On the Modernist Novus Ordo Mass.
A
Modernist council and Modernist Popes have given us a Modernist Mass.
No
less an authority than Pope Paul VI himself admitted that the smoke
of Satan had entered the church through some crack. As the late Fr.
Dominic Bourmaud stated in his classic work One
Hundred Years of Modernism – A Genealogy of the Principles of the
Second Vatican Council, the
smoke is Modernism, and the crack was Vatican II.
According
to Fr. Bourmaud, the Modernist levels a three-pronged attack against
the bulwarks of Christian culture – the philosophy of being,
revelation as a fact, and the harmony between faith and reason. In
its place modernism proposes a philosophy of no being (existence
precedes essence), revelation without a historical basis, and
ultimately, “a theology without God.”
In
the current synodal process, as noted recently by Fr. Davide
Pagliarani, Superior General of the SSPX, “The underlying idea is
that God does not reveal Himself through the traditional channels of
Holy Scripture and Tradition, which are safeguarded by the hierarchy,
but through the ‘experience of the people of God’ [i.e.
revelation without a historical basis]. Such a faith-experience,
necessarily destined to evolve according to the awareness and the
needs of the different moments in history, is constantly ‘enriched’
with new contents, and at the same time leaves aside that which is no
longer current.”
This
is reflected in the Modernist Mass of Paul VI with its constant state
of flux – changes in rubrics and praxis, in rules, regulations and
ceremonies. It focuses on the personal experience and feelings of
the people, their active participation in the Mass, on self, and
secondarily on the Lord, thus approaching a “theology without God.”
The
following three facts alone indicate the Modernism of the Mass and
its theology without God – the tendency to minimize the absolute
primacy of the worship of God in the Mass:
The
Priest faces the assembly while praying to God.
The
Sacred Species are handled by Eucharistic ministers.
Communion
is received in the hand and standing – disrespectful on two counts.
It
is ironic that the proponents of this Mass are attempting to increase
devotion to the Eucharist. Historically, only in contact with the
consecrated hands of a Catholic Priest, the Sacred Species are
touched by unconsecrated male and female lay “ministers,” and put
into the hands of the laity without exception for reception, while
everyone is standing. “And he said: I believe Lord. And falling
down he adored Him” [John 9:38].
I
am old enough to remember attending the Tridentine Mass, when as a
child I thought that the few who received Communion must be very
holy. They received only from the Priest, in the mouth and kneeling.
Confession before reception was the implied standard. This process
is of course completely alien to the Modernist Mass, as it is the
antithesis of the “welcoming, ecumenical” mindset of its
attendees, most of whom according to statistics, do not even believe
in the Real Presence. The best example of the Modernist mass-going
mentality that I have read came from a diocesan newspaper, where one
person was quoted as saying that to kneel before receiving Communion
would be “beneath her dignity.”
To
quote Fr. Bourmaud: “The religion in which man divinizes and adores
himself is thus a rejection of original sin and the refusal of the
Savior. Such is the essence of Modernism” [p. 181].
In
the Modernist Mass, the Priest is not obliged offer the Holy
Sacrifice ad
orientem,
the sermon is frequently an attempt to entertain, and talking in
Church is common. In fact, in one of the most recent Modernist Novus
Ordo
Masses that I attended, the deacon had to get up on the altar before
Mass started in order to ask everyone to be quiet, because some
people wanted
to pray!
To
approach the altar with a “humble and contrite heart,” after
proving oneself; to deny oneself, forget oneself, and concentrate on
worshiping and adoring God. This is piety, this is reverence. Lord,
help me not to judge those who accuse worshipers such as these of
being triumphalist rigid Christians, rosary counters,
restorationists. and self-absorbed neo-pelagians.
To
improve Eucharistic devotion, the Modernist Mass would have to change
direction and proceed in the way of the Traditional Latin Mass. But
change direction it will not and cannot, since it would be admitting
defeat. How many decades went by before they finally caved in and
restored the Eucharistic prayer to say “for many” instead of “for
all?” Instead they will tweak it in some minor, non-essentials. For
example, having communicants say more than just “Amen” upon
receiving the Host.
Let
them tweak all they want – there is little hope for the Modernist
Novus
Ordo
Mass!
References:
Fr.
Dominic Bourmaud, One
Hundred Years of Modernism: A Genealogy of the Principles of the
Second Vatican Council,
Kansas City, Mo., Angelus Press, 2006.
I very much liked your childhood memory of attending the Tridentine Latin Mass, and of you thinking that the ones who received Holy Communion were very holy.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more such memories of the Church before the Second Vatican Council.
God speed you Franco