What Does The Prayer Really Say?
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

I am heading down to the Sabine chapel to say vespers and then to the Sabine gym for a work out. Included will be a long sweat on the standing bike while I will kill many evil aliens and wicked robots using an X-Box.

Steam letting time…. whew….

I think supper will be stir fried veggies and noodles Chinese style.

- – END ANNOUNCEMENT - -

UPDATE: 

I opted for Italian instead.

 

I was alerted by a thoughtful reader to an entry on the blog of the Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church, the first Anglican Use parish in the USA established on August 15, 1983. I have always been interested in the folks of the Anglican Use. The late pastor of my home parish in St. Paul (MN), Msgr. Richard Schuler, was the one who accompanied the first Anglican priests on their visit to Rome to see Card. Seper many years ago. But I digress.
The parish priest speaks of his experience of having the "Tridentine Use" in his "Anglican Use" parish at the request of their bishop. His experience echoes what I have seen in various places, though not all, where the older form of Mass is celebrated in the context of a parish that also has the newer form.

Here is the edited entry. My emphases.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a happy experience for us. We made every effort to incorporate this into our Mass schedule so it would be seen as an integral part of the parish, but those who had requested the rite wished for it to be very much separate. While we provided bulletins for the Mass, including parish announcements, the Tridentine “organizers” made it a point to throw ours away and provide their own. There were attempts to engage other celebrants for the Mass without even mentioning it to me as the pastor of the parish. There were complaints to me if I used any Sacred Hosts from the tabernacle, and people would refuse Holy Communion if I did, because the Hosts “might be from the English Mass.” In following the rubrics of the Mass, I would receive complaints from some because “that’s not the way I remember it being done.” All I could do was assure them that the rubrics were being followed to the letter. The result was that fewer of those who had requested it continued to attend, and the congregation became more and more comprised of those who didn’t necessarily have an attachment to the tradition Latin Mass, but attended because the time happened to be convenient for them.

I know these things aren’t the fault of the 1962 Missal. The problems arose because of people’s attitudes and expectations. However, it’s not a situation I want to repeat unless I am told I must – but in saying that, be assured I would be immediately obedient if the archbishop told me that he wished for the motu proprio to be implemented here.

...

I hope our experience might be cautionary for those parishes which will be implementing the provisions of the motu proprio. There will be a temptation for some people to erect an “us and them” attitude. There may be creeping sense of exclusivity (“We attend the real Mass.”). There may be the danger that some will see their life in the parish as consisting only of taking part in the traditional Latin Mass with little or no need to be integrated into the totality of the parish.

On the other hand, perhaps our experience was unique and no other parishes will have these difficulties. Our Holy Father has granted this out of his pastoral love for the Church. We need to work and pray that it will produce the intended good fruits.

Nearly all these points are things I have experienced. I have heard people bleat about not having to be exposed to Hosts consecrated at any Mass other than a "Tridentine". I have heard people actually ask if the priest wore a biretta when blessing Holy Water. I have been hectored by people who knew very little about things, because I didn’t do something the way their priest did it when they were growing up. The list could be lengthened. However, there are some places I will not go back to. This was the experience of this good priest at Our Lady of the Atonement.

Let us take careful note of how the people at that parish separated themselves from the life of the parish. This is terribly damaging. Remember Rule #4:

4) Be engaged in the whole life of your parishes, especially in works of mercy organized by the same. If you want the whole Church to benefit from the use of the older liturgy, then you who are shaped by the older form of Mass should be of benefit to the whole Church in concrete terms.

Take this all to heart, you who are determined to have the "Tridentine Use" at your parish. Take this to heart or you will hurt a lot of people, including yourselves.

The South China Morning Post has an article about the continuing controversy in Hong Kong over the delays in implementing the democratic reforms after the handover in 1997.

Act on reform or stakes rise, Zen tells Tsang
Ambrose Leung

The leader of Hong Kong’s Catholics yesterday warned that Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen must fulfil a promise to resolve the question of universal suffrage, otherwise he would raise the stakes.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun’s warning came as the democratic camp began drawing up a strategy to mobilise public support for democratisation during the summer, following the imminent release of a green paper on political reform.

Speaking three days after he made his first appearance at the July 1 pro-democracy march, the cardinal said he wanted to see the green paper provide a clear indication of how the city should progress towards universal suffrage.

“Donald Tsang has promised he would resolve the question of universal suffrage. If the green paper does not achieve that, if it does not bring us clearly towards that goal but takes us on a walk in the park, then I will definitely ‘make it big’ this time,” he said.

