Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: "Way of the Cross" Within Mass
ROME, APRIL 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
After our column on joining the Way of the Cross to Mass (April 4), a priest from California kindly reminded me of Pope Paul VI's doctrine in "Marialis Cultis," No. 31 (cited in the "Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy," No. 74), which offers further corroboration to our answer.
The text states:
"Secondly there are those who, without wholesome liturgical and pastoral criteria, mix practices of piety and liturgical acts in hybrid celebrations. It sometimes happens that novenas or similar practices of piety are inserted into the very celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This creates the danger that the Lord's Memorial Rite, instead of being the culmination of the meeting of the Christian community, becomes the occasion, as it were, for devotional practices. For those who act in this way we wish to recall the rule laid down by the Council prescribing that exercises of piety should be harmonized with the liturgy, not merged into it. Wise pastoral action should, on the one hand, point out and emphasize the proper nature of the liturgical acts, while on the other hand it should enhance the value of practices of piety in order to adapt them to the needs of individual communities in the Church and to make them valuable aids to the liturgy."
Some readers asked if the rite of the veneration of the cross required a crucifix or if it was permitted to use a plain cross.
I would reiterate the reply given to similar questions in a follow-up on April 6, 2004.
Some official documents, such as the U.S. bishops' "Built on Living Stones" (No. 83), specifically allow either a cross or a crucifix for veneration on Good Friday.
I personally consider, however, that the sense of the original Latin rubric, the nature of the rite itself, and pastoral effectiveness, is better served by the use of a crucifix rather than a plain cross.
After our column on joining the Way of the Cross to Mass (April 4), a priest from California kindly reminded me of Pope Paul VI's doctrine in "Marialis Cultis," No. 31 (cited in the "Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy," No. 74), which offers further corroboration to our answer.
The text states:
"Secondly there are those who, without wholesome liturgical and pastoral criteria, mix practices of piety and liturgical acts in hybrid celebrations. It sometimes happens that novenas or similar practices of piety are inserted into the very celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This creates the danger that the Lord's Memorial Rite, instead of being the culmination of the meeting of the Christian community, becomes the occasion, as it were, for devotional practices. For those who act in this way we wish to recall the rule laid down by the Council prescribing that exercises of piety should be harmonized with the liturgy, not merged into it. Wise pastoral action should, on the one hand, point out and emphasize the proper nature of the liturgical acts, while on the other hand it should enhance the value of practices of piety in order to adapt them to the needs of individual communities in the Church and to make them valuable aids to the liturgy."
Some readers asked if the rite of the veneration of the cross required a crucifix or if it was permitted to use a plain cross.
I would reiterate the reply given to similar questions in a follow-up on April 6, 2004.
Some official documents, such as the U.S. bishops' "Built on Living Stones" (No. 83), specifically allow either a cross or a crucifix for veneration on Good Friday.
I personally consider, however, that the sense of the original Latin rubric, the nature of the rite itself, and pastoral effectiveness, is better served by the use of a crucifix rather than a plain cross.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
10:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home