This is me, Eccles

This is me, Eccles
This is me, Eccles

Wednesday 11 March 2020

How to cancel the Sign of Peace

There is a fine video going the rounds of a deacon saying "Let's offer each other a sign of peace" (presumably at the standard point in a Mass) and Cardinal Dolan, the celebrant, responding "Let's not!"

This happened not because the good cardinal is Eirenephobic (or whatever the word is for a fear of peace), but because he was worried about viruses.

Dolan at Mass

"Let's not!"

Now, although I approve of anything that can stop the Sign of Peace, the words "Let's not" are not in the Novus Ordo liturgy (and "Nolite!" isn't needed in the Extraordinary Form). Besides, the words would come better as a roar from from the congregation than the celebrant.

So we propose a new made-up liturgy (or as we used to call it, "A new Vatican-II inspired translation of the traditional liturgy into the vernacular"), as follows:

Deacon: Let us offer each other a sign of peace.
Congregation: Let's not!

Here the Deacon may shrug his shoulders ruefully, or wave his arms triumphantly, according to choice.

Of course, this business of the congregation refusing to obey can be taken further. "We pray for the personal intentions of Pope Francis" may be blocked by a loud "No, we don't!" if the congregation has any doubts as to what those intentions really are.

cartoon vestments

How should we respond to this?

Finally, if the clergy are wearing cartoon vestments (as above), then "Thanks be to God" is clearly inappropriate as a reply to "The Mass is ended: go in peace", and the Warner Brothers* have determined that only one liturgically appropriate response is possible.

* A religious order unknown to me.

That's all, folks!

Illud omnia est, Homines!

9 comments:

  1. They're way ahead of you, bruvver -- instead of cancelling the sign of peace, they've simply cancelled the Holy Mass in the entirety of the Italian Peninsula.

    Plus the Police have deployed their jackboot bovver boys to ensure that no Roman can sneak into the Vatican and hear it there ...

    Not even the Nazis went that far !!

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  2. At the end of a liberal liturgy when the deacon says that the Mass is ended, I say, "Thank God!!"

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  3. Even on this site we have to ask if the cartoon vestments are real or were they concocted to fit the Brothers story line, such is the state of the Church these days...

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    Replies
    1. Real?.. Really?... Why am I not surprised??

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    2. Those clerics, should be named and shamed. The NOM has truly become a circus

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  4. Anne Roche Muggeridge quotes an old priest as saying "Go to Mass the peace has ended."

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  5. Hello Eccles, I has been splaining the pandemoniums in Spain on the donkey blog. Our Peasant was sposed to be following his Lent practice (which he has practised for years and should be an expert now) but the Bishop of Orihuela said Santa Ana in Sella can't open any more because peoples will be spluttering and coughing the bat-pangolin-plague all over each other. So I want your advice: can the Peasantmake his own home-made Mass out of spicy naan bread and Tempranillo Garnacha wine, as he had a year in a seminary and was a nearly-priest?
    https://equusasinus.net/2020/03/17/how-to-disinfect-your-peasant/

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