There are a wide variety of liturgical abuses which detract from the holiness and reverence in the Mass.We still have people who pray the Rosary or any form of prayer inside the Church while Mass is on, mixing unblessed water with Holy water so as to increase it, wearing of Holy Communion in a pyx round the neck as a form of talisman, use of the Sanctuary for any purpose outside the Liturgical activities like Mass, Adoration, Benediction, re-blessing of blessed items, blessing of spiritual perfumes and oils, introduction of strange gestures within the mass such as waving into the mass and so. Read REV. ODOZI JOSEPH analytic report.
On March 2, 2011, a book was launched by Fr. Nicola Bux, a consultant to the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith. The book was interestingly titled How To Go To Mass And Not Lose Your Faith. At the book launch, Cardinal Raymond Burke stated that liturgical abuses damage the faith of Catholics far more than we imagine. In some churches today, when one takes a look at the aberrations that occur in our liturgical rites, one cannot but ponder if the liturgy is a private affair permitting modification to do and undo, add or subtract. Such superfluous initiatives are what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI referred to as restless creativity and led Aidan Kavangh in his book, On Liturgical Theology to ask the all-critical question of whether liturgy is about God, or if the liturgy is of God? The important thing to note in attempting to answer this question is that there cannot be a liturgy without God, because it is from God that the very essence of liturgy takes its root.
The word Liturgy comes from the Greek word, leitourgia meaning originally a public duty, a service to the state undertaken by a citizen. The liturgy, then, is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ, a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem. In it full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members. From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the Priest and of his Body, which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree. And so, it occupies a central place in the life of the Church. For these reasons, the Church guards the liturgy and protects it with liturgical law. She does this with divinely delegated authority.
“Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, the bishop.” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, n. 22). Bishops and bishops’ conferences have only that authority over the liturgy which is explicitly granted and so “No other person, not even a priest, may add, renew or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.” (ibid). Most of these rubrics are contained in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), and many clarifications have been made in other documents such as Instruction Concerning Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery (Inaestimabile Donum). In his apostolic letter, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the importance of proper knowledge of the General Instruction not only for priests but also for the laity. At the request of Pope John Paul II, Redemptionis Sacramentum, was prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and it offers practical rules (norms) concerning how Mass is to be celebrated and how the Eucharist is to be treated.
It focuses on liturgical abuses that have been occurring in recent years. Liturgical abuses can be divided into two forms: Serious abuses and Illicit abuses. The serious abuses are those which invalidate the Mass by inhibiting transubstantiation. The Church is very specific about four conditions required for a valid transubstantiation. They include a validly ordained male Priest, intent of the Priest which is to make Jesus physically present via transubstantiation at the consecration, the valid matter which is unleavened bread and grape wine and the form which are the key phrases of consecration “This is My Body” and “This is … My Blood,”. The lesser abuse is called “illicit.” These type of abuses are less serious and do not cause the failure of the Consecration of the Eucharist. There are a wide variety of these types of abuses which detract from the holiness and reverence in the Mass.
They range from abandonment of required liturgical vestments, the Eucharist celebrated outside Church without real need, the use of private texts, the proliferation of unapproved Eucharistic Prayers, the manipulation of the liturgical texts for personal ends. We still have people who pray the Rosary or any form of prayer inside the Church while Mass is on, mixing unblessed water with Holy water so as to increase it, wearing of Holy Communion in a pyx round the neck as a form of talisman, use of the Sanctuary for any purpose outside the Liturgical activities like Mass, Adoration, Benediction, reblessing of blessed items, blessing of spiritual perfumes and oils, introduction of strange gestures within the mass such as waving into the mass and so.
Most often, liturgical aberrations are borne out of the desire to be creative and pastorally appealing, in response to the clamours of the people for something new. Some of the lay faithful also search for an out of the world experience hence the yearn for experimentation. None of these liturgical abuses can bring good results. The consequences are the further ignorance, worship in the Church, doctrinal uncertainty, scandal and bewilderment among the People of God. In liturgical aberration, the humility in worship is replaced by pride, service replaced by disobedience; thereby making what should be a source of grace becomes an occasion of sin. A popular adage says, “order is the first law in heaven.” And our earthly liturgy is a miniature of the heavenly liturgy. It becomes all important to ensure that this order and laws are complied with loving obedience. The priest being obedient to the rubrics, saying the black (words) and doing the red (gestures).
The lay faithful as well are duty bound to obey the priests as their direction corresponds to the mind of the Church as expressed in the liturgical books. In the area of private devotion, the priest, as teacher, is called to guide and guard the faithful to a solid spiritual life. This may require him to warn them against certain devotional practices that deviate from sound doctrine such as back to sender perfume or angel Michael oil. When adoration and sacredness disappear from our churches, the church becomes a place of diminished faith.The work of the liturgy is our sanctification and salvation. Through it we go from sin to grace, from earth to Heaven.
Not only does the liturgy offer grace and salvation, it is also a vehicle of divine revelation, as the saying goes “Lex orandi, lex credendi,” the law of prayer or worship is also the law of our belief. Canon 214 of the Code of Canon Law says that “Christ’s faithful have the right to worship God according to the provisions of their own rite approved by the lawful Pastors of the Church.” The liturgical community has the right to have the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist carried out in such a way that it seems truly as a sacrament of unity, excluding absolutely all the defects and gestures that can manifest divisions and factions in the Church.Thus, every of Christ’s faithful has the right to correct liturgical abnormalities, this is naturally to be done in truth and charity. There is no exaggeration therefore if we affirm that liturgy is everything for the Church. It is the soul and life-wire of the Church and so abuses must be avoided.