Bishop Vasa on participation

Rorate Caeli has published a good article by Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Oregon on Interior participation and devotions during Mass.

He comments on the idea of full and active participation in the Liturgy and how this was interpreted superficially in terms of physical activity.
Thus there was a great increase in “participation” through recitation of the Mass parts in English, reading the scriptures, leading the prayers of the faithful, and singing, but whether this actually led to a deepened “full and active participation” in the Holy Sacrifice on the part of the congregation as envisioned by the Council is certainly questionable. It is legitimate to wonder whether my grandparents were not just as fully and actively participating in the Eucharistic Sacrifice even though their participation would have had all of the external appearances of great passivity.
His comments on devotions are also important, especially during the month of the Precious Blood. In his Apostolic Letter Inde a Primis (1960), Blessed Pope John XXIII wrote about how the more individualistic and secondary devotions should give way to those that more effectively draw us to the fullness of salvation. Among those primary devotions, he highly praised devotion to the Precious Blood. Many people today would probably regard devotion to the Precious Blood as one of those things downplayed by Vatican II.

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