Best is to attend an EF mass and see for yourself!
Don’t forget that the priest would say most of the Mass in a low voice inaudible to the congregation.
The priest does not have his back to the people - he is facing Christ in the Eucharist along with the people. They are praising God together. The Mass is more Eucharist centered when the priest is facing East, and less “priest centered” or “people centered”.
Sorry, I don’t want to criticize but this is just a play on semantics. Yes, he is facing East with the people, but from the people’s perspective the back of the priest is facing them.
In a usual New rite Mass the Eucharist is on the altar only about 10 minutes out of the over an hour celebration: from the words of the consecration till the communion .
Ok, but to the person in the second row, the back of the people in the first row is facing them. It doesn’t seem rude in that case, does it?
Correct.
Are you embarrassed by the fact that practically none of the Mass is audible, so you need to make sure that no one brings it up? After all, the OP asked if people would get accustomed to all the texts by hearing them so often, and the truth is that most of the texts they would probably never hear – from the prayers at the foot of the altar, through the consecration, all the way up to the Last Gospel.
That canon doesn’t cover modern, abstract vestments.
Well then, the people in the pews in front of me are celebrating Mass with their backs to me, and I take offense at that.
After Vatican Council II the priest can still celebrate the whole Mass in Latin with “his back to the people”, i.e. he can still celebrate Mass ad orientem. This includes celebrating the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (often referred to by many as the Novus Ordo (NO) of Pope Paul VI). It isn’t limited to the Extraordinary Form (often called the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Tridentine Mass).
The most abstract vestments I’ve seen date to the 1920’s… beautiful black velvet fiddleback, with extensive silver-threat blackwork-type embroidery… in what appeared to be random swirls. With colored beads worked in. Almost randomly.
Yes. I attend every Sunday New rite mass where the priest faces the altar (his back toward the people) . This is new mass, in English and to be read or chant aloud. ( stpetervolo.org/ )
That is your problem.
But not the ONLY Liturgy in use before Vatican II.
And for that matter, the Mass of Rome wasn’t always in the form we know it today.It is important to remember why before Vatican II took place that mass was in Latin for so long instead of vernacular. Same goes with the priest with his back to the people and facing God. I am not saying that the Latin mass is wrong or the new mass is either. There is a book called this is mass by Henri David Ropps and the mass is celebrated by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Of course this is pre-Vatican II book, so this should be of help to you.
