A New Catholic School Seeks to Incorporate the Wayof Beauty into its Education

March 18, 2016, 7:08 am

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I was delighted to hear recently about the founding of the Sanctuary Academy, which will offer a radically new form of education, initially for students ages 6-11 years, reaching back to the classical tradition in a way not seen in modern times. The goal is to offer a formation in beauty, and instill both an ethos of creativity, and the motivation to contribute to society in pursuit of their personal vocation.

Michael and Kelly Sullivan, the creators of The Sanctuary Academy, contacted me recently to ask for advice in incorporating the principles of education described in the book The Way of Beauty into their school. They are also inspired by another book, published last year by Angelico Press, written by Dr Ryan Topping, called The Case for a Catholic Education. It is a coincidence that Dr Topping is on the faculty of Thomas More College and so I know him well.

As Ryan has pointed out, we are in a crisis of Catholic education. The structure of our educational establishments (with a few notable exceptions) has aped the public school model of education, with only marginal better testing outcomes, and disastrous results when it comes to faith engagement. The Church is losing 70% of its young people to apostasy, and the remaining 30% are only nominally Catholic, according to a recent study.

The Sanctuary Academy is a new model of Catholic education that is combining the methods of The Acton Academy model, from Austin, TX with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and the Way of Beauty. The Acton Academy model has come out the Acton Institute, and is a model that aims at promoting the values that will form the children so that they are able to contribute to society creatively. The Sanctuary Academy is working within the Acton model, but is adding an additional and distinctly Catholic element that seeks to direct the students to the end of all Catholic education - supernatural transformation in Christ through a liturgically centered piety. The Big Idea is that when children are free to pursue their own interests they will learn faster, and become lifelong learners in pursuit of the work God has called them to fulfill. Then they will be driven to engage with society in a way that is virtuous and chivalrous.

These are aims shared to some degree by all genuine Catholic educational institutions. Of course, we wish success to all who try. What makes this project different from the others that I have heard about is the combination of Michael and Kelly’s express intention of instilling in the students a liturgical piety, the end of which is supernatural transformation, a traditional general education which includes a formation in beauty, and the engendering in the students of a humble self-confidence that will create an entrepreneurial spirit directed towards the common good.

This is at pilot stage right now, but I plan to watch closely how it develops. For more information, or to contact Michael and Kelly, go here.

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“Let My Prayer Rise as Incense” by Dmitry Bortniansky - Byzantine Music for Lent

March 18, 2016, 9:00 am

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As I am sure our readers know from various articles which we have published on the subject over the years, in the Byzantine Rite, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on the weekdays of Lent, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. (An exception is made for the feast of the Annunciation.) Therefore, at the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, extra loaves of bread are consecrated, and reserved for the rest of the week. On Wednesdays and Fridays, a service known as the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is held, in which Vespers is mixed with a Communion Rite. (It is also held on the first three days of Holy Week, and may be done on other occasions, but twice a week is the most common practice.)

The first part of this ceremony follows the regular order of Vespers fairly closely, and the second part imitates the Great Entrance and the Communion rite of the Divine Liturgy. After the opening Psalm 103 and the Litany of Peace, while the Psalms are chanted at the beginning, a portion of the Presanctified Gifts is moved from the altar to the table of the preparation, followed by a general incensation of the church, the entrance procession with the thurible and the hymn Phos Hilaron. Two readings are given from the Old Testament, after which, the priest stands in front of the altar and incenses it continually, while the choir sings verses of Psalm 140, with the refrain “Let my prayer rise before Thee like incense, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” (The first part of this refrain is also NLM’s motto.)

This particular setting is by one of the greatest composers of music for the Byzantine Liturgy, Dmitry Bortniansky, who was born in 1751 in the city of Hlukhiv in modern Ukraine, then a part of the Russian Empire. As a boy he went to St Petersburg to sing with the Imperial Court Chapel, whose Italian Master, Baldassare Galuppi, was so impressed with his talents that he brought him back to Italy in 1769. After ten years of training and work as a composer, Bortniansky returned to St Petersburg, and eventually became himself master of the same Choir, the first native of the Russian Empire to hold that position. His enormous oeuvre includes operas, instrumental compositions, songs in a variety of languages, 45 sacred concertos, and of course a very large number of liturgical compositions in Old Church Slavonic like the one given above.

(Click here to see a recent article about another chant for the Vespers of the Presanctified Gifts.)

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Liturgy, the Basis of Western Culture; Colloquium at Grand Rapids, MI, April 4th

March 19, 2016, 7:07 am

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Any who are within striking distance of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 4th should make an effort to see Fr Rob Johansen present one of the series Aquinas College Catholic Studies Colloquia, entitled Liturgy, the Basis of Western Culture.

