Cross-Fertilization; or, Hybrid Vigour

According to the Missale Cartusiense (1981), which sets out the modern Carthusian form of the Roman Mass, when those holy religious celebrate Mass, amongst other peculiarities, they normally say the Eucharistic Prayer secretly (unless at a concelebration, for example), and for obvious reasons there are no Memorial Acclamations included in their form of Mass; also, at the end of Mass, the Carthusian priest still says the Placeat (in the form proper to the Order).

Now, in the new form of Mass drawn up for the use of the Ordinariates, a larger array of Traditional elements are now incorporated into this particular form of the modern Roman Rite. Most notably, at the choice of the celebrant, Mass may begin with the old prayers at the foot of the altar (strangely ending with Aures tuæ pietatis in place of Aufer a nobis), the former form of the Offertory may be used, and the Last Gospel may be read. The embolism after the Lord's Prayer follows the immemorial wording, although using the modern doxology; there is a threefold repetition of the Domine, non sum dignus; and the words of administration of the Sacrament closely resemble the traditional formulæ. Furthermore, rubrics direct the making the sign of the Cross at the end of the Gloria in excels is, genuflecting at the mention of the Incarnation in the Creed and making the sign of the Cross at the end of the Creed, and at the Benedictus, genuflecting again at the mention of the enfleshment of the Word in the Last Gospel.

Combining these noteworthy features of both variants, a list of desired options and reforms for implementation at Mass throughout the whole modern Roman Rite can be drawn up: it would constitute a real cross-fertilisation of the Ordinary with the Extraordinary Form, producing a new offspring possessed of hybrid vigour.

Ought not someone draw up a petition, and implore the Vatican to reform the liturgical reform by providing such a supplemented and corrected Order of Mass?

Bring Back the Placeat

A gift much to be hoped for would be the extension of several rubrics in the modern Carthusian Missal of 1981 to the whole Roman Rite.

To repeat what I have blogged on before:

• the Carthusian Mass retains the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, and Communion – the chant Propers – just as the Roman Mass does (in scarce books such as the Graduale), but incorporates their texts into the Missal for greater convenience (alas, even the Carthusians only retain the chant of the Offertory for sung Masses, and do not include its text in their Missal);
• the Carthusian Mass has but one Penitential Act, that using the Confiteor &c.;
• the Carthusian Mass retains the Lavabo at the washing of the priest's hands (which could at least be given as an alternative text in the Roman Missal, alongside the modern choice of Lava me);
• above all, the Carthusian Mass has the rule (Introduction, I, 6) Precem eucharisticam de more secreto proferimus, concelebratione aliisque circumstantiis particularibus exceptis – "The Eucharistic Prayer we customarily offer secretly, excepting at concelebrations and other particular circumstances" – and would that this rule be returned to use in the Roman Rite (where until the reform of the Liturgy, the Roman Canon was only prayed aloud at ordinations);
• the Carthusian Mass has no Memorial Acclamations (which are foreign to the Roman Rite, after all, being derived from the Coptic if I recall correctly);
• the Carthusian Mass appoints the Placeat (in their recension of that venerable prayer) to be said after the dismissal, as the priest bows before the altar before kissing it.

I would like to emphasise, not so much even the very desirable making Memorial Acclamations and the Eucharistic Prayer aloud optional, but the reinsertion of the Placeat into the modern, Ordinary Form of the Mass.

As Michael Davies pointed out somewhere in his writings, even the inclusion of the Placeat alone would safeguard the traditional understanding of the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice, offered by the priest, for the living and the dead, against modern tendencies to read it as but a Protestant commemorative service.

None other than the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in Tres Abhinc Annos, its Second Instruction “for the orderly implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council” (May 4, 1967), specified that:

It is recommended that the priest recite the Placeat silently as he is leaving the altar. (n. 16)

The Placeat also well-expresses the consensus of East and West (as confirmed by the Byzantines at the Synod of Constantinople in 1156) that the Divine Sacrifice of Christ is offered up to all Three Divine Persons, He receiving as God what He offers as Man: hence the prayer prays the Holy Trinity to receive the Holy Sacrifice.

My own reflection has made me realize how the Placeat well corresponds and answers to the Orate fratres and its response Suscipiat, and also how the Placeat well-summarizes and reflects the phrasing and theology of the Roman Canon.

