By the grace of God, we now have the privilege of attending Low Masses in the Extraordinary Form every Monday at St. Josaphat Church at 7:00 PM, and every Tuesday at Windsor’s Assumption Church at 7:00 PM. In an effort to answer questions that have been posed regarding the congregation’s spoken responses at a Low Mass, we present the remaining relevant excerpts from the authoritative document, De Música Sacra, the Instruction on Sacred Music and Sacred Liturgy issued in 1958 by the Sacred Congregation for Rites (now known as the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments):[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for August 8, 2010. Hat tip to A.B.]33. The faithful may sing hymns during low Mass, if they are appropriate to the various parts of the mass.Local Custom for the Responses
34. Where the rubrics prescribe the clara voce, the celebrant must recite the prayers loud enough so that the faithful can properly, and conveniently follow the sacred rites. This must be given special attention in a large church, and before a large congregation.
[End of citations]
De Música Sacra permits varying customs to evolve in different places as to which responses are made by the congregation. At London, England’s Brompton Oratory, for example, the congregation is silent throughout the entire Low Mass. At the churches in Detroit and Windsor where this column is distributed, the congregation joins in all of the responses of the Low Mass except the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar at the start of Mass. This custom is also observed at High Mass.
Being customs and not rubrics, there is nothing inherently wrong with members of the congregation participating in more or fewer of the responses along with the altar servers.
Postures During Low Mass
Similar to the rules on making responses, the particular postures for the congregation during Holy Mass are matters of custom rather than rubrics. In practice, there is more consistency from church to church with regards to posture than with regards to the responses.
Postures for Low Mass are as follows:Stand: Entrance of priestPostures During High Mass
Kneel: From beginning to Gospel
Stand: At the Gospel
Stand: At the Credo
Sit: During the Offertory
Kneel: From the Sanctus to the Last Gospel
Stand: At the Last Gospel
Kneel: Prayers After Low Mass
Stand: Exit of priest
As long as we are on the subject, it is appropriate to list the postures during Sung Masses, both Missa Cantata (celebrated by a priest alone) and Solemn High (celebrated by a priest with the assistance of a deacon and subdeacon):Stand: During the processional entryYoung Adult Pilgrimage in Diocese of Lansing
Stand: During the Aspérges
Kneel: From beginning to Glória
Stand: At the intoning of the Glória
If the congregation sings, remain standing.
If the choir only, sit when the clergy do.
Stand: Dóminus Vobíscum and Collect(s)
Sit: At the singing of the Epistle
Stand: At the singing of the Gospel
Sit: At the announcements and Homily
Stand: At the Credo
As at the Glória.
Stand: Dominus Vobíscum, Orémus
Sit: During the Offertory
Rise when the congregation is incensed
Stand: Preface dialogue to Sanctus
Kneel: Sanctus, Canon, Communion
Stand: Dóminus Vobíscum and Postcommunion
Kneel: At the Blessing
Stand: Last Gospel to exit of clergy
Reader Paul Schultz, a leader of Generation Christ in Ann Arbor, invites young adults to join their “Pilgrimage for Christian Culture” from Camp De Sales in Brooklyn, Michigan to Queen of the Miraculous Medal Parish in Jackson, Friday-Saturday, August 13-14, 2010. The themes will be: Reparation for Sin, Restoration by Grace, and Reform of Life.
Modeled after the annual Pentecost pilgrimage to Chartres Cathedral in France, pilgrims will pray along the way. The Rosary in Latin will be taught and prayed. Liturgy of the Hours, Holy Mass (on Friday in the Ordinary Form, on Saturday in the Extraordinary Form) and Confessions will be available daily.
You may come for one day or two, for 2 miles or 27. The pilgrim assistance corps is able to drop you off and pick you up along the route, to suit your schedule.
Registration in advance is required. For more information, including a schedule of events, e-mail Paul at paulcschultz@gmail.com, call (734) 646-0430, or visit www.genchrist.net/pilgrimage.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Congregational Responses in the Low Mass – Part 2 of 2
Tridentine Community News (August 8, 2010):
"The faithful may sing hymns during low Mass, if they are appropriate to the various parts of the mass." I really have to let my Facebook group know about that! There's a really animated debate that I thought would be of interest on evolution vs. intelligent design going on at http://www.intelligentdesignfacts.com
ReplyDeleteI was at a low Tridentine mass yesterday. The priest was largely inaudible. In order to be heard, he would have had to use amplification, which is apparently an abomination in some circles.
ReplyDeleteHe's supposed to be audible to God (which isn't hard) and to the altar boy serving with him. He need not be audible to anyone else, except at certain prescribed times, such as the "nobis quoque peccatoribus" and the various iterations of "Dominus vobiscum", the "orate fratres" and similar places.
ReplyDeleteParticularly in the Low Mass, the TLM is for practical purposes, as far as the faithful are concerned, a silent Mass. Here, more than anywhere, maybe, we see the purpose of the Mass. It is not, in any contemporary sense of the word, intended to "engage" and "audience." It is not intended to "entertain," "educate," or even "exhort." It is simply and fundamentally intended as an offering of the Sacrifice poured out by Christ in his passion. The job of the faithful is to "actively participate," not by busying themselves with audible responses, or trying to hear what the priest is saying -- particularly since much of it is prescribed sotto voce, which is inaudible to most of the congregants; but by putting themselves in a mental state of recollectedness about what is going on at the altar: Jesus offering himself for us.
ReplyDeleteWhile you might profit by following the Mass in a Latin-English Missal, it is not even necessary that you be able to read. All you need attend to is the love of Christ for you in that he gave himself for you, as he continues to give himself for you in this Mass, courtesy of the priest in persona Christi.
Yes, one thing Catholics have forgotten, or never learned, thanks to Mass ad populum and with so much dialogue between priest and people, is that for most of the Mass the priest is not talking to the people -- so there is no need for them to hear what he is saying.
ReplyDeleteI think (but I'm not sure) it was Father Zuhlsdorf who related the story of one time when he celebrated Mass at the Vatican at one of the many side altars, where other priests were also celebrating Mass. Because there were so many Masses going on in the vicinity, he had to keep his voice down lest he help create a din. At the end, a woman complained that she couldn't hear what he was saying, and he replied, "That's okay, ma'am -- most of the time I wasn't talking to you anyway."
yes here in England the custom is that the congregation do not respond to any of the prayers.
ReplyDeleteThe first outloud reponse one hears members of the congregation make is the "Deo Gratis" at the end of the Last Gospel and then, of course, the Leonine Prayers.
This is is custom to my sure knowledge at St James, Spanish Place and whenever there is a Low Mass at Maiden Lane. Both Latin Mass Society Masses.
One of the annoying things about the Novus Ordo is the people who are two beats ahead in their reponses; they're always loud as well.
Thank God for the silent Low Mass.