This past weekend, the Novus Ordo Missae ( “New Ordinary of the Mass”), the Mass celebrated in almost every Catholic parish in the world, turned 40 years old. Instituted in the wake of Vatican II, this was the most visible change for most Catholics as a result of that Council.

The vast majority of Catholics have simply accepted the Novus Ordo and don’t think much about it. However, for some Catholics the Novus Ordo represents all that is wrong with the Church of the past 40 years. Other Catholics (and I would include myself in this camp) don’t have a problem with the Novus Ordo itself but do have criticisms in how it has been implemented in many dioceses and parishes.

The changes that have been most criticized are the use of the vernacular (instead of Latin), the priest turning around to face the people instead of facing the same direction as they do, and the terrible, terrible music heard in many parishes today. But, as Br. Charles points out, none of these things are actually required in celebrating the Novus Ordo:

• Benedict XVI is oft-quoted (from The Spirit of the Liturgy) on the theological and ecclesiological problems of the Mass offered versus populum. Many agree with him. However, though this option for celebration may seem to the casual observer to be one of the distinctive marks of the Mass of Paul VI, and is treated by many priests as a sacred and unalterable religious duty, it is neither essential nor normative. In fact, in the newer form of Mass, the priest is required to turn and face the people fewer times than in the older form. Thus, it is not fair to criticize the Novus Ordo based on troubles attendant on the offering of Mass “facing the people.”
• Analogously, though it may also seem that Mass offered in local languages is an instrinsic mark of the newer form of Mass, this is also an option rather than a norm. Sacrosanctum concilium 36 clearly affirms that the Latin remains the ordinary language of the Roman rite. Thus, it is also unfair to base criticisms on the use of the vernacular.
• Much criticism, and some of it justified, has been made against contemporary Catholic music that has grown up alongside the newer form of Mass. For most of us, the ordinary procedure for arriving at music for Mass is to contoct the ‘four song sandwich’ that will match the readings or suit our theme. This custom is taken for granted so much of the time that we forget that it is a matter of exception and substitution. The ordinary way of music-ing the Roman liturgy is to sing the actual texts of the Mass as they are found in the Missal and the Gradual, rather than substituting them for songs and metrical hymns. For this purpose, Gregorian chants allegedly retain their “pride of place,” at least according to Sacrosanctum concilium 116. Therefore, it is not exactly fair to criticize the modern Roman liturgy based on some of the bad music with which it has become associated, for this association is neither essential nor normative.

Thus, much of the criticism directed at the Novus Ordo should instead be directed at how it has been implemented. It would take no change in the law of the Church to change the celebration of the Mass to a more traditional, yet still faithful to the desires of Vatican II, way.

Seen in an Orthodox church:

(Source)

Translation: “Not turned-off cell phones in church – 100 prostrations”

I think we need something similar in our Catholic churches – perhaps 100 genuflections?

The recent announcement that the Pope has set up a way for large numbers of Anglicans to enter the Church has generated much excitement. One part of this new structure is that it will allow aspects of the Anglican liturgy to be preserved. We don’t know the details yet, but it will probably be something along the lines of the “Anglican Use” liturgy currently allowed in America.

The acceptance of Anglican aspects of the liturgy is possibly the most important part of this new structure, as the liturgy is the most important activity we as Christians can engage in. In the liturgy we encounter Jesus Christ directly – both in Word and in Sacrament – therefore how it is celebrated is very important. It is a wondrous privilege to be able to attend Mass and hear the Word of God in the Scriptures and receive the Word of God in the Eucharist. As Vatican II stated, it is the “source and summit” of our Christian lives.

The preservation of part of the Anglican liturgy in the Catholic Church also reflects the many beautiful and diverse forms of the liturgy. Over the centuries the celebration of the liturgy has never been a static thing, instead it has developed into many forms. The purpose of each development has been to draw people into a deeper participation and appreciation of what is occurring. Some developments have been more successful than others in achieving that purpose, but regardless of the form, in every liturgy we are worshiping the Almighty God and receiving His Son in sacramental form in the Eucharist. How incredible is that?!

All the various forms can be broken down into two main categories: Eastern and Western. In each of these two major groups, there are variations, although the variations in the West are much fewer than in the East.

