The Importance of the Sung Scripture in the Liturgy

July 6, 2013, 10:22 pm

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I will be the first to admit, to the dismay of many people of a more traditional leaning, the 1962 missal was not perfect. For example, the calendar needed to be updated, such as adding new saints. Another downfall of the EF is it's natural lean towards the spoken Mass, to my dismay. I fully understand the structure of the private low Mass, and the public sung Mass, but obviously, that was a much different time.

While it is good for all of the appropriate parts to be sung whenever possible, and "hard coding" that into the rite can be helpful (as we find in the '62 missal), there are also many occasions when nothing was sung, even the dialogs and ordinary (which some congregations would be more than comfortable with), because the propers could not be sung.

This reminds me of the eastern churches: many of them know nothing of a spoken Mass.

There is no reason why the dialogs should not be sung, at the very least. In a "low Mass" culture, we need to do what we can to reclaim our language of prayer: sung prayer.

Nonetheless, I an a passionate advocate for both the propers, and the sung liturgy whenever possible. I may write about this more in the future.

But particularly for those working in or praying the Ordinary Form, this is very possible. Pastors: begin singing the dialogs. Sing the collects. Sing the preface. Sing the prayers after the Our Father (after singing the Our Father, of course). Even recto tono can be used, if need be, though the music for them is not at all difficult. Just sing the prayers, and in doing so, elevate the prayers themselves. It makes a difference.

The following article makes the important connection that it is not only important that the propers (scripture) be used in the Mass, but it is important for it to be sung.

The article below has been graciously reposted in full from Views from the Choir Loft, by Aristotle Esguerra.
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For a long while I’ve been ruminating on the nature of the Liturgy, Scripture as found in the Mass Propers, the Golden Calf narrative (thanks to Ratzinger’s Spirit of the Liturgy), Good Friday tradition, and episcopal authority. Here are some semi-organized thoughts on the matter.

Nature of the Sacred Liturgy:

The Sacred Liturgy is Christ’s eternal offering to the Father, in which we participate “through him, with him, and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit”: Christ makes the perfect sacrifice, and we configure ourselves to it through submission to his liturgical action as laid down by the Church—“without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The Latin Rite, Scripture and its Nature, and the Mass Propers:

On paper, the Latin Rite Mass may well be the most explicitly Scriptural rite in all of Christendom.Scripture is not limited to the readings and psalms of the Liturgy of the Word. The Order of Mass itself is awash in Scripture. Moreover, the proper texts of the Mass—most neglected during theProcessions of the Mass—come from the psalms, Old and New Testament canticles, and Gospel/Epistle passages. (Non-Scriptural proper texts are insignificant in number compared to the vast array of Scripture intended to be sung—and even these non-Scriptural texts are in most cases to be paired with verses from Scripture when possible.)

What does Jesus sing? Psalms were sung perfectly by Christ to the Heavenly Father during his earthly life as the perfect Jew, making the perfect sacrifice to the Father by following the Law perfectly in every way (Matthew 5:17). As Christ is the Eternal Word (John 1:1), the words he utters are a touchstone to eternity; they echo forever. Therefore, when the Propers are sung, Christ sings—I tell my choirs that singing Scripture allows for a “communion” of sorts even before they receive his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity; “they do not sing, but Christ sings through them” (cf. Galatians 2:20).

Liturgical Norms: GIRM (I use the US edition since this is where I live), via the examples given in the ritual books cited, calls for Scripture to be sung at the three processions of the Mass (GIRM 48, 74, 87):

• Option 1 prescribes the Proper (Missal or Roman Gradual) — scriptural

• Option 2 prescribes the Proper (Simple Gradual) — scriptural

• Option 3 prescribes selections from other collections of Psalms and antiphons, provided they are approved by the bishops — scriptural

Golden Calf, Good Friday, and neglect/abuse of episcopal authority in the liturgy:

The Golden Calf and GIRM Option 4: Aaron the high priest fashioned the calf from the contributions of the people, at the behest of the people (Exodus 32:1–6). God did not approve this; in fact he hated it to the point of eradicating his chosen people (Exodus 32:7–10); but the people may well have led themselves to believe that Aaron’s command was divine (neglect of priestly authority, i.e., “Aaron allowed us to do it, so it must be right”). Ratzinger observes that the people may have believed they were truly worshiping God, though of course they were not (Spirit of the Liturgy 22–23). When Moses confronts Aaron about the abuse he committed, Aaron heaps more sin upon his misdeed by being disingenous (“I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out”, cf. Exodus 32:24). The rest of Exodus 32 outlines the grave consequences of this error.

In the United States, Option 4 allows “another suitable liturgical song” approved by the bishops. Despite many suitable liturgical songs from the treasury of the Church’s liturgy (hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours, Sequences, Litanies, Responsories, etc.), many songbooks intended for use in the liturgy and “printed with ecclesiastical approval” include texts of questionable merit. The people in this instance believe they are worshipping God in spirit and truth, but is that the case? People are developing an attachment to these words, but are the words of Christ?

