In prefaces of masses commemorating apostles, we have it most clearly.

Before the ‘reforms’, this Preface petitioned the Almighty: “Te Domine suppliciter exorare”.

Readers, I hope, will remember the host of supplicatory clauses I gathered together in my first part of this piece.

This preface stands squarely in that ancient tradition. And what it seeks from the Almighty is that he will not desert his flock, but continue to govern it by the same Apostolic Rulers. 

The post-Conciliar version of this preface does something quite different: something quite opposite. It thanks the Almighty that he does continue so to govern his flock.

Demonstrating a sort of smug awaress replacing a creaturely humility.

 

Moments of silence rare or absent, depending on priest’s preferences, which can vary day to day.

Head trip for all: instruct, instruct, instruct. Less experience than lesson.

All to meet “pastoral” needs, which can also vary day to day.

Closes off possibilities of interior life, mimicking the world as it is.

Who needs it?

Plus distractions.

Reader lady, who reciting the closing line says alarmingly, repeatedly, “Let us pray TO the Lord,” as if to fend off the heresy that says we can pray only about the Lord, because He can’t or won’t listen to us and/or we dare not make bold to do so.

Part of the great preposition war raging in today’s church.

Not just prepositions. Priest intones “ALL the saints,” lest we be choosy in the matter. And not just on All Saints Day.

Can (maybe) solve this problem with meditation on and prayers to the saint(s) of the day as in traditional liturgy shot down by the incumbent pontiff. Remembering the heroes, who gave all for the faith. Like these.

Regrets are a pain in the behind. They can consume you if you don’t watch out.

Solution lies somewhere between accepting God and accepting God very much.

Don’t worry about overdoing it. That won’t happen. In a million years it won’t, which is short for never.

 

They lost their heads over Jesus. In their own back yard.

[They] were brothers and officers of the Roman army in the days of Constantine the Great, and life was good. But their preferments and rewards for loyal service were about to go away.

New man in charge, Julian the Apostate raised a Christian, had returned to the cult of idols and was attempting to re-establish it in the empire. dropped all that and embraced paganism and would restore it to its former ascendancy. The brothers resigned their position in the palace, seeing many who went along with this and prospered.

Not for us, they said. The emperor tried to win them back. Gave them ten days to think it over. They spent the time giving everything they had to poor people. The emperor sent the imperial officer Terentianus,  who brought “a little idol of Jupiter for their adoration.” He found them in prayer. They said no and in the middle of that night were decapitated in their own garden, secretly because the emperor feared their execution might cause a sedition.

He instigated a rumor that they had been exiled but demons used people to broadcast their martyrdom, including the officer’s son, and it was only after the father prayed at the martyrs’ tomb that the child was liberated. This so impressed him that he became a Christian, with all his family, and wrote the history we have reported.

The brothers? By their renouncement of favors and their heroic resistance, they purchased never-fading glory, more than the emperor could provide in a million years, figuratively speaking.

Their basilica

. . . sits atop one of the seven hills of ancient Rome and since the fifth century, their names have been included in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Their feast day is celebrated on June 26, the date of their martyrdom.

Such a little thing the officer asked, just worship this little idol and we’re outa here. Nothing would have happened here. Was that too much for the emperor to require? Turns out it was, and we 21st-century worshipers can pray these days,

O Almighty God, let our joy be doubled on this feast of the victory of blessed John and Paul, for they were made true brothers by sharing the same faith and the same martyrdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father almighty and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

Amen.

The Lord be with you, after which, “Let us pray.”

Love Letters to the Latin Mass 4: The Priest Leads Us to the Lord . . .

Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. It is not now a question of dialogue, but of common worship, of setting off towards the One who is to come. What corresponds with the reality of what is happening is not the closed circle, but the common movement forward expressed in a common direction for prayer. (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Pope Benedict
XVI], The Spirit of the Liturgy, 81)

During Mass, we very rarely see our priest’s face. . . . we see his back, but that is how it should be when you are being led. The only time we see his face are . . . when he turns back to beckon us to join him in prayer.

V: Dominus vobiscum. [The lord be with you.]

R: Et cum spiritu tuo. [And with your spirit.]

V: Oremus.[Let
us pray]

”

The Mass is not intended merely to entertain or be a meal

Some have claimed that having the priest face the people better represents the communal meal shared by the apostles at the Last Supper. Others have stated that the priest can communicate better when facing the congregation. Yet this is not the underlying purpose of the Mass.

https://dennisbyrne.substack.com/p/and-god-said-let-there-be-dna

https://jimbowman.substack.com/p/franz-liszt-to-the-barricades-of?sd=pf

https://jimbowman.substack.com/p/jesuits-in-training-philosophy-195457

https://jimbowman.substack.com/p/when-the-family-invaded-the-biggest?sd=pf

https://open.substack.com/pub/williamfvallicella/p/the-paradox-of-the-misanthropic-naturalist?r=7gnir&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web