Satan has an ingenious capacity for drawing Evil out of what is good.
But our gracious Redeemer draws Good out of what is not good.
Bishops all over the place have been suggesting that clergy, unable to offer Mass with their congregations, should celebrate privately (sine populo).
This is thoroughly, entirely, admirable. And in a most grave way, it reminds clergy, who may not all have remembered this, that each offering of the Adorable Sacrifice has its own impetrative power in the sight of the Divine Majesty. They should celebrate every possible day, with or without lay presence.
Latrunculi are using the Internet to suggest that this is Bad. They claim or imply that it is contrary to Vatican II.
That is a lie. Sacrosanctum Concilium, para 57 authorises Concelebration (in limited circumstances ... we won't go ino that now) but adds that every priest retains the facultas of offering a Missam singularem.
And readers might like to reflect upon the Patrimonial teaching of Canon Professor Eric Mascall to the effect that no Mass is really private, because a Mass said by a priest alone is "as corporate as High Mass sung in St Peter's in Rome by the Pope in the presence of five hundred bishops and twenty thousand of the laity. For it is the act of Christ in the Corpus Mysticum, his Body, which is the Church". As he says, "the unity and the corporateness of the Mass are made not by men but by God."
The best construction I can put on current misrepresentatoions is that the people peddling these untruths read the Conciliar Decrees a very long time ago (if they read them at all); have by now forgotten what they actually contain; and are in subjective good faith when they claim that their own fads are part of the Conciliar mandate.
It is a good idea for lay people as well as clerics, who may be drawn into liturgical conversations, to have a translation handy of Sacrosanctum Concilium so that, when dishonest or ignorant claims are made about what the Council ordered, they can invite an interlocutor to show them where "the Decree actually says that".
Mr President Routh of Magdalen College once advised people to verify their references. It is a very sound attitude. But, quite possibly, German 'Liturgists' have not even heard of Routh ...
ADDITIONALLY ...
(1) The recent decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship etc. extends, just for this year, faculties to every priest to offer Mass privately on Maundy Thursday. It suppresses, for this year, the Foot-washing.
(2) In addition to all the good advice in many admirable places, I remind readers of the old Catholic custom of genuflecting, before one hops into bed, in the direction of the nearest Tabernacle. Unless, being German 'liturgists' you do not know where it is ... or, indeed, what ...
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18 comments:
ah yes... we were fortunate enough to be brought up on "verify your references" - the soundest of principles
"therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the Company of Heaven"
So many evils have have come from German liturgies.
Thank you, Father, for once again exposing the Germans.
Readers may find this response to the "liturgists" helpful for its quotations from Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, all encouraging daily Masses, including private ones:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/the-church-encourages-priests-to-say-masses-even-without-the-faithful
In a vain imagining I see things like feet washing and sign of peace never returning from temporary suspension.
How lovely, dear Father. I do have a custom, while kneeling at my prayers at home, of directing my mind to the tabernacle of a neighbouring church (about half a mile, a few degrees East of my crucifix). I once mentioned this to a priest, who looked at me quizzically as if I were a bit dotty.
I am very grateful to you therefore to affirming this as a Catholic custom!
I had never heard of that pious custom of genuflecting towards the nearest Tabernacle. Sadly if I were to do that now I would probably not be able to get up!
What are Latin Catholics to make of the Byzantine teaching that a priest is not to celebrate the Divine Liturgy without a member of the laity present? Is it something that we simply agree to disagree upon?
How delighted I was to read your reference to the late and great Dr Mascall. When I was an Anglican, I referred often to this little gem which I think (correct me if I am wrong) is to be found in his Corpus Christi.
How delighted I was to read your reference to the late and great Dr Mascall. When I was an Anglican, I referred often to this little gem which I think (correct me if I am wrong) is to be found in his Corpus Christi.
Father John Fleming
Thank you Father for reminding people there is no such thing as a private Mass.
I have recently published a short reflection on this on my you tube channel
" In Montem Sanctum " which may be helpful. Keep up the good work of your blog.
Fr Paul Lester.
To #2 I would add the practice in earlier times for men to doff their hats when passing a Catholic church while women made the Sign of the Cross.
It is unfortunate that so many people fail to appropriately reverence the Real Presence in the Tabernacle while in church, while in former times He was acknowledged even from outside.
Marco da Vinha, if I am not mistaken, at one time it was forbidden in the Latin Church for a priest to celebrate even a Mass sine populo without a server, though that seems to have gone by the wayside, whether officially or through nearly universal lack of observance I could not tell you. In any case, the important thing would not be so much the presence of a lay person, but rather the presence of another member of the faithful. Why, even a bishop would do, I think.
GOR, I try to remember when I pass a place where there is reason to believe the Sanctissimum is reserved to make the sign of the Cross, which I hope I do neither indiscreetly nor furtively. No one has ever accosted and reproached me for this, but then, I live in Manhattan and one can get away with even such eccentric behavior as that
"What are Latin Catholics to make of the Byzantine teaching that a priest is not to celebrate the Divine Liturgy without a member of the laity present? Is it something that we simply agree to disagree upon? "
This may be a case where each of us must do as we think Rite.
I was delighted when Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP of Sydney quoted in one of his homilies that wonderful statement of Garrigou-Lagrange: one Mass is worth more than all the prayers of all the saints throughout the ages. Red hat subito!
During the forties and early fifties, when travelling into Liverpool by tram along Scotland Road,we would pass St Anthony's church, and one or more men would doff their hats. (In those days 'hat' usually meant trilby hat). I was not a Catholic then, but I never forgot this act of reverence made by ordinary working people. St Anthony's still flourishes, and the Tridentine Mass is celebrated regularly there, with the blessing of Abp McMahon.
Interesting to read GOR's comment. My late father-in-law who was Irish always doffed his hat when passing a Catholic church whether on foot or in a bus so the custom is of recent memory.
However he once told us that one of his brothers genuflected on one occasion before going into his cinema seat!
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