What changes would you make to the Extraordinary Form, if you could?

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Ha! That Horologion in the picture? Did you notice those beautifully un-frayed and unbraided ribbons? That’s because it’s been sitting on my shelf for 6 years. Someday, when the kids are grown…
 
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I was pretty busy lately, but now I’ll gladly explain my reasons for the changes 😀
Add the universal prayers, but they’d be conducted by the priest, follow some set formulas and be completely optional.
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I think a moment of a fervent supplication to the Lord would be a profitable thing for the Church. It’s also present in (at least) the byzantine rite, so I think that would make the liturgy more universal. I’d suggest you to take a look at “The Prayers of the People” in “Divine Worship: The Missal”, specially form III, so you could have an idea of what I’m talking about.
Eliminate the need of the priest to read the parts sung by the choir.
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Having the priest to read the parts the parts sung by the choir kind of makes the choir a superfluous part of the mass, like just a decoration. I think that’s awkward.
The introit would be sung before the asperges,
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I understand the Asperges is not part of the mass, but it could be incorporated into it or become a brief intermission, like the homily. The Introit is supposed to be the entrance chant, so I don’t think it makes sense to sing or play whatever during the entrance then sing the Introit during the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. Speaking of which…
and adding ancient tropes to the Kyrie would be allowed, in a similar way to the Penitential Rite C of the OF.
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Well, I’m not talking about those ad lib tropes added to the modern rite. I’m talking about ancient tropes, such as this one: Benedictine Chant - Kyrie Fons Bonitatis - YouTube
I think adding tropes to everything would make the mass a mess, but restoring the tradition of singing troparies to the Kyrie would make it more prayerful and add something more for the faithful to meditate. When I mentioned the rite C, I was referring to the fact that there’s a trope to each session of the Kyrie, instead of to each invocation. That would make the Kyrie huge.
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Add a reading, like the OF, and I’d make a new lectionary, with a new reading for each ferial day, the readings of the other days remaining intact.
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No, I was just talking about adding a reading, like it was done in the past and it is currently done in the byzantine rite. Also, I wasn’t talking about creating a 3 year lectionary. I was suggesting to add new readings to the ferial days, instead of just repeating the readings of the last Sunday.
The responsorial psalm and the acclamation of the Gospel could be an alternative to the gradual and alleluia, as long as the psalm be the same of the gradual and the verse of the acclamation of the gospel be the sabe as the one from the alleluia.
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I’m not trying to “Novus Ordoize” the Tridentine Mass. The responsorial psalm and the acclamation of the Gospel would be a better alternative to small parishes with a not so experienced choir than setting the gradual and alleluia to a simple psalm tone, which ends in, like, 10 seconds max. Actually, based on the Byzantine Rite and analyzing gregorian chant, I suspect the responsorial psalm and the acclamation were the original form of the gradual and alleluia.
Anyway, I didn’t mention that in the original post, but an easier Graduale, with simpler propers, would be pretty useful. Something like the Graduale Simplex tried to be, but failed miserably.
Write a new, shorter confiteor, but preserving all the main elements of the EF confiteor.
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The NO confiteor is actually pretty different from the tridentine one.
The current EF confiteor is a tongue twister, so, when the faithful recite it before communion, it turns into a jumbled mess of chaos.
I use a shorter confiteor for my personal prayers before sleeping, I think it would be nice to share with you:
“I confess to Almighty God, to Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, to Blessed Michael Archangel and to all the saints and angels, (and to thee, Father) that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word,
deed and omission; by my fault, by my fault, by my own most grievous fault. Wherefore I beg thee to pray for me to the Lord our God.”
Allow some traditionally silent parts to be said aloud: the secret, the consecration, the anamnesis, the doxology of the Canon, all the prayers from the end of the Pater Noster until the Agnus Dei and the last gospel at sung masses.
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My idea is to render hand missals unnecessary. Audible consecration, anamnesis and doxology is everything you need to understand what’s going on during the Canon. Of course, it would be optional.
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Allow missa cantata with one acolyte.
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Why not missa cantata too?
Allow singing the ordinary at spoken masses; the propers could also be sung, but only in psalm tone.
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When the people start reading the ordinary, it becomes a mess, a chaotic mass of sound. Singing it would be a better option. An alternative would be banning Dialogue Mass, Silent Mass becoming the only option of Low Mass.
Allow the Pater Noster to be chanted by everyone.
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As you mentioned, we’re already used to it.
Allow the final blessing to be chanted, the prayers before the distribution of the Eucharist too.
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Maybe it’s my misophonia speaking out loud.
Add longer, solemn blessings, such as the ones from the OF.
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I didn’t know the longer blessings of the OF were ad lib. In this case, longer blessings could be prescribed for I and II class feasts.
Allow bishops to celebrate priest mass, or at least make some adaptations to allow high masses with less assistants and make an adapted missa cantata (not high mass).
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I’m not suggesting giving up the Pontifical High Mass, but think of smaller dioceses with a low number of resources and people. It would be useful to have something more solemn than a Low Mass, when they can’t afford celebrating a Pontifical High Mass.
Readings executed turned to the people
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Readings turned back to the people is pretty awkward.
Permit vernacular in the following situations: readings (including the last gospel), the prayers of the priest from the propers (collect, secret and post communion), the responsorial psalm and acclamation of the gospel with the bishop’s consent, and, in dioceses with a great number of illiteracy, all the audible parts of the mass, except for the consecration.
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I don’t think I mentioned saying them. Well,they could be chanted in vernacular so hand missals could become unnecessary. The Secret could be chanted aloud because it’s one of the most important prayers IMO. The sacrificial nature of the mass becomes very explicit, and nowadays, with that protestant epidemic, it would be useful to make it very clear.
Move the dismissal to after the blessing.
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I agree that was pretty arbitrary of my part. I just think it feels awkward.
 
