especially!*. "It's the most important thing in the world, and it's the most important thing in the world. II nca ti Va e il nc Co le 12. For this reason, these in e that li to os ap ge ar ch sa de s in so be x au to adapt the Church ct pe as l' , te en Tr de e il nc co le e mm co time, to examine thoroughly, n cu au e mm Co . ie urg lit e int 'sä la de al or didactic and past in li mp co ac e rit du ité cac ffi l e and té mi ti gi catholic did not deny the lé usage e qu t en mm ue éq fr ve ri ar I " : i cec Latin, he conceded and; "the up pe to the le uti s very e be se is pu of the vernacular ec av nt de ar e zèl On 16, er oy pl em l' de on si is he gave the perm e, under qu t fai a ie ll ei cu ac t or rt pa was a on si ci which this de utes to , me me ilu e that li to os ap ge siè du and s êq the conduct of ev iciperait, rt pa up pe le es ll ue xq au s ue iq rg tu li your acular celebrations; so vern ue ng la en es li mp co ac nt me me ti gi lé nt seraie ris. mp co x eu mi t soi é br lé cé e èr st my le e that n by this means la ns da re ai ul ac rn ve ue ng la de e ag us l' 13. However, - ! t-i soi t an rt po im si - nt me ru st in n 'u holy liturgy being only celebration ue by which the catechesis of the mystery contained in the in de ci de a II nca ti Va e il nc Co le , nt me is expressed more clearly re , te en Tr de e il nc co du s on ti ip cr es pr s besides that certain 12. 13. 14. 15. sacrificio, Session XXIT, Doctr. de SS. Missæ Session XXII, ib. cap. 9. Ib. cap. 8. Const. de Sacra Liturgia, SC n. 33. 16.Ib. n. 36. 117 heading. B. The Vatican Council, which encouraged "that more perfect participation in the Mass according to which, after the priest's communion, the faithful receive the Body and Blood of the Lord from the same sacrifice",8 has at the same time encouraged the use of the homily on Sundays and feasts,9 and the faculty of intercalating some monitions during the rites themselves. to put into practice the wish of the Fathers of Trent: "Let The faithful who attend each Mass receive communion not only by desire but by the actual reception of the Eucharist. 20:14. It was under the impulse of the same spirit and a similar pastoral zeal that the Vatican Council was able to give a greater extension to the Tridentine decision by conceding communion under both species. Indeed, as today the principles of doctrine concerning the full efficacy of communion under one species are no longer disputed, the Council has permitted on certain occasions communion under both species: in this more meaningful form of the sacramental sign the opportunity is offered to penetrate further into the understanding of the mystery in which the faithful participate. Thus, while the Church remains constant in her office as teacher of truth, preserving the "old things" - the deposit of tradition - she also fulfils her office with regard to the new things, which is to examine them and use them prudently. A portion of the new Missal more clearly orders the prayers of the Church to meet the needs of our time; of this nature are chiefly the Ritual Masses and those "for various circumstances"; in these tradition and renewal are opportunely united. For this reason, while many of the formularies have remained unchanged, drawn as they are from the oldest tradition of the Church, as manifested in the many editions of the Roman Missal, many others have been modified to meet present-day needs and conditions; others, on the other hand, such as some of the prayers for the Church, the laity, the sanctification of human work, the understanding of the Church, and the need for the Church to be able to respond to the needs of the present day, have been changed. 17 Ib. 18.Ib. 19, Ib. n. 52. n. 35, n. 55. 20. Session 21. Const, 2. XXII, from Doctr. Sacra from Liturgia, SS Missæ SC 118 n° sacrificio, 55. heading. 6. mps, te e tr no to s re op pr es it ss ce né s ne ai rt ce between peoples, uvent so et es ide des ant lis üti en s ée os mp co have been entirely ile. nc Co du s nt me cu do s nt ce ré des s on si même les expres l utins da i, hu d ur jo au e nd mo du t éta el uv no Et donné le a il n. io it ad tr ne in ci an s very a d lisation of the relevant texts nérable, vé if sorti tré un à ure inj re fai t in po t seemed that it was not urm fo r le ye mo ce par; s se ra ph if we modified some of the er rl pa de e èr ni ma ec av rd co ac en s lation would be put more in és pr ns io it nd co les it era let ref and contemporary theology. The Church has been modified in the last few years, and the new theology has been the result of a number of changes in the way the Church is organized and conducted. of the age es tr au d' to s re op pr e nc te ni pe forms of ncile of Co du s ue iq rg tu li es rm no les in enf e èr In this way hevées by Frente have been completed over several points and ac e rm te to t ui nd co a which II nca ti Va e those of the concil s more èle fid les re ui nd co ur po s cle siè re at that efforts attempted during the e qu is pu de s, mp te rs ie rn de ces en près de la liturgie, surtout de ts en em ag ur co en les u reç a ie urgent lit zèle pour la sainte saint Pius X et de ses successeurs 119 ; [ Ï! Appendix 5 some affirmations of the sacrificial character of the Mass in the orations of the Paul VI missal December 23: May this offering, which has placed at our disposal the perfect expression of the worship due to God, make you fully favourable (sit tibi, Domine, perfecta placatio)... (propitiation). December 25 (Mass of the day): accept, Lord, the offering we present to you.... It is the perfect sacrifice that reconciles us to you (qua et nostræ reconciliationis processit perfecta placatio)... (propitiation). January 6: Look kindly, Lord, on the gifts of your Church, which no longer offers you gold, frankincense and myrrh, but the one whom these gifts manifested, who sacrifices himself and gives himself as food, Jesus Christ (sacrificial character). Maundy Thursday: every time this sacrifice is celebrated in memorial (hujus hostiæ commemoratio celebratur), the work of our redemption is accomplished (it). 