Una Voce San Bernardino - Latin Mass Apostolate

The Changes in the Ceremonies of Holy Mass between the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite

Laurence Gonzaga

President

Una Voce San Bernardino

This presentation will be in notation form. It attempts to show that even though there have been historically organic modifications to the ceremonies of the Sacred Liturgy, that the ceremonial changes found in the liturgical reform Mass, now known as the “Ordinary form of the Roman Rite,” does not further enrich the Catholic faith, but in many places, actually dilutes or obscures it. This is contrary to the true purpose of legitimate liturgical development. If there is any resistance to any criticism of the ordinary form, as we have it today in AD 2009, then one must have to explain away the critical words said about the “reformed Mass” from none other than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, before he ascended the Throne of the Vicar of Christ:

“J.A. Jungmann, one of the truly great liturgists of our century, defined the liturgy of his time, such as could be understood in the light of historical research, as a “liturgy which is the fruit of development”… What happened after the Council was something else entirely: in the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries, and replaced it - as in a manufacturing process - with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product."[1]

This is a sincere attempt on my part to open up a discussion with those who resist the claims of the traditional movement with regard to the liturgy and theology, to see if we can help ourselves and help others to understand the mystery of the Mass at a more intimate level than mere externalism. What is appropriate? What is not appropriate? The answer has to be found in the tradition, and even if new practices are introduced, that it be reasonable, and not opposed to traditional principles. First of all, this should not be misunderstood as a resistance to all liturgical development. It is not.

There is legitimate development in the Roman liturgy which responds to the spiritual needs of the times, especially in times when heresy is creeping into the Sanctuary of God. For example:

After the Consecration of the Host, and the genuflection of the priest, the Host is elevated for the adoration of the faithful. Prior to the 11^th century, this was not the practice:

“Formerly, the Host was not elevated at this part of the Mass, but only just before the commencing of the Pater. In the eleventh century, Berengarius, archdeacon of Angers, having dared to deny the Real Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, this showing of the Sacred Host to the people, in the Mass immediately after Consecration, was introduced in order to excite them to adoration.”[2]

Let us begin our study.

The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar , which includes Psalm 42:1-5, in the extraordinary form (EF) have been removed in the ordinary form (OF).

P. I will go to the altar of God. S. To God, the joy of my youth. P. Do me justice, O God, and fight my fight against an unholy people, rescue me from the wicked and deceitful man. S. For Thou, O God, art my strength, why hast Thou forsaken me? And why do I go about in sadness, while the enemy harasses me? P. Send forth Thy light and thy truth: for they have led me and brought me to thy holy hill and Thy dwelling place. S. And I will go to the altar of god, to God, the joy of my youth.” Etc.

The Confiteor of the priest, which was separate from the Confiteor of the people in the EF, is abolished in the OF.
The Confiteor of the EF has been significantly shortened in the OF, removing the double invocation of the holy names of St. Michael the Archangel, St. John the Baptist, and Sts. Peter and Paul.
The Indulgentiam, absolutionem (Absolution) after the Confiteor, as well as some other prayers by the priest asking for forgiveness of his sins and for purity to enter into the Holy of Holies in the EF have been abolished in the OF. Examples:

May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon, (+) absolution, and remission of our sins. R: Amen.
Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord; that, being made pure in heart we may be worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
We beseech Thee, O Lord, by the merits of those of Thy saints whose relics are here, and of all the saints, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to pardon me all my sins. Amen.

The response to Dominus Vobiscum – The Lord be with you, has been mistranslated in the OF, where Et Cum Spiritu Tuo ought to be And with thy Spirit, not And also with you.
The triple prayer for mercy at the Kyrie towards each Person of the Blessed Trinity, has been reduced to a double prayer towards each Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison,
Christe Eleison, Christe Eleison, Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison

The Gloria of the OF is poorly translated from the Latin.

Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise Thee; we bless Thee; we adore Thee; we glorify Thee. We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly king, God the Father almighty, O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For Thou alone art holy; Thou alone art the Lord; Thou alone, O Jesus Christ, together with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

The Gradual, Tract, and Sequence in the EF, has been replaced with the Responsorial Psalms in the OF.
The prayers of the priest prior to reading the Holy Gospel in the EF, have been abolished in the OF:

Cleanse my heart and my lips, O almighty God, Who didst cleanse with a burning coal the lips of the prophet Isaias; and vouchsafe in Thy loving kindness so to purify me that I may be enabled worthily to announce Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to bless me. The Lord be in my heart and on my lips, that I may worthily and becomingly announce His gospel. Amen.

The Credo is poorly translated in the OF, and changed to a plurality, rather than the Latin singular. The genuflection at the Incarnation has been reduced to a “profound bow” if it is done at all by the faithful.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages; God of God, light of light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father, by Whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, AND WAS MADE MAN (Here genuflect). He was crucified also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of the Father: and He shall come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead: and His kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified: Who spoke by the prophets. And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The “Prayers of the Faithful” have been added to the liturgy in the OF; to each petition the people respond, “Lord, hear our prayer”.
The Offertory Prayers of the EF have been replaced with “Prayers over the gifts”, of Jewish tradition (Seder prayers), in the OF. Interestingly, the same prayers, which showed forth the unambiguously sacrificial nature of Holy Mass, were removed by the apostate Bishop, Thomas Cramner at the Protestant Revolution. The prayers are:

Receive, O Holy Father, almighty and eternal God, this spotless host, which I, Thine unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my living and true God, for my countless sins, trespasses, and omissions; likewise for all here present, and for all faithful Christians, whether living or dead, that it may avail both me and them to salvation, unto life everlasting. Amen.
O God, Who in creating man didst exalt his nature very wonderfully and yet more wonderfully didst establish it anew: by the mystery this water and wine, grant us to have part in the Godhead of Him Who hath vouchsafed to share our manhood, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God; world without end. Amen.
We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, beseeching Thy clemency that it may ascend as a sweet odor before Thy divine majesty, for our own salvation, and for that of the whole world. Amen.
Humbled in mind, and contrite of heart, may we find favor with Thee, O Lord; and may the sacrifice we this day offer up be well pleasing to Thee, Who art our Lord and our God.
Come, Thou, the Sanctifier, God, almighty and everlasting: bless (+) this sacrifice which is prepared for the glory of Thy holy name.

The prayer at the Lavabo (Psalm 25:6-12) of the EF, has been removed, and replaced with a one-sentence prayer, “Lord wash away my iniquities; cleanse me from my sins”:

I will wash my hands among the innocent, and will cleanse compass Thine altar, O Lord. That I may hear the voice of praise, and tell of all Thy wondrous works. I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth. Take not away my soul, O God, with the wicked; nor my life with men of blood. In whose hands are iniquities: their right hand is filled with gifts. But as for me, I have walked in my innocence; redeem me, and have mercy on me. My foot hath stood in the right way; in the churches I will bless Thee, O Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen.

The Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity in the EF, has been abolished in the OF:

Receive, O holy Trinity, this oblation offered up by us to Thee in memory of the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in honor of blessed Mary, ever a virgin, of blessed John the Baptist, of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, of these, and of all the saints, that it may be available to their honor and to our salvation; and may they whose memory we celebrate on earth vouchsafe to intercede for us in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Secrets, a prayer proper for the day in the EF, has been abolished in the OF.
The Canon of the Mass follows, and when Eucharistic Prayer I (called the “Roman Canon”) is said in the OF, it is alleged that this is the same Canon as the one used in the EF. Though it is certainly closer to the Tridentine Canon than the other Eucharistic Prayers, it is modified in many places, especially those places which speak about the sacrificial nature of the Mass.
The priest genuflects immediately after each Consecration in the EF, recognizing at once the substantial Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, whereas the priest genuflects after the elevation for the adoration of the people in the OF.