In the West today, the main two forms of the liturgy are the Ordinary Form (aka “the Norvus Ordo”) which was instituted in the wake of Vatican II, and the Extraordinary Form (aka “the Latin Mass”) which has a long history but was standardized across almost the entire Western Church after the Council of Trent in the 16th century. The “Anglican Use” liturgy has also been available for some time here in the States, but it is celebrated in a very small number of places – but of course could be expanded greatly with the new Anglican structure just announced.

This is now twice in a few years that the Pope has liberalized a form of the liturgy within the Church that was rarely being celebrated. In 2007, Pope Benedict issued a motu proprio liberalizing the celebration of the Extraordinary Form. I think that was a great idea, as that liturgy has certain strengths, especially related to reverence during the liturgy, that too often have been neglected since the Norvus Ordo became the norm in the West. Also, I was excited to see that the first Extraordinary Form High Mass in 40 years was recently celebrated at St. Peter’s. I hope that the celebration of the Extraordinary Form becomes less “extraordinary” in the years to come; I hope the same regarding the Anglican Use liturgy.

In the East, there are many forms of the liturgy, but most are variations of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the Liturgy of St. Basil, or the Liturgy of St. James. I highly recommend to any Western Catholic that they make an effort to attend an Eastern liturgy, either Eastern Catholic or Orthodox (note that an Eastern Catholic liturgy fulfills the Sunday obligation binding on Latin Catholics, but an Orthodox liturgy does not). An Eastern liturgy has the same basic structure as the Western forms, but its externals are VERY different. Two pages I recommend reading before attending an Eastern liturgy for the first time:

Twelve Things I Wish I’d Known…

For Visitors

Personally, I love all the forms of the liturgy when they are properly and reverently said. I find that each directs my thoughts and prayers towards a different aspect of God and His work. I also think the diversity of liturgies reflect the immensity of what the liturgy is doing; after all, having a direct encounter with God is so incredible that it is simply impossible for there to be only one way to do it.

If you are as interested in the liturgy as I am, here are a few recommended books from my own library:

• The Spirit of the Liturgy – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• The Wellspring of Worship – Jean Corbon
• Eucharist – Louis Bouyer
• The Shape of the Liturgy – Dom Gregory Dix
• Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy – Dom Cyprian Vagaggini, O.S.B.
• The Bible and the Liturgy – Jean Danielou, S.J.

But of course, nothing beats personal experience – so make an effort to attend the liturgy in all its various forms!

Some possible titles for the video below:

• Origin of “Folk Masses” discovered
• Elvis – the secret founder of the St. Louis Jesuits
• 1970’s Liturgical Training Video unearthed
• Member of Society of St. Pius X watches video, head explodes
• Traditionalists ask: “Will Elvis please leave the building?”
• The Spirit of Vatican II’s first victim
• Baptist church embraces traditional liturgy halfheartedly

H/t: Msgr. Pope

As readers of this blog know, I have a deep appreciation for the Eastern liturgies of the Church. A few weeks ago, I blogged about a Baptist minister (the “Real Live Preacher”) who visited an Orthodox Church for liturgy and was overwhelmed (in a good way). I just ran across (via Byzantine, TX) another great description of someone attending a Divine Liturgy for the first time. This time, it is a Latin Catholic who is visiting churches in Manhattan and just recently attended Divine Liturgy at St. Michael’s Russian Catholic Church. Some excerpts:

What an experience this week! I wandered into the celebration of The Divine Liturgy. I had never attended this before and it was like entering another world, so different than the Masses I am used to…

Peering through the window of the door I witnessed the beginning of the Divine Liturgy. There were four priests, fully decked out in traditional Byzantine Rite robes, gathered around an altar behind an ornate altar fence; I could hear the small congregation praying and singing in Russian; incense wafted through the air – immediately I was overwhelmed and my first thought was to flee. However, something made me open up the doors and walk in, standing alone in the small entryway corridor. Then, an older gentleman saw me and ushered me inside, and I entered the chapel…

The song and the prayer that followed for the next hour and a half were incredible, and it was really something special to be in that small, intimate space of such devotion. There were no chairs, save a few exceptions for some older members of the small congregation, and though admittedly an hour and a half is a long time to stand, it seemed to fly by…

I made my way to the altar, spoke my name, then the priest dipped the bread into the wine and using a little spoon dropped it into my mouth.* The deacon wiped my lips with a cloth and I kissed the base of the chalice as I had witnessed the others in the chapel do. To the left of the altar, a small table had been set up between two priests (or maybe they were deacons or acolytes, I’m not sure) that contained another plate of bread and small ladles of wine. My hand was shaking as I picked up the ladle. I quickly drank the wine, took another portion of bread, crossed myself clumsily and went back to my place against the wall to listen to the post-Communion hymns and prayers…

Read the whole article here.

