Don't be Too Odd

Next to me at Mass was a most pious young man, who seemed to have brought not one but three or four books of devotion with him.  He spent the whole of the time before, during and after Mass going rapidly from book to book (I noticed during the chanting of Terce he was busy at orisons in veneration of the Five Wounds), not merely reading but mouthing the words in what became a rather noticeable whisper.  I had to lean over to him after the Sanctus and very quietly, kindly but firmly, say, "Excuse me, but could you read silently?  It's very distracting.  Thank you."  At that time of the Mass, the priest alone recites the Canon at the altar – we don't need a second celebrant of the liturgy in the pews!

Now, I have been guilty of exactly the same unwitting displays of overzealous piety when in the throes of devotion, but I did finally realize what was meant in an old handbook for novice masters, when it stated that one of their duties was to teach their underlings to pray silently.  No less a man than St Augustine stood in amaze when he beheld St Ambrose reading silently, since in antiquity one always read aloud; but we have moved on from this.  In piety, less can be more: I have been there, done that, what with chugging through an enormous self-imposed round of prayers gathered from divers sources, and, by being melodramatic, appearing most singular and odd; indeed, I probably often still fall in that category – but at least I have some self-awareness about curbing this.

That said, long years ago I was warned in a friendly manner by a priest about indulging in dotty displays of devotion: one shouldn't draw attention to oneself, let alone inflict one's own discipline and penance on others.  To that good Catholic I sat next to, I would say now what I would in all kindness have hoped to say then: Your zeal and love of God is commendable, and please do not be offended, but in prudence moderate your outward manifestations of piety, lest some mock and others be exasperated.  God bless.

Praying the Canon - II

As I have a fairly good grasp of the text in Latin of the Roman Canon, I can follow the priest's gestures and tell what he's praying and consider the words he's using as he prays.  This is what I do, if not singing, while the priest prays the Te igitur, Memento Domine, and Communicantes...

When "all orthodox and keepers of the catholic and apostolic faith" - that is, all bishops - are prayed for after the Pope, I tend to call to mind my old parish priest, now Bp Jarrett of Lismore, and also various other prelates of my acquaintance!  Of course, at the memento vivorum and memento defunctorum, I tend to call to mind those living and dead that I wish to pray for, as I expect everyone does.  (Dominican priests keep their hands joined for the whole of both Memento's, not just while pausing to remember whomsoever they wish, which I think is a good practice.)

At the Hanc igitur, my practice if in the pews is to bow (as the Dominican Rite bids the priest to do, following the earlier Roman practice) and say those words, praying the Lord to receive the sacrifice of our lives (cf. Rom. xii, 1) united to the Sacrifice of His Christ, praying for deliverance from damnation, to be numbered among the flock of the Good Shepherd.

In the Novus Ordo at the Epiclesis I usually would pray Jube, Domine, benedicere - Veni, Sancte Spiritus - Veni, Domine Jesu; but strangely enough I don't do this at the Traditional Mass, why I don't know.  I do at the Latin Mass think on the words of Consecration; at the Novus Ordo, I would sometimes add a silent Amen as the priest says them.  Or, as the Mozarabic Rite adds, I may pray in my heart, Sic credimus, Domine Jesu - "So I believe, Lord Jesus [that these words spoken have truly effected all they signify]."

Of course,  in my place as I kneel, I bow low at the Consecration and adore at the Elevation, praying as I posted earlier... and by my posture doing the same: as the priest genuflects, I bow myself down, and then as I look up at my God I make the saving sign of the Cross and strike my breast.  Who could do less?  (It must be added that when I serve Mass, I am of course not my own, and must fulfil my duty at this supreme moment by ringing the bell and lifting the priest's chasuble for him, while making my silent adoration, and of course bowing down when he consecrates and when genuflects, as is the custom.)

I honestly would prefer it if the priest could read the Canon and observe the Dominican and other mediæval rubrics, which I think help bring out the sentiment of the prayers:

• to bow low at the Hanc igitur (as mentioned above), uniting one's frail mortal service of the Lord with the all-availing Sacrifice about to be rendered present, begging to win heaven and escape hell;
  
• to extend one's arms in the form of the Cross at the Unde et memores, signalling with the body that the anamnesis of the Passion and death of Our Lord, the recalling of His mighty acts, is being carried out, and that remembering we offer the Divine Victim (the Theothyte) as our great oblation and sacrifice for the living and the dead;
  
• to spread out one's hands over the consecrated elements, not at the Hanc igitur but at the Supra quæ propitio (as the very words suggest, "Upon the Which do Thou with a propitious and serene countenance deign to look", and as was commonly done in Germany throughout the middle ages);
  
• to bow low, but with arms crossed (manibus cancellatis) at the Supplices te rogamus - again, as was the older Roman practice conserved by the Friars Preachers;
  
• to bow to the Sacred Mysteries at the Little Elevation, which is done by the Dominicans also, but, very curiously, done by them in stead of making the actual elevation!
  