Good Friday and Option 4: Barabbas means “Son of the father”; tradition tells us that his first name also was Jesus (i.e., “God saves”). The mob, incited by the high priests and scribes, chose Barabbas—a savior of their own imagining—to be released instead of the true Savior, the Son of the Eternal Father. With the new Mass, Option 4 allows the Word of God (Options 1–3) to be cast aside for words of people’s own choosing. In doing so, do we not unwittingly repeat Good Friday, in that we choose the words of man over the Word of God living and effective (Hebrews 4:12)?

At least with the Responsorial Psalm there is clearly delineated demand for Scripture: “Nor is it lawful to replace the readings and Responsorial Psalm, which contain the Word of God, with other, non-biblical texts” (GIRM 57). But the Church also demands Scripture be retained for the processional chants of the Mass (Sacrosanctum Concilium 116).

Episcopal Authority: Until the bishops speak and act in one voice on the matter, calling for the restoration of the Word of God to God’s own liturgy, individual bishops, priests, and laity sympathetic to the sung Mass, propers in their Gregorian/polyphonic genres, etc., are stuck with “more Catholic than the Pope” accusations, etc. The biological solution works on everyone, and for those unsympathetic to these genres, they too can play a “waiting game”. How many people consider Benedict XVI’s pontificate a blip on the radar?

GIRM Option 3, a “third way” back to Scriptural liturgy regardless of musical style

Sidestepping the style wars: Dr. Mahrt and others have made very persuasive arguments for music stylistically proper to liturgy. Despite the many advances that have been made in certain parishes, other parishes seem to be stuck in the style wars, with no end in sight. Still other parishes retain music repertoires that are heavily or exclusively influenced by popular secular styles. In many of these cases more headway might be made when energy is focused on the textual justification for propers/singing of Psalms at the processions. Msgr. Wadsworth of ICEL has proposed the unity of the Roman liturgy is in its texts (cf. 2010 CMAA Colloquium keynote).

Option 3 as a textual upgrade from Option 4 as popularly applied: An Option 3 solution—“a chant from another collection of Psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including Psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms“—regardless of the musical style, would constitute a vast improvement over the Option 4 fare that passes for worship. Since selections from Option 3 have a greater guarantee of being Scriptural, they are more likely to allow access to singing with Christ to the Father rather than singing amongst ourselves.

Many Option 3 selections are well-known in some way: Many settings of Responsorial Psalms and their paraphrases are well-established staples of existing ensembles’ and congregations’ repertoires; therefore, using these at the Entrance, Offertory, and Communion would not constitute a wholesale discarding of repertoire, which in some cases has taken much effort to master. Other selections that can fall under Option 3, e.g., Hymn Tune Introits, are easily adapted to hymn tunes that exist in parish repertoire.

Textual upgrade, not stylistic downgrade: Since Gregorian chant is the sung prayer proper to the Roman Rite, Masses that incorporate the propers in this idiom should not be eliminated, nor should efforts to learn this repertoire be abandoned. However, in those environments where this is not feasible in any way, moving from Option 4 to Option 3 would foster throughout the Mystical Body of Christ a greater unity with him who makes his eternal song to the Father.

May be the only way forward in many places: Singing Scripture that is clearly identifiable as such would go a long way towards fostering true unity in the Church’s liturgy—a unity centered on and in Jesus Christ, who alone makes the true sacrifice to our heavenly Father. In places that frown upon the Church’s traditional ritual music, moving from non-Scriptural lyrics to Scriptural lyrics may be the only feasible transition at this time.

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Remembering Forty Years of Suffering

July 7, 2013, 2:12 pm

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Fr. Z today points out that the Collect in the OF and EF is the same, though appearing on different days:

Deus, cuius providentia in sui dispositione non fallitur
te supplices exoramus,
ut noxia cuncta submoveas,
et omnia nobis profutura concedas.

Which Fr. Z renders as:

God, whose providence, in its plan, is not circumvented,
humbly we implore You,
that you clear away every fault
and grant us all benefits.

But which the old translation (1973-2011) rendered as:

Father,
your love never fails.
Hear our call.
Keep us from danger
and provide for all our needs.

But the new translation renders as:

O God, whose providence never fails in its design,
keep from us, we humbly beseech you,
all that might harm us
and grant all that works for our good.

When I read that old translation, I had painful flashbacks. That cadence. That grade-school prose. That absurd simplification. I'm sure they meant well, but it was a disaster. It's a wonder the Roman Rite survived at all. I'm speaking as a layperson in the pew. I can't even imagine what it was like for the celebrant.

Painful years. Very painful.

How John Paul II Restored Liturgical Sanity

July 8, 2013, 4:53 am

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My article from Crisis Magazine this morning:

We tend to think of the papacy of Benedict XVI as the papacy that put the Catholic liturgy back together again, turning the “hermeneutic of rupture” into the “hermeneutic of continuity.” Rarely receiving the credit for preparing the way is John Paul II, who labored mightily and brilliantly during his pontificate—in a long and consistent series of liturgical teachings—to restore what had been lost and to prepare for a brilliant future. The July 5 announcement by Pope Francis of John Paul II’s pending canonization offers an opportunity for us to recall his extraordinary contribution to the restoration of sacred art, music, and liturgy.

