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I have some pre-1954 books that say Psalm 42 is suppressed in the opening prayers of Mass during the Triduum (aka prayers at the foot of the altar).  (And we all know there are no such prayers in a Requiem Mass, regardless of when it happens in the year.)  So the extension of that into all of Holy Week was not such a wild and reckless move, but in context of the prayers at the foot of the altar being eliminated all year long under Paul VI, sheds new light on the earlier Holy Week changes.  



Here is a segment from a post by bvmknight on another thread:



The 1955 Holy Week: Anticipating the New Mass

      "The liturgical renewal has clearly demonstrated that the formulae of the Roman Missal have to be revised and enriched. The renewal was begun by the same Pius XII with the restoration of the Easter Vigil and the Order of Holy Week, which constituted tile first stage of the adaptation of the Roman Missal to the needs of our times."

      These are the very words of Paul VI when he promulgated the New Mass on April 3, 1969. This clearly demonstrates how the pre-Conciliar and post-Conciliar changes are related. Likewise, Msgr. Gamber wrote that

"The first Pontiff to bring a real and proper change to the traditional missal was Pius XII, with the introduction of the new liturgy of Holy Week. To move the ceremony of Holy Saturday to the night before Easter would have been possible without any great modification. But then along came John XXIII with the new ordering of the rubrics. "Even on these occasions, however, the Canon of the Mass remained intact. [Also John XXIII introduced the name of St. Joseph into the Canon during the council, violating the tradition that only the names of martyrs be mentioned in the Canon.] It was not even slightly altered. But after these precedents, it is true, the doors were opened to a radically new ordering of the Roman Liturgy."

      The decree, Maxima Redemptionis, which introduced the new rite in 1955, speaks exclusively of changing the times of the ceremonies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, to make it easier for the faithful to assist at the sacred rites, now transferred after centuries to the evenings those days.

      But no passage in the decree makes the slightest mention of the drastic changes in the texts and ceremonies themselves. In fact, the new rite of Holy Week was a nothing but a trial balloon for post-Conciliar reform which would follow. The modernist Dominican Fr. Chenu testifies to this:

"Fr. Duploye followed all this with passionate lucidity. I remember that he said to me one day, much later on. 'If we succeed in restoring the Easter Vigil to its original value, the liturgical movement will have won; I give myself ten years to achieve this.' Ten years later it was a fait accompli."

      In fact, the new rite of Holy Week, is an alien body introduced into the heart of the Traditional Missal. It is based on principles which occur in Paul VI's 1965 reforms.

      Here are some examples:

      • Paul VI suppressed the Last Gospel in 1965; in 1955 it was suppressed for the Masses of Holy Week.

      • Paul VI suppressed the psalm Judica me for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar; the same had been anticipated by the 1955 Holy Week.

      • Paul VI (following the example of Luther) wanted Mass celebrated facing the people; the 1955 Holy Week. initiated this practice by introducing it wherever possible (especially on Palm Sunday).

      • Paul VI wanted the role of the priest to be diminished, replaced at every turn by ministers; in 1955 already, the celebrant no longer read the Lessons, Epistles, or Gospels (Passion) which were sung by the ministers --even though they form part of the Mass. The priest sat down, forgotten, in a corner.

      • In his New Mass, Paul VI suppresses from the Mass all the elements of the "Gallican liturgy (dating from before Charlemagne), following the wicked doctrine of "archaeologism" condemned by Pius Xll. Thus, the offertory disappeared (to the great joy of protestants), to be replaced by a Jєωιѕн grace before meals. Following the same principle, the New Rite of Holy Week had suppressed all the prayers in the ceremony of blessing the palms (except one), the Epistle, Offertory and Preface which came first, and the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday.

      • Paul VI, challenging the anathemas of the Council of Trent, suppressed the sacred order of the subdiaconate; the new rite of Holy Week, suppressed many of the subdeacon's functions. The deacon replaced the subdeacon for some of the prayers (the Levate on Good Friday) the choir and celebrant replaced him for others (at the Adoration of the Cross).


The 1955 Holy Week: Other Innovations

Here is a partial list of other innovations introduced by the new Holy Week:

      • The Prayer for the Conversion of Heretics became the "Prayer for Church Unity"

      • The genuflection at the Prayer for the Jєωs, a practice the Church spurned for centuries in horror at the crime they committed on the first Good Friday.

      • The new rite suppressed much medieval symbolism (the opening of the door of the church at the Gloria Laus for example).

      • The new rite introduced the vernacular in some places (renewal of baptismal promises).

      • The Pater Noster was recited by all present (Good Friday).

      • The prayers for the emperor were replaced by a prayer for those governing the republic, all with a very modern flavor.

      • In the Breviary, the very moving psalm Miserere, repeated at all of the Office, was suppressed.

      • For Holy Saturday the Exultet was changed and much of the symbolism of its words suppressed.

      • Also on Holy Saturday, eight of the twelve prophecies were suppressed.

      • Sections of the Passion were suppressed, even the Last Supper disappeared, in which our Lord, already betrayed, celebrated for the first time in history the Sacrifice of the Mass.