While it would be singular and odd to actually stretch out my arms crosswise after the Elevation, I certainly call this gesture to mind as I recall the great work of our redemption thus accomplished by Our Lord stretching out His arms to save us upon the bitter Rood.  Likewise I recall the erstwhile gesture made in divers places at the Supra quæ, and I do in fact bow myself arms crossed (if not serving of course -then I must observe a kneeling posture without oddities) at the Supplices te rogamus as I pray God may, receiving our Sacrifice at His heavenly altar, vouchsafe us (who dare come to communicate) every celestial benediction and grace.  Whether serving or not, I cross myself when the priest does at these words.

Having prayed the Memento etiam, I strike my breast (except if I'm serving - the server has long been forbidden to do so, by decision of the Sacred Congregation of Rites) when the priest lifts up his voice at the Nobis quoque peccatoribus, and run through the list of saints in my mind, praying that we may indeed have some part and fellowship with them, the Lord not counting our just deserts but granting us forgiveness.

I especially pray the incomparable doxology of the Canon, and bow (Dominican, again! and I've noticed Aaron when serving or being M.C. does the same) at omnis honor et gloria:

Per ip+sum, 

et cum ip+so, 

et in ip+so, 

est tibi Deo Patri + omnipotenti, 

in unitate Spiritus + Sancti, 

omnis honor et gloria, 

per omnia sæcula sæculorum.  

Amen.

Praying the Canon - the Sanctus & Benedictus

At Mass, I have as it were two manners of praying during the Canon, depending on whether or not the liturgy is sung.

If it is sung, then like as not I am in the choir: which means that I am busy well-nigh up until the Consecration and Elevation with chanting the Sanctus and Benedictus.  Even if I'm not one of the singers, however, I still attend primarily to these solemn words.

It seems obvious to me that, rather than seeing this music as somehow an obstacle to be ignored so as to focus on what Father is secretly saying at the altar, the clear intent of the Church is for us to mark and think on these words, so holy and great, bespeaking the awe and wonder we ought feel at the power of the Divine Majesty and at the blessed advent of the Eucharistic Christ.

The Preface, sung or said, praises God through Christ, and ends with a magnificent vision of all the angelic hosts worshipping in adoration - a feature of the Mass that goes back to Jewish liturgical prayers, and beyond that to the ecstatic vision of Isaias.  How then could we not be overwhelmed by those rolling phrases, the first of which I first give in their mediæval abbreviation:

+SCS+SCS+SCS+DÑS+DS+SBT+

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus 

Dominus Deus Sabaoth:

Pleni sunt cæli et terra 

gloria tua:

Hosanna in excelsis.

The Sanctus is an evocation of our supereminent and transcendent God, hidden, mysterious, tremendous, dread, and fascinating.  He is the thrice-holy Lord God of Hosts; He is superlatively, exceedingly Holy, therefore utterly pure and wholly separated from all evil; His glory fills both heaven and earth - for as He says, "I live: and the glory of the Lord shall fill the universal world" (Num. xiv, 21); victory and power in the highest heaven is His for ever!  The threefold Sanctus moreover alludes to the most extraordinary mystery of God: that He is One in Trinity.  Were it not for Divine revelation, we could never have known or guessed this.

As does the priest, we ought best bow low as we kneel, bending down in bodily expression of humble adoration, and so hearken to the warning bell, three times ringing out in confirmation of the Sanctus, confessing that God is Holy and must be adored as the Terrible and Great, the Holy, full of power:

The Lord hath reigned, ... he that sitteth on the cherubims: let the earth be moved. 

The Lord is great in Sion, and high above all people. 

Let them give praise to thy great name: for it is terrible and holy: 

Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore his footstool, for it is holy.

Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore at his holy mountain: for the Lord our God is holy.  

