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Views from the Choir Loft

The Danger of Being Arbitrary in the Liturgy

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · May 29, 2014

N THE CONTEXT OF the Novus Ordo, there are so many options, so many permitted ways of doing things, so many modules that can be fitted together this way or that way, it can be very difficult to achieve coherence―especially in regard to compromise Masses where different “sensibilities” must be included in the liturgical planning and are therefore discernible in the resulting concoction.

But why take one traditional feature and reject another? Why take one modern feature and reject another? Have we lost our instinct for consistency?

The traditional practices form a coherent whole; they developed organically together, like a plant or animal maturing over time to become more and more itself. The reform, whether you consider it well-movitated or ill-motivated, was, in any case, inorganic; in the same way modern science views nature as a machine or mechanism, modern liturgists viewed public worship as a human construct with interchangeable pieces. It is not a whole that is greater than its parts so much as a mere sum of parts. And once you begin to change this or that part, you might as well change all of them. If the whole does not command a fundamental reverence, why would one stop here or there?

That is why the inherent tendency of the postconciliar liturgy has been towards jettisoning one traditional feature or element after another. Brass candlesticks are locked away, to be replaced by stumps on square pillars; solid altars or altars with antependiums are replaced by tables; beautiful vestments are thrown away or locked away, and polyester drapery takes their place; noble music from the ages of faith is forgotten in the strumming of guitars or the plinking of pianos.

The program that Pope Benedict XVI put before the entire People of God is the “hermeneutic of continuity”: the Church must live her life in continuity with all she has been in the past, with her full Tradition, and not as if everything started over after Vatican II. Wherever the Church is limping along in a state of discontinuity and rupture, she must make heroic efforts to find her way back to a vital connection with her own identity, history, and heritage.

POPE BENEDICT XVI KNEW that the sacred liturgy is the heart of the Church’s life, the most exact and expressive symbol of her faith, and the vehicle through which the faithful are always being catechized by word and sign. Hence this great Pope began to demonstrate what continuity can and should look like by the way he himself celebrated the sacred liturgy, and by continually pointing us to the Church’s past inheritance as well as her present rules and norms. He restored the traditional altar arrangement of candles and crucifix, he brought back the beautiful vestments so long locked away, he restored grand processions with cope and cross, he ensured that the music was truly reverent and sacred, suggestive of divine majesty and the loftiness of the immortal soul.

The tradition of the Church, the beauty of her rituals and art, is not something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. Pope Benedict was the voice in the desert, proclaiming that we need to restore and rediscover these things―our identity, our very survival, our mission in this world, depend on it. People have been badly miseducated, and they have a right to the truth. Indeed, we have a right to our Tradition and a duty to embrace it.

The only non-arbitrary way to approach the liturgy is to celebrate it not only with total fidelity to the rubrics, but also in a spirit of maximal continuity with the Roman liturgical heritage that preceded it for almost 2,000 years. To do less than this is to endorse, at some level or to some extent, that ideology of rupture that has gripped and wounded the church over the past 50 years. Once we discover that certain changes were unnecessary and unmandated, that they occurred because of experimental theories fused with a desire for novelty, the only consistent and principled thing to do is to reject these changes and return to the tradition of the Fathers, with the humble repentance of prodigal sons.

Please visit THIS PAGE to learn more about Dr. Kwasniewski’s exciting new publication,
Sacred Choral Works, a 273-page collection of a cappella choir music for the Liturgy.

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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Quick Thoughts

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Using the shoddiest, sleaziest material we have for the purpose of glorifying God is not very sound theology or even very good common sense. […] (In general, when you see a diminished seventh chord in a hymn, run.) And these chords are usually used in bad hymns in precisely the same order in which they occur in “Sweet Adeline.”

— Paul Hume (1956)

Recent Posts

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