But there is a reason why it isn’t prayed in the vernacular by the priest. The priest knows Latin.

We laity can pray in the vernacular. It’s right there in the missal.

I love having to use my missal. It keeps me focused on the Mass. It keeps me from looking around and being distracted by various things.

And you know even if the church allowed the EF to be prayed in the vernacular by the priest, I would still use my missal. There are a lot of prayers that the priest prays inaudibly.

I think it was my 3rd EF iirc. I happened to have a pen with me and I made a few notes in my missal during the Mass. Kneel, stand, etc. Helped me keep up.

I even use a missal for the OF.
 
  1. Stand for the Gradual (Alleluia) and during the entire Nicene Creed (instead of sitting down). That really irks me.
  2. Sit for the Epistle.
 
I attend an ICKSP church, last Easter the Holy Week was done as per pre-1955 and we were told that all traditional groups had been given permission to revert to pre-1955 for 3 years on an experimental basis.
 
Very well written… all of the above! Get on the liturgy and sacraments commission in your diocese!
 
I would like it if the Extraordinary Form was available in the vernacular (in addition to its Latin version). Honestly, doing just that while keeping everything else the same would probably massively increase its popularity. I really like some things in the Extraordinary Form but the fact it’s in a language I don’t understand is a huge stumbling block.
 
I’d probably feel like I’m worshipping in the manner of many generations of Irish Catholic ancestors.
 
I would really just see both Missals suppressed, and the best elements of both combined into a unified Use of the Roman Rite.

Ordinary Form Calendar, with optional Ember and Rogation days. I am not a fan of Septuagesima and I will not clamor for its return.
Optional prayers at the foot of the altar, with a single, Ordinary Form confiteor.
Mandatory Introits, Offertories, Communion
Ordinary Form Lectionary
Gradual instead of Responsorial Psalm.
Nicene Creed only. Drop the Apostles’ Creed as an option, except in QA form when a baptism is celebrated.
Fixed forms of the Prayers of the Faithful, mandatory on Sundays and Solemnities. No free-form compositions.
Extraordinary Form Offertory prayers; suppress the Blessed are you Lord God of all creation… of the OF
One Eucharistic Prayer at all times: the Roman Canon, retain the Memorial Acclamation, insert appropriate epiclesis (e.g. from EP III), suppress all other Eucharistic Prayers. Optional silent Canon, except for the institution narrative.
Canonical digits
Communal Our Father. Priest keeps his hands folded (as a communal prayer, it’s no longer presidential and he should no longer extend his hands)
Single, communal “Lord I am not worthy…”
Communion kneeling at a rail.
Kneeling at final blessing.
Optional Last Gospel.
 
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Too many options. This is why people prefer the EF to begin with.
 
porthos11 said:
Gradual instead of Responsorial Psalm.
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Good luck with that, they are among the harder chants to master, especially since a great many of them change key at the psalm verse, which is even more ornate than the initial antiphon. I’m not sure you’ll have much success in finding someone to sing them in St-Frigid-in-deepest-Québec. Our schola typically doesn’t use them as, well, they’re rather hard for some of our members; I do sing the first part at the abbey with the community (the schola always sings the verse alone) and I have most of the Mode V ones down pat, but the modes I, II, III and VII ones… . We do one gradual only, the Christus factus est which we sing on Holy Saturday at Lauds (where it takes the place of the responsory). We’ve spent YEARS trying to master it, and we’ve got it down pretty well now,

Instead I would opt for a responsorial psalm from the Graduale Simplex for most parishes. The antiphon can be “vernacularized” but kept on the Gregorian tones. In fact for most parishes the Graduale Simplex would be a better choice than the Graduale Romanum which I would leave for monasteries and perhaps cathedrals with chapters of canons.

Something along the lines of the Simple English Propers can be also used, or an equivalent in other languages that lend themselves to Gregorian tones.

One could also simplify the Gradual but then you end up with just a run-of-the-mill antiphon and psalm verse, at that point you may as well just have a responsorial psalm.
porthos11 said:
One Eucharistic Prayer at all times: the Roman Canon, retain the Memorial Acclamation, insert appropriate epiclesis (e.g. from EP III), suppress all other Eucharistic Prayers. Optional silent Canon, except for the institution narrative.
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I’m not a fan of the Roman Canon. Won’t get into the reasons here, but I’ll let you have it half the time if you let me have EP IV half the time 😉 EP IV is my favourite, beautiful language, nice history of the economy of salvation. Yes, I do hear it regularly, the abbey rotates through all the 4 main EPs.
 
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