The Holy Father led the congregation in kneeling throughout the Et Incarnatus, as called for by the rubrics of Christmas, even though the movement from the Mozart Mass in C lasted about 10 minutes.
Don't let the kneeling fool you. {apodictic statement} IMHO I see it as an abberation to have music (especially Mozart) dictate the tempo of the liturgy. Great confusion. {/apodictic statement}
Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, 'rejoice'!
And - Mozart does not approach being liturgical music, having that unmistakable ecclesiatical aura and aesthetic that the likes of Monteverdi and Tallis, or, let us say, Vaughan Williams has; but it is a God-send after the calumny (whose name should never be spoken nor printed) that we heard several weeks ago in those sacred precincts.
As I mentioned several weeks ago, the Misa Criolla was sung at Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Peter's Basilica on December 12, 2011, with Pope Benedict XVI presiding.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Et incarnatus est from the Mozart Mass in C was also used previously at a papal Mass at which Pope Benedict presided.
GOIF - This has to be a rejoinder (an evil counsel?) betraying a degree of callousness not unequal to that of the store clerk who responds to one's cheery 'Merry Christmas' with that soulless mutterance, 'njoy your holiday.
If some want to take the long view of things, let's widen that lens just a little bit. Mozart's Mass in C minor was composed in 1782, and having been around for over 230 years, I'm sure that it's fair to assume it will be around for its 300th anniversary as well.
Would anyone be willing to bet that the Misa Criolla will survive to celebrate its 100th year anniversary? Somehow, it's doubtful.
Let's step back a little further and ask this question: will that brilliant work of Archbishop Bugnini, that work which he called "a triumph of the Catholic Church", that work which has been with us 44 years already with such dismal consequences, will that work survive to 100 years, let alone 200?
Well, given the statistics coming out of France, where Mass attendance is now at 4.5%, and the number of traditionalist priests getting ready to equal the number of diocesan clergy in the next couple of decades, that is a reasonable question, isn't it?
Will Archbishop Bugnini's ecumenically inspired masterpiece, that which Cardinal Ratzinger referred to as "a fabrication" and "a banal, on-the-spot product" last a hundred years? Can anyone imagine huge, grand throngs of the "People of God" coming together 56 years from now to celebrate the centenary of this "triumph"?
I think it's a fair question, and one which is highly relevant since forty years after its inception, the very fact that a Pope is spotted kneeling for ten minutes has become a cause celebre, and a fact at which we are all marveling. Does that perhaps tell us something about Arbp. Bugnini's "triumph," his magnum opus.
I think it is exciting that the Vatican tapped Maestro Honeck to conduct the Mozart. It is wonderful to see such a talented musician and devout Catholic asked to perform for a high profile liturgy. Though music director of the Pittsburgh orchestra, he will doubtless be out of town during the upcoming summer Sacred Music Colloquium. However, it might be worthwhile to invite him to be involved in some way . . .
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