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Views from the Choir Loft

Is This Any Way to Pray at Mass?

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · April 27, 2017

FEW WEEKS AGO, I freaked out my daughter when I told her that I had once known someone who was born just fourteen years after the end of the Civil War. To someone in their early twenties, the Civil War might as well be the Middle Ages. Yet it was true, and that person was my great-grandmother, my father’s grandmother. I knew her for quite a while; she died at age 93, when I was eleven, so I have some vivid memories. She spoke almost no English, only Italian, and toward the end sat all day in one chair, a blanket placed over the legs that had almost completely given out. The rosary intertwined amongst her bony fingers was a constant, and every once in while you could hear her mumbling, “Ave Maria, gratia plena…”

We visited her, and my grandmother and the rest of my father’s family, who all lived in the same city in upstate New York where he grew up, mostly on Sunday afternoons, that city being only about an hour’s drive from where we lived. But sometimes we went up on a Saturday, stayed overnight and went to church where my father had been an altar boy and where my parents were married. It was a predominantly Italian immigrant town. What I remember most about that church was how beautiful it was, and the number of women there who looked like my great-grandmother. Most of them spoke no English, and their heads were veiled or they wore hats. They knelt, if I recall correctly, throughout almost the whole Mass, reciting their rosaries. And they were dressed in the finest clothes they owned.

Now some would say that these women weren’t participating in the Mass, that they were missing the meaning. They should have been doing more things, like singing, watching the Priest do his thing (this was the 60’s after all), and shaking hands with the people near them. But here is what they were doing: they were engaged in intense prayer and they possessed an innate understanding about where they were and what they were receiving. These old immigrant women grasped at a spiritual level the inherent meaning of the sacrifice of the Mass. They had entered the sacred and left the secular world behind. This is why they wore their best clothes, because they were going to the most important place they could go. When they got home, back came the aprons and simple dresses and sensible shoes, and the loud talking in Italian. But in church, it was quiet prayer.

The capacity to understand the words of the Mass literally does not equate to a correct understanding of its meaning. 1 I get upset when I hear some people, especially priests, talk disparagingly about those “old people before Vatican II who used to pray the rosary at Mass.” I knew those old people. They were good, holy people, and I’ll bet you they knew more about the real meaning of the Mass than you or I do. Why did they kneel so much? Maybe it was because, like my great-grandmother, their legs didn’t work so well after years of raising large families and being on their feet sixteen hours a day, cooking and cleaning. Or maybe because they wanted to be closer to the Lord and Our Lady. I wonder what the world would be like if more people today decided to do some real praying at Mass instead of waiting to be entertained?



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   By the way, these immigrant people who spoke no English understood exactly what was going on when the Mass was in Latin. It was when the Mass was suddenly said in English that they had a problem.

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. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
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    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

Random Quote

“Of course, the new [Easter Vigil] liturgy has greatly streamlined the symbology. But the exaggerated simplification has removed elements that used to have quite a hold on the mindset of the faithful. […] Is this Easter Vigil liturgy definitive?”

— Paul VI to Virgilio Noè (10 April 1971)

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