Herewith, the texts of the Orate fratres &c. (in Latin and the new English version), and then the Placeat (with an unofficial translation):

Orate, fratres, ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium acceptabile fiat apud Deum Patrem omnipotentem. R/. Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis, ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitatem quoque nostram, totiusque Ecclesiæ suæ sanctæ.

Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father. R/. May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church. 

Placeat tibi, sancta Trinitas, obsequium servitutis meæ, et præsta, ut sacrificium, quod oculis tuæ Majestatis indignus obtuli, tibi sit acceptabile, mihique et omnibus, pro quibus illud obtuli, sit, te miserante, propitiabile. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

(May the homage of my service be pleasing to Thee, O holy Trinity; and grant, that the sacrifice, which I, though unworthy, have offered in the sight of Thy Majesty, may be acceptable to Thee: and through Thy mercy win forgiveness for me and for all those for whom I have offered it.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen. – Cabrol's translation)

It will be evident how the thoughts expressed in the Orate fratres &c. are resumed in the Placeat.

The parallels between the Placeat and the Roman Canon are very many; evidently, the sacramental theology of the latter suffused the composer of the former, who simply put into the singular what the Canon renders in the plural: 

• Placeat… acceptabile… propitiabile – cf. accepta habeas… placatus accipias… acceptabilemque… accepta habere (Roman Canon, Te igitur, Hanc igitur, Quam oblationem, Supra quæ); 
• obsequium servitutis meæ – cf. oblationem servitutis nostræ (Roman Canon, Hanc igitur); 
• quod oculis tuæ Majestatis – cf. offerimus præclaræ Majestati tuæ… Supra quæ propitio ac sereno vulto respicere digneris… in conspectu divinæ Majestatis tuæ (Roman Canon, Unde et memores, Supra quæ, Supplices te rogamus); 
• sacrificium… mihique et omnibus pro quibus illud obtuli – cf. pro quibus tibi offerimus, vel qui tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudis, pro se, suisque omnibus (Roman Canon, Memento Dñe); 
• indignus – cf. Nobis quoque peccatoribus (Roman Canon, Nobis quoque); 
• te miserante – cf. de multitudine miserationum tuarum sperantibus... veniæ… largitor (Roman Canon, Nobis quoque).

It may be added that, by analogy with the what was done elsewhere to private prayers of the priest in the reform of the liturgy of Mass, the short ending Per Christum Dominum nostrum could be deleted; it does not occur in all recensions of this prayer (cf. Jungmann).

Priests: even for the moment as a private devotion, bring back your praying of the Placeat!

The Modern Carthusian Mass

A comparison between the 1981 Missale Cartusiense (available for download online!) and the former Carthusian Mass, as detailed in A.A. King's 1956 Liturgies of the Religious Orders (a facsimile of which I own), shews that the monks of the Charterhouse have made but few changes in their manner of offering up the Sacrifice.

In general, these wise sons of St Bruno have adopted and adapted some few modern Roman revisions, but have maintained their distinct, settled Use better than all other reforming liturgists.  This may well be because the Carthusian Mass was always the most spare and simple of the many different ways of celebrating the Roman liturgy, with an entire absence of unnecessary ceremonial, and so had less to be messed with!

What changes have they made?  

At the start of Mass, they have transferred the sign of the cross, still made secretly, not aloud, by the priest, from before the Introit to become the very first words of the liturgy, and likewise have moved the Dominus vobiscum from before the Collect to directly after this In nomine... – these modifications clearly parallel those made to the Roman Mass.

They have removed the curious choice of versicle formerly used before the Confiteor – the Pone Domine used in the Traditional Roman Mass during the censing at the offertory – and replaced it with the more apposite versicle Adjutorium nostrum that they used to say after the Misereatur.

Their Confiteor they have lightly revised inasmuch as they have changed from confessing "to blessed Mary and all the saints" to asking their prayers – which if anything is a distinct improvement.  Now, too, as in the Novus Ordo, all say the Confiteor together.  It may be noted that the Carthusians have always said the Confiteor &c. aloud and before the singing or reading of the Introit.

Finally, instead of the former Pater and Ave before going up to the altar, there is now a rubric specifying that the priest should pray in silence for a time.

The rest of the fore-Mass remains much as it has always done, with an Epistle, Responsory (Gradual), Alleluia and Gospel; a Lesson before the Epistle, to make three readings in all, is only used at the Masses of Christmas, as in the Dominican Rite.

What of the Offertory?  If Mass is not sung, the Offertory antiphon is omitted.  The Dominus vobiscum and Oremus have been suppressed; the In nomine... at the end of the formula for mixing the chalice with wine and water has been dropt; the Orate fratres has been changed back to its primitive form of those words alone (there was never a response to it, other than the heartfelt prayers of those around, in the Carthusian Rite); the Oremus before the Prayer over the Gifts (formerly known as the Secret) has been removed as a doublet of the Orate fratres.  The Prayer over the Gifts now has only the short ending.  That's all.

What of the rest of the Mass, the Consecration and Communion?  The three new Eucharistic Prayers from Rome have been introduced as options, and, if Mass is concelebrated, the Prayer used is to be said aloud (how else could it be done, after all!).  The modern text of the Embolism (the Libera nos) has been substituted for the old, but without its strange doxology.  A short new prayer for peace, Dómine Iesu Christe, da nobis illam, quam mundus dare non potest pacem – this seems the least happy innovation, and a needless redoubling of the prayer for peace in the Embolism! – has instead been sandwiched in between it and the Pax Domini.  Pretty clearly, the Fathers were under some pressure here and had to compromise...

The strange Carthusian manner of singing or saying only the first petition of the Agnus Dei before communion, and then singing or saying the other two afterward, has been abolished.  A rubrick directs that the priest prepare either by a short meditation for communion, or may say either the traditional version of the Domine Jesu Christe, Fili Dei vivi... or the Roman Percepti Corporis et Sanguis... – and the words of administration are changed to the Novus Ordo's short form as well.  Contrariwise, the Charterhouse monks have retained the use of the long ending for the Prayer after Communion, which the modern Roman Mass kept only for the Collect.

These changes, so far as I can tell, are the only ones made to the Carthusian Mass since Vatican II and all that.

The Order still retains such special variants as its own wording of a phrase in the Gloria in excelsis: they read propter gloriam tuam magnam, "for Thy glory great", emphasising how boundlessly great is the glory of God; so too the Creed in the Use of Chartreuse still retains a variant phrase at its end: et vitam futuri sæculi, "and the life of the future age" – very appropriate for an assembly of monks trampling upon the passing things of this world, and looking forward to the true life.  In both these cases, as the Order retains and sings its proper plainsong still, no change could be made without affecting their chant.

For interest's sake, here is the Carthusian suite of offertory prayers (NB their rite never had the Suscipe sancta Trinitas so commonly found in other Uses):

When the priest puts water into the chalice, he says:

De látere Dómini nostri Iesu Christi exívit Sanguis et aqua in remissiónem peccatórum.

When he washes his hands, he says:

Lavábo inter innocéntes manus meas, et circúmdabo altáre tuum, Dómine.

And he adds two or three of the following verses:

Ut áudiam vocem laudis, et enárrem univérsa mirabília tua.
Dómine, diléxi decórem domus tuæ, et locum habitatiónis glóriæ tuæ.
Ne perdas cum ímpiis, Deus, ánimam meam, et cum viris sánguinum vitam meam.

Standing before the middle of the altar, the priest offers the chalice with the paten on top, holding them elevated, saying secretly:

In spíritu humilitátis et in ánimo contríto suscipiámur a te, Dómine, et sic fiat sacrifícium nostrum in conspéctu tuo hódie ut pláceat tibi, Dómine Deus.

And he makes a cross with the same chalice, saying:

In nómine Patris, et Fílii, et Spíritus Sancti. Amen.

He replaces the chalice on the corporal, and the paten in front of it, containing the bread to be consecrated.  He covers the chalice with the farther part of the corporal [this is the universal ancient use, prior to the development of the pall].

If incense is to be used [at the Conventual Mass], the priest, having poured water into the chalice, at once makes the oblation.  Then he adds incense to the thurible and holds this lifted over the oblations, saying: 

Dirigátur, Dómine, orátio mea, sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo.

Then he censes once over the oblations in the form of a cross with these words:

In nómine Patris, et Fílii, et Spíritus Sancti. Amen.

And once in the form of a crown, and then, toward the cross, to the right corner, to the left corner, and thrice lower down before the front of the altar.  Then he returns the thurible to the deacon, he washes his hands and stands with joined hands at the altar corner, turned facing the cross, until the deacon has thrice censed him;then before the middle of the altar he remains with folded hands until the deacon has gone round about it [censing].

When he turns to the people he says:

Oráte, fratres.

(The Prayer over the Gifts follows.)

I have noted below that the Carthusian Mass still ends with the Placeat sancta Trinitas.

Placeat sancta Trinitas

Still to-day, in the modern form of the Carthusian Rite, the Placeat sancta Trinitas is prayed by the priest at the end of Mass.  

(It is a little-known fact that the wise Carthusians retain their own proper form of the Roman Rite, having reformed it in 1981, to produce a new edition of the Missale Cartusiense.  Amongst many other appealing features, it contains: 

• no penitential rite other than the Carthusian Confiteor; 
• substantially the traditional one-year lectionary (with Epistle, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, and Gospel); 
• no modern Offertory prayers; 
• none of those modern Memorial Acclamations; 
• a rubric specifying that the Eucharistic Prayer is normally said secretly, others ordering it be said with hands extended in the form of the cross; 
• no response "For the kingdom..." after the Embolism; 
• and finally the Placeat.)

After the dismissal formula, "turned to the altar, bowed profoundly, the priest says secretly":

Pláceat tibi, sancta Trínitas unus Deus, obséquium servitútis meæ: et præsta ut hoc sacrifícium laudis, quod indígnus in conspéctu divínæ maiestátis tuæ óbtuli, tibi sit placens: mihíque et ómnibus, pro quibus óbtuli, sit te miseránte propitiábile in vitam ætérnam. Amen.

(May the performance of my service be pleasing unto Thee, Holy Trinity, One God; and grant that this sacrifice of praise, which unworthy I have offered in the sight of Thy Divine Majesty, may be pleasing to Thee: and for me and for all for whom I have offered, be, Thee being merciful, propitiatory unto life eternal.  Amen.)

Attentive Traddies will note at once that this variant of the Placeat differs in several words from that found in all editions of the Roman Missal down to 1962.  Therein, it reads:

Pláceat tibi, sancta Trínitas, obséquium servitútis meæ: et præsta; ut sacrifícium, quod oculis tuæ majestátis indígnus óbtuli, tibi sit acceptabile, mihíque et ómnibus, pro quibus illud óbtuli, sit, te miseránte, propitiábile. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

This my 1796 pocket missal quaintly translates as follows:

Let the performance of my homage be pleaſing to thee, O Holy Trinity; and grant, that the ſacrifice which I, tho' unworthy, have offered up in the ſight of thy Majeſty, may be acceptable to thee, and thro' thy mercy, be a propitiation for me, and all thoſe for whom it has been offered.  Thro' Chriſt our Lord.  Amen.

(This should really end: "for whom I have offered it", by the way.)

Why these differences?  Well, the Placeat is first found in the Sacramentary of Amiens, dating from the 9th century, with exactly the same text as that of the Traditional Roman Rite, saving only that the final "Through Christ our Lord" was missing.

While most mediæval missals have substantially the same text, various additions are recorded here and there: for example, the Cistercians once (just as the Carthusians now) added in unus Deus, "one God", after "holy Trinity"; the Carmelites, the Gilbertines, and the English Uses of Sarum, York and Hereford all added hoc to specify hoc sacrificium, "this sacrifice"; the old Carmelite Missal agreed with the Carthusian in adding the words in vitam æternam, "unto life eternal", instead of the Roman ending "through Christ our Lord", or, what was once more common, the alternative ending Qui vivis et regnas...

The Carthusian version of the Placeat has further peculiarities, evidently derived from the Canon of the Mass itself, which includes the very words that are proper to the Carthusian Placeat: from the Memento Domine comes hoc sacrificium laudis, "this sacrifice of praise"; from the Supplices te, the phrase in conspectu divinæ majestatis tuæ, "in the sight of Thy divine Majesty".  Clearly, the Carthusians have modified their version of the Placeat in order for it to more perfectly mirror the Canon.

I am still unsure why their version reads placens instead of acceptabile and omits illud; I expect these are mere verbal differences of no great import.

A.A. King quotes but part of this formula from a 15th century manuscript Missal from the Grande Chartreuse itself – what he quotes agrees with the Carthusian version as it exists to-day, except for reading sit tibi, not tibi sit.

What is of the greatest significance is this prayer itself, in whichever recension it is found – for it most explicitly teaches the doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is propitiatory for the priest himself and for all those for whom he offers it.

Well may we pray that this fine prayer is re-inserted into the Ordinary Form of the Mass!

In pietate tua

Good Friday's solemn liturgy concludes with what used to be called the Mass of the Presanctified.  In the traditional Carthusian Rite, before the celebrant sings the Pater noster, he first intercedes in secret for the whole Church – this is evidently intended as a sort of substitute for the Canon of the Mass, and is interesting to compare and contrast to the solemn prayers offered earlier in the Good Friday service.  

Here is the prayer (taken from my copy of A.A.King's Liturgies of the Religious Orders), with my own rough rendering:

Pietate tua, quæsumus, Domine, nostrorum solve vincula delictorum: et intercedente beata et gloriosa semper Virgine Dei Genitrice Maria cum omnibus sanctis tuis, domnum Apostolicum, pontifices, abbates et priores nostros, sed et omnes congregationes illis commissas, reges et principes nostros, et omnem populum Christianum, et nos famulos tuos, atque locum istum, et omnia loca nostra in omni sanctitate custodi, omnesque affinitate, societate ac familiaritate nobis conjunctos, et nos a vitiis purga, virtutibus illustra, pacem et salutem nobis tribue, hostes visibiles et invisibiles remove, carnalia desideria repelle, aërem salubrem indulge, amicis inimicis nostris et nobis veram caritatem largire, et omnibus fidelibus tuis vivis et defunctis in terra viventium vitam et requiem æternam concede.  Per eumdem Dominum...

(In thy pity, we beseech, Lord, dissolve the bonds of our sins: and the blessed and glorious ever Virgin Mary Mother of God with all Thy Saints interceding, the Apostolic See, our pontiffs, abbots and priors, and all congregations committed to them, our kings and princes, and all Christian people, and us Thy servants, and this place, and all our places guard in all sanctity, and all conjoined to us by affinity, society and familiarity; and us purge from vices, enlighten with virtues, grant unto us peace and health, remove our enemies seen and unseen, repel carnal desires, give healthy air, grant true charity to our friends and enemies and to us, and to all Thy faithful living and dead concede life to those living on earth and eternal rest.  Through the same our Lord...)

Carthusian Office of Our Lady

Thanks to Google Books, the Carthusian Breviary of 1717 may be consulted online; here are clips (click on them to bring them up in full) of the relevant nine pages giving the Office of Our Lady as recited by the holy monks of the Charterhouse, even to-day:

Note some of the intriguing items...

The hymns at Matins and Lauds are Carthusian versions of those used in the Ambrosian Rite:

MATINS

Mysterium Ecclesiae!

Hymnum Christo referimus,

Quem genuit Puerpera,

Verbum Patris in Filium.

Sola in sexu femina

Electa es in saeculo.

Quae meruisti Dominum

Sanctum portare in utero.

Vates antíqui temporis

Praedixerat quod factum est,

Quia Virgo conciperet

Et páreret Emmanuel.

Mysterium hoc magnum est,

Mariae quod concessum est,

Ut Deum, per quem omnia,

Ex se prodire cerneret.

Gloria tibi Domine,

Gloria Unigenito,

Una cum sancto Spiritu

In sempiterna sæcula. Amen.

LAUDS

Vere gratia plena es

Et gloriosa pérmanes;

Quia ex te nobis natus est

Christus per quem sunt omnia.

Pastores, qui audierunt

Gloriam Deo cantarunt,

Cucurrérunt in Bethlehem

Natum vidére Dominum.

Sic Magi ab ortu solis,

Propter stellæ indicium,

Portantes typum Gentium,

Primi offerunt munera

Rogemus ergo, populi,

Dei Matrem et Virginem,

Ut ipsa nobis ímpetret

Pacem et indulgentiam.

Gloria tibi Domine,

Gloria Unigenito,

Una cum sancto Spiritu

In sempiterna sæcula. Amen.