Legnano: Ambrosian Rite Mass for Immaculate Conception

One Comment

1. John says:

   11 December 2008 at 8:54 PM

   This is very promising. I really think that our Holy Father is trying to bring back the various forms of the Roman Rite such as the Ambrosian and Sarum. I have a theory that he hopes to create a situation similiar to that exisitng prior to the liturgical unification enacted by the Council of Trent. I do not think the Holy Father believes in controlling the liturgy. Following the Second Vatican Council, a hyper control took place which resulted in what I think the Holy Father has termed arbitrary deformations (correct me if I’m wrong). This hyper control, I believe, has led to the notion that the liturgy is something to be manufactured which has of course led to the ridiculous situation we have in almost every parish. If you have a liturgy committee then you know what I mean.

   I am not saying that the Holy Father wants variety the way “progressives,” “liberals,” and “leftists,” want it, for what they want is control over the liturgy, but rather a sort of plurality similar to the plurality that existed in Europe prior to fall of Europe, i.e., Polish, Dutch, Irish, British, etc. This variety is a noble variety for it comes from the very heart of who the particular people are as a culture and what separates them from the others. I am speaking here of the traditional cultures that existed during the great Medieval era (I am not speaking of the “cultureless” society we live in today). Prior to Trent almost every country in Europe had its own rite and I think that this healthy situation of local liturgies allowed for the cult and religious devotions of the the particular culture to find legitimate expression in the Church’s liturgy. Today we see people in the west attempting to do this artificially, but they are unable to because they no longer possess culture. Culture is no longer part of the west. We are materialism, money, doing, self. We no longer can understand people in the east. Why do they wear that head covering? Why do they make those strange chanting noises at there religious ceremonies? Why do they…? We at times almost laugh at what they do for we find ourselves stripped of culture and find ourselves unable to enter into the mysteries present because of our hyper self consciousness.

   It is clear from his writings that the Holy Father understands what is at stake, and I believe that those who think he is out to control the liturgy the way we have seen it since Vatican II are not understanding him correctly.

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