Post by Ranger on Mar 27, 2015 21:24:28 GMT
I hope that this is not too controversial a post, I understand that we all have different takes on this question.
I want to ask why people have decided to habitually attend the Extraordinary Form over the Ordinary Form, and vice versa.
For my own part, I attended the Extraordinary Form for several years when I was quite young when it was still the Indult Mass in St. Audoen's. When I first started college, I also went to St. Kevin's regularly on a Sunday for a period of several months, whilst attending OF Masses on weekdays.
There were many things I really appreciated about the EF; first of all, there was certainly a definite striving for beauty in the liturgy. Secondly, and importantly for me, the homilies were always excellent, solid stuff, orthodox, no waffle, linked to contemporary affairs where relevant. Thirdly, the hymns were beautiful, both the Lassus Scholars and the parishioners' choir.
However, I eventually found that I felt more able to actively live and pray the liturgy in the OF, with the big caveat that as long as there aren't obvious liturgical abuses, as unfortunately happens a bit too often in Dublin. I have a tendency to get very distracted, and I found that the responses of the laity in the OF made it easier for me to focus on the different parts of the Mass. I attended the daily Low Mass as well one morning, and found it impossible to concentrate. I also find it easier to focus in the vernacular, and I say that as someone who has studied Latin for many years and can follow the EF relatively well. I usually attend Mass in Clarendon Street, which I find beautiful (sorry Maolsheachlann!) and which has many of the Latin hymns sung during Sunday Mass (Gloria, Credo, Salve Regina sometimes) which I feel connects it to the older rite.
One other factor which was a minor influence was that I met some very off-putting rad-trads at St. Kevin's who made some slanderous and unfounded accusations against a certain Pope who is now Canonised as well as against 'Novus Ordo Catholics'. I completely acknowledge that these are a small minority amongst those who attend St. Kevin's, but it happened that those were the circles I knew people in there and they were difficult to avoid. I also found St. Kevin's a bit dark and dreary, it's an old-style Irish church which I'm not keen on, but perhaps that's just me.
Having read about the existence of a 'Dialogue Mass' and having improved my Latin a little I wonder if I would find this easier to pray, although I do find myself quite at home in Clarendon Street now.
I do have a lot of sympathy for those who attend the EF and wish that the local Church was more open to it, I think it's a beautiful rite and those who are most at home in it deserve access to it. It's been unfairly maligned by some liberal commentators. I know that some newly ordained priests have an interest in it whilst still practicing the OF which I think is good for building bridges.
How do others feel?
I want to ask why people have decided to habitually attend the Extraordinary Form over the Ordinary Form, and vice versa.
For my own part, I attended the Extraordinary Form for several years when I was quite young when it was still the Indult Mass in St. Audoen's. When I first started college, I also went to St. Kevin's regularly on a Sunday for a period of several months, whilst attending OF Masses on weekdays.
There were many things I really appreciated about the EF; first of all, there was certainly a definite striving for beauty in the liturgy. Secondly, and importantly for me, the homilies were always excellent, solid stuff, orthodox, no waffle, linked to contemporary affairs where relevant. Thirdly, the hymns were beautiful, both the Lassus Scholars and the parishioners' choir.
However, I eventually found that I felt more able to actively live and pray the liturgy in the OF, with the big caveat that as long as there aren't obvious liturgical abuses, as unfortunately happens a bit too often in Dublin. I have a tendency to get very distracted, and I found that the responses of the laity in the OF made it easier for me to focus on the different parts of the Mass. I attended the daily Low Mass as well one morning, and found it impossible to concentrate. I also find it easier to focus in the vernacular, and I say that as someone who has studied Latin for many years and can follow the EF relatively well. I usually attend Mass in Clarendon Street, which I find beautiful (sorry Maolsheachlann!) and which has many of the Latin hymns sung during Sunday Mass (Gloria, Credo, Salve Regina sometimes) which I feel connects it to the older rite.
One other factor which was a minor influence was that I met some very off-putting rad-trads at St. Kevin's who made some slanderous and unfounded accusations against a certain Pope who is now Canonised as well as against 'Novus Ordo Catholics'. I completely acknowledge that these are a small minority amongst those who attend St. Kevin's, but it happened that those were the circles I knew people in there and they were difficult to avoid. I also found St. Kevin's a bit dark and dreary, it's an old-style Irish church which I'm not keen on, but perhaps that's just me.
Having read about the existence of a 'Dialogue Mass' and having improved my Latin a little I wonder if I would find this easier to pray, although I do find myself quite at home in Clarendon Street now.
I do have a lot of sympathy for those who attend the EF and wish that the local Church was more open to it, I think it's a beautiful rite and those who are most at home in it deserve access to it. It's been unfairly maligned by some liberal commentators. I know that some newly ordained priests have an interest in it whilst still practicing the OF which I think is good for building bridges.
How do others feel?