Monday, May 25, 2009

Missale Romanum.

(Spurred on by this post at NLM)
Rather than being based on the 1962 missal, I believe that were a revision of the missal made, it should be made on the pre-1955 missal.
There were already a lot of less than desirable modifications made to the calendar long before the 1969 missal (The deletion of almost all octaves, the suppression of many feasts of devotion and other feasts, the holy week reforms,the suppression of many vigils, and the near deletion of the vigil of Pentecost.)
Rather than taking a modified form (the 1962) of the Roman rite as a given, a revision of the older editions of the missal according to some of the prescriptions made in Sacrosanctum Concilium might be more beneficial.
A new order of mass might include:

-Prayers at the foot of the altar minus the psalm and second confiteor, and the addition of " et omissione" in the confiteor. All present take part.
-None of the choir's parts of the mass being said by the celebrant.
-Celebrant at the chair during readings at high mass.
-Readings read facing the people and in vernacular.
-The general intercessions said to a fixed form contained in the Roman Missal.
-The orate fratres said completely aloud, the super oblata sung, and the canon aloud.
-The subdeacon does not hold the paten after the offertory.
-The Pater noster sung by all and the libera nos sung.
-Communion optionally in both kinds
-omission of the last gospel
-Final blessing sung.


These, I think are the most important. Of course, a revision of the missal is a final goal, not an immediate one. As for the said calendar, the new calendar has many advantages over the older. Most notably,the majority of the saints have their feasts on the actual day they died, in accordance with ancient custom. Som other feasts have a more meaningful placement in the new (eg., the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin being on the octave day of the Assumption, and the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary being on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.) That said, I would argue for the re-introduction of many of the suppressed octaves: The octaves of the Epiphany, of Corpus Christi, of the Sacred Heart, of Ss.Peter and Paul, of the Assumption, and of All Saints. I would also suggest a new octave of Christ the King.
There's also the fact of the very limited material provided for the massesof saints and the Blessed Virgin. I would suggest that the prefaces and some of the commons of the saints from the new missal be added in addition to those in the old missal, as well as adding prefaces from the proper of time in the new missal to those in the old. (The use of multiple prefaces and multiple commons was quite widespread in the middle ages, even in Rome. This was one of the things cut in Pius V's reform.)

That's just what I've been thinking about lately, nothing much of note really.

1 comment:

Kevin Mathy said...

Here is your pre-1955 Missale: http://www.romancatholicarchive.com/