When the Motu is announced…
What will we say?
Some speculated that it would be announced today - I read where others believe it will be announced on Holy Thursday - although, it seems to me that would distract from the Sacred Triduum. I’m still on board with the April 29th or 30th date.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder, when the Motu Proprio is announced, what will we say to the faithful who have worked and prayed so hard for the return of the traditional liturgy? Those who have remained faithful to tradition…those who have been mocked and marginalized, written off as ultra conservative fanatics - or just “Wanderer” types?
It has been a scandal the way traditionalists have been treated since the Council.
For myself, my deepest apologies and eternal thanks for your perseverance.
March 26th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Father Z has “Five Rules of Engagement” for us to observe when the Motu Proprio is delivered:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/03/fr-zs-five-simple-rules-for-e ngagment-for-when-and-if-the-motu-proprio-comes/#comments
1) Rejoice because our liturgical life has been enriched, not because “we win”. Everyone wins when the Church’s life is enriched. This is not a “zero sum game”.
2) Do not strut. Let us be gracious to those who have in the past not been gracious in regard to our “legitimate aspirations”.
3) Show genuine Christian joy. If you want to attract people to what gives you so much consolation and happiness, be inviting and be joyful. Avoid the sourness some of the more traditional stamp have sadly worn for so long.
4) Be engaged in the whole life of your parishes, especially in works of mercy organized by the same. If you want the whole Church to benefit from the use of the older liturgy, then you who are shaped by the older form of Mass should be of benefit to the whole Church in concrete terms.
5) If the document doesn’t say everything we might hope for, don’t bitch about it like a whiner. Speak less of our rights and what we deserve, or what it ought to have been, as if we were our own little popes, and more about our gratitude, gratitude, gratitude for what God gives us.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Yes, traditionalists have been marginalized. I had no idea how extreme the marginalization was until I started blogging. I naively thought, well, we are all Catholic, except some of us like Latin and read Abbot Gueranger. Boy, have my eyes been opened.
Those are excellent Rules, Ray. I wonder if anything will change in my diocese….
March 27th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Terry: I don’t think you are too hard on trads, in general. I perceive that you just seek an authentic, valid, reverent liturgy. Whether it’s NO or Indult, Latin or English.
I know you don’t like the trad vampires (the angry, bitter folk), I don’t like them either and tend to avoid their company.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Oh, Terry, I thought you were a traditionalist. Perhaps the word we should be using for extreme people is “Jansenist.” I am traditionalist but not a vampire.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Actually I do consider myself traditionalist - in the past I was more or less taught to beware of traditionalists however.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I think many of us were taught that. Then I started going to the Latin mass and reading and a whole new world opened up.