I owe Fr Johansen a great deal. I heard him lecture several years ago on the Evangelization of the Culture; his description of how the liturgy is the main forming influence on the culture was so clear and inspiring to me that it began a whole series of reflections that have become a core part of the driving ideas behind so many of my articles, and published books. I would encourage anybody who is able to attend to make the effort to hear him speak.

Aquinas College’s address is 1607 Robinson Rd SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506; tel 616 632 8900.

The Facebook page is here.

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Holy Week Photopost Request

March 19, 2016, 7:37 am

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Holy Week is upon us! Our next photopost will be for Holy Week liturgies, as we do every year. Specifically, we will be doing individual posts for: Palm Sunday, Tenebrae (throughout the Triduum), Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. As always, we are glad to receive images of the OF, EF, Eastern Rites, and (for the first year) the Ordinariate Use.

Due to the onslaught of photos which we normally receive in the period, we are using a new photo upload system this Holy Week, to keep everything organized. Please upload your photos to the appropriate link, with the parish name in the field for name. Feel free to email if you have additional textual details you want to add.

Upload links

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First Tenebrae Since Vatican II at St Anthony of Padua in Jersey City

March 19, 2016, 12:00 pm

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The Office of Tenebrae of Holy Thursday will be anticipated on Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30PM as part of this year’s schedule of Holy Week services at the historic downtown church of St. Anthony of Padua in Jersey City, New Jersey, located at Monmouth St. between 6th and 7th.

The resident choir Cantantes in Cordibus will lead the Gregorian chant and other musical settings by Allegri. Its director, Maestro Simone Ferraresi, studied at the Conservatory of Music in Ferrara, Italy where he earned his degree with highest honors; at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna he studied with world renowned pianist and musicologist Paul Badura-Skoda. Maestro Ferraresi specialized in interpretation of classical composers; at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was awarded the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music – the highest examinable award given by the Royal Academy. He was also awarded three special prizes for best performance in the final recital. He is the founder and artistic director of the Ferrara International Piano Festival.

St. Anthony’s Church is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Sites. The church built in the Victorian Gothic Style is a pristine example of a church untouched by modern elements and remains a true example of Roman Catholic aesthetic rarely seen today. The church parking lot is located on 6th St. between Coles and Monmouth Street and is easily accessible from the Grove Street PATH, the Newport PATH and Light Rail stop.

Through the generous support of Very Rev. Canon Joseph Urban, Pastor of St. Anthony’s, this is the first time Tenebrae will be available at St. Anthony’s. We invite everyone to attend this moving service during the most important and significant week of the Liturgical Year. Please visit the parish website at stanthonyjc.com for more information about the other traditional services during Holy Week.

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Palm Sunday 2016

March 20, 2016, 12:12 am

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Thou didst incline the heavens, and come down to the earth as one merciful. Thou didst not leave the throne of the Cherubim, Thou sat upon a colt for our sake, o Savior of the world! And the children of the Hebrews came to meet Thee, and taking palms in their hands, they blessed Thee: “Blessed art Thou who hast come to the Passion of Thy own will to deliver us; Glory to Thee!” (Processional antiphon for Palm Sunday from the Ambrosian Rite.)

The Entry into Jersusalem on Palm Sunday, by Giotto, from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. 1304-06

Inclinasti caelos et descendisti ad terram, ut misericors. Thronum Cherubim non dereliquisti; pullum propter nos sedisti, Salvator mundi. Et pueri Hebraeorum occurrerunt tibi, et sumentes palmas in manibus, benedixerunt te: Benedictus qui venisti ad passionem voluntarie ad liberandum nos, gloria tibi!

(Don’t forget to send photos of your Palm Sunday liturgies to this Dropbox link.)

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Photopost Reminder - Holy Week 2016

March 20, 2016, 7:38 am

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For those looking to send in photos for today and the rest of Holy Week, please see the top of the right-hand sidebar on the site for links to upload photos, and due dates as well.

Thanks, and have a blessed Holy Week!

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Palm Sunday in Rome - The Polyphonic Settings of the Crowd

March 20, 2016, 3:39 pm

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Every year on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, at the Fraternity of St Peter’s Roman parish, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the choir sings those parts of the Passion that represent the crowd. Most of these are quite short, but the Passion of St Matthew contains two longer ones towards the end, at chapter 27, 39-43. As recorded here, they are each preceded by a verse sung by the narrator, who is called Chronista in Latin, and whose parts are marked with a red C in the chant books. The parts that are neither those of the narrator nor of Christ Himself, whether a single speaker or many, are collectively known as the Synagogue, and marked with a red S. I have reproduced the text in Latin and English below with these markings. It was never mandatory for the choir to sing the parts of the crowd (sometimes called “Turba” in Latin), but these beautiful polyphonic settings by Tomás Luis de Victoria show why the custom was so widespread and loved by the faithful.

