Wednesday, May 21, 2008

PCED: Seminarians Have a Right to Be Taught about the Extraordinary Form

The Spanish blog SECRETUM MEUM MIHI has posted the following letter by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, signed by Msgr. Perl. We don't know the context, other than that according to Secretum meum mihi it was received by a novice, and the juridical value of the affirmations is unclear, but it is still interesting:



A transcript:

It will obviously take time for the effects of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum to reach the appropriate levels in the Church. You do have a right to be taught about the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite of the Mass because this is a very important part of the history of the Roman liturgy and one who is ignorant of his past cannot be expected to understand his present at any depth.

In classes on the liturgy in the seminary you should expect to learn about the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. If you prepare for the priesthood, you should also expect to learn how to celebrate according to the extraordinary form. This can be a great help to your learning how to celebrate the ordinary form with reverence and devotion.

More recent articles:


Why Should We Build Beautiful Confessionals?
Confession is a sacrament in which we confess dark deeds, shameful sins, cowardly compromises, repeated rifts. It is something we often wish more to be done with than to do; we know we must go, that it is “good for us” as a visit to the dentist’s or the doctor’s is good for us. It might seem as if the place where we fess up, red-handed, and receive...

Both the Chaos of Jackson Pollock and the Sterility of Photorealism are Incompatible with Christianity
Unveiling the middle ground where faith, philosophy, and beauty all meet in the person of Christ, image of the invisible God.Authentic Christian art strikes a balance between abstraction and realism, rejecting the extremes of Abstract Expressionism—where meaning dissolves into unrecognizable chaos—and Photorealism, which reduces reality to soulless...

Announcing the CMAA 2025 Colloquium and Summer Courses
2025 Sacred Music Colloquium and our Summer Courses are filling up fast!The Church Music Association of American invites all its friend and supporters to come to the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota for an inspiring week (or two!) of music, liturgy, and professional development.REGISTER TODAY TO SAVE YOUR SEAT!Take advantage of ear...

The Second Sunday of Lent 2025
Remember Thy compassion, o Lord, and Thy mercy, that are from of old; lest ever our enemies be lord over us; deliver us, o God of Israel, from all our distress. Ps. 24. To Thee, o Lord, have I lifted up my soul; o my God, I trust in Thee, let me not be put to shame. Glory be ... As it was... Remember Thy compassion... (A very nice recording of the...

The Myth of a Sunday with No Mass
Those who follow the traditional Divine Office and Mass closely will notice in them an unusual feature this weekend. In the Mass, the same Gospel, St Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration (17, 1-9), is read both today, the Ember Saturday, and tomorrow. In the Divine Office, there are only four antiphons taken from this Gospel, where the other Su...

“Let My Prayer Rise as Incense” - Byzantine Music for Lent
In the Byzantine Rite, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on the weekdays of Lent, but only on Saturdays and Sundays; an exception is made for the feast of the Annunciation. Therefore, at the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, extra loaves of bread are consecrated, and reserved for the rest of the week. On Wednesdays and Fridays, a service known as the ...

NLM Quiz #25: Where Does This Vestment Come From, And How Is It Used? The Answer
Can you guess where and how this vestment is used? I have two hints to offer: 1. It belongs to the current liturgical season. 2. It is not being used in an Eastern rite. (Apologies, but no better image of it is available.)The Answer: As I suspected would be the case, this proved to be a stumper. This vestment is a kind of stole which is used in the...

NLM Quiz #25: Where Does This Vestment Come From, And How Is It Used?
Can you guess where and how this vestment is used? I have two hints to offer: 1. It belongs to the current liturgical season. 2. It is not being used in an Eastern rite. (Apologies, but no better image of it is available.)Please leave your answers in the combox, and feel free to add any details or explanations you think pertinent. It has been a whi...

The Feast of St Gregory the Great 2025
It is reported that some merchants, having just arrived at Rome on a certain day, exposed many things for sale in the marketplace, and an abundance of people resorted thither to buy. Gregory himself went with the rest, and, among other things, some boys were set to sale, their bodies white, their countenances beautiful, and their hair very fine. H...

New “Psalterium Romanum” Presents Pre-Pius X Divine Office with Chant Notation
For the feast of St. Gregory the Great, there’s more good news on the Gregorian chant front!Pope Saint Pius X’s reform of the Roman Office not only represented an upheaval in the psalter, it also unaccountably changed many of the antiphons of the ferial cursus, replacing them with novel compositions even when the traditional ones could have continu...

For more articles, see the NLM archives: