Sacrosanctum Concilium wisely advises the avoidance of "repetitiones inutiles". This, of course, implies that some repetitions are not 'useless'.
But a prejudice against any and all repetitions is not a new thing among liturgists.
I have in mind today the old arrangements with regard to the Sundays in October. In the days of S John Henry Newman, in many dioceses including those of England, the first, second, third and fourth Sundays in this month commemorated, in turn, the Holy Rosary [and Lepanto!]; the Motherhood; the Purity; and the Patronage of our Lady. But, so a Dom Grospellier argued, certain modern festivals, wherein are celebrated this or that mystery of the life of our Saviour or the Blessed Virgin, are but useless repetitions of what is contained in the office of the season. "Thus, for example, the double Mystery of the Virginity and of the Maternity of Mary is expressed in a manner most beautifully poetical, and full of the symbolism dear to the Christian epoch when it was written, in the office of the octave [day] of Christmas, that is to say of the festival which we now call the Circumcision of our Lord. In the feasts for the Sundays in October, conceded to many dioceses, we find similar repetitions."
I spent quite a few decades teaching, both the younger and the older generations. And the most important piece of advice I could give to anybody setting out to teach members of either category is this: Don't assume that when you've said something once, you've done the job. You haven't ... however brilliantly you explained it! People learn at different speeds. And, above all, they remember different parts of what you say. If you aren't prepared to repeat yourself ... and to do so quite often ... you aren't much of a teacher. Don't expect your A-level results to sparkle!
The didactic element in the Church's Liturgy is subject to the same law. The widespread ignorance of the Church's teaching in our own time is, in my view, partly the result of a failure to grasp this principle.
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By your own following of this principle, I have learned the source, meaning, and application of remora, quod ubique, and eadem sententia. Gratefully and with thanks, magister.
I fully agree, Fr., but the liturgy is not only a matter of texts and teaching, but also of great (gregorian) music. And the "green" Sunday liturgies are full of ancient masterpieces. Therefore, Piux X's giving the "ordinary", "green" Sundays a higher rank and removing several feasts from fixed Sundays was a very important element of his restoration of the Gregorian Chant. Unfortunately, however, already shortly after Pius X again several Sundays were occupied by permanent feasts, and in the meantime, Gregorian Chant disappeared almost completely except at a few traditional congregations with well-trained musicians.
I wish you had 'upvoting' facility on your blog, as then I'd upvote this as many times as possible. It's so true.
My experience exactly teaching college and graduate courses in economics!
No consistency in NO:
Nine fold kyrie reduced to six
Threefold Domine non sum dignus reduced to one
Threefold Sanctus and Angus Dei remain
Also, repititio est mater studiorum
How very true,Father. Wouldn’t it be glorious to have those Octaves returned..Epiphany,Pentecost,AllHallows…which do exactly what you say…say it say it again and say it one more time. Then say it again…
Precidely so, Father. When the authentic Roman Rite was in unersal use in the Roman Church, the priest sang the Prefatio de Sanctissima Trinitate on nearly every Sunday between Trinity Sunday and the Last Sunday of the year, and thus was the therein clearly expressed doctrinal truth of one God in Three Persons firmly embedded in the mind of the priest, and without error or doubt transmitted by him to the lay faithful. After fifty years of Novus Ordo Missae, wherein confession in and worship of the Most August Trinity is mostly missing, large numbers of Catholic clergy and laity are become de facto Arians.
It seems that the Eastern Churches never got the memo about eliminating repetitions, as the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is gloriously repetitive in its litanies, both in what is prayed for and by ending each one with the same petition to the Theotokos the Ever Virgin Mary and the Trinity.
