My profound thanks to Fr Tim Finigan for his article in "Usus Antiquior" - "Mutual Enrichment in theory and in practice" which you can read here.(I found the link on Rorate Caeli.)
For many priests who celebrate the traditional form of the Roman Rite as well as the new and find its gestures and genius a genuine help to praying the Mass, there is sometimes a perceived difficulty in the desire to transmit some of the gestures and accouterments of the older form into the new. We are reminded by others that we are not supposed to "mix and match". I have found that the more familiar I become with the older form the stronger is the desire to bring some of its strengths into the new to enrich it but being by nature obedient to the rules, I have held back from this in many instances or carried them out with a slight sense that I might be breaking the rules.
Fr Finigan mentions some practices that are in fact a part of the Ordinary Form and specified in the Missal but have been often neglected - for example the bow of the head at the name of the Blessed Trinity, Our Lord, Our Lady and the saint of the day (275a in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal) or the first option mentioned of saying the Offertory prayers inaudibly. The always allowed possibility of offering Mass ad orientem. The EF can remind us of these neglected parts of the OF. Personally, I have either always done these things or have done for some time but others that are directly lifted from the Extraordinary Form I have only done such are not much seen by the people (silent prayers of the priest) - feeling, as I say, some hesitation.
Fr Finigan has laid my fears to rest! My thanks to him. I urge all priests to read this excellent article which seems to me to be so much in tune with the Holy Father's obvious intentions.
Fr Tim Finigan offers Mass in his Parish Church
For many priests who celebrate the traditional form of the Roman Rite as well as the new and find its gestures and genius a genuine help to praying the Mass, there is sometimes a perceived difficulty in the desire to transmit some of the gestures and accouterments of the older form into the new. We are reminded by others that we are not supposed to "mix and match". I have found that the more familiar I become with the older form the stronger is the desire to bring some of its strengths into the new to enrich it but being by nature obedient to the rules, I have held back from this in many instances or carried them out with a slight sense that I might be breaking the rules.
Fr Finigan mentions some practices that are in fact a part of the Ordinary Form and specified in the Missal but have been often neglected - for example the bow of the head at the name of the Blessed Trinity, Our Lord, Our Lady and the saint of the day (275a in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal) or the first option mentioned of saying the Offertory prayers inaudibly. The always allowed possibility of offering Mass ad orientem. The EF can remind us of these neglected parts of the OF. Personally, I have either always done these things or have done for some time but others that are directly lifted from the Extraordinary Form I have only done such are not much seen by the people (silent prayers of the priest) - feeling, as I say, some hesitation.
Fr Finigan has laid my fears to rest! My thanks to him. I urge all priests to read this excellent article which seems to me to be so much in tune with the Holy Father's obvious intentions.
Fr Tim Finigan offers Mass in his Parish Church
1 comment:
Fr. Some weeks ago I was happy to hear a Sunday evening Mass at St. Catherine's, with a visiting priest Celebrating. At the Consecration he enunciated the formula in Latin.
Further, his sermon was a rarity for its Catholicism.
Truly impressed.
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