Catholic Liturgy Week: The Dominican Rite

Hi y'all! Today's post is probably going to be my favorite of this whole week--because today I'm going to be talking about Dominican Rite Mass! 

Quick warning for non-Catholics: This post assumes that you've been to a Novus Ordo Mass, possibly more than once. I'm not going to be explaining the basics of the Mass, but comparing and contrasting two/three different rites. So, please, if you want to read, go ahead, but you may be in over your head a tiny bit. 😊

I love the Dominican Rite, but I wasn't sure where to start on writing this post, so I firstly asked Fr. DD what makes the Dominican Rite Mass different from The Latin (aka Tridentine) Mass. He replied dryly "Well, it's around three hundred years older than that newfangled Tridentine rite." 

A bit of history: before the council of Trent, there were many, many rites--they varied from place to place, order to order, and even diocese to diocese! In response to the decisions of the Council of Trent, in 1570 Pope Pius V issued a papal decree which, in addition to making the Tridentine rite the official rite, allowed rites that had existed for over 250 years to continue to be celebrated. The Dominican rite, which had appeared in the mid-13th century, fell into this category. Incidentally, Pope Pius V was a Dominican! Thus, the Dominican rite was preserved in a state close to the original one of the 13th century, with a few small changes across the centuries. 

So, what makes the Dominican Rite special and different? I've never been to a Tridentine rite Mass, so I'm going to focus on the differences from Novus Ordo--I'm sure all you TLMers are good at extrapolating. :) I will have a couple of points at the bottom of the list, from Fr. DD again. 

• It's all in Latin. Of course! The homily is usually in English (our priests aren't that crazy!) but other than that, the whole liturgy is in Latin. I've gotten to the point in my Latin studies that I can understand a lot of what is being said, which, let me tell you, is ah. may. zing. However, many of the prayers, including the Confiteor, the Offeratory, and the Eucharistic Prayer are said silently, so it can be very difficult to tell what is happening! The priest does not raise his voice above a whisper unless addressing the people. 

• The Mass, in general, is said Ad Orientum, the priest leading the people. I love this--Novus Ordo Ad Populum (it can be celebrated Ad Orientum, fun fact) always seems rather like the priest entertaining the people (ok, it's not exactly that), whereas Ad Orientum feels like the priest leading his flock. 

• The servers walk in very complicated patterns (generally arc-shaped) at several points in the Mass, and always in complete sync.

• The priest approaches the altar with his amice (the hood that sometimes peeks out the back of the vestments) up, and carrying the chalice. He places the chalice on the altar, prepares it with the help of the servers. Afterwards, he lowers his amice.

• He goes, with the servers, to the foot of the altar, where he says the Confiteor ("I confess") to the servers and they say the words meaning "May almighty God have mercy on you", etc. to him, and then they say the Confiteor and he says those words to them. The servers at this point (and in many points during the Mass) are the voice of the people, who never say the Confiteor.

• The Epistle (the reading) is read at the right side of the altar, and then the server moves the missal to the left side of the altar for the Gospel--the ambo is only used for the homily. 

• When the Creed is said, all genuflect instead of bowing at the "Et Incarnatus Est" (and was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit and became man)

• After a silent (or very quiet) offertory, the priest audibly says "Dominius Vobiscum" to the people, and has that dialogue with them. 

• During the Sanctus, the servers light the "Sanctus Candles", which is a sign to the faithful that the Consecration is coming. 

• The Eucharistic prayer (always the Roman Canon, which makes me very happy) is said silently.

• When the words of consecration are said, the priest sets down the consecrated Host, genuflects, stands, elevates the Host, sets it down and genuflects again. The bells are rung once at each of these movements. Each time he genuflects, two servers next to him lift the back of his chasuble. This is a tradition from the times when chasubles would have been so heavy that once the priest knelt, he wouldn't have been able to get up again without help. The process is repeated for the Chalice. 

• In addition, at set times during the Eucharistic prayer, the priest kisses the chalice, and uses the paten to make the sign of the cross.

• The priest finishes the Canon by saying "Per omnia saecula saeculorum" ("forever and ever"), audibly, which is the people's cue to respond "Amen", and stand.

• Right before Communion, the servers once again say the Confiteor to the priest on behalf of the people.

• The people receive communion kneeling at the altar rail. For each person, the priest does a mini benediction, and then places the Host on the communicant's tongue. The communicant does not say anything. Interestingly, what the priest says in the Dominican Rite (May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve you unto everlasting life) differs from what is said during other rites (May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto everlasting life) because at that time, the Dominicans were battling the Arian Heresy, which denied the goodness of the body/the resurrection of the body. 

• During the cleansing of the vessels, the servers extinguish the Agnus Dei candles, since the True Presence is no longer present.

• After the Benediction happens and Mass is technically over, the priest is supposed to read the first part of John's Gospel (In the beginning was the Word...) but the Dominicans felt "forced into" adding this part to their rite, so the priest reads this reading silently while the servers extinguish the candles--because Mass is over! 

In terms of contrast to Tridentine (besides any that might have been seen above), Fr. DD noted two things:

• It is very simple compared to the Tridentine rite; for instance, there is only one offertory prayer in contrast to six in the Tridentine, and only one prayer of the priest before receiving the Eucharist, instead of the three in the Tridentine. 

• The patterns that the priest and servers walk in are generally arc-shaped, rather than boxy like in the Tridentine rite. There's even a section, in High Masses with more than two servers, that's called the "Great Swing", where a whole line of servers swings in an arc in front of the altar. 

If you'd like to learn more: http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/ is a blog run by two Dominican friars in the Western Province, which has lots of info/pictures/etc. 

Have you ever been to a Dominican Rite Mass? Have you ever met a Dominican? If you usually go to TLM, were you able to extrapolate?