Excerpt
from: Understanding When To Kneel Sit And Stand
At A Traditional Latin Mass - A Short Essay On Mass Postures - by Richard Friend
A Catholic assisting
at a Traditional Latin Mass for the first time will most likely experience
bewilderment and confusion as to when to kneel, sit and stand, for the postures
that people observe at Traditional Latin Masses are so different from what he is
accustomed to. To understand what people should really be
doing at Mass is not always determinable from what people remember or from what
people are presently doing. What is needed is an understanding of the nature of
the liturgy itself, and then to act accordingly.
When I began assisting
at Traditional Latin Masses for the first time as an adult, I remember being
utterly confused with Mass postures. People followed one order of postures for
Low Mass, and a different one for Sung Mass. I recall my oldest son, then a
small boy, being thoroughly amused with the frequent changes in people’s
postures during Sung Mass, when we would go in rather short order from standing
for the entrance procession, kneeling for the preparatory prayers, standing for
the Gloria, sitting when the priest sat, rising again when he rose, sitting for
the epistle, gradual, alleluia, standing for the Gospel, sitting for the
epistle in English, rising for the Gospel in English, sitting for the sermon,
rising for the Credo, genuflecting together with the priest, sitting when the
priest sat while the choir sang the Credo, kneeling when the choir reached Et incarnatus est etc. (we should have been
bowing while seated), sitting again for the rest of the Credo, rising when the
priest rose, sitting for the offertory, etc. Not knowing any better, I simply
followed what other people were doing, and what other people were doing was
following the postures indicated in the Latin-English booklet missal published
by Coalition in Support of Ecclesia Dei (hereinafter the “red booklet”).
Over time I began to question the order of postures
that people followed, particularly the distinction made between Low Mass and
Sung Mass. It didn’t seem right. However, all the books, booklet missals,
videos and references that I could find all copied the postures of the red
booklet. I could not find any authoritative source to challenge the red booklet
postures until I read Fortescue/O’Connell/Reid’s The
Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described (fourteenth edition)
and J.B. O’Connell’s The
Celebration of Mass (fourth edition). Fortescue and O’Connell
are undoubtedly two of the greatest experts on the traditional Roman liturgy
the English-speaking world has ever known from the pre-conciliar era.
Fortescue first published his book in 1917. He
published a revised edition, the second edition, in 1919. Following Fortescue’s
early demise in 1923, O’Connell was asked to prepare a third edition of
Fortescue’s book, and over a span of thirty two years he revised it ten times.
O’Connell’s last revision (the thirteenth edition) of The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described in
1962 remained untouched until Dr. Alcuin Reid OSB updated and revised it in
2003 (fourteenth edition) to bring it “into line with the specific requirements
of the liturgical books of 1962”[2] and then again in 2009 (fifteenth
edition) to update it in light of Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum. On his own, Reid is regarded as
the leading authority on the traditional Roman liturgy today.
O’Connell, on the
other hand, first published his own book in 1940, which he revised and updated
four times, the last of which was printed in 1964. O’Connell’s monumental book
is considered a must- have among priests, seminarians and servers wishing to
study the rubrics of the Traditional Latin Mass and how to serve it.
Fortescue, O’Connell and Reid present an order of
laity Mass postures that contrasts sharply with the postures indicated in the
red booklet.
In June 2009 I
assisted at a Solemn High Mass at St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California
celebrated by The Very Reverend Dom Daniel Augustine Oppenheimer, CRNJ, prior
of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, on the occasion of the seventh
anniversary of their order.[3]
When the sacred ministers arrived at the foot of the
altar and began the preparatory prayers, I distinctly recall Fr. Hughes Barbour,
O. Praem., who was sitting at the edge of the monastic choir pew closest to the
people, turn to face the congregation and motion for us to remain standing
while they continued chanting the Introit even as the sacred ministers had
arrived at the foot of the altar and begun the preparatory prayers. We
were somewhat confused but complied nonetheless. Later, when I assisted
at a Mass celebrated by Dom Daniel Augustine at the John Paul II Center in
Yorba Linda, I saw the same Mass postures I had observed previously at St.
Michael’s Abbey. Intrigued, I talked to Dom Daniel Augustine about this after
Mass, and his explanation deepened my resolve to enlighten my fellow Catholics
about Mass postures. This short essay is the fruit of that resolution.
Most people are unaware that there were no
officially-prescribed postures for the people for the 1962 Mass. However, there
was also no official rubric directing the faithful to receive Communion
kneeling on the tongue either. The absence of official rubrics does not mean
that there was no standard order of postures that people followed; on the
contrary, it assumes there was an order of postures handed down from tradition
that people understood and followed even without an official rubric, just as it
was in the case of the reception of Communion. Our task is to find out what
this order was, through the eyes of the experts on the traditional Roman
liturgy. To accomplish this I will rely primarily on the teaching of O’Connell,
Fortescue, and Reid, and to a lesser extent on the opinion of lesser-known but
equally competent authorities to prove the universality of O’Connell’s and
Fortescue’s teachings.
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/04/an-essay-on-postures-of-congregation-at.html
https://www.canonsregular.com/index.php/body-postures-at-mass
http://calatinmass.blogspot.com/2014/01/understanding-when-to-kneel-sit-and.html
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