SPIRIT OF THE LITURGY: Not the "Spirit of Vatican II"

From Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Spirit of the Liturgy, published in 2000:

In the Old Testament there is a series of very impressive testimonies to the truth that the liturgy is not a matter of "what you please".  Nowhere is this more dramatically evident than in the narrative of the golden calf (strictly speaking, "bull calf").  The cult conducted by the high priest Aaron is not meant to serve any of the false gods of the heathen.  The apostasy is far more subtle.  There is no obvious turning away from God to the false gods.  Outwardly, the people remain completely attached to the same God.  They want to glorify the God who led Israel out of Egypt and believe that they may very properly represent his mysterious power in the image of a bull calf.  Everything seems to be in order.  Presumably even the ritual is in complete conformity with the rubrics.  And yet it is a falling away from the worship of God to idolatry.

This apostasy, which outwardly is scarcely perceptible, has two causes.  First, there is a violation of the prohibition of images.  the people cannot cope with the invisible, remote, and mysterious God.  they want to bring him down into their own world, into what they can see and understand.  Worship is no longer going up to God, but drawing God down into one's own world.  He must be there when he is needed, and he must be the kind of God that is needed.  Man is using God, and in reality, even if it is not outwardly discernible, he is placing himself above God.

This gives us a clue to the second point.  The worship of the golden calf is a self-generated cult.  When Moses stays away for too long, and God himself becomes inaccessible, the people just fetch him back.  Worship becomes a feast that the community gives itself, a festival of self-affirmation.  Instead of being worship of God, it becomes a circle closed in on itself: eating, drinking, and making merry.  The dance around the golden calf is an image of this self-seeking worship.  It is a kind of banal self-gratification.

The narrative of the golden calf is a warning about any kind of self-initiated and self-seeking worship.  Ultimately, it is no longer concerned with God but with giving oneself a nice little alternative world, manufactured from one's own resources.  Then liturgy really does become pointless, just fooling around.  Or still worse it becomes an apostasy from the living God, an apostasy in sacral disguise.  All that is left in the end is frustration, a feeling of emptiness.  There is no experience of the liberation which always takes place when man encounters the living God.

Why is this important?

As long as the liturgy continues to be abused on the Peninsula, so too will this "apostasy in sacral disguise" continue.  If one thinks these words too strong, remember Pope Paul VI's words regarding the misapplication of Vatican II:

"...from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God..."

For a more obvious "apostasy in disguise", check out the 2008 Palm Sunday Mass at St. Joan of Arc parish in Minneapolis, via Fr. Z's blog.

Please pray for Our Lady of the Angels, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and St. Joan of Arc parishes.

RATZINGER REPORT: Like Fine Wine, Aged thus Augmented

Between stale draughts of homemade liturgical innovation, 'tis good to sip some salient words on the liturgy from the erstwhile Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI:

The liturgy is not a show, a spectacle, requiring brilliant producers and talented actors.  The life of the liturgy does not consist in 'pleasant' surprises and attractive 'ideas' but in solemn repetitions.  It cannot be an expression of what is current and transitory, for it expresses the mystery of the Holy.

Many people have felt and said that liturgy must be 'made' by the whole community if it is really to belong to them.  Such an attitude has led to the 'success' of the liturgy being measured by its effect at the level of spectacle and entertainment.  It is to lose sight of what is distinctive to the liturgy, which does not come from what we do but from the fact that something is taking place here that all of us together cannot 'make'.  In the liturgy there is a power, an energy at work which not even the Church as a whole can generate: what it manifests is the Wholly Other, coming to us through the community (which is hence not sovereign but servant, purely instrumental).

Liturgy, for the Catholic, is his common homeland, the source of his identity.  And another reason why it must be something 'given' and 'constant' is that, by means of the ritual, it manifests the holiness of God.  The revolt against what has been described as 'the old rubricist rigidity', which was accused of stifling 'creativity', has in fact made the liturgy into a do-it-yourself patchwork and trivialized it, adapting it to our mediocrity.

-- The Ratzinger Report, p. 126, Ignatius Press, 1985.

Please pray for Pope Benedict and the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

ECCE HOMILY: Nun Continues to Preach in Breach of Canon 767

KENAI, AK - Sr. Joyce Ross, R.C.M, again delivered the homily at the Saturday night vigil Mass at Our Lady of the Angels parish in Kenai.  Rev. Andy Sensenig, O.M.I. was the celebrant otherwise.

This is in persistent and knowledgeable disobedience to Canon 767, as posted earlier on this blog here.  Here are some comments from parishioners regarding this 'sermon' and the equivocations used by the Pastoral Team to explain it:

Last night's Mass featured Fr. Andy turning over the sermon to Sr. Joyce.  I would say the time was 30/70, maybe 40/60 in balance between Fr. Andy's sermon and Sr. Joyce's.