(Ps 98:1-3,5,9)

Has it been noted that the text falls naturally into five lines, the first four able to be grouped into two, so that the syllables number 6, 8, 8, 5, and 7, or if gathered together 14, 13 and 7?  This parallels the structure of the ensuing Benedictus, which, to anticipate, has 7, 7, and 7, or rather again 14 and 7 syllables in its structure:

+Benedictus qui venit 

in nomine Domini.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Interestingly, the first Hosanna, though always sung and said as part of the Sanctus, in fact comes from the Benedictus - it is as it were a bridge between them.  If it were licit (I know of one English Mass setting that does this, albeit a rather oddly-tuned one by Deiss), it would bring out the structure of the Sanctus and Benedictus more fully, I contend, if the Hosanna were also inserted after the initial phrase of the Sanctus, to make it a second threefold repetition:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus

Dominus Deus Sabaoth:

(Hosanna in excelsis.)

Pleni sunt cæli et terra

gloria tua:

Hosanna in excelsis.

+Benedictus qui venit

in nomine Domini.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Here we see the argument and line of thought the Sanctus and Benedictus contains: firstly, that God is the Other, the utterly transcendent, supreme and Holy One; secondly, that, far from being haughtily withdrawn from His Creation, instead His power and majesty and glory fill all the heavens and the entire world (for in Him do we not live and move and have our being, and not otherwise? - Acts xvii, 28); thirdly, that to reunite His Creation most perfectly to Himself, He has sent His Son, the Holy, Blessed and Beloved One, to come in His Name and reconcile all things to God, by reconciling all in Himself by the instrumentality of His Cross.  In this way, God's victory over all things is shouted aloud to the heights above - recall that Hosanna originally meant "give victory now".

+Benedictus qui venit 

in nomine Domini.  

Hosanna in excelsis.

The Benedictus, then, focusses our minds on the truth so amazing, so divine, that the same Tripersonal God has willed to send the Second Person of the Godhead to take on our human nature and live amongst us, to preach the everlasting truths whereby alone we may find salvation, to die for us sinners as the one all-reconciling Sacrifice upon the gibbet of the Cross, to rise again and be for us evermore our true life and hope, and to come even unto our earthly altars, to be our meat and drink lest we should faint on the way to heaven, to abide with us all days even until the end of time: Christ Jesus our Lord and King and Redeemer.  

In a special manner, if the Mass be sung in polyphony or figured music rather than in plainchant, the Benedictus is usually sung separately from the Sanctus by reason of their greater length, and is placed after the Elevation.  In such a case, the Church rejoices with festal praise and casts all her care upon the Lord, calling us to these words that sum up all worship of our God and Christ: Blessed, blessed, blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!

With the priest, then, it is most fitting to make the sign of the saving Cross over our person at the word Benedictus, acknowledging that it is in Christ Crucified, the Blessed One Who was made a curse for us, that we have salvation.

Especially at the Consecration and the Elevation, the above lines of Psalm 98 instruct us in our religious duty:

Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore his footstool, for it is holy.

Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore at his holy mountain: for the Lord our God is holy.

(Ps 98:5,9)

As St Augustine taught, these lines refer to the worship we must pay to God's Incarnate Eucharistic presence on our earth: not only is it not sinful to adore Him, we would sin if we did not adore Him.

Prayers for Mass - II

At Mass itself I add certain devotions, depending on whether I'm at the Traditional Mass, and if it's Low or High, if I'm serving or singing or whatnot, or whether instead I'm at ordinary Mass.

I tend to pay special attention to the orations of the Mass, the collect, secret, and postcommunion. Sometimes at the Offertory I may use the Dominican form of the Suscipe sancta Trinitas:


Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, hanc oblationem, quam tibi offero per manus sacerdotis tui, in memoriam passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi; et praesta, ut in conspectu tuo tibi placens ascendat, et meam et omnium fidelium salutem operetur aeternam.


Passing over my particular direction of prayer and attention during the Canon, the consummation of the Mass, I always say the following, secretly of course! during the Elevations after the Consecration, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in English, usually some in each:


Omnis gloria tibi, Domine altissime.

Dominus meus et Deus meus, salva nos.

(For the Host)

Ave verum Corpus natum
de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in Cruce pro homine.

O Jesu dulcis,
O Jesu pie,
O Jesu Fili Mariae.

(For the Chalice)

Cujus latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine,
esto nobis praegustatum
mortis in examine.

O Jesu dulcis,
O Jesu pie,
O Jesu Fili Mariae.

Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem.

In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in aeternam.