Friday, August 27
Coming Attractions: The Karolingian Mass
In the next few days, I will begin posting extracts from a draft proposal for a revised form of the Mass, compiled by myself from both the 1962 and 1970 missals, with a minor interpolation based on the Gelasian Sacramentary. Authors and documents I have considered include Sacrosanctum Concilium, the pre- and post-conciliar authorities and historians of liturgy (such as the Dominican Aidan Nichols, Cardinal Ratzinger, Fr. Harrison, Jungmann and others), both traditionalist and reformist, as well as the current state of the Church and Her needs. I have elected to exclude interpolating non-Roman prayers into this draft rite as smacking too much of excessive antiquarianism, despite my great love of the elaborate ordines of Lyons and Sarum--and my private fantasy of bringing them back from the dead--preferring to cultivate more exclusively the unique heritage of Rome.
This Ordo Karolingianus, as I have called it in honor of Pope John Paul II (Karolingian souns so much cooler than Iohannopauline), remains just an idea on paper, but I hope that it might inspire discussion and commentary (though, I pray, no fist-fights or mutual exchanges of anathema maranatha) among my learned readers. Gentlemen: keep all hands, arms, wings, flippers and associated appendages inside the vehicle at all times.
There is the danger, of course, that such a third option will satisfy neither liberals nor conservatives. However, unless some compromise is reached that will make many of the beauties of the Tridentine ordo for a broader audience, I believe that many indult Tridentine communities--which I know and love and fervently wish I could belong to--risks being a footnote--a glorious and picturesque footnote, though--to Church life. Now, I rather like footnotes, but considering that meanwhile, ordinary parish liturgies have remain unchanged, I find this unfortunate, since the current Mass, while an acceptible and valid form of the Roman Rite, and capable of being served by much of the same ceremonies and music as the old mass, nonetheless lacks much of the textual poetry and ritual finesse of the old rite.
This, I hope, is the beginning of one such attempt at a compromise.
In the next few days, I will begin posting extracts from a draft proposal for a revised form of the Mass, compiled by myself from both the 1962 and 1970 missals, with a minor interpolation based on the Gelasian Sacramentary. Authors and documents I have considered include Sacrosanctum Concilium, the pre- and post-conciliar authorities and historians of liturgy (such as the Dominican Aidan Nichols, Cardinal Ratzinger, Fr. Harrison, Jungmann and others), both traditionalist and reformist, as well as the current state of the Church and Her needs. I have elected to exclude interpolating non-Roman prayers into this draft rite as smacking too much of excessive antiquarianism, despite my great love of the elaborate ordines of Lyons and Sarum--and my private fantasy of bringing them back from the dead--preferring to cultivate more exclusively the unique heritage of Rome.
This Ordo Karolingianus, as I have called it in honor of Pope John Paul II (Karolingian souns so much cooler than Iohannopauline), remains just an idea on paper, but I hope that it might inspire discussion and commentary (though, I pray, no fist-fights or mutual exchanges of anathema maranatha) among my learned readers. Gentlemen: keep all hands, arms, wings, flippers and associated appendages inside the vehicle at all times.
There is the danger, of course, that such a third option will satisfy neither liberals nor conservatives. However, unless some compromise is reached that will make many of the beauties of the Tridentine ordo for a broader audience, I believe that many indult Tridentine communities--which I know and love and fervently wish I could belong to--risks being a footnote--a glorious and picturesque footnote, though--to Church life. Now, I rather like footnotes, but considering that meanwhile, ordinary parish liturgies have remain unchanged, I find this unfortunate, since the current Mass, while an acceptible and valid form of the Roman Rite, and capable of being served by much of the same ceremonies and music as the old mass, nonetheless lacks much of the textual poetry and ritual finesse of the old rite.
This, I hope, is the beginning of one such attempt at a compromise.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
