The Last Gospel

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I’ve been on vacation for the past week and have encountered a number of fellow Catholics during my travel time on the rails. On the train down to California, I met a woman who is a convert to Catholicism. We discussed many things about the faith, from the Eastern churches to the Second Vatican Council… She asked me if I had a missal handy because she wanted to see a parallel Engish/Latin translation of the Our Father. Well, the only missal I happened to have in my bag this last week was my 1962 missal. So I got it out and turned to the Our Father so she could see the texts side by side. She immediately noticed that she was looking at a completely different Order of the Mass than the one she was used to and started asking me questions about it and the subsequent changes that were made when the Novus Ordo was composed/promulgated.

One of many questions which I did not have an answer for was “What happened to the Last Gospel? It’s the perfect thing to be proclaimed before the dismissal!” I’ve often wondered it myself but haven’t been able to find the “official” explanation as to why such a wonderful proclamation/reminder of our faith/what the Mass is all about has been removed from the Order of the Mass. Anybody got the official story behind it?
 
Amen. I have always loved the Last Gospel “In the Beginning was the Word…” And have been saddened that it isn’t read any more, but no Idea WHY it was stopped. A pity really. It was the perfect ending to the celebration of the Eucharist every time…
 
The reasons I have heard for the removal of the Last Gospel are that the the Gospel readings should be in the Mass of the Catechumens[Liturgy of the Word] and not the Mass of the Faithful[Liturgy of the Eucharist]. In reality the last Gospel was after Mass because the dismissal was already given. ANother reason it was taken away was that the Orthodox said that this was a Gallican addition to the Mass that was not in the Mass originally. In the name of ecumenism it was taken out.
 
Catholic Eagle:
In the name of ecumenism it was taken out.
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This is not true.

Part of the reform of the Mass was the removal of things that were added to the Mass. To restore the Mass to what it was instead of what it had become.

The Last Gospel was an addition to the Mass and part of the proof of this is that it occured after the dismissal. The dismissal is the end of the Mass. As the Last Gospel occured after this, it in essence continued the Mass after the end.
 
Just wondering does anyone know the reason the prayers at the end of Mass were removed?

The Hail Holy Queen, the 3 Hail Mary’s and the Prayer to St. Micheal etc.
 
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Mandi:
Just wondering does anyone know the reason the prayers at the end of Mass were removed?

The Hail Holy Queen, the 3 Hail Mary’s and the Prayer to St. Micheal etc.
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Again, they were additions. They were not part of the Mass until later.

The reform of the Mass was partially an attempt to return the Mass to what it had been originally.
 
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ByzCath:
The reform of the Mass was partially an attempt to return the Mass to what it had been originally.
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Do you think they succeeded?

I find it hard to believe that it resembles anything it did in past years.
 
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Mandi:
Do you think they succeeded?

I find it hard to believe that it resembles anything it did in past years.
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Well now, this is an insteresting topic.

I, as a Byzantine Catholic, am looking at it from the outside.

The Mass as it is currently, when done according to the rubrics, is wonderful and I can see it as a reform of the Trad Latin Mass. When you really look at it, it isn’t that much different.

It even parallels the Divine Liturgy pretty much.

So yes I do think they succeeded but they did it in a way that I wouldn’t have.
 
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Mandi:
Just wondering does anyone know the reason the prayers at the end of Mass were removed?

The Hail Holy Queen, the 3 Hail Mary’s and the Prayer to St. Micheal etc.
Click to expand...
Some churches still say the Leonine Prayers, it’s just not required any more. 😦
 
Actually Pope John Paul II asked all Catholic Church to bring the Leonine prayers back at the end of Mass in 1994. But no one listened and EWTN [on the internet question and answer forums]even said that this was a bad decision by the Pope because it interrupts the flow of the Liturgy.
 
Byzcath:
The New Mass is farther away from the Divine Liturgies of the Byzantine Tradition than the Traditional Latin Mass. Read Cardinal Ottoviani’s Intervention on the New Mass. This was written in 1968 to prevent the spread of the New Mass. Chapter 7 is on the resemblence of the NO Mass to the Eastern Liturgies.
Read and enjoy
www.dailycatholic.org/issue/2001sep/sep14cru.htm and scroll down the page to Chapter 7
 
Catholic Eagle:
Byzcath:
The New Mass is farther away from the Divine Liturgies of the Byzantine Tradition than the Traditional Latin Mass. Read Cardinal Ottoviani’s Intervention on the New Mass. This was written in 1968 to prevent the spread of the New Mass. Chapter 7 is on the resemblence of the NO Mass to the Eastern Liturgies.
Read and enjoy
www.dailycatholic.org/issue/2001sep/sep14cru.htm and scroll down the page to Chapter 7
Click to expand...
I will look at it when I get time but I have a work produced by Miles Jesu (www.milesjesu.com), it is Comparison of E & W Liturgies. This can be found at their bookstore on the site listed under Other Literature.

This shows how they compare. I would not trust a work whose sole goal is to show how the Mass is deficient.
 
Catholic Eagle:
Byzcath:
Click to expand...
The New Mass is farther away from the Divine Liturgies of the Byzantine Tradition than the Traditional Latin Mass. Read Cardinal Ottoviani’s Intervention on the New Mass. This was written in 1968 to prevent the spread of the New Mass. Chapter 7 is on the resemblence of the NO Mass to the Eastern Liturgies.
Read and enjoy
www.dailycatholic.org/issue/2001sep/sep14cru.htm and scroll down the page to Chapter 7

The link I gave is a bad link. The true link is www.dailycatholic.org/issue/2001Sep/sep14cru.htm
 
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