2* Sunday of the year: same Prayer on the offerings as on Holy Thursday, # Sunday of the year: on your altar, Lord, your servants place their offerings; receive them with favor and make them the sacrament of our redemption (propitiation). 7* Sunday of the year: we humbly beg you Lord, make our salvation benefit from what we offer to honour your majesty (it). 17* Sunday of the year : may these holy mysteries, by the operation of your power, sanctify us in our life here below and lead us to eternal joys (it). 120 27th Sunday of the year: Receive, Lord, the sacrifice that you yourself wished to institute, and bless these holy mysteries... deign to realize holiness, the fruit of your redemption (sanctification). t'en par en tuæ let us pray. the celenous redemp tionis) (it). 28* Sunday of the year: receive, O Lord, the prayers of your faithful, with the offering of these hosts; and in return for the fulfilment of this duty of our devotion, make us pass on to the glory of heaven (it). The Preface for Holy Thursday, which is also used for the Masses of the Blessed Sacrament, may be added to these Offerings: ...through Christ our Lord, the eternal and true Priest, who taught his disciples how to perpetuate his sacrifice: so that first he offered himself to you as a victim for our salvation, and he commanded us to make this offering in memory of him. When we eat his flesh sacrificed for us, we receive strength; when we drink the blood he shed for us, we are cleansed. 121 ' Appendix Max's article in 6 Thurian "The Cross" |£ ç', Ÿ Since the testimony of Max Thurian, of Taizé, is often invoked, it seemed necessary to quote here the essential part of his article which appeared in the May 30, 1969 issue of La Croix: "It is appropriate to note the ecumenical character of this reform of the Mass; it is one more manifestation that the return to the pure and living sources of tradition is at the same time an act of ecumenical rapprochement. It is to be hoped that the Protestant liturgies will adopt the new lectionary, elaborated with such care and clarity, so that Christians will find themselves each Sunday in the same reading of the Bible. "The simplified Offertory no longer appears as a double of the Eucharistic Prayer, nor as an anticipated sacrificial act: thus the difficulties created by the old Offertory in ecumenical research are lessened ..... "The sacrificial aspect of the Mass, which has been the source of so many misunderstandings, is now illuminated by the biblical theme If the work of post-conciliar reform had been carried out by a small team, made up of the best liturgists around the Pope, the results would have been quicker and perhaps more complete in the eyes of the specialists... "On the basis of this new Mass, strongly rooted in the authentic liturgical tradition and open to 122 | The new Ordo of the Mass, whatever its relative imperfections... is an example of this fruitful concern for open unity and dynamic fidelity, for true catholicity: perhaps one of the fruits will be that non-Catholic communities will be able to celebrate the Lord's Supper in the same way as Catholic communities. possible What Ü. É prayers that that or ". the Church by Catholic. elsewhere the Theologically, value from the article is ; from Brother Max Thurian, the initiative taken by "La Croix" to ask him to present the Ordo Missæ of Paul VI to Catholic readers on May 30, 1969, was an egregious blunder. It gave the impression that he had been one of the revisers of the ritual of the Catholic Mass, whereas the reality was quite different. This simplistic deduction was later blown out of proportion and became: "The Paul VI Mass ritual was composed by a group of Protestant theologians. Much of the confusion of conscience among many Catholics has its origin in this enormous psychological error on the part of the editors of "La Croix". It is this fault that has provoked the series of chain reactions, the end of which is not yet in sight. The following remarks will perhaps help to lessen the unfortunate impression caused in the minds of some by the unfortunate article. We have seen above what the real ecumenical scope of the reform was; it is certainly not the result of a new approach to the Church. of a dishonesty that would have led to putting to the assertions of the Catholic faith. | a mute As regards the Lectionary, is it known that many of the Reformed of the 16th century had no difficulty in retaining the distribution of the Gospels used in the Catholic Church for Sunday assemblies? The wish of Br. Max Thurian's wish is therefore in no way inappropriate or likely to shock a Catholic. The Offertory of the ritual of St. Pius V contains elements of Eucharistic Prayer borrowed from other ancient