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Views from the Choir Loft

Reader Feedback • “Reform of the Reform”

Corpus Christi Watershed · March 14, 2025

The following came from Chad H.
[We usually redact names for anonymity’s sake.]

LOVED YOUR RECENT ARTICLE about the “Reform of the Reform,” however to my mind it just adds more “fuel to the fire.” I co-ordinate our Sunday only TLM Mass and try to engage with the pews as much as possible. We are a sub-group of a Novus Ordo parish with our own chapel. We try diligently to be part of the overall parish structure. However, once the word “Latin” is mentioned, everything shuts down. As an elderly person, I grew up with the TLM and experienced 40 years as an amateur choir leader before going back to my liturgical roots. Throughout those 40+ years, I designed the music liturgy according to my sense of entertainment—without realising what it was supposed to be until much later. In that time, I’ve come to realise that ‘entertainment’ instead of ‘liturgical reverence’ is the attraction for most who are fulfilling their Sunday Obligation via the Ordinary Form. I’m convinced that if we had the ability to have Solemn High Masses—regularly or irregularly—our attendance would soar. To the average Catholic, all this bickering about what is ‘traditional’ and what is ‘pseudo’ traditional is irrelevant. If the TLM or OF makes it internally worthwhile for me to go to a Mass, then “count me in.” There is a TLM Mass Centre in another local suburb that was rather rabid several years ago—and still is to a lesser degree—about the meaning of Traditional Liturgy. It came close to destroying their community. Is there a clear answer? In my opinion OF verses EF has gone on too long. The hierarchy are at sixes and sevens, the priesthood is not very supportive, and most attendees at Mass have only ever known the Ordinary Form … therefore anything ‘else’ must be an aberration. Change has to be driven at the lowest level that engages the non-TLM generations. How do you eat an elephant? A mouthful at a time. God Bless you and your work.

The following came from Mateo B.
[We usually redact names for anonymity’s sake.]

ENJOYED YOUR ARTICLE about the “Reform of the Reform.” I have two thoughts: (1) I do feel that the ROFR might be running out of steam, as far as fixing the Novus Ordo goes. I think people have had enough time to realize that the “juice ain’t worth the squeeze”—that their efforts are subject to episcopal or presbyterial whim, houses built upon sand. I recall the exact moment I felt this: We were doing sung Novus Ordo Vespers at my parish for a while. I was really trying to have the music be as traditional as possible: I would diligently look up the correct antiphon in official (or no?) books; find the chant for it; it there was no chant for it, I’d try to make my own simple rendition in Gregorian tones; I’d find music for the hymn; I’d set the English of the hymn to the proper hymn tune from the Liber Hymnarius, fending off requests for Taizé music; etc. It took me hours the first time I did it, and only after weeks of this did I get the preparation time down to maybe 30 minutes. I found myself constantly making my own personal calls as to what the antiphon tune was even supposed to be, what translation of the hymn even matched the hymn tune, flicking from PDF to PDF, learning and practicing these novel chants, etc. And I realized one day, as I prepared: No one cares. Certainly not the bishops. And all my work would be as tears in the rain when next they shift their ponderous bureaucracy to drop a new translation … which will have typos, errors, and a shifting sand dunes of options. My printing hard-wrought Vespers packets—with an expiration date of a decade or so—no longer seemed like a good use of time. I have a wife and many children to think of. The TLM Vespers were so much easier to put together. Usually there was already a fully-complete packet somewhere. We started gathering at a friend’s house once a month to do that instead. It feels nice to practice an antiphon that’s a thousand years old, and that—I truly believe—will be sung until He comes again. (The post-1910 breviary has untraditionalism too, but I couldn’t convince anyone to go full-monastic with me.) My smart-guy quip to my sympathetic pastor: “Preparing for the Novus Ordo is like dealing with a surly teen: it hates when you pay too much attention to it but also hates being ignored—and it’s exhausting either way.” (2) Re: Poorly informed traditionalists. Since I’m in my early 30s, so I never experienced TLM in the olden days, nor even in a parish with people who remembered the olden days. My ideals of tradition are totally contradictory. For instance, celebrating first Vespers of a saint’s day followed by Mass doesn’t bother me at all, because that’s what I can actually attend. And also, give me 1950 Holy Week now, but Holy Saturday in the evening because fire is awesome in the dark. A mess, I know. Basically, I want to get away with as much fun tradition as I can—even if that means ignoring traditional rubrics as regards time. Perhaps I’m a troglodyte, but I just want to do what I’m able, with as much tradition as possible, when it’s possible to do it, with as little infection as possible from destroying, rationalizing men like Bugnini. (That’s the drive, for me, of wanting to return to the older Holy Week. You’re right: I don’t know what I’m asking for. But I don’t like anything Bugnini had a hand in creating.) Thank you for reading my rambles.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: CCWatershed Feedback, Reader Feedback Corpus Christi Watershed Last Updated: March 17, 2025

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“After a discussion lasting several days, in which arguments for and against were discussed, the Council fathers came to the clear conclusion—wholly in agreement with the Council of Trent—that Latin must be retained as the language of cult in the Latin rite, although exceptional cases were possible and even welcome.”

— Alfons Cardinal Stickler, Vatican II ‘peritus’

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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