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| Pope John XXIII, December 1962 |
Concede nobis, quæsumus, Domine, hæc digne frequentare mysteria: quia, quoties huius hostiæ commemoratio celebratur, opus nostræ redemptionis exercetur. Per Dominum... (Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we may worthily frequent these Mysteries: for as often as the memorial of this Victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption is accomplished. Per Dominum...)
The first quotation of Sacrosanctum Concilium - in fact, the first quotation of any document of the Second Vatican Council - is the beautiful Secret of the Mass for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost:
This sacred Council has several aims in view: it desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church. The Council therefore sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy.
For the liturgy, through which, most of all in the divine Sacrifice of the Eucharist, "the work of our redemption is accomplished," ("Liturgia enim, per quam, maxime in divino Eucharistiæ Sacrificio, 'opus nostræ Redemptionis exercetur'": 1 - Secret of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost), is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church.
On this Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, August 10, 2014, it is appropriate to recall what was the real "Mass of the Council": the ancient Mass, which was "never abrogated."
