A blessed Thanksgiving

A blessed Thanksgiving to one and all!

Having just spent a wonderful time with the fratelli in the Order at Mass and dinner, I began to think about the words that have been and are being spent to discuss and critique the upcoming implementation of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal this Sunday for the first week of Advent.

I think for those who are or may think they are upset about these liturgical text changes, we need to take honest stock of the liturgical license that some priests and some laity have exercised over the past three-plus decades in presenting their own texts for canons of consecration and the other prayers associated with the Second Edition of the Roman Missal. If we can do this taking stock honestly and objectively, I think we will reach no other conclusion but this: the Third Edition is a long expected and welcome reform that has been called for in these thirty-some years of liturgical experiment that had no end in sight.

It may well be that if these ongoing experiments with the Eucharist had not been pursued, the Second Edition of the Roman Missal might still have been around for some time to come. I do think the Third Edition is a wonderful reform of authenticity, but I am confident that the Second Edition was the unfortunate test subject of unrestrained creativity in subjectivity.

RJA sj