• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Is This Any Way to Pray at Mass?

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · April 27, 2017

FEW WEEKS AGO, I freaked out my daughter when I told her that I had once known someone who was born just fourteen years after the end of the Civil War. To someone in their early twenties, the Civil War might as well be the Middle Ages. Yet it was true, and that person was my great-grandmother, my father’s grandmother. I knew her for quite a while; she died at age 93, when I was eleven, so I have some vivid memories. She spoke almost no English, only Italian, and toward the end sat all day in one chair, a blanket placed over the legs that had almost completely given out. The rosary intertwined amongst her bony fingers was a constant, and every once in while you could hear her mumbling, “Ave Maria, gratia plena…”

We visited her, and my grandmother and the rest of my father’s family, who all lived in the same city in upstate New York where he grew up, mostly on Sunday afternoons, that city being only about an hour’s drive from where we lived. But sometimes we went up on a Saturday, stayed overnight and went to church where my father had been an altar boy and where my parents were married. It was a predominantly Italian immigrant town. What I remember most about that church was how beautiful it was, and the number of women there who looked like my great-grandmother. Most of them spoke no English, and their heads were veiled or they wore hats. They knelt, if I recall correctly, throughout almost the whole Mass, reciting their rosaries. And they were dressed in the finest clothes they owned.

Now some would say that these women weren’t participating in the Mass, that they were missing the meaning. They should have been doing more things, like singing, watching the Priest do his thing (this was the 60’s after all), and shaking hands with the people near them. But here is what they were doing: they were engaged in intense prayer and they possessed an innate understanding about where they were and what they were receiving. These old immigrant women grasped at a spiritual level the inherent meaning of the sacrifice of the Mass. They had entered the sacred and left the secular world behind. This is why they wore their best clothes, because they were going to the most important place they could go. When they got home, back came the aprons and simple dresses and sensible shoes, and the loud talking in Italian. But in church, it was quiet prayer.

The capacity to understand the words of the Mass literally does not equate to a correct understanding of its meaning. 1 I get upset when I hear some people, especially priests, talk disparagingly about those “old people before Vatican II who used to pray the rosary at Mass.” I knew those old people. They were good, holy people, and I’ll bet you they knew more about the real meaning of the Mass than you or I do. Why did they kneel so much? Maybe it was because, like my great-grandmother, their legs didn’t work so well after years of raising large families and being on their feet sixteen hours a day, cooking and cleaning. Or maybe because they wanted to be closer to the Lord and Our Lady. I wonder what the world would be like if more people today decided to do some real praying at Mass instead of waiting to be entertained?



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   By the way, these immigrant people who spoke no English understood exactly what was going on when the Mass was in Latin. It was when the Mass was suddenly said in English that they had a problem.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “What Martin Luther Said…”
    My pastor asked me to write little columns for the bulletin each week. The article for 20 July 2025 has been posted, and it’s called: “What Luther Said…” Martin Luther (an ex-priest and apostate) was an infamous heretic whose ignorance of JESUS CHRIST was only exceeded by his filthy and disgusting vulgarity.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 15th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (13 July 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 also provided at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    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

Random Quote

“I am now old but I was young when I was received into the Church. I was not at all attracted by the splendour of her great ceremonies—which the Protestants could well counterfeit. Of the extraneous attractions of the Church which most drew me was the spectacle of the priest and his server at Low Mass, stumping up to the altar without a glance to discover how many or how few he had in his congregation; a craftsman and his apprentice; a man with a job which he alone was qualified to do.”

— Evelyn Waugh (7 August 1964)

Recent Posts

  • “What Martin Luther Said…”
  • “Music List” • 15th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • Worship the Lord in Holy Attire
  • “How to Conduct 90 Vespers Services Each Year and Live to Tell the Tale.”
  • 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up