GOBSMACKED BY THE LATIN MASS (Letter to NZ Catholic, Mar 1)

I was gobsmacked quite frankly, last Sunday, by attending the Latin Mass for the first time in years.

I realised with blinding clarity that by comparison with the beauty and depth of the Mass we celebrated until 1965, ‘lite’ liturgy – to quote Bishop Peter Cullinane - is precisely what we have in the Novus Ordo, and the proposed changes will obviously render it ‘extra-lite’.

In the words of Benedict XVI, “the liturgical reform ... has been a devastation ... a fabrication, a banal product of the moment”.

“Translation into the languages of the people” was something demanded of Pope Paul IV in 1555 by Reformed Protestantism, along with communion in both kinds and an end to clerical celibacy. The Protestants were ahead of their time! With Catholics now having caught up, the first two achieved and with demands for the third, we see the fruits of the vernacular and a glimpse of diabolical forces behind all three.

Why have a Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments if it can’t 

"impose its will”, and the Pope can impose his will instead? And am I being “paternalistic” in expecting shepherds, to use Christ’s own beloved analogy, to lead their flock?

Before we can participate in the mystery of Christ among us we must be catechised in the mystery of Christ in us. We must be taught how to pray.

True “reverence of a community at prayer” will spring only from “private prayer”. “Scholarship and hard work” amounts to nothing in God’s eyes without at least a little of the pure love that is the fruit of contemplation.

Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi - as we pray, so we believe and live.