Old & New: The Venerable English Mass Of The Personal Ordinariates
If ever there was a master stroke of the Holy Spirit writ plain for Catholics to see, it was the establishment of the Personal Ordinariates during the pontificate of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Is that a plausible claim? Let's look at what is being accomplished through the personal ordinariates established by the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.
A realized ecumenism. The most effective means so far by which entire groups as well as individuals are being received into the Church.
What is the significance of this new missal to the Ordinariates and the Catholic Church?
Msgr. Steenson: This is historic. This is the first time in the history of the Catholic Church that the liturgical texts of a separated Christian community have been brought back into the life of the Church of Rome. This (Ordinariate) missal is now recognized by the Church as standing side by side with the Roman Missal.
Dr. Brand: This missal is the fruit of receptive and realized ecumenism. Ecumenism isn’t just talk anymore — it is a real movement. People who come into the Ordinariate are completely and fully Catholic, yet bring with them the gifts of their Anglican heritage and lay them at the feet of Peter. Peter has now given the gifts back to us and said, ‘Use this to make more Catholics.’
Msgr. Steenson: In Unitatis redintegatio [the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism], the Catholic Church specified what it would look like to bring Christians into communion. One of the points is that they would bring their own distinctive traditions to the Church; they would not be suppressed or absorbed. Our traditions are meant to mutually enrich each other.
Dr. Brand: With this missal, the Holy See sends a message to all the faithful within the Ordinariates: They are an enduring, permanent part of the Church, charged with the mission of evangelizing.
- from Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson and Dr. Clint Brand's conversation, Divine Worship: The Missal expands Church's diversity in expression, unity in faith
A mending of the rift between Catholics and Protestant Christians.
"As stated in the Apostolic Constitution (Anglicanorum Coetibus) and on the website of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, the purpose of such Ordinariates is to be an instrument of Catholic unity: an opportunity to model what the future reconciliation of separated Christian communities could be."
A recognition of the activity of the Holy Spirit among our separated brethren (Unitatis Redintegratio). That which is true, good and beautiful among the separated brethren is being brought into communion with the Church.
(S)ome and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ.
A restoration of liturgical beauty that assists personal catechesis and guides all into a deeper acknowledgement of the Lord's presence and action in the sacred Liturgy.
2. The source of the Liturgy’s beautyIs there a boundary between aesthetic emotion and an authentic sense of the spiritual? Is a beautiful liturgy one which satisfies the tastes of consumers? The liturgy is not a consumer good; it is not the Church’s supermarket! We know it is first and foremost the work of God, adoration, reception, bestowal. Hence we must ask ourselves what are the fundamental criteria for the beauty of the liturgy, apart from trends and tastes. It would be a great error simply to apply secular standards of aesthetic taste to the liturgy.2.1. The liturgy, an act of Christ and the ChurchTo understand the beauty of the liturgy we must begin with our understanding of the Church. The Church «in Christ is a kind of sacrament, that is a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind » (LG 1). As a “sign” the Church is therefore able in some degree to render perceptible Christ, the sacrament of salvation. It is precisely from this sacramental nature that the sacraments in the strict sense are articulated. The sacrament, as an act of the Church, is also the act of Christ, since the Church is simply doing what Christ taught and commanded her to do: «Do this in memory of me» (Lk 22: 19). The Sacraments are channels through which Christ communicates to us his salvation: «When a man baptises it is really Christ himself who baptises» (SC 7). As Saint Leo the Great states: «That which was visible in Christ passed to the sacraments of the Church». The liturgy is an act of Christ and his Church. It depends not so much on the intellectual sphere as on the principle of the Incarnation, and therefore evidently implies an aesthetic dimension. Our gestures during the liturgy are important because they are gestures of Jesus. In her liturgical celebration and the concrete gestures it requires, the Church is simply prolonging and actualising the Lord’s own gestures. Therefore, since liturgical gestures are gestures of Christ they have a beauty and aesthetic value of their own, apart from any additional or secondary beauty which we might strive to give them.
