4/20/2021
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| Giotto, "The Vision of the Thrones" |
RS’s intro includes a paragraph on the Rights of the Christian Faithful concerning the liturgy. They have a right to a celebration free from abuses, where they receive the teachings of the Church in a faithful manner and the Sacraments with greatest reverence. Real unity is the fruit of an integral liturgical celebration that duly honors God. Abuse smears the Church’s unity and fractures it.
“The salvation of souls” is how the intro wraps up. It’s the supreme law of the Church and of the liturgical norms.
The content of the instruction:
It’s comparably much longer than GIRM, CIC, Nullo & ’29 combined. It goes on for 186 paragraphs. There must’ve been quite a number of abuses that had to be cleaned up. We’ll see. Although, while we’ll summarize the whole briefly, here, we’ll also confine our more detailed review to the matter which we’ve been previously discussing, namely the direct safeguarding of the MBS, its veneration and its administration in Holy Communion.
One hundred and seventy-one paragraphs are divided into eight sections:
- Liturgical Regulation
- Lay Participation
- Proper Celebration of Mass
- Holy Communion
- Certain Other Eucharistic Matters
- Reservation of the MBS & Veneration Outside of Mass
- Extraordinary functions of the Lay Faithful
- Remedies
Immediately, sections IV and VI, we see, are in our wheelhouse. But a flyover of the other sections could help make sure we’re not missing anything else valuable.
The Regulation of the Sacred Liturgy:
RS opens its first section “with authority.” This section concerns the hierarchy of the Church, those in Holy Orders. It summarizes briefly the responsibility of the Church to care for the Liturgy. The Pope, the CDW & CDF, the Diocesan Bishop, the conference of Bishops, Priests, Deacons and the Christian Faithful are each mentioned and described in relation to their duties towards the regulation of the liturgy.
Image: Giotto "The Vision of the Thrones"
