An Extraordinary Form Mass, a regular celebration of the Mass of the Ages has just become available to me, not too far away, and on a weekday so it doesn't usually interfere with either my parish duties, (voluntary) or my familial duties, (voluntary and yet on compulsion.)
But at the same time I am experiencing a reprieve from the sadly perfunctory and weird liturgies that are my usual lot with beautiful and careful Masses said by someone who is at about the furthest one can go in the other direction from the EF while still being obedient and rubrically correct.
And thrown into the mix, a one-off Are-you-kidding-me Eucharistic celebration complete with off-the-leash pets, and a little labyrinth-induced game of Find the EMHC.
(Someone, PLEASE! what is with modern church architecture that encompasses aisles that dead end????!?@??)
But I think most of this, other than that dealing my employment, still holds true:
If I ...were free to participate where and when and how I would, the Extraordinary Form would not be my first choice.But now, praise Benedict and the motu proprio, I am at least entitled to ask for that, whereas I am not entitled to ask for the Ordinary Form with the Ordinary sung in Latin.Or the Ordinary Form with the priest facing ad orientem. Or the Ordinary Form with no jokes. Or the Ordinary Form without being asked to squawk Lord of the Dance. Or the Ordinary Form without a glad-handing rotary convention inserted where the Pax Christi is offered. Or the Ordinary Form where no adolescent in a football jersey will address me from the sanctuary. Or the Ordinary Form with no mention of Jambalaya or sports enthusiasms.So I am asking for the Extraordinary Form.And my aspirations are rightful.
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I'm not...
... a Trad, but I play one on TV. Or rather, IRL.
That wonderful expression about "reinvigorating" the Novus Ordo with the "Virtues" of the Tridentine stick in my mind.
I am coming across as Traditionalist, I realized in conversation with the Silent Traditionalists in my parish, the people who have spent 40 years asking for something, and been denied, and who have given up, and don't all realize that they have to ask again, NOW.
Now their requests matter. Now they have some weight. Now they have recourse.
My situation is somewhat different, and not just because i am an employee who, yes, has to be politic because of her job, but also, has to be politic if I am ever to accomplish anything good.
Who, yes, may have to retreat from, or even not take the field in small battles, with an eye toward the big picture (the great war, that is not mine to win or lose.)
You can only accomplish what you can accomplish.
And you can't even accomplish that if you expend your energy on what you can't accomplish.
But that's all beside the point.
If I were not employed, and were free to participate where and when and how I would, the Extraordinary Form would not be my first choice.
But now, praise Benedict and the motu proprio, I am at least entitled to ask for that, whereas I am not entitled to ask for the Ordinary Form with the Ordinary sung in Latin.
Or the Ordinary Form with the priest facing ad orientem. Or the Ordinary Form with no jokes. Or the Ordinary Form without being asked to squawk Lord of the Dance. Or the Ordinary Form without a glad-handing rotary convention inserted where the Pax Christi is offered. Or the Ordinary Form where no adolescent in a football jersey will address me from the sanctuary. Or the Ordinary Form with no mention of Jambalaya or sports enthusiasms.
So I am asking for the Extraordinary Form.
And my aspirations are rightful.
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World!)
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