Thursday, March 01, 2018

A Brief Video of Mass in the Rite of Lyon

The FSSP apostolate in Lyon, France, which has its home in the Collegiate Church of St Just, has been offering Mass in the traditional Rite of Lyon for quite some time now, in addition to the traditional Roman Mass. Currently, there is a regularly scheduled Low Mass at 8:30 every Sunday and holy day of obligation; the plan is eventually to bring it up to a regular sung or solemn Mass. This is an important act of conservation for a unique liturgical tradition, since Lyon was one of the very few French sees to continue using its medieval rite after the Tridentine reform, although many changes were made to it in the neo-Gallican period. Here is a video which shows the Mass from the end of the Canon to the Fraction Rite.

Several difference from the Roman custom are immediately noticeable. The priest is holding the Host over the chalice when the says “Per omnia saecula saeculorum” at the end of the Canon, and he keeps it there through the Our Father, elevating it together with the chalice at “sicut in caelo.” He then lays it down, and then lifts the back of the corporal, which is of course much larger than a Roman one, over the chalice. (This is simply the ancient version of the pall, which in the Roman and other uses, was later detached from the corporal and became a separate piece.) The embolism is said out loud in a low Mass; it would be sung in a Missa cantata or solemnis. The Agnus Dei is said aloud immediately after the Fraction and “Pax Domini”, and the priest drops the particle into the chalice saying “Haec commixtio.”

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