tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349030660517093328.post8975104940067138821..comments2023-05-26T15:38:42.673+01:00Comments on Let The Welkin Ring: Welcome Back AgainThe Welkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08745923858650389376noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349030660517093328.post-89526259185584175862012-05-08T21:20:52.443+01:002012-05-08T21:20:52.443+01:00May I say, first of all, that there is no point wh...May I say, first of all, that there is no point whatsoever in inviting people to return if the reasons for their disenchantment are not being acknowledged and addressed. It is a futile gesture.<br />Secondly, you state that after the Second Vatican Council, the Church was in an excitable state. Can I make the point that it was not the Church that was in such a state but the clergy; the lay people were bewildered. Week after week in the mid to late 1960s we were being told that this change, and that change, was being introduced, so that we didn't know if we were coming or going. Unfortunately, many were going - and didn't return. <br />You then say that in 1967 or 1968 you were given permission to turn our altars around and celebrate Mass in English. I wonder who gave this permission because it has never been authorised by any council, pope, or Roman congregation, and is still not lawful. You will know that the new Missal of 1970 instructs the priest to turn and face the people at various points in the Mass, so priests should obey the rubrics and revert to celebrations facing the east. <br />You are correct in saying that the emphasis of the Mass has been changed from the holy Sacrifice of Jesus to His Father, into a celebratory communal meal. Bishop Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, said in 1550: "The form of a table shall more move the simple from the superstitious opinions of the popish Mass unto the right use of the Lord's Supper. For the use of an altar is to make sacrifice upon it: the use of a table is to serve for men to eat upon it." This is what has happened, and the introduction of reception from the chalice has placed further emphasis on the communal meal. After all, if it is a meal, then we must eat AND drink. <br />What we want is not a general invitation to return but leadership. It would be a start if an instruction (not a request) was given to all the priests of the diocese to comply with the rubrics, to abandon personal creativity, to reduce the extraordinary ministers to the absolute minimum (if not getting rid altogether), to wear appropriate vestments, to preach Catholic sermons and explain the faith, to get rid of guitarists and suchlike, and to show more respect to their congregations by not ad-libbing because they themselves do not approve of the new translation. I must emphasise that these comments do not apply to all the priests in this diocese, many of whom are doing sterling work under difficult circumstances, but they do apply to too many.No. 2.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349030660517093328.post-32786935162432381872012-05-08T21:15:06.041+01:002012-05-08T21:15:06.041+01:00Dear Fr. This recounting of events is so, so painf...Dear Fr. This recounting of events is so, so painful. So true, yet so painful.<br /><br />I am eternally grateful to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, for giving us back the Usus Antiquior Mass.<br /><br />May God continue to bless you, Fr. Your love of the Mass is truly edifying.Zephyrinushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01179350648709554049noreply@blogger.com