I certainly hope Francis does not establish a role for lay preachers. Right enough, he is drawn to bad ideas like a moth to a flame.
Lay preachers already exist, they are called 'Protestants'.
Such a move would be another blow against the necessity of the Priest who, since the 2nd Vatican Council, has seen almost every aspect of his crucial role and identity farmed out to lay people.
Few really know what Priests are for anymore. I certainly didn't, until I took an interest in the traditional faith. A Priest has many roles,. but primarily he is concerned with offering sacrifice.
In the modern mainstream Church, recognition of the Priest's role is greatly diminished. Lay people can do nearly everything he can - and often do, while the elderly Priest dozes in his seat.
The necessity and centrality of the Priest is not widely known in the modern Church. One reason, I am sure, why vocations are lacklusture in so very many places.
In the traditional Mass, when the Priest hands the Server his Biretta, just prior to the start of Mass, the Server actually kisses the Priest's hand when receiving the item. A way of marking out that the Priest's hands have been specially anointed specifically to offer Sacrifice and appropriately handle the Eucharist.
All this meaning, symbology and - most significantly - coherence is lost in the modern Mass, where every Tom, Dick and Harry handles the Eucharist.
I can appreciate your liking of the old Latin Mass, but I like many other Catholics have a longing for a more ancient form of Eucharist that models Jesus and the Last Supper where the Priest embodies Jesus in the rite of Thanksgiving.
In the post Pentecost era, the focus didn't seem to be on the Apostles as Priests but as preachers/evangelists. Priests served the faithful but it was the evangelists that went out and drew people to Christ. That charism seems to have faded over the years and Priests were expected to be all and everything. I think there is a place for al the charisms today.
I don't think there is a more ancient form of the mass, it feels more like you are projecting ideas from the 1960s onto the early Church. What would this "rite of Thanksgiving" be giving thanks for, except for the sacrifice of Calvary? Why indeed would anyone bother to model the Last Supper unless it were the first sacrifice made present?
1 Corinthians 11 is the best picture of how the early Church celebrated the Eucharist, just a few years after the Resurrection. There were some people messing it up even then, but the most important bit is Paul underlining that Jesus said to do this not in "thanksgiving" of me, but in "remembrance" - that is making present - of me. This was, is and ever shall be the Church's understanding of the Eucharist.
I certainly hope Francis does not establish a role for lay preachers. Right enough, he is drawn to bad ideas like a moth to a flame.
Lay preachers already exist, they are called 'Protestants'.
Such a move would be another blow against the necessity of the Priest who, since the 2nd Vatican Council, has seen almost every aspect of his crucial role and identity farmed out to lay people.
Few really know what Priests are for anymore. I certainly didn't, until I took an interest in the traditional faith. A Priest has many roles,. but primarily he is concerned with offering sacrifice.
In the modern mainstream Church, recognition of the Priest's role is greatly diminished. Lay people can do nearly everything he can - and often do, while the elderly Priest dozes in his seat.
The necessity and centrality of the Priest is not widely known in the modern Church. One reason, I am sure, why vocations are lacklusture in so very many places.
In the traditional Mass, when the Priest hands the Server his Biretta, just prior to the start of Mass, the Server actually kisses the Priest's hand when receiving the item. A way of marking out that the Priest's hands have been specially anointed specifically to offer Sacrifice and appropriately handle the Eucharist.
All this meaning, symbology and - most significantly - coherence is lost in the modern Mass, where every Tom, Dick and Harry handles the Eucharist.
I can appreciate your liking of the old Latin Mass, but I like many other Catholics have a longing for a more ancient form of Eucharist that models Jesus and the Last Supper where the Priest embodies Jesus in the rite of Thanksgiving.
In the post Pentecost era, the focus didn't seem to be on the Apostles as Priests but as preachers/evangelists. Priests served the faithful but it was the evangelists that went out and drew people to Christ. That charism seems to have faded over the years and Priests were expected to be all and everything. I think there is a place for al the charisms today.
I don't think there is a more ancient form of the mass, it feels more like you are projecting ideas from the 1960s onto the early Church. What would this "rite of Thanksgiving" be giving thanks for, except for the sacrifice of Calvary? Why indeed would anyone bother to model the Last Supper unless it were the first sacrifice made present?
1 Corinthians 11 is the best picture of how the early Church celebrated the Eucharist, just a few years after the Resurrection. There were some people messing it up even then, but the most important bit is Paul underlining that Jesus said to do this not in "thanksgiving" of me, but in "remembrance" - that is making present - of me. This was, is and ever shall be the Church's understanding of the Eucharist.
I just want to take 30 seconds to make sure that everyone on the thread knows the etymology of "Eucharist" (carry on.)