Peter Anson and versus populum

I was both amused and saddened last week to read comments of suprise in response to a poem that I understand first appeared in the April 1965 edition of the Homiletic and Pastoral Review. The title of the poem is 'The Updated Church' and the first two stanzas run thus:

Latin’s gone
Peace is too
Singin’ and shoutin’
From every pew.

Altar’s turned round
Priest is too
Commentator’s yellin’
“Page Twenty-two!”

A brief search of the Web will yield thousands of words quite incorrectly blaming versus populum celebration on Paul VI's Novus Ordo Missae and the Second Vatican Council. In the current climate of revisionism (some might decide that 'revisionism' is rather too much of a euphemism and simply call it lying) of course it is de rigeur to equate the 1970-2002 missal with versus populum and quietly ignore the fact that celebration versus populum was a popular post Second World War fashion, its modern origins being several decades earlier.

Perusing my copy of Peter Anson's 'Fashions in Church Furnishings' (1960) I came across his writings and a drawing about VP.

Anson had great skill with the pen and a picture does, as has been said, paint a thousand words. I do like the way he has captured the ladies' hats and the flow of the servers' albs. I was particularly struck by this passage:

"Every young priest who was caught up in the movement popularizing the liturgy, wasted no time in erecting at least a temporary altar in the middle of the church, where the Sunday Masses were celebrated, usually facing the people. Elsewhere the original high altar in the chancel was pulled down. Sometimes a simple stone holy table was subsituted, but not always."

Two pages later (p 364) another paragraph describes the liturgical scene on the Continent post-war:


But of course everything was hunky-dory, tickety-boo and 'organic' development until the wicked Council and Paul VI?

VII Sunday after Pentecost

The seventh Sunday after Pentecost is of semi-double rite. The Gospel of the Sunday, from St. Matthew, has the account of the LORD's warning about false prophets and the fruits of good and bad trees.

At Vespers yesterday commemorations were sung of the preceding Office of St. Camillus of Lellis and of St. Vincent de Paul. The Dominical preces were omitted at Compline because of the occurring double feast.

At Mattins, as usual, there are three nocturns. In the first nocturn the lessons are the incipit, the beginning, of the Third Book of Kings. In the second nocturn the lessons are from St. Jerome and in the third nocturn the lessons are from a homily by St. Hilary.

At Lauds a commemoration of the occuring feast of St. Vincent de Paul is sung. At Prime Quicumque and the Dominical preces are omitted because of the occurring double feast.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung and after the collect of the day the second collect is of St. Vincent de Paul. The Creed is sung and the preface is that of Sunday.

At Vespers commemorations are sung of the following feast of St. Jermome Emilian, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Margaret of Antioch.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' there are no commemorations at Vespers. Mattins is cut down to one nocturn. There are no commemorations at Lauds. Mass has a single collect. St. Vincent de Paul is ignored this year.

Art: Jerome Nadal

VI Sunday after Pentecost

The sixth Sunday after Pentecost is of semi-double rite. The Gospel of the Sunday, from St. Mark, has the account of the multiplication miracle of the feeding of the four thousand.

At Vespers yesterday commemorations were sung of the preceding Office of St. Pius I and the abbot St. John Gualbert and the martyrs SS Nabor and Felix . The Dominical preces were omitted at Compline because of the occurring double feast.

At Mattins, as usual, there are three nocturns. In the first nocturn the lessons are taken from the Second Book of Kings. In the second nocturn the lessons are from St. Ambrose's Defence of David and in the third nocturn from St. Augustine on the Gospel of St. Mark.

At Lauds a commemoration of the occuring feasts of St. John Gualbert and SS Nabor and Felix is sung. At Prime Quicumque and the Dominical preces are omitted because of the occurring double feast.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung and after the collect of the day the second collect is of St. John Gualbert, the third of SS Nabor and Felix. The Creed is sung and the preface is that of Sunday.

At Vespers commemorations are sung of the following feast of St. Anacletus and St. John Gualbert.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' there are no commemorations at Vespers. Mattins is cut down to one nocturn. There are no commemorations at Lauds. Mass has a single collect. St. John Gualbert and SS Nabor and Felix are ignored this year and tomorrow's feast of St. Anacletus has been abolished.

V Sunday after Pentecost

The fifth Sunday after Pentecost is of semi-double rite. It is also the Sunday within the Octave of SS Peter and Paul. As last Sunday it is possible to avoid a 'green' Mass as will be detailed below.

At Vespers a commemoration of the Octave of SS Peter and Paul was sung along with a commemoration of the occurring feast of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria. As last Sunday the Suffrage at Vespers and Dominical preces at Compline are omitted due to the occurring double feast and Octave.

At Mattins the lessons in the first nocturn are from the beginning of the Second Book of Kings. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from St. Gregory the Great and in the third nocturn from a homily of St. Augustine on St. Matthew's Gospel.

At Lauds a commemoration of St. Anthony Zaccaria is sung and a commemoration of the Octave of SS Peter and Paul. The Suffrage is omitted due to the occurring feast and Octave. Likewise at Prime the Dominical psalms are sung but Quicumque and the Dominical preces are omitted for the same reason.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of St. Anthony, the third of the Octave. The Credo is sung and the preface is that of Sunday.

As last week it is permissible to celebrate all Masses except the Conventual one of the feast that was formerly kept on the first Sunday of July, the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Mass is celebrated in red vestments. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday, the Credo is sung, the preface is of the Holy Cross and the last Gospel that of the Sunday.

In some countries (such as the USA and Canada) where the feast of SS Peter and Paul is not a holyday the External Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul is celebrated today. The Mass is on the feast celebrated in red vestments with Gloria, the second collect of the Sunday and last Gospel of the Sunday.

At Vespers a commemoration of the following Octave Day of SS Peter and Paul is sung (the feast, days within the Octave and the Octave Day all have proper texts indicative of the antiquity of the Octave - presumably Pius XII considered it antiquarianism to keep it so abolished it) and St. Anthony Zaccaria.

In the liturgical books of 1962 Mattins is reduced to one nocturn of three lessons. St. Anthony Zaccaria is omitted this year and the Octave has been abolished.

Art: Jerome Nadal Note the delighful scenes in the roundels at the top of the image illustrating the Gospel story.