13 February 2014

Sacrosanctum Concilium

The Council said that more of Scripture should be put into the Liturgy. The Missal of Paul VI did so. You may not agree with how they did it: but that is a matter of judgement.

The Council said that the more hymns should be put into the Office. The Liturgy of the Hours did so. You may not agree with how it did it: but that is a matter of judgement.

The Council said that alternative Eucharistic Prayers should be put into the Ordo Missae. The Reformers did so. You may not agree with how they did it: but that is a matter of judgement.

Er ... have I just made some sort of foolish mistake?

I plan to keep on about the Roman Canon for a while, starting tomorrow. Later today, however, a piece about my recent revisit to a beloved Cathedral City.

7 comments:

motuproprio said...

Neither the Schema nor the final text of Sacrosanctum Concilium make any mention of new Eucharistic Prayers - See more at: http://www.adoremus.org/9-11-96-FolsomEuch.html#sthash.i0bTqHEH.dpuf
However we do find in Sacrosanctum Concilium
35. That the intimate connection between words and rites may be apparent in the liturgy:
1) In sacred celebrations there is to be more reading from holy scripture, and it is to be more varied and suitable.
93. To whatever extent may seem desirable, the hymns are to be restored to their original form, and whatever smacks of mythology or ill accords with Christian piety is to be removed or changed. Also, as occasion may arise, let other selections from the treasury of hymns be incorporated.

Anonymous said...

In charity to the Consilium, what they did at the time was actually a limiting action. Rogue priests were composing their own anaphoras and encouraging others to do so. That was obviously an intolerable situation.

So they decided to provide for several different anaphoras, which was a sort of compromise between Roman Canon-only and chaos.

Looked at from that perspective, it's not as bad. That being said, we don't have that chaos problem anymore. It's time that we started letting the composed anaphoras wither on the vine.

If anything, in the distant future the Church might provide for a shorter ferial anaphora by bracketing the Roman Canon, which would at least be an organic development from what preceded it.

Figulus said...

Ryann Ellis,

Bracketing the Roman Canon to make it as short as EP2 would save the ferial mass 2 whole minutes.

I humbly suggest substituting the graduale for a responsorial psalm and jettisoning the homily and the sign of peace to any priest in so big a hurry.

Anonymous said...

@motupropio
quote Sacrosanctum Concilium 35.1:
"In sacred celebrations there is to be more reading from holy scripture, and it is to be more varied and suitable."
A very suitable and easy way to restore more reading from holy scripture would have been possible in 1964 - and still would be possible - by return to the pre-1955 custom of reading the evangelium of a sunday impeded by a feast day as last evangelium instead of John 1, and to restore the dominica anticipata, like VI post epiphaniam on Saturday of this week (a good occasion to study epistolam beati Pauli Apostoli ad Hebraeos by the way), as well as nine lessons on sundays and feast days higher simplex rank instead of three: in other words, to return to pre-1955 and to quit the Bugnini-experiment entirely.

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

anxgerus

lets try, eh? can't be any worse than what's unexpectedly expected.

Titus said...

Motuproprio:

There's an almost obnoxious colloquialism that we Americans sometimes (sadly) invoke, to wit, "check your batteries." I'm not entirely sure what is supposed to have batteries, but the comment is directed at one who fails to perceive some form of satire, such as Father's statement about new Eucharistic Prayers.

rick allen said...

Father, I don't understand how you can question the post-Vatican II provision of multiple alternative Eucharistic Prayers, and at the same time rejoice at Pope Benedict's encouragement of the optional use of the Extraordinary Form and the establishment of an Anglican Form within the Latin rite.

It seems to me that it was the recognition of the possibility of multiple options that allowed the even greater diversity in Roman Rite eucharistic liturgy championed by Pope Benedict.