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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Order of the Mass without a Congregation” (1970)

Andrea Leal · September 12, 2020

NE OF THE CONTROVERSIES during the 1960s, now long-since forgotten, was the question of whether the private Masses of a priest could be said in the vernacular. The Second Vatican Council had declared as follows: “since the use of the mother tongue…frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended.” Although the Council had declared that the use of the Latin language was to be preserved in the Latin rites, (see Section 36.1) the reformers probably realized that once the Mass was in the vernacular, it would only be a matter of time before even private Masses would be changed to the vernacular.

I thought about this when I came across this interesting document from 1970 for Masses without a congregation:

*  PDF Download • Order of Mass (1970)
—NIHIL OBSTAT by Daniel V. Flynn; IMPRIMATUR by Joseph P. O’Brien.

In case somebody couldn’t download the PDF file, here are some screenshots:

74697-ORDER-of-Mass-1970
74697-ORDER-of-Mass-1970-B
74697-ORDER-of-Mass-1970-C

A few months ago, there was a controversy involving plagiarism, “ad orientem” celebration, and the Most Reverend Peter Christensen (Bishop of Boise, Idaho). Without rehashing the entire controversy, one of the false statements Bishop Christensen made—which was actually plagiarized from a priest named Fr. Paul Turner—is as follows:

“There has been an attempt to justify the ad orientem practice because the Order of Mass indicates places when the priest should face the people. (However, it never asks him to turn away, [!!!] as the preconciliar Missal did.)”

Articles by my colleagues have demonstrated the above statement is false; but it is interesting that the “Order of the Mass Without a Congregation” does actually tells the priest when he should face the Altar and when he not should face the Altar. This just goes to show that you cannot just take everything you find on the Internet at face value. Question everything, and whenever possible, go directly to the source.

As an aside, for those interested in the restoration of the Traditional Mass, it is important to remember that there are in fact small steps that can be taken to move towards a Mass which is more traditional in it’s expression. For example, although today Las Vegas has the Extraordinary Form, it was not always so. Before it was the EF, it was first a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, ad orientem. The Novus Ordo in the vernacular but celebrated ad orientem is a simple but profound way to return focus to Christ.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Ad Orientem, Bishop Peter Christensen Last Updated: September 12, 2020

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Andrea Leal

About Andrea Leal

Andrea Leal is a wife and homeschooling mother of 6 children. She serves as choir director for the Traditional Latin Mass in Las Vegas.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“It is very curious, rather barbarous, much too ornate, immeasurably less dignified than ours now, anything in the world rather than archaic or primitive.”

— Fr. Fortescue describing the “Sarum Use” in 1912

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