The legacies of John Paul II and his successor Benedict XVI are obvious from every liturgy we observe today at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and also many places around the world. Beauty is back. Chant is back. Even the traditional Latin Mass, the form used to open the Second Vatican Council but was later suppressed, is said in St. Peter’s daily, and is taught at seminaries around the world. 

It turns out that the Age of Aquarius did not overthrow all things. Indeed, long-time observers of Vatican liturgy tell me it is more beautiful and more historically rooted today than it was in the decades prior to the Council. The message has been decisive and clear: The Catholic liturgy is ever old and ever new. The forms of the past remain valuable to us today, just as the developments of the future must necessarily be rooted in a deep love and respect for liturgical tradition. 

These are lessons we know today but were evidently lost on that generation that took charge after the Council closed. They bequeathed to us a few harrowing decades. From one generation to the next, the liturgical forms became unrecognizable. Tearing up the pea patch was the prevailing sport. Everything new was admitted and encouraged while everything old was frowned upon or banned. It was a classic revolutionary situation, one with massive casualties and one never intended by the fathers of the Council. 

The Council taught that Gregorian Chant should have first place at Mass but by the late 1960s, it had no place at all. Pope Paul VI was distraught and spoke with sadness: “we are in the process of becoming, as it were, profane intruders within the sanctuary of sacred letters… We do indeed have reason for regret, and to feel as it were, that we have lost our way.” And yet he pressed on, seeming to reflect in his own words this spirit of disorientation, rupture, and even revolution. 

Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II eight years after the reformed Mass came into the world. The dust was far from settled. On the contrary, the earthquake that began immediately following the Council’s close was still rocking the Catholic world. The folk Mass—supposedly more “authentic” than music for the liturgy used for 1,000 years—had become the new normal. Old books, vestments, and statues filled the landfills. The old rubrics were wiped away. The priestly orders and convents were melting down. “Wreckovations” gutted great Churches and cathedrals. The only consensus was the absence of consensus. 

In the course of John Paul II’s 28-year papacy, he undertook many initiatives to restore beauty to the liturgy, make it clear that not all art forms are admissible at liturgy, heighten respect for the past, and to take the first steps toward the restoration of older liturgical forms.

READ ARTICLE PLUS DOCUMENTATION

The Mystery of the Missing Offertory

July 8, 2013, 6:54 am

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Every Mass-going Catholic knows what happens at the Offertory during Mass. It is a segment of the liturgy that follows that final petition in the prayer of the faithful. Everyone sits down and gets comfortable for a bit.

The liturgy of the word has ended and the liturgy of the Eucharist is set to begin soon. But first the people are given an opportunity to put money in the basket as the ushers walk row by row. That money is put into a bigger basket and it is brought up the center aisle to the altar along with the bread and wine.

Then the Eucharistic Prayer begins. After another few minutes, the people stand again. The Offertory has come and gone. Is there any more to it than that? Is it really a kind of intermission that divides one section of Mass from another?

Let’s look at the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, paragraph #74:

The procession bringing the gifts is accompanied by the Offertory Chant, which continues at least until the gifts have been placed on the altar. The norms on the manner of singing are the same as for the Entrance Chant.

Most priests and choirs read that sentence and think: “the what? Never heard of it.”

Maybe “offertory chant” refers to some song or hymn or motet sung by the choir, just some random musical interlude we stick in there to pass the time. Not so. It is a prescribe part of the liturgy, even if it is almost universally dropped.

And as usual with the General Instruction, when people encounter some sentence or two that they don’t understand, they choose not to investigate further but rather to forget about it completely.

As a result, the offertory chant is rarely if ever sung in the ordinary form of Mass. And actually, this is rather shocking. It means that a major part of the liturgical text of the Mass is just being eliminated at our discretion, cut out or entirely replaced without a thought. And no one knows the difference. Surely, this is cheating the people, and cheating God too. Rather than pray the Mass we are instead deciding to do something else.

It doesn’t help that the mainstream pew resources say nothing of the offertory chant. They might list the entrance antiphon. They might list the communion antiphon. On weekdays, someone will usually read these. On Sunday, they are jettisoned for a hymn. But the offertory antiphon (which is actually technically called a responsory), is in even worse shape. It not not only excluded completely; it is not even missed.

I’ve done some private investigation of this problem myself, asking priests why they don’t insist that their choirs sing the offertory chant. Guess what? I couldn’t find a single priest who even knew that such a thing exists. Among the people I asked are very sophisticated and conscientious celebrants who are interested in “saying the black and doing the red.” These are not slackers here. The offertory chant just isn’t on the radar for them.

Now, this is interesting. Maybe it is some new part of the Mass introduced with the new English Missal? Not so. The liturgical documents of the 4th century indicate that the offertory is a very ancient part of the Mass. St. Augustine mentions such a chant too.

The action of the bringing forward of the gifts is a part of the offertory liturgy that was eliminated in the middle ages and underwent a restoration after the Second Vatican Council. But the records also indicate that the singing of a Psalm during this period is just as ancient. That part of the liturgical action as well. It was part of the medieval rite that was not eliminated. The offertory chant was prescribed to be sung by the schola in all pre-conciliar books, and it was a common feature of the Gregorian repertoire before late 1960s. .

