Pre-Vatican II Mass

[schustej]

A couple of responses to comments earlier in this thread: not all pre-Vatican II Masses were with the priest with his back to the people – churches with the altar in the center of the congregation were built as early as the 1930s - see the churches in Detroit and St. Louis dedicated to St. Therese, the “Little Flower.”
In Orthodoxy, the Liturgy of St. James is sometimes celebrated versus populum - with the altar brought out in front of the iconostasis.
Liturgical history is rarely as simple as most of us want to make it.

 

[commenter]

A couple of responses to comments earlier in this thread: not all pre-Vatican II Masses were with the priest with his back to the people – churches with the altar in the center of the congregation were built as early as the 1930s - see the churches in Detroit and St. Louis dedicated to St. Therese, the “Little Flower.”
In Orthodoxy, the Liturgy of St. James is sometimes celebrated versus populum - with the altar brought out in front of the iconostasis.
Liturgical history is rarely as simple as most of us want to make it.

I would prefer people not describe the priest as saying Mass “with his back to the people”. Better, to describe what, or rather Who, the priest is facing, in union with his people. There is a sense of unity, of orientation, that has been lost.

When I am in the front pew, I can’t see most of the other people in church. But I feel united to them.

 

[corsair]

Why not just let this thread pass on into history. Its almost 4 years old.