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Views from the Choir Loft

Sacra Liturgia 2015 — Update II

Fr. David Friel · June 3, 2015

UESDAY was another day filled with excellent lectures at Sacra Liturgia USA 2015. In addition to the lectures, the liturgies have been most rewarding, and the hospitality of St. Catherine of Siena Parish, in the care of the Dominicans, has been first-rate.

The morning’s first lecture was delivered by Rev. Thomas Kocik, former editor of the journal Antiphon. The title of the talk was simply, “The Reform of the Reform.” Father Kocik’s fundamental assertion was that any authentic reform of the reform must begin with the Extraordinary Form as the point of departure, not the Ordinary Form.

In the course of his presentation, Father Kocik also listed a number of practical ideas for how a priest might transform his celebration of the Ordinary Form. Among his ideas were these:

1. Use the rite of blessing for water, with the proper chants, in place of the Penitential Act.

2. Employ the proper chants during each of the processions.

3. Chant the orations, prefaces, & the Gospel.

4. Use incense on every Sunday & solemnity, not just on special occasions.

5. Omit the intercessions on weekdays.

6. Opt for a silent preparation of the gifts.

7. Do not neglect the Latin language.

8. After catechesis, introduce the celebration of Mass ad orientem. [In the interim, consider using the “Benedictine arrangement.”]

9. Wear black vestments for funerals, All Souls Day, and other Masses for the Dead.

10. Do not omit the optional sequences.

11. Occasionally use the Gradual instead of the Responsorial Psalm.

12. Utilize the full complement of Votive Masses in the Missal.

13. Use the Roman Canon.

14. Bow your head at the names of the Trinity, the BVM, and the saint of the day.

All of these suggestions, of course, fall within the bounds of current liturgical law and require no special permission. Many priests have already taken some or all of these steps toward bridging the gap between the Ordinary & Extraordinary Forms.

Dr. Margaret Hughes (sister of fellow blogger David Hughes) gave a marvelous presentation entitled “The Ease of Beauty: Liturgy, Evangelization, and Catechesis.” Her paper gave evidence of her mastery of philosophy and bore the mark of her specialization in the philosophy of Joseph Pieper.

Among her many salient points, Dr. Hughes proposed that resting in what is good is the truest, fullest way of being active. She also said that “beauty is a harmonious meeting of the objective and subjective.” Of course, the experience of beauty in life should remind us that we are wayfarers on a journey, en route to the vision of total beauty.

Mr. Gregory Glenn is the founder & Pastoral Administrator of the Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, UT. He gave an engaging and humorous lecture outlining the history of how his choir school came into existence and how it has come to flourish. I am in awe of what he and his helpers have accomplished. Mr. Glenn did not inherit a well-established institution, after all; he forged the choir school, rather, from nothing and shaped it into a seedbed for world-class art.

In passing, Mr. Glenn pondered how some people can complain that it is too difficult for children to learn a Gregorian Mass ordinary. He offered a fascinating statistic that there are only 283 words in the Latin ordinary. Surely, children are capable of approaching such a limited number of vocabulary words.

Several other wonderful presentations have been made so far. I sincerely hope that the ideas being shared this week with conference attendees will lead to liturgical revitalization at the grassroots level in the communities we serve.

682 Sacra

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Ad Orientem, Authentic Liturgical Renewal Reform, Beauty, Catholic Youth Choirs, Latin, Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, Omitting The Sequence On Pentecost, Propers, Reform of the Reform, Sacra Liturgia Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
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

Random Quote

It is clear the Church is facing a grave crisis. Under the name of “the new Church” and “the post-conciliar Church,” a different Church from that of Jesus Christ is now trying to establish itself: an anthropocentric society threatened with imminent apostasy which is allowing itself to be swept along in a movement of general abdication under the pretext of renewal, ecumenicism, or adaptation.

— Cardinal Henri de Lubac (29 August 1967)

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