What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Over at the Shrine there is a really interesting update about the older form of Mass at the University of Notre Dame.

Here is their post:

Notre Dame Motu Proprio Update


I was sent, by my good friend the Sober Sophomore, a copy of this advertisement that was placed prominently in the Notre Dame Observer, the school paper, which publicizes the eagerly-awaited catechesis on the Motu Proprio that will kick off weekly Tridentine Masses at one of the school’s most beautiful chapels, St. Charles Borromeo Chapel in Alumni Residence Hall.

Campus Ministry has responded to Pope Benedict’s instructions with more dispatch (not to mention cheerfulness) than the majority of most dioceses, in fact. Incidentally, the Coleman-Morse Center, where the talks will be held, is smack dab in the middle of campus, and it looks like the lectures will be no hole-and-corner affair. Despite some off-campus nay-sayers, nearly everyone at Notre Dame involved in this project—students and Campus Ministry both—appear to be very excitedabout the Extraordinary Form and its return to campus. I imagine that as interest grows among the student body for the Extraordinary Form, we’ll hear more and more about its celebration on campus. In the mean time—fellow Domers! Procedamus in pace and get thee to Alumni Hall!

I invite you to read this letter from a 16 year old to the edtion of the Georgia Bulletin, the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s newpaper.

My emphases and comments.

Letter to the Editor

Published: September 20, 2007

To the Editor:

I am 16 years old, and for the past 11 months I have attended the traditional Latin Mass weekly, while still attending the Novus Ordo Mass during the week. Because of this, I decided to address certain points made by Carroll Sterne in the Sept. 6 edition of The Georgia Bulletin. Mr. Sterne speaks about the type of Mass that someone of a younger generation is drawn to, and I thought that a teenager’s point of view might be helpful.

Mr. Sterne in his letter gives voice to the opinion of many of today’s liturgists [This kid has it nailed.] when he says that no one from a younger generation would be drawn to the Latin Mass (many take this even further and assume that we would not like a reverent Novus Ordo Mass either). This opinion causes many of those who plan modern liturgies to do veritable back flips in an attempt to draw teenagers and young adults in.  Sometimes this works, but it has a side effect: by doing these things, liturgists show that they have absolutely no faith in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to change the lives of those in my generation. [Right!] My generation knows about this lack of faith, we are able to see it every time we go to a “teen Mass” and experience priests ad-libbing prayers in an attempt to make them more relevant to us.  [Exactly.  As Pope Benedict explains in Sacramentum caritatis, we are our rites.  If we stick to the rites, celebrate them well, and get out (especially priests) individual personalities out of the way, we have a great opportunity to encounter the mystery which transforms, the very point of religion.]

This lack of faith backfires; it sends us the message that we also should distrust the power of the liturgy, and it also can turn the Mass into something of a joke.

After experiencing this for months, I attended a Traditional Latin Mass and experienced something that I’d never seen before: Here was a priest who expected my life to be changed without adding anything to the Mass in an attempt to bring this change about. This priest had perfect faith in the power of the liturgy, and it showed. It was beautiful. The traditional Mass did more to change my life then any “relevant” teen Mass ever did.

Ethan Milukas, Peachtree City

Yet another lesson to be learned from the fruits of Summorum Pontificum.

There is a controvertial point that arose in another entry about a work in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.  The Latin of Art. 5, § 1 says:

In paroeciis, ubi coetus fidelium traditioni liturgicae antecedenti adhaerentium continenter exsistit, parochus eorum petitiones ad celebrandam sanctam Missam iuxta ritum Missalis Romani anno 1962 editi, libenter suscipiat.

This is how I translated it:

In parishes, where there is continuously present a group of the faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition, let the pastor willingly receive their petitions that Mass be celebrated according to the Rite of the Missale Romanum issued in 1962.

Actually there are a lot of controversial words here…. coetus… adhaerentium… continenter. Another word to examine is exsistit from existo.

Some people have been saying the force of exsistit is that a group of people (leave aside the size) must have already been in a parish for a while.

The problem with this position is that exsistit is present (contemporary) tense and thus refers to right now or the future (because the document will also be read in the future). 

But the real fun comes when you consider that, according to the mighty The Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary exsisto only in its secondary meaning means "to be visible or manifest in any manner, to exist, to be".

In its first, or primary meaning exsisto means, generally, "to step out or forth, to come forth, emerge, appear", and in greater precision, "with the accessory notion of originating, to spring, proceed, arise, become".

So, the Latin of article 5, § 1 says equally well:

In parishes, where in a continuous way a group of the faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition manifests itself, let the pastor willingly receive their petitions that Mass be celebrated according to the Rite of the Missale Romanum issued in 1962.

The force of this is that the provisions of this article of the Motu Proprio apply to what the priest ought to do even when a new group forms, now or in the future.  Exsistit indicates its existence now, its continued existence in the future, and its new existence in the future. 

What it does NOT refer to is any need that it existed in the past.