"Celebration" and the pitfalls of language


When posting on Twitter about celebrating Mass at the Lady altar at Bournemouth (above) I was taken to task for using the expression "celebrate Mass" instead of a better choice such as "offering the Holy Sacrifice." The expression "celebrate Mass" is very Novus Ordo language apparently.

It is easy to defend oneself against such a criticism. Celebrare was used in the third century throughout his writings by St Cyprian, one of the first ecclesiastical writers to use Latin; the traditional prayer of intention for the priest before Mass begins "Ego volo celebrare Missam ..."

St Thomas Aquinas quotes (ST 3a 83.1 corp) the Secret which is in the traditional Missal for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost:
"quoties huius hostiae commemoratio celebratur, opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur"
and indeed there are many uses of celebrare in the prayers of the Roman Missal. A fine example is the collect for the feast of St Simon and St Jude which goes back to the 8th century Gelasian sacramentary:
Deus, qui nos per beatos Apostolos tuos Simonem et Judam, ad agnitionem tui nominis venire tribuisti: da nobis eorum gloriam sempiternam et proficiendo celebrare, et celebrando proficere.

(O God who granted us through your blessed Apostles Simon and Jude, to come to the knowlege of your name: grant us to celebrate their eternal glory by professing it and to profess it by celebrating it.)
A slam dunk argument against the proposition that "celebrate" is a novusordoist innovation is that St Pius V used the expression celebrare throughout the Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum of 1570 in which he granted to all priests of the Latin Rite in perpetuity the right to celebrate the Mass according to the traditional Missal which he approved.

HOWEVER ...

It would be fair to say that the English word "celebrate" has had various meanings over time just as the Latin word celebrare did in ancient times. Examining these, we can see why the ecclesiastical Latin writers used celebrare for the liturgy and why it became and remains a stable usage in ecclesiastical Latin - and looking at the English usage, we can see that there are some problems with using "celebrate" in the same way.

Lewis and Short shows how celebrare in Latin originally meant to go to a place in great numbers. It came to mean also the gathering for a festival, or the solemnising of the festival itself. By the time of St Cyprian and the emergence of Christian latinity, celebrare would have been a suitable word to use for the carrying out of the solemn ceremonies of the Mass.

In English, "celebrate" is used to indicate the esteem given to someone - a celebrated singer, for example, a use that has now descended in one form to "celebrity." The more general use of "celebrate" in modern English is to have a good time in recognition of an event or festivity - an occasion for having fun that might well involve an excess of food and drink, accompanied with dancing, waving or jumping about.

In English dictionaries, the use of "celebrate" to mean the carrying out of religious rites or ceremonies is still often recognised, but the problem is that this older meaning of celebration has, in my lifetime, been corrupted by those who should have preserved it. As an adolescent in the 1970s, I experienced ghastly liturgies with inappropriate beat music and general informality justified by priests who said that we have to remember that Mass is A CELEBRATION!

Hence I take the point and can understand why Paul posted this clip:
So should we drop the use of "celebrate"? It would be a pity, but we probably do need to recognise the way that the word is normally used in English and explain to people from time to time that we are using the word in the older, and still legitimate sense of the solemn execution of the ceremonies that are proper to a religious rite.

Indeed changes of meaning present a challenge with other words. Notoriously the history of the word "temptation" is fatally misunderstood in many discussions of the penultimate clause of the Pater Noster. But that is a post for another day.

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Plenary indulgences not impossible

Dilexit Prior in Letters from a Young Catholic asked some useful questions today about indulgences. I thought it would be best to do a post here especially to cover the controversial question of detachment from venial sin. But first the other questions: The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence Pope Paul VI set down a number of norms relating to indulgences at the end of Indulgentiarum Doctrina . Norm 7 states: To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfil three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial, except for the provisions contained in n.11 for those who are “impeded.” It is worth reading the other norms bec
Read more

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Image
A priest friend of mine is ill in hospital. He has a special devotion to Blessed Pius IX. Could I ask you, of your charity, to say a Novena for his speedy recovery. Novena In Honour of Blessed Pius IX Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX, who consecrated the Universal Church to you. (Our Father...) O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you Immaculate. (Hail Mary...) Saint Joseph, spouse of the most pure Virgin Mary, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you the Patron of the Universal Church. (Glory be...) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Mary, our Hope, and Saint Joseph hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX , granting to us through his merits and intercessions the graces which we ardently desire: that the glory of God be revealed through Father's illness. (Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai
Read more

God bless America!

Image
I wish you all a very happy Fourth of July over there in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I thought I was a bit late but then realised that it is still early evening for you. I hope you had an enjoyable day. For the video this year, here is Kate Smith IN 1938 introducing the new composition "God Bless America."
Read more