Papal daily Mass concelebrated.
"We don’t want to change and what’s more there are those who wish to turn the clock back. This is called stubbornness and wanting to tame the Holy Spirit.” -Pope Francis
One of the reasons I love the Pope so much, is that like his predecessors, he fully endorses Vatican II and the Ordinary Form of the Mass. Yes, Holy Father Benedict XVI did likewise. This is important precisely because even amongst so-called Novus Ordo clergy and faithful, there are Vatican II minimizers. They have a tendency to disparage the Council with claims it was simply a pastoral council, with nothing defined, and in the long arc of history - an unimportant Council. Tell the Popes that.
Having said that, any reform flowing from the Council has often dismissed as a misinterpretation of the will of the Council Fathers, or as an outright deviation - in 'the spirit' of Vatican II. Chief amongst these claims is that the reform of the Roman Liturgy was a mistake and that the Ordinary Form of Mass should be abrogated. Neither Pope Benedict nor Pope Francis view the Ordinary Form of the Mass, or the Council in that way. All the Popes since the Council have celebrated the ordinary Form of Mass consistently. Abuses have abounded in liturgy and teaching since the Council, but as Pope Benedict pointed out immediately before he retired, the problems associated with the Council he aptly attributed to what he termed, the Council of the Media - but he never disparaged the Council itself. In fact, it is significant that the Holy Year of Faith opened on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II.
Today, many seem to be wondering who the Holy Father is talking about when he refers to the Year of Faith and the 50th anniversary of Vatican Council II saying:
“We celebrate this anniversary, we put up a monument but we don’t want it to upset us. We don’t want to change and what’s more there are those who wish to turn the clock back.” - Excerpts of today's homily here.If you are wondering if he is talking to you - I think it safe to say he is. He's talking to you and me and the progressives and the trads and the in-betweeners. He's the Pope and he is talking to ordinary Catholics about resisting the Holy Spirit.
He's the Pope and he is saying that Vatican II is “a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit.”
Read Fr. Angelo on what the Holy Father said here: Taming the Holy Spirit?
Read some things Benedict XVI had to say about the Holy Spirit and Vatican II here.
I'm not a super traddie and wear jeans to Mass and appreciate the vernacular. However, I just wish we had more chant. Don't the VII documents say that chant is to have pride of place? Well ... where is it?
ReplyDeleteI am still waiting for the mandates of the Second Vatican Council to be fully implemented, such as the recommendations of Sacrosanctum Concilium. I think our beloved Pope Emeritus worked hard to steer us in that direction and I know that Pope Francis will do so as well. It was a pastoral council, which is not to denigrate it. I was told by a Carmelite priest years ago that Vatican II was the council of holiness, in that the emphasis was on bringing the laity to a deeper understanding of Sacred Scripture and living a life of virtue.
ReplyDeleteThe universal call to holiness, promulgated in "Lumen Gentium," is really the most important sacramental and mystical teaching of the Council. It is the culmination of the life's work of Father Arintero, OP and Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. For many, though, it remains just a theological phrase without any real meaning. . . It is this teaching which is underscored by all the beatifications and canonizations undertaken by John Paul II and Benedict XVI -- so many lay saints, so many cultures represented. The full flowering of baptismal grace is to be found in the mystical prayer which is meant to be the experience of everyone reborn in Christ.
ReplyDeleteThanks Colombiere - I couldn't agree more.
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