When Peace Rolls Right Over the Agnus Dei
At the very moment that the Holy Mass moves us to recognize our Lord and Savior upon the Altar, we instead look away and to one another for peace signs, hugs, and kisses.
A Trinity of Bad Hygiene
“Let us continue to abuse one another / With the kiss of Peace.” ∼ Geoffrey Hill, “The Triumph of Love,” part XLIV Few moments are as completely uncomfortable, for me at least, as the “Kiss of Peace” or the “Sign of Peace” at the Novus Ordo Mass. It’s actually painfully awkward. And during this high-point … Read more
Liturgical Wisdom from the Mouths of Children
This past Yuletide, my husband and I decided to escape the Minnesota winter by taking our family to South Texas. We had a joyfully green Christmas, with our children running wild on the beach while the Gulf of Mexico lapped at our toes. We didn’t miss the snow. Of course, there are always drawbacks to … Read more
The Liturgical “Sign of Peace”: Move or Remove?
At the request of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a requisite inquiry into the timely appropriateness of the Latin Rite’s gesture of peace shared amongst the people during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass commenced almost a decade ago. The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (“the Congregation”), under the papal … Read more
Five Ways to Ruin the Mass
We are getting ever closer to an improved liturgy in the English-speaking world. The new Missal gives us a more dignified language that more closely reflects the Latin standard. The hippy-dippy rupturism of the past is finally giving way to a more settled and solemn appreciation of the intrinsic majesty of the Roman rite. A … Read more