A restoration of eucharistic fellowship that prepares Catholics for mission, for evangelization.
An emphasis on liturgy as both Mass and Office (Matins and Evensong). An emphasis on participation in recitation of the Office as proper to both clergy and laity.
Divine Worship puts an emphasis on reverence, solemnity and tradition, along with orthodox homilies and catechesis. | Anglicanorum Coetibus Society
With the creation of the personal ordinariates was born a new missal that captures the elegance of the ancient texts and the sublime character of past liturgies. In its pages are beautiful prayers expressed in hieratic English, i.e., a sacred vernacular.
There is no dichotomy between old (Latin) and new (vernacular) in Divine Worship: the Missal. The struggle between factions, those espoused to Ordinarius forma solum and those to Vetus forma solum (the two "solas" of our day), is not present in Ordinariate circles. There may be slight variances in the celebration of Divine Worship in distinct Ordinariate communities here and there. The Missal acknowledges legitimate - not arbitrary - variances that allow individual communities to preserve unique aspects of the Anglican Patrimony. Diversity in unity is achieved in the Ordinariate.
The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), core to the Ordinariate heritage, presents a translation of texts by Thomas Cranmer, an early Anglican archbishop. Using the Sarum Liturgy prevalent throughout the British Isles prior to the English Reformation as a starting point, Cranmer created beautiful translations. By translating the Mass prayers into English, Cranmer and others produced a library of beautiful texts.
As Anglicans drifted further from Catholic orthodoxy, more than a few texts in subsequent versions of the BCP fell below the standard of orthodox doctrine. Subject to the judgment of the members of the Anglicanes Traditiones Commission, which included representatives from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome, Anglican texts that conformed to Catholic doctrine were retained in Divine Worship: the Missal.
The Venerable English Mass of the personal ordinariates retains the best of the Anglican patrimony, which includes the retention of elements of the Sarum Rite from which the BCP initially received much content, and elements of the English Missal legacy. The Ordinariate Mass retains the three year cycle of readings of the Ordinary Form (Mass of St Paul VI). There are unique texts of the Latin ritual tradition preserved in the English (Anglican) patrimony that have been adopted in the Ordinariate Missal.
The Ordinariate Liturgy is saturated with Holy Scripture. A simple review of the major and minor proper chants of the Liturgy reveals a rich tapestry of scriptural texts that support the thematic character of each Mass. The proper chants (e.g., Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion), retained in the 1962 Latin Mass, are typically ignored and omitted in most Ordinary Form liturgies. The Ordinary Form (2002/2011) is thereby deprived of its rightful scriptural treasures.
The Minor Propers
- The Introit is sung while the Priest ascends up to the altar at the beginning of the Mass.
- The Gradual is sung immediately after the Lesson (first reading).
- The Alleluia or Tract is sung after the Epistle (second reading) and before the Gospel is proclaimed.
- The Offertory is sung after the Peace and during the preparation of the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
- The Communion is sung as the priest receives the host.
The Ordinariate Mass, being in English, is faithful to the intentions of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, intentions that include the acknowledgement of the value of hearing and praying the readings and collects and making the responses in the vernacular. Thus, the participatio actuosa much desired by the Council is natural to the Ordinariate Liturgy. That is, intentional (actualized) participation manifests as robust communal hymn singing, confident prayerful responses, chanted readings, and reverent gestures (multiple signs of the cross, genuflections, bows) directed to the worship of Almighty God.
The retention of Latin in Ordinariate celebrations is also faithful to the Council's desire (Sacrosanctum Concilium 36. 1.). One routinely hears and sings the Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei chanted or sung polyphonically in Latin, and the Kyrie chanted or sung polyphonically in Greek. The rich repertoire of Mass settings celebrated in Ordinariate communities includes Anglican chant, a solemn tradition of singing unmetrical biblical texts - psalms and canticles - in parts that maintains the focus on the sacred text by matching the natural rhythm of the words to the pitches of a harmonized melody.
Anglican Chant
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