For a start, it's so "wordy"!
It was quite a relief to attend the Extraordinary Form Mass this morning.
I'm not the only one who felt it: "Ahhh, yes, we're back to normal this morning," as one friend put it.
"Truly, it is the indescribable sweetness of contemplation which you give to those who love you. In this you have shown the tenderness of your charity, that when I had no being you made me; and when I strayed away from you, you brought me back again to serve you and commanded me to love you." The Imitation of Christ
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Reflections...
It is strange. I have only been attending Mass in the usus antiquior for a relatively short while, and we've only had the full Missa Cantata on Sundays for a year (we had the Novus Ordo readings for a short time, while people got accustomed to Mass in the Extraordinary Form), and I regularly attend the Novus Ordo too, but having the Triduum according to the usus recentior has been incredibly difficult.
I feel the same way! I miss the quiet parts of the old Mass.
ReplyDeleteI really like the Triduum Scripture readings; they put the events into a context for me.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel, though your account sounds much better than the one at my blog which was Liturgical Hell.
ReplyDeleteI had exactly that feeling when I started going to the OF after twenty years of going exclusively to the EF: it's as if you're being spoken to all the time and left no space to think and contemplate. I noted, however, that a couple of years ago a lot of priests started doing the presentation of the gifts silently. A blessed relief!
ReplyDeleteMaybe next year Mac - Blackfen still has to answer the challenge of St. Bedes ;-)
ReplyDeleteJoe - don't get me wrong: the liturgy at Blackfen (even the Novus Ordo) is carried out as reverently as possible... which is why I stay in the parish for the Triduum, despite my personal preferences. I was just reflecting on the differences between older and newer forms.
ReplyDeleteOttaviani... what challenge might that be?
:-)
I wish I could tell you that you are wrong, that the OF can be as reverential, and so on, but after 12 years in the New Mass and 4 years in the EF, I find it very hard to go to a Mass in OF. The priest talks all the time, the people keep on moving, it's all about smiling to your neighbor (when it is not rubbing their back to 'reaffrim' her (usually it's her), showing how nice you are by shaking their hand, etc. It is so distracting. Jesus understood all that: He went to the top of a mountain when he wanted to talk to His Father.
ReplyDeleteA full Triduum in the traditional form!
ReplyDeleteI must order that Baronius Missal for my sister who lives just down the road from St Bede's and hasn't been to an EF Mass since she was (I guess)three years old. She is unhappy in her local parish - all the usual reasons, including a recently "improved" Sanctuary, alas. Once she gets to St Bede's I think she will be at home.
ReplyDelete