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Jesus said to them: “I have come into this world so that a sentence may fall upon it, that those who are blind should see, and those who see should become blind. If you were blind, you would not be guilty. It is because you protest, ‘We can see clearly,’ that you cannot be rid of your guilt.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Can Theology and Liturgy Be Divorced?

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · April 4, 2013

HE EMINENT Russian Orthodox bishop (and composer of sacred music) Hilarion Alfeyev once spoke of the relationship between the lex orandi and the lex credendi, the law of believing and the law of worshiping, as follows:

“Another divorce which needs to be mentioned is that between theology and liturgy. For an Orthodox theologian, liturgical texts are not simply the works of outstanding theologians and poets, but also the fruits of the prayerful experience of those who have attained sanctity and theosis. The theological authority of liturgical texts is, in my opinion, higher than that of the works of the Fathers of the Church, for not everything in the works of the latter is of equal theological value and not everything has been accepted by the fullness of the Church. Liturgical texts, on the contrary, have been accepted by the whole Church as a ‘rule of faith’ (kanon pisteos), for they have been read and sung everywhere in Orthodox churches over many centuries.”

In this connection we might consider the penetrating words of Pope Benedict XVI who in a General Audience of May 21, 2008 on Saint Romanus the Melodist said:

“Palpitating humanity, arduous faith, and profound humility pervade the songs of Romanus the Melodist. This great poet and composer reminds us of the entire treasure of Christian culture, born of faith, born of the heart that has found Christ, the Son of God. From this contact of the heart with the truth that is love, culture is born, the entire great Christian culture. And if the faith continues to live, this cultural inheritance will not die, but rather it will continue to live and be current. Icons continue to speak to the hearts of believers to this day, they are not things of the past. The cathedrals are not medieval monuments; rather they are houses of life, where we feel ‘at home,’ where we find God and each other. Neither is great music—Gregorian chant, Bach or Mozart—something of the past, rather it lives in the vitality of the liturgy and our faith. If faith is alive, Christian culture will never be ‘outdated,’ but rather will remain alive and current.”

As if echoing both the eminent bishop and the emeritus pope, Cardinal Marc Ouellet once noted that music and the figurative arts amplify the hearing and seeing of Sacred Scripture, and maintained that this amplification is alive and well in the Eastern rite Churches, in comparison with the musical and iconic impoverishment that impairs much of the Latin rite Church today.

The fundamental truth to which all of these churchmen are drawing our attention is that we not only pray as we believe (in the sense that the content of our faith informs our public worship), but we also believe as, and what, we pray. And this is rather more frightening if we consider that significantly changing the music, the art forms and architecture, the liturgical texts and rituals and ceremonies, the ethos and atmosphere of worship, the complex amalgamation of word and sign and silence, cannot but have the effect, over time, of changing the very content of the faith—or at very least, changing our understanding of its parts and their relative balance in the whole of the revealed mystery.

Put simply, the liturgy is the embodiment and expression of our theology. If our Catholic theology is sound and profound, the liturgy will be sacred and utterly consistent with the Word of God—and in turn, our practice of the liturgy will confirm and enrich and elevate our theology, our prayerful understanding and surrender to God. If our theology is weak, fragmented, or compromised, the liturgical expression of it will be similarly weak in its power to evangelize, fragmented in its message, compromised in its power to create a culture of divine life and undermine the culture of death.

What we need above all in our liturgies is an image of eternity. As Pope Benedict XVI said to the Monks of Heiligenkreuz, in comments that we can readily adapt to ourselves, whatever our state in life:

“The interior disposition of each priest, and of each consecrated person, must be that of ‘putting nothing before the Work of God.’ The beauty of this inner attitude will find expression in the beauty of the liturgy, so that wherever we join in singing, praising, exalting and worshipping God, a little bit of heaven will become present on earth. Truly it would not be presumptuous to say that, in a liturgy completely centered on God, we can see, in its rituals and chant, an image of eternity. Otherwise, how could our forefathers, hundreds of years ago, have built a sacred edifice as solemn as this? Here the architecture itself draws all our senses upwards, towards ‘what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined: what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9).”

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (B.A. in Liberal Arts) and The Catholic University of America (M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is currently Professor at Wyoming Catholic College. He is also a published and performed composer, especially of sacred music.

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 6th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 6th Sunday of Easter (25 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and propers for this Sunday are provided at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Gloria in Spanish” • Free Accompaniment
    Several people have requested an organ accompaniment for the GLORY TO GOD which prints the Spanish words directly above the chords. The Spanish adaptation—Gloria a Dios en el cielo—as printed in Roman Misal, tercera edición was adapted from the “Glória in excélsis” from Mass XV (DOMINATOR DEUS). I used to feel that it’s a pretty boring chant … until I heard it sung well by a men’s Schola Cantorum, which changed my view dramatically. This morning, I created this harmonization and dedicated it to my colleague, Corrinne May. You may download it for free. Please let me know if you enjoy it!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    How Well Does ICEL Know Latin?
    This year, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June 2025) will fall on a Sunday. It’s not necessary to be an eminent Latin scholar to be horrified by examples like this, which have been in place since 1970. For the last 55 years, anyone who’s attempted to correct such errors has been threatened with legal action. It is simply unbelievable that the (mandatory) texts of the Holy Mass began being sold for a profit in the 1970s. How much longer will this gruesome situation last?
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“There’s a world of difference between a thoughtful, wise Catholic and a bitter contrarian. In spite of what is claimed on certain blogs, being addicted to cable news and twitter does not make one an intellectual.”

— Jeff Ostrowski

Recent Posts

  • “The Adalbert Propers” • Six (6) Quotations
  • PDF Download • “Entrance Chant” for 29 June … Which Falls on a Sunday This Year!
  • “Music List” • 6th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
  • “Can the Choir Sing Alone at Mass?” • Yes! And Here’s Why That Matters
  • “Gloria in Spanish” • Free Accompaniment

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