Liturgy

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THE TRIDENTINE MASS

Comments by Fr. Steve Lanza
St Julie Billiart Parish Bulletin
July - August, 2007

There’s so much I have to say about this issue that the only way to accommodate my writing is to do it in three parts.  We’ll continue what I have to say over the next two weeks.

PART ONE:
July 29, 2007 

Prayer is Powerful 

There is an ancient Church maxim lex orandi lex credendi. It means the rule of prayer is the rule of belief. As we pray, so we believe. The language we use in our liturgical prayer shapes the content of our belief system. 

For example, we begin the Mass saying “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Everything that transpires from that point on is in the name of the Trinity. The subtle implication is that all that we do in the Mass situates us into a community. God who is a community of persons,   Father, Son and Spirit, creates his faithful people as a community of love. We say and believe all that in sixteen words, if you also count our resounding Amen. 

Why is this Maxim Worth our Attention? 

In the Catholic tradition, the priest celebrant doesn’t make up the words of the liturgy on his own. There are only a few times when the liturgical books direct that the priest can ad lib.  

Almost all of the prayers are set by the authority of the Church, from Rome. That’s why it’s called the Roman Rite.  Those texts—because they shape our belief—are too important to be left to the idiosyncrasy of any one person. It’s our belief, not my belief or your belief. 

A Papal Decision 

Pope Benedict XVI recently relaxed the restrictions on the use of the Tridentine Mass. It can be celebrated at any time without special permission from the bishop. To understand all the fuss, we need to start with some history. 

The Mass from 1570 to 1970 

The Missal of Pius V is the ritual book that governed how Mass (and other rites) were celebrated. It is commonly referred to as the Tridentine Missal because the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563) called for its development.  

This missal replaced the ritual books in use up to that time. This Tridentine Mass was updated by Blessed Pope John XXIII in 1962 and was in force until 1970.   

Those of us old enough to remember (myself included), recall that the Tridentine Mass is said in Latin. The priest faced east, which meant—because of the way most churches were built—that he was facing away from the people. If we were to celebrate the Tridentine Mass at St. Julie, the priest would be  facing the choir.

When the Tridentine Mass was celebrated, members of the congregation mostly prayed the rosary quietly to themselves. Meanwhile, the priest carried on with the Mass prayers. The people made some responses to the priest in Latin, but for the most part were not engaged in the Mass as we are today. The issue of   engagement is what drove the Church to change the way Mass was celebrated.  

More than Latin to English 

The ecumenical council called by Blessed John XXIII and continued by Pope Paul VI was held from 1962 - 1965. It issued sixteen documents which renewed the life of the Church.  

When Blessed John XXIII called for the Council, he used the word aggiornamento. Loosely translated from the Italian, it means “updating.” He wanted the Church to address the modern world, rather than to stay entrenched in the old ways, ignoring what was happening all around it. He felt the Church had something to say, but it needed to say it in ways that would be understandable to the modern mind-set. 

The Tridentine Mass is certainly a part of our tradition. But in many ways it is a museum piece when viewed alongside the newer Mass.  

This will become clear as we examine the old and the new Masses alongside each other next week. We will compare the two Masses and discover that the changes in the newer Mass have much less to do with English over Latin and much more to do with a rich multiplicity of prayer texts that speak better to our needs as a Church.  

PART TWO:  
August 5, 2007 

Four-Hundred Years

That’s a long time. But it’s not long in the history of the Church. From 1570 to 1970, we celebrated Mass according to the Missal of Pius V, commonly called the Tridentine Mass.

The Second Vatican Council changed the way Mass was said. Why?

With regard to liturgy, the Council desired that the faithful be more engaged, saying that it would be beneficial for us to be more fully conscious and active in our participation.

Also, amazing advances in biblical and patristic scholarship had occurred prior to the Second Vatican Council. The information provided by these advances was simply not available to the Council of Trent. That’s why in the current Mass, there are features which are absent from the Tridentine Mass. What are these features?

The Richness of Scripture

There are three readings from Scripture at each Sunday Mass. These sets of readings span a three-year cycle. The Sunday assembly does not hear the same sets of readings throughout the course of the seasons of the Church year. It takes four years for us to return to the cycle and begin again. For weekday Masses, there is a two year cycle.

