It tells of the Mass at the St Joseph's Institution International School which is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of every month. Most of those who go are young working people in their twenties; they have their own schola and servers.
As well as this encouraging news, the article also has two of the daftest comments I have yet heard about the traditional Mass. A priest said that although people can learn to recite the prayers, "you don't know what you are saying, because you don't know Latin" (you could always try looking at the other column which tells you what the English is.) He concluded that "It's like having a Mass in sign language where no one is deaf."
Very witty. Actually, Mass is a form of "sign language". Unfortunately this aspect has been lost in the relentless stream of vernacular wordiness. If you really think that the goal of immediate intelligibility has been achieved by Mass in the vernacular, ask a few people outside the Church afterwards what the second reading was about.
Let's not get too lost on the language, though. As Father says:
Even if everyone understood Latin, he continued, the old form of the Mass raises a more fundamental issue. As priest, you are doing your own thing, and the people are doing their own thing. Is Mass not more a participatory event of the people?This comment rather demonstrates the need for the usus antiquior to enrich our understanding of the liturgy generally. As Cardinal Ratzinger explained in "The Spirit of the Liturgy", the Mass is not, at heart, my thing, your thing or our thing: it is the actio Dei.
One comment I would agree with, however: "The language is not the most important thing; it's the whole set-up." Quite so. I hope those young people in Singapore get to have their Mass every week rather than once a month.
3 comments:
The priest is doing his thing. We're doing our thing. So... we're not doing the priest's thing, and the priest is not talking through our thing?
Sounds great to me :)
So... how old were the "reform" people when they decided Everything Should Be Different? Because if that happened in the late '60s, early '70s, and they're in their sixties now... I can't help but count back and be amused that my generation's opinion doesn't count because We're Too Young To Know.
"It's like having Mass in sign language where no one is deaf."
This is a largely meaningless statement. I daresay formal logic has a word for it. But the word "daft" will do nicely.
Be that as it may, I don't agree with what the priest said about sign language. As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. This has been rather lost sight of in the midst of the liturgical reforms. Admittedly, you have to have words. Without the words of institution, you would have no Consecration (at least, not in western liturgies).
But as a child, I first learned to follow not the words of the Mass, (language had nothing to do with it) but the sacred actions. I learned from the actions where in the Mass the most important words occurred, even though I was too young to follow the words.
I'm not exactly a child now (not at my age), but I think the significance of the actions still applies.
Liturgical language ? That's a different question altogether.
'Actually, Mass is a form of "sign language". Unfortunately this aspect has been lost in the relentless stream of vernacular wordiness.'
I often celebrate Sunday Mass in Sign Language with young Deaf people. A friend of mine, an Italian priest whose congregation is dedicated to working with the Deaf, insists on no one signing during the Consecration in order that Deaf people will have a greater sense of the sacredness of what is happening. I think he is saying something similar to Father Tim.
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