Lesson 16
Father, Read The Black. Do The Red!
Welcome back! I have been a practicing Catholic almost all of my life. The first twenty seven days of my life were rough and confused, because I had not been baptized yet. I am so grateful that my parents had me baptized and passed on the Faith to me by their outstanding example. During the course of my life, there has been lots of change, especially in the Liturgy. Up until the Second Vatican Council, Holy Mass was celebrated in Latin all over the world using the rite from the time of the Council of Trent. That lasted from the 16th century until the Second Vatican Council. Probably the most impactful innovation of the Second Vatican Council was the revision of the Liturgy. The two most important innovations were the possibility of celebrating the Mass in the Vernacular – that’s English for us – and that increased people’s ability to participate in a more meaningful way. The second improvement was the increased exposure to much more Sacred Scripture in the readings of the Mass.
The initial period after the Second Vatican Council saw an enthusiastic, energetic, and not all together disciplined adaption to the changes. Over time, things settled down. Since the Vatican Council we have had three editions of the Roman Missal – 1970, 1975, and 2000. The current edition we use in English was published in 2011 and has not changed since then.
In the year 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree allowing all priests to celebrate the Old Form of the Mass with the Missal of 1962, commonly referred to as the Latin Mass. And then in 2021, Pope Francis restricted that usage to priests who have permission from their bishop.
There are two principal books we use at Mass: The Roman Missal, which has all the prayers and part of the Mass; and the Lectionary, which has the readings. The Roman Missal has a very large and detailed set of rules known as the GIRM – General Instruction on the Roman Missal – and if you ever have a question about how things are supposed to be done, you will likely find it in the GIRM.
It is important for all of us to remember that the Liturgy belongs to the Church, and priests are asked to follow the rules. A friend once told me, “Father, read the black. Do the red.” The “red” are the “rubrics” which come from the Latin word for red, and those are the instructions. I don’t know how many times people have told me, “Thank you, Father, that was a beautiful Mass!” And I reply, “Thank you. I had nothing to do with it. I just read the black and did the red.”
So tune in every day of Lent to learn more about your Catholic faith, because if you Learn it, then you can Live it; and if you Live it, you will Love it; and if you Love it, you will never Leave it!
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