Is the Coronavirus an Act of God on the Future of the Ordinary Form of the Mass?

Fr McDonald looks at some likely permanent effects of the CCP virus pandemic on the Novus Ordo Mass.

From Southern Orders

By Fr Allan J. McDonald 

Pope Francis models for the world how to keep aerosolized prayer proclaimed in a forceful way as though directed to the congregation from reaching the congregation and endangering the health and lives of the congregation:

Also, since aerosolized speech and breathing can be transferred to the congregation especially with fan shaped and in the round churches where congregations face each other rather than God, major renovations of churches will lead to the third photo because the first photo in a second photo church is potentially deadly:

Danger, danger, danger:

Thus, NO! NO! NO! To this style of church:

And YES! YES! YES! To this style of nave and sanctuary:

I know because I celebrate both forms of the one Roman Rite that kneeling for Holy Communion makes it easier for me not to touch the tongue of the communicant in the EF Mass if the communicant does what I was taught about receiving Holy Communion as a second grader. You tilt your head slightly back, stick out your tongue in a natural not exaggerated way and wait for the priest to withdraw his hand prior to retracting one’s tongue or moving one’s head forward.

In the EF Mass the priest responds amen for the communicant thus neutralizing any spittle from becoming aerosolized and attaching to the priest’s fingers while these are close to the communicant’s mouth.

Other temporal life-saving aspects of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass are these, which the Ordinary Form is recovering for the temporal health of the laity and priest(s):

1. Ad orientem, the priest’s aerosolized words go toward the wall not the congregation
2. Hymn books are now deemed a deadly devise if Coronavirus attaches to them and are being removed from pews. Thus the choir or cantor needs to chant the entrance chant, hopefully the official Introit and the laity actually participate by meditating on what is chanted rather than joining in and aerosolizing the air with their viruses.
3. The offertory gifts are not touched by anyone, similar to the EF Mass where only the priest touches the sacred vessels. Except in the EF it is out of reverence, in the OF it will be out of fear of contagion or viruses attaching to the vessels carried by the laity.
4. Kneeling for Holy Communion will finally be seen by bishops as the only healthy way to receive Holy Communion without hand to hand contact or hand to tongue contact, not because and unfortunately so, it is more reverent to receive in the EF manner.
5. The Common Chalice will never return to the laity out an abundance of fear that Coronavirus will live on and in the chalice and the Precious Blood diluted with copious amounts of numerous communicants saliva. Unfortunately the concerning of profanation of the Precious Blood by contaminants or spilling it is not the major concern as it should be.
6. Priests will no longer be glad-handing the laity before and after Mass, although unlikely, this may lead to priests praying privately to God before and after Mass which is a custom of the EF Mass.
7. To prevent aerosolizing of speech with Coronavirus in the floating spittle, silence will be demanded in the church before and after Mass and physical distancing amidst the silence not because the Blessed Sacrament is there and demands silent adoration, but out of a concern for temporal health.
8. Of course the handshake/hug of peace will disappear out of fear of offending social distancing civil law not because it is a horrible distraction during the Communion Rite.

At least God is renewing the liturgy even though His human instruments are doing so for temporal health not eternal health.