Awhile back, there were talks about creating a “Mayan Mass” and while I haven’t paid much attention to it, my thoughts on it, and on cultural-themed Masses in general goes something along these lines of: You know, in the Byzantine Rite, the priests don’t wear togas, they don’t worship in rectangular marble buildings, they don’t offer a pita bread Eucharist! However, I remember back during the Shamazon Synod, a quote from St. John Henry Newman was going around. In it he allegedly states that some parts of the Mass like the Kyrie Elesion actually came from Greco-Roman paganism; is that true? If so, how true or accurate is it? It probably is true that minor traits from various surrounding cultures have influenced the various rites of the Catholic Church, but I think most of this is aesthetical and doesn’t really touch the deeper elements of said rite; what is your knowledge and understanding on this?
Id like to know ,if someone knows in this thread, wether the Mass (its liturgy, rites, etc) is believed to be a divine revelation or an human arrangement. Was the plan\schedule of a typical Mass revealed in a vision or divine communication? or christians figured it out step by step?
I am not any expert on any of this, but in the past I have truly loved reading Scott Hahn on the subject. Scott Hahn is a real saint, deeply knowledgeable and orthodox. I totally trust and admire him. A great go to for so many things.
Yes indeed Padraig. Scott Hahn has a book devoted to this called: The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth It is most definitely a Divine Revelation. Revealed in a vision to St. John the Evangelist and Apostle, and set down in the Book of Revelation. The whole structure of the Mass and the individual elements of the Liturgies are shown to be a participation in the Heavenly Liturgy, and a fulfillment of God's promise that He would dwell with His people - first in the Old Testament and then again by Jesus in the last line of Matthew's Gospel. "And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time."
A lot of the New Covenant Liturgical practices, come straight from the Old Covenant Liturgical practices, which were revealed by God via the Pentateuch. (To be fair some of these practices did bare some minor resemblances to other Bronze Age liturgical practices, particularly Egyptian.)