Cardinal Zen would not elaborate on this but added he might write articles about how democracy would be beneficial to the people, as the city was already late in planning for a democratic future. “My joining of the July 1 march was just a warming-up exercise,” he said.

Tens of thousands marched on Sunday calling for more democracy and improved livelihoods.

Cardinal Zen’s comments come two days after Liu Bainian , a deputy chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, hit out at his participation in the democracy rally, saying it would not help Sino-Vatican relations.

During the height of the controversy over Hong Kong’s political future in 2005 when the government’s constitutional reform proposal was criticised as not going far enough and was rejected by the legislature, the leader of the city’s Catholic diocese backed the democrats.

His call for speedy action towards full democracy follows a pledge by Mr Tsang to “go all out” in finding a consensus on the way forward.

The democratic camp met last night to discuss how to mobilise public support in the fight for introducing universal suffrage ahead of the green paper’s release.

Democrat Lee Wing-tat said since it was expected that the document would not contain any concrete reform proposals but would consult the public over different elements related to universal suffrage, the public might find it difficult to understand and lose interest.

“Our task over the summer is to maximise public awareness by simplifying the proposal so that people’s power can be mobilised. To tell the truth, I still have some faith in Donald [Tsang] to come up with something acceptable, since he has made a promise,” Mr Lee said.

Ronny Tong Ka-wah, of the Civic Party, said his party would not accept the green paper if it did not contain a clear timetable stating how and when Hong Kong could introduce universal suffrage.

I am reading in ASCA today an interesting story about the MP.

In this story the claim is made that His Holiness, listening to the concern of bishops, may be issuing the MP for a three year trial period.

I won’t believe that until I see it in the MP or the Pope’s accompanying document.

We have heard this before. I won’t believe it until I see it in the MP, however.
VATICANO: MESSA PRECONCILIARE, TRE ANNI DI PROVA. SABATO IL MOTU PROPRIO

(ASCA) – Citta’ del Vaticano, 5 lug – Quasi certamente sabato prossimo il Vaticano rendera’ pubblica la disposizione con la quale Benedetto XVI concedera’ per i prossimi tre anni la possibilita’, a chi lo volesse, di poter partecipare alla messa celebrata secondo il rito tridentino. Si tratta della messa in latino secondo il rito stabilito da san Pio V, celebrata dai sacerdoti con le spalle ai fedeli, fino al 1965, quando nella prima domenica di quaresima entro’ in vigore il nuovo rito approvato da Paolo VI per dare seguito alla riforma liturgica conciliare. All’apparenza puo’ sembrare un nostalgico ritorno all’indietro, ma una valutazione completa della disposizione papale sara’ possibile solo con una lettura integrale del ‘’Motu proprio’’ e della lettera firmata da Papa Ratzinger per accompagnare il documento inviato a tutti i vescovi cattolici del mondo. Qualche fonte vaticana sostiene che la lettera del papa non e’ meno importante del documento stesso poiche’ spiega i motivi pastorali di una scelta che ha sempre causato molte dispute nell’ambito cattolico tra i progressisti e i conservatori. Da quanto l’Asca ha potuto apprendere l’iniziativa di Papa Ratzinger non punta a un ritorno al passato, ma cerca di sbloccare una situazione di stallo tuttora esistente tra progressisti e conservatori su un nervo scoperto della Chiesa: la liturgia. Benedetto XVI non punta a indebolire la riforma conciliare, ma intende accompagnare piu’ dolcemente tutti, anche i piu’ nostalgici del passato (la punta di diamante di questa sensibilita’ si trova tra i seguaci di mons.Lefebvre che sono giunti a consumare uno scisma) dal vecchio rito al nuovo rito. Accogliere infatti il nuovo rito senza demonizzare quello precedente, crea le condizioni per una piu’ facile ricomposizione ecclesiale tra i fedeli legati all’antico e quelli piu’ sensibili alla modernita’. Il rito tridentino (e non la semplice messa in latino che non e’ stata cancellata neppure dal nuovo rito conciliare, anzi e’ prevista in alcune specifiche circostanze) non sostituira’ affatto percio’ la messa nelle lingue moderne introdotta dal Concilio vaticano II che continuera’ e restera’ la messa tipica della chiesa cattolica.
Semplicemente sara’ prevista la possibilita’, per quei gruppi di fedeli che lo volessero e che capiscono il latino, la possibilita’ di partecipare alla messa secondo il vecchio rito che non sara’ piu’ guardato con sospetto.
L’iniziativa di Benedetto XVI non riguarda solamente ne’ principalmente i seguaci di Lefebvre: con costoro infatti le condizioni per una ricomposizione dello scisma restano invariate: possibilita’ di celebrare la messa secondo il rito tridentino, ma accoglienza piena di tutta la dottrina contenuta nel Concilio Vaticano II, compreso il nuovo rito. Infatti se ai cattolici conciliari si richiede di non guardare con sospetto al vecchio rito, ai cattolici nostalgici si chiede di smettere la loro ostilita’ e le loro accuse di apostasia nei confronti del nuovo rito voluto da Paolo VI. Benedetto XVI e’ sempre stato convinto, anche da teologo, vescovo e cardinale, della bonta’ della riforma liturgica conciliare,ma ha sempre pure avanzato riserve su alcuni metodi troppo decisi che hanno dato l’impressione di voler liquidare anche il valore positivo e religioso della tradizione con la quale per tanti secoli si e’ espressa la preghiera della Chiesa.
Ora tenta di ricucire questo strappo, senza tuttavia concedere nulla agli anticonciliari. E ha dato un segno di non voler imporre una decisione solitaria su un tema che pure ha avuto particolarmente a cuore. Nei giorni scorsi il direttore della Sala Stampa vaticana aveva informato i giornalisti della riunione di 13 cardinali e vescovi rappresentanti di vari paesi del mondo messi al corrente del documento e della lettera del Papa. In quella riunione dove lo stesso pontefice si era intrattenuto per un’ora a dialogare con i partecipanti, sostanziali obiezioni non sono emerse. Comune ai vescovi invece, la preoccupazione, accolta da papa Benedetto, di regolarizzare la celebrazione del vecchio rito, senza sfasciare il delicato equilibrio pastorale che si e’ ormai costituito nelle parrocchie di tutto il mondo specialmente con la celebrazione domenicale partecipata secondo il rito rinnovato dal concilio. E in questo senso ha preso forza la decisione di riaprire al vecchio rito per un tempo limitato e sperimentale di tre anni. Al termine del quale i vescovi dovranno riferire le esperienze in base alle quali a Roma si prendera’ una decisione definitiva. ‘’Non bisogna affatto considerare il ripristino della messa in latino, come una prova del tradizionalismo del papa – ha scritto su Repubblica il notissimo antropologo Rene’ Girard, favorevole ed estimatore della messa in latino -. Il suo conservatorismo e’ una forzatura, un grottesco luogo comune.
Che cosa ha fatto di conservatore Ratzinger da quando e’ divenuto papa? Nulla. Finora ha dato solo prova di lucidita’, di saggezza ed elasticita’ mentale, alleggerendo molte delle problematiche che affliggono la Chiesa’‘.
Con tutta probabilita’ i testi che saranno pubblicati sabato prossimo daranno conferma di questo stile di papa Ratzinger, forza tranquilla ancorata certamente alla tradizione cattolica, ma aggiornata senza equivoci ai documenti conciliari e alle disposizioni dei papi che ne hanno promosso l’applicazione.

You will recall that I have written on various occasions that when the Motu Proprio comes out we must sing Te Deum and Non Nobis, as they did in Henry V.

I received a nice note from DS informing me that at their parish of the Holy Rosary in Jersey City, where the Extraordinary form of Holy Mass with the Missal of Bl. John XXIII is used, there will be sung a Te Deum on 8 July.

I thought you might like to see that here in Jersey City we are trying to follow your rules of engagement, number one being joy and thanksgiving led by the men’s schola with the bells peeling, and the church doors flung open. ... The rest of the music program for the mass is provided below.

Now perhaps one can stop worrying so much about these macro issues and get down to the nitty gritty of  becoming a Christian.

PRELUDE   Organ Prelude
PROCESSIONAL HYMN     All: O God Beyond All Praising – MI #560
SPRINKLING RITE          All: Asperges Me Chant – Music Sheet

KYRIE               All: Missa Orbis Factor Chant – Music Sheet
GLORIA               All: Missa Orbis Factor Chant – Music Sheet
CREDO               All: I Chant Music Sheet
OFFERTORY MOTET          Non Nobis, Domine Byrd
SANCTUS               All: Missa Orbis Factor Chant – Music Sheet
AGNUS DEI          All: Missa Orbis Factor Chant – Music Sheet
COMMUNION HYMN          O Esca Viatorum Isaak-Bach – SG #228a

THANKSGIVING HYMN     Te Deum Laudamus Solemn Tone Chant
In thanksgiving for Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio “Summorum
Pontificum” granting wider permission for the traditional Roman Rite
Mass and Sacraments