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

Corpus Christi Watershed

We’re a 501(c)3 public charity established in 2006. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and run no advertisements. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors.

  • 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
    • 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

Pope Francis’s Counsel: Do Not Waste What God Has Given Us

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · August 8, 2013

529 Peter St. Francis receives the Stigmata ANY HAVE commented on how Pope Francis’s preaching seems to be dominated by social justice and the poor. When taking up a theme from the Gospel, he never fails to show how it implies responsibility towards our neighbor. To judge from how some are speaking, it is as if we suddenly have a Pope who is “pure horizontalism” in contrast to a predecessor who was “pure verticality”—the one talking about the hungry and the homeless, the other talking about mystery, adoration, and dogma.

As with most popular assessments, this one is superficial and not a little inaccurate. Pope Francis has already preached many times about the life of prayer, the dangers of activism, the primacy of Christ and His Kingdom, the centrality of the sacraments, and other characteristically “Ratzingerian” themes; and those who know Pope Benedict XVI’s preaching well know that he was no less insistent and persistent on social themes than Francis has been, even if the media chose to ignore him or aimed their cameras on his red shoes.

Over and above this fair treatment of both popes’ emphases, I would like to suggest that it can also be extremely profitable to develop an ability to hear papal teaching in multiple “keys” or “modes.” Pope Francis, no less than Pope Benedict, has a way of formulating universal principles of thought and action, and these will be seen to apply to any number of related topics, as long as they share the same pertinent feature.

Take as an example the General Audience on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, when Pope Francis, marking World Environment Day, delivered an address on how important it is to eliminate needless wasting of food and other products. His address was in many ways vintage Ratzinger on the pressing need for a new environmentalism that is true to man’s unique nature and vocation to cultivate and care for the garden of creation. What I noticed, however, was a further level of meaning if we listen to his words in a “liturgical key.”

Pope Francis declared:

We are often driven by pride of domination, of possessions, manipulation, of exploitation; we do not ‘care’ for it [creation], we do not respect it, we do not consider it as a free gift that we must care for. We are losing the attitude of wonder, contemplation, listening to creation; thus we are no longer able to read what Benedict XVI calls ‘the rhythm of the love story of God and man.’ Why does this happen? Why do we think and live in a horizontal manner? We have moved away from God, we no longer read His signs.

NOW THINK OF WHAT HAPPENED in the liturgical reform in the mid- to late sixties. The reformers were men who appeared to think, in an anthropocentric fashion, that they were free to dominate, manipulate, and exploit the liturgy for particular modern aims. They acted at times as if they did not respect the immense gift of tradition we are given to care for. Instead of wonderment at the riches handed down, a contemplative disposition of receptivity and listening to tradition (which are preconditions for discerning the love story between God and man in the Mass and the Divine Office), they chose to think, and therefore to live, in a horizontal manner, which was equivalent to moving away from God through a wilful failure to read His signs—the sacred signs of ritual, text, and music that are His exquisite lyric poetry down through the ages. The crisis, in short, occurred when the Cartesian man who viewed Nature as raw material for economic exploitation via technology became the Consilium man who viewed Tradition as raw material for scholarly exploitation via executive fiat. And as in the former case, what has suffered is man’s right relationship with Creation, so in the latter case, what has grievously suffered is the believer’s right relationship with Divine Worship.

Pope Francis also said in the same audience:

We should all remember, however, that the food we throw away is as if stolen from the table of the poor, the hungry! A few days ago, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, we read the story of the miracle of the loaves: Jesus feeds the crowd with five loaves and two fishes. And the conclusion of the piece is important: ‘They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets’ (Lk 9:17). Jesus asks his disciples not to throw anything away: no waste!

In like manner, the solid nourishment that once fed the Christian people was often carelessly thrown away, as missals, vestments, bells, chant books, and other precious goods were pitched into the rubbish—and all this spiritual food was stolen from the table of the poor in spirit, the children of God who never demanded a Marxist revolution that promised a new springtime but delivered a long, hard winter of disorientation, irreverence, and abuse, in which many have died and many others have nearly starved, although they may not realize their plight, as they have nothing else to compare it against.

Jesus, in contrast, desires his disciples to eat their fill from the Church’s abundance and be satisfied; the gifts he has given to the Church, his immaculate bride, are possessed of a miraculous power to be feed the entire world until the end of time. The Lord commands us to throw nothing away, to waste nothing of what he has given us, to consider nothing trivial, redundant, or meaningless. There is no such thing as “useless repetition,” any more than extra fragments of bread are a useless repetition of food. If we were wise, we would not set a lean, sparse table and call it modern; we would put forth a rich banquet of many centuries and call it divine.

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. 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.

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —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

It would be contrary to the Constitution to decree or even to hint that sung celebrations, especially of the Mass, should be in Latin.

— Annibale Bugnini attacking “Sacrosanctum Concilium” (§36)

Recent Posts

  • Luis Martínez Must Go!
  • Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
  • PDF Download • “Gospel Acclamation” for 29 June (Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles)
  • “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
  • Available! • Free Rehearsal Videos for Agnus Dei “Mille Regretz” after Gombert (d. 1560)

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