Motu Proprio Tomorrow

With it virtually certain that the MP will be out tomorrow, I thought it prudent to simply restate here what was posted by Shawn Tribe today on The New Liturgical Movement regarding our expectations concerning this document and how we ought to react to it. Here is the post from TNLM:

1. Think about Pope Benedict's liturgical teaching. It would be good if people really stop and think about Pope Benedict's vision for the liturgy and the Church, which sees liturgical co-existence, but one which attempts to address the Council and might eventually lead to synthesis. Get your mind into that mode and read Summorum Pontificum in that light, understanding it from that perspective as the seeds of a 'corrective' of the hermeneutic of rupture.

2. Forget about what you've heard about the document and simply read it for what it is. Consider this as well: if this document came as a complete and total surprise with no lead up to it these past months, how would you respond to it then? Respond to it accordingly as such.

3. In the same vein, think not about what you personally would like to see happen, but rather think about the present state of things and ask, regardless of my own opinion of what would be for the best, how does this motu proprio change the landscape for the better (for both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman rite)? How does it help in the process of reclaiming our tradition from the margins of ecclesial life? How does it build for the future?

4. Realize as well that Benedict may also have had to make a prudential decision about precisely what he thought he could promulgate with a reasonable chance of being successful in the here and now, building for the future. Think of this as another step in a process rather than the "end game". Think about what was released in 1984, which was very restrictive; then the loosening of 1988 with Ecclesia Dei, and now this next step in the process.

5. Be aware, now, before you read it tomorrow, that you probably won't get everything you hope for in one document. Don't expect magical juridical solutions, nor one's that implement all of your own desires.

6. Presume that there no document can absolutely safeguard against those who determined to foil it, but, again, how does it make it that much harder to do so, or that much freer where such a situation doesn't exist, and how does the document build for a better future by redefining attitudes?

7. At the end of the day, your wish-list aside, take real note of the proverbial "new toys" that this motu proprio provides and that you didn't have as of today and be thankful for yet another step back toward our tradition, toward a hermeneutic of continuity, and toward a sensible implementation of the Council.

8. Finally, before you even read the document tomorrow, might I recommend you place it before yourself, and then go through this list of considerations one more time.