Author: John Schultz

Here’s a good point:
…the major problem in your average vernacular Mass I think, is that in general Catholics have forgotten that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a miracle that touches Heaven down to earth. It’s otherworldly. It’s not fellowshipping (is that really a verb?) or ‘community-making’. It is flat out worship of an awesome God and the offering of the perfect Sacrifice. Forgeting that has cost us dearly. I pray that collectively we can let the Holy Spirit pull us back.
That’s my issue in a nutshell with the character of liturgical music – I believe it needs to speak to the transcendence of God in expressing the sacred rather than the conversion of contemporary cultural styles into some that is quasi-sacred because it includes the word “Jesus” intermixed with “called” “chosen” “community” etc. It’s the classic sacred vs. mundane: just because I impose sacred expressions onto something mundane doesn’t mean it’s truly sacred.
The tempation here is to completely dismiss music and liturgy that doesn’t conform to one’s ideas about how mere mortals should express the sacred. That’s a mistake along the same lines and walking up to someone on the street and saying “Are you saved?” Without a context for the discussion and an experience of the sacred, there’s no basis for continuing a discussion. And that’s the key to getting acceptance of truly sacred repertoire at your average parish: slowly reintroducing truly classic and sacred expressions. If we’re smart, we’ll be patient about using some of today’s “fast food” music while leaning toward hymns, chants and choral pieces that try to transcend rather than sanctify our contemporary culture.
So now you know why we do a little Haugen. You die-hard latin folks should consider this approach, because the “us vs. them” approach will not win converts – patience and love is the key.

Here comes the feedback – good point about abuse.
Latin is proven to work against liturgical abusers. Any priest who is smart enough to learn Latin well enough to say a Tridentine or Novus Ordo Mass know better than mess with the rubrics.
Furthermore, the Latin liturgy is seldom abused by music directors because most do not come there at all. It is like holy water for the devil. You say “Oremus” and the ones of the Haugen_Dazs ilk just disappear. Puff! They are gone! That is why I like Latin liturgies.
The Latin Mass combines tradition and the sacred, two values that are not sufficiently appreciated by many who claim to be Catholics but are really not.

Hello, friends. Steve has been posting alot about Latin Mass and I wanted to frame a discussion.
Latin Masses are popping up all over the place and there’s a sizable chunk of Catholics who think that’s great. There’s another sizable chunk of folks who think that’s very bad. And there’s a large chunk of people who don’t care what language the Mass is celebrated in as long as the priest doesn’t ask for money.
I have mixed feelings about the re-emergence of entire liturgies in Latin, but wanted to open the floor to discussion. Truth be known, I have mixed feelings about the entire liturgy in English, but it has more to do with the character of the liturgy than with the language. Let’s discuss, shall we? E-mail me and I’ll post comments here. This should be fun.
Here’s my first tidbit for the discussion: I see many people attracted to Latin Mass because by its nature it can’t have the clap-trap and cacophony associated with many litugies in the US. You can’t have 7 guitars piped through the sound system at a Latin Mass. No one is going to be banging a tambourine for half the Mass. There’s actually some still, quiet times for mediation instead of 30 minute homilities on mediation. And you won’t find a priest rewording the Eucharistic prayer for “pastoral” reasons during a Latin Mass.
And I think those are valid problems with the liturgy today. But I don’t think Mass in Latin is the uber-solution to the problem.
Feel free to drop da bombs here.

Steve – you know Marty Haugen is not on my top 40 list, but this week several of his pieces fit fine and the congregation sang the roof off. The plain chant Gloria (in English) was sung with as much fervor as “Gather Us In.” So – I’m happy with how things went on Sunday. Don’t worry – it won’t be the Summer of Haugen. And for all you bloggers out there who hate “Gather Us In” both musically and theologically, all I can say is: every now and then you need to stop by McDonalds and get a BigMac and fries.
BTW – there’s two big reasons why Arvo Part can’t replace Haugen: you need a professional choir to do it right, and the congregation can’t sing along. One of these days we’ll try the Beatitudes – but even that is way out there in terms of the difficulty level.
I haven’t blogged about Church music much lately… maybe it’s time I get off the wagon!

If you haven’t checked out Gregorian Rant lately, you should. It’s got bite-sized chunks of wisdom, humor and frustration.