Further, ‘active participation’ is now being explained as paying attention, not merely getting up and down, singing peppy tunes, shaking hands, etc.
Some people (clergy among) decided to wrest “active participation” away from its traditional meaning and confuse it with “activity” rather than “authenticity” and “reality”. It’s taken a while to flush that artificiality and discontinuity out of the system.
All surveys point to the fact that actual participation in the Church is down significantly since the new Mass was invented. Therefore, it seems the physical ‘active participation’ inserted into the OF has not achieved what it intended.
I agree that mere physical action is of no avail. But that was not what the Church called for. When you speak of “physical ‘active participation’ inserted into the OF,” do you mean people’s insertion of physical activity, or the liturgy itself?
Physical gestures are indeed important and have a rightful place in our liturgy. At the NO Mass I attended this past Sunday the majority of people didn’t genuflect before getting into their pew and not one person I observed bowed prior to receiving Holy Communion…
That is very disappointing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the priest himself did not bow during the Creed. Pastors
need to teach their flocks about these things, because so many of them have been brought up not knowing a thing about them!
Conversely, at the old new Tridentine Mass people aren’t getting up and down as much, nor reciting the prayers (i.e. Gloria, Sanctus, Agnes Dei) but everyone genuflects, kneels for Holy Communion, and respects the concept of reverent silence in the nave.
It would be great if you all would do
both, the exterior participation (vocal as well) with the internal participation.
“Filled as We are with a most ardent desire to see
the true Christian spirit flourish in every respect and be preserved by all the faithful, We deem it necessary to provide before anything else for the sanctity and dignity of the temple, in which the faithful assemble for no other object than that of acquiring this spirit from
its foremost and indispensable font, which
is the active participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church. … Special efforts are to be made to
restore the use of the Gregorian Chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in the ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times.” (Pope Pius X,
Tra la sollecitudini)
“In order
that the faithful may more actively participate in divine worship, let them be made once more to sing the Gregorian Chant, so far as it belongs to them to take part in it. It is most important that when the faithful assist at the sacred ceremonies, or when pious sodalities take part with the clergy in a procession,
they should not be merely detached and silent spectators, but, filled with a deep sense of the beauty of the Liturgy, they should sing alternately with the clergy or the choir, as it is prescribed. If this is done, then
it will no longer happen that the people either make no answer at all to the public prayers – whether in the language of the Liturgy or in the vernacular –
or at best utter the responses in a low and subdued manner.” (Pope Pius XI,
Divini Cultus)
“[L]ocal Ordinaries and the other pastors should take great care that
the faithful from their earliest years should
learn at least the easier and more frequently used Gregorian melodies, and should know how to employ them in the sacred liturgical rites, so that in this way also the unity and the universality of the Church may shine forth more powerfully every day.” (Pope Pius XII,
Musicae Sacrae)
“
Interior participation is the most important; this consists in paying
devout attention, and in lifting up the heart to God in prayer. … The participation of the congregation becomes
more complete, however, when, in addition to this interior disposition,
exterior participation is manifested by external acts, such as bodily position (kneeling, standing, sitting), ceremonial signs, and especially responses, prayers, and singing. The Supreme Pontiff Pius XII, in his encyclical on the sacred liturgy,
Mediator Dei, recommended this form of participation. …
When the papal documents treat of ‘active participation’ they are speaking of this general participation, of which the outstanding example is the priest, and his ministers who serve at the altar with the proper interior dispositions, and carefully observe the rubrics, and ceremonies.
Active participation is perfect when “sacramental” participation is included. … Since
adequate instruction is necessary before the faithful can intelligently, and actively participate in the Mass, it will help to note here a very wise law enacted by the Council of Trent: …” (Sacred Congregation for Rites under Pope Pius XII,
De Musica Sacra)
“
This [full, conscious and active] participation should be above all internal, in the sense that by it the faithful join their mind to what they pronounce or hear, and cooperate with heavenly grace, [but] must be, on the other hand,
external also, that is, such as to show the internal participation by gestures and bodily attitudes, by the acclamations, responses and singing.
The faithful should also be taught to unite themselves interiorly to what the ministers or choir sing, so that by listening to them they may raise their minds to God.” (Sacred Congregation of Rites under Pope Paul VI,
Musicam Sacram)