C. Praetereuntes autem blasphemabant eum moventes capita sua, et dicentes: S. Vah! qui destruis templum Dei, et in triduo illud reaedificas: salva temetipsum: si Filius Dei es, descende de cruce. C. Similiter et principes sacerdotum illudentes cum scribis et senioribus dicebant. S. Alios salvos fecit, seipsum non potest salvum facere: si rex Israël est, descendat nunc de cruce, et credimus ei: confidit in Deo: liberet nunc, si vult eum: dixit enim: Quia Filius Dei sum.

C. And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying: S. Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. C. In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: S. He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him now deliver him if he will have him; for he said: I am the Son of God.

Here are a few photos taken after today’s Pontifical Mass.

Palms used in place of flowers on the main altar.

The dome filled with incense.

In Italy, as a general rule, olive branches are distributed to the faithful, and relatively few palms are blessed and given out. (This is why the day is called “Palm Sunday” in the Ambrosian Missal, but “Olive Sunday” in the breviary; olives are also mentioned along with the palms in the traditional form of the Palm Sunday blessing.) Here we see special palms woven and decorated for the bishop and assistant priest to carry in the procession, along with a few other items for Pontifical Mass.

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Special Tones for the Prophecies of the Easter Vigil

March 21, 2016, 3:38 am

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A reader from the Philippine Islands, Mr Jesson Allerite, has very kindly made available a book of special tones for some of the Prophecies of the Easter Vigil, according to the Missal of St Pius V. You can consult the book by following this link: https://issuu.com/siniculus/docs/prophetiarium_xicatunense__2__elect/1. It can be downloaded if you create an account on the digital publishing platform on which it is published.

Each prophecy has its own special set of melismas, many of which are quite long and elaborate. The ones included here are the last six of the original twelve readings: unfortunately, in the 1955 revision of the Holy Week services, only two of the six given here are still used, the 8th (Isaiah 4, 1-6, the first verse of which was also removed in 1955), and the 11th (Deuteronomy 31, 22-30.) However, I am sure that a great many of our readers will find them interesting for historical reasons. It might also be possible to transpose the music to other readings, and not just those of the Easter Vigil, although that would take a person with musical skill that I personally do not have at all. I have heard a special tone for the first reading of the vigil, Genesis 1,1 - 2,2, based on a tone originally created for the readings in the Novus Ordo in German, which was quite beautiful; a small melisma was added to the words describing the end of each day of Creation, “Et factum est vespere et mane, dies unus (secundus, tertius etc.)”

Should anyone decide to use these, and make a recording, we will be very glad to post it here on NLM.

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Conversion from Modernity to the Beauty of Christ

March 21, 2016, 8:04 am

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All of us have “conversion stories,” whether they take the form of dramatic life-changing upheavals, a simple progression into something we already possessed but did not understand or make use of, or a subtle transformation that altered our course by just a slight degree and yet brought us to a completely different port than we thought we were sailing for.

In my own life, there have been many ups and downs, straight paths and circuitous detours, and those times of getting lost in the dense woods and then coming out into a clearing to see the bright sky again and gather my bearings. And while it is true that the passage of time can bring with it the temptation to make a more orderly narrative out of what was, in fact, rather chaotic and inconsistent, it is also true that time gives one greater perspective, an awareness of larger patterns. When a friend shared with me his conversion story and asked me subsequently how I ended up a traditional Catholic, it got me thinking about my own progressive conversion to Christ and to the fullness of Faith, in which I still feel like a child treading and flailing as he learns to swim in the unimaginable expanse and unfathomable depths.

What I saw, as I thought about each stage in my life, is that there have been particular experiences of beauty — certainly at different levels objectively (as I can see now) but all of them powerful to me at the time — that decisively marked me and pulled me in certain directions. The beauty of great music, sacred and secular, such as when I first heard chant in high school; the beauty of great ideas encountered in books, even when I barely understood them; the beauty of some churches and some liturgies, even if I couldn’t have put my finger on what was special or right about them; the beauty of the morally upright life of people I met and came to admire. I recall reading G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy and Everlasting Man, and realizing for the first time (at some level — we will need all eternity to absorb the truth of it) that the Incarnation is the only possible pattern, explanation, and hermeneutic of the whole of reality. It is the only key that fits the lock, or better, the only mystery that could and can and does hold everything together. Without it, and without the superabundant Redemption it made possible and actual, the world really wouldn’t make any sense, nor man within it, man’s fall, or man’s eternal destiny.

