Novus Ordo Done Right

A little while ago the Papal Mass for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord ended. I was watching it on EWTN. The Mass was said in the Sistine Chapel & included several infants receiving the sacrament of Baptism from the Pope. What a blessing!!!! for the children & their parents.

1st of all, I have to comment on the beauty of the Sistine Chapel. & while TV doesn't do it justice, you still get a sense of the awesomeness & beauty of the Chapel. The art of Raphael, Botticelli, Michelangelo etc. lifts you up to the heights of Heaven & the Glory of God.

Papa Benedetto said the Mass ad orientum rather than versus populum as it is usually done today. 1 of the oft ignored facts is that the Novus Ordo Mass CAN be said both ways. So, the Liturgy of the Eucharist was said facing Michelangelo's Last Judgement.

This is just the latest in Papa Benedetto's attempting to lead by doing in showing the right way to celebrate the Novus Ordo. Too often it has been celebrated with a plethora of abuses. & 1 of the fruits of that has been to turn people off to what Vatican II really was about. (I've said plenty before on the false "Spirit of Vatican II" v the real Spirit of Vatican II. I won't go into depth here.)

What I will say is that the Novus Ordo is just as valid as the Traditional Latin Mass. & when done right, it is just as beautiful, just as reverent, as the TLM. Papa Benedetto has been showing us by example that it is. 1 of my pet peeves that I have to mention here is those people who act like before Vatican II the only Mass was the TLM. & that until we go back to only saying it we will continue to have problems. FACT 1: There were just as many problems over the years in the Church before Vatican II as after. FACT 2: Even in the West the TLM wasn't the only form of the Mass pre-Vatican II. There was the Ambrosian (Milan) & Mozarabic (Toledo) rites as well as the various Eastern Rites that were & are are equally as valid as the TLM. FACT 3: (For those who like to use Padre Pio to attack the Novus Ordo) Even Padre Pio said the Mass versus populum after Vatican II. I've seen the videos that prove it. (Check out http://youtube.com/watch?v=cqLxUExgZVQ or http://youtube.com/watch?v=dlT9qwmzE7U if you doubt me.) & he died in 1968, well before the Novus Ordo was ever promulgated (1970). Thus he could never have rejected it as some claim.

I remember plenty of TLMs as a child that were rushed through & anything but reverant. & in some places where they have been said under John Paul the Great's motu proprio they still are. & that is just as much an abuse as any clown Mass etc.

I will admit that mistakes were made in the late 60s early 70s in the name of liturical reform. Poor catechisis & a horrible English translation are a part of those mistakes. Allowing the Mass to be said in the vernacular was not. I remember the 1965 Mass of Paul VI & like many others wonder why there was a need to go beyond it so quickly. It cleaned up some things in the TLM that needed to be cleaned up. In fact, I'd like to see it brought back also.

I also have to say that there ARE things I like about the Novus Ordo reforms. the expanded cycle of Biblical texts is 1 of them. & unlike some people, I have no problem with the restoration of allowing the laity to receive Communion under both forms. & for those who forget it, the Council of Trent never forbade the saying of the Mass in the vernacular. It merely put the decision to do so on hold, thus it left it open for another Council or the Pope to do so. As for Eucharist in the hand even the Pope gives it that way at Papal Liturgies in the Vatican including this 1. Also for those who forget it, the Sistine Chapel doe not have a Tabernacle. the Eucharist is kept in another chapel elsewhere.

What I think (agreeing with many others) is that between the example set by Papa Benedetto when it comes to the Novus Ordo & the expanded use of the TLM things will be restored to where they were ment to be as far as organic liturgical development was intended by God to happen.

I am also looking forward to when Papa Benedetto does say a TLM. I know it will be beautifully & reverently done. In fact, I'd love to see the centerfield Mass at National Stadium be a TLM. (& for those of you screaming, yes the TLM could be said outdoors. I've seen pictures of it being done, including here in DBQ by the Archbishop at the time.)

I see the greater freedom to use the TLM & Papa Benedetto's lead by example of showing the Novus Ordo done right as the start of the return to the greater variety of rites in the Western Church. After Trent & Vatican II many Western rites were wrongly suppressed in the "Spirit" of those Councils that never should have been. I just hope I live to see the day when it happens.