l have memories of what I now know were hybrid masses starting in 1963. Where I lived, it seemed to me they were a little bit different every week all through the 1960s….
I think your memory may be off by a year, Frances. A good friend of mine and I attended a performance of Mozart's Requiem on Sunday, November 22, 1964, at Lincoln Center and afterwards we noted ruefully that effective the following Sunday, the first of Advent, the changes in the Mass that had come out of the council, which were to go into effect on that day, would render Mozart's music and indeed all the Mass settings of the previous 700 years totally obsolete.
The only change that I saw a lot of before Advent 1964 was mass facing the people. At Manhattan College, which I attended, the (largely Modernist) theology faculty installed a versus populum Mass on campus virtually every week starting, if I recall, sometime in calendar year 1963 (it was still the TLM, of course, per the John XXIII rubrics).
I have to admit that it was rather exciting to be able to see a priest in action from out front (I'd been an altar boy, but the perspective was different). The point is that neither I nor my fellow late adolescents had or could have had the foggiest idea what was in store for us or for the Church as a whole because of the changes and, what is more, the revolutionary intent of those who pushed the changes. In short, we trusted our elders, and they betrayed us.
Exactly!
And if you couldn't trust your priest, then who could you trust?
We placed the fate of our Faith in their hands trusting they would lead us & protect us.
Now we see the same thing has happened with the SSPX.
l have memories of what I now know were hybrid masses starting in 1963. Where I lived, it seemed to me they were a little bit different every week all through the 1960s….
I think your memory may be off by a year, Frances.
It depends upon where you were in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The Seattle Archdiocese has an official history. (I don't remember the title, but a few years ago I found it on the archdiocesan website and obtained it through the local library.) The official history proudly proclaims that Seattle was at the forefront of the liturgical movement by "turning the altar around" and facing the people in 1958!
I was born in 1961, but have no memory of a Latin Mass. My mother told me that they had gone to the all-English Mass in the very early 1960s. Since I do have memories as a four-year old, I think I would have remembered the Latin Mass if they were still using Latin as late as 1965.
I do recall, on the other hand, the change to the Novus Ordo. Even though Mass was already in English and "facing the people", I did not like the new Mass at all that came in 1970.
I was going to say the same thing. Depends on where you were.
I was in Los Angeles, and for many years I kept a brochure that was printed up and distributed at our local parish in the SUMMER of 1964, which had some changes. The 4-leaf fold-over, printed on both sides, said that these accommodations were being done to implement the first liturgical docuмents from the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, which had been approved the previous November of 1963 (the month JFK had been αssαssιnαtҽd, on the 22nd).
The first altars being turned around in my area, as far as I know, were at a Salesian high school in Rosemead, and that happened in 1968. The priests seemed rather confused doing this, and even more so when they had to "concelebrate," waving their arms in a kind of choreography schtick.
I don't think there could have been changes based on the Vat.II docuмents in the summer of 1963, because the liturgical docs did not appear until October and November of 1963, and were not approved until early December. Therefore, the brochure I have which says these are the first implementations from the Council would have been correct in that statement. If any area had changes before 1964, it would have had to have been in ANTICIPATION of changes that would be coming in the following year, that is, '64.
The only substantive change consisted in what the consecration of the Mass was to be CALLED. The vernacularized prayers were several in number. As I recall, they never did make the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar into the vernacular. They were left in Latin, in my area, until they were abandoned altogether, but I don't recall what year that was, perhaps 1965 or 66. The Oath Against Modernism was abandoned in seminaries of the world around 1966. I have another story about that.
The
Kyrie kept its title but the words were changed to the vernacular. In retrospect this helped to make people tired of the redundancy of "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy," etc. Somehow in Greek it's much less monotonous. Later, it was called the "Lord have mercy prayer" by some, but still, "
Kyrie" continued to be the term that many people preferred to use, in my experience.
The
Credo kept its title as well, but the words were suddenly in the vernacular.
It changed the title, "Canon of the Mass," or "Te igitur," to say, "Eucharistic Prayer." This was 5 years before the 3 new "Eucharistic Prayers" would be introduced. We were being prepared for the novelty 5 years ahead of time.
The
Pater Noster was still said only by the priest, in Latin.
As I recall, while the Newmass did change it to vernacular, still the priest alone would say it in most venues (not charismatic ones). This continued until about 1986 (the year of Assisi I), when the charismatic movement which had sprung up in the 60's, was becoming more widely acceptable. It was popular to join hands and then raise your joined hands up high, overhead, while saying or singing the protestant 'doxology' -- For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, etc. Charismatics were doing that in the mid-60's.
The
Agnus Dei was re-titled "Lamb of God Prayer" and the text was in English.
In my area, some choirs started trying to sing Gregorian Chant with English words, but that never got popular enough to go beyond the typewritten pages that progressive nuns copied for the groups. Overall, in my area, the music stayed the same, using Latin for propers and the other parts,
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Agnus Dei. At some point, the Kyrie was reduced to two reps (
Kyrie... Kyrie... Christe... Christe... Kyrie... Kyrie). I'm not sure when that happened, but some choirs, such as Paul Salamunovich's, retained the three-times repetitions because it was musically correct, and abbreviating many of the Chant Kyries to two reps destroyed their beauty.
In other areas, the music changed more quickly.
The newfangled "folk Masses" with Marty Haugen ho-hum drivel gradually became more in use, since choirs were abandoned and replace with a guitar and two or three howling non-singers. English hymns were introduced for Offertory and Communion hymns, which would not have been allowable under the old rubrics. These were mostly happening after the Newmass came into town.
I have a friend who saw a freight train in New York being loaded up with the old music hymnals and sheet music, abandoned from use in that area, and she says the train went to a plant where there were incinerators that burned up the music pages.
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Topic: New Mass made obligatory in 1974 (Read 2163 times)