Wednesday, August 01, 2007

We Call Them "Liturgeists" For a Reason

Although this poor young thing may be vying for an "Onion" prize, we have to take her scribblings at face value, no? On the Motu Proprio...(N.B. ("please note well" to you, Peg) her text is blue, and Fr Z's is red.)

By Peggy Lovrien, Diocesan Director of Liturgy [Winona, MN]

The vernacular text evolved as the result of careful research and scholarly work by church clergy prior to the Second Vatican Council. [WHAT!? How could dozens of vernacular translations evolve before the Latin text existed? What a mess.] The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (CSL), the first document of the council, articulated the result of their scholarly work and called for the use of the people’s language in the liturgy. [Noooo…. the text of Sacrosanctum Concilium did not call for the vernacular. It called for Latin to be preserved as the language of the liturgy while opening the possibility that the vernacular could be used for some parts of the Mass in some occasions.] Use of the people’s language was a value because it allowed people to knowledgeably participate in the liturgy through full, conscious, and active participation. [This is very narrow. It suggests that people cannot participate at Mass if the Mass is not in the vernacular.] The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy laid the groundwork for the New Mass of 1969 (Novus Ordo).

For the rest of Ms. Lovrein's fantastical journey into the unknown (which in her case would be the Roman Catholic liturgy and its history) follow the link. There are several more paragraphs of sidesplitting humor available there.

1 comment:

Al said...

I followed the link & started reading the whole thing. It is amazing how she counterdicts herself without a pause. It was surreal. I could only get a little ways into this before expecting to hear strains of the theme from "The Twilight Zone".

From "Liurgeists" like this, Lord deliver us!