      • On Good Friday, communion was now distributed, contrary to the tradition of the Church, and condemned by St. Pius X when people had wanted to initiate this practice

      • All the rubrics of the 1955 Holy Week rite, then, insisted continually on the "participation" of the faithful, and they scorned as abuses many of the popular devotions (so dear to the faithful) connected with Holy Week.

      This brief examination of the reform of Holy Week should allow the reader to realize how the "experts" who would come up with the New Mass fourteen years later had used and taken advantage of the 1955 Holy Week rites to test their revolutionary experiments before applying them to the whole liturgy.


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At a CMRI chapel yesterday, the washing of the feet had been performed in front of the fully decorated altar, still containing the Blessed Sacrament, and then the procession to the Altar of Repose took place.  After that, the stripping of the altar was done unceremoniously, with no chanting by the choir, who were seated silently.  All attention, apparently, was drawn to the activity in the sanctuary in which a rotating crew of surplice-clad laymen carried off the various items the priest removed from the altar.  It was all done perfunctorily and in quasi-haste, like the whole principle was, "let's get this done quickly" (cf. Jn. xiii. 27).




In the pre-1955 rubrics, after Mass on Maundy Thursday and after the procession to the Altar of Repose, Vespers is then recited, not sung, after which the altar is stripped.  ONLY THEN, after a time, is the washing of the feet done, and only by the Pope in Rome, and only the feet of 12 priests are washed, "at a convenient hour."  Therefore, the Maundy ceremony was done in front of a stripped altar.  (Yesterday, the washing of the feet was done in front of a fully decorated altar.)



I'm not saying what we had last night was "wrong," but I am saying it was significantly DIFFERENT from the traditional rubrics.

I'm not saying that what traditional chapels do these days is evil or corrupted, but what about reading of Psalm 21 while the altar is stripped?  Why was that removed?  It seems to me that the liturgy itself is being "stripped" before our very eyes, for those with eyes to see, that is.

Please note:  our traditional chapels still retain much beauty and edifying ceremonies for the faithful.  Our pathetic local parish churches are devoid of almost everything that we still enjoy, so I am not complaining.  But I think that we are well-advised to be INFORMED.  



In the older rubrics, there is an antiphon and Psalm recited (in Latin) in a monotone (not sung or 'chanted') as a prayer for the stripping of the altar:

Ant.  
They parted my garments among them and upon my vesture they cast lots.

Psalm 21.
     O GOD, my God, look upon me :  why hast thou forsaken me?  Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
     O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear :  and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
     But thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel.
     In thee have our fathers hoped :  they have hoped and thou has delivered them.
     They cried to thee and they were saved :  they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
     But I am a worm and no man :  the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
     All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn :   they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.
     He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him :  let him save him, seeing he delighted in him.
     For thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb:  my hope from the breasts of my mother.  I was cast upon thee from the womb.
     From my mother's womb thou art my God :  depart not from me.
     For tribulation is very near :  for there is none to help me.
     They have opened their mouths against me as a lion ravening and roaring.
     I am poured out like water :  and all my bones are scattered.
     My heart is become like wax melting in the midst of my bowels.

     My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaven to my jaws :  and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.
     For many dogs have encompassed me :  the council of the malignant hath besieged me.
     They have dug my hands and feet :  They have numbered all my bones.

     And they have looked and stared upon me :  they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots.

     But thou, O Lord, remove not thy help to a distance from me :  look towards my defense.
     Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword :  my only one from the hand of the dog.
     Save me from the lion's mouth "  and my lowness from the horns of the unicorns.
     I will declare thy name to my brethren :  in the midst of the church will I praise thee.
     Ye that fear the Lord praise him :  all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him.

     Let all the seed of Israel fear him :  because he hath not slighted nor despised the supplication of the poor man.
     Neither hath he turned away his face from me :  and when I cried to him he heard me.
     With thee is my praise in the great church :  I will pay my vows in the sight of them that fear him.
     The poor shall eat and shall be filled :  and they shall praise the Lord that seek him :  their hearts shall live for ever and ever.

     All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall be converted to the Lord.
     And all the kindreds of the Gentiles shall adore in his sight.
     For the kingdom is the Lord's :  and he shall have dominion over the nations.
     All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and have adored :  all they that go down to the earth shall fall before him.

     And to him my soul shall live :  and my seed shall serve him.
     There shall be declared to the Lord a generation to come :  and the heavens shall show forth his justice to a people that shall be born, which the Lord hath made.
     Ant.  They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots.    


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Thank You Neil, very much!
That was absolutely beautiful!
I dream of the day I will be able to attend Maundy Thursday.

Please note:  I'm not judging this or saying it's bad, I'm just saying these changes have happened, and we ought to be aware of the fact that they have happened.  I'm not suggesting what to DO with this information, but the fact that the information is real cannot be denied.  St. Thomas said, "Against a fact there is no argument," or "Contra factum non argumentum est."  (This is so basic that it actually translates to English word-for-word.)

Agreed.  I was saddened a bit last night and today at the alterations and omissions, most of which you've detailed Neil O, and while I'm grateful to have a respectful Maundy Thursday Mass and Good Friday rites, these changes = loss of order and beauty.
In particular, I winced at the Holy Communion distribution. It just didn't "fit".