One question I had to wrestle with continually was what to make of this project called modernity. It is such a huge question, wrapped all around us and invading our bones, that one does not exactly see it all at once, or recognize the battery of questions it poses; one is like a frog being slowly boiled in the pot of modernity, and feeling rather uncomfortable about it but not knowing how to get out of the pot. Needless to say, there’s an obvious sense in which anyone who is alive at any given time is “modern” or “contemporary,” but this extrinsic and incidental meaning is hardly what I have in mind, nor is it what most philosophers mean when they refer to “modernity.” Rather, we are referring to a certain intellectual project that has unfolded over the course of several centuries, since at least the Enlightenment, a project that views itself as decisively parting ways with the philosophical paths of antiquity and the medieval Catholic inheritance. We are referring to a system or set of systems, an ideology or set of ideologies; in short, what one might call modernism, an exaltation of our own specialness, differentness, newness, and autonomy.[1]

Not surprisingly, it is hard to define a movement that is inherently a movement away from something whose influence one wishes to negate and a movement towards a perpetually undefinable future about which everyone disagrees. Modernism is in one sense defined negatively rather than positively, and in another sense defined so much by wishful or progressive thinking that it can have no fixed content for all parties to agree upon. It will generate for you both capitalism and communism, both democracy and totalitarianism, both antiquarianism and futurism; it can generate anything except adherence to tradition.

The same friend mentioned above, fully sympathetic to traditionalism, asked me how I felt about “dismissing modern thinkers like Wojtyla and Ratzinger. One can, after all, find many beautiful insights in their writings, too.”

My response was that they are far too thoughtful and wise to be dismissed — particularly Ratzinger as a theologian! — and even in a worst-case scenario, we are exhorted by St. Augustine to steal all the gold we can from the Egyptians. But the longer one studies the question, the more one “smells” in the origins of modernity a fundamentally anti-incarnational, anti-sacramental, anti-Christic spirit or temper or mood, one that comes out in a thousand obvious and subtle ways. The devil has achieved new successes by mingling the true with the false on an altogether unprecedented scale,[2] in such a way as to make modernity most attractive and seemingly irrefutable precisely where it is, in fact, most contradictory, harmful, and acidic of the deepest bonds of nature, life, sexuality, and redemption. That is, even great minds have been mesmerized and lured to buy into the subtle half-truths on which modernity, as a system and worldview opposed to Christianity and Christendom, is based. We see, for example, people who ought to know better concurring in the dethronement of Christ the King from His authoritative place in every area and aspect of human life, in this way flagrantly contradicting the confidently-taught Magisterium of many great popes; we see people who ought to know better commanding or consenting to the massacre of the holy and innocent liturgy.

It is by no means absurd to call into question even great minds to the extent that they feel they must secretly or openly, fully or partially, comply with modernity’s gratuitous assertions and appetites, which always tend towards the dethronement of Christ from the cosmos, the disestablishment of human and sacred hierarchy, the defilement of the human body in its holistic relation to the soul, the denigration of the human person in the mystery of masculinity and femininity, the dismantling of ecclesiastical tradition, and the demystification or disenchantment of the sacred liturgy. By sound reason and sound faith, a Catholic should never fall in with these tendencies or their rotten fruits, but in recent centuries (certainly since the Enlightenment, as can be seen in the Synod of Pistoia) they too often do embrace principles or concepts that will inevitably produce such fruits, or rather, such mental, moral, and spiritual diseases. The most charitable assumption we can make is that they embrace those principles or concepts with good will, failing to see how their consequences play into the devil’s strategy as he prepares the world for the one destined to be the most successful politician of history, the Antichrist.

Returning to conversion: it was and continues to be the experience of beauty in all its dimensions, visible and invisible, that rescued me from the slough of despond, the existential nihilism that lurks underneath the dazzling promises of modernity. As Dostoevsky said, it is indeed beauty — the beauty of Christ, the Word Incarnate — that will save the world and each one of us who surrenders to His invasion of love.

NOTE

[1] This, I would submit, is the “modern man” for whom the liturgical reform was designed — that is why the liturgy had to be retooled and revamped in a special, different, novel, autonomous way that looked askance at tradition as something irretrievably past, dead and gone, and harmfully obstructive of progress. But that is matter for another discussion.

[2] See my essay “Error as a Parasite” for further considerations.

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Dominican Stabat Mater

March 21, 2016, 3:51 pm

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Nuns Singing in the Bologna MS

As Good Friday is approaching and many churches sing the Stabat Mater at Stations of the Cross, I thought it would be suitable to reprint the transcription of the text and music of a thirteenth-century version of the Stabat Mater, recently discovered by Prof. Cesarino Ruini in a manuscript that once belonged to a convent of Dominican Nuns in Bologna, Italy, and on which I have already posted. A miniature of the Bologna nuns, from their manuscript, decorates this post.