Why? The Council desired us to be richly fed on the Word of God. This is something that cannot happen using the Tridentine Missal because there’s only one set of readings, used over and over again each year, for Sundays and weekdays.

The Richness of the Eucharist

In the Tridentine Mass there is only one Eucharistic Prayer. It’s retained in the vernacular (English) Mass that we now use. It’s Eucharistic Prayer I—the longest one with all the names of the saints in it.

The current edition of the Mass texts that we use today reflects the enormous depth of scholarship that occurred after the Council of Trent. We now possess 9 Eucharistic Prayers. In these texts a Eucharistic theology is celebrated and proclaimed that simply cannot happen when using the Tridentine Missal.

The Richness of Expressing Special Needs

Another difference between the old Mass and the new Mass is that our current liturgical book enables us to celebrate many different Masses which express various needs according to special situations and circumstances. This is most clear in the funeral liturgy.

We can now address the death of infants and of those who suffered illness for long periods of time. The Tridentine Missal makes no provision for such special circumstances. It is more like “one size fits all” as opposed to the current missal, which has Masses and liturgies and prayer texts that a proper “fit” for all occasions can be appropriately made.

The Richness of the Life and Example of the Saints

The Tridentine Missal lacks all of the saint’s feasts that have been added to the liturgical calendar since the pontificates of the modern popes. There are so many modern saints added to the liturgical calendar whose example we need to hear from but these are left out in the older form of the Mass.

There is also an entire set of special Masses honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary which were added to our current Missal in 1992 that the Tridentine Missal lacks.

More to Say

Next week, we continue this series on the Tridentine and vernacular versions of the Mass. Stay tuned to hear what I have to say about what’s at stake in all of this.
             

PART THREE: 
August 12, 2007

What’s Not Included in the Tridentine Mass

Remember last week’s comparison of the older Tridentine Mass and the current vernacular version of Mass? Four defining areas distinguish between the two versions, and it has nothing to do with Latin-English.

The four areas are:
the richness of Scripture
the richness of the Eucharist
the richness of expressing special needs
the richness of the life and example of the saints.

This richness is only found in the current vernacular version of Mass. The Tridentine Mass lacks all of this.

What’s at Stake?

Knowing all of this, it looks like the possibility of an entirely different Church could be created through the use of the Tridentine Mass. That kind of throw-back Church probably won’t happen. Why?

Benedict XVI refers to the vernacular version of Mass as “the ordinary expression of the lex orandi of the Catholic Church.” The Tridentine Mass is described by him as “an extraordinary expression of that same lex orandi.” In other words, the Tridentine Mass isn’t considered the usual way to celebrate Mass.

The pope acknowledges most priests don’t have facility with Latin, so they wouldn’t be equipped to celebrate the Tridentine Mass. Where there are priests who know the Latin language, the pope stipulates that only one Tridentine Mass can be celebrated on the weekend in a parish.

There isn’t much interest in the Archdiocese for Latin Masses. Cardinal Bernardin originally established Latin Masses in each of the six vicariates, but only three vicariate sites remain. The other three dropped Latin Masses for lack of interest.

Prayer Shaping Faith

It all comes back to that maxim: lex orandi lex credendi. Prayer really does shape our faith.

That’s why the world readily welcomed the changes of the Second Vatican Council. Remember our excitement? We could actually understand what was being prayed because it was in our own language.

Mystery and reverence are still present in the Mass. Those things aren’t determined by language but by style, attitude and demeanor.

We won’t be going “backwards.” When Pope Paul VI instituted the current missal, he said it best. Our Mass today is closer to “the original norm of [our forebears] the holy Fathers” than the Tridentine Mass.

Although the Tridentine Mass served the Church well for a period of 400 years, it wasn’t the first version of Mass nor will it be the last. Jesus is living and present in his Church, and therefore the way in which Christ the one High Priest celebrates will be expressed in the liturgy according to the needs of the times.

What we need now is greater participation by people in the Mass, not less. We’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of the changes mandated by the Second Vatican Council.