Mass as holy lecture? Head trip? Readings in Novus Ordo vs. traditional: something cooking here? St. Michael prayer scary? Latin bad? Good? Reverence under attack? And what happened to the Holy Ghost?
All packed in for easy reading . . .
Chatted other day with a friend, got around to Latin mass, she was opposed, asked who knows Latin or words to that effect. Ah, of course. Many if not most go to mass as a holy lecture in which something sacramental happens.
Better than not going at all, but they miss the main point of it, that mass is an event, not a lecture. Head trip comes to mind, if you don’t mind.
No, it’s not something to be explained, no surprises if you don’t mind. No, it’s something mysterious, your attention to which is not to be distracted by too much thinking. It’s not a head trip.
Which goes against the comparatively recent liturgical changes to which we have unfortunately become accustomed, whereby the bland has become the godforsaken norm. Take yesterday’s readings.
2 Corinthians 9:6-11:
Brothers and sisters, consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. . . .
I love it. The “cheerful giver” phrase is something to live by, a practice of Hope, the trust-God virtue.
Moreover . . .
God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.
How object to such consoling words? You can’t.
Same day, trad mass reading, 2 Timothy 4: 1-8:
Beloved: I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus, Who will judge the living and the dead by His coming and by His kingdom, preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke with all patience and teaching.
Then the warning that runs against the strain of today’s sweetness and light:
For there will come a time when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own lusts, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and turn aside rather to fables.
The instruction:
But be watchful in all things, bear with tribulation patiently, work as a preacher of the Gospel, fulfill your ministry.
His own farewell, looking ahead with confidence:
As for me, I am already being poured out in sacrifice, and the time of my deliverance is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
Firmly:
For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will give to me in that day; yet not to me only, but also to those who love His coming.
So. Novus Ordo reading is marvelous. Tradition’s also. But the tone and message of Tradition’s are found in Novus Ordo readings? Not so much.
Instead we have softness and what’s consoling. Rarely a hard word about “the good fight” and the like. Definitely calling up the devil and his works.
No prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, banned in Chicago, for instance. Too harsh, a priest told an inquiring parishioner who wondered why not say it. Makes me nervous, Father might have added.
As for my friend’s down-counting Latin, I must say Latin is good, it is not bad. Good partly because it’s different, sticks with you for that reason. We altar boys of the ‘40s learned when and how to say Latin. I can still recite, to myself of course, The Suscipiat, billed to us by older boys as the hardest of all to memorize.
Less unity, more out-and-out uniformity seems to be the case when it comes to the Latin mass, which definitely does away with the latter, but unity? Competition does that? Minorities do that? Differences of opinion or preference?
Do Latin masses interfere with others? Do they foment revolution? Not a question of breaking the law, but of declining to follow preferences of the ruler? In this case the Holy See? That is, the pope? Bishops?
So Roma locuta; causa finita est? Yes and no. As CEO of his diocese, a bishop can impose his idea on others and good luck to those who disagree? But deep (and treacherous) waters here. Can a pope misuse his power? Is one tempted to use the bromide, Is the pope Catholic?
The papacy is set up for this. If the pope wants it, many are the ways for him to get it, come hell or high water, you might say but won’t if you’re a priest or bishop and know what’s good for you.
More later on this issue here, They’re Not Just After the Latin Mass Anymore, with its opening lines,
The new [papal] regime wants to purge reverence itself. From Charlotte to Paraná, bishops are cracking down on kneeling, chant, Latin, & ad orientem: even in the Novus Ordo. And Leo XIV is letting it happen.
Uh-oh. As I say, more later. Looks like lockstep to me, with all the mindless doing what you’re told and little or nothing in it about that Vatican 2 catchphrase freedom of the children of God. Yuck.
Meanwhile (and closing, finally), there’s the odd item about the rarely raised question, what happened to the Holy Ghost?
Question:
Why was the term Holy Ghost replaced by Holy Spirit? Have all rites observed this change or just the Latin rite?
Answer:
The term has nothing to do with rites. It was replaced only in the English language. Due to its unique history, English is a language that has multiple synonyms for almost everything. In this case, we had the words ghost (derived from German) and spirit (derived from Latin).
In recent years, the latter has become the more common term even though originally they were synonyms. Thus, in the last few decades Catholic English translators have preferred spirit to ghost, whether referring to the Holy Spirit or other spirits.
I get it. Doesn’t mean a young fella like this one can’t use Ghost when he wants to, for its, oh, gutsiness if for no other good reason.
Won’t expect it from the good father above, who takes a pass on the St. Michael prayer because it’s scary with all its devil-take-hind-post insinuation.
Later, my friends . . .