Latin did not become the language of the Roman rite until the 6th century. As a sacred language, Latin really has no parallel. Jews have always made a genuine effort to learn some Hebrew, and other sacred languages are archaic forms of the vernacular; the English of the Authorized Version of the Bible became the language of prayer in many Protestant churches. The effect of the use of Latin, it has been argued, was to make the liturgy the preserve of the clergy and to make the laity essentially passive. This was countered by efforts to use sound and spectacle in the performance of the solemn liturgy. For centuries the canon of the mass, the central eucharistic formula, was recited by the celebrant inaudibly, with his back to the people, and the elevation of the host and chalice and the ringing of the bells to signal the consecration were the only means of communicating to the people that the pivotal point of the mass had arrived; the canon of the mass was a kind of verbal “sanctuary” that the laity were not even supposed to hear.
The abandonment of Latin as a result of Vatican II in the 1950s excited deep antagonisms. Some Catholics cherished the Latin liturgy and regarded it as the symbol of the timeless and changeless Roman Catholic Church. Others believed that the restoration of the vernacular would restore to the liturgy two functions that it had in the early centuries: to instruct converts and to confirm members in their faith. Although most Roman Catholics came to accept the vernacular mass approved at Vatican II, a minority group, the so-called Catholic traditionalists, rejected the reforms of Vatican II and remained devoted to the Latin mass. The best-known figures in this movement were Gommar De Pauw in the United States and, especially, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in France. The missal was revised in 2011 in order to reintroduce some of the mystery and spirituality that more traditionally inclined Catholics claimed had been lost in the post-Vatican II translations. The divine office
The divine office was a legacy to the clergy from the monks. From the earliest times, monks assembled several times daily for prayer in common. This practice developed into set common prayer at stated times each day (matins or vigils, midnight; lauds, first daylight; prime, sunrise; terce, mid-morning; sext, noon; none, mid-afternoon; vespers, sunset; compline, before retiring). The divine office consisted basically of the chanting of the Psalms (in a weekly cycle), the recital of prayers, and the reading of the Scriptures (to which were later added selections from the writings of the Church Fathers, probably instead of a homily given by one of those present). Together with the mass, the office has been the only “official” prayer of the Roman Catholic Church; all other prayer forms are “private,” even if several hundred people recite them together. For this reason, clerics in major orders since the Middle Ages have been obliged to recite the divine office, or “breviary,” privately if they are not bound to attend the office in choir. It was long recognized that there is an inconsistency in the private silent reading of a prayer structure that is intended for choral chanting. Vatican II recommended a reform of the canonical hours, which included simplifying their observance, encouraging participation by the laity, and restoring the practice of singing the hours in groups. The liturgical year
The liturgy has traditionally been arranged in an annual cycle that is a reenactment of the saving events of the life, death, Resurrection, and glorification of Jesus Christ. The events are reenacted as an assurance that the saving act will reach its eschatological fullness, and the liturgy is an expression and a support of the Christian hope. The cult of the saints is an intrusion into the liturgical cycle, and it has been much reduced in the contemporary liturgical reforms.
The liturgical season begins with Advent, a time of preparation for the Christmas holiday. After Christmas the first of two periods of Ordinary Time follows and continues until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a time of penitence leading to the Paschal Triduum, the period beginning on Holy Thursday and ending with the evening prayer on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday marks the start of the Easter season, which continues as a time of celebration until Pentecost Sunday, some 50 days later. Pentecost (commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples) marks the start of the second period of Ordinary Time, which continues until the Advent season begins anew.
The colour of the priest’s outer garments reflects the liturgical season or day: white or gold is worn for Christmas and Easter; purple is worn for Advent and Lent, except on the third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) and the fourth Sunday of Lent, the midpoint of the penitential seasons, when pink is worn as a sign of hope and joy; red is worn for Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and Pentecost and on the feasts of martyrs; green, another symbol of hope, is worn for the rest of the liturgical year; and white is worn for funerals as a symbol of life instead of mourning. Paraliturgical devotions
In the Roman Catholic Church, liturgy in the proper sense is the liturgy of the mass, the divine office, and the sacraments. For hundreds of years, however, the Latin language, the clerical character of the liturgy, and the search for novelty have combined to produce forms of worship that are “paraliturgical,” meaning that they lie outside the liturgy and in some cases contradict it. These acts are also known as devotions or devotional practices, which means that they are accepted voluntarily and not from obligation. Eucharistic devotions
A number of eucharistic devotional practices arose in the Middle Ages, when Catholics rarely received the Eucharist more than once a year. The practice of benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, for example, is a blessing conferred by a priest holding a consecrated host in a vessel of display called a monstrance; the priest’s hands are covered to signify that it is the blessing of Jesus and not his own. This blessing is accompanied by hymns, the organ, and the use of incense. The practice of “exposition” is the public and solemn display of the eucharistic bread, again with the accompaniment of hymns, the organ, incense, and processions. The most prominent of the eucharistic celebrations is the Feast of Corpus Christi, which was instituted in the 13th century by Pope Urban IV (reigned 1261–64) and was inspired by St. Juliana, prioress of Mont Cornillon (near Liège in present-day Belgium). The reservation of the Eucharist in churches is a way in which Catholics can address themselves in personal prayer to Jesus “really present.” These eucharistic devotions have often functioned as substitutes for mass and Holy Communion, and since the modern renewal of liturgy they occur much less frequently.
monstranceMonstrance with reliquary, Cologne Cathedral, Cologne, Germany.Mkill
Cult of the saints
Other devotions involve the cult of the saints, a practice of great antiquity repudiated by the reformers of the 16th century as a denial of the total mediation of Christ. Although this objection oversimplified Catholic practice, the devotions did sometimes approach superstition. Since the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, Catholic theologians have distinguished (by Greek technical terms) the worship paid to God (latria, “adoration”) from the veneration addressed to Mary (hyperdulia, “super-service”) and the saints (dulia, “service”). The Roman Catholic understanding of the intercession of the saints is an extension of the belief in the communion of saints. Although such veneration does tend to multiply mediators, it has often fostered a simple and not unpleasing familiarity with the world of the supernatural.