The discovery of this manuscript, as explained in the article available here (in Italian), shows, by the date of the manuscript that the traditional ascription of authorship to Jacopone of Todi can no longer be sustained. The date, however, leaves open the possibility, often mentioned, that it is the work of Pope Innocent III. Perhaps it was composed by the Dominincan nuns of Sant'Agnese in Bologna.

This version is interesting for a number of reasons. First, this is the earliest use of the text as a sequence. Until the discovery of this version, it was only known as a hymn until the late middle ages. This manuscript shows that the earliest known use of the text as a sequence was among Italian Dominican nuns in the 1200s. Next, the text includes not only a number of verbal variants, but also includes two verses absent from the commonly received version. Those who wish to examine these can download my transcription and compare the text to the received version here.

Even more interesting is the music. As pointed out to me by the Dominican nuns of Summit NJ, this ancient sequence borrows, with the exception of one stanza (cf. verses 19 and 20), the melodies of the Sequence of St. Dominic in the Dominican Rite. There are a number of minor musical variants as well. Those interested might want to compare the music to that found in the Dominican Gradual for the Mass of St. Dominic.

Through the kindness of a reader who converted the PDFs of this music into JPGs, here are images of the newly discovered 13th-Century Stabat Mater. I am aware that these images are a bit blurry; if you click on them or download them, you will get a clearer image.

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Holy Week at Kensington Carmelite Monastery, San Francisco Bay Area

March 21, 2016, 11:50 am

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Then Nuns at Prayer

As much of the Paschal Triduum at theCarmel of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, will be in the traditional Dominican or Roman Rites, readers of this blog who live in the San Francisco Bay Area may wish to attend. So I am posting the schedule:

March 21, 7:45 a.m. Monday of Holy Week. Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

March 22, 7:45 a.m. Tuesday of Holy Week. Low Mass according to the Dominican Rite (Passion read in English)

March 23, 7:45 a.m. Wednesday of Holy Week. Low Mass according to the Ordinary Form.

March 24, 4 p.m. Holy Thursday: Mass in Cena Domini. Dominican Rite Missa Cantata, with transfer of the Blessed Sacrament and Washing of the Altar.

March 25, 3 p.m. Good Friday: Solemn Liturgy of the Lord's Passion according to the Dominican Rite, with singing of the Passion, Veneration of the Cross, and Holy Communion.

March 26, 11 p.m. Easter Vigil: Mass in the Ordinary Form, in English with Gregorian chant Propers and Ordinary sung by the nuns. The father of one of the nuns will be baptized and confirmed at this Mass.

March 27, Easter Day. T.B.A.

The Carmel is located at 68 Rincon Road, Kensington CA 94707. There is ample parking.

The picture of the nuns on this post was taken during their visit at St. Mary's Church in Moraga CA before moving to their new monastery and the establishment of enclosure.

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Solemnity of St. Joseph Marked at Norwalk

March 21, 2016, 3:52 pm

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The Solemnity of St. Joseph was celebrated at St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, with a Missa Cantata attended by a large congregation of parishioners and devotees, celebrated by the Rev. Richard G. Cipolla, pastor, accompanied by a large group of servers. Music was provided by Organist and Choir Director David Hughes. Pictures of the Mass show the Lenten veils on all the images in the church, including the large painting of the Assumption, and the Rood Beam.

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Variations without a Theme

March 22, 2016, 6:35 am

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Interior by Watts and Co in All Saints, Margaret St, London

Patterns and limits are the stuff of life, and great people find ways to work within these limits in order to achieve great things. In classical art, the limits and form are the grammar of expression. As any philosopher will tell you, grammar and syntax are not arbitrary, but are rather based on the very nature of things. Grammar and syntax are, in effect, the limits within which we find meaning. Composers and artists are ever exploring these limits, and often the art lies precisely in the way the artist interacts with the grammar of expression. Is there ever a time to break the rules? Speaking to one of his speech-editors, Winston Churchill famously said, “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” While this dictum is often used to support all-out rule breaking, one might note that Churchill still used a correctly paired subject and predicate. Like it or not, meaning comes through grammar and convention.

So often liturgy is understood like rules of grammar. Arguably, breaking the norms of the liturgy actually depreciates (or sometimes defaces) the fullness of Catholic truth that the liturgy makes present. Because the liturgy communicates God’s truth from above and not our human wisdom, it would seem presumptuous to tamper with it. This breaks the grammar of meaning, and not for any reason that would make it more intelligible. So much is preaching to the choir.

I wish, however, to propose a new reason for sticking to the liturgy as written in the Missal. Let me explain:

In Latin, the course of a race is a “curriculum.” As Catholics, we compete in a number of races. Of course the first race’s goal is heaven. But along the way we have other races: family life and career, coupled with the “course” of our own sanctification, namely the liturgical year and the Mass. Each year, we run the sacred races anew, hopefully gaining some fresh insight and growing in holiness. In the educational realm, this sort of curriculum is called “spiraling.” Each year the same content returns, however each year we explore it in deeper ways.

