Monsignor Pope Ping!
EXCELLENT!!!
Wish I would have done this more in my working years as in my non-working years I see so many missed times to pass The Peace That Passes my understanding!
Shalom!
When we re-discovered the Traditional Latin Mass a few years ago, my wife and I were struck with the Silence of that Low Mass. We could barely hear the priest’s prayers and the altar boys’ responses, although we were following along in our Missals. That Silence seemed to tell me, that surrounded by a church filled with people, “You are alone with Him.”
The next week at our first High Mass, I was struck by the quiet serenity of the Gregorian chant, especially the Communion chant, which seemed to elevate to Heaven my musings on what had just transpired in the Consecration . The post-Communion motets, also sung softly, did not intrude on, but rather enhanced my meditation.
Because I sing a Novus Ordo Mass each Sunday, I can compare the relative din of the typical modern musical selections, and the wrong-headed (I believe) encouragement of the congregation to sing an upbeat Communion hymn rather than leaving them to meditate in silence.
The Novus Ordo can be both reverent and sacred, if we don’t continually shoot ourselves in the foot by emphasizing things which are unimportant.
Monsignor Pope eloquently elaborates on this subject of Silence.