My wife and I attended Mass in the Extraordinary Form today, said by a priest of the Fraternity of St. Peter. The priest, in his sermon, said that we should not attend what he called the Novus Ordo because of the extensive liturgical abuses. By this he meant things like the priest facing the congregation, lots of communion ministers, the vernacular–all the changes made after Vatican II but not called for specifically by the council. He said that people go to great lengths to avoid catching the flu, they should be even more careful to avoid losing their faith and therefore should avoid the N.O.
I don’t see how anyone could disagree with what the Priest said. Have you ever studied the changes that the heretics of the 16th century employed in their liturgy, and read their stated reason for these changes? Let me list a few of the changes the heretics of the 16 century employed in order to destroy the Mass:
1.) They employed communion in the hand.
2.) Communion under both kinds.
3.) The “mass” was changed from Latin to the vernacular.
4.) Sacred music was replaced with profane or secular music.
5.) The Minister faced the people.
6.) The Chuches were stripped of the statues.
7.) The sacrificial aspect of the mass was downplayed.
8.) They ceased calling it Mass, and instead used the word Supper of the Lord, or Eucharist
These are the same external changes that are found in the Novus Ordo mass. The stated goal of the Arch-heretic Martin Luther was to destroy the Church by first destroying the Mass.
**Martin Luther: **"I believe and confess that the popish Mass is an invention and ordinance of man, a sacrifice of Antichrist… and that it is a stinking and infected sepulchre, which hideth and covereth the merit of the blood of Christ; and therefore ought the Mass to be abolished”. … “When we have overthrown the Mass” said Luther,” we shall have overthrown the whole Papacy with it. For it is upon the Mass, as upon a rock, that the Papacy rests - with its bishoprics, its colleges, its altars, its ministers, and its doctrines. All these cannot fail to fall once their sacrilegious and abominable Mass crumbles to the dust” (Martin Luther, Against Henry King of England, Werke, Vol 10, pg 220).
St. Alphonsus: “The devil has always attempted, by means of heretics, to deprive the world of the Mass, making them precursors of the antichrist, who before anything else, will try to abolish and will actually abolish the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as a punishment for the sins of men, according to the prediction of Daniel, ‘And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice (Dan 8:12)’.” (St. Alphonsus, The Dignities and Duties of The Priest, p. 212)
It may seem that such changes have no effect of people, but that is not correct. Just look at the fruits of the changes that have been introduced into the Novus Ordo. They are the same fruits produced by the heretics in the 16th century. The sacrificial aspect of the Mass (what the Mass is) has all but disappeared in the minds of Catholics, reverence for the Eucharist has diminished, and the true faith has all but disappeared. All these fruits have a cause. The way a person prays (lex orandi) will have a profound effect on what he believes (lex credendi).
**Pope Leo XIII: **"They [the heretics of the 16th century] knew only too well the intimate bond which unites faith with worship, ‘the law of belief with the law of prayer’(lex orandi, lex credendi), and so, under the pretext of restoring it to its primitive form, they corrupted the order of the liturgy in many respects to adapt it to the errors of the Innovators (reformers)” (Apostolicae Curae).
Luther and Cranmer knew what fruits their changes would produce and they were right. Within one generation the Catholics in England lost the faith. They went from being Catholic to being Anglicans as a result of changes in the Mass and external pressure from the religious and secular authorities.
Now, with the above quote from Luther in mind read what the Vatican Newspaper had to say about the liturgical reform:
L’Osservatore Romano: “We must strip from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic liturgy everything that could constitute the slightest stumbling block or displeasure for our separated brethren, that is, for the Protestants” (L’Osservatore Romano, March 16, 1965)."
What was the result?
**L’Osservatore Romano: **“Liturgical reform has taken a notable step forward on the path of ecumenism. It has come closer to the liturgical reforms of the Lutheran Church”. (L’ Osservatore Romano October 13, 1967)
We now have a Catholic Mass that has incorporated virtually all of the external changes intruduced by the heretics of the 16th century. The result is a Catholic Mass that is virtually identical to what I grew up with as an Episcopal (Anglical). In fact, after my sister attended her first Novus Ordo Mass she called me on the phone and said *“that was just like Church when we were kids. I followed right along”. *
As should have been expected, the changes that were incorporated into the Catholic Mass in the late 60’s and early 70’s produced the same fruits as they did when they were introduced by the heretics in the 6th century.
continue…
