Irina Kolbneva (source)
I decided not to attend the last liturgies of Our Lady of Fatima at their old location, which turned out to be the Easter services. I plan on attending a Sunday liturgy relatively soon at the new location, maybe next Sunday. I am close to switching over to the Byzantine-rite; would it be possible to register as a member of a parish without transferring rites? At this point in time, I get more out of participating at a Byzantine-rite liturgy than at a Roman-rite liturgy, regardless of whether it is OF in Latin or EF. (Do I need to comment about the Uhmerican OF?)
In contrast to the push for Latinizations in the Eastern rites that happened in previous centuries, I may be accused of having the attitude that the Roman Rite should be "orientalized." But would "degothicized" be more accurate? I need to re-read what Fr. Jungmann says about the fusion of the Gothic rite with the Roman rite. I do favor the greater use of mosaics, a return to a style of painting that existed before the impulse towards realism in the late medieval/Renaissance, bringing back the baldachin (with or without an additional veil), the rood screen or some Western version of the iconostasis. You may already know that I like Ensemble Organum. While I would not claim that its interpretation of Roman chant is the only valid one, I do think that there should be a place for it within the Roman-rite worship, if there is a place for chant in Latin at all.
In seeking this sort of "purification," am I guilty of the archeologism condemned by Pius XII in Mediator Dei? What about advocating a convergence with the Eastern liturgical traditions as a preparation to a restoration of ecclesial communion? After all, both the West and Rome were part of the Mediterranean world and shared many similarities in liturgical culture during the first millenium of Christianity? I am not denying the organic development of prayers, texts, and feasts. But what about liturgical gestures, sacred art, "minor" liturgical actions like processions? I've mentioned before the example of the sign of the cross - would it be so wrong for Romans to once again do it the way everyone used to do it, crossing from right to left rather than left to right? Or was the change to left to right also "organic"? Many have criticized the novelty of having the laity raise their hands in prayer during the Our Father, in imitation of the priest. The orans position is also from the Mediterranean world; could we not re-adopt it once the distinction between the ordained priesthood and the priesthood of the faithful was clarified for the poorly catechized? Or do we need to keep the Gothic prayer gesture (symbolizing the submission of a vassal) that was adopted in the fusion of the Roman and Gothic rites because it, too, is now part of our liturgical patrimony?
How many Roman-rite Catholics fell away because they were direct casualties of liturgical reform? How many associated this with perceived changes in doctrine? Is there a risk that many would fall away because of these changes? Or should we encourage Roman-rite Catholics to rediscover their classical heritage (especially as a counter to our Uhmerican attitudes and practices of worship)? Might it not help deepen liturgical piety, in combination with the restoration of a sung liturgy and a better hieratic vernacular?
Can an American rite be created from scratch? To what can we turn for material? The Sarum rite? Modern Catholic Anglican rites, with their love of neo-Gothic? The Uhmerican NO? There is little doubt that the Roman rite has to be the basis of a new rite, given the liturgicla and cultural heritage of American Catholics. Given how much we have lost and abandoned, would not a "return to the sources" in thise case involve a new look at the entirety of the Church's liturgical history and not just the 20th century (or what passed for normal before Vatican 2)?
Fr. Aidan Nichols has written something on the thought and work of Fr. Adrian Fortescue: The Life, Work and Travels of Adrian Fortescue. (Apparently Michael Davies' The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue is out of print.) Fr. Nichols also has another book on liturgy: Lost in Wonder.
Related:
NLM: On the Origins of the Iconostasis - parts 3 and 4
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