At times the priests have used phrases like 'Sr. Joyce will share with us her reflections', I would guess as a way of screening what she is giving really isn't a sermon.  But yesterday she referred to her time as a 'a homily', as in 'whenever I prepare a homily...'

To quote Shakespeare:

Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven.

Please pray for Our Lady of the Angels parish.

BREAKING: More Liturgical Abuse in Kenai

KENAI, AK - Rev. Joe Dowling, O.M.I. neglected to give a homily today, instead permitting Sr. Joyce Ross, R.S.M. to preach during the 10:00 AM First Communion Mass at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai.

This is directly disobedient to Canon 767, which states that only ordained ministers - priests and deacons - should deliver the homily.  Here are the pertinent sections of the aforementioned Canon:

can. 767, §1: Among the forms of preaching, THE HOMILY, WHICH IS PART OF THE LITURGY ITSELF AND IS RESERVED TO THE PRIEST OR DEACON, IS PREEMINENT; in the homily the mysteries of the faith and the norms of Christian life are to be explained from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year.

can. 767, §4: It is for the pastor or rector of a church to take care that THESE PRESCRIPTS ARE OBSERVED CONSCIENTIOUSLY. (caps my emphases)

This is yet another instance of  liturgical abuse by Sr. Joyce reported by this blog; you can find earlier abuses here.

With the retirement announcement of Sr. Joyce, more abuses have been planned: this parish bulletin states that she will preside at communion services May 23rd and 24th at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Soldotna.  This is a grave abuse that would deprive OLPH parishioners of the right to fulfill the mandate of Canon 1247, which states that the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass on all Sundays and holy days.

Please pray for Our Lady of the Angels and Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishes, and especially for Sr. Joyce.

RETRACTION: Archdiocesan Liturgical Policy

In an earlier post, this blog implied that the Archdiocese has not offered any statement on liturgical innovations.  This was a mistake.  Here are the Archdiocesan Sacramental Catechetical Guidelines as issued by Archbishop Roger Schwietz, O.M.I. last August.  Some salient excerpts:

Cultural sensitivity and adaptations through music and gesture in the celebrations of the sacraments IS ENCOURAGED.  In order to protect the integrity of the sacramental life of the Church and avoid abuses, the adaptations NEED THE APPROVAL OF THE ARCHBISHOP.  Requests for approval are to be made through the Office of the Archbishop.

Mass is to be celebrated with care and reverence in every parish of the Archdiocese ACCORDING TO THE CURRENT LITURGICAL BOOKS, CANONS, AND NORMS set out by the universal Church and the Archbishop in his role as moderator of the liturgy of the local Church. (caps my emphases)

Commentary and more to follow.

More Pope Benedict on Sacred Music

When man comes into contact with God, mere speech is not enough.

In his essay Music and Liturgy (p. 185 of The Essential Pope Benedict, originally from his book The Spirit of the Liturgy), Pope Benedict XVI names the standard by which all sacred music should be measured: Logos, or the Word of God that is Jesus.  Some particular relationships exist between liturgical music and Logos:

1. WORDS - Christ sanctified human thought and speech by creating man in his image and likeness; as Aristotle puts it in the Politics, man is the only animal with the power of speech.  Hence Benedict:

Thus the relation of liturgical music to Logos means, first of all, simply its relation to words.  That is why singing in the liturgy has priority over instrumental music.

2. SOBER INEBRIATION - a term used first by St. Cyprian of Carthage, this is the opposite of drunkenness or intoxication from wine or, allegorically, worldly goods; rather, Cyprian is meditating on the cup of salvation from the Psalms, now revealed in Christian times as the Blood of Christ.  For Benedict, this sober inebriation applied to music means:

...Music that draws senses into the spirit and so brings man to wholeness.  It does not abolish the senses, but inserts them into the unity of this creature that is man...Not every kind of music can have a place in Christian worship.  It has its standards, and that standard is the Logos.

So what kind of music DOES NOT meet the standard of the Logos?

On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense.  It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a CULT OF THE BANAL.  "Rock", on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, A FORM OF WORSHIP, IN FACT, IN OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.  People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects.  However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.  The music of the Holy Spirit's SOBER INEBRIATION seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind a shackle, and breaking out from both appears to be a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments. (caps my emphases)

Bluntly: pop and rock music are both inappropriate for Mass, pop music for its inherent banality, rock music for its inherent elementality, which presents an attack upon the dignity of the human person as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

UPDATE: "ORIGIN OF SPECIES", LITURGICAL ABUSE

SOLDOTNA, AK - Alternative Eucharistic species, a profane altar of repose, and a corpus-less veneration of the cross were liturgical aberrations committed by Reverend Tony Dummer, O.M.I. this past Triduum at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Soldotna, Alaska.

