Being devoted to Our Mother of Sorrows, I agree with the sentiment of sorrow on Holy Saturday... however... are we to disregard the instructions of the highest authorities of the Catholic Church led by the Holy Ghost? What else will individuals change?
So much for tradition. Novus Ordo here we come.
Miseremini, in saying this, do you hold that Pope Pius XII was not "the highest authority of the Catholic Church led by the Holy Ghost"? Does his reform merely amount to "what else will individuals change"?
Dom Gueranger in
The Liturgical Year tells us that it was the practice of the Church from the earliest ages refraining, through a holy fear, from renewing the Sacrifice on Her altars on this day when Our Lord's Body lay lifeless in the tomb. "Even the Greek Church, which never fasts on the Saturdays of Lent, follows the practice of the Latin Church for this Saturday: she not only fasts, but she even omits the celebration of the Mass of the Presanctified (on Holy Saturday)".
Dom Gueranger continues" "Such was the discipline of the Latin Church for nearly a thousand years: but about the eleventh century, an important change began to be introduced with regard to the celebration of Mass on Holy Saturday. The Mass which, hitherto, had been celebrated during the night preceding Easter Sunday, then began to be anticipated on the Saturday...
The relaxations that had been introduced with regard to fasting were the occasion of this change in the liturgy..."The Orientals have kept up the ancient tradition to this day...
"As a result of this change, there is an apparent contradiction between the mystery of Holy Saturday and the Divine Service which is celebrated upon it: Christ is still in the tomb, and yet we are celebrating His Resurrection: the hours preceding Mass are mournful, and before midday the paschal joy will have filled our hearts. We will conform to the present order of the holy liturgy..."
I am no liturgist. I am no theologian. My opinion is worthless. I follow Archbishop Lefebvre because I see in him the great leader that God gave us in these troubled times to preserve the Faith and Divine Worship. He said we should accept the Pope Pius XII reform because there is nothing against the Faith. That is enough for me. For sixty years it has kept us Traditional and not all
Novus Ordo as you suggest. It is very dangerous to judge everything a Pope does and says by the character and intentions of those surrounding him who may have influenced him. We might ask who was the Pope and his counsellors who after one thousand years of tradition relaxed the Lenten fast and brought these already ancient ceremonies forward to Holy Saturday morning. Many today who advocate the pre-1955 Holy Week might have objected then that the Pope had no right to do such a thing. Yet it was accepted by the Church for the next thousand years...
So when it comes to discerning when "the highest authority of the Catholic Church is led by the Holy Ghost", or when his changes are legitimate, I will follow Archbishop Lefebvre and no lesser authority until Rome returns to Tradition. It is definitely not a slippery slide to the
Novus Ordo, that much is clear!