I am at the moment putting together an article for The Wanderer where the original WDTPRS work was and is done.
I wanted to share this tidbit:
When Moses came from his meetings with God his face was transformed and shone with a light so great that he had to put on a veil. Our encounters with the divinity of Christ in Mass must transform us so that people will see in us their effects, see Christ reflected. The angel the priest requests [during the Roman Canon at the Supplices te rogamus] never does not simultaneously behold the face of God. So much are the holy angels in harmony with the Father’s will that often in the Old Testament when angels come bearing messages there is a blurring of precisely who is speaking, the angels or God Himself.
What takes place at Holy Mass is an echo of the ongoing liturgy of the heavenly host before the throne of God. This must affect the way we celebrate Mass, the words we speak, the actions, the setting. What we do must reflect the deeper reality.
Consider this description in Scripture of the work of an angel before altar in heaven:
“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” (Rev 8:3-5 RSV).
Otherwise, translated into terms many parish liturgists would find familiar,
“… and the angels took up their guitars, verily the out-of-tune guitars, and thence began they all to strum the same three chords, myriads upon myriads of angels the same three discordant chords within the liturgical space like unto the VFW hall and the local cineplex. And sang they all, unceasingly, in the sight of God’s furrowed brow, their song surpassing human speech,and sang “Yoohooooo…” (Cf. the first words of “On Eagle’s Wings”, namely, “You who…” etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. – in my own “dynamically equivalent” version).
