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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Renewal of Liturgy leads to Renewal of the Church

VATICAN CITY, 6 MAY 2011 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received participants in the Ninth International Congress on the Liturgy sponsored by the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome's St. Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum, on the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation.  [A former professor was not invited?!  Que Horror!]

The Pope recalled that "Blessed John XXIII, recognizing the requests of the liturgical movement that sought to give new impetus and a new spirit to the Church's prayer, shortly before Vatican Council II and during its celebration, asked the faculty of Benedictines on the Aventine Hill to establish a center for study and research to ensure a solid basis for conciliar liturgical reform".  [to ensure a solid basis, folks!  Not imaginary reforms like inculturation.]

Referring to the title chosen for the congress: "The Pontifical Liturgical Institute: Between Memory and Prophecy", the Pope said that the "'memory' pertains to the very life of the Institute that has offered its contribution to the Church dedicated to the reception of the Second Vatican Council over fifty years of academic liturgical formation".

Benedict XVI highlighted that, "with the term 'prophecy', our gaze opens to new horizons. The Liturgy of the Church goes beyond the 'conciliar reform', the objective of which in fact was not mainly to change the rites and texts but rather to renew the mentality and to put the celebration of Christ's paschal mystery at the center of Christian life and pastoral work. Unfortunately the liturgy has perhaps been seen - even by us, pastors and experts - more as an object to reform than a subject capable of renewing Christian life, seeing that "a very close and organic bond exists between the renewal of the liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church". [Get that liturgists according to the Order of C?  It is an object that you can tinker with.  The Liturgy is an expression of our Faith and if we reform the LIturgy it is towards the strengthening of the Faith, meaning the Reform of the Liturgy is aimed towards the re-invigoration of the Faith not reforming the Liturgy for the sake of changing it because society is changing.  That is what the liturgical expert Fr. Chupungco said at the conference at UST which makes me really doubt his real intent at Liturgical Reform.  If he is really the expert he really is, then, I am sounding like a broken record with this one, WHAT HAS HE DONE TO CURB LITURGICAL ABUSE IN THE PHILIPPINES?  Nada. Zilch. Nothing!  The Mass has become a show for attention hungry priests .  You see a couple of priests who are regular on TV who do powerpoint presentations for the homilies, who keeps on repeating the same homily week after week after week and those who crack jokes just so to make the Mass, uhm, more "entertaining and less boring".  Since when is worship about us?  Huh?  The renewal of the liturgy must lead to the renewal of the Church?  Do you think there is a direct correlation about the decline in vocations, about the apathy of Catholics towards RH Bill anything to do with how the Liturgy has become sacred, dignified honorable, to TV-ish, trivial and a cultural show rolled into one sushi?  Yes there is folks?  Why are liturgical experts like Anscar Chupungco and other Pinoy bishops afraid to liberalize the 1962 Liturgical Books?  The answer is simple:  Filipinos love pomp, pageantry and Romanticism, (like in the Sinulog, the Salubong the Atu-Atihan, the fertility rites in Obando, which is TRUE INCULTURATION!) elements of which are found in the Traditional Liturgy, which the likes of Chupungco don't.  If what I am saying is not true, then:  WHY IS THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS NOT ALLOWED IN MANILA CATHEDRAL?  Checkmate!  As Fr. Z says:  SAVE THE LITURGY, SAVE THE WORLD!]

"The liturgy, ... lives a proper and constant relationship between sound 'traditio' and legitimate 'progressio', clearly seen by the conciliar constitution Sancrosanctum Concilium at paragraph 23. ... Not infrequently are tradition and progress in awkward opposition. Actually though, the two concepts are interwoven: tradition is a living reality that, in itself, includes the principle of development, of progress".  [Organic development is what the Pope says here.  Not something manufactured in a barn, like Bugnini's, and not out of an office table like the dreadful Misa ng Sambayanang Pilipino.]

The Holy Father concluded, expressing the wish that the "Faculty of Sacred Liturgy continue its service to the Church with renewed enthusiasm, in full fidelity to the rich and valuable liturgical tradition and to the reform desired by Vatican Council II, [which was not done after the Council.  What we have was not what the Council intended.   Liturgical dancing, one act plays, inculturation.  Rubbish!]  in accordance with the magisterial directives of the Sancrosanctum Concilium and the pronouncements of the Magisterium".  [the last words are key.  This means follow Liturgiam Authenticam, Redemptionis Sacramentum and Summorum Pontificum.  So stop brandishing SC as if the whole Catholic world got stuck up in the 60s.  I think the Bukidnon and San Beda schools are.  Ha!]


***

So to the fans of Fr. Chupungco.

To take a hike and fish in the desert!

Ha!

If you want more hits with your blog, start writing more relevant issues instead of trolling in another bloggers site.  You claim to be a writer and photographer.  Try being a Catholic who studies his faith first before you open your uninformed mouth.

Ha!

[I wish I have a dollar every time I do that.  Ha!  Ooops!  There I go again.]

1 comment:

  1. Hello friends,

    The liturgical renewal does not mean the return to the practices of the past, but it is a good understanding of the pastoral reality based on steadfast tradition and on its development within a straight liturgical line. All of this should lead to an effective popular participation that fits the spirit of the liturgy and the good taste. Thanks a lot......

    Catholic Renewal

    ReplyDelete