liturgies of the West (Spain, Gaul) and thus anticipates the themes proper to the Eucharistic Prayer; a material interpretation of the prayers, without reference to what is going to happen at the moment of consecration, could constitute a stumbling block for some; Luther declared himself scandalized by roffer 123 Ï Î ; t | | e ETE rn m The reference of the Mass to the Redeemer's Sacrifice is affirmed with all possible clarity in the definitions of the Council of Trent. The reference of the Mass to the Redemptive Sacrifice is affirmed with all the clarity one could wish in the definitions of the Council of Trent, which, taking up the expression of St. Thomas, says of the Mass that it is the "representation" of the sacrifice of the Cross, from which it derives all its value, and in relation to which it cannot have an independent existence; But it is a "representation" which truly re-presents, that is to say, it makes present again Christ immolated on the Cross for the salvation of the world, in order to apply the fruits of his sacrifice to the Church of today. It is absolutely true that the Mass is the "memorial" of the Passion, and in this respect the formula used by Br. Max Thurian is Orthodox, but for him the memorial seems to be only an operative presence (the act continues in its effects): Catholics give the term a more significant meaning; it is a question of an ontological presence which justifies this operative presence. In writing that "perhaps" (Br. Max Thurian was therefore not certain) "non-Catholic communities" (some communities, not all) "will be able to celebrate the Lord's Supper with the same prayers as the Catholic Church", the sub-prior of Taizé was thinking first of all of "his own community; he judged the thing "theologically possible" because of the theology commonly accepted in that particular community, in the same way that some Anglicans judge it theologically possible to use the ritual of the Mass of Saint Pius V. In his theological perspective, Br. Max Thurian's theological perspective admits that the celebration of the Lord's Supper (which he calls with Jes Lutherans "the Lord's Supper") restores us daily to the covenant with God "by obtaining for us at this time the remission of sins," which is not in line with Luther's view, and which cannot be accepted theologically by a much larger number of Lutheran theologians, for whom the remission of sins is obtained by the believer's act of faith alone (see in particular, Th. Süss, L'aspect sacrificiel de la sainte Cène à la lumière de la tradition luthérienne, in Eucharistie d'Orient et d'Occident, vol. I, Le Cerf, 1970, pp. 15-1170, and his Etude critique: Sainte Cène et sacrifice, in Positions luthériennes, vol. XI-2, April 1963, pp. 113-125), 124 ï Ê | " The Sacrificial Aspect of the Eucharist in the Missal of Paul VI Cardinal Knox's Report to the Episcopal Synod of 1974 The Missal of Paul VI sets forth in its entirety the Church's faith concerning the Mass. The traditional doctrine is clearly set forth in the Apostolic Constitution, the Introduction and the General Presentation which precede the Missal. It is clearly stated that the Mass is at the same time and inseparably a Sacrifice, by which the Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated, a memorial of the Lord's death and resurrection, and a sacred meal. All this must be taken into consideration in catechesis so that one recognizes what the Church does, even if it is expressed in different ways. It is deplored, for example, that the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist is not expressed in the new Eucharistic Prayers. Yet it seems to be expressed more clearly than in the Roman Canon. The climax of the Eucharistic Prayer is indeed the words of consecration where the priest acts eminently in the name of Christ. "By the words and actions of Christ is accomplished the sacrifice which Christ himself instituted at the Last Supper when he offered his Body and Blood under the species of bread and wine" (General Presentation 55d). Christ's words also express the sacrificial character of the celebration. His body is-"given up for you"-words that have been added in the new Missal-and his blood "will be shed for you and for many." The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is further expressed by the mention of the offering which appears in all the Eucharistic Prayers and by which "the Church, and especially the Church now assembled, offers to the Father in the Holy Spirit the spotless victim" (ib. No. 55 f, (DC 72, 1975, pp. 365-366) 125 pn || Appendix table of contents Foreword Î. The new - - -- - - - - . 7 Has the Missal been regularly promulgated? 11 The reform decreed by the Council. The first documents of application. The "Missa normativa" at the Synod of Bishops. The "Ordo Missæ" of "Paui VI Only authorized or obligatory for all? In France. The true thought of Paul VI. 27 Is the Missal of St. Pius V really abrogated? - The power of the Church. - Was the Missal of St. Pius V promulgated "ne varietur"? - Is the Missal of St. Pius V really abrogated? - Is the Missal of St. Pius V a matter of customary law? - The Permanent Indult of St. Pius V. HI, The Ordo voque? Missæ from Paul VI, testimony of a faith Equi39 - - The guarantee of the magxsterc The liturgy, expression of the ordinary magxstere of the Church. - The "Institutio generalis - Lex orandi, lex credendi. ". 126