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The sacred liturgy is the public worship which our Redeemer as Head of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community of the faithful renders to it Founder, and through Him to the heavenly Father. It is, in short, the worship rendered by the Mystical Body of Christ in the entirety of its Head and members.
-Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, Article 20.
What is the Traditional Latin Mass? This is the Mass which was normally celebrated throughout the Western Church up until 1969. The Traditional Latin Mass is sometimes (although mistakenly) referred to as the Tridentine Mass, because the Roman Missal was first published by Pope Saint Pius V, at the specific request of the Fathers of the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century (the adjective Tridentine is derived from the name Trent). It is important to recall, however, that what Pius V published in 1570 was a Missal based upon the continuous liturgical practice of the Church since the time of Pope Saint Gregory the Great in the sixth century.
Over the course of the centuries from the time of the Apostles, various prayers and ceremonies were added to the Rite of the Mass. Parts of it are very ancient: the Collects were composed before the fifth century and are believed to be the work of Popes Saint Damasus (366-384) and Saint Leo the Great (440-461); the Canon of the Mass is believed to have been arranged, in part, by Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in the fourth century, but the Preface, the Sanctus, the formula of Consecration and the Anamnesis are much older. The sequence of readings (which differs from the three cycles of the New Order of Mass) would seem to have been set by the sixth century. The Lord's Prayer and the Embolism which follows it were set in place by Pope Saint Gregory the Great (590-604), although the use of the Lord's Prayer goes back, of course, to the earliest days of the Church. Other prayers were added somewhat later: the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar (between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries); the Offertory Prayers (fourteenth century); the Beginning of the Gospel of John at the conclusion of Mass (sixteenth century). The ceremonies of the Traditional Mass - as distinct from the prayers - are recognisable from the sixth century.
Until 1965, the Mass had been entirely in Latin, but
after the Second Vatican Council (and even before it in Germany), vernacular
language (according to the spoken language of each nation) was introduced into
the Mass in stages. Significant structural changes and the complete use of the
vernacular were introduced in 1969 with the publication of the New Order of Mass
by Pope Paul VI.
In 1984, and again in 1988, Pope John Paul II issued the decrees Quattuor Abhinc Annos and Ecclesia Dei Adflicta, respectively, which entitled bishops to authorise the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass again in their dioceses. The latter stated inter alia:
"To all these faithful Catholics who feel bound by some previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition, I would like to express my own will - and I ask bishops and all those who fulfil the pastoral ministry in the Church to join their will with mine - to facilitate their ecclesial communion by means of measures to guarantee respect for their just aspirations ... Furthermore, the spirit of all those who feel tied to the Latin liturgical tradition must be respected everywhere by the far-ranging and generous application of the directives which the Apostolic See already issued some time ago on the use of the Roman Missal according to the editio typica of 1962."
These decrees require that the Roman Missal of 1962 (and associated liturgical books) be used for the celebration of such Masses. Certain changes to the rubrics (the regulations for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy) of the Roman Missal were introduced in 1960, which are still binding upon the celebration of the Traditional Mass, whereas changes introduced into the Mass after 1964 are not binding.
The rubrics of the 1962 Roman Missal refer to two kinds of Masses, Sung (or High Mass) and Low Mass. A Sung Mass is described as a Solemn Mass if the Celebrant is assisted by a deacon and subdeacon. "A Mass is High if the celebrating priest actually sings the parts prescribed by the rubrics to be sung by him; otherwise it is called Low Mass." (rubric no. 271). What needs to be emphasised immediately is that the usual form of Mass envisaged for the Traditional Liturgy is the Sung Mass. The ancient traditions of the Church have always assumed that Mass is to be sung. It should be added that the rules for Low Mass are derived from the rules for Sung Mass. Although in Australia most Sunday Masses before the 1960's would not have been Sung Masses, what was the usual thing in the past does not take away from the importance the Church places upon the Mass being sung.
The Low Mass had its origins as a private Mass - celebrated by a priest, assisted by one server, with no congregation present. Furthermore, from the earliest days of the Church, the Funeral liturgy was often celebrated without singing at the place of entombment. As the liturgy of the Church changed at the beginning of the middle ages and as the number of priests in any one diocese increased, churches began to have several altars for the celebration of Mass. Whereas at this time, the main Mass of the Parish was sung solemnly with the ancient chants of the Church, priests would celebrate other Masses privately, saying rather than singing them. After the time of the "Reformation" in the sixteenth century, practising the Catholic Faith became a criminal offence in England and Ireland: Masses had to be celebrated secretly and silently. Three centuries later, when the Faith was brought to Australia by English and Irish Catholics, the long-lasting effects of the persecution were reflected in the celebration of Mass. This very simplified history accounts for why so few parishes before the Second Vatican Council knew the Sung Mass.
Whether in sung or said form, the Traditional Latin
Mass is divided into two parts, the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the
Faithful. These two names reflect the practice of the early Church whereby those
preparing for baptism were permitted to attend the first part of the Mass, but
were excluded from the principal part of the Mass. Consequently the Mass of the
Catechumens may be considered a preparation. It consists of the Celebrant's
private prayers and confession at the foot of the altar, the Introit, Kyrie
eleison, the Gloria, the Collect, the Epistle, Gospel and Creed (on Sundays and
greater Feasts).
The principal part of the Mass, known as the Mass of the Faithful, commences with the Celebrant's offering of bread and wine and the Secret Prayer; the Preface follows, leading to the canon of the Mass in which bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ. Holy Communion is preceded by the Lord's Prayer. The Mass concludes with the Postcommunion prayer, the Celebrant's blessing and the beginning of the Gospel of John.
(Reproduced, with some modifications, from The Order of Mass, by The Ecclesia Dei Society (Newcastle Praesidium) 1996).
Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise.
For He continues His priestly work through the agency of His Church, which is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. She does this, not only by celebrating the Eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the divine Office.
-Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, Article 83.
Dom Fernand Cabrol stated in his The Mass of the Western Rites that: "Theologians, historians, and liturgiologists are to-day in agreement in recognizing that the Mass is the most important function of all Christian worship." Nevertheless, the Divine Office (also referred to as the 'Sacrifice of Praise' or Liturgy f the Hours) is also of the utmost importance in the tradition of Catholic worship. Indeed, the Divine Liturgy of the Church is made up of two complementary parts: the Mass and the Divine Office. Together they form the whole of the public prayer of the Church. The Mass without the Office is like a bird without wings. Thus Pope Pius XII stated in his landmark encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei:
The ideal of Christian life is that each one be united to God in the closest and most intimate manner. For this reason, the worship that the Church renders to God, and which is based especially on the eucharistic sacrifice and the use of the sacraments, is directed and arranged in such a way that it embraces by means of the divine office, the hours of the day, the weeks and the whole cycle of the year, and reaches all the aspects and phases of human life.
The Liturgy of the Hours consists of eight separate Offices. These are Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. Lauds and Vespers (or Morning and Evening Prayer as they are sometimes referred to) are generally regarded as the two principal Offices. Terce, Sext and None are often referred to as the 'little hours'. The inter-relationship between the Mass and Office is perhaps best seen in the codified practice for the Pontifical liturgy where the bishop recites terce with his canons while vesting for Mass. However, it should be stressed that Terce (vis-a-vis other of the Offices) has no special relationship with the Mass other than from the contingent fact that Mass was usually celebrated about the same time of day as this Office. Evidence from medieval monastic customaries makes this clear. At Cluny in the tenth and eleventh centuries (at least in Winter) the principal Mass (Missa major) followed sext and a series of other prayers (i.e. prayers of 14 verses, Psalm 50, 4 familiares (101, 66, 69, 141) [2 psalms said prostrate], a litany). In England, according to evidence from the Regularis concordia anglicae nationis monachorum sanctimonialiumque (10th century), while the principal Mass was celebrated after Terce (& Psalms for the Royal House etc.) in Summer, in Winter it followed Sext (& Psalms for the Royal House etc.).
Much ink has been poured by scholars on the origins of the Divine Office. At the general level the practice of the Divine Office no doubt sprang from various biblical injunctions to pray unceasingly. Jesus commanded "that we ought always to pray and not to faint," (Lk. 18:1). We are urged in the words of St Paul in his Letter to the Hebrews "It is through him, then, that we must offer to God a continual sacrifice of praise, the tribute of lips that give thanks to his name." Again, Paul makes the exhortation to the Thessalonians to "Pray without ceasing." (1 Th. 5:17). Indeed some monasteries in the middle ages took this literally.
Origen, however, commented on this command thus:
He prays without ceasing who combines his prayer with necessary works, and suitable activities with his prayer, for his virtuous deeds or the commandments he has fulfilled are taken up as a part of his prayer. Only in this way can we take the saying "Pray without ceasing" as being possible, if we can say that the whole life of the saint is one mighty integrated prayer.
Thus Duchesne points out that in the ancient Church "the ideal of Christian life was that of a constant communion with God, maintained by as frequent prayer as possible. A Christian who did not pray every day, and even frequently, would not have been considered a Christian at all."
At the more particular level things become more complicated. Commentators from the second century onwards have sought the origins of Terce, Sext and None in pagan, Jewish or Christian customs. In modern times scholars have championed one or another of these explanations. Msgr. Duchesne (Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution) followed a suggestion from Tertullian that the three little hours marked important divisions of the day in the secular world. Dugmore (The Influence of the Synagogue upon the Divine Office) asserts that these divisions were publicly called out by the ringing of bells in the Roman world. B�mer (Histoire du br�iaire), on the other hand proposes a Jewish background. This despite the fact that as long ago as 1897 Schrer (A History of the Jewish People from the Time of Christ) pointed out the problems in the erroneous attempt to look for a Jewish rather than an apostolic Christian custom. Thus, others (such as Jay, Origen's Treatise on Prayer. Translation and Notes with an Account of the Practice and Doctrine of Prayer from New Testament Times to Origen) have argued that the little hours were a purely Christian innovation. It is this last view that has begun to receive more acceptance in recent times.
The Didache (believed to be first century from
Antioch) recommends that Christians say the Our Father three times
daily. Origen also testifies to this practice at Antioch - seemingly in the
context of terce, sext and none. Hippolytus associates the three-fold prayer
with Christ's passion. Terce represents Christ's nailing to the tree. Sext
recalls the time Christ spent on the cross. None is the time for prayer and
praise, representing Christ's death which in turn ushered in the resurrection.
Hippolytus is here using Mark's Gospel (written for Christians at Rome) as the
basis of his allegory. Through careful analysis of these and other witnesses
Walker suggests that the three fold division of
prayer was brought to Rome from Antioch by Peter and Paul ("Terce,
Sext and None. An Apostolic Custom?"). Their companion Mark (the only evangelist to mention the third hour
in the crucifixion narrative) was mindful of this when writing his account.
These hours then grew from here. Walker thus refers to the institution of the
'little hours' as a "Roman" "apostolic custom".
What is perhaps more interesting is the origin of Lauds and Vespers. It has been the generally accepted, yet unproven, view that morning and evening prayer were the first parts of the Office instituted, taken from the Jewish synagogue liturgy. Scholars have had a hard time demonstrating in a definitive way the exact relationship between Jewish and Christian traditions of daily prayer. The question of morning and evening prayers is especially difficult, since these times for gathering together are so practical. Christians may simply have chosen them because they only had time to gather regularly before and after the work day. Moreover evidence from Cyprian of Carthage stands in direct contradiction to the idea of a Jewish origin. Referring to the three little hours as 'the old sacraments', he says "both times and sacraments have increased. Now the Christians pray in the morning, celebrating the resurrection of Christ in prayer, and at the end of the day as the sun sets." Cyprian therefore directly asserts that terce, sext and none were the earliest Christian prayers - Lauds and Vespers were introduced later on.
Duchesne points out that in its earliest manifestations the Office was essentially private prayer. We can see this from the commentary of Origen cited above. Such prayer was made either alone or in the family or with friends and neighbours. It is not until the fourth century that we see such prayer transferred to churches.
It is no doubt as a result of the adoption of this regular round of prayer by monasteries in the fourth century that increased its prominence. Nevertheless, there was in the beginning a wide divergence of practice. In the fifth century Egyptian monks kept only two hours: the Gallicinium (Morning) and Lucernarium (Evening). In Syria and Mesopotamia the monks, in addition to these two hours, recited terce, sext and none. In Bethlehem another office was added at the first hour of the day (prime) to prevent the monks from going to bed and sleeping in the morning after the night office. Later a distinction was made between Matins and Lauds in order to meet the injunction of the Psalmist: "Votive thanks seven times a day I give thee for the just awards thou makest." (Ps. 118: 164). Later the same result was attained by the addition of Compline, for which there is no earlier evidence than the Rule of Saint Benedict.
Aside from in the monastic confines there is clear evidence from the early Church of the celebration of the Office within the Church proper. The Apostolic Constitutions (c.380) insist that the bishop should admonish the people to attend the morning and evening hours, and even the three day hours. A similar practice is recorded by Egeria (c.384). In her pilgrimage journal she records the practice of Jerusalem. At the Holy Sepulchre there were four meetings; at cock crow, sext, none and vespers. In addition, during Lent terce was said publicly.
The practice of the Divine Office grew fast from its beginnings. Nevertheless, the diversity of practice in the Office continued until the ninth century when some unity was arrived at. Variety existed in the arrangement of the offices - in the distribution of the psalms (which will be commented on below form the chief part of the Office), antiphons and responses, prayers, litanies or 'collects', the lections and even, as we have seen, the times for saying offices and the times of year to be observed. Churches in a given area would generally follow the practice of the Cathedral - the monasteries would either conform to this practice or that in the rule a given house may have adopted. In the West unity was brought with the influence of the Benedictine Rule (with its propagation by Charlemagne, Louis the Pious through St Benedict of Aniane) and especially the Roman monasteries around the basilicas of the Lateran, the Vatican, and Santa Maria Maggiore. At Rome hymns were not known until the ninth century - chants, psalms and other Scriptural canticles were used exclusively. The lections were introduced about the seventh century. The offices were therefore comprised of paslms, antiphons, responds and orations. This corresponds to the practice at Jerusalem recorded in the pilgrimage of Egeria. The rule of St Benedict incorporates both hymns and lections.
It is common ground that the psalms, from a very early time, came to form the chief part of the Office. Cassiodorus speaks of how the distribution of the Psalms throughout the Office envelope his day: "With the celebration of matins they bring a blessing on the coming day, they set aside for us the first hour and consecrate the third hour of the day, they gladden the sixth hour with the breaking of bread, at the ninth they terminate our fast, they bring the evening to a close and at nightfall they shield our minds from darkness."
Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Mediator Dei commented on the significance of the Psalms in the Church's daily round of prayer:
The Psalms recall to mind the truths revealed by God to the chosen people, which were at one time frightening and at another filled with wonderful tenderness; they keep repeating and fostering the hope of the promised Liberator which in ancient times was kept alive with song, either around the hearth or in the stately temple; they show forth in splendid light the prophesied glory of Jesus Christ: first, His supreme and eternal power, then His lowly coming to this terrestrial exile, His kingly dignity and priestly power and, finally, His beneficent labors, and the shedding of His blood for our redemption. In a similar way they express the joy, the bitterness, the hope and fear of our hearts and our desire of loving God and hoping in Him alone, and our mystic ascent to divine tabernacles.
He then went on to quote St Ambrose who said:
"The psalm is a blessing for the people, it is the praise of God, the tribute of the nation, the common language and acclamation of all, it is the voice of the Church, the harmonious confession of faith, signifying deep attachment to authority; it is the joy of freedom, the expression of happiness, an echo of bliss."
We can see from Cassiodorius how with the growth the Office it soon became arranged such that it was understood as a sanctification of the whole day. This, as we have already seen, follows the early Christian practice of praying unceasingly in response to various biblical injunctions. Thus the Second Vatican Council commented that:
"By tradition going back to early Christian times, the divine office is devised so that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praises of God. Therefore, when this wonderful song of praise is rightly performed by priests and others who are deputed for this purpose by the Church's ordinance, or by the faithful praying together with the priest in the approved form, then it is truly the voice of the bride addressed to her bridegroom; it is the very prayer which Christ Himself, together with His body, addresses to the Father."
This citation also affirms another important point -
that the Divine Office does not only pertain to the clergy (who are obliged to
say it) but to all Christ's faithful. This is something often glossed over in
the scholarly search for origins. For we have seen from the evidence of the Didache
and Origen that from its primitive beginnings - the three fold prayer of the
little hours in the form of the Lord's Prayer was to be said by all Christians.
The importance of the Office in the spiritual life of both clergy and laity is
well attested up to and throughout the Middle Ages. Though sometimes
congregations did not live up to expectations. Caesarius of Arles faced a
congregation that, in his opinion, regularly stayed up too late drinking and
carousing in the night, with the result that they were late for matins. To
make matters worse, Caesarius' congregations appear to have been concerned
that the service not last more than half an hour so they could get to work on
time. Adding insult to injury, they were annoyed when Caesarius chose to preach
during the service, even when he started the service earlier so that it would
end on time.
Notwithstanding such incidents it is clear the the Office formed an integral part of the spiritual life of all Christians up to this period. Unfortunately in more recent times it has come to be seen as the exclusive domain of the clergy. Despite what has already been said there can be no doubt that this demise had its origins in the Middle Ages as a very result of the way monasticism evolved. This occurred with the propagation of the theory of the three orders. According to this view society was divided into three distinct categories - oratores, bellatores and laboratores (prayers, fighters and workers [=all the rest]). Each of these had a distinct role/function to play in society. Together they supposedly complemented each other to form a well ordered society. At the same time we can see how the role of prayer was taken away from the populace to a group of elite specialists who supplied for everyone - thus contributing to the degradation of the Office in the spiritual lives of the faithful.
Pope Pius XII lamented this trend whereby the laity no longer participated in the Office in his encyclical Mediator Dei and called for its reversal - at least in respect of Vespers:
In an earlier age, these canonical prayers were attended by many of the faithful. But this gradually ceased, and, as We have already said, their recitation at present is the duty only of the clergy and of religious. The laity have no obligation in this matter. Still, it is greatly to be desired that they participate in reciting or chanting vespers sung in their own parish on feast days.
This call was echoed explicitly in the Second Vatican Council's constitution on the liturgy which stated "the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office" and pointed out that "because it is the public prayer of the Church, is a source of piety, and nourishment for personal prayer." For as part of the public prayer of the Church, of its nature, it excels any other private prayer of the individual.
It is therefore hoped that the renewal of the traditional Latin liturgy may be just that - encompassing the whole of the Church's traditional liturgy - Mass and Office - and stress the pertinence of the Office to all the faithful, not just the clergy. Thus, recognising, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, that "all who render this service are not only fulfilling a duty of the Church, but also are sharing in the greatest honor of Christ's spouse, for by offering these praises to God they are standing before God's throne in the name of the Church their Mother."
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