The thing is, dear Ansgerus, when those perpetually fixed feasts were said on the October Sundays in England, they only replaced green Sundays on the 1st, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 16th, 17th, 26th and 27th of October, that is at most twice. And that includes the day these feasts would have been fixed to (like the 7th now for the Rosary, the 11th for the Maternity); the First Sunday in October which even now has as its principal Mass, and the one that is chanted where there is chant, the feast of the Rosary, with the only change that from the Mass of the Day to a Votive Mass for the external celebration; the 9th which now would certainly the feast of St. John Henry (and by the logic of that time would outrank the Sunday), the feast of St. Margaret Mary which probably would be a worldwide double and outrank the Sunday...
I do nevertheless think those were a bit over the top; but the real thing in the way of Green Sundays were not those, but the abundance of doubles on the usual calendar, combined with the fact that those outranked Sundays. This in turn created a problem of another sort for the October Sunday Fixed Feast: When you have got used to hear the Mass of, say, St. Philippo Benizi every seven years as a Sunday goer, because after all he is (and he is) an important saint, restoring the Servite Order and all, then suddenly it does become strange that you never get the same thing for St. Francis, St. Bridget, St. Theresa the Great, the Archangel Raphael, your own Guardian Angel and so forth.
Dear Albertus,
on the one hand, sure. But then the Preface of the Trinity, originally from the Feast and Votive Mass of the Trinity, was extended to the Sundays only some time im the late 19th century I believe (on the grounds that Sunday is the day of the week specifically dedicated to the mystery of the Trinity). And I'm not sure, but this may have meant "just the Sundays per annum actually kept as such" (vulgo the Green Sundays), and there weren't many of those. Advent, yes. Advent then may have got four Trinity prefaces in a row, before getting its own preface.
But there's one thing they really, even before that, did say every Sunday: the Creed. I mean, the Nicene Creed.
I know from my own experience that only ever saying the Apostolicum, with the Nicene Creed the odd exception for Christmas and Epiphany, is not good for a objectively wellformed faith in the Trinity.
The new liturgy is too linear, too reductive, and too logical in arrangement. The old mass was much better, more appealing, more beautiful, more suitable to its purpose. Why do I say that? Because the mass today was calvary today, tomorrow's mass will be calvary tomorrow, as was every mass that ever was or ever will be. Calvary is constantly happening. Except that it only happened once. How wonderful. How surpassing all understanding. What a privilege. So, when the priest re-presents the sacrifice of calvary, and the Real Presence is there, as hosts of invisible angels surround the altar in adoration of the Most Holy, it is most fitting that the liturgy is full of repetitions, parts seemingly out of logical arrangement, without trite arrangement of beginning, middle and end. Because it's all happening right now. God With Us. Christ sacrificed himself once, be his priests bring us back to the foot of the Cross. Again, and Again and Again- From the farest East to the farest West, just as Malachi foretold. So, I am all for repetition.
The one-year calendar is another great "repetitive" teacher! How much more Scripture is taken to heart, not memorized but at the very least remembered in good detail compared to a three-year calendar? That three-year calendar just seems heartless.
Dear Moritz, i am aware of the history of the Preface, and of the Sunday Officium as it once was, but I am only referring to the Mass as I have ever known it, as I was born under Pope Pius XII, and I only know that most sundays between Trinity and the Last Sunday of the Year are green and have the Praefatio de Sma Trinitate. The Credo Nicaeo-Constantinopolitanum is always sung on every Sunday and highest class feast days, which is also an excellent repitition. Thus I donot understand your reference to Apostolicum? We only use it at Baptism, and in the recitation of the Rosary.
Dear Albertus,
in the Novus Ordo, the Apostolicum is an allowed alternative for the Creed (and apparently even very loosely "I believe" songs are). In at least the German use of Novus Ordo, this alternative is almost always the one used, with exceptions only if a classically-composed Mass is sung, and perhaps on Christmas for the kneeling, Epiphany because it is very much like Christmas, and that was pretty much it. Hence, the rank-and-file parish Catholics (if you pardon the generalization= may know there is such a thing as "The Big Creed" (that's its name in the songbook), but have no idea how it goes. When it is used for a change, usually its songbook number is given so that people can read it when saying it.
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