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Views from the Choir Loft

Liturgical Language Barriers

Veronica Brandt · April 1, 2017

Lincoln Cathedral JUST RECENTLY A FRIEND and fellow Catholic homeschooler expressed concern about singing in Latin. She felt her family not experienced enough to accomplish this. This shocked me and revealed my underlying assumption that the whole point of Catholic homeschooling is to devote time to the study of Latin and Sacred Music.

Once I reflected a little about this I realized the folly of my position, and the enormity of our distance from the ideals assumed in the Second Vatican Council of the primacy of Latin and chant.

Not that Catholic homeschoolers are necessarily more enlightened than regular Catholics. Homeschooling is more an absence of external schooling rather than a thing in itself. There is no compulsory boot-camp for prospective homeschool parents – it is all learning on the job.

Back to Language Barriers.

Latin as a liturgical language is a very useful mechanism for transcending space and time and uniting our worship with people around the world and across the centuries.

But it takes a little learning.

Not too much learning! You don’t need to conjugate or decline in order to pray a Pater Noster. A simple word for word translation will suffice.

The main thing to learn is how to make sounds out of printed Latin words. Fortunately a few simple rules go a long way to making this possible. Learn the rules and practice reading aloud and it will take root and become easy.

Here is a short video (2.5 minutes) that covers the most used features of Church Latin pronunciation. The remaining rules can be introduced as needed. Here my daughter is 7 months old.



 

UPDATE: a reader sent this list of pronunciation videos for the Ordinaries of the Mass. Great to listen and watch to make that connection between the written words and the sounds.

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 Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“You have thereby removed from the celebration of the Mass all superstitions, all greed for lucre, and all irreverence … removed its celebrations from private homes and profane places to holy and consecrated sanctuaries. You have banished from the temple of the Lord the more effeminate singing and musical compositions.”

— ‘Bishop Racozonus, speaking at the last session of the Council of Trent (1563)’

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