gpmj12
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A long but interesting article by John Cavadini, Mary Healy, Thomas Weinandy of Church Life Journal.
This is one aspect that is often glossed over in discussion.
2. The State of the Liturgy Prior to Vatican II
Although the liturgical renewal had percolated for approximately sixty years prior to Vatican II, it had had little impact on the laity in the parish setting. The vast majority of Catholic faithful recognized that they were attending the all-holy sacrifice of the Mass, and that they were receiving the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. The Mass did create an awe and reverence among the faithful. However, for the most part, they had the mindset of being observers of a great mystery. Only the priest (along with the altar boys) was seen as actively engaged in the Eucharist rite. Except at the consecration of bread and wine, when the faithful adored the elevated sacred species, accompanied by the ringing of bells, many of the faithful engaged in their own personal forms of prayer. They had little sense of asking forgiveness of their sins during the opening penitential rite, nor did they consciously offer themselves to the Father in union with Jesus during the offertory. There was little or no engagement with the scripture readings. Likewise, unless they were following along with a bilingual missal, which must be said was fairly popular, they would not be praying along with the celebrant, for they could neither hear him nor understand what he was praying in Latin.
The spiritual high point for the faithful was reverently receiving on their tongue Holy Communion, which they rightly believed was the body, blood, soul, and divinity of the incarnate and risen Son of God. However, they had little awareness that the privilege of receiving Holy Communion was founded upon their having participated in Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice of himself to the Father for the forgiveness of sins and the outpouring of the divine life of the Holy Spirit. Significantly, while the faithful knew and believed that the one God is a Trinity of persons, their liturgical and personal prayer often primarily consisted of praying to the one (generic) God.[6] Only after Vatican II, with the revision of the rite and the use of the vernacular, did the faithful become more cognizant of the trinitarian nature of the liturgy and of their own ability to pray in a trinitarian manner. Although many, and probably most, of the faithful attended the liturgy with devotion, except in receiving Holy Communion, such devotion was not imbued with an informed understanding of the Eucharistic mystery.
Within this overall pastoral situation, a few particulars must be noted. First, while many priests celebrated Mass in a reverent manner, there were those who did not. The faithful were aware, and often pleased, that certain priests were able to “run through” the liturgy in fifteen or twenty minutes, especially on weekdays. A vivid description of the state of affairs prior to the Council is given in a blog post by Msgr. Charles Pope:
This is one aspect that is often glossed over in discussion.
2. The State of the Liturgy Prior to Vatican II
Although the liturgical renewal had percolated for approximately sixty years prior to Vatican II, it had had little impact on the laity in the parish setting. The vast majority of Catholic faithful recognized that they were attending the all-holy sacrifice of the Mass, and that they were receiving the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. The Mass did create an awe and reverence among the faithful. However, for the most part, they had the mindset of being observers of a great mystery. Only the priest (along with the altar boys) was seen as actively engaged in the Eucharist rite. Except at the consecration of bread and wine, when the faithful adored the elevated sacred species, accompanied by the ringing of bells, many of the faithful engaged in their own personal forms of prayer. They had little sense of asking forgiveness of their sins during the opening penitential rite, nor did they consciously offer themselves to the Father in union with Jesus during the offertory. There was little or no engagement with the scripture readings. Likewise, unless they were following along with a bilingual missal, which must be said was fairly popular, they would not be praying along with the celebrant, for they could neither hear him nor understand what he was praying in Latin.
The spiritual high point for the faithful was reverently receiving on their tongue Holy Communion, which they rightly believed was the body, blood, soul, and divinity of the incarnate and risen Son of God. However, they had little awareness that the privilege of receiving Holy Communion was founded upon their having participated in Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice of himself to the Father for the forgiveness of sins and the outpouring of the divine life of the Holy Spirit. Significantly, while the faithful knew and believed that the one God is a Trinity of persons, their liturgical and personal prayer often primarily consisted of praying to the one (generic) God.[6] Only after Vatican II, with the revision of the rite and the use of the vernacular, did the faithful become more cognizant of the trinitarian nature of the liturgy and of their own ability to pray in a trinitarian manner. Although many, and probably most, of the faithful attended the liturgy with devotion, except in receiving Holy Communion, such devotion was not imbued with an informed understanding of the Eucharistic mystery.
Within this overall pastoral situation, a few particulars must be noted. First, while many priests celebrated Mass in a reverent manner, there were those who did not. The faithful were aware, and often pleased, that certain priests were able to “run through” the liturgy in fifteen or twenty minutes, especially on weekdays. A vivid description of the state of affairs prior to the Council is given in a blog post by Msgr. Charles Pope:
As for there being no abuses before 1970, dream on. All the old guys I trained under for the Latin Mass (back in the mid 1980s) told me that it was dreadful how the mass was celebrated in the old days: mumbled Latin, skipped prayers, half genuflections, not even waiting for the servers to finish before moving on to the next prayer; masses that should have taken a good 40 minutes to celebrate reverently were routinely done in 18 minutes. Communion was routinely distributed in larger parishes by priests, beginning immediately after the gospel, while the priest celebrant went on with the current Mass; sung liturgies were abhorred by most clergy and when they did sing them they were usually done in a horrible and tortured tone with indistinct pronunciation since they were not used to enunciating the Latin, but mumbling it. So when they sang, most just mumbled aloud. I have heard recordings from the time and can personally affirm that homilies were often skipped, even on Sundays. Most of the old guys said the Corpus Domini nostri prayer while they gave communion to as many as five people, mumbling it as a norm. The Liber Usualis had long been abandoned by most parishes and they used recto tono (usually 8th tone) chanting in its place . . . . People came late and left early and had legalistic notions that if they made it by the gospel they were safe. Leaving after communion was epidemic. …
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