Why are there currently in the Church two different liturgical forms of one and the same Mass, the “ordinary” form and the “extraordinary” form, which are sometimes mistakenly called the “new” and the “old” Mass. Here are presented some texts that explain how the development of the Mass in the Church has taken place and for what reason:
A)History of the liturgy: the concept and development of the order of the Mass from the beginning (1st century) to our time.
B)A document of the Holy See on the liturgical reform carried out in 1969 and its continuity with earlier liturgy.
C)The 2007 issued Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, by which Pope Benedict XVI established two liturgical forms of the Latin or Roman Mass.
A) The Holy Mass in the early days of the Church and its development.
1. The Holy Mass has existed for twenty centuries. Throughout all this time and up to the present day, the Church continues what the Lord Himself commanded us to do and what He Himself did. What Jesus did is unchanging and forms the center of the entire Sacrifice of the Mass. There are, however, consecrations, rites, and prayers that do not belong to the essential nature of the Mass (that do not derive from divine but from ecclesiastical prescription), which are not essential and have changed over time and according to circumstances, but have never changed for arbitrary reasons. The Holy Mass is always identical, one and the same Mass, yet in different times different forms have been used; and what we see today does not arise from the whims of some well-meaning people who began to invent gestures, readings, and prayers as if they had not existed before in the Mass, but from reforms brought about by particular situations in different historical periods.
2. At the Last Supper, on Holy Thursday, “it was a sacred rite, it was the primary liturgy instituted by Christ in which, giving His life for us in dedication, He sacramentally instituted, Himself, the mystery of the Passion and the Resurrection, which is the heart of every Mass” (St. John Paul II, Letter on the Eucharistic vocation and mystery, n. 8). At the Last Supper Jesus did only what was most essential: He took bread, blessed it, broke it, spoke the words of consecration, and gave it to the disciples; He did the same with the chalice. This is the essence and heart of the Mass: the consecration and Holy Communion, which in the early Church was called the breaking of the bread (Acts 2:42), because the breaking of bread and its sharing and eating together with those present was in Jewish ritual meals a sign of friendship, and even of unity and brotherhood.
3. Until the 4th or 5th century there were not yet prescribed prayers, thanksgivings, and blessings that the minister would say during the Mass, and the celebrant, the Pope or bishop, improvised these prayers, including the Eucharistic Prayer at the time of consecration, and this was done for many years. Despite the improvisation, the theme and order of these prayers and thanksgivings were always the same. Gradually these texts became more concrete and stable so that they formed a long-standing tradition when they were established in the fifth century as the Ordo or rule of consecration. We therefore do not know what the development of the different parts of the Mass was, and we have only occasional references, and many detailed explanations are lacking (since these were written and addressed to people who lived and spoke according to the character of their time), about how Christians celebrated until the middle of the 2nd century. Certainly by the middle of the 1st century the Eucharistic celebration had already been separated from the agape, that is, the meal, probably for the reason presented by the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians: “when you come together, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one goes hungry, and another becomes drunk. Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you” (1 Cor 11:20–22). The growth in the number of believers may also have played a role. The agape continued as a separate practice, attended only by the poor together with the clergy. The celebration of the Eucharist, however, remained as the sacred act par excellence, the act of worship of God which we can already consider “official.” From the letters of the Apostle Paul we may conclude that there were also gatherings where believers learned to pray and to sing psalms; these were meetings not closed to pagans. The first Christians, like the apostles, came from the Jews and were therefore accustomed to Sabbath gatherings in synagogues, since all had been followers of that teaching and had listened to the Scriptures and the writings of the prophets, that is, to explanations derived from the prophetic texts. When, however, the Eucharist—the sacrifice, the consecration of bread and wine, and the distribution of Holy Communion—was separated from the agape, it was replaced with readings and explanations derived from the Old Testament. Although the Jews clearly distinguished between what was teaching and what was sacrifice—the former was done regularly in the synagogue and sacrifice was carried out only in the temple—Christians were already by the mid-2nd century celebrating the Eucharist together with teaching, and on a fixed day, namely the Lord’s Day, Sunday. Testimony about the celebration of the Holy Mass at that time is written by St. Justin (Apology I, 65): “On this day of the sun, all gather together in one place, both in the city and in the countryside, to read together the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets as long as time permits; and when the one who reads has finished, the leader offers instruction and exhortation of goodwill, then all rise together and unite in prayer; and then wine, bread, and water are brought, and the celebrant likewise, as much as he is able, offers prayers and thanksgiving, and the people respond with Amen. The food that has been consecrated and over which thanksgiving has been said is distributed to all who are present, and through the deacons it is also sent to those who are absent. (…) We all gather together on this day of the sun, because on the first day God created the world, having transformed darkness and matter, and Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead on that same day.”
4. It is no longer the Saturday Sabbath according to the New Covenant, but dies dominica, which is the Lord’s Day, in which the breaking of bread, the Holy Eucharist, in its official form, and in which all believers who live in the city or in the countryside should participate; and even those who are not present in that place and are cared for by the deacon, for they too share in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Already at that time, the Mass was divided into two parts: the instructional part, prayer, readings from Scripture, and the homily; this is the part of the Mass in which those preparing for baptism can take part; and the Mass of the faithful, the offering and participation in that sacrifice, to which only the baptized have access.
5. Its hallmark is simplicity. In the second century, the clear simplicity of the rites and ceremonies of the Ordo Missae was at least partly due to the fact that the Church was persecuted and unknown. Only after the time of Emperor Constantine the Great (in the 4th century), when the Church emerged from hidden activity and was able to act freely in public, was the Holy Mass enriched with new elements in its celebration. It was no longer necessary to celebrate Mass secretly in catacombs and private homes; basilicas were built, which made it possible to emphasize the holiness of the Mass in its celebration: the solemnity of presenting the sacrifice and liturgical chanting at specific parts of the Mass (at the entrance, the offertory, and Communion). At that time, the first part of the Canon of the Mass became a separate prayer of thanksgiving.
6. Thanks to the freedom that the Church was able to enjoy at that time, in the period between the 4th and 7th centuries (the time of the Church Fathers), in the great Roman basilicas the Papal Mass became increasingly solemn; and not only in Rome: thanks to the growth in the number of the faithful throughout the Empire and the emergence of great figures such as St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, local church liturgical practices gradually took on characteristic features that distinguished them especially between the West and the East. Finally, in the second half of the 4th century, so to speak, the Latin version of the Roman Canon was established by Pope Gregory the Great and adopted into the Ordo of the Roman Mass, which has had such a great influence in the following centuries. From the eighth century onward, a new development began, which left the essence of the order of the Mass untouched but gave rise to numerous variations of the elements of the Mass: new forms of prayers and psalms were used, and prayers were employed for certain necessary occasions, either by decision of local bishops’ synods or as a result of the piety of those celebrating the Mass. There also arose prayers that the priest recited while carrying out certain liturgical rites, for example the prayer for the washing of hands or the prayers for the blessing of incense; the memento of the living, and then the memento of the dead, etc. These new conditions, such as the end of the Carolingian Empire, the invasions of Danes, Normans, and Arabs into the Empire, and the difficulties of travel, as well as how they contributed to the birth of feudalism, also contributed to the emergence of various rites and ceremonies in local churches, which were not in very close contact with one another.
7.When in the thirteenth century Pope Innocent III established the order of the Mass for the Roman Church, or more precisely for the papal chapel, Saint Francis of Assisi founded the Order of Friars Minor, which followed the order of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours established by the pope, the same that Innocent III had established for Rome. As a result, through the spread of the Franciscan Order, the order of the Mass established in the Roman Church also spread, thereby acquiring an almost official character. Nevertheless, differences among local liturgical rites persisted and even increased to such an extent that some bishops and not a few synods proposed to the pope to put an end to the prevailing liturgical “anarchy”. This wish was finally taken into account at the Council of Trent, where the reform of the Missal was placed on the agenda in 1562. A commission was formed, whose work was overseen by Pope Saint Pius X until 1570, and the results of the completed commission were confirmed by the papal bull Quo primum in July of the same year. With some exceptions, all texts and the order of the Mass were uniformly approved for all the Latin Churches.
8.In this way, the reform promulgated by Saint Pius V brought to a close a long period in the development of the Roman Mass. The order of the Mass, always grounded in its essential parts (the consecration, the altar) – which do not change and without which one could no longer speak of the Mass – had developed through its non-essential elements, and this for various reasons, sometimes connected with a specific need (the washing of hands after the Offertory), sometimes with a certain appropriateness (for example, the use of sacred vestments), sometimes with a certain symbolism (the use of incense). It is clear that these rites and ceremonies are easier to understand when it is known why they were introduced, because then they convey meaning and the liturgical gestures are no longer incomprehensible (on the development of the different parts of the Mass, see Mario Righetti, History of the Liturgy, II).
9.However, the Missal of St. Pius V did not limit itself only to establishing the texts of the Mass; it also set the rubrics on how the Mass is to be celebrated. Awareness of the dignity of the sacrifice at Mass, of the real presence of Jesus Christ on the altar after the words of consecration, of the sacred liturgy par excellence, requires a certain disposition from the priest: reverence toward the Most Blessed Sacrament, special attention to all gestures that express adoration of God and of the Victim of the sacrifice. Thus, there are some details, perhaps seemingly insignificant and unnecessary at first glance, but which in reality are expressions of love and respect, prescribed such as the position of outstretched hands or bodily posture, bowing the head, making the sign of the cross over the offering at the designated moment.
10.The order established by the Council of Trent remained in force for four hundred years. Throughout that time, the Mass was identical in every corner of the world: using the same text, the same ceremony, and one and the same language, familiar to every believer, to hear it everywhere, every year, in every place in the world, and in one’s home parish where the Mass was celebrated.
11.The Second Council, the Second Vatican Council, however introduced some variations. The Holy Mass remains as it was in the time of Pius V, in the Middle Ages, in the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, and in the catacombs. But just as certain circumstances we mentioned earlier fostered the development of the liturgy in a certain direction, such as the so-called private Mass and the priest reading all its parts, new circumstances and the development of the scientific study of the liturgy led the Council Fathers to establish the liturgical constitution (Sacrosanctum Concilium), on the basis of which (as at the Council of Trent) a commission was created to study and plan the reform of the Roman Missal. The reform developed by this commission was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on April 3, 1969, as the Apostolic Constitution of the Roman Missal, Missale Romanum.
12. The most important changes, in addition to changes in calendar feasts and liturgical cycles, to the different types of Mass and to certain modified feast parameters, are as follows: greater importance was given to the readings; some prayers and rites that had arisen with the spread of the private Mass were removed; greater importance was given to the active participation of the faithful at Mass; the number of Eucharistic Prayers and Mass canons was increased in addition to the “Roman Canon” (which comes from the Missal of Pius V, but in fact from an earlier period, the 4th and 5th centuries); it was recommended to observe certain pauses and moments of silence; greater flexibility was given to the celebration and to the selection of prayers and readings.
13. It is clear that when we say “today’s Mass” or the “Mass of Saint Pius V”, we are speaking only of certain forms and not of essential ceremonies, because the Mass is always the same in substance: either the Mass has all the essential parts and elements, otherwise it is not a Mass at all. Therefore, the list of the elements of the Mass compiled by Saint Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century essentially corresponds to the parts of the Mass celebrated today. Saint Thomas Aquinas said: the first part is the introduction, the readings, which is the preparatory part up to the Offertory (in the current Mass: the Introductory Rites and the Liturgy of the Word); the second part, which begins with the Offertory up to the distribution of Holy Communion, includes the presentation of the gifts, the consecration, and Holy Communion, which together constitute the Holy Sacrifice (today the Liturgy of the Eucharist); the final and third part is the thanksgiving, which the present liturgy marks with great expressiveness by remaining in silence for minutes, this after the purification of the chalice and before the concluding prayer.
