This is Great! Now the only problem is, will the Holy Father be once again ignored? And will we continue to have to bear with the misinterpretation of the Council on the true nature of the Mass? Cardinal Burke praised the adherents of the SSPX because they understand what the Holy Mass is and what it is not. Maybe now people will understand where the SSPX is coming from. In the past 45 years we have been so misled, that the result is that few Catholics understand that the Mass is a Divine Act and not a human act. Perhaps the Holy Father is ushering in the debate on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the Year of Faith. Its time for the Novus Ordo Missae to be said as Pope Paul Vl intended. Deo Gratias!

Spot on, Papa Bene!

I agree wholeheartedly!

Unfortunately, these words will continue to be ignored without some legislation on the subject.

What a great reminder!  Thanks to NCR for being a modern voice of the Good News.

“The Liturgy Is Celebrated for God and Not for Ourselves. “

Here, Benedict states the obvious.

What is so sad is that, because you decades of appalling Vatican mis-management & neglect under JPII (and yes, Ratiznger, too, as the pope’s right-hand-man), the obvious has to be stated.

I wait for the day when Benedict discovers that Catholic sexual morality should be actively & unashamedly proclaimed.

Thank you it is wonderful to be informed by our Holy Father of the truth of our Mother Church. To be reminded of the importance of the presence of God. It is really about bring ourselves humbly before Him as our Father, Savior, the one true God, which is Holy of Holy.

This will definitely help create a smaller and holier church!  What do you think Jesus would think of your magic show in remembrance of him?

How wonderful!!!  Can it be said better??  Rest and peace in God through Christ and the liturgy through which we come to Him.

This is very good to hear, very encouraging-because it is true!

But let me ask a question: How do we do this in light of the New Evangelization? I mean this as a serious question and am looking for good discussion and wisdom. Blessed Pope John Paul, when he called for the New Evangelization told us that while the teachings and traditions haven’t changed, we have to repropose them with a “new ardor, methods and expression of evangelization, ones that engage the present-day culture and modern man.”

How can we do this with the Mass? How do we bring people in to the Sacred Liturgy with a new ardor, method and expression so that salvation is effected for modern man?

I am disturbed that Richard seems to delight in a smaller Church. Jesus Christ and His Church is for everyone and we cannot dismiss the sinner or heretic simply because they are outside of the Church. I sin too. We are all in need of the saving power of God which we find centrally in the Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist.

So, how do we do this?

Absolutely fantastic.  As a returning Catholic who was in a Protestant churches for 33 years, I can attest to exactly what I Pope Benedict is talking about.  Music became a means for self gratification concert style.  people in music were chosen not simply for the music ability but how they looked on stage and what style of clothing they wore.  might even attended at church that sated it was for people who didn’t like church.  Like many of the contemporary churches they made sure that they tried to suit to the needs of popular society with loud bands, drama, videos and comedy, and anything else that would draw people in.  The focus was on the numbers rather than God Himself…. and the experience extremely shallow.

I thank God that I am back in the 1 true Church, and a conservative parish that follows the Pope, Magesterium, & Sacred Traditions.

Maybe this is why I cringe when the priest processes to the altar of God and begins, not with invoking the Trinity, but with a great, big HELLO! to the congregation - meeting and greeting.  Immediately, the focus is off Christ and on the celebrant.  He’s just being nice and friendly, but it just seems oddly inappropriate to begin Holy Mass in this way.  God bless our Holy Father for retrieving the sacredness of celebrating Holy Mass.

This needs to be reaffirmed from every pulpit as far too many poorly
catechized congregants think they are there to either entertain or be
entertained! Not so! It is God’s liturgy. God does not change and the
only real, valid liturgical changes are those that least disrupt the
focus on the Holy Sacrifice that is being offered to God by Christ in the personna of the Alter Christus…it is not for theater or amusement we come to Mass but to offer ourselves along with the unbloody sacrifice of Our Lord and Savior. This is why for Catholics, the Mass is the focal point of our faith.

Our Holy Father is so right and it’s so awsome to hear this from him.  I’m a revert, came back almost seven yrs. ago and was shocked to find how, worse then Protestant it had become!  It was not about Jesus Christ anymore but about the people sitting in the pews, laughing, talking, acknowledging everyone that is serving, joking, laughing, etc. etc.  The Holiness that I grew up w/in the Catholic church had gone out the window.  There’s hope.  As the older liberal priests are now retiring, we are getting younger, more Orthodox and holy priests who are starting to bring back the Sacred!

