Mer om messen i St. Mary’s, South Carolina

Jeg nevnte tidligere i dag en kirke i USA som holdet på «å flytte alteret», slik at presten er vendt «mot Gud» under den eukaristiske bønn. Her følger en beskrivelse av en messe i denne kirken på festen for Corpus Christi 2006. Messen ligner mye på en flott, norsk høymesse, men er (som jeg sa) litt mer gjennomført – les teksten og se etter forskjeller:

We arrived at 10:20 am, and a number of people were already seated in the richly refurbished 19th century church, an exquisite central city jewel. A veiled chalice was already set up on the altar, topped with matching burse (always a good sign). The pews were stocked with pamphlets detailing the choral and congregational music for the Mass.

No one entered a pew without genuflecting, and neither before or during Mass did anyone (lay or clerical) pass in front of the Tabernacle (directly behind the altar) without genuflecting. By 10:30, when the altar boys began to filter out of the sacristy in their cassocks and surplices to kneel before the altar for their individual prayers of preparation for Mass, the church was beginning to fill rapidly.

… the silence in the church was unbroken by any sound of human voice — other than an occasional baby that was shushed quickly — during the 40 minutes preceding the start of Mass, which was signaled by the ring of a sanctuary bell alerting everyone to stand for the processional. Mercifully, there had been no trite welcome for visitors, no redundant announcement of the hymn number, and (best of all) there was no cantor up front with a microphone to override the congregation’s singing. The people simply stood at the bell as one and immediately joined with the organ and choir (accompanied by organ, strings, woodwinds, and trumpets) to sing as one with a beauty and power that could have made one wonder whether he’d inadvertently strayed into an Anglican Church.

… The 12 altar boys including thurifer, crucifer, and torch bearers — preceding the deacon (vested in a dalmatic matching the celebrant’s chasuble) and finally the priest —processed down the aisle with such a stately pace that several verses were required for them to reach the altar. No phalanx of so-called «ministers» was included. Indeed, no lay person of any sort — other than altar boys and two readers — intruded within the sanctuary at any time before, during, or after Mass.

… The whole Mass (apart from readings and homily) was sung or chanted in the vernacular — except for the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei of the Missa de Angelis sung in Latin not only by the choir but (seemingly) by the entire congregation of about six hundred. The Gloria was sung by all present in a beautiful and moving English setting with soaring voices and trumpets, and the Credo was proclaimed by all in English with a slow measured cadence and deliberate emphases that made it actually sound like a conscious statement of shared faith; seemingly, not a person present failed to bow at the mention of the incarnation.

… There was no visible hand-holding (nor orans posturing) during the Our Father, no noise or roaming about at the Sign of Peace. The priests and deacon distributed the sacred hosts, which most (if not all) communicants received on the tongue, so few (if any) hosts were touched by lay hands.

… With only two priests up front in the center aisle and numerous communicants kneeling or genuflecting, communion lasted long enough for the choir to sing most of the great Eucharistic hymns that St. Thomas Aquinas composed in Latin for the Corpus Christi office, including O Sacrum Convivium, Adoro te Devote, and Panis Angelicus. The people remained kneeling until the Tabernacle door was closed. Only then did the congregational communion hymn God With Hidden Majesty begin.

… So this was the true «Mass of Vatican II». And well might the Fathers of the Council have been happy to see it turn out like this. Indeed, why would not every Catholic parish aspire to a Sunday Mass celebrated with comparable beauty and dignity and reverence? So that no one need leave his own diocese for such glorious liturgy. Such an accomplished choir and orchestra as St. Mary’s likely are less necessary than the determination of priest and people to give their best effort and glory to God.

Les hele denne beskrivelsen her (pdf).

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