Over the years I have noticed some strange liturgical anomalies at various Latin Mass outfits in California. Most of them have been minor variations, and some have been serious aberrations which I have documented at Rorate Caeli, what could be called a hybrid Mass. But, this past week I had noticed a very strange thing going on at Sts. Peter and Paul in Wilmington. The people are being directed to go against the universally accepted norm of standing for the Pater Noster during the Missa Cantata and High Masses. The head server directs the people to kneel down during the Pater Noster. This is so counter-intuitive. One basic rule of thumb with the sung and solemn extraordinary form is you stand every time you hear the words "Per omnia saecula saeculorum" and "Dominus vobiscum". This just throws this rule of thumb out the window. He uses as his basis, a published set of "rubrics" for the people that he copied out of his Fr. Lassance Missal, presumably thinking it would give his argument some weight. He puts it in the red missals. But, why stop there? Why not go back further to the postures before 1954? Why not go all the way back to when nobody knelt during a Sunday Mass at all because kneeling, a sign of penitence, was not believed to be appropriate on a Sunday, a celebration of the Resurrection? The Mass in the Extraordinary Form is not a museum piece. It is not a dead liturgy, never to grow, never to change. But this change has always been organic, with prudence, and reason. The red booklets made popular by the Coalition Ecclesia Dei are right on this one, where it has its own problems elsewhere which will be documented in the future on this blog. But, I am not sure what can be done in Wilmington. I hope someone can organize a civil discussion there because the people are confused. Do they follow the red missals or do they follow the directives of the head server and the pre-1962 Fr. Lassance Missal?
Laurence G.
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