Transcript:
The better way for the faithful to appreciate that it is Christ, the center of the liturgy, is the manner of the celebration itself. Firstly, the priest has to celebrate in a manner that shows he is not the main person in the liturgy, but Christ is the main celebrant.
The priest is only an instrument of Christ, and so the priest has to celebrate in a manner that is really not like a showman or to show his personal qualities, but to hide himself and to show Christ. So he has to hide himself and show Christ in the manner of celebration.
Another concrete gesture is that when the priest and the people face the same direction during the liturgy and look upon the cross together. This is a very clear sign that the people can be more conscious that at this moment we are celebrating really the sacrifice, sacramentally, the sacrifice of the cross, and not only meeting a gathering or a conference where we have to face one another.
These concrete gestures are very important as they help the faithful to participate in a more deep and conscious manner that there is now the presence of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross in a sacramental manner.
The manner in which the priest celebrates has to avoid everything that can make him like a showman in a show. He has to be very careful not to add anything from himself, but in a certain manner to disappear in himself so that Christ may appear. Like St John the Baptist said, “I have to decrease and Christ has to grow.”
In every step of the liturgy, in every moment, the priest has to tell himself this: Yes, the book is titled Dominicus. It means it is the Lord.
It is the word from the Gospel of John. These are the words of the Apostle John when he saw our Lord, the risen Lord, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the others were fishing, but no one recognized the Lord, only John. And then he exclaimed, “It is the Lord.” And then the others awakened.
And so it was my intention also to shout in the Church that bishops and faithful and priests may awaken and recognize that this little, little host during the distribution of Holy Communion is the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, the infinite majesty and sanctity of God hidden in this little host.
Unfortunately, in the last 40 to 50 years, a manner of receiving and distributing communion called the hand spread, which really is an effective cause of the diminishing of the conscience and the faith that it is the Lord.
When I can handle the host in a very similar manner as I can handle a chip and take it with my two fingers and put it in my mouth, the same gesture is in the communion hand. The people take the host from the palm of their hand and put it in their mouth.
This is a typical ordinary gesture to take a meal, which you can observe in all cafeterias and so on. This diminishes by time a conscience that this little host is extraordinary and is not a thing or never even only a holy thing, but someone, this is our God.
And so I consider this a very serious problem. The greatest treasure which we have here on Earth, our Lord Eucharistic Lord in the host, is becoming so banalized, so exposed to irreverence.
And the most grievous aspect in this manner is the loss of numerous fragments of the host because they fall down continuously. No one can deny this effect. They are stuck on the palms or the fingers and then fall down on Earth, and then are trampled. Our Lord is trampled by His faithful in numerous churches, and we continue quietly, and no one shouts and says, Stop.
And everyone says, Okay, we can continue with this. It is incredible. It is a shame. We have to protest and shout. And this was the reason for my book. I wrote a second book, Corpus Christi, where I stressed this aspect: that our Lord in the holy host is the most defenseless. There is no one in all the world today who is so defenseless as the holy host during the distribution of Holy Communion.
Then there is the stealing of hosts. There is a business of stealing hosts, and this manner of communion in the hand facilitates enormously the stealing of hosts. And so it is horrible. This is the most profound wound in the life of the Church today. And when we do not take care and start to heal this wound, there will be no renewal of the Church. There cannot be when the Most Holy Our Lord is trampled and almost no one defends Him.
Well, thanks be to God, our Lord is defended by the little ones, by the faithful who receive Him devotedly, kneeling even when they are humiliated by the priests. They kneel down. The clergy in the majority humiliates those little ones who pay honor to their God in the little host. Children, young people, and others are often humiliated during the distribution of the communion because they kneel down, humiliated by the new Pharisees and scribes who occupy some ranks of clergy and high clergy also.
I remember in these situations, often the words of Christ when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The children were throwing branches of palms and glorifying Christ the King. The Pharisees said, “Master, prohibit them.” The Pharisees wanted to prohibit the little ones from paying honor to Christ. And the Lord answered them, “If they do not shout, the stones will proclaim my honor and shout and cry.”
And so often, for me, these words and this scene come to mind when people report to me that they were humiliated during the distribution of Holy Communion because they were kneeling and honoring our Lord.
And so we have to really wake up and ask why we are going to Mass, for whom, and for what finality? To meet our Lord Christ, to meet Him in His loving majesty, in all His love as Redeemer. We go to meet Him, the Lamb of God, with His wounds, who gives us His graces of redemption.
We go to Mass to meet Christ first, not to meet the priest. We go to meet Christ because I do not need the priest. I mean, he is not the aim of the salvation of my soul. He also has his aim in Christ. All is Christ.
I have the impression that we have lost very much the Christocentrism in liturgy, in our life, in Church life. And so, exactly the manner of receiving Holy Communion, we go, then we stop, then we have to kneel down. At least it is an attention. And then we recognize why I am kneeling down because here is someone who is greater than I, even this little host.
And so, I open my mouth like a little child to receive the Kingdom of God like a child, even more than the Kingdom of God, the Lord of the Kingdom of God. I think the most basic element is orientation: that the priest and the assembly be directed in the same direction during prayer, facing the crucifix on the altar. This is the first and foremost principle. Then, of course, there is Communion received kneeling and on the tongue.
But I must add that Communion kneeling and on the tongue is not only an element of the Extraordinary Form; it is also the usual form in the Ordinary Form, because Communion in the hand is actually an exception to the law, even in the new rite.
