The Language of the Liturgy

One might have thought it obvious that great care should be taken that the language used in worshipping the Almighty; that reverence and awe, focusing on the God we are adoring, is only fitting. So why are some bishops seemingly unhappy with endeavors along those lines? Happily, the arguments for maintaining the dignity of liturgical language are not hard to understand, and here given most excellently by Bishop Seratelli (with emphasis and comments by Fr. Z).

The arguments for keeping things simple, resulting in keeping them too simple, remind me of arguments for keeping doctrines simple, which results in watering them down. Like arguments for doing away with homework and examinations in schools, with the result of dumbing down education. They do the intended beneficiaries a disservice, condescendingly treating them as lesser beings than they really are. Baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, his grace gives us the impulse to be raised up to Heavenly heights. That, after all, is our calling. And if this is not reflected in our liturgy, then we're in trouble, aren't we?

Lex orendi

Liturgical prayers in the daily missal and the liturgy of the hours -- from the tradition of the ancient Catholic Church -- have started jumping at me lately. They suddenly seem to me to be great opportunities for non-Catholic Christians to better understand the Catholic faith. There is too much distrust of what Catholic apologists say for too many Protestants. I've encoutered this firsthand a few times, when I simply could not get through. So I think I'll start noting down what the liturgy of the Catholic Church has to say for the Church.

In this week's weekday celebrations of Mass, the opening prayer is short, sweet, and sure to raise Protestant eyebrows:

Let us pray that the gospel may be our rule of life.

God our Father, your light of truth leads us to the way of Christ.
May it guide us to always reject what is contrary to the gospel.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Of course, there are many who are not only non-Catholic Christians, but are staunchly anti-Catholic Protestants, and such excerpts will do nothing but be an occasion for conspiracy theories about deceptions and duplicity. But perhaps I can find at least one or two who are willing to examine the Catholic Church from the inside -- right at the heart of her prayer.

The Latin Mass: Why?

As Dr. Robert Moynihan points out,

[Pope Benedict] is not concerned with Latin in itself. His respect for the "old Mass" is not a nostalgic cultural attachment to an ancient language. No, Benedict is concerned about the essence of the Mass itself. And what is that essence? The right worship of God.

I was conversing with others at a recent parish council meeting, and the subject came up. I did put in my own misgivings about some who seemed fixated on Latin for the Mass, but now I see that this isn't generally the case -- at least, not for Papa Benedict. It really is right worship that is at stake.

I've always been fond of Latin in liturgy. I have yet to attend a Latin Mass, but I have attended Benedictions in Latin back in college, and they were solemn and beautiful. Did I understand what I was chanting or singing? In time, I did, since I had the English and Latin text side by side in my booklet. It didn't take me long to learn the Rosary in Latin, either (the Spanish training helped immensely). This is really no different to attending Mass in English as a child (the norm at our parish when I was growing up), whereas we spoke in Filipino or Chinese at home. Of course, it helped that English was used in primary school, but perhaps if we had Latin in primary school, too?

And there is that valid point about inappropriate liturgy, which I didn't really see back home, but definitely saw here in Australia --- and as I've seen footages, much worse occur in the US. Some make me wince, groan, even pray for deliverance. Why is this so important? Is this aesthetics? No. It's "right worship of God." Either you revere him completely or you don't. God need not command that reverence. We simply owe that to Him in gratitude and love.

A happy thought elicits a smile, but a smile is also capable of eliciting a happy feeling. That's just how it works. And irreverent liturgy is capable of diminishing what we think of our God. It really is that simple. Sadly, as much as I love the English language, it is hardly the most reverent in 21st century usage. So much has become ambiguous and tainted with strange double meanings that it is very easy to lose the proper liturgical meaning in English.

So who's afraid of the motu proprio on the Latin Mass? No one should be. The vernacular Novus Ordo is not being replaced; it is only that the Latin Mass may now be used without the priest having to jump through episcopal hoops to obtain permission to do so. Amen to that.

[Link source: The Catholic Report.]