Jen, I think you raise a great point. From my own experiences I honestly think the answer to balancing the New Evangelisation with respecting the Sacred Liturgy lies not in changing the Mass to make it more “appealing” but rather in improving education and catechesis on the significance and symbolism of the Mass. For me, having the opportunity to learn the what and WHY of different parts of the Mass caused me to fall in love with it’s truth, beauty and goodness. People tend to appreciate and love the Mass more when they understand it better. I know quite a few converts for whom learning about the Mass and the True Presence was actually a key reason for their desire to join the Catholic Church.

We can engage the modern world without conforming to it. The parishes I know of that are really thriving are not the parishes that have embraced modern music etc but rather, paradoxically, the more traditional parishes in which good catechesis is carried out. People have an innate yearning for the Truth and will embrace the Truth of the Mass as it is meant to be if only we reveal it to them.

We meet again Angelo,

Our Holy Father is most correct.  We must obey him.  Once again, I repeat what I have said on another Blog.

THE HIDDEN TREASURE OF THE MASS

by St. Leonard-Port Maurice

Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, 1890

In the world you will have affliction. But take courage, I have overcome the world.—JOHN 16:33

THE THREE EXCELLENCIES OF MASS, PART 1

I. It requires great patience to endure the language of careless livers, breathing atheism itself, and ruinous to devotion; as for instance, “A Mass more or less counts for little.”… ” He who talks in this way lets it be perceived that he has little or no esteem for the thrice-holy sacrifice af the Mass. That sacrifice is the sun of Christianity, the soul of faith, the centre of the Catholic religion, wherein are beheld all her rites, all her ceremonies, and all her Sacraments; in fine, it is the compendium of all the good and beautiful to be found in the Church of God. Wherefore, O ye who now read my words, ponder well how great are the matters to be spoken of in these instructions.

….The sole sacrifice which we have in our holy religion, that is to say, Holy Mass, is a sacrifice, holy, perfect, in every point complete, with which each one of the faithful nobly honors God, protesting at one and the same time his own nothingness and the supreme dominion which God hath over him; a sacrifice called, therefore, by David, sacrificium justitiae, “the sacrifice of justice” (Ps. iv. 5); both because it contains the Just One Himself, and the Saint of Saints, or rather justice and holiness themselves, and because it sanctifies souls by the infusion of grace and the affluence of gifts which it confers. Being, then, a sacrifice so holy -a sacrifice the most venerable and the most excellent of all—in order that you may form a due conception of so great a treasure, we shall here explain, in a manner quite succinct, some of its Divine excellencies. To express them all were not a work to which our poor faculties could attain.

III. The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody sacrifice, which can be repeated an infinite number of times, and was instituted in order to apply in detail that universal ransom which Jesus paid for us on Calvary. So that the bloody Sacrifice was the instrument of redemption; the unbloody is that which puts us in possession: the one threw open the treasury of the merits of Christ Our Lord; the other affords the practical use of that treasury. And, therefore, observe that in Mass there is made not a mere representation, nor a simple commemoration of the Passion and Death of the Redeemer, but there is performed, in a certain true sense, the selfsame most holy act which was performed on Calvary. It may be said, with all truth, that in every Mass Our Redeemer returns mystically to die for us, without really dying, at one and the same time really alive and as it were slain——-vidi Agnum stantem tamquam occisum, “I saw a Lamb standing as it were slain” (Apoc. v. 6).

On the anniversary day of the holy Nativity there is represented by the Church the birth of the Lord, but Our Lord is not then born. On the day of the Ascension and on the day of Pentecost, there are shadowed forth the ascent of the Lord to Heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit down to the earth; yet it is by no means true that, as each of these days comes round, the Lord again ascends to Heaven, or the Holy Spirit visibly descends to earth. But the same cannot be said of the mystery of Holy Mass, for in it there is made no simple representation of a bygone event, but the selfsame Sacrifice is unbloodily made which, with the shedding of Blood, was made upon the Cross. That same Body, that same Blood, that same Jesus Who then offered Himself upon Calvary, now offers Himself in the Holy Mass. Opus, says the Church, opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur (Orat. s. in Mis. Dom. 9, post Pent). Yes; exercetur; in Mass there is effected, there is continuously practised, that same Sacrifice which was made upon the Cross. Oh, awful, solemn, and stupendous work!