Spiraling curriculum need not be pedantic. Think of a classical Theme and Variations. While perhaps neither as noble as a Sonata nor as lofty as a Fugue, it is a real art form with lots of room for creativity. See the Carnival of Venice for a good example. “Mastery” curriculum is the other approach. This is the sequential sort of instruction we ought to receive in catechesis. In our analogy, Sonatas and Fugues are “sequential” or “mastery,” and Theme and Variations are “spiraling.”

Parish music and parish liturgy benefit greatly from the spiraling approach, but only when there is a rallying point. In other words, there must be a theme which returns each time.

Let me give a practical example. If Ubi Caritas is to be sung each year for the Offertory on Holy Thursday, we might begin our first year with the chant sung simply. Certainly any hodgepodge group can flub their way through chant this simple. After this is established and confident, perhaps a few years later a group might sing a polyphonic setting. Maurice Durufle’s setting is well known and would serve our needs well. But when this seems tired or boring, or if we wanted something composed in our own lifetime, we might switch to settings by Ivo Antognini, Ola Gjeilo, or Paul Mealor. The text and meaning are the same, and yet the music can help us appreciate it in new ways. If you're up for African Chant mixed with Gregorian chant and new-age piano, you might even try Paul Halley's setting. I'm not up for it.

The point is that we must have a curriculum in order to “spiral” upwards in our understanding and appreciation of the Catholic Faith. We must return to things which are familiar and make them new. This is the essence of reform, and also the essence of tradition.

Everyone is seeking meaning when they come to Church; the question is whether this “meaning” will be transitory or eternal. Emotions are present, but not relevant for the larger question at hand. Deep emotion may be present in a Palestrina Motet, a 12th Century Chant, a Paul Mealor anthem, or a Dan Schutte song. The difference is the connection Palestrina, Mealor, and the chant retain with the tradition, with the larger curriculum of meaning. We can build with Palestrina, Mealor and Chant, in ways we cannot build with Dan Schutte. It's not necessarily that Dan Schutte's compositions lack meaning, it's that Dan Schutte's compositions are not a lasting part of the curriculum.

At times, and for some communities, it may be appropriate to return to simpler forms. When John Scott, noted organist and director of the choristers at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Fifth Avenue, died, his requiem was sung simply in Gregorian Chant. As much liturgy is often demonstrative in parishes and cathedrals, we must never forget the contemplative approach of the monastery. Meaning is often communicated best with excellence, taste, and simplicity. But nonetheless, whether with a trained choir of fifty or a schola of three, the Missal and Gradual are our starting point.

When obedience to the Missal is not the starting point, our ship falters. We crash into the rocks of personal ambition; we spin in the doldrums of private revelation; we heave up and down with the rise and fall of our own navel. Politics and personality conflicts have driven many qualified musicians away from the Catholic Church, when the objectivity of a curriculum would have made all well.

So I say, choose the compass and the map. Orient yourself with the Missal. Start with melody before polyphony. Keep your finger in the air to be sure your choir and congregation are happy, but choose the compass and the map when you move the boat which carries us all.

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Holy Week at Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, NJ

March 22, 2016, 8:13 am

≫ Next: Book Notice: “Singing His Song”

≪ Previous: Variations without a Theme

Spy Wednesday March 23

8:00 AM - Mass

6:00 PM to 6:55PM - Confessions

7:00 PM - Tenebrae of Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday - March 24

6:30 PM to 7:25 PM - Confessions

7:30 PM - Mass of the Lords Supper

and Procession to the Repository.

Vespers and Stripping of the Altar

Adoration at Repository until 11:00 PM

Good Friday - March 25

8:00 AM - Tenebrae of Good Friday

12:30 PM - Chanting of Prime, Terce, Sext and None

2:00 PM to 2:55 PM - Confessions

3:00 PM - Mass of the Presanctified

7:00PM - Stations of the Cross and

veneration of the relic of the True Cross

Holy Saturday - March 26

7:45 AM - Blessing of Easter Baskets

8:00 AM - Tenebrae of Holy Saturday

5:00 PM to 5:55 PM - Confessions

6:00 PM - The Easter Vigil

Easter Sunday - March 27

8:00 AM Low Mass

10:30 AM High Mass

(Confessions 30 minutes before each Mass)

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Book Notice: “Singing His Song”

March 22, 2016, 10:39 am

≫ Next: Creating a Courtyard for Contemplation Out of an Urban Alleyway

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Singing His Song: A Short Introduction to the Liturgical Movement

(Hong Kong: Chorabooks, 2016)
Kindle eBook
$7.99. Available at Amazon: USA; UK

From the publisher:

Catholics come to church with certain expectations not widely held by earlier generations when it comes to participation in the Church’s sacred rites. That is largely the result of the Liturgical Movement of the twentieth century, which precipitated a major overhaul of the public worship that the Church offers to God. This study presents the history of the movement before and after the Second Vatican Council. The author distills and makes available to non-specialists some of the more technical studies of the ideas and policies that influenced Roman Catholic liturgical renewal in the twentieth century. — Releases on March 31st. Now available for pre-order.

