Fr. Piero Lazzarini
In the old days (pre-Vatican time) it was normal to refer to the offering of the Mass as SAYING THE MASS ("dire la Messa") by the priest, and HEARING THE MASS (ascoltare la Messa") on the part of the congregation. It was mostly a quiet, private, personal act of piety (as it was called). Vatican 2 operated a kind of revolution in this regard. It introduced the term CELEBRATION.
It was not just a change of terminology, a substitution of words, but a real change of meaning and of mental attitude; a proper understanding of the essence of the Mass; a celebration, in the real sense, of the Lord's supper and of his paschal (redeeming) sacrifice. "The celebration of the Mass, as the action of Christ and of the people of God is the CENTRE of the whole Christian life for the Church, both universal and local" (GIRM n.16). Therefore, there cannot be a private, quiet, personal Mass!
The Mass, the Eucharist is a CELEBRATION: its nature demands that we celebrate it with music and song. It cannot be again a Missa lecta... and derelicta (read, quiet and relegated).
But many (too many!) still hang on to the idea that celebration is justified and o.k. on Sundays with the people, with a congregation, but during the week, with a small or limited group of people, it is all right to have a quick Mass (a QUICKIE!) because we have to go to work or to school, or to our daily duties, which are most important!
I am not advocating having every day a Mass that lasts an hour or even longer. You can have a good Mass, a good celebration, within half hour or 40 minutes, or longer when the occasion justifies it. But there is among us a mentality, a way of thinking, a prejudice that need correcting.
We want the Mass, surely, we know it is important and good, but we want it short, quick... We feel the need to perform that RITUAL, but we do not want a celebration because WE FEEL it is too long.
Have you ever considered that to sing an acclamation, a doxology, a proclamation, a psalm (these are parts of the Mass that by their nature demand to be sung!) only adds a few short minutes to the Mass?
Or again, is it not strange that even when we priests come together on special occasions (which in fact are not frequent), we, professional 'liturgists', instead of taking time for a proper, joyful, relaxed celebration, still want the "quick" ritual, not a celebration? Someone says, when it is his turn to preside: "Prepare just a couple of songs, but do not make things too long". We should know that when we celebrate the Mass, we do not simply sing a few songs. We SING THE MASS primarily, we primarily sing the parts of the Mass that by their nature demand to be sung.
If we sing the psalm, which is a poetic song, with the CANTILLATIO, which is simply 'sung reading', how many extra minutes do we add to the Mass? Would it not also help greatly our understanding and reflection over the scripture text?
Then we come to the Gospel acclamation: nobody would ever omit that trite and super-trite (and, by now, becoming boring) Alleluia: it is quick, simple, somehow attractive... Why not try, with a little effort, to add a little variety by choosing some alternative among the 7 or 8 alleluias that we could easily learn? Is this not another sign of our ritualistic, mechanical way of celebrating the Mass?
Perhaps this - NOW- could be the opportunity to try to revise our way of appreciating (or mis-appreciating) the Mass and the way we CELEBRATE it (do we?)
At this point, let me add a couple of simple and relevant observations.
I feel amused and delighted when, going around, sometimes I happen to see some young boys or girls, who - all alone .- start dancing, gesticulating, humming some kind of tunes. This makes me laugh, truly amused. It tells me how much singing and dancing is in their blood, for them it is almost a necessity, a way of living. Of course this is true not only for a few children here and there. This is the nature of the people here in Africa.
Are we forgetting this when we are celebrating the liturgy in church? Are we forgetting that it is the Church herself that tells us to CELEBRATE the Mass in a real way, whether it is Sunday or a week day? People here who come to Mass would gladly CELEBRATE the Mass, according to the norms of the Church, and not simply go through a quick ritual.
The second observation is about a statement, or a reminder, that the present Archbishop of Freetown made in a pastoral exhortation, when commenting about the importance and value of the Mass: "The Mass is the MAIN MEANS of evangelisation, the most effective way to proclaim the good news". Surely we do not need to invoke the authority of a Bishop to convince ourselves of something that should be solar, basic common sense, especially for us missionaries. But perhaps even a simple reminder may be useful to wake us up to something that, maybe distractions, repetition, force of habit made us forget.
Yes, indeed! A good, well celebrated and well conducted Mass can be a powerful proclamation of the Gospel!
