Posted on 08/31/2002 5:03:15 AM PDT by NYer
A WITNESS TO UNBROKEN TRADITION
6. In setting forth its decrees for the revision of the Order of Mass, Vatican Council II directed, among other things, that some rites be restored "to the vigor they had in the tradition of the Fathers";11 this is a quotation from the Apostolic Constitution of 1570, by which St. Pius V promulgated the Tridentine Missal. The fact that the same words are used in reference to both Roman Missals indicates how both of them, although separated by four centuries, embrace one and the same tradition. And when the more profound elements of this tradition are considered, it becomes clear how remarkably and harmoniously this new Roman Missal improves on the older one.
7. The older Missal belongs to the difficult period of attacks against Catholic teaching on the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the ministerial priesthood, and the real and permanent presence of Christ under the eucharistic elements. St. Pius V was therefore especially concerned with preserving the relatively recent developments in the Church's tradition, then unjustly being assailed, and introduced only very slight changes into the sacred rites. In fact, the Roman Missal of 1570 differs very little from the first printed edition of 1474, which in turn faithfully follows the Missal used at the time of Pope Innocent III (1198 - 1216). Manuscripts in the Vatican Library provided some verbal emendations, but they seldom allowed research into "ancient and approved authors" to extend beyond the examination of a few liturgical commentaries of the Middle Ages.
8. Today, on the other hand, countless studies of scholars have enriched the "tradition of the Fathers" that the revisers of the Missal under St. Pius V followed. After the Gregorian Sacramentary was first published in 1571, many critical editions of other ancient Roman and Ambrosian sacramentaries appeared. Ancient Spanish and Gallican liturgical books also became available, bringing to light many prayers of profound spirituality that had hitherto been unknown. Traditions dating back to the first centuries before the formation of the Eastern and Western rites are also better known today because so many liturgical documents have been discovered. The continuing progress in patristic studies has also illumined eucharistic theology through the teachings of such illustrious saints of Christian antiquity as Irenaeus, Ambrose, Cyril of Jerusalem, and John Chrysostom.
ADAPTATION TO MODERN CONDITIONS
9. The "tradition of the Fathers" does not require merely the preservation of what our immediate predecessors have passed on to us. There must also be profound study and understanding of the Church's entire past and of all the ways in which its single faith has been expressed in the quite diverse human and social forms prevailing in Semitic, Greek, and Latin cultures. This broader view shows us how the Holy Spirit endows the people of God with a marvelous fidelity in preserving the deposit of faith unchanged, even though prayers and rites differ so greatly.
Thus the Church remains faithful in its responsibility as teacher of truth to guard "things old," that is, the deposit of tradition; at the same time it fulfills another duty, that of examining and prudently bringing forth"things new" (see Mt. 13:52).
A thorough reading of the GIRM is indispensible in understanding the evolution of the mass from its beginnings after the death of Christ up to the present day.
How many of have actually read the GIRM, much less the Catechism or the Bible, in its entirety. Here we sit, day in and day out, haggling over the impact of change when, it turns out, the change is nothing more than a step closer to how the mass was intended to be said, by our Lord Himself. When I get the time, I intend to go through the entire documentation.
Hope all is well with you and the family.
Where are you getting this from?
NYer posted a link to the GIRM. Here is the actual quote from the section to which you refer, from the GIRM:
"I. General Structure of the Mass
'7. At Mass or the Lord's Supper, the people of God are called together, with a priest presiding and acting in the person of Christ, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord or eucharistic sacrifice.13 For this reason Christ's promise applies supremely to such a local gathering together of the Church: "Where two or three come together in my name, there am I in their midst" (Mt. 18:20). For at the celebration of Mass, which perpetuates the sacrifice of the cross,14 Christ is really present to the assembly gathered in his name; he is present in the person of the minister, in his own word, and indeed substantially and permanently under the eucharistic elements.15"
Here is the link for all to see: http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0012/$7.htm
Perhaps you have accidentally misquoted the GIRM. Other anti-Catholic "traditionalists" on FR have similar problems.
;-)
sitetest
Ottaviani renounced his condemnation, in the early 70s.
As for the tiara, the sedia gesttatoria, white buskins, gloves, jeweled mitres, the cappa magna, and all the other trappings worn by the successors of fishermen, I say "good riddance."
That same authority says that Paul VI refused to put on the tiara because it would have snapped his chicken neck. John XXIII wore it, but he had the aperture to support it. Pius XII wore the tiara at his "coronation," but he suffered from neck pains for weeks after.
We KNOW how essential all these externals are to the Papacy.
I remember reading that the media had a cow when JFK refused to wear a top hat to his inauguration. That, incidentally, spelled the end of the top hat, and dress hat wearing in general suffered a serious decline after that.
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