8 July 2021

Dr Kwasniewski

I am sure that, being human, there must be times when Dr Kwasniewski is wrong. But I have not, so far, noticed any examples of my a priori assumption.

And I agreed with his fine recent piece about the counter-Reformation propers of Saints in the Missale Romanum (1962). As well as possessing their own richness and strengths, they are indeed part of the organic, evolving, Tradition which the Church has brought down to us ... perhaps rather like a glacier carrying with it geological specimens from the variety of different milieux through which it has passed and from which it has enriched itself. 

When people remark that very many of the formulae in the post-Conciliar liturgy do have origins in the ancient Roman Sacramentaries, my response is that the processes of selection, adaptation, and elimination employed in the 1960s have left a rather culturally monochrome piece of liturgy ... redolent, embarrassingly, of ... the 1960s! The old rite is, culturally, much more of a pluriform miscellany. This is one of its many glories.

I would add one or two comments.

(1) One reason why I favour the New Look which the CDF is currently giving to the 1962 Missal is that it allows a greater degree of selection. I would like this to go further: I would like to be allowed, on weekdays, more often to be allowed to get out green vestments and to use the ancient, deliciously Roman, Sunday propers (perhaps with the Sarum alternative readings on Wednesdays).

(2) As Dr K points out, Counter-Reformation Confessor Bishops feature large in the 1962 Calendar. Fair enough. We are our history. Dioceses push their great bishops; religious orders push their Founders. But Byzantine Calendars (the Ukrainian version hangs a few feet from my desk) exhibits a different ethos: there seem to be so many more Martyrs; some very ancient; others, the New Martyrs.

The old Roman martyrs are, of course, still there in 1962. But they are submerged beneath the later stratum of Grand Bishops. Happily, the new CDF rules often enable us to dig them out and to use their old propers (but one could soon grow tired of the Pius XII Mass Si diligis...). And, of course, the last century has provided us Latins with our own generous crop of neomartyres.

(3) One particular detail. The Mass for S Pius X (1954) has psalm-texts from the Bea psalter. I used to think that this was another valuable example of the coexistence of the Latin Church and her Liturgy down the ages with a rich variety of different fashions. I used to imagine a small child, a thousand years from now, asking her Father: "Papa, why does the psalmus in the Introitus of S Pius X begin Gratias ... rather than Misericordias Domini ...?" And I imagined her Father answering: "Well, my dear, once upon a time there was a man called Cardinal Bea ..." etc..

But, last year, I typed out the pre-Bea texts ... and got out my glue-pot ...

Num peccavi?

6 comments:

prince Matecki said...

Dear Father Hunwicke,

not sure which St Elisabeth we (you) are talking about.
Here we have St Elsabeth of Thuringia, born in Hungary and after the death of her husband, the landgrave, pious sister in Marburg.
She died in the rumor of beatitude with 24 years in november of 1231.
Her process was energically pushed by the - then rather new - teutonic order - and effected after inquisition of more than 800 witnesses and recognisiton of some 100 wonders on May 27 in 1235, that year the feria pentecostis.
So when good Papa Barberini took office in 1623, she already had some 380 years of veneration.
But maybe you were writing about another Elisabeth.

Paulus said...

Dear Prince Matecki,

In the previous post, Father Hunwicke was talking about Saint Elizabeth of Portugal (or of Aragon). Today is her feast in the traditional calendar.

Confitebor said...

He means St. Elizabeth of Portugal, grand-niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal at first was on July 4, but in 1694 Innocent XII moved her feast outside of the Octave of Sts. Peter and Paul to July 8, today. The Novus Ordo Martyrology has moved the feast back to July 4, but traditional Catholics observe the feast today.

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05391a.htm

The Flying Dutchman said...

Non puto te peccavisse.

Ryan Carey said...

I follow the early 50s Monastic rite for my breviary since I belong to an OSB parish. The pre-55 Monastic rite combined many great elements of St. Pius X with some of its own twists. It has more ferial days so the repeated Sunday Mass is more frequent and also added the rank of "memorial" which is a little similar to the 62 rank of "commemoration" in some ways. The Mass of the Saint is said as a Simplex, with 2nd oration of the feria, and 3rd de tempore, but the psalter is ferial with a commemoration of the saint. But unlike the post-55 Roman it keeps all the octaves and has the unreformed psalter of St. Benedict.

prince Matecki said...

Thanks for the clarification and sorry that somehow my comment went to the wrong entry.
I had my second jab against COVID-19 and I guess I´m having a rather heavy reaction.
As Elisabeth of Thurinigia is well known here even today and even in lutheran circles,as quite a few churches were build with a relic of her in the altar, we are always thinking about her when reading or hearing St Elisabeth.