Jeg ble i går oppringt av en journalist som hadde spørsmål om den tradisjonelle latinske messen; han hadde opplevd den en gang, og var spesielt forbløffet over stillheten i prestens bønner – aller mest selve Canon vil jeg tro, selv om han ikke visste hva det var. Akkurat denne stillheten og tilbaktrukketheten, eller bortvendelsen, er typisk for den tradisjonelle liturgien, men nå er dette borte – og det gjør også at messen i vår tid oppleves ganske annerledes enn før. En anglo-katolsk prest skriver om dette:
It is an idea deeply embedded in most … I think I may mean all … traditional rites, that the Eucharistic Prayer is far from being a folksy prayer which the celebrant hopes will be short enough to stop the people getting bored, and which, if he is trendy enough, he will invite them to join in saying so that they ‘feel involved’. This Prayer is a profound mystery in which the celebrant is, as it were, halfway out of this world, alone and face to face with the God whom Moses met when he climbed the mountain and entered the cloud at Sinai. Early Ordines tell us that at the beginning of Te igitur surgit Pontifex solus et intrat in canonem … surgit solus Pontifex et tacite intrat in Canonem: I am sure that I am not the only priest who, as he raises his hands at Te igitur, senses vividly that he is, like the High Priest on the Day of Atonements, entering the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice for all the people before the Holy God who dwells in unapproachable light. The Byzantine priest enters the Royal Doors in order to sacrifice; some of the older Roman churches still possess the hooks to hold the curtains round the ciborium which concealed the celebrant from view.
I believe it can be shown that the developed form of the Canon Romanus, with its careful distinctions between nos servi tui/servitus nostra, and plebs tua sancta/cuncta familia tua, dates from the time when distance and curtains separated the celebrant and his sylleitourgoi from the People. The inaudible recitation of (most of) the Canon is a central feature of sound liturgical praxis; if it cannot be immediately restored, I suppose the next best thing is its recitation in a language not understanded of the people, or its recitation in a voice which at least does not officiously strive for audibility. … …
Fr. Hunwicke, som skriver dette, er så langt ikke blitt katolikk, selv om flere håper at det nå skal skje, og er også mer kritisk i fortsettelsen av dette inlegget enn jeg ville ha vært – kanskje fordi han altså ikke er katolsk.