The moment that these words of Consecration are uttered, the priest, on bended knees, adores the Sacred Host. The rubric says statim, at once; he must leave no interval, for the bread has gone, there remain now but the species, the appearances; it has yielded its place to the Lord, It is the Lord Himself whom the priest adores.[3]

At the Consecration of the Chalice, in the EF, the words Mysterium Fidei have been removed, and placed after the Consecration in the OF. This is significant because it is clear that the “Mystery of Faith” in the EF is the Most Holy Eucharist, but considering the various proclamation of the “Mystery of Faith” in the OF, one wonders if it should be referred to as the “Mysteries of Faith” instead; they are the following in order of the options given in the rubrics: The Passion, Resurrection, and Parousia (Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again); Atonement, Resurrection, and Parousia (Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life, Lord Jesus, come in glory); The Eucharist and the Parousia (When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory); and finally the Passion, Resurrection, and Atonement (Lord, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world):

FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING TESTAMENT, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH, WHICH FOR YOU AND FOR MANY SHALL BE SHED UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS.
“…the Mystery of Faith, was inserted into the text as an immediate expression of the priest’s faith in the mystery which the Church makes real through the hierarchical priesthood.” ~ Short Critical Study of the New Order of Mass[4] (CS), p. 42

The Consecration has been transformed from a sacramental form, to an “institution narrative”. The form of the EF is, FOR THIS IS MY BODY. The form for the OF is, THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.

“The old formula for the Consecration was a sacramental formula, properly speaking, and not merely a narrative… The Roman Missal added the words As often as ye shall do these things, ye shall do them in memory of Me after the formula of Consecration. This formula referred not merely to remembering Christ Christ or a past event, but to Christ acting in the here and now.” – CS, pp. 42-43

If Eucharistic Prayer II (EP) is used in the OF, the most commonly used EP, the Te Igitur, Memento, and Communicantes are missing, with a shortened Unde et memores, and the Supra quae propitio, Ipsis Domine et omnibus and the Per quem haec omnia are missing as well.
At the “Deliver us, Lord from every evil”, after the Pater Noster (Our Father) in the OF, the intercession of Our Lady, Sts. Peter, Paul, and Andrew are not mentioned. All are present in the EF.
The prayer, “For Thine is the Kingdom, the power…” is added in the OF.
The prayer, “Lord, Jesus Chirst, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you,” has been moved from after the Agnus Dei in the EF, to after the Pater Noster in the OF.
The “Kiss of Peace” has been re-introduced in the OF, where it was a tradition in the early Church. It fell into disuse, or at the most, exchanged on rare occasions in the EF.
The Prayer for Grace, “Perceptio Corporis tui”, of the priest in the EF, has been abolished in the OF.

Let not the partaking of Thy Body, O Lord Jesus Christ, which I, all unworthy, presume to receive, turn to my judgment and condemnation; but through Thy loving kindness may it be to me a safeguard and remedy for soul and body; Who, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest, God, world without end. Amen.

Prayers before the Communion of the Priest in the EF are abolished in the OF:

I will take the bread of heaven, and will call upon the name of the Lord.
What shall I render unto the Lord for all the things that He hath rendered unto me? I will take the chalice of salvation and will call upon the name of the Lord. With high praises will I call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from all mine enemies.

