Monday, July 9, 2007

St. Josemaria, the Tridentine Mass and the Mass of Paul VI

See my post at Wikipedia:

Monsignor Escrivá saying Mass Cover image from the book Homelias eucaristicas de San Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, commented by Msgr. Javier Echevarría, 2003.
Monsignor Escrivá saying Mass

Escriva considered the Mass as the "center and root of the Christian's interior life," a terminology which was later used by the Second Vatican Council.

According to Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, "St. Josemaría strove with all his strength to make the Eucharist the center of his life...For him, Jesus was not an example to imitate from afar, an abstract moral ideal, but his Jesus, a person we should live alongside continuously."

According to the memoirs of the present prelate Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, Escriva strove to follow whatever was indicated by the competent authority regarding the celebration of Mass. When the new rites were adapted by the Catholic Church after Vatican II, Echevarria said that Escriva "accepted the reform with serenity and obedience." Since his prayer was much integrated with the liturgy for the past 40 years, Escriva found the shift difficult and asked Alvaro del Portillo, one of his assistants, to coach him in celebrating the new rites. He even prohibited del Portillo to ask for any dispensation for him "out of a spirit of obedience to ecclesiastical norms." However, when Msgr. Bugnini of the Vatican found out about Escriva's difficulties, he granted Escriva the possibility of celebrating the Mass using the old rite. Escriva celebrated this rite only in private.

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josemar%C3%ADa_Escriv%C3%A1#Towards_the_liturgy

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