In the old days (pre-Vatican time) it was normal to refer to the offering of the Mass as SAYING THE MASS ("dire la Messa") by the priest, and HEARING THE MASS (ascoltare la Messa") on the part of the congregation. It was mostly a quiet, private, personal act of piety (as it was called). Vatican 2 operated a kind of revolution in this regard. It introduced the term CELEBRATION.
It was not just a change of terminology, a substitution of words, but a real change of meaning and of mental attitude; a proper understanding of the essence of the Mass; a celebration, in the real sense, of the Lord's supper and of his paschal (redeeming) sacrifice. "The celebration of the Mass, as the action of Christ and of the people of God is the CENTRE of the whole Christian life for the Church, both universal and local" (GIRM n.16). Therefore, there cannot be a private, quiet, personal Mass!
The Mass, the Eucharist is a CELEBRATION: its nature demands that we celebrate it with music and song. It cannot be again a Missa lecta... and derelicta (read, quiet and relegated).
But many (too many!) still hang on to the idea that celebration is justified and o.k. on Sundays with the people, with a congregation, but during the week, with a small or limited group of people, it is all right to have a quick Mass (a QUICKIE!) because we have to go to work or to school, or to our daily duties, which are most important!
I am not advocating having every day a Mass that lasts an hour or even longer. You can have a good Mass, a good celebration, within half hour or 40 minutes, or longer when the occasion justifies it. But there is among us a mentality, a way of thinking, a prejudice that need correcting.
We want the Mass, surely, we know it is important and good, but we want it short, quick... We feel the need to perform that RITUAL, but we do not want a celebration because WE FEEL it is too long.
Have you ever considered that to sing an acclamation, a doxology, a proclamation, a psalm (these are parts of the Mass that by their nature demand to be sung!) only adds a few short minutes to the Mass?
Or again, is it not strange that even when we priests come together on special occasions (which in fact are not frequent), we, professional 'liturgists', instead of taking time for a proper, joyful, relaxed celebration, still want the "quick" ritual, not a celebration? Someone says, when it is his turn to preside: "Prepare just a couple of songs, but do not make things too long". We should know that when we celebrate the Mass, we do not simply sing a few songs. We SING THE MASS primarily, we primarily sing the parts of the Mass that by their nature demand to be sung.
If we sing the psalm, which is a poetic song, with the CANTILLATIO, which is simply 'sung reading', how many extra minutes do we add to the Mass? Would it not also help greatly our understanding and reflection over the scripture text?
Then we come to the Gospel acclamation: nobody would ever omit that trite and super-trite (and, by now, becoming boring) Alleluia: it is quick, simple, somehow attractive... Why not try, with a little effort, to add a little variety by choosing some alternative among the 7 or 8 alleluias that we could easily learn? Is this not another sign of our ritualistic, mechanical way of celebrating the Mass?
Perhaps this - NOW- could be the opportunity to try to revise our way of appreciating (or mis-appreciating) the Mass and the way we CELEBRATE it (do we?)
At this point, let me add a couple of simple and relevant observations.
I feel amused and delighted when, going around, sometimes I happen to see some young boys or girls, who - all alone .- start dancing, gesticulating, humming some kind of tunes. This makes me laugh, truly amused. It tells me how much singing and dancing is in their blood, for them it is almost a necessity, a way of living. Of course this is true not only for a few children here and there. This is the nature of the people here in Africa.
Are we forgetting this when we are celebrating the liturgy in church? Are we forgetting that it is the Church herself that tells us to CELEBRATE the Mass in a real way, whether it is Sunday or a week day? People here who come to Mass would gladly CELEBRATE the Mass, according to the norms of the Church, and not simply go through a quick ritual.
The second observation is about a statement, or a reminder, that the present Archbishop of Freetown made in a pastoral exhortation, when commenting about the importance and value of the Mass: "The Mass is the MAIN MEANS of evangelisation, the most effective way to proclaim the good news". Surely we do not need to invoke the authority of a Bishop to convince ourselves of something that should be solar, basic common sense, especially for us missionaries. But perhaps even a simple reminder may be useful to wake us up to something that, maybe distractions, repetition, force of habit made us forget.
Yes, indeed! A good, well celebrated and well conducted Mass can be a powerful proclamation of the Gospel!