The 25th Sunday after Pentecost as in 2021
Introit: (Jeremiah 29:11, 12, and 14) Thus says the Lord: “I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction: you shall call upon Me, and I will hear you; and I will bring back your captivity from all places.” (Ps 84: 2) Lord, Thou hast blessed Thy land: Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. Glory be … Thus says the Lord: “I think thoughts of peace …”
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that thinking everything over in our minds, we may accomplish, both in words and works, that which is pleasing in Thy sight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ …
Epistle: (I Thessalonians 1: 2–10) Brethren, We give thanks to God always for you all, making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the work of your faith and labor and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father: knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election: for our Gospel hath not been unto you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fullness, as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made a pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place, your faith which is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves relate of us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven (whom he raised up from the dead), Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come.
Gradual: (Psalm 43:8-9) Thou hast delivered us, O Lord, from them that afflict us: and hast put them to shame that hate us. In God we will glory all the day: and in Thy name we will give praise for ever.
Alleluia: (Psalm 129:1-2) Allelúia, allelúia. From the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my prayer. Alleluia.
Gospel (Matthew 13 : 31–35) At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which is the least indeed of all seeds: but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof. Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes: and without parables He did not speak to them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.
Offertory (Psalms 129:1-2) From the depths I have cried out to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer: from the depths I have cried out to Thee, O Lord.
Secret: May this offering, O God, we beseech Thee, cleanse and renew us, guide and protect us. Through our Lord …
Preface of the Most Holy Trinity It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to Thee, holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God: Who, together with Thine only-begotten Son and the Holy Ghost, art one God, one Lord: not in the Oneness of a single Person, but in the Trinity of one Substance. For what by Thy revelation we believe of Thy glory, the same do we believe of Thy Son, the same of the Holy Ghost, without difference or separation; so that in confes- sing the true and eternal Godhead, in It we should adore distinction in Persons, unity in Essence, and equality in Majesty: in praise of which Angels and Archangels, Cherubim also and Seraphim, day by day exclaim, without end and with one voice, saying: — Sanctus.
Antiphon: (Mark 11:24) Amen I say to you, whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive and it shall be done to you.
Postcommunion: We have been fed, O Lord, with heavenly delights, and beseech Thee, that we may ever hunger after those things by which we truly live. Through our Lord …
The Heresy of Formlessness, Martin Mosebach (II)
Mosebach’s description of his discovery of the EFM make for interesting reading, not least because, as he went along, he learnt the meaning for many things which we would otherwise take as just given. For example, he found out the purpose of the “Alleluia” which comes immediately after the Gradual, was that, with its “free flight” on the Alleluia, placed between texts from the scripture, “was to represent the ineffability of God, transcending all words” (4). I had known that, before the sermon, the priest took off his maniple and sometimes his chasuble in order to demonstrate in actions that his words are not part of the sacrifice (4).
One observation which, at first, I found odd, but soon came to see the meaning in, was Mosebach’s description of the priest as being “in the magnetic field of the altar” (7). There is a great truth in this, which I as the priest feel but do not see. I am bound to the altar through the Mass, just as I pray to God to bind my days to the corners of his altar. To the faithful, it must seem even more so, when contrasting the priest in this Mass, who moves only from side to side of the altar, with the priest in the unchained novus ordo. Mosebach also says what Evelyn Waugh had said about the EFM, that the priest is a craftsman, a serious artist:
The things (the priest) said and sang slid past me: they were not so important. What was important was the impression that he was doing something. His standing and stretching out his arms and making the sign of the cross was an action, a doing. The priest up there was at his work. What he did with his hands was every bit as decisive as his words. And his actions were directed towards things: white linen cloths, a golden chalice, a little golden plate, wax candles, little jugs for water and wine, the moonlike white Host, and a great leather-bound book. (7)