Now, tell me whether, when you enter church to hear Mass, you thoroughly well consider that you are going up as it were to Calvary, to be present at the death of the Redeemer. If so, would you go with behavior so unsubdued, with dress so flaunting? If the Magdalene had gone to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross, all dressed out, perfumed, and adorned, as when she associated with her lovers, what would have been said of her? What, then, shall be said of you who go to holy Mass as if you were going to a ball? But what shall be said if you profane those functions of most dread sanctity with nods and becks, with tattle, with laughter, with the petty attentions of courtship, or with graver sacrileges of thought, word, or deed? Wickedness is hideous at any time, and in any place; but sins committed during the time of Mass, and before the altar, draw down after them the curse of God. Maledictus homo qui tacit opus Domini fraudulenter (Jer. xlviii. 10). Think seriously upon this, while I proceed to disclose to you yet other marvels and glories of this all-precious treasure.

Contd…

Contd…

IV. It seems to me impossible for a religious function to possess a prerogative more excellent than this of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, that it is no mere copy, but one original with the Sacrifice of the Cross.

Still further is its eminence enhanced by having for its priest none else than God made man. In so great a sacrifice three things attract consideration: the priest who offers, the Victim offered, and the majesty of Him to Whom the offering is made. Now observe the marvellous grandeur of Holy Mass, in virtue of each of these three considerations. The Priest Who offers is the Man-God Christ Jesus; the Victim is the Life of God; nor is it offered to any other than unto God.

Rekindle, then, your faith, and recognize the true celebrant to be not so much the human priest as the adorable person of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the primary offerer, not only because He has instituted this Holy Sacrifice, and has given to it all its efficacy through His merits, but also because in each Mass He Himself deigns for our good to, transubstantiate the bread and wine into His most Holy Body and into His most Precious Blood. Behold, then, the chiefest privilege of Holy Mass, to have for priest God made man; and when you see the celebrant at the altar, know that his highest dignity consists in being the minister of that invisible and eternal Priest, Our Redeemer Himself. Hence it results that the sacrifice itself does not cease to be agreeable to God, although the priest who celebrates may be wicked and sacrilegious, seeing that the principal offerer is Christ Our Lord, and the priest is His mere minister.

In the same way, anyone who gives alms by the hand of a servant is called in all truth the giver; and even though his servant may be wicked and infamous, yet if the master be good, the alms do not cease to be praiseworthy and holy. Blessed, then, be God, Who hath bestowed on us a holy, a most holy Priest, Who offers to the Eternal Father this Divine Sacrifice, not only in every place (the holy faith being now everywhere diffused), but every day, and even every hour; since the sun is rising to others, while to us it sets. At every hour, then, in various parts of the world, this most perfectly holy Priest offers to the Father His Blood, His Soul, and His whole self for us: and all this He does as many times as there are Masses celebrated in the whole world. O boundless treasure! O mine of inestimable stores thus possessed by us in the Church of God! O happy we if we could but assist at all these Masses! What a store of reward would be thus acquired! What a heaping up of graces in this life, what a fund of glory in the other, would be the fruit of so loving an attendance!

V. But what is implied in this word “attendance?” Those who hear Mass not only perform the office of attendants, but likewise of offerers, having themselves a right to the title of priests. Fecisti nos Deo nostro regnum et sacerdotes (Apoc. v. 10). The celebrating priest is, as it were, the public minister of the Church in general; he is the intermediary between all the faithful, particularly those who assist at Mass, and the invisible Priest, Who is Christ; and, together with Christ, he offers to the Eternal Father, both in behalf of all the rest and of himself, the great price of human redemption. But he is not alone in this so holy function, since all those who assist at Mass concur with him in offering the sacrifice; and, therefore, the priest turns round to the people and says, Orate fratres ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium acceptabile fiat——-“Pray, O my brethren, that mine and your sacrifice may be acceptable to God;” in order that the faithful may understand that, while he indeed acts the part of principal minister, all those who are present make the great offering together with him. So that when you assist at Holy Mass, you perform, after a certain manner, the office of priest. What say you, then? Will you ever dare, from this time forward, to be at Mass sitting, prating, looking here and there, perhaps even sleeping, or content yourselves with reciting some vocal prayers, without at all taking to heart the tremendous office of priest which you are exercising? Ah me! I cannot restrain myself from exclaiming, O dull and incapable world, that understandest nothing of mysteries so sublime! How is it possible that anyone should remain before the altar with a mind distracted and a heart dissipated at a time when the holy Angels stand there trembling and astonished at the contemplation of a work so stupendous?.....

http://www.catholictradition.org/Eucharist/hidden-treasure1a.htm

contd…

contd…

VI. You are surprised, perhaps, to hear me speak of the Mass as a stupendous work. But what tongue, human or angelic, may ever describe a power so immeasurable as that exercised by the simplest priest in Mass?

And who could ever have imagined that the voice of man, which by nature hath not the power even to raise a straw from the ground, should obtain through grace a power so stupendous as to bring from Heaven to earth the Son of God? It is a greater power than that which would be required to change the place of mountains, to dry up seas, and to turn round the heavens; it even emulates, in a certain manner, that first fiat with which God brought all things out of nothing, and in some sort would seem to surpass that other fiat with which the sweet Virgin drew down into her bosom the Eternal Word. She did nothing else than supply matter for the body of Christ——-made indeed from her and her most pure blood, but not by her, in the sense of her own potential act. But altogether different, and most marvellous, is the sacramental manner in which the voice of the priest, operating as the instrument of Christ, reproduces Him, and does so as often as he consecrates. The Blessed Giovanni Buono made this truth (S. Ant. 3 p. hist. tit. 24, c. 13) in some sort comprehensible to a hermit, his companion, who was unable to imagine how the words of a priest could be allowed such power as to change the substance of bread into the Body of Jesus Christ, and the substance of wine into His Blood, and who, unhappily, had consented to the devilish suggestions of doubt.
The good servant of God, perceiving this man’s error, conducted him to a fountain, took thence a cup of water, and gave it him to drink. He, when he had drunk of it, declared that during his whole life he had never tasted a wine so pleasant. Then Giovanni Buono said, “Do not you now feel, my dear brother, the marvellous truth? If, through means of me, a miserable man, water is changed into wine by Divine power, how much more ought you to believe that, through means of the words of God——-for the priest only uses the words instituted for the purpose by God Himself——-the bread and wine are converted into the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ? Who shall dare to assign limits to the omnipotence of God?” This so effectually enlightened the hermit that, banishing every doubt from his mind, he did great penance for his sin.

Let us have but a little faith, a little living faith, and we shall confess that the mighty and admirable things contained in this adorable sacrifice are without number; nor will it then seem too strange to us to behold the marvel repeated continually——-the thrice-holy humanity of Jesus multiplying itself in thousands and thousands of places, enjoying, so to speak, a kind of infinity denied to every other body, and reserved to it alone through the merit of His life, sacrificed to the Most High. It is said to have been once granted to an unbelieving Jew to have the mystery of this multiplied existence illustrated by the mouth of a woman.

He was amusing himself in the public square, when there passed a priest who, accompanied by a crowd, carried the most holy Viaticum to a sick person. All the people, bending the knee, rendered due homage of adoration to the Most Holy Sacrament; the Jew alone made no movement, nor gave any token of reverence. This being seen by a poor woman, she exclaimed, “O miserable man, why do you not show reverence to the true God, present in this Divine Sacrament?” “What true God?” said the Jew, sharply. “If this were so, would not there be many Gods, since on each of your altars there is one during Mass?” The woman instantly took a sieve, and holding it up to the sun, told the Jew to look at the rays which passed through the chinks; and then added, “Tell me, Jew, are there many suns which pass through the openings of this sieve, or only one?” And the Jew answering that there was but one sun. “Then,” replied the woman, “why do you wonder that God incarnate, veiled in the Sacrament, though one, indivisible, and unchanged, should, through excess of love, place Himself in true and Real Presence on different altars?” Through this illustration, he was held on to confess the truth of the faith. O holy faith! A ray of thy light is needed in order to reply with energy of spirit to the captiousness of carnal minds. Yes, who shall ever dare to assign limits to the omnipotence of God?

Through the great conception which St. Teresa had of the omnipotence of God, she was wont to say that the more lofty, deep, and abstruse to our understandings are the mysteries of our holy faith, with so much the more firmness, and with so much the greater devotion, did she believe them; knowing full well that the Almighty God could work prodigies infinitely greater still. Revive, then, your faith with heavenly grace, and, acknowledging this divine sacrifice to be the miracle of miracles, feelingly confess that majesty so great must needs be incomprehensible to our poor minds, and is, therefore, the more sublime; then, full of astonishment, exclaim again and yet again, “O treasure, how great!