*Note: since this was a Russian Catholic Church (i.e. not an Orthodox Church), communion is allowed for all Catholics, including Latin Catholics.

Tomorrow here in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, a very special espiscopal ordination is taking place. Fr. Augustine Di Noia, O.P., will be ordained the Archbishop of Oregon City, Oregon. Why is this special? Because Archbishop-elect Di Noia has been appointed the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, the body in charge of overseeing the liturgy. As such, he was raised to the rank of Archbishop, and like all Vatican officials, was made the titular head of a diocese that doesn’t really exist (in this case, Oregon City).

The appointment of Di Noia I think is interesting. He is known as a tremendous theologian, but not necessarily a liturgist. This seems to be consistent, however, with Pope Benedict’s desire to re-establish the theological importance of the liturgy in the life of the Church. The main contact the vast majority of Catholics have with the Church (and for that matter, with Christ) is through Sunday Mass, and the Pope recognizes that if the Mass is not a time in which man can encounter God, it has not done its job properly.

Nothing ignites passions among Catholics on the internet more than a discussion about the Mass. What I have found in real life, however, is that most Mass-going Catholics do not have strong opinions about how the Mass is celebrated – they simply attend each Sunday and do not care that much what music is played, which way the priest is facing, or how close the English translation is to the original Latin. But it is clear that they are deeply shaped in their own walk with Christ by the way Mass is celebrated each week.

This is why the liturgy is so important, as it either assists or detracts from our ability to fulfill our most primary responsibility in life: to worship God, our Creator and Redeemer. Personally, I am not a traditionalist who insists that the old Latin Mass is the only proper way to say the Mass. Yet I do believe that many of the innovations that have entered the Mass over the past 40 years have been detrimental to proper worship.

My own standard is this: in what “direction” does each aspect of the Mass – the words, the motions, the music, etc. – take us? Is it to God, or is it to ourselves? Liturgy is fundamentally an encounter between God and man, and as such, all the actions of the liturgy should direct man towards God.

Note that nothing I say here is culturally conditioned – I believe that each culture can adjust the Mass (within properly-defined boundaries, of course) as best fits its own genius. So there can be a wide variety of music, for example. Yet all music within the liturgy should be directed towards God, not towards ourselves (which thus excludes a large portion of music currently being used in parishes across the nation – what I call the “How Great We Art” song list).

This is one of the reasons I love the Eastern liturgies; they have maintained the proper “direction.” There is no question that everything that goes on in an Eastern liturgy is directed towards God. Yes, this can make it difficult for a newcomer to become comfortable with such a liturgy, but there is no question for any visitor what is going on when they enter: the worship of the Trinitarian God. I have been to many Roman liturgies in which this occurs as well, but too often I have attended Masses in which it is unclear at best exactly who is being worshiped.

I pray for Archbishop-elect Di Noia that he will work hard to make the Roman liturgy one that is always directed towards the Almighty God.

I absolutely love this article. A Baptist minister on sabbatical decided to bring his family to an Orthodox Liturgy. Needless to say, it was quite a culture shock:

Saint Anthony the Great isn’t just old school. It’s “styli and wax tablets” old school. We arrived ten minutes early for worship and the room was already filled with people lighting candles and praying. There was one greeter. I said, “We don’t know what to do.” She handed me a liturgy book and waved us inside.

Pews? We don’t need no stinking pews! Providing seats for worshipers is SO 14th century. Gorgeous Byzantine art, commissioned from a famous artist in Bulgaria. Fully robed priests with censors (those swinging incense thingies). Long, complex readings and chants that went on and on and on. And every one of them packed full of complex, theological ideas. It was like they were ripping raw chunks of theology out of ancient creeds and throwing them by the handfuls into the congregation. And just to make sure it wasn’t too easy for us, everything was read in a monotone voice and at the speed of an auctioneer.

