Extraordinary Form Of The Mass Question

[CatholicCid]

Hello,

I was sifting through a little online 'pamphlet' concerning the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. It is a little FAQ that a local church by myself has on their website for those who wish to read it before attending a Low Mass.

One part I saw and was as follows:

[i]At the Tridentine Mass, one receives the Host on the tongue, not in the hands. In addition, one [u]does not respond “Amen” to the priest; he will make the “Amen” response on your behalf as you receive Holy Communion[/u].[/i]

I have never been to a High or Low Mass yet, but I was wondering why the underline is done? What is the history behind it? When did the communicant start saying "Amen"? Why the change?

God Bless.

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
10/21 - Twenty-ninth Sunday

CatholicCid,

Good question. The prayer said by the priest, which you quote, is considered a "priestly prayer," so far as I can tell. That means that the priest is praying it for you - not in the sense that it's "instead of you" but "on your behalf". Thus, the response "Amen" is not something you would say, since you're not making the prayer.

Msgr. Annibale Bugnini, the main mind behind the major liturgical reforms before 1974, changed it to the form which we have now. Our current form does have major Patristic Latin support (e.g., I think Augustine uses the form we now use). But he didn't just pull it from the Patristics. The Milanese Church has, to my knowledge, always used that form in their Ambrosian Liturgies. At least, that's what Bugnini claimed was his inspiration. Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='CatholicCid' post='1406395' date='Oct 21 2007, 01:16 AM'][i]At the Tridentine Mass, one receives the Host on the tongue, not in the hands. In addition, one [u]does not respond “Amen” to the priest; he will make the “Amen” response on your behalf as you receive Holy Communion[/u].[/i]
I was wondering why the underline is done?[/quote]
If I may add to Pio's response I would say that I suspect they underlined that part simply because it is a very common thing to forget if one is accustomed to the [i]forma ordinaria[/i] so they felt like emphasizing it. It is not a big deal if you accidentally say "amen" out of habit (I'm sure it happens all the time), but I could see where it might cause a problem if a communicant starts saying "amen" when the priest is putting the Host on the tongue.

Actually, I think I said amen the first time I assisted at a [i]forma extraordinaria[/i] Mass. hehe

God bless.

[cappie]

When I was an altar boy back in 1963 we had to walk with the priest and place the communion plate under the communicant we were always told to walk fast as the priest could give holy communion to at least 2-3 people with the one invocation so you couldn't say Amen as the priest would be 2 people past you anyway

Edited November 12, 2007 by cappie

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='cappie' post='1418076' date='Nov 12 2007, 03:36 AM']When I was an altar boy back in 1963 we had to walk with the priest and place the communion plate under the communicant we were always told to walk fast as the priest could give holy communion to at least 2-3 people with the one invocation so you couldn't say Amen as the priest would be 2 people past you anyway [/quote]
Sheesh. I know what you're talking about because I've experienced that before too. I've never understood the obsession with distributing Holy Communion at light speed. In the old days I guess it was done as you describe (which has to be a liturgical abuse) and today I suppose droves of EM's are the common approach. Maybe priests assume that the laity don't want to wait around for everyone to finish receiving? For myself I would prefer a longer communion rite because it is nice to have at least a few minutes to pray immediately after receiving Holy Communion. Didn't it take Saint Padre Pio a few hours to say Mass? That would be sweet.

[cappie]

It took St Laurence of Brindisi 4 hours sometimes to say Mass