While I agree completely with what the pope has to say, I must admit to confussion.  I’ve seen many a papal mass that has some pretty hokey stuff in it.  How does that happen?

@ Bibbit..“Hokey stuff”??? Could you be more explicit?
Are you Catholic? Just what is it you’re *agreeing* on
with the Pope? Just curious.

Does this fit with, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27)?

(I’m just a man trying to understand.  And, as I’ve grown older, i’ve grown to see that ‘understanding’ is of very little value.  The Mass still works for me.  So I’ll take it.)

The mass is for God, and we are not to play with it for our own personal pleasures.  Right now in the US far too many parishes celebrate the mass their way, not always the Church’s way.

Celinedesilva, Its great to read your posts again. This thread is what I have been waiting for, for a long time. After reading “Hidden Treasure” and a priest years ago confirming this sacred truth about the Holy Mass, I have been ridiculed for standing up in defense of the fact that the Mass is not a human act but a Divine Act. And now the Holy Father has made this teaching of the Church very clear, he minced no words. I hope this will be greatly debated during the “Year of Faith”. Then the sacredness of the Mass could be once more to the Glory and Honor of God.

Bibbit, God doesn’t need the Mass.  We do.  So why would the Mass be “for God”?  This is my point of confusion.  Can anyone clarify how the Pope’s statement fits this paradigm as stated so eloquently and succinctly in Mark 2:27?
I’ll take a stab at answering my own question here but would welcome any comments: God doesn’t need the mass.  We need the Mass.  But the Mass, as is true with any holy act (from sacrements to the very act of living) must be done with complete self-abandonment.  Denial of one’s own will in order to align one’s self with the Will of God paves the way to all that is Good.  And so, in celebrating the Mass, we trust in God’s Will.  We trust that He knows best for us and therefore accept this gift - His gift - of the Mass.
But, still… we must remember (as must our Pope) that this Mass is for us.

-dh

Something I like to ask folks is if they can imagine the angels in Revelation, while they are worshiping God, doing their own thing.  Can you?  I can’t.  As to why the mass is for God, why He wants it from us, maybe you could ask those very angels when you get the chance to meet them?  The angels are worshiping Him according to His desires, not theirs.  And we should be doing the same.  Christ’s bride, the Church, gives us the Mass and tells us how we are to celebrate it.  We should listen to His bride and do just that, worship according to the way it is gifted to us.  I’m not saying we should have liturgy police, but it sure would be nice if the priests where I live would simply say the black and do the red

drh, That God needs the Mass, this has been the truth for 2000 years. When God the Father gave his only begotten son for our salvation on the Cross. Man took no part in the Divine act by Christ, It was all between the Father and the Son. God offered himself to God for our salvation. Christ commanded the Apostles at their ordination, which we refer to as the Last Supper. To repeat his Sacrifice until the end of time. After the Consecration at Mass, the sacred words are said by the priest, “Mysterium Fidei”, in English “Mystery of Faith” this is a most profound declaration. The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ reenacted, it is identical to being at Calvary. The Mass being a Divine Act, it is Christ who offers himself once and for all to the Father, it is Christ who offers his sacrifice to the Father at each Mass. So toying around with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the gravest sacrilege immaginable. Many accuse us Traditionalists of trying to take the Church back to the middle ages. We are not, we are trying to take it back 2000 years, literaly to Calvary. They say we wish to turn back the hands of time, this is true, we wish to turn back, by ending Liturgical abuses which only greviously offend God, and brings his wrath upon us. Lets listen to the Vicar of Christ and do things God’s way, lets stop interfering with almighty God’s ways.

The Church is the Bride of Christ. She is His Spouse. As such, she deserves respect and reverence.

I accept the Pope’s teaching on the liturgy. I am encouraged to hear his words. I pray that all who hear it, hear it open to God’s will for us and not use the Pope’s teaching as a way of promoting individual preference or to win an argument. We have enough “us vs. them” mentality in the church when it comes to liturgy. As a Catholic Pastoral Musician for forty plus years I have matured in my understanding of the Church’s teaching on the liturgy through prayer, study, openess to grace and by the example of those who serve the liturgy by living what they proclaim to believe. I often ask myself if I believe that Jesus is truly present in Word and Sacrament, how can I come into His presence and not be changed? If I, who serve at the liturgy, wish to lead the assembly into the presence of God and His unconditional love and mercy, then I must live my life according to what I proclaim to believe.