Thursday, February 11, 2010

OF and EF

Thoughts for the day:
  • "The new the old conceals, the old the new reveals" — the Ordinary Form makes less explicit what the Extraordinary Form makes clear, plain and manifest; thankfully, the E.F., as its hermeneutical key, reveals the hidden significance and proper understanding of the O.F. (this applies to rubrics as well as to doctrine);
  • "The old is better" — Our Lord Jesus Christ (Gospel of St Luke v, 39).

4 comments:

bgeorge77 said...

I enjoy the blog, but could you please make the posts visible in RSS? All that is currently visible is the title of the post.

Joshua said...

Yes, I'm falling behind in the up-to-date stakes!

Maybe this weekend when I have some spare time...

Adulio said...

A reading of the memoirs of Bugnini (the chief creator of the Novus Ordo) reveals that he created it to be anything other than having any "hidden significance and proper understanding" through the EF.

Joshua said...

Absolutely true — but Bugnini's intention is not ipso facto that of the Church, nor of the Holy Ghost.

I contend that, seeing as the Roman Rite has two Forms, and the hermeneutic of continuity is to be applied to understanding the one Roman Rite and its liturgy, then the EF, whose history is far longer, is quite sensibly to be viewed as elucidating the OF. To claim otherwise (with Bugnini) is to indulge in the hermeneutic of rupture that Benedict XVI has reprobated by name.