I heard words and phrases I had not heard since seminary. Theotokos, begotten not made, Cherubim and Seraphim borne on their pinions, supplications and oblations. It was an ADD kids nightmare. Robes, scary art, smoking incense, secret doors in the Iconostas popping open and little robed boys coming out with golden candlesticks, chants and singing from a small choir that rolled across the curved ceiling and emerged from the other side of the room where no one was singing. The acoustics were wild. No matter who was speaking, the sound came out of everywhere. There was so much going on I couldn’t keep up with all the things I couldn’t pay attention to.

Lillian was the first to go down. After half an hour of standing, she was done. Jeanene took her over to a pew on the side wall. She slumped against Jeanene’s shoulder and stared at me with this stunned, rather betrayed look on her face.

“How could you have brought us to this insane place?”

Shelby tried to tough it out. We were following along in the 40 page liturgy book that was only an abbreviation of the service were were experiencing. I got lost no less than 10 times. After 50 minutes Shelby leaned over and asked how much longer the service would be. I was trying to keep from locking my knees because my thighs had gotten numb. I showed her the book. We were on page 15. I flipped through the remaining 25 pages to show her how much more there was. Her mouth fell open.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. And I think there’s supposed to be a sermon in here somewhere.”

“They haven’t done the SERMON yet? What was that guy doing who said all that stuff about…all that stuff?”

“I don’t know?” I said.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. I looked around and saw the door at the back of the sanctuary swinging shut.

And then there was one.

Read the whole article and then read his account of attending alone the next week. Pastor Atkinson’s accounts are humorous, educational, and deeply humble. Instead of rejecting a form of worship so unlike his own, he appreciates its inner beauty and value.

Most American Christians – both Catholic and Protestant – have been in a rush to see how they can be the most “relevant” and “friendly” in their church services. It is nice to see there are still places which place worship at the center of a worship service.

Happy Feast of the Ascension (for those celebrating it today and not Sunday):

Click here to listen to a podcast from a Eastern Catholic parish on the meaning of this feast.

Yesterday, for the feast of the Annunciation, I attended Divine Liturgy at Holy Transfiguration Melkite Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia. I attend Holy Transfiguration a few times a year, and I am always glad when I can make it. For those unaware, the Melkites are one of the 23 “sui juris” churches that make up the Catholic Church. Most people are aware of only one of these churches – the Roman one – because its members make up the vast majority of the overall Catholic Church. However, the Eastern Catholic churches are a vital and important part of the universal Church. Most of them historically were created when members of an Orthodox church decided to reunite with the bishop of Rome. For example, the Melkite Church was formed out of the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

If you have never attended an Eastern Liturgy, I urge you to do so. It is beautiful beyond description. The title of this post is a quote from the 10th century ambassadors of Vladmir, the prince of Kiev, who were traveling the world trying to determine which religion was true based on how they worshipped God. The quote was their description of the Liturgy of St. Sophia in Constantinople. And it is a true statement: nothing is more heavenly on this earth than an Eastern liturgy.

Personally, I am somewhat diverse in my liturgical tastes: I love the simplicity of the Roman rite, especially at daily Mass, but I also greatly appreciate the grandeur and beauty of an Eastern liturgy. For me, a daily Mass reminds me of the simplicity of the original Last Supper in the Upper Room, while the Eastern liturgy takes me to the final “Last Supper” to be celebrated for all eternity in heaven.

Again, if you have never attended an Eastern liturgy, please do so. If you live in the DC-area, I especially encourage you to attend Holy Transfiguration – it is a vibrant, faithful parish which maintains its Eastern traditions in full.

Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 3:1

Simeon knew that no one could release a man from the prison of the body with hope of life to come, except the one whom he enfolded in his arms. Hence, he also says to him, “Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, in peace. For, as long as I did not hold Christ, as long as my arms did not enfold him, I was imprisoned, and unable to escape from my bonds.” But this is true not only of Simeon, but of the whole human race. Anyone who departs from this world, anyone who is released from prison and the house of those in chains, to go forth and reign, should take Jesus in his hands. He should enfold him with his arms and fully grasp him in his bosom. Then he will be able to go in joy where he longs to go.

Origen, Homilies on the Gospel of Luke 15.1-2

Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace!
From you shone the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God.
Enlightening those who sat in darkness!
Rejoice, and be glad, O righteous elder;
You accepted in your arms the Redeemer of our souls,
Who grants us the Resurrection.

Troparion,
The Meeting of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Temple