Independent history project by @NicoFassino. Exploring Catholic history through the untold and forgotten experiences of the laity across the centuries.
I’m back with a new research project!
It's a study of vernacular congregational participation at Mass between 1861 and 1961.
Everything you think you know about liturgy before the Second Vatican Council is probably wrong 🧵⤵️
@yeacolyte I have not, but that isn't to say it doesn't exist. I simply have not known about it to look for it. I also certainly have not done any exhaustive searches, only targeted/limited things
This reminded me of something I found while researching rituales:
The 1680 rite for Les Mans directs that the couple should kneel on the lowest step of the altar (husband on the Epistle side, the wife on the Gospel side) and hold candles throughout the wedding mass!
I love collecting old photos of wedding masses, to show all the instances of couples kneeling behind the altar rail! Here’s my collection:
https://t.co/xObfFzUups
there are many similar rituale examples of 'customs' for the Roman rite Latin west which are like this:
the celebration of the sacraments was not merely the text Roman Ritual + unofficial local custom supplied in addition
often it was officially printed in the liturgical books
(I also think it is interesting that this was not merely local custom in a general sense - it happened here and there, according to tradition and the personal predilections of those involved. Rather, it was formally rubricized and printed in the official liturgical books!)
@CatholicSmark This is why the story of how the initial liturgical changes were implemented, understood, and received between 1964 and 1968 is so important
It complicates and upends many standard narratives about these things, and presents a much more complex picture
@CatholicSmark There were already battles between bishops, clerics, and layfolk over the permissibility of "the Latin Mass" in January and February 1965
At that point, on paper, nothing had even changed yet "officially" in the liturgy! The first obligatory Vatican revision had not yet occurred
I just learned that my "New Mass of 1964" series received mention in the @CatholicHerald
My thanks to @LMSChairman for reading and engaging with my study of the popular reception of the initial liturgical reforms, between 1964 and 1968
Research into the liturgical reforms introduced before the Novus Ordo reveals that confusion, resistance and division were already apparent long before 1969.
✍️ @LMSChairman
https://t.co/tPBbC6rkSW
Research into the liturgical reforms introduced before the Novus Ordo reveals that confusion, resistance and division were already apparent long before 1969.
✍️ @LMSChairman
https://t.co/tPBbC6rkSW
Did you know that the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library has the second largest collection of newspapers (historic and current) in the United States.... surpassed only by the Library of Congress?
It's a phenomenal research resource.