With the post-conciliar reform, the bringing of the gifts was restored but the Psalm-based chant that had long been part of the offertory dropped out in practice, despite the mention of the chant in the rubrical instructions. There can be no real question that the conciliar reformers intended it as part of Mass. The song books that came out after the liturgical reform from 1969 through 1974 all included the offertory chant that is now absent without leave in most every presentation of the Mass in the ordinary form.

Here a clue as to why this happened. The offertory chant used to be part of the Missal on the altar, a text that was either sung by the choir or spoken by the priest in “low Masses” before the Council. When the Missal of 1970 made its first appearance, this chant was not included because the reformers imagined that every Mass would be a fully sung Mass, meaning that the offertory chant belonged to the schola, not to the celebrant. The Missal only contained the texts the the priest needed and no more. The rest of the texts were included in the liturgical books for the choir (just as the readings are part of a separate book called the Lectionary).

This explains why priests are largely oblivious to the existence of the offertory chant. Meanwhile, today’s choirs hardly even know that there are liturgical books for the choir at all. This too is an amazing oversight. When the new Missal was released, Pope Paul VI stated very plainly in the introduction that the Roman Gradual remains the music book for the Roman Rite. This is the book that contains all the assigned chants for the whole liturgical year. It has the entrance chant, the offertory chant, the communion chant, and all the Psalms and Alleluias too.

But the Roman Gradual gained no traction in these heady years when publishers and musicians were more interested in retrofitting pop songs with religious texts to make the Mass more accessible. Gregorian chant was out. Pop music was in. All the sung propers of the Mass were casualties, but the offertory chant even more than all the other chants. As a result, the offertory chant sits on the shelf gathering dust.

Now, you might say that this is hardly a surprise since that is generally true of all Gregorian chant. No one wants to hear the Latin, right? But this objection doesn’t quite hold up since there are plenty of English versions available today. And the music is available too.

So how does this work in practice? Instead of a coke-and-popcorn intermission, the Offertory period of the liturgy becomes an integral part of the liturgical action, and the presentation of the appointed text makes this very clear.

Consider the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time as an example. The Gospel is from St. Luke, Chapter 11. Jesus presents the “Our Father” prayer, and urges his disciples to pray it. He ends with the famous words: “ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

The offertory text on this sae day is from Psalm 30: “I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn
me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, I cried unto you and you healed me.”

With this text we recall the words of the Gospel, or, rather, we experience how the Psalms foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah. The “Our Father” is precisely this act of extolling and the plea to be delivered from one’s foes. And the promise that we can ask and receive is seen in the Psalmist’s experience of crying out to the Lord and being healed.

The offertory, in this case, serves to reinforce and broaden the Gospel text and prepare us for the sacrifice on the altar the follows.

And so it is throughout the entire liturgical year. Every single Sunday has an appointed text. It should be sung every week, and even throughout the week.

From a practical point of view, the offertory chant has great advantages for choirs too. Instead of fishing around for another hymn that may or may not fit in with the liturgical structure, and badgering people to sing along with yet another participatory moment, the offertory chant permits people to sit quietly in reflection and contemplate.

A marvelous example of how this works comes from the Sacred Music Colloquium I attended only two weeks ago. The first Mass was all English. Keep in mind that the singers here are all people who came to the conference. It is not a professional group. They rehearsed together for the first time only a few hours earlier. Here you will heard the the antiphon: “I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding. I have set the Lord always in my sight; since he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” Then follows more Psalms.

Here is a recording.



Singing this restores not only a practice that dates to the earliest centuries but one that continued without interruption until the 1970s, when it fell out of use almost inadvertently. It can be restored exactly as the General Instruction suggests in every parish, with very little work at all. The book from which this setting is taken is the Simple English Propers, so the congregation doesn’t have to suddenly adapt itself to Latin to experience the liturgy.

Here is a great example of something that has been on my mind for some years. The beautification of the Mass doesn’t require legislation. It doesn’t require that Bishops crack down. It doesn’t even require that music publishers get with it and start telling us what to do. It is within the power of every priest simply to ask the choir to sing the liturgy itself rather than sings songs at Mass. The text is there for us and the music too. It is simply a matter of making an effort to present the liturgy as it has been given to us.

A First Mass in North Carolina

July 8, 2013, 11:12 am

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Fr. Jason Christian, who was ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 22, has shared with us some photographs of his first Mass, celebrated the following day at the Church of St. Ann in Charlotte, North Carolina. All of the major ministers for the Mass in the Extraordinary Form were other priests of the Diocese of Charlotte; the Ordinary of the Mass was Victoria's Missa Salve Regina. The vestments were designed and hand-embroidered by a company called Altarworthy - our readers might want to check out some other samples of their work on their website, which is pretty impressive. Our congratulations Fr. Christian and to the Diocese of Charlotte - ad multos annos!

How To Keep the Psalm Numbers Clear

July 9, 2013, 2:16 pm

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For years I've struggled with Psalm numbering, and never really had a tool to allow me to figure out what's what. I'm glad to know that I'm not alone. Jeffrey Ostrowski put together this handy chart that really helps.

Photos from the FOTA VI Conference in Cork, Ireland

July 9, 2013, 2:23 pm

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In anticipation of a full report on the recent FOTA VI liturgical conference, Mr. William Thomas has sent us some photographs of the conference and the celebrations that accompanied it.

