Mozarabic Rite - Character of Mozarabic Rite

Character of Mozarabic Rite

While the liturgy used during the period of Islamic rule was very much like that to which St. Isidore put some finishing touches in the 7th century. During Islamic rule the pastors took more care, where practice of Christianity was permitted, to address the faithful during the Mass. The Bible was translated into Arabic during this period as well, and the liturgy was celebrated in Arabic.

The Mozarabic Rite is longer in duration than that of the Roman Rite. Imagery and ceremony are used extensively; its great beauty is shown in the support it received even after the Roman Rite was installed throughout Iberia. Many learned theologians have praised it. Many hymns were written within the Mozarabic Rite.

The Mozarabic Rite may have emphasized the Blessed Virgin Mary's role even more than did the liturgy of Rome. It also exalts Mary by addressing her directly in prayer, which the Roman Rite does not do.

The Mozarabic Rite was the first to use ashes within the liturgical celebrations of the Church. Ashes were used prior to the Mozarabic Rite, but this was done outside of liturgical events, e.g., marking people for penance.

The Breviary has a short and uncomplicated extra office (session of prayer) before the main morning office.

Extensive use is made of responsories between the celebrant (priest) and faithful during the Mozarabic Mass, including during the Confiteor (prayer of confession of guilt for sin), which is quite different from that in the Roman Rite (Tridentine or post-Tridentine); though much of the preparatory prayers and other elements in the old Missal were borrowed from a Romano-Toledan Missal and is not originally part of the rite.

Isidore of Seville in his writings made reference to the 'seven prayers' of the Mozarabic Mass. These are the seven major variable liturgical texts which constitute the essential prayer formulas said by the celebrant in the Mozarabic liturgy of the faithful, namely: 1. The Oratio Missae or Prayer of the Mass, an opening prayer making reference to the feast being celebrated and in general character much like the Roman Collect. 2. The Prayer after the Names, said immediately after the recitation of the names of the faithful, living and dead, who are being prayed for. 3. Prayer for Peace, said immediately before the kiss of peace. 4. The Illatio corresponding to the Roman Preface and most frequently the longest part of the Mozarabic eucharistic prayer. 5. The Post-Sanctus, the part of the Mozarabic eucharistic prayer connecting the Sanctus with the institution narrative. 6. The Post-Pridie, the concluding portion of the eucharistic prayer including the anamnesis with its prayer of offering, the epiklesis, (when either or both of these are present) and the final doxology. 7. The Lord's Prayer with its variable introduction and fixed embolism and concluding clause.

While the liturgy is quite beautiful, it also tended toward "prolixity" and at times was lacking in "sobriety". The Roman rite of Mass is more ordered: in its Tridentine form it left almost nothing to the choice of the celebrant; the present (Mass of Paul VI), though it limits extemporaneous variations to the words of introduction to certain ceremonies, frequently allows a choice between different formulas of prayer. This may be due to the influence of the Mozarabic rite.

There was no fixed anaphora or Eucharistic prayer in the Mozarabic rite of Mass, which permitted a fair degree of extemporaneous flexibility. When the Mozarabic rite was given a new lease on life in 1500, the Roman words of institution, the key words that Jesus used at the Last Supper, were required. Originally, the Mozarabic words of institution were from St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (11:24), with the formula for the consecration of the wine being a combination of 1 Corinthians 11:24, Luke 22:20, and Matthew 26:28. These were the words written on the (old) Mozarabic Missal, though the Roman formula was included as a footnote in the Missal and was used in actual practice in place of the old Spanish formula (note, however, that it was reinstituted by the modern Mozarabic Missal).

Some Eucharistic prayers are addressed to Christ rather than to God the Father. After the consecration of the bread and wine (see Eucharist), as the Creed is being chanted, the host (the real presence of Christ under the species of bread) is broken into nine pieces, each representing a facet of Christ's life on earth, seven of which are arranged in a cross on the paten. After a variable introduction the Lord's Prayer was said by the celebrant alone, with everyone else responding "Amen" to each petition, except for the petition for daily bread, for which the response is "For you are God" and everyone concluding the final petition, "but deliver us from evil" with the celebrant.