Hope
I'm just preparing for the young adults group that meets this evening. Tonight we will be following the Pope's instructions and discussing some key passages from Spe Salvi. While reflecting on hope, I was delighted to see the pictures of this morning's Mass in the Sistine Chapel at which the Holy Father celebrated ad orientem. It's good to see the seventh candle again too (behind the crucifix)! (Photo courtesy of NLM)
The Pope once again demonstrates his pedagogy of leading quietly by example. Today's Mass will help take the stigma out of Mass ad orientem, show that it is a key part of the hermeneutic of continuity and destroy the myth of the bad old days when priests turned their backs to the people and privatized the liturgy. In the pictures it just looks so right! Fr Ray Blake has an excellent reflection on liturgical orientation, in which he speaks of the huge impact of today's Mass because 'for most people it is not what they hear that is important but what they see.'
posted by Fr Nicholas at 4:47 pm
5 Comments:
I was so pleased to see this today.
You are so right when you say "The Pope once again demonstrates his pedagogy of leading quietly by example". He seems to have a great deal many thing to tell us about the liturgy. :)
I've read quite a few comments on different blogs which make the same point as Fr. Ray.
When the priest stands before the altar, rather than behind it, there is nothing between him and the people.
And it's very true.
Next stop Westminster Cathedral, which just looks so wrong with that temporary altar/kitchen table in front of the architecturally, aesthetically and liturgically correct High Altar.
And then.................His Holiness conduction The Mass of Blessed John XXIII in St Peter's. Soon, Deo volenti, soon.
This is a wonderful development and I hope will do much to release the tension about celebrating Mass ad orientem. People forget, however, that it remained permissible to celebrate the Novus Ordo in this position from 1970 onwards. It fell into abeyance rather than being explicitly forbidden.
Anonymous 8:59
It isn't just permissable in the 1970 Missal; it is assumed in the rubrics that the priest is celebrating ad orientem ...."The Priest turns and faces the people".
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