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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Those Selfless Ordinary Form Priests

Jeff Ostrowski · November 6, 2014

705 Bishop Germany RDINARY FORM priests often work tirelessly and receive very little support. Consider, first of all, the excessive size of today’s Novus Ordo parishes. A single priest often serves 2,000, 4,000, or even 11,000 families. Other OF priests offer Mass in several locations each weekend. This is quite a contrast to the “good old days” of Roman Catholicism, where Pastor and Curates could live peacefully, seldom leaving the Church, Rectory, School, and Garden. In our times, the priest is besieged by emails, phone calls, meetings, sick calls, and even text messages, asking him difficult moral questions that require an immediate (and correct) answer.

Moreover, many Ordinary Form priests possess little experience with authentic liturgy. When I say “authentic,” I mean stable. After all, the whole point of liturgy is stability and constancy. Pope Benedict XVI reminded us:

The greatness of the liturgy depends—we shall have to repeat this frequently—on its unspontaneity [Unbeliebigkeit].

The postconciliar reforms allow for an unbelievable amount of OPTIONS, referred to as “the tyranny of options” by critics. Many Ordinary Form priests were formed in liturgies changing radically from one day to the next. On top of that, some Traditionalists berate them constantly, convincing them they don’t know anything about liturgy. With so many duties, some Ordinary Form priests are tempted to say, “Forget about liturgy. It’s so confusing, and it changes so much. When I retire, I’ll have time to become an expert, but not now. Besides, very few of my parishioners seem to care about liturgy.” My brother (a seminarian) and his friends have assured me this is rather common.

AT THE SAME TIME, many Ordinary Form priests sense something horrifically wrong with their liturgies—especially the secular, emotional, uninspired, goofy, and sometimes heretical music that accompanies Mass. What can be done? Some might say “education,” but liturgy is an extremely complex subject (that’s why “Gradual” can mean four different things!) and for most is a less-than-stimulating thing to study.

701 Readings But there’s a fantastic solution! No words. Don’t explain anything. Just get them a copy of the St. Isaac Jogues Illuminated Missal, Lectionary, & Gradual. Opening up the book, they’ll see the readings, formatted in a gorgeous way. They’ll see the Propers, whose typesetting is unmatched. They’ll see the Ordinary of the Mass, containing luscious color images. They’ll see incredible woodcuts, explaining the meaning of our Faith.

This pew book presents a road map to authentic liturgical reform, which could be summarized thusly:

Sing the music of the Church—don’t replace it—and always allow your congregation to follow the Mass.

Finally, a reminder: the Jogues Missal is for the Ordinary Form, and was approved in 2014 for the United States of America by the USCCB.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ICEL New Translation of the Roman Missal, Roman Missal Third Edition Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“It is very curious, rather barbarous, much too ornate, immeasurably less dignified than ours now, anything in the world rather than archaic or primitive.”

— Fr. Fortescue describing the “Sarum Use” in 1912

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