The Problems With the Prayers of the Modern Mass

by Anthony Cekada

When the New Mass was introduced in 1969, many Catholics presumed that the orations or prayers from the Proper of the Mass (Collects, Secrets, and Post-communions) have been retained exactly as they were in the Traditional liturgy of the Church - which, in the case of some Masses for the Latin Rite, dated back to before 150 A.D. But it was not until 1986, when the Congregation for Divine Worship began, "bit by bit, to publish the new prayers along with their antecedents" (Page 6), that researchers could really begin to compare the prayers of the Modern Mass to those of the ancient Catholic liturgy.

The Problems with the Prayers of the Modern Mass is the first study to appear making the comparison of the orations of the Old Mass to those of the New. And the result is truly shocking and absolutely incontestable. In the New Mass, as Fr. Cekada shows in this small but very scholarly and thoroughly documented book, almost all typically Catholic concepts have been eliminated from the prayers of the Modern Mass, in favor of a very bland form of expression that will offend no one. Gone from these prayers are such Catholic concepts as "sacrifice", "reparation", "hell", "the gravity of sin", "snares of wickedness", "the burden of evil", "adversities", "enemies", "evils", "tribulations", "afflictions", "infirmities of soul", "obstinacy of heart", "concupiscence of the flesh and of the eyes", "unworthiness", "temptations", "wicked thoughts", "grave offenses", "loss of heaven", "everlasting death", "eternal punishment", "hidden fruits", "guilt", "eternal rest", "true faith", "merits", "intercession", "heavenly fellowship", "fires of hell", etc. Nobody can argue with the author's findings because he not only documents thoroughly, with nearly 500 citations from texts of the Old and New Missals, but in the case of many prayers, he actually quotes the old prayers alongside the new for the reader's examination.

Presented in an unemotional, matter-of-fact style, The Problems with the Prayers of the Modern Mass reveals the very disturbing evidence that the Catholic content of the prayers of the Proper of the Modern Mass has been systematically de-Catholicized.

Genres: Catholic

44 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1991

About the author

Anthony J. Cekada was an American sedevacantist Catholic priest and author. Originally a member of the Society of St. Pius X, in 1989 he helped found the Society of Saint Pius V and later joined the St. Gertrude the Great Traditional Roman Catholic Church in Ohio.

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great (although very brief) booklet; the author provides more evidence how traditional Catholic belief was stripped out of the orations of the New Mass.