The resurgence of interest among young Catholics in the Tridentine Mass is very understandable. When you are immersed in a culture in which reverence and the sense of sacrifice to an awesome God are missing, you leap at the chance to experience what the majesty of traditional worship emphasizes — humble humans approaching the altar of the Creator Who holds our fate in His hands.
An Organic Link, Not a Threat
This resurgence of interest in the Tridentine Mass is no threat to the modern liturgy, rather, to understand and enter fully into the spirit of the modern liturgy, you must understand the Tridentine liturgy, just as to fully understand the impact of the New Testament, you must be intimately familiar with the Old Testament. After all, it was always the intent of the Church that the modern Mass should emerge as an organic development of the old Mass — not as an abrupt rejection of centuries of the liturgical practice that nourished and was central for most of our well-known saints.
So if you want to really appreciate the Novus Ordo Mass and fully enter into it, try getting a booklet missal of the Tridentine Mass and read the English translation and the accompanying notes. You can get an inexpensive Latin-English Booklet Missal online at EcclesiaDei.Org. As one acquaintance of mine put it, the English explanatory notes in this booklet are a “little Catechism” packed with theology.
And fear not: Ecclesia Dei is in full communion with John Paul II — the name of the organization comes from the 1988 Apostolic Letter of John Paul II urging “respect” and a “wide and generous” approach to the “feelings of those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition.” In this brief apostolic letter, John Paul II invites all of us to a generous and truly universal vision of our tradition by declaring that “it is necessary that all the Pastors and the other faithful have a new awareness, not only of the lawfulness but also of the richness for the Church of a diversity of charisms, traditions of spirituality and apostolate, which also constitutes the beauty of unity in variety: of that blended ‘harmony’ which the earthly Church raises up to Heaven under the impulse of the Holy Spirit.” As so much else with this pope, the results of his writings and actions are far deeper than they at first may appear. Because many sense this, they already refer to him as “John Paul the Great.” Our Holy Father is providing us an essential organic link to true liturgical renewal. He is leading us to learn again the lessons of reverence and awe from the old liturgy so that the new liturgy will blossom further.
To Order Our Days
The prayers of the Old Mass have a striking clarity and theological crispness that open our eyes to what we celebrate at every Mass, new or old style. Here are some examples: When we say the Centurion's prayer in the Old Mass — three times! — that we are not worthy to receive the Lord under our “roof,” into our house, prior to Communion, we are, in a very concrete and blunt manner, in the characteristic manner of speaking found in the Gospels. These simple phrases speak volumes about our bodies as the temples of the Holy Spirit. We are proclaiming the Theology of the Body, which has been a touchstone of the pope’s teaching.
Here is another small, striking example. Shortly before the consecration, the priest prays in the Old Mass that the Lord “[o]rder our days in Thy peace.” This majestic phrase captures what we seek in our continual conversion: that we live whatever days we have left in the order of God that produces peace. That is what we seek in any Mass we attend, in Latin or English, celebrated facing the altar or facing the people.
The booklet missal is full of many other gems. The commentary reminds us that, when we say the oft-repeated word “Amen” at any Mass, we are joining in the petitions made by the priest. It is not a matter of a solitary priest celebrating Mass while worshipers pray the rosary, oblivious to the Sacrifice. It is rather a matter of all of us joining in the Sacrifice.
That sense of solidarity between priest and congregation is apparent again and again as you read the missal. For example, in explaining the phrase Dominus vobiscum or “the Lord be with you,” the missal points out that this phrase “shows how intimately the priest and the faithful should be united in offering the Sacrifice.” The unity of all the faithful in offering the Sacrifice also appears when (as the booklet explains) what is offered to God is a threefold gift of bread, wine, and “ourselves — all of the faithful” who “through this offertorial act, have become holy unto God.” In addition, in the prayer for the living before the consecration, the missal urges all “in union with the priest” to “mention here the names of the persons and intentions for which you offer the Divine Victim.” We see here the active participation of all the faithful in the Mass as highlighted by Vatican II.
A Synoptic Approach
The booklet missal also has the added bonus of providing a series of suggested private prayers prior to receiving Holy Communion, the rite for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and other assorted private prayers for use outside of Mass. Most illuminating is a section on examination of conscience for use in celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation that sets forth not only the Ten Commandments but also the six commandments of the Church, in addition to several eye-opening lists that include the sins against the Holy Spirit, the sins crying out to heaven for vengeance, the nine ways of being accessory to another’s sin, the seven deadly sins, and the four last things. This additional material truly makes the booklet a mini-catechism useful for whatever type of liturgy you prefer to attend.
So the issue between the Tridentine Mass and the New Mass (the “Novus Ordo” or “New Order” Mass) is not one of conflict between languages or postures. The issue really is whether we will take a synoptic approach to both liturgical forms. Will we see them together as the Church intends us to see them, or will we unnecessarily pit them against each other?
Let us ponder both liturgies together just as we read the Old and the New Testaments together. In fact, we can paraphrase a wonderful phrase of St. Augustine about the Old and New Testaments found in the Catechism and apply it to these two treasures of the Latin Rite: “The New Mass lies hidden in the Old and the Old Mass is unveiled in the New” (compare Catechism of the Catholic Church, 129). Discover the New Mass hidden in the Old — it will make you a better, more active, and more appreciative participant in the modern Mass of Vatican II.
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Oswald Sobrino’s daily columns can be found at the Catholic Analysis website. He is a graduate lay student at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He recently published Unpopular Catholic Truths, a collection of apologetic essays, available on the Internet here.
