From all time, the Canon has been recited silently. The congregation present can contribute nothing to the sacrificial act itself; the people are present before a mystery which it is for the consecrated priest alone to accomplish. The Priest has entered alone into the Holy of Holies to pray and offer sacrifice for the whole Church.
9 comments:
From all time, the Canon has been recited silently.
Hardly.
This is the most un-Orthodox post you wrote in ages.
I didn't write it. It's in the missal!
Anyway, the roman rite is as old as any of yours.
So there!
:-)
Yeah, but their post-schism innovations (like Priests serving the Liturgy alone) aren't.
Sure.
What? Do You possess any knowledge to the contrary? >:)
No, I just don't care. Even if it's a post-schism innovation, so what?
Well... it's just that church services in general and the liturgy in particular cannot be done by ONE man. There are at least two needed (just look at the liturgical texts themselves: there has to be somebody there present, aside from the altar-server, to give the answers: "Amen" or "Lord have mercy" etc). The word itself means public service (and not a private one). Christ Himself said: where there are two or three gathered in My name, I will also be there among them. Services aren't done individually, and doctrine isn't determined individually. God Himself is a Trinity.
Yes, but noone is saying that the Mass is performed by an individual, only a section of it (I have no doubt certain sections of Orthodox liturgies are performed by individuals). Even in the "drab, lifeless, wooden" latin mass (Yes, I'm being facetious) the people participate at various junctures.
The Holy Sacrifice of Mass is offered by the priest ALONE "In Persona Christi".
At a given Mass, the one validly ordained man becomes another Christ at the moment he says:
"Hoc est enim Corpus Meum"
"For this is MY Body."
The priest does not say:
"For this is Christs Body"
One validly ordained Catholic priest confects the Sacrament by himself if he uses the correct form and matter.
He does not need an altar boy or any one assisting at the Mass for the actual re-presentaion of Calvary to occur.
It is a public act insofar as it occurs at a given place and at a given time in the world we inhabit and it is efficacious for all mankind [the public]
Yes, ideally there should be at least an altar server present to make the responses, but if there isn't, the Mass is still valid.
This is the immemorial teaching of Christ in His Body, the Church.
This has always and everywhere been taught by Holy Mother Church and is in every Catechism, Trent and the CCC included.
God bless.
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