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Creating a Courtyard for Contemplation Out of an Urban Alleyway

March 23, 2016, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Announcing Two New Books on the Liturgy by David Fagerberg

≪ Previous: Book Notice: “Singing His Song”

I was walking through downtown San Francisco yesterday morning on one of the busiest streets in the city center and I noticed this little alleyway to my left.

What caught my eye is how with little of architectural interest to work with, a few well tended plants have turned the space into a tiny little peaceful oasis in a busy city. The cobble stones help, but the main impact is well tended plants. This alleyway could have been piled high with garbage bags and the like (others I saw were) but someone has made the effort to make this little corner worth looking at. And everyone who passes, not just those who live and work down here can now have the pleasure of looking at the results of their work.

The far area of this space is an additional parking space with the 'lawn' actually an area of grasscrete. If instead of a parking space this could have a bench placed on it and a holy image then this little place of peace might even become one of contemplation. If this were me I would hang, discretely placed, a small icon of the face of Christ on the back wall, protected from the weather, so that it is visible from the benches but not so obvious from the main street. That way those who are drawn into the space would then realise the inspiration behind its beauty, and who knows, remain to pray for a few moments.

Cultivation of urban, and suburban spaces for beauty can have a profound effect on an area and contribute hugely to creating a community. I have written about what I believe is a profoundly Christian and liturgical aspect of the wider culture in more detail here, and here.

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Announcing Two New Books on the Liturgy by David Fagerberg

March 23, 2016, 7:55 am

≫ Next: Holy Week Services highlighted at St. Mary's Norwalk (CT)

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Many NLM readers will be familiar with the name of David Fagerberg, who has significantly enriched contemporary discussions of liturgy. I am pleased to be able to announce the recent appearance of not one but two new books by him. I've read Consecrating the World and my positive opinion of it is indicated in the blurb below, courtesy of the publisher's (Angelico Press) website.

CONSECRATING THE WORLD
On Mundane Liturgical Theology
(Angelico Press, 2016)

156 pages
ISBN: 978-1-62138-168-6
$17.95 US Buy now from Amazon.com
£11.50 UK Buy now from Amazon UK

WHAT HAS LITURGY TO DO WITH LIFE? The sacred with the secular? This study proposes that the liturgy calls us, in the words of Aidan Kavanagh, “to do the world as the world was meant to be done.” The sacramental liturgy of the Church and the personal liturgy of our lives should be as a seamless garment. Consecrating the World continues David Fagerberg’s exploration of the Church’s lex orandi (law of prayer) by expanding two major themes. The first considers liturgy as the matrix wherein our encounter with God becomes an experience of primary theology. The second illustrates how a believer is made ready for this liturgy through asceticism in both its faces — the one negative (dealing with sin), the other positive (dealing with sanctification). This book turns these two themes outward to a liturgical theology of the cosmos — a mundane liturgical theology of the consecration of the world and the sanctification of our daily life.

“David Fagerberg invites us, with the urgency of the gospel, to see God the Trinity in every created thing, and to offer to God as a joyful sacrifice of praise the good things He has made, rather than cleaving egocentrically to these good things. When, through the Dove (the Spirit), Christ frees us to do the world in this way, we become the liturgical priest-kings we were meant to be; we learn how to live and die on the ascending path of Christ. Steeped in the spirituality of the Orthodox East and the Anglican West, enriched by the Catholic masters of Ressourcement, Fagerberg shares his vision in everyday language for all to hear. Just when it seemed that spiritual masters no longer roamed university hallways, God has raised up a true spiritual guide for our time. Open this book, awaken from spiritual slumber, read and rejoice.”

—MATTHEW LEVERING, Mundelein Seminary

“Consecrating the World takes up where David Fagerberg’s masterful On Liturgical Asceticism left off, providing a key to living the liturgy in every moment and aspect of human life. That this is indeed an everyday task takes nothing away from its divine content and sublime finality. Fagerberg is rightly regarded as one of the foremost liturgical theologians of our day. His engagement with the tradition is both fresh and fruitful. If we are to be ‘thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy,’ we must grasp what the Sacred Liturgy in fact is. For this, Fagerberg is a worthy and rightly demanding guide.”