The distinct Domine non sum dignus (Lord, I am not worthy) of the priest is abolished in the OF
For the Communion of the Faithful, the priest in the EF would say to the communicant, “Corpus Domine nostril Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.” (May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto life everlasting. Amen); the communicant does not say Amen. In the OF, the priest says to the communicant, “Corpus Christi” (Body of Christ), and the communicant responds, “Amen”.
At the Prayers During the Ablutions (Cleansing of the Sacred Vessels), the priest in the OF no longer says the following prayer found in the EF:

May Thy Body, O Lord, which I have received, and Thy Blood which I have drunk cleave to mine inmost parts: and do Thou grant that no stain of sin remain in me, whom pure and holy mysteries have refreshed: Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

After the Final Blessing (May Almighty God Bless you…) in the OF, the priest no longer says the following prayer bowing down towards the altar, which was said in the EF:

May the lowly homage of my service be pleasing to Thee, O most holy Trinity: and do Thou grant that the sacrifice which I, all unworthy, have offered up in the sight of Thy majesty, may be acceptable to Thee, and, because of Thy loving kindness, may avail to atone to Thee for myself and for all those for whom I have offered it up. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

After the Mass has ended in the EF, the priest reads the Final Gospel (John 1:1-14), a practice which has been abolished in the OF.
Also, the prayers ordered by Leo XIII to be said after every Low Mass in the EF for a solution to the seizure of the Papal States, and was then ordered by Pius XI to be said for the conversion of Russia, has also been abolished in the OF.

Three Aves. Salve Regina. Sancte Michael Archangele. Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, Miserere nobis.

The following are significant observations made by a group of some Roman Theologians after the introduction of the Novus Ordo Missae. It was attached to the letter written by the former head of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Ottaviani. This work in general is commonly called “The Ottaviani Intervention”, but the work is officially called Short Critical Study of the New Order Mass. We know how strong the case was found within its pages, because of the revision of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal just one year after the introduction of the Novus Ordo.

“We hear of a people of God on the march, a pilgrim Church-a Church no longer Militant against the powers of darkness, but one which having lost its link with eternity, marches to a future envisioned in purely temporal terms” (p. 48).

“Eucharistic Prayer II it has well been said that the priest who no longer believed in either Transubstantiation or the sacrificial character of the Mass could recite it with perfect tranquility of conscience, and that a Protestant minister, moreover, could use it in his own celebrations just as well” (p. 52).

“That which was conceived in a timeless state must now be transposed into the changing context of concrete situations, and into the constant flux of the universal Church and its myriad congregations” - Liturgical Institutes of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria quoted in the Critical Study (p. 52).

“It is obvious that the New Order of Mass has no intention of presenting the Faith taught by the Council of Trent. But it is to this Faith that the Catholic conscience is bound forever. Thus, with the promulgation of the New Order of Mass, the true Catholic is faced with a tragic need to choose” (p. 53).

“…the Novus Ordo cast off what was spiritually precious of its own. In place of this are elements which bring the new rite closer to certain Protestant liturgies, not even those closest to Catholicism” (p. 54).

“The Church’s unity is not only threatened, but has already been tragically compromised. Errors against the Faith are not merely insinuated, but are—as has been likewise acknowledged—now forcibly imposed through liturgical abuses and aberrations” (p. 55).

“Catholics everywhere, priests and laymen alike, loved and venerated the Roman Missal of St. Pius V. It is impossible to understand how using the Missal, along with proper religious instruction, could prevent the faithful from participating in the liturgy more fully or understanding it more profoundly. It is likewise impossible to understand why the old Missal, when its many outstanding merits are recognized, should now be deemed unworthy to continue to nourish the liturgical piety of the faithful” (p. 32).

I wrote this a month ago. With the recent developments in the traditional world with the lifting of the excommunications of the Society of St. Pius X bishops by Benedict XVI, I am very much excited to see where our pope will be taking the Church.

God Bless.

Instaurare omnia in Christo.

Laurence A. Gonzaga

Feast of St. Blaise, 2009

[1] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Preface to the French Edition of the book The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: It’s Problems and Background by Msgr. Klaus Gamber, published by Roman Catholic Books

[2] Gueranger, Dom Prosper, OSB (2007), Explanation of the Holy Mass, Imprimatur 1885, Loreto Press, pp. 130-131.

[3] EHM, p. 130

[4] The Ottaviani Intervention: Short Critical Study of the New Order of Mass (1992, TAN)

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