Novus Ordo Missae

This article is about the post-Vatican-II changes to the Mass; for an explanation of the current structure of the Mass, see Mass (liturgy).

History

The desire to revise the Mass can be traced to the modern Liturgical movement, initiated most notably by Dom Guerenger from the Abbey of Solesmes. The movement desired corrections to what it saw as inappropriate practices in the celebration of Mass and their replacement with more ancient liturgical practices. The movement focused on increasing the popularity of Gregorian Chant and encouraging the congregation to participate more fully in the Mass.

Related Topics:
Liturgical movement - Dom Guerenger - Abbey - Solesmes - Gregorian Chant

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Unease had developed about practices that required an effort to justify, such as:

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• the priest blessing the host and chalice with many signs of the cross after they were consecrated and on the other hand speaking before the consecration of already offering a sacrifice there and then
• the priest reciting many of the most important prayers silently.

Another feature of the liturgical movement was the desire to use the vernacular language in some or all of the Mass, in order that the congregation might draw spiritual nourishment from being able to participate in the Mass with understanding. This was especially desired for the readings from Scripture at Mass. In his encyclical Mediator Dei,http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20111947_mediator-dei_en.html Pope Pius XII stated that "the use of the mother tongue in connection with several of the rites may be of much advantage to the people. But the Apostolic See alone is empowered to grant this permission." He gave a general permission to use the vernacular at the renewal of baptismal promises in the revised Easter Vigil service.

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Scholarly study had brought to light how and when many elements of varied provenance were added to the Roman-rite Mass and were then included in Pope Pius V?s Tridentine standardization of the Roman Missal. In section 4 of the same encyclical, Pope Pius XII praised the work of these experts, while insisting that it was for the Holy See, not for wild-cat initiative, to judge what action to take on the basis of the results: "You are of course familiar with the fact, Venerable Brethren, that a remarkably widespread revival of scholarly interest in the sacred liturgy took place towards the end of the last century and has continued through the early years of this one. The movement owed its rise to commendable private initiative and more particularly to the zealous and persistent labour of several monasteries within the distinguished Order of Saint Benedict. Thus there developed in this field among many European nations, and in lands beyond the seas as well, a rivalry as welcome as it was productive of results. Indeed, the salutary fruits of this rivalry among the scholars were plain for all to see, both in the sphere of the sacred sciences, where the liturgical rites of the Western and Eastern Church were made the object of extensive research and profound study, and in the spiritual life of considerable numbers of individual Christians."

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The research to which Pope Pius XII referred made it clear that, because of the insufficient resources at its disposal, Pope Pius V?s commission had not achieved its aim of restoring the Missal to "the original form and rite of the holy Fathers", the aim that the sixteenth-century Pope believed it had in fact attained, stating in his bull Quo primum:http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius05/p5quopri.htm "We decided to entrust this work to learned men of our selection. They very carefully collated all their work with the ancient codices in Our Vatican Library and with reliable, preserved or emended codices from elsewhere. Besides this, these men consulted the works of ancient and approved authors concerning the same sacred rites; and thus they have restored the Missal itself to the original form and rite of the holy Fathers."

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