So, I repeat: the orientation being turned toward the Lord.
Another aspect of the Extraordinary Form that helps people and priests to experience more deeply the mystery of God is the introduction of silence. God is a mystery. God is not an idea in man, not a rationalistic concept. God is mystery, and before mystery, one must say silence, absolute silence.
We need to introduce silence in the Mass. It would be good if the Canon of the Mass could be pronounced more silently by the priest, for example.
Also, it would be good if the numerous comments and explanatory words that so many priests add during Mass were abolished, because they completely change the atmosphere. When the priest speaks freely and adds his own words during the Mass, it changes the atmosphere from sacred to colloquial and informal. It destroys the sense of mystery, of the supernatural presence of God, because in those moments, the priest puts himself forward. So, these additions should be abolished.
Furthermore, the sanctuary should be separated from the nave by a communion rail to clearly show that the altar is in the sanctuary. This is already an image of heaven; we are going to heaven, but we are not yet there. The nave means “ship” or “boat” from the Latin. The Church is a boat; we are on a journey. But the altar, with the tabernacle, is a symbol of heaven, where we are going.
The priest represents Christ. He celebrates in persona Christi capitis in the person of Christ the Head of the Body. Therefore, only those who participate in the priesthood, at least in some way, should be in the sanctuary.
This is why only men should serve in the sanctuary because women cannot receive the priesthood. Women represent the totality of the faithful, and therefore, altar servers should be boys or men, even if they are not ordained. Because they are male, they have a special link to the priesthood and the role it represents.
This arrangement already brings a different appreciation and awareness when we come into the Church and see the sanctuary separated from the nave.
In the sanctuary, everything is arranged according to hierarchy, like in heaven: priest, deacon, servers representing the high priest and the order of heaven. Even the little boys who serve represent, in some way, the priest celebrating, although not sacramentally. Of course, the lector and all who serve in the sanctuary should be men.
And then, very important is the chant, the music. The music has to be not ordinary music but extraordinary sacred music which lifts up our hearts to heaven, the desire to heavenly, to something not ordinary, and this is especially the Gregorian chant. And really, religious chant has to avoid everything which could remind people during Holy Mass of ordinary life, I mean the ordinary music which we hear in the street, or the guitar, and so on. This is because when we enter the Mass, we enter the holy land as Moses did when he was in front of the fire in the month, in the mountain. And God appeared to him in this bush fire. And God said to him, Take off your shoes, kneel down, this is a Holy Land, and the Holy Mass is even more holy land than those ancient times. And so we have the Holy Mass. The church is our holy land. It is already a piece of heaven that we can experience. And so all have to contribute to this. So I have only mentioned some aspects, concrete aspects.
I think that the reason, the cause of this is a very deficient catechesis which the people received or have not received in their childhood, and so on, now, after the council, already two generations, and when the majority have lost the true faith in Eucharist, this is for me evidence that they have not been taught in a sufficient clear manner. And this is so. So we have to start with the Catechism, a clear Eucharistic catechism with the children, teenagers, and even adults, with homilies in Sunday Masses periodically, about the truth or the integral truth of the Eucharist. To give some witnesses on Eucharistic life, on Eucharistic miracles, and so on. So it depends on catechism and homily and instruction first, and then the second from the liturgy itself, when we celebrate the liturgy like our meeting, and can take Christ like in reception with faith. So we are losing, by time, the fullness of faith. And so we have to, we come back to our question in the beginning, we have to improve, and really improve the liturgy.
The mandatory see, Holy Communion, and then also to guide the people, to lead them to adoration, Eucharistic Adoration.
The priority of the church is, I would say, as the Second Vatican Council said, the summit of the church. And this is the fountain, the source of all the life of the Church, the holy liturgy. It means the Holy Mass, the Eucharist. So we have to start with this. As the Second Vatican Council said, this is the summit and the source of all activity of the church, the holy liturgy, and especially the Holy Mass, the Eucharist. This is the first, and then it is very necessary to preach, to teach the Catholic faith truly, integrally. And then the families, the apostolate of families. It is so important to help the families, to educate young people, to found good Catholic families, large families. This is the first seminary, and then, of course, to renew the seminary, teaching, and formation.
First, the lay people have to renew, deepen their own faith. Be faithful to their faith, the faith of their baptism. In baptism, we have given promises, vows, not to the parish priest, not to our bishop even, not to the Pope, but to Christ. And so we have to be faithful to Christ first, even be ready to give our lives for Christ. Christ for the integrity of the Catholic faith, which we promised in baptism, in confirmation, and so to deepen your own faith. And then, when the faithful observe that there is a lack of faith even in hierarchy, in clergy, they have to pray for them, pray and pray for their conversion, and pray for new holy priests and bishops. And so it is a mystery in the church, because we are a body, a Mystical Body of Christ, in a body, when one member is suffering, the other is feeling the suffering, and so can help the other. And so I mean that in this crisis, God permits that the faithful, the simple ones, will strengthen the faith of those who should teach the faith, the clergy and the Episcopacy. This is a mystery, a permission which God permitted in our days. It is a very rare, extremely rare phenomenon in the history of the church, but the victory of his son, as is read, is written in the Holy Scripture. Our victory is our faith. Our victory will win the world. This is our Catholic faith, and so I am confident that even in this crisis, in our days, the church will be victorious, triumphant because of the faith of the simple one and of the intercession of Our Lady, who is the mother of the church, and her Immaculate Heart will triumph.