Low Mass

Low Mass (called in Latin, Missa lecta, which literally means 'read Mass') is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him. A sung Mass in turn is a ‘High’ or Solemn Mass if celebrated with the assistance of sacred ministers (deacon and subdeacon); without them it is a Missa Cantata. Hesperius, of a tribunitian family, ... finding that his family, his cattle, and his servants were suffering from the malice of evil spirits, he asked our presbyters, during my absence, that one of them would go with him and banish the spirits by his prayers. One went, offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ, praying with all his might that that vexation might cease. It did cease immediately, through God's mercy. Low Mass (called in Latin, Missa lecta, which literally means 'read Mass') is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him. A sung Mass in turn is a ‘High’ or Solemn Mass if celebrated with the assistance of sacred ministers (deacon and subdeacon); without them it is a Missa Cantata. The term 'Low Mass' is also commonly used by Christians of other denominations to refer to a spoken, not sung, form of their own Eucharistic celebrations. Low Mass originated in the early Middle Ages as a shortened or simplified form of Solemn Mass. In the early church, as in the Orthodox church today, all services are chanted, and there is no equivalent to the Roman low mass or to the Anglican 'said celebration'. Alongside the public solemn Masses, the practice developed from the 4th century onwards, of smaller private Masses for smaller groups of believers. These masses were often celebrated in the catacombs, for the deceased or on a special anniversary. An example is provided by Saint Augustine..mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0} Christian practice had been that there was, at most, one Mass in a monastery or parish church each day. At Cluny in the XIth century a lay-brother ( conversus) was summoned to serve any priest-monk who wanted to celebrate; rules and obligations, as the reading of a Sequence, during the celebration of the private Masses gradually fell, for reasons of convenience. This history of liturgy shows how 'out of the private Mass grew the read Mass - the low Mass'. In the late Middle Ages, with a growing awareness of the infinite value of the Mass, came a growing desire to multiply its celebration. Spiritual, as well as material reasons were at hand. The most pronounced result of the multiplying of Masses was the increase in low Masses, since most of them were for private requests and had no public character. This trend to the private and the subjective, to an independence from the grand order of things was also displayed in another abuse, namely, setting aside the arrangement of the ecclesiastical year and confining oneself to Votive Masses either chosen at will or arranged according to the rules of the Mass series. Over time it became necessary for a variety of reasons to celebrate more than one on the same day. It also became customary for monasteries to ordain most of their monks, though originally monks were almost all laymen, and for every priest to say a daily Mass. For a while, concelebration, whereby several priests took a full priestly part in offering Mass, provided all with the possibility to celebrate Mass each day, but this custom died out. Low Mass is considered to be a necessity that falls short of the ideal, which is Solemn Mass. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 describes the result as follows: By the end of the Middle Ages, critics had grown more numerous, and mystics, such as Nicholas of Cusa, or bishops, attempted a spiritual and disciplinary reform, to avoid scandals of botched up Masses and abuse of stipends. A special work of Martin Luther's deals with 'the abomination of the low Mass called the canon' (Von dem Greuel der Stillmesse so man Canon nennet, 1524). His critics were such that priests, who had been living on Mass stipends, could no longer do so as easily, even in staunchly Catholic areas as the diocese of Salzburg. The Council of Trent was concerned above all with the 'Low Mass' (that is, with a liturgy that was recited and not sung), which had become the ordinary form of the Eucharistic celebration in the parishes. In 1562, a special commission was to assemble the abusus missae. The Roman Missal revised after the Council of Trent appears as a work that defines, above all, the rituals of 'Low Mass' or the 'private Mass'. Some have argued that in giving priority to the 'Low Mass', a practice developed of making the Eucharistic celebration an act of private devotion by the priest, whereas the faithful were simply invited to attend the Mass and to unite their prayers with it as sincerely as possible as a certain individualism developed alongside the devotio moderna.