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November 22, 2006
All I want...
In "Boo" below, Peter Nixon writes:
The other day Amy talked about people who say things like “I’m not a liturgical hardliner, but…” I certainly would put myself in this category. I’m not pining for a return to the Latin or worship ad orientem. I don’t think liturgical music has all been going to hell since Palestrina. I don’t write long, single-spaced letters to my bishop citing violation after violation of the GIRM.
All I want is for the Eucharist to be celebrated with words, music and gesture that reflects the fact that we are engaged in the worship of God. Why is that so very difficult?
My opinion, very briefly.
1) Because the dominant way about thinking about liturgy among liturgy professionals is that what you want is too vertical. I really don't want to get into stereotypes here, so I will try not to. But for 2 or 3 decades now, the prevailing paradigm of Catholic liturgy has been a)to awaken the attendee to the presence of God within and within his or her brothers and sisters in the community and to do so by b) affirming the goodness and unique giftedness of the gathered community.
2) Because in practice, what is in the books functions, practically as a template and guide and priests are not called on it. I am not convinced that liturgical education has been so great in seminaries of late, and the thrust in professional liturgical ministry programs has been very much on the here and now, on creativity, and so on.
3) What that does, by its very nature, is draw attention to ourselves. Our efforts become supreme, our relatedness, our sensibilities, our interpretations become the guide.
Why?
Because, again, they can. Because the pastoral reality is that it has been allowed.
The perception and practice is that Catholic liturgy is very flexible and stretchy. And when that perception is there, we flex and stretch. In addition, those who have been at it for a while get bored. They think that their boredom, as professionals, must be mirrored in the congregation's. And perhaps it is, but for different reasons than they know.
There is lots more to say, and I'm sure you all will say it. American culture plays a big role in this discussion, the impact of evangelical worship styles and music (a dynamic that is being played out within Protestantism as well, as people just run...out..of..ideas...and get exhausted trying.)
The shortest answer of all: They think you won't like it. They think you'll be bored and go away to a more entertaining place. They think you come to Mass to be affirmed in your uniqueness, and if you and your cute kids aren't given due credit, you'll walk.
Finally, I think ad orientem shouldn't be dismissed too quickly. As i've boringly repeated, I experienced a mild version of it this past summer and was absolutely startled by the difference that one subtle shift in the priest's position during prayer made. It wasn't during the Eucharistic Prayer, but during the prayers from the Chair. He turned, at about a 45 degree angle, to face the same direction as we were. It...made a difference. It shifted the focus of our response. It was fascinating.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Finally, I think ad orientem shouldn't be dismissed too quickly
Beat me to the punch Amy. I was going to say that I too am no liturgical hardliner but that this simple change would make a huge difference in worship and would and would do much to achieve the type of worship we wish we could experience.
Posted by: Mark Adams at Nov 22, 2006 4:20:41 PM
In addition, those who have been at it for a while get bored. They think that their boredom, as professionals, must be mirrored in the congregation's.
I think that sums up our liturgical problems quite nicely.
It also reminds of a Peter and the Wolf performance I took my daughters to recently. They interpreted the story through dance and it was pretty entertaining.
However, they made a point of not narrarating the story. That was fine for my kids, who had heard Captain Picard tell it on cd enough times, but what about the kids who didn't know the story and their parents dropped cash to bring them there?
It seemed to me that the conductor was bored with doing the same old Peter and the Wolf and wanted to mix things up. Considering the musicians had probably performed it the same way a million times - and heard it even more - I can understand.
But they shouldn't have assumed the paying audience wanted something new and different!
Priests and liturgists need to think that way before adding gaudy and obnoxious innovations to what something that is already supremely beautiful.
Posted by: caine thomas at Nov 22, 2006 4:38:20 PM
I am a new parishioner at a Melkite Catholic Church. I'm not there to escape anything in the Latin Church, but the Liturgy is amazing. Just yesterday we had the Divine Liturgy for the feast day, and there were only about 10 or 15 of us there, but it was ALL men. I don't think I've ever been to a daily Mass in the Latin Church that had so many men together, and they weren't there with their family. The funny thing is, not only was it all men, but everyone sat up front and the Priest encouraged us all to participate vocally, and they all did, as far as they were able. There was incense and chanting (Arabic), but most of it was in English, the Priest facing the altar. It was just an amazing experience.
Posted by: Jason at Nov 22, 2006 4:48:24 PM
Also, ad orientem is (or was) a very distinctive aspect of Catholic worship. It helped separate mass from the ordinary such as meetings, classes, and presentations (not to mention protestant worship).
Posted by: trm at Nov 22, 2006 4:54:30 PM
I think we might be dismissing too easily that the liturgists in the Church have a different theology of the Mass, than the Church does. A friend was telling me a story of a woman that wrote her dissertation on the Cluniac revival and the idea of the liturgy being the kingdom of God on earth. Her priest advisor told her that the only problem with the paper was that she used the temple as a type of the Mass, but the priest pointed out that liturgists now know that the type of the Mass is the synagogue (in other words, no sacrifice, just the preaching of the Word). This priest is a liturgist at a Catholic University teaching and advising doctoral students. I do not think this situation is unique.
Posted by: Christopher Sarsfield at Nov 22, 2006 5:02:31 PM
a religious woman of my acquaintance was complaining to me recently about how things are "changing" in her parish, and she was getting vexed. The particular instance she cited was the fact that there is now a framed picture of Our Lady, Perpetual Help in the sanctuary. She said, "I've worked so long, and so hard to get Vatican II to this parish; I've taught the documents and tried to get people to accept it, and now this new pastor comes in and starts to turn the clock back." Her complaint about the new picture (and she had other complaints, the picture was just one of many) was that, "Doesn't he understand that when we gather around the table, we're supposed to be focused on the community, and our sharing with our brothers and sisters? THAT's the whole point of the Eucharist, to share this meal with each other and focus on our community, our communion. All these devotional things have their place, but they don't belong in a time and place when we're supposed to be focused on each other."
There's your problem folks. A generation or more of Catholics - very educated Catholics, too - who were taught that the Eucharist is all about us. Now, there are certainly reasons that Our Lady of Perpetual Help should not be the main focus of the sanctuary, but Sister's comments (and I've heard so many similar comments from so many people of a certain age) seem perfectly in line with the spirit that inspires things like this Halloween Mass. Celebrating our community. Keeping the focus on us.
There's where the ad orientem posture comes in so helpfully. It is certainly possible to have a divinely focused Mass celebrated ad populum, but it's so much easier - for priest as well as people - when the priest's attention is focused in the same direction as the faithful.
Posted by: Tim Ferguson at Nov 22, 2006 5:11:33 PM
I was in a pre-theologiate program for a couple years and was constantly reminded by the rector that "we are the Body of Christ" and that "fixation" on the Eucharist did not build community.
Fixation? How about Adoration!
You must unlearn what you have learned...
Posted by: caine thomas at Nov 22, 2006 5:40:25 PM
A long while back I was asked to describe my "image of God". At first it seemed like a rather silly question, but the more I have thought on it over the years, the more I believe that not only is it a vitally important question, but lies at the heart of many of the problems affecting not only liturgy, but also scripture study, ethics, in fact the whole of theology.
If we do not know who God is, how can we worship Him properly? (See John 4:21-24) Modern scripture study posits a Jesus radically different (and diminished) from the Jesus of the Gospels. As Jesus' divinity is more and more separated from his humanity, and in most cases his humanity elevated at the expense of his divinity, our worship of Christ takes on the image of worship of man.
JPII said, "Original sin is the attempt to abolish fatherhood." For all the ways we see human fatherhood diminished, above all I think the failure is to see God as the Father who created us, loves us, and desires to spend eternity with us.
Similarly the Holy Spirit, rather than the Paraclete who both encourages and accuses, becomes some feeling of love that has no reference to truth.
And so as our images of the Trinity fall further and further from that which has been revealed, is it any surprise that worship falls further away from worship in spirit and truth? It's a bit of a vicious circle, because the liturgy should really be the place where we most properly learn the image of the true God as He becomes sacramentally present. But I suspect that without a return to a more authentic image of God in our minds and hearts, we will continue to struggle to grow in true worship.
It is encouraging to see Pope Benedict autoring a book on the Jesus of faith - who is the Jesus of the Gospels. Perhaps this will bear great fruit even for the return of more authentic worship of the one true God.
Posted by: James at Nov 22, 2006 5:40:33 PM
A woman from my parish was upset that the priest is not supposed to leave the sanctuary during the sign of peace. She said "Who are these people who think they can make rules like that? Don't they know that desgtroys the whole reason we gather-to be a community?" When I suggested that we gather to worship God, she replied, " We worship God in each other." All about us, the prayers, the songs, the gestures, all horizontal, no vertical. We have even been told that it is "selfish" to pray after receiving Communion. We are to stand singing and not until after all have received are we allow (literally) 2 minutes of silent "reflection" At one time, no room was found for God in the inn. Today, there is no room for God in too many parishes.
Posted by: Terentia at Nov 22, 2006 5:41:46 PM
"They think you come to Mass to be affirmed in your uniqueness, and if you and your cute kids aren't given due credit, you'll walk."
Wow, that actually happened to me, except I walked to a new parish because I was singled out for applause during Mass for being so great as to.... (drum roll) bring my children to Mass. "Isn't it great to see parents bringing their children to Mass? Let's have those parents stand up and give them a round of applause!"
Yes, worthy am I of praise, honor and glory.
You can't imagine how mortified I was after struggling mightily throughout Mass to keep the toddlers under control so that those around us _wouldn't_ notice our presence.
There were other reasons I had to find a new parish, but this was simply the last straw.
Posted by: sarah at Nov 22, 2006 5:41:49 PM
I've heard comments like "We're supposed to enjoy church"; "we believe in the congregation", and many others like it. As an organist, I'm bored too, but the boredom arises from having to do the same old, same old, Hagen/Haas, St. Louis Jebs, Eagle's Wings, etc. -- every year -- recessional hymn at last Sunday's Mass, for example, was Let There Be Peace on Earth, which the congregation applauded! My own little subversive act was to play Alleluia, Sing to Jesus as the postlude - he he...
Posted by: Patricia Gonzalez at Nov 22, 2006 5:48:05 PM
James,
Where is that JPII original sin quote from?
Posted by: caine thomas at Nov 22, 2006 5:53:41 PM
The original sin quote appears in Crossing the Threshold of Hope. I'm not sure which chapter, though I know it's nearer to the end.
Posted by: James at Nov 22, 2006 5:55:26 PM
Caine,
These rays [of fatherhood] encounter a first resistance in the obscure but real fact of original sin. This is truly the key for interpreting reality. Original sin is not only the violation of a positive command of God but also, and above all, a violation of the will of God as expressed in that command. Original sin attempts, then, to abolish fatherhood, destroying its rays which permeate the created world, placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love.
John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York, NY, Knopf, 1994), 228.
Posted by: Old Zhou at Nov 22, 2006 6:07:28 PM
May I push a point that Amy and Tim F. made a bit deeper?
That is, the point about the point being the "community", horizontalism and all that.
That's not quite the end point, at least in it's original iterations, as best I can tell from observation and reading and listening. There is deeper assumed point beyond that, and one that I find at least questionable but rarely articulated:
The assumed point is to take the lesson of contemplatives and apply it to a group: that a community that more deeply reflects on and appreciates and [add meaningful verb of choice ad lib. - "owns" comes readily to mind, unfortunately] the presence of Christ in its midst will:
1) Be more fruitful in the works of the Holy Spirit, especially corporal works of mercy and justice and peace, and/or
2) Be more on fire with the Holy Spirit, especially in "prophetic" witness.
Et cet.
I have to say that this implied assumption is very questionable. It certainly seems noble and hearkens to the Acts of the Apostles. But, in reality, in consumer capitalist culture of which the USA is the most fully realized exemplar, the risk of solipsism and narcissism -- and consequent withering of the very apostolates of mercy, justice and peace supposed benefitting from this -- is at least as likely if not more likely.
Posted by: Liam at Nov 22, 2006 6:21:30 PM
The "we are Christ" orientation that runs around many contemporary celebrations of the Mass is light years away from the highly developed doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ. From my vantage point on the organ bench, it seems that many of my fellow worshippers are there, looking for what they do not know and we're generally feeding them some okay music, oral readings of text that they prefer to follow in the misselette, a good-to-middling-to-awful homily, and then some rather incomprehensible actions on the part of the clergy followed by the special "sharing" of Communion.
Pretty thin gruel, no? And rather than refocus and catechize on the Mass, we add bits of window dressing.
Posted by: Mary Jane at Nov 22, 2006 6:36:45 PM
Liturgists have decided that the Mass is about us, when, of course, it's really about Him.
Posted by: Margaret at Nov 22, 2006 6:49:51 PM
I used to live in New Haven CT and attended St. Mary's Church, the Dominican run parish downtown. In fairness to them the parish is really great and they have one of the most solid celebrations of the NO I have ever been to. That being said I remember one evening heading to the 5pm Mass and as I was going up the steps entirely unbidden the thought leapt into my mind, "I am tired of Mass being about me." Despite the best efforts of the most orthodox celebrants, the language of the NO (in the editio typica) coupled with versus populum celebration cannot help but be about the people.
Posted by: Matthew at Nov 22, 2006 7:03:53 PM
I know that the Mass makes present what happened on Calvary, but what exactly did happen on Calvary is what most folk including myself don't seem to understand. To make Mass meaningful, people have to be taught soteriology even if it means that different theories about what Christ did are acceptable and that all we have are theories. I suggest that if we went horizontal it was because the vertical as we were taught it according to Anselm no longer made sense.
Posted by: Caroline at Nov 22, 2006 7:20:32 PM
"a religious woman of my acquaintance ... said, "I've worked so long, and so hard to get Vatican II to this parish; I've taught the documents ...
Like heck she "taught the documents." She must have glossed over where Sacrosanctum Concilium spoke of "pride of place" for Gregorian chant, and that Latin is to be retained in the Roman rite.
Posted by: PMcGrath at Nov 22, 2006 8:11:53 PM
I suggest that if we went horizontal it was because the vertical as we were taught it according to Anselm no longer made sense.
Caroline, you were lucky to learn the vertical. My entire post-VII generation learned none of it. Freshman year of college I finally decided I was going to figure out what the heck the real point of this "go to Mass every Sunday just because" business was about, or else stop going entirely. Thankfully I fell in with a few good kids who actually had solid formation and could explain it...
Posted by: Margaret at Nov 22, 2006 8:39:16 PM
Liturgists have decided that the Mass is about us, when, of course, it's really about Him.
Of course, as we all know, liturgists aren't the only one's who think this. For months, Mass at my parish has ended thus: "The Mass is ended. Go forth to serve one another." After many complaints (I hope not just from me), last Sunday ended with, "The Mass is ended. Go forth to serve one another; oh, and the Lord." A small step, but a welcome one.
Oh, one more thing. For those of you outside the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, here's something else for you to be thankful for: you don't have to put up with this: http://www.recongress.org/.
Posted by: Paul at Nov 22, 2006 8:47:44 PM
I still think you're talking more about catechists than authentic professional liturgists. I'm with Peter on this one.
"But for 2 or 3 decades now, the prevailing paradigm of Catholic liturgy has been a)to awaken the attendee to the presence of God within and within his or her brothers and sisters in the community and to do so by b) affirming the goodness and unique giftedness of the gathered community."
Sounds like something straight out of a catechetical manual.
" ... and the thrust in professional liturgical ministry programs has been very much on the here and now, on creativity, and so on."
Ditto point number one.
"Our efforts become supreme, our relatedness, our sensibilities, our interpretations become the guide."
And while it's true that many of us liturgists and musicians have fallen into this trap, it is not one in which we go solo.
Regarding Amy's points one and two, I challenge her to come up with some particular text in a respected progressive liturgical periodical like Liturgy 90 or Pastoral Music to back this up. I've laid the challenge elsewhere on occasion on the net and nobody has yet to come up with something later than 1978 to prove their point.
On the other hand, one can still peruse through the pages of many catechetical tools and find music suggested for children or even occasionally adult gatherings that typifies the worst of post-conciliar catechetics put into song.
But it makes the commentariat here feel good to gloss over those points and keep the comment boxes running into the several dozen posts on the occasional what-did-you-hear gripe sessions.
Posted by: Todd at Nov 22, 2006 8:55:54 PM
As a priest ordained 12 years, the most wonderful experience of my day is also the most disappointing - the celebration of the Mass. The verticality - and the expectation of the folks that they will be "entertained". However, when I introduced one Novus Ordo Mass a week celebrated 'ad orientem', everything changed - for me as a priest - and for the faithful group that comes every week. It is a PROFOUNDLY different experience to celebrate together "facing the Lord'. I am no Tridentinist - but I am convinced that, as Fr. Aidan Nichols has written, the celebration of Mass 'ad orientem' is the single most important factor in the "reform of the reform."
Posted by: Father Benedict at Nov 22, 2006 8:56:02 PM
I have noticed that the people who tend to say
the mass is about us', and we should celebrate 'in the round' so 'we can see each other faces'; are people that tend to live alone, such as the sister in town who lives in an apartment, away from her other sisters, who live in separate apartments. Our family lives in a crowded house, and we find the vertical focus on God renewing. But when I got my Masters, to say something like "Christology from above' in an approving way was enough to get you branded as a heretic.
Posted by: austin at Nov 22, 2006 9:03:11 PM
