Blessed are the Peacemakers
Peace among men cannot come from hearts that are not at peace. Peace of soul is something only God can give us, and without it, we are lost.
The Spirit of Solesmes
The unification of our lives, the orientation to the ultimate goal that gives meaning to every proximate and particular goal we seek, is the work of the sacred liturgy.
What Vatican II Said (and Didn’t Say) about the Liturgy
Vatican II presents a mystical, contemplative, symbolic vision of liturgy, the celebration of which John Paul II said “must be characterized by a profound sense of the sacred.” Is it what you experience at your local parish?
Can We Ever “Understand” the Mass?
Those who take away the density of ritual and the solemn beauty of the ineffable will not gain more worshipers; they will merely give them more reasons to go away and find something more interesting to do.
Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis”
Music history textbooks often speak of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis as no more than a purely artistic statement, when in reality it is a testimony to his deep, if idiosyncratic, Catholic faith.
Discerning Changes in the Old Missal
Could there be room for legitimate changes to the Missal of 1962, the last typical edition of the traditional Roman Rite of Mass or the “extraordinary form”?
The Distracting Prayer of the Faithful
Looking at the structure and flow of the liturgical action, the Prayer of the Faithful marks a most awkward caesura in the liturgical action. We would be better off without them.
On the Wonder and Strangeness of Sacred Music
The Church’s liturgy, since it is the Passover Feast, has to bring us out of the world, out of Egypt. So it ought to have a certain “strangeness” about it.
Music of High Artistic Value
The papal teaching addresses precisely the question of criteria; it does not attempt to teach people how to listen to music or how to discriminate different qualities of music. If such discriminatory abilities are lacking, the papal teaching can have no meaning for us.
Music as a Character-Forming Force
The spiritual maturity of the Christian is very much connected with habituation in the nobility of the fine arts.
On Correcting Deviant Liturgical Customs
The longer the hermeneutic of rupture and its expressions are allowed to continue, the longer a “Great Schism” between the preconciliar and postconciliar periods will be perpetuated. There is a real, pressing, desperate need for healing, reconciliation, and reunification.
Why Liturgical Bad Habits Must Be Broken
The Church is not built up and strengthened when her pastors ignore her conciliar teaching, repudiate her tradition, violate her rubrics and instructions, and merrily accept the status quo in all its mediocrity.
Can Theology and Liturgy Be Divorced?
Truly it would not be presumptuous to say that, in a liturgy completely centered on God, we can see, in its rituals and chant, an image of eternity.
Banish All Guitars and Pianos from the Church
The increasingly obvious failure of contemporary church music should occasion a more widespread rejection of piano and guitar as accompanying or interluding instruments.
On Listening to Good Music
Some people say that today’s popular music is “more emotional” while traditional music is “less emotional.” In reality, emotions evoked in popular music are more crude and monotonous. Emotions elicited by the music of Palestrina, Bach, or Mozart, being more intellectual, are more profound and pure.