Today, we start a new section of The Catholic Mass Series. We have been looking at the history of the Mass, from the Old Testament, to the Last Supper, on to the Liturgical Movement. And now we move onto exploring the rubrics and theology of the Mass. In this episode, we begin by asking some basic questions, ”Why is the sacrifice important? Why are victim, priest, and the offering so difficult to comprehend without a proper context?”

Today, we bring our third and final episode on the “Liturgical Movement.” Last time we saw how World War II impacted the Roman Liturgy and its reform. Today, we delve into how the French and German clergy, emboldened by the lack of censures for their Modernist ideas, pushed for more radical changes that broke from the original spirit of the Liturgical Reform. We also explore what led these liturgical radicals to become more vocal, and how their planning made its way into the Second Vatican Council’s official documents. Finally, close by exposing the movement’s true intention: the creation of the Novus Ordo Missae. For more on this – please read “The Liturgical Movement” available at Angelus Press.

Today, in our second episode on the Liturgical Movement we focus on origins of the movement and we examine how it went awry. We also focus on the inter-war period and see how it corrupted the liturgy and the indirect of modernism had a detrimental effect on the war we worship. We still have not recovered from it today.

Today we start a series of three episodes, all looking at the period from the Council of Trent up to the Second Vatican Council. Specifically, we focus on what’s called “The Liturgical Movement.” This was a movement for the restoration of the Liturgy; renewing its discipline; and broadening the education of both the faithful and the clergy about the Mass itself. In the beginnings of the movement, it had a positive purpose, and it started out well. What we explore is what went wrong with the movement and the social, political, and ecclesiastical forces that disrupted an otherwise noble enterprise.

Today we’ll trace the development of both the Divine Office and the Mass over 1,000 years, beginning with St. Gregory the Great in the 6th century and concluding with the reforms of the Council of Trent. We’ll discuss how St. Gregory helped shape the liturgical framework and preserved unity while allowing local traditions to thrive. Moving forward, we’ll trace how these traditions evolved, influencing lots of different rites across Europe. We’re not used to thinking that lots of rites are good – but what was good about them? And why did these ultimately lead to the standardization by Pope St. Pius V, known as the Tridentine Mass. Join us as we journey through this intricate and fascinating liturgical history.

Last episode, we saw what Christ intended to leave us in the Mass – how He is both priest and victim, God and man. In this episode, we’ll investigate what happened after the Last Supper – after Our Lord Ascended into Heaven. Did the Mass celebrated by the first bishops look like the Tridentine Latin Mass we have today? How did the early Eucharist ceremonies develop, and how did various regions influence the way that the ceremonies of the Liturgy were practiced? We’ll also take a look at the immense influence that the Jewish synagogue ceremonies played in the early development and
practices of Christian Liturgy.

We have examined the Old Testament sacrifices, and how they all pre-figure the Mass. But instead of offering lambs, in the New Testament we offer bread and wine. Instead of the priest and victim being separate beings, today, they are one. Why? Why did God wish to have a sacrifice done this way? Why did Christ institute the Mass at the Last Supper, before His Sacrifice? We will look at the Last Supper and the Passion from a theological, historical, and anthropological perspective. We will see that Jesus knew full well what any first-century Jew would have known: when it came to the Passover, you did not only have to kill the lamb; to fulfill God’s law, to be saved from death, you had to eat the lamb.

The Old Testament is foreign to modern people in many ways. And one of the most striking examples of a “weird” practice has to do with the very specific, and often very messy practices surrounding ritual sacrifice. Last episode, we saw how sacrifice is required by God. But we’ll continue with this conversation, and look at the specific sacrifices in the Old Testament in different occasions. There were sin-offerings, peace-offerings, and holocausts, which are burnt-offerings. They also made use of bread, wine, food – and very often, whole animals, blood, fat – why? And more interesting to us today, what does this all represent about the Mass celebrated at your chapel this morning?