On Maundy or Holy Thursday, Fr. Tony consecrated loaves of homemade bread in lieu of the usual communion wafers. While this is not expressly forbidden, Canons 924 and 926 specify that the bread must be only wheat, recently made, and unleavened. Communicating parishioners reported that the bread tasted "mealy" and that they were unable to easily swallow the Eucharist and felt uneasy about the particles retained in their mouths.

Following the Thursday Mass, the consecrated species was then placed in a dish on a sacristy countertop, covered with a cloth, and left alone for the evening with a lit vigil candle. This contradicts the necessity of both tabernacle and ciborium outlined in the USCCB's guide to Holy Thursday liturgy.

At the Good Friday liturgy the next day, a plain cross without a sculpted Christ was venerated. Instead of the traditional procession to the foot of the altar, whereupon the crucifix is kissed or otherwise venerated by the faithful, Fr. Tony handed the cross over to the faithful in the pews, where it was passed from one to another until it had made the rounds of the entire congregation.


More details forthcoming.

UPDATE: LITURGY ABUSED IN KENAI

KENAI, AK - The Good Friday Liturgy at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai, Alaska, was conducted by Sister Joyce Ross, R.C.M., while Reverend Andy Sensenig, O.M.I., played the cello. 

In the pictures above, Sr. Joyce venerates the altar while Fr. Andy plays the cello, then - garbed in an alb - she leads the congregation in prayer while Fr. Andy stands behind.

This is in direct disobedience to the rubrics for the Good Friday liturgy, as outlined by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

More to follow.

Plenam, Consciam, Actuosam Participationem

Better known as "full, active, and conscious participation", this excerpt from the Vatican II constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, is often quoted in order to bolster the idea that all the faithful should be singing at Mass.

However, Pope Benedict XVI has this to say from his Homily on the Regensburg Tradition and the Reform of the Liturgy (The Essential Pope Benedict XVI, Ed. Thornton & Varenne, Pub. HarperOne.):

Whenever an exaggerated concept of 'community' predominates, a concept that is...completely unrealistic precisely in a highly mobile society such as ours, there only the priest and the congregation can be acknowledged as legitimate executors or performers of liturgical song.

Today, practically everyone can see through the PRIMITIVE ACTIVISM and the INSIPID PEDAGOGIC RATIONALISM of such a position (emphasis mine), which is why it is now asserted so seldom.  The fact that the schola and the choir can also contribute to the whole picture is scarcely denied anymore, even among those who erroneously interpret the council's phrase about 'active participation' as meaning external activism.

In other words, where the focus of the liturgy shifts from God to the people - the exaggerated concept of 'community' - there we find the wrong interpretation of "full, active, and conscious participation"; namely, that the congregation must sing and pray audibly at all times.  What is the correct interpretation of participation qua the Mass?  Benedict goes on, using the Sanctus as his example:

Through the choir, a greater transparency toward the praise of angels is rendered possible, and therefore a MORE PROFOUND INTERIOR PARTICIPATION in the singing than would be possible in many places through one's own crying and singing (emphasis mine).

Would we not do well, before moving on into the center of the mysterium, to be gifted with a period of well-filled silence in which the choir recollects us interiorly and leads each individual into silent prayer and, precisely in that way, into a union that can take place only on the interior level?  Must we not relearn precisely this silent interior praying together and with the angels and saints, the living and the dead, with Christ himself, so that the words of the Canon do not become mere tired formulas, which we then try in vain to replace by constantly new and different word-montages in which we attempt to conceal the absence of any real inner experience of the liturgy, any movement beyond human talk into actual contact with the Eternal?

Amen.

Priest Fiddles While Parishioners Burn

KENAI, AK - The Good Friday liturgy at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai will be presided over by Sister Joyce Ross, R.C.M., while Reverend Andy Sensenig, OMI, will play the cello.

The Good Friday liturgy, which is not a Mass but includes the reading of St. John's Passion, prolix General Intercessions, the Veneration of the Cross and Divine Reproaches, Communion, and then the Stripping of the Altar, must be presided over by a priest or deacon as per the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Roman missal (http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/goodfriday.shtml).

This is but the latest liturgical experiment at Our Lady of the Angels, one of the most innovative parishes in the Archdiocese of Anchorage.  Past liturgies have included homilies given by nuns and lay women, a 'choral performance' of the seven readings at Easter Vigil, and dances by middle-aged women in full-body leotards.

Not all parishioners enjoy the creativity, however.  Numerous families will be forced to travel outside of the Kenai Peninsula - an area roughly the size of West Virginia - to find a priest or deacon interested in celebrating Mass according to the rubrics.

The Archdiocese of Anchorage has not yet released a statement concerning experimental liturgy.  However, the Second Vatican Council had this to say:

Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, ¶22, §3)