—DOM ALCUIN REID, Monastère Saint-Benoît, La Garde-Freinet, France

“Consecrating the World is no ordinary book. It is a course in re-training the mind and the senses to perceive the world in a new way. Like the ancient Fathers, David Fagerberg sees all material things as sensible signs leading us to heavenly realities. Like Maximus and Dionysius, he shows us that the cosmos is itself a liturgy, calling us to consecrate ourselves and our work, our passions and the world to God — to sanctify the temporal order. This is a theology most visionary, joyful, and passionate.”

—SCOTT HAHN, Franciscan University of Steubenville

“In David Fagerberg’s new book, his trademark genius for integrating liturgical theology, ascetical theology, and the theology of creation is on full display, but here developed in a new, pneumatological direction that seems to lift it all up on the wings of the Holy Spirit. This book fully corroborates Fagerberg’s reputation as one of the most creative and inspiring liturgical theologians of our time. It will have a wide readership both inside the academy, in seminaries, and in the hands of anyone interested in learning what is the deep connection between the sacred moments of the liturgy and the mundane moments of life in the world as we all must live it.”

—JOHN C. CAVADINI, University of Notre Dame

“This book succeeds as an imaginative, at times provocative paean to the total integration of liturgy and life, by carrying to the utmost the logic of the Incarnation and the radical challenge of the Ascension. Can God become flesh, as it were, in all the aspects of life? And can the whole of creation really be raised up on high, as a sign, even a foretaste, of the heavenly liturgy? Fagerberg’s arguments lead us to see the urgency of rediscovering the full symbolic richness, the ‘splendid beauty,’ of traditional liturgy as the means by which we must glorify God and divinize our lives in this world. The author has a particular gift for expounding old truths in startlingly original ways — enough to capture our jaded attention and make us rethink certain doctrines ‘from the ground up.’”

—PETER KWASNIEWSKI, Wyoming Catholic College

WHY DO WE NEED THE MASS? ASCETICISM, SANCTIFICATION, AND THE GLORY OF GOD
(Hong Kong: Chorabooks)
EBook (format Kindle)
ISBN 9789881482129
$8.99 (in all Amazon stores: USA; UK)

From the publisher:

Liturgy in recent years has returned to the center of the attention, thanks to the Pontificate of Benedict XVI. This is why it is always relevant to witness the release of a new book from Professor David W. Fagerberg, a world famous expert in this topic. This is an important short book for the Catholic understanding of the Mass and of the role of the liturgy in today's world. . . .

"Liturgy refers man to God, and God to man, even if we cannot know God in his full mystery": liturgy is the limen that allows us to look at a dimension that is beyond our understanding but that at the same time was made present thanks to God's incarnation. But we should avoid thinking that "humanizing" the liturgy will do us good: "We serve the glory of God, the glory of God does not serve us". Being reminded of this is very important, because we need to put always in the right hierarchical order the relationship we have with God. Several themes are touched in this book, as teleology, asceticism, ecstasy, and so on.

When talking about asceticism this is what Professor Fagerberg has to say: "I propose that liturgical glorification of God is a daughter born of asceticism. We need to undergo the ascetical technology of self, and make our wills conform to God’s, before we can worship and glorify him properly. Each person is a block of marble within which lies an image of the image of God (Jesus), and each strike of mallet and chisel by the Holy Spirit frees that image from stone-cold vices in order to create out of women and men a liturgical son who shares the Son’s filial relationship with God the Father. At the end of asceticism is dispassion, which has a child called love, who opens the door to the cosmos as theophany, and invites us to a union with God that is true theology. Purity of heart is to will one thing – we hear this from Evagrius in the desert, from Augustine in the ancient Church, from Petrarch in the medieval Church, and more recently from Kierkegaard. If we are to do the world the way the world was meant to be done, then the Holy Spirit will have to craft our hearts until we only desire one thing, too. The pure in heart are blessed because they shall see God (Matthew 5). The purpose of liturgy is to glorify God, but our ability to do so comes at a price: it is born of asceticism."

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Holy Week Services highlighted at St. Mary's Norwalk (CT)

March 23, 2016, 8:25 am

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≪ Previous: Announcing Two New Books on the Liturgy by David Fagerberg

The Parish of St. Mary in Norwalk (CT), under the pastor, the Rev. Richard G. Cipolla, has scheduled a full complement of services in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite as well as traditional devotions that have been long a part of the parish's life for many years.

On Good Friday the traditional procession of dead Christ through the streets will be completed by the restoration of the tradition (done in many European and Latin American nations) of the washing of the body and preparation for burial. This will be done during Compline and followed by an all-night vigil at the tomb.

The combined choirs under David Hughes, organist and choir director, will sing at various services, including Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil.