Confiteor and Roman Canon are fading out of use

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I am discerning so I know if I become a priest I can do things how I want in liturgy. Though not always the case. My spiritual advisor who is a priest, my age (35) is kind of traditional like me , actually he served the EF in high school and college. But he was telling me sometimes you need to just be charitable to laity, you can’t just walk into a parish as the new priest and say “I don’t want this done anymore” etc. He was saying how he has to do a folk mass and that takes some charity on his part. So yes you do have freedom to say the liturgy as you choose from the missal, however the laity do have a lot of say in how the mass is done.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
This is just another case of “I like Prayer A, why doesn’t the priest do what I want.”
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I agree with you that it is the priest’s call to make. But, with regards specifically to the Roman Canon, I disagree that this is another case of “I like Prayer A, why doesn’t the priest do what I want”. The Roman Canon goes all the way back to the 6th century at least (Gregory I). So, while the Church certainly allows other options, it should always maintain a place of privilege. So I do not think it should be entirely absent from use by any priest. Certainly the common layman should not go through months, nay years, without hearing it. I think it has “faded out of use” and I think this is wrong, not just a matter of priests not doing what I want.
 
tafan2 said:
Certainly the common layman should not go through months, nay years, without hearing it. I think it has “faded out of use” and I think this is wrong, not just a matter of priests not doing what I want.
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Looking at the thread responses, it does not appear that most Catholics are going through months, much less years, without hearing this prayer.

Much ado about nothing, especially since if anything, the prayer seems to be increasing in frequency of use.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Looking at the thread responses, it does not appear that most Catholics are going through months, much less years, without hearing this prayer.
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Perhaps its just the few parishes I regularly attend. The last time I heard the Roman Canon was in late June. Prior to that it was at a Latin OF mass the first week of lent. Prior to that it had likely been the previous June. I certainly have gone more than a year without hearing it. I typically split my Sunday masses between to local parishes, and I attend 2 or 3 daily masses in a typical week spread between three local parishes. Only the mass at the beginning of Lent was at any of these parishes. I would say, based on the my experience in this forum, all three of these parishes are on the conservative side of things liturgically. As I said above, I don’t have much to complain about. So I assume the Roman Canon would be said even less in most parishes. But I admit that I could be wrong. But to me, its not much ado about nothing.
 
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I don’t understand why the Confiteor can’t just be the one. Why all these options? It was shortened already in the OF Missal.
In the EF it is:
I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints, and to you, brethren, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed: through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore I beseech blessed Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Saints, and you, brethren, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Also it is recited twice, first by the priest then the server. Also some informally say it before receiving communion even though that was removed by Pope Saint John Xlll in the 1962 Missal thus it technically isn’t the EF to do that.

In the OF it is:
I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned,in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,through my fault, through my fault,through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
 
What do you mean by Roman Canon?
From reading the thread, it seems like the Confiteor and the Roman Canon are substituted for one another. ??
 
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The Roman Canon is Eucharistic Prayer 1, which contains the names of all the early saints, "Peter and Paul, Andrew, James and John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, and all your saints. "

And then later it says, “For ourselves, too, we ask some share in the fellowship of your apostles and martyrs, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, (Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia) and all the saints.”

Usually they work the name of the saint who the church is named for, the saint whose feast day it is, and any other special local saints into there someplace (in Philadelphia they often mention St. John Neumann and St. Katherine Drexel).

I’ve always enjoyed hearing all the names reeled off.

It’s the oldest Eucharistic Prayer.
 
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Prodigal1984 said:
Half the time I go to mass the confiteor isn’t said, but some other shortened thing.
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Are you sure this isn’t just a summer thing? when it is 90 degrees and we have no air conditioning our priest will shorten what is allowed. Much easier than having to call a squad when a parishioner faints.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The Roman Canon is Eucharistic Prayer 1…
It’s the oldest Eucharistic Prayer.
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You’d be surprised, then, to learn that it’s not the oldest. EP3, I believe, is the one with the elements that are the oldest.
Prodigal1984 said:
I don’t understand why the Confiteor can’t just be the one. Why all these options?
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If you do end up going to seminary, you’ll learn that the Liturgy isn’t a single, static, same-in-all-times-and-places celebration. There have been many forms of the liturgy throughout the history of the Church, and the notion of a “single form” is a new one (well, relatively speaking 😉 ).

With this in mind, you’ll come to realize that what you perceive as mere “options” are really just various elements of a variety of Catholic liturgies, all (most?) of which have ancient provenance. Including them in the normative rite, then, is a nod to the richness of Catholic liturgy and liturgical tradition down through the ages.
 
Gorgias said:
You’d be surprised, then, to learn that it’s not the oldest. EP3, I believe, is the one with the elements that are the oldest.
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I have heard this said before, but I am rather skeptical. Parts of EP 1 are certainly from one of the Easter liturgies that was dated in the early 4th century.9
 
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Gorgias said:
You’d be surprised, then, to learn that it’s not the oldest. EP3, I believe, is the one with the elements that are the oldest.
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I did misspeak slightly; it’s the oldest one in the Roman Rite. Just doublechecked on Wikipedia.

It is possible that one of the other rites has older anaphora.
However, it does appear that EP1 is older than EP3.

Feel free to post a source if you have one saying otherwise.
 
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Prodigal1984 said:
Half the time I go to mass the confiteor isn’t said, but some other shortened thing. Sometimes it’s like the priest just makes it up.
90% of the time I go to mass it is EP 2 which is so incredibly short.
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I know what you mean.

It seems to be a regional thing.

In my area, only one priest always uses the Confiteor.

The few times I’ve seen the Confiteor used in my neck of the woods, the priest or cantor screws up by skipping the Lord Have Mercy.

And only one uses the Roman Canon (same priest who always does the Confiteor).

However at our Cathedral- they always do the Confiteor on Sundays, but not any of the Parishes near me.

I once asked a priest why he (and others) don’t use the Confiteor and why they almost never use the Roman Canon. He said because the they are both longer.
 
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In our parish it depends on the priest (we have a few as ours is of a religious order). There are those who manage to get the Mass said and done in record time. They rarely if ever use the Confiteor. I sometimes say it myself quietly while Fr is saying whatever else form there is. The priests who show more reverence for the Mass are more likely to use the Confiteor.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Looking at the thread responses, it does not appear that most Catholics are going through months, much less years, without hearing this prayer.
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My Parishes goes months without hearing them.

I can literally count on one hand how many times I’ve heard my pastor use the Confiteor in 6 years, and I’ve never heard him do the Roman Canon.
 
I hear the Confiteor often, 90% of the Masses I have been to or seen have used the Confiteor.
 
Rarely hear the confiteor anymore. Started saying it myself silently.
EP 2 or 3 are heard most often here.
 
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