One of the many speakers at the conference, Fr. Paul Gunter, OSB, a professor at the Pontifical University of Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke presides at Vespers.

Vesting prayers before Pontifical Mass.

At the chanting of the Gospel.

On the third day of the conference, His Eminence was present for the first Solemn Mass of a newly ordained priest of the Institute of Christ the King, Fr. Goffrey Bonfils.

At the reading of the Last Gospel

First blessings of the new priest

There is also this video of the Kyrie of the Missa Papae Marcelli, sung during the Pontifical Mass on Sunday by the Lassus Scholars of Dublin.

Christianity is Apparently "Intellectual Property"

July 9, 2013, 3:31 pm

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As I predicted, Fr. Z received a blustery note from the Vatican concerning his recording of the Pope's encyclical. It's dangerous to use technology to spread the Gospel.

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UK Sacred Music and Liturgy Workshop series

July 9, 2013, 4:38 pm

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Juventutem Chicago

July 9, 2013, 5:27 pm

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From a reader:

Earlier this year, Quo Vadis - the young adult group at St. John Cantius - applied for and received affiliation with the Fœderatio Internationalis Juventutem. The FIJ chartered Quo Vadis as Juventutem Chicago.

This month, on Wednesday the 24th, at 7:30 p.m., Bishop Joseph Perry will celebrate a Pontifical Mass at St. John Cantius in celebration of the affiliation with the FIJ. Afterward there will be a reception for young adults in the parish basement. Please RSVP via this Facebook event by clicking here.

 

As Rorate previously covered very well, Bishop Perry last celebrated a Mass for Juventutem Michigan and other young adults in Washington, D.C., in January 2013. Many pictures over at Juventutem Michigan.

 

Another Newly-Ordained Priest Celebrating the EF

July 9, 2013, 8:43 pm

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It always warms my heart to see more and more priests, especially younger priests, celebrating the EF. It's important for priests to know both forms of the Roman Rite, so it is particularly encouraging to see the rising generation of priests more and more familiar with both forms of their rite. A reader provides more information about this Mass:

On the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, The Reverend Raymond Flores was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Brooklyn. The following Friday, Father Flores celebrated his First Traditional Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Brooklyn Carmelite Monastery. The Low Mass was the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on First Fridays. It was attended by the local faithful as well as the cloistered Carmelite sisters, who sang during the entrance, offertory, communion and recessional. Following the Mass Father Flores offered his first priestly blessings.

Photos by Arrys Ortanez

What's New Around Here?

July 10, 2013, 6:12 am

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It's been almost 30 days since the editorial transition on NLM, from the masterful and stable hands of Shawn Tribe to hands of legacy writers here along with some new faces.

Of course I had prepared for the inevitable complaints that NLM has collapsed, that its glory days are gone, that the new team is dragging it down, that the magnificent features of x, y, and z have been replaced by the regrettable tendencies of x, y, and z. And, it's true, there have been some complaints along those lines. Such is to be expected. At the same time, we've received many notes of congratulations from people, and many expressions of relief from long-time readers that we are retaining prior forms insofar as this is possible.

And yet, it is also true that some things will never be the same. That is a given with any transition. My own focus is of course the music of the liturgy. It's not just a focus; it is an obsession, and now readers are being asked to share in that (sorry!). My "beat" tends to be the "reform of the reform," which I do not find incompatible with a deep appreciation for the old form of the Roman Rite. We live in a multi-form world and this blog hopes to keep a broad focus.

We've added some voices to the mix that help fill out the picture. I will discuss them below.

Let me say a public word of thanks to Richard Chonak, the code slinger who made the transition possible. In a beautiful way, he has fixed up so many pieces of this site. You probably don't notice them. But if you look at the left sidebar, you will see that every resource is now linked to a website. The vendors on the right sidebar have been assisted with graphics and all links are correct. Richard also fixed some 400 links in legacy postings that were dead or misdirected. How he managed this I will never understand. Other aspects of site functionality have been dramatically improved.

We changed some functionality of the comment boxes. The window for commenting has been dramatically opened, from its previous 3 days to 90 days or longer. We fully expect that this change will lead to more roiling activity in the comment boxes. That's good. Our hope is that this will generate more light than heat, but we can't be sure.

We've added an option for email subscriptions, free of charge. You can see the sign-up box on the right-hand column. Put in your address and you will get one notification each day. That's a very helpful feature, and many readers seem to agree based on the vast sign ups.

As for new voices, we've added Jennifer Donelson of Sacred Music and Juventutem. She is a young scholar with vast knowledge, and a serious frame of mind.

You have already noticed the hand of Charles Cole at work here. He is the organist, choirmaster, and liturgist who is so active in the UK liturgical world. I've admired the passion with which he has taken on this task. His love of getting the word out is very apparent.

You have also met our intern here, Ben Yanke, a young and ridiculously enthusiastic musician and liturgy scholar who has done yeoman's work to accomplishing essential tasks.

Also, today we add Peter Kwasniewski of Wyoming Catholic College. I've long admired his careful approach to scholarship and vast range of knowledge on philosophy and theology.

It is an honor to have these people here on NLM.

You will notice that the posting volume has dramatically increased. Maybe you find that overwhelming. Even so, I've generally operated under the assumption that you can't have too much information on such an important topic as this. I'm pleased to report that traffic on the site has been responsive to this increased volume of posting.

Finally, my special thanks to Gregory DiPippo, whom I met for the first time last week in Rome! He has been super involved in NLM for many years, and he has provided all of us guidance and helpful judgement on essential matters.

As always, we welcome your counsel and advice. And we thank you especially for reading and paying attention to what's going on around here. The world of Catholic liturgy continues to be such an exciting place, with so many points of view and such high stakes as well. The goal of NLM is to make a substantial contribution to this world of ideas and praxis.

A Mug We All Want

July 10, 2013, 6:35 am

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Fr. Anthony Ruff is the proud owner of this masterpiece. It's apparently made by hand -- a radically scarce good.

St Philip's School and Downton Abbey

July 10, 2013, 9:05 am

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Mr Tibbits's Catholic School is the name of a wonderful book which tells the story of St Philip's, a school which may be familiar to NLM readers from previous posts here and here. St Philip's was founded at the request of the Fathers of the London Oratory by the intrepid and eccentric Mr Tibbits in 1930s South Kensington. This small and traditional Roman Catholic School for boys aged 7-13 provides a wealth of stories which are humorous, moving and poignant, beautifully told by Ysenda Maxtone Graham.

Cartoon of St Philip's Schola © Kath Walker 2011

The book's preface was written by A.N. Wilson and appeared as an article in The Spectator here. Julian Fellowes, former pupil of St Philip's and author of Downton Abbey wrote in the Afterword: 'We loved one teacher in particular who received, via a telegram delivered to him in class, the news of his father's death and consequent inheritance. With a cry of 'Yippee!' he flung the cable into the air, jumped up, left the room and was never seen again.'

This afternoon Fellowes returned to St Philip's, where I am Director of Music, to give out the prizes. I was lucky enough to meet him afterwards at the reception in the school garden. As I poured him more champagne I pressed him for any information about the next series of Downton for which filming is nearly complete, however he was infuriatingly discreet.

Here is a recent photograph of the St Philip's Schola which was taken just before the Patronal Mass this year:

It is always sad to say goodbye to the leavers at the end of the academic year. It has been an absolute privilege to teach them, and I wish them every success in their next schools. (Photos: Lily Canterbury)

The Kindle Edition of Mr Tibbits's Catholic School is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. The paperback edition can be ordered direct from Slightly Foxed.

From the FOTA VI Liturgical Conference: Cardinal Burke's Homily for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

July 11, 2013, 8:38 am

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Mr. William A. Thomas has been so kind as to provide for the NLM the complete text of the homily preached by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, during the Mass which he celebrated this past Sunday, the Seventh after Pentecost in the Extraordinary Form. The readings of the Sunday to which His Eminence refers are from the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 6, 19-23, and the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 7, 15-21.

Saint Paul provides for us today a fundamental lesson on justice which is the minimum and yet indispensable condition for the fulfillment of the vocation to divine love to which each of us is called, according to our state in life and vocation. Justice finds its first and highest expression in the worship of God. By means of divine worship, we recognize that we have come from the hand of God and that He has written His law upon our hearts, guiding us to happiness during the days of our earthly pilgrimage and to the fullness of happiness when we reach the destiny of our pilgrimage: our lasting home with Him – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – in Heaven, in the company of the angels and all the saints.

Our worship of God is the fullest expression of the Fear of the Lord which, as the Gradual reminded us, God teaches us. (Ps. 33, 12) Fear of the Lord draws us near to God, with humility and confidence, so that we may be enlightened, and our faces may not be put to shame. It is, in fact, in the act of giving worship to God “in spirit and in truth” that we receive the grace of a pure and selfless heart disposed to act justly, to obey God in all things, honoring the truth which He has inscribed in our human nature and in all of nature by His creative hand. It is through worship of God that God gives us a share in His justice by which we live ever more faithfully the truth in love. Let us recall the words of Our Lord in today’s Gospel:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

Let us pray that, uniting our hearts to the Heart of Jesus, we will bring forth the good fruits of a just and holy life.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in his classic work on Sacred Worship, The Spirit of the Liturgy, has reminded us of the inseparable relationship between true worship of God, and a good and upright life. He wrote:

Worship, that is, the right kind of cult, of relationship with God, is essential for the right kind of human existence in the world. It is so precisely because it reaches beyond everyday life. Worship gives us a share in heaven’s mode of existence, in the world of God, and allows light to fall from that divine world into ours…. It lays hold in advance of a more perfect life and, in so doing, gives our present life its proper measure. 

According to divine wisdom, we only understand the truth, the goodness, and beauty of our own being and of the being of the world sub specie aeternitatis, under the aspect of eternity, under the aspect of our origin in God and our destiny in Him.
Let us then reflect a bit more attentively upon the teaching of Saint Paul. Addressing our early ancestors in the faith, Saint Paul reminded them of how they, because of the effects of original sin, had thought to free themselves, through sin, from the demands of justice, the demands of a right relationship with God, within themselves, with others and with the world. He asked them to reflect upon the fruits of this so-called freedom from justice, the fruits of a life of sin, which he sums up with one word: death. He declared:

But what fruit had you then from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of these things is death.

He invited them to recognize the self-deception of a life of sin, to acknowledge that the failure to respect the right order which God has placed in our human nature and in nature itself can only result in violence and death.

He then urged them to discipline their lives “as slaves of justice unto sanctification.” He invited them to recognize the profound and lasting happiness which the practice of justice, leading to an ever holier life, had brought to them. He declared:

But now set free from sin and become slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and as your end, life everlasting. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The recognition of the source of happiness in holiness of life means, at the same time, the resolve to engage in the struggle, with the help of God’s grace, against the effects of original sin in our daily living. Writing about the desire to know the truth, Dom Prosper Guéranger reminds us that following the way of truth demands the unfailing practice of justice. He teaches us with these words:

Do thou love and desire, at the very outset, and above all things, this object which is so worthy of thy possession; but, let the ardour which burns within thee show itself, first of all, by its leading thee cheerfully to endure the fatigues of the road which leads to the prize, towards which thy love is all directed. Yea, and when thou has reached it, remember, thou wilt never enjoy beautiful truth in this life, without having, at the same time, still to cultivate labourious justice. (Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book II)

It is precisely the truth of Saint Paul’s words, so masterfully taught by Dom Guéranger, that we experience directly in Sacred Worship, above all, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. When we worship God “in spirit and in truth,” we enter into the Sacrifice of Christ, embracing the suffering by which, in the words of Saint Paul, we “fill up in [our] flesh [the sufferings of Christ] for his body, which is the Church”, (Col. 1, 24) while, at the same time, we receive from Christ, from His glorious pierced Heart, the grace to live the truth in love of Him and of our neighbor, especially of the neighbor most in need, no matter how great the struggle.

We contact directly the truth about justice and holiness of life, above all, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. By means of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Christ, God the Son incarnate, makes present anew the Sacrifice of Calvary, the most perfect act of His obedience to the will of the Father and, therefore, the perfect expression of Divine Love. From His glorious pierced Heart, Christ pours out, without measure and without cease, the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit by which we are taught justice and strengthened to practice it for the sake of love of God and of our neighbor.

Our reflection upon the struggle to practice justice which is the minimum and indispensable condition for love helps us, in particular, to see how to live faithful Christian lives in a society marked by the culture of death. As we approach the altar of Christ’s Sacrifice, we are deeply conscious of the critical situation in which the practice of justice finds itself in many supposedly advanced nations. More and more, we witness the violation of the most fundamental norms of divine natural law, written upon every human heart by God, in the policies and laws of nations, and in the judgments given by their courts.

Justice founded on obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, first of all, safeguards and defends the inviolability of innocent human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, and the integrity of the faithful and indissoluble union of man and woman in marriage through which spouses, in cooperation with God, create and nurture new human life. Yet, the governments of so-called free nations dare more and more to compel individuals and institutions entrusted with the stewardship of life and the family to violate the most sacred tenets of the conscience by cooperating in egregious violations of the natural moral law.

The reality of the situation is cloaked in a false garment of justice. The direct taking of human life at its very earliest stages of development and the direct abortion of infants in their mother’s wombs is, for example, justified as the research necessary to find cures for dread diseases or as necessary for so-called “reproductive health.” The violation of the integrity of the marital union is justified as the practice of tolerance without respect for the prior demands of truth and charity. The present situation in many nations of the so-called “First World” is rightly the source of our deepest concern. The lives of millions of our unborn brothers and sisters have been and continue to be legally destroyed through embryonic stem-cell research and procured abortion; the lives of those who have the first title to our respect and care – the seriously ill, those with special needs and those advanced in years – are increasingly viewed as a burden to be eliminated from society; our laws presume to redefine marriage and the family, the first cell of every society, in defiance of the law of nature; and the freedom of conscience is denied to individuals, even taxpayers in general, and to institutions by means of policies and laws which demand cooperation in acts which are always and everywhere evil.

We see before our eyes the evil fruits of a society which pretends to take the place of God in making its laws and in giving its judgments, of a society in which those in power decide what is right and just, according to their desires and convenience, even at the cost of perpetrating mortal harm upon their innocent and defenseless neighbors. It is the kind of society which we have rightly deplored and against which we have so often fought at the greatest human and material cost. It is a society which has abandoned its Judeo-Christian foundations, and above all, the fundamental obedience to God’s law which safeguards the good of all. It is a society which embraces a totalitarianism masking itself as the “hope,” the “future,” of a nation. Our faith, as Saint Paul has powerfully reminded us today, teaches us that such a society can only produce violence and death, and in the end destroy itself.

The situation, profoundly disturbing as it is, cannot be for us a cause of discouragement, let alone abandonment of the pursuit of the justice which comes from God and, therefore, serves the good of all without condition or boundary. Uniting ourselves to Christ in His Eucharistic Sacrifice, we accept not only our portion of His suffering for the sake of justice but are also filled with confidence in His victory over sin and the forces of evil. Praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the leaders of our society from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, from His Eucharistic Heart, we must be completely honest about what justice demands of them in our time, even engaging in public demonstrations, in order that the voice of truth be heard in our society. We ask the Holy Spirit to instruct the hearts of our leaders, so that they realize that the only way to serve justly is obedience to the law of God written upon their hearts, lest they claim, like the false prophets, to be friends of God, while, at the same time, they violate grievously the most fundamental tenets of His law: respect for the inviolable dignity of innocent human life, for the integrity of marriage and the family, and for the free exercise of a rightly-formed conscience.

Christ now makes present for us the immeasurable and unceasing outpouring of His love on the Cross. From His glorious pierced Heart, He pours out upon us all the healing and strength of the Holy Spirit. Let us lift up our hearts to His Eucharistic Heart, let us be one with Him in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, so that we may have live justly, loving God and our neighbor. Let us lift up to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus those charged with the leadership of nations, imploring for them the gift of obedience to God and His law, the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit to inspire and strengthen them in doing what is just and right on behalf of every brother and sister, without condition and without boundary. Let us pray that we may all live with ever greater integrity the divine truth and love which we now encounter in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

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Benedictus - a new Catholic Liberal Arts College in London

July 11, 2013, 10:28 am

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Benedictus is a new Catholic Liberal Arts College in London. Inspired by the example of successful Liberal Arts Colleges elsewhere, Benedictus has been founded to provide the first such education in Britain.

The study of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astronomy, leading to the higher disciplines of Philosophy and Theology, casting light on the order of the Universe and on Truth itself. (Dr Clare Hornsby, Founder, Benedictus)

Benedictus College of the Liberal Arts will be offering a fully accredited course leading to a BA degree. The first year of the course is a Foundation Programme in European Culture and Thought, which includes a ten-week term in Italy, studying in Rome and Florence. This programme is the perfect choice for gap year students, post-university gap years or sabbaticals and promises the opportunity to discover and explore the Liberal Arts and study some of the greatest works of literature, philosophy and art.

You can learn more in the video below, or visit the Benedictuswebsite.

Geometric Patterned Art Old and New - Romanesque and Islamic

July 12, 2013, 8:32 am

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I have just returned from Rome and had a chance while there to see Sancta Maria Trastevere with its beautiful cosmati pavements. I was imagining this family of Roman craftsmen in the 13th century gathering together pieces of discarded marble around the city and cutting them to shape and creating these traditional forms of the quincunx (which is four circles spinning out of one central one) and the guilloche, which is the chain of circles. Below I show photos of the floor in the church. After that I show the latest work from my students at Thomas More College. They took traditional tiled patterns from Romanesque floors and incorporated them into a design for church floor.

If you look at the work of the students below: the oblong shapes are intended as a design for the nave; and the square for the main feature in a sanctuary. I asked them to take care in the coloration. Most colored pencils that are obtainable from the store are bright, artificial colors, but this is what we had to work with. So we used a light touch of even shading and overlaid the red, for example, with grey and brown so that it had an earthy, more natural feel to it and so it would evoke the material which one would expect such a floor to be made of, colored marble. Also, I encouraged them not to color everything evenly but to indicate only in some small area within any boundary what the infill design would be through full coloration and detail and then allow the rest to fade out. For a diagram this would be sufficient to indicate what the full floor would look like. The design principle is have large shapes with patterned infill. Typically the large shapes would be orthogonal or a quincunx (four circles spinning out of a central one) or the chain of interlocking circles called a guilloche.

Finally here is some work by students again drawing on Islamic patterns. As I have mentioned before, Islamic craftsmen were often used by Christian builders in creating geometric patterns in churches and so where it useful to us, we should not worry about drawing on these designs. The significance of the number eight for Christians is importance (the Christ is the Eighth Day). There is nothing intrinsically Islamic about an abstract desin that has eightfold symmetry. 

"We are on the brink of a profound renewal of divine worship" - Archbishop Alexander Sample

July 12, 2013, 8:44 am

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We are pleased to present to you an absolutely brilliant lecture by His Excellency Archbishop Alexander King Sample of Portland, Oregon, delivered at the CMAA colloquium, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 19, 2013

You can download it here.

Or you can view it below.

Celebrating the Spirit of the Liturgy

St. Benedict Mass at Monastère Saint-Benoît

July 13, 2013, 7:46 am

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For the feast of St. Benedict, the Monastère Saint-Benoît, in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France, solemn Mass was celebrated by Msgr Michael Hayes, the Curé of Saint-Tropez in the presence of the Curé of La Garde-Freinet, Père Julian Ilwicki and of Canon Peter Watts, Curé of Grimaud, with the assistance of ministers and singers from the Lithuanian Ad Fontes summer school.

Missa Cantata, Mobile, Alabama

July 14, 2013, 9:26 am

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It only happens once each year so it is worth paying close attention. An extraordinary form Missa Cantata will be sung at the Mobile Cathedral, Saturday, August 3, 2013, 7:00 p.m. It will be a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary (fulfills the Sunday obligation) and the celebrant is The Rev. Msgr. Stephen Martin, Vicar General and Cathedral Rector.

The choir is Musica Sacra of Mobile, and they will sing all chanted propers plus the beautiful Missa Brevis by Palestrina. For further information anyone may e-mail Sally McKenna: ssmckenna@msn.com.

Here is an interesting look at before and after a recent restoration by Conrad Schmitt:

Here is a presentation of other restorations by Schmitt: