FIUV Position Paper on Silence

A few days late, I've published the latest FIUV Position Paper, on silence during Mass. It considers the question of the silent Canon in the Extraordinary Form, and also the silent priestly prayers (such as the 'Munda cor meum' before the Gospel, and the priest's preparation for Communion). It is available on Rorate Caeli; go over there to read it.

If you want to see and hear and understand everything, then you won't understand the point of silence. It is a bigger obstacle to the kind of word-by-word, blow-by-blow comprehension which seems to be the ideal of some liturgists, even than the use of Latin. The fact that silence is so characteristic of the Traditional Mass, and that it is so appreciated by those who attend it, drives home the point that words are not the only way of getting a message across. The the idea that they are is one of the more obviously silly attitudes associated with the Enlightenment. You really only have to articulate it to see it is absurd.

Pope Benedict XVI, before his election, wrote more than once that it would be beneficial to have the canon in the Novus Ordo said silently. He speaks with great earnestness of the value of the 'filled silence' which descends upon the church during the silent canon in the Traditional Mass, a truly profound period of participation by the faithful.

Making the canon silent in the New Mass would certainly deal with a number of issues at once. The variety of Eucharistic Prayers would become pretty redundant, for one thing, and it would be no less intelligible to the people if it were in Latin. The lunatic-fringe silliness of people wanting to join in the Canon would be avoided as well. This kind of 'reform of the reform' change may happen one day, because whatever liberals might say, in my experience people really like the silence. It speaks more loudly than the most ceaseless verbiage: that's just the point.

Here's an interesting old post of Fr Tim Finigan on the silent Canon.

LMS AGM 2012

We had our AGM on Saturday; Bishop Rifan celebrated the Mass and addressed the meeting, at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, with the kind permission of Archbishop Smith.
Archbishop Smith has a really magnificent cathedral, built by Pugin. It was partially destroyed in the War, though rebuilt, and the sanctuary has suffered more recently: the High Altar was originally against the East end. 
 
But it is still magnificent, a very fitting place for Pontifical Mass.
The Assistant Priest was our National Chaplain, Fr Andrew Southwell.
There are a few changes to the Committee. Notably, Leo Darroch has retired as Vice President, and been replaced by Paul Beardsmore, a former Secretary. Gordon Dimon, the LMS Master of Ceremonies, has come to the end of his term on the Committee, and has been replaced by his fellow Representive for Westminster Diocese, Roger Wemyss-Brooks.
Our deficit, which looked rather alarming on paper a few years ago (when The Tablet decided to run a story about it), is vastly improved, and continues to move in the right direction. Our membership is growing again, after a few years of gradual decline. We are doing a vast number of things, many of them new, or better than before. I won't bore regular readers of this blog, but as well as Bishop Rifan's visit, this year we've had a big pilgrimage to York, a one-day conference, a priest-training conference in Belmost Abbey, we are about to have a Latin Course for adults with Fr John Hunwicke, and Pilgrimages to Walsingham and Lourdes.

The Latin Mass Society is gathering momentum.

Bishop Rifan in Holywell: more pictures

The Mass, which Bishop Rifan celebrated from the throne, was actually filmed. But I wasn't myself very well placed to take photographs. The reliquary being carried in the procession (by Canon Meney of SS Peter & Paul and St Philomena, New Brighton) is, of course, that of St Winifride, which we all venerated, walking through and around the holy spring to do so.

More here.
 

Bishop Rifan in Leeds: more photos

I've processed my photos of the Leeds Mass with Bishop Rifan; the full set is here.

Bishop Rifan in Edinburgh

Bishop Rifan was invited to the British Isles by the Latin Mass Society, but we are delighted that he has been able to include Scotland, as well as England and Wales, in his tour. Here he is in Edinburgh.

More details from the Oblate.

He'll be in St George's Cathedral in Southwark on Saturday 7th July for the LMS AGM: Mass (all welcome) is at 11am, he will address the AGM (starting at 2pm, members only) after lunch.

Members can join him and the LMS Committee for lunch in the hall next to the Cathedral.

Link to map.

Dietrich von Hildebrand on grief

I've blogged a passage from Dietrich von Hildebrand's The Devastated Vineyard not long ago; here's another one I thought worth sharing.

Many people are confused about how they should react to bereavement; some are even made to feel guilty about feeling natural grief. Hildebrand supplies a good corrective. From 'The Devastated Vineyard', pp130f 

It is a regrettable sophism to say (as it was sometimes said in sermons) that the death of a father or mother, husband or wife, or of a child, is no reason for sadness as long as they have died well, after receiving the last sacraments, as long as we can hope that they are with God. Of course the eternal happiness of one whom we truly love is the most important thing, but separation from the beloved, even if only for a time, remains a terrible cross. Whoever does not feel this cross, whoever just happily goes his way with the consolation that the beloved has found eternal happiness, is not directed to eternity in a special way--he is simply insensitive and does not want to be disturbed in the normal rhythm of his daily life. He is simply making a comfortable excuse when he emphasises that the eternal salvation of the other is the most important thing. He has forgotten that even Jesus Christ, the God-man, prayed in Gethsemane: 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' He does not understand that a cross which has been imposed on us should be suffered under as a cross. Only then can we attain to the true consolation which lies in the perspective of eternity, to the true hope of eternal blessedness.    

 

We should simply read the magnificent sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux (no. 26 in his sermons on the Canticle of Canticles) in which he grieves over the death of his brother. Here we find first of all the lamentation, filled with deep grief, over the death of his beloved brother, and only then the ascent to the fact that death is the beginning of a life of eternal blessedness.   

It is always a disastrous mistake when we try to skip over certain phases instead of passing through them, when we violate the central value of dicretio. (I have spoken at length about this virtue in my book, 'Liturgy and Personality'.) When we do not pass through the necessary phases on our way to some end, phases which are objectively prescribed by the nature of things, and are willed by God, when we try to skip them, then we distort everything and do not really attain to our end; in fact, we falsify the end and render it mediocre.

Bishop Rifan in Holywell

Yesterday was the annual LMS pilgrimage to Holywell, the ancient shrine to St Winifride - dating back to the 7th Century, and never destroyed. Bishop Rifan celebrated Pontifical Mass at the throne, a very splendid ceremony, to a packed church - standing room only at the back.


I was part of a liturgical schola behind the altar. As with most churches the free-standing altar cuts the available space in the sanctuary; with a polyphonic choir in the choir loft, there was nowhere else for us to go. It worked pretty well.


It was a great occasion. I'll have some better photos soon I hope!

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