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Views from the Choir Loft

OF with an EF Priest

Andrew R. Motyka · April 30, 2014

PEND ENOUGH TIME in the online Catholic Tradosphere, and you come up with a very different reality than, well, reality. I suppose this is true of any specialized group of people online. The internet acts as a kind of centrifuge which separates people of differing opinions and groups like-minded people into their respective corners until we all just keep yelling into an echo chamber of increasing radicalism.

One trend I have noticed over the years is the observation that liturgical abuses, and bad liturgy in general, are thought to be the exclusive purview of the Ordinary Form. EF Mass-goers never have to put up with liturgical wackiness or even the general slog of an apathetic priest. Sometimes, I have heard some say that the elimination of the OF altogether would solve this problem, that liturgical abuses would evaporate (for the most part) if the Extraordinary Form was mandatory.

I am not here to argue the differences in content between the two forms. Heck, the first time I attended an EF liturgy, my first observation was how similar the two forms are. They concur far more than they differ. I am simply writing about ars celebrandi, the art of celebration, that definitely has a difference in the forms. Is this something inherent to each form? Perhaps, but I have another suspect in play, too.

None but the most historically ignorant thinks that the preconciliar liturgy was always beauty and Palestrina. The reality in almost every parish was a set of mumbled Low Masses, with one High Mass per Sunday, with Rossini Propers and the smallest congregation of the weekend (it’s the long one, after all). High Mass in 1959 isn’t really the same as High Mass at your average modern FSSP parish. Many priests made it a point to celebrate liturgy well, and many didn’t care as much and muttered their way through the Mass. While the form of the preconciliar liturgy doesn’t allow for as much abuse as the OF, neither can be protected from human weakness or apathy.

This snapshot is what we would find if the OF were abolished tomorrow. The reality is that some priests, just like the laity, don’t care about the liturgy very much, or have other designs as to its purpose. An all-EF Church would contain all of the same priests that the current one does, and the poor celebrants would come with it. The reality is that the EF community is self-selecting. It tends to attract priests and laity that already desire good liturgy, and so they get it. If the same communities celebrated the Ordinary Form, it would be very well done indeed.

As someone who grew up with the Ordinary Form, it is my preference. It is what I’ve always known and am most comfortable praying. However, I am grateful for whatever liturgy Holy Mother Church gives me, and I do not resent the EF in any way. Two forms, one liturgy. My greatest preference would be to celebrate the Ordinary Form with a priest who loves the Extraordinary. I believe this to truly be the “mutual enrichment” of which Pope Benedict spoke, and I hope that that enrichment carries into the future to the benefit of both forms.

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 Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew Motyka is the Archdiocesan Director of Liturgical Music and Cathedral Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “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
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —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

“Since the English is not meant to be sung—but only to tell people who do not understand Latin what the hymn text means—a simple paraphrase in prose is sufficient. The versions are not always very literal. (Literal translations from Latin hymns would often look odd in English.) I have tried to give in a readable, generally rhythmic form the real meaning of the text.”

— Father Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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