(translated: Federico Suarez, El Sacrificio del altar, Patmos Publishing)
B)Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani (2000) (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) (nos. 6–15)
Witness of an Unbroken Tradition
6. When the Second Vatican Council issued its directives for the revision of the Order of Mass, it used the same wording that St. Pius V had used in the Apostolic Constitution Quo primum, promulgated in 1570 for the Tridentine Mass, and among other things requested that certain rites be restored according to the original norm of the Fathers of the Church (Sacrosanctum Concilium n.50). The fact that the same wording is used in both Roman Missals shows that, although four centuries have passed between the composition of the two texts, the tradition is nevertheless one and the same. Moreover, when we reflect on the inner elements of this tradition, we clearly see how remarkably and successfully the older Roman Missal is fulfilled in the new book.
7. In a difficult period when Catholic doctrine concerning the nature of the Mass as a sacrifice, the ministerial priesthood, and the real and abiding presence of Christ in the Eucharist was under threat, St. Pius V sought especially to preserve and safeguard tradition; when the faith was unjustly attacked, he introduced only very few changes in the sacred rite. It is clear that the Roman Missal of 1570 differs very little indeed from that of 1474, which in turn faithfully follows the Order of the Holy Mass used since the time of Pope Innocent III. Although the manuscripts in the Vatican Library made it possible to correct certain expressions, they do not permit going beyond the liturgical commentaries used in the medieval liturgy.
8. On the other hand, nowadays countless studies have shed light on the norms of the Church Fathers that were followed by the revisers of the Missal of Saint Pius V, since after the publication of the decisions of the Council of 1571 and the Sacramentary known from it, also called the Gregorianum, critical editions of the ancient Roman and Ambrosian sacramentaries appeared, as well as ancient Spanish and Gallican liturgical books, which contained many prayers from the early period. Likewise, traditions that reach back to the first centuries, to the time before the formalization of the Eastern and Western rites, are today better known again, because many liturgical documents concerning them have been found. In addition, the continuous study of the teaching of the Church Fathers has illuminated the theology of the mystery of the Eucharist through the teachings of such Fathers as Saint Irenaeus, Saint Ambrose, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, and Saint John Chrysostom.
9. For this same reason, the norm of the Church Fathers requires not only preserving what has been handed down to us from our forebears, but also understanding it and learning it thoroughly, that is, understanding the entire history of the Church and the way in which the faith of the Church has been one and the same faith even amid such different human and social norms as those found in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew worlds. Moreover, this broader view allows us to see how the Holy Spirit blesses the People of God with complete fidelity, which preserves the unchanging faith even amid the various rites in use.
Adaptation to new conditions.
10. The new Roman Missal, which attests to the law of prayer (lex orandi) of the Roman Church, safeguards the decisions of the most recent Councils as a guarantee of faith and is in itself an important step in the liturgical tradition. Indeed, when the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council affirmed the dogmatic statements of the Council of Trent, they spoke from a different period in the history of the world and were ready to propose and implement pastoral measures that could not have been foreseen even four centuries earlier.
11. The Council of Trent noted the catechetical value of the celebration of the Mass, but was not able to bring everything essential into practice. In fact, many expressed the desire to use the vernacular for the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass, but the Council weighed the various conditions of that time, taking into account the Church’s traditional teaching that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is прежде всего the action of Christ Himself, and therefore its effect does not depend on the manner in which the faithful participate in it. For this reason, the Council stated: “Although the Mass contains much instruction for the faithful, it does not seem suitable to the Fathers that it be celebrated everywhere in the vernacular” (Council of Trent, Doctr. De ss. Missae Sacrificio, 8). The Council condemned all those who claim that the rite of the Roman Church — which includes the canon of the Mass and the words of consecration — should be rejected when recited quietly, or that the Mass should be celebrated only in the vernacular.” (Ibidem, 9). Although on the one hand the Council forbade the use of the vernacular in the Mass, on the other hand it directed attention again to pastoral care and its instructional character: “Let Christ assist His flock … The Holy Synod instructs priests and all others that there should be frequent pastoral care during the celebration of the Mass, whether personally or through others, based on what is read at Mass; among other things, this should include explanations of the Most Holy Sacrament and its mystery, especially on Sundays and feast days (Ibidem, 8)”
12. When the Second Vatican Council was convened to adapt the Church to the needs of its mission in the present age, as the Council of Trent had done in its time, it also examined the doctrinal and pastoral aspect of the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n.33). Since no Catholic any longer denied the legitimacy and fruitfulness of the Latin liturgy, the Council was able to acknowledge that “the use of the vernacular can often be very useful for the people” (Ibidem n.36) and to grant permission for it. Enthusiasm for this was so great everywhere that, under the guidance of the bishops and the Holy See, it was permitted to celebrate the liturgy in the vernacular everywhere, so that the celebration of the mystery of the Eucharist might be better understood.
13. Since the use of the vernacular in the Sacred Liturgy is certainly an important aid in presenting the teaching of the mystery of the celebration more clearly, the Second Vatican Council ordered that some decisions of the Council of Trent, which had not been implemented everywhere, be effectively applied, for example the homily on Sundays and feast days (ibidem n.52), and the possibility of giving explanations during the Liturgy (ibidem, n.35,3). Above all, the Second Vatican Council urged “the faithful to participate more fully in the Mass by receiving the Body of the Lord from the same Sacrifice after the priest’s Communion” (ibidem, 55), and also called for the implementation of another recommendation of the Council of Trent, namely that each of the faithful should take part in the celebration of the Mass not only spiritually, but also by sacramentally receiving the Holy Eucharist (Council of Trent, Doctr. De ss. Missae sacrificio, 6).
14. Proceeding from pastoral considerations, the Second Vatican Council re-examined the determinations of the Council of Trent regarding the twofold nature of the Eucharist. Since nowadays no one any longer doubts the full efficacy of receiving the Eucharist under the form of bread alone, in certain cases the Council permitted the reception of the Eucharistic sacrifice under both kinds, because in this way the clearer form of the sacramental sign makes it possible to deepen understanding of the sacred mystery in which the faithful participate (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n.55).
15. In this way, remaining faithful to its mission to teach the truth, preserving “old things,” that is, the heritage of tradition, the Church at the same time also fulfills its other mission, namely to examine and wisely bring forth “new things.” (“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (cf. Mt 13:52).) Proceeding from this, a part of the new Missal directs the prayer of the Church in a way that is more open to the needs of the present age, especially in the case of Ritual Masses and Masses for various needs, in which traditional and new elements are interwoven within the Order of Mass. Thus, while many expressions stemming from the Church’s most ancient tradition and familiar to many through the Roman Missal have remained unchanged, many other liturgical expressions have been adapted to present-day needs and circumstances. In addition, prayers for the Church, the laity, the sanctification of work, and for the community of all peoples and those with special needs have been revised, drawing on the ideas and formulations of the documents of the most recent Council.
Moreover, considering this approach to the situation of the modern world, it seems that texts derived from the earliest traditions are not harmed if certain phrases are altered so that the style is more in accord with contemporary theology and reflects the current order and discipline of the Church. For this reason, some expressions concerning the appreciation and use of material goods or referring to certain external forms of penance from past times have been modified. In this way, the Second Vatican Council has refined and supplemented in many respects the liturgical norms of the Council of Trent and has brought to completion the efforts of the last four hundred years—especially the efforts of Pope Pius X and his successors—namely, to bring the faithful closer to the Sacred Liturgy, particularly in more recent times.
C)Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007
Art 1. The Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI is the ordinary expression of the law of prayer (lex orandi) of the Latin rite of the Catholic Church. However, the Roman Missal promulgated by Saint Pius V and reissued by Saint John XXIII is to be regarded as an extraordinary expression of the same law of prayer of the Church and must be given due honor for its venerable and ancient usage. These two expressions of the Church’s law of prayer must in no way lead to a division in the Church’s law of belief (lex credendi) – they are, in fact, two different usages of the one Roman rite. Therefore, the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass according to the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated in 1962 by Saint John XXIII, which has never been abrogated, is permitted as an extraordinary form of the Church’s liturgy.
“First of all, it should be noted that the Roman Missal issued by Pope Paul VI, and subsequently republished twice during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, is and remains the ‘forma ordinaria’, that is, the ‘ordinary’ form of the liturgy. The latter ‘Missale Romanum’, published in 1962 by Pope John XXIII before the Council, is known as the ‘extraordinary’ form of the Mass. It is not appropriate to speak of these two versions as if they were two different rites; rather, they are two different applications of one and the same rite” (Benedict XVI, explanatory letter)