Spanish-language TLM Handouts and OF Chanted Propers

In keeping with my advice last Thursday on taking advantage of this down-time to plan ahead for the future, it seems opportune to mention here some Spanish-language Catholic Mass resources that have come to my attention.

The FSSP apostolate in Sydney, Maternal Heart of Mary, has added Spanish-Latin versions of their popular single-sheet bookfold Propers of the Mass for the Temporal and Sanctoral cycles of the traditional Latin Mass:

Propios del año

Propios de los santos

Space has been left at the top of each .pdf so that parish priests who have Adobe Acrobat Pro may insert their own parish header.

The South American district of the SSPX has also made available printable PDFs for most of the Sunday Propers either in Spanish and Latin or in Spanish alone. A sample:

On the Ordinary Form front, the indefatigable Fr. Samuel Weber, working with Ignatius Press, has developed what is by far the best Spanish pew missal: ¡Canta la Misa!, an annual subscription-based book with high production values in art, layout, and musical selection. In particular, as with the English version (Ignatius Pew Missal), entrance and communion antiphons are set to simple chant melodies, and plainchant Mass settings are included. The Order of Mass is also present in parallel Latin and Spanish. Bulk discounts are available (see here) and, of course, free examination copies are available (email this address with requests or questions).

Here are sample pages from the 2019 edition:

It is good to see Spanish-language materials of this quality emerging after quite a dry spell in this regard. Readers who are aware of other pertinent items should add further links in the comments. Let's make this a go-to place for those who are in search of materials.

Visit Dr. Kwasniewski’s website, SoundCloud page, and YouTube channel. 

Opening Mass of the CMAA Colloquium in Philadelphia

The opening Mass of the CMAA Colloquium in Philadelphia took place yesterday at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, a votive Mass of the Holy Angels, celebrated by Fr David Friel. The first Mass of the Colloquium is always sung in English, with English music settings; the Propers were by Fr Samuel Weber OSB, and the Mass Ordinary was the Mass in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the Sea by Michael Olbash, who was also organist. The choirs also sang two motets, Call to Remembrance by Richard Farrant and Richard de Castre’s Prayer to Jesus by R.R. Terry. The choir directors pictured are Jeffrey Morse and Mary Ann Carr-Wilson.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Fr. Samuel Weber’s “Propers of the Mass”: An Interview with Dr. Peter Kwasniewski by Roseanne Sullivan

This interview was originally published in the Homiletic and Pastoral Review, as part of an article by Roseanne Sullivan titled “Propers of the Mass Versus the Four-Hymn Sandwich.” It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the editors of the HPR and Ms. Sullivan.

Chant composer Fr. Samuel Weber, O.S.B., recently published a collection of chant settings titled The Proper of the Mass for Sundays and Solemnities: Chants for the Roman Missal in English. According to Jeffrey Tucker at The Chant Café , “Fr. Weber is truly one of the greatest and most inspired Catholic music scholars, composers, and practitioners of chant in the English-speaking world.” In 2013, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone recruited Fr. Weber to found the Benedict XVI Institute of Sacred Music and Divine Liturgy at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, CA for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski was referred to me by Fr. Weber as a trusted liturgical expert and friend who could knowledgeably answer some questions I had originally submitted to Fr. Weber for an email interview.

You might be wondering, “What’s a Proper?” “What’s an antiphon?” “Who cares?” Only a small percentage of Catholics will have any idea of why chant settings of Mass texts in English are important, so I have written an accompanying article titled, “Propers of the Mass Vs. the Four Hymn Sandwich: Another Way of Looking at The Great Catholic Music Debate.” The accompanying article provides definitions of terms along with some background about how the singing of the Proper parts of the Mass has fallen into disuse as an unintended consequence of the introduction of Masses in the vernacular and why resources like Fr. Weber’s are needed to restore the Proper chants to their proper place in the Mass.

Question 1: Please tell us this first: Why do you think this resource is needed?
Dr. Kwasniewski: Ever since the introduction of the English liturgy, Fr. Weber has been among those asked to provide resources for singing the Mass in English. He had been been answering requests from individuals, parishes, and religious communities for many years. This new book takes care of all requests, as far as the Entrance, Offertory, and Communion antiphons go, as well as a number of other important chants for Holy Week. For this particular project of the Benedict XVI Institute, he provided the following for each of the antiphons:
•  Four levels of settings, so that one cantor or a highly trained choir would have options they could manage, depending on available talent, and
•  Appropriate psalm verses for the antiphons for those who would want them (and they are very helpful, since the same action in the liturgy can take a short time or a long time depending on many factors).

I know that Fr. Weber is also working on organ accompaniments in different keys, as well as SATB settings of verses.

The need for this resource is simple to grasp. The propers (as you no doubt explain in your article) are part of the basic structure of the Roman Rite of the Mass. They are ancient—we find them in the earliest manuscripts we have of the Mass, and they were handed down for centuries. They are part of our inheritance from the apostles, first bishops, and first Christian communities, who were steeped in Jewish worship, and for whom the psalms occupied a central place.

The Psalms came to be the very backbone of the Western liturgical tradition, in the Mass as in the Divine Office, because they are the very prayers Jesus inspired and then carried on His own sacred lips, sang in the synagogues, and offered to the Father on the gibbet of Calvary. There is simply no way to avoid the fact that these Proper chants are not a mere add-on or marginal feature but stand at the very center of our liturgical heritage.

In the days before the Council, when the Low Mass tended to predominate, after permission was given for hymns to be sung during the parts of the Mass where the priest prayed silently, the Propers were still always retained, albeit only recited. The Council asked for High or Sung Mass to become the norm—the Sung Mass as it then existed, where the Propers and the Ordinary would be chanted. But after the Council, chaos broke out, and the Propers, like many other treasures, were abandoned and forgotten.

I see a real parallel between what happened to the Propers and what happened to the man en route to Jericho, who was attacked and left by the side of the road to die. The priest and the Levite passed him by, but the Samaritan stopped, took him up and cared for him, and made sure the man would be restored to full vigor. Jesus identified himself with the Samaritan and asks us to do the same. We are now in a position to be Good Samaritans, take the Propers up again, care for them, and restore them to their fitting role in the Mass.

In short, if we would honor Our Lord and the traditions He Himself inspired in our Church, the Propers need to be restored to their place of honor in the Mass. This collection of chants makes it truly possible and practical to do so in the context of celebrations in English.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Organ Accompaniments to Fr. Weber’s Proper of the Mass Now Available

For those who are devotees of Gregorian chant and especially vernacular adaptations of it, surely Fr. Samuel F. Weber’s Proper of the Mass needs no introduction. (But just in case you haven’t heard about it, here is my review of it.)

When the book first appeared, naturally questions arose: Will organ accompaniments for the chants be provided? Will there be choral verses? Will there be a modern-notation version of the chants?

I am happy to say that Fr. Weber, in collaboration with Ignatius Press, has been making available, for free, organ accompaniments and choral doxologies and verses at his own website. You can find there, for instance, scores to cover the entirety of the Advent season, and more will be posted at regular intervals. (To peruse a wider selection of scores, drop the keyword “organpropers”and simply explore the site. It’s a treasure trove!)

Fr. Weber also informed me that he is working on the English Propers for Christ the King right now and that they will soon be posted.

Book Review: The Proper of the Mass for Sundays and Solemnities

The Proper of the Mass for Sundays and Solemnities: Chants for the Roman Missal in English. Fr. Samuel F. Weber, O.S.B. of The Benedict XVI Institute of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015. xx + 995 pages. List $34.95. Publisher’s link.

THIS is the book so many choirs and scholas have been waiting for, I would even say for 40+ years. If you want to sing Propers (specifically: Entrance, Offertory, and Communion antiphons) for the Mass in English, and you would like to do so with chant melodies that are inspired by Gregorian exemplars and at the same time idiomatic and comfortable in their vernacular adaptation, Fr. Weber’s magnum opus does the job better overall than it has ever been done before. This is hardly a surprise, since Fr. Weber has been chipping away at the task — introit by introit, offertory by offertory, communion by communion — for over twenty years. It can be said without exaggeration that this book has been in progress for decades. It is the definitive book of English plainchant for the Catholic liturgy.

Content

First, the nuts and bolts. What exactly do we find in this 1,000-page volume?

1. An excellent Foreword by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone (pp. ix–xiii), explaining why the Propers should have pride of place at Mass, how this fits in with Vatican II’s call for participatio actuosa, and how this book responds to the call for a renewal of sacred music.

2. An “Introduction concerning Chant Technique” (pp. xiv–xx), reminiscent of the introductions in older Solesmes volumes. Fr. Weber explains the fundamentals of chant (notation, neums, modes) in crystal clear prose for the non-expert, and offers a wonderful mini-treatise on the art of singing chant, with an explanation of how he has approached the task of setting the English language.

3. The rest of the book, divided into the Proper of Time (pp. 1–771: Advent, Christmas Time, Lent, Holy Week, Sacred Triduum, Easter Time, Ordinary Time, and Solemnities of the Lord), the Proper of Saints (pp. 772–917: solemnities of saints), Ritual Masses (pp. 918–67: ordinations and marriage), Varia (pp. 968–84: Asperges, Vidi aquam, Glory Be tones), and Indices (985–93).

The Chants 

The Proper of the Mass contains English chant settings for the Entrance and Communion Antiphons as given in The Roman Missal (2010), as well as Offertory Antiphons in line with the Graduale Romanum (1974). (I will return below to the question of the source of the texts.)

For most antiphons, four settings are provided, from complex to simple: (i) through-composed melismatic; (ii) through-composed simple; (iii) Gregorian psalm tone; (iv) English psalm tone. Cantors or choirs that are ready to tackle it can choose a more melismatic setting, while beginners could easily render the psalm tone; or the choice can be made depending on the length of the liturgical action or other factors. Verses are given for all the antiphons, as well. Other collections tend to presume either absolute beginners or advanced scholas, but Fr. Weber has arranged his book in a way that suits every possible situation, so that it’s easy to “shift gears.”

Jeffrey Ostrowski has already been posting recordings of some of the chants. Here are the four settings given for the Introit of Christmas Day, “A child is born for us.” Notice how close in spirit and melody the first setting is to its Gregorian model.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Celebrating the Liturgy “Worthily, Attentively and Devoutly”: Interview with Fr. Samuel F. Weber, O.S.B.

NLM is pleased to announce the publication of a new book for the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, namely, the Hymnal for the Hours, produced by Fr. Samuel F. Weber, O.S.B., Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, Archdiocese of San Francisco. This book is a comprehensive collection of English plainchant hymns for all the hours of the office in the modern Roman Rite (Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline, and the Office of Readings), for both the temporal and sanctoral cycles. The book includes a letter by Archbishop Cordileone and a substantial foreword by Cardinal Burke.

For the launching of this book, I asked Fr. Weber if he would answer some questions about the project, the Institute, forthcoming publications, and how these all tie in with larger issues of liturgical theology. He graciously consented, so read on!

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PK: As a Church musician who loves Lauds and Vespers, I’m extremely excited to see the publication of your Hymnal for the Hours. For the benefit of those who aren’t familiar with your project, can you explain what it is and how it will be useful?

Fr. Weber: This book gives suggested translations of the real, correct hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours in English, preserving, so far as possible, the authentic Gregorian hymn melodies that accord with seasons and feasts (this is not always possible—more elaborate melodies do not always work with English words). It is my hope that those who want the richness of the patristic/liturgical tradition and desire to pray the authentic texts of the liturgy will be delighted with this volume.

PK: Why would using plainchant settings of the hymns be better than just falling back on metrical strophic hymns? After all, many editions of the Liturgy of the Hours simply substitute such hymns for the original office hymns.

Fr. Weber: First, the words. Use the real words of the liturgy itself. Just like we prefer "singing the Mass" to "singing at Mass," I believe it is important that we should prefer singing the hymn that corresponds to the Latin editio typica of the Liturgy of the Hours. The present English versions of the 1970 LH contain almost none of the authentic texts (there are a few exceptions). This new Hymnal for the Hours rectifies that long-standing problem.

Regarding music, this will then be a matter of necessity and taste. When I am conducting a Vespers service with a parish group that has never sung Vespers before, I usually use the metrical “O Salutaris” melody, so that everyone can sing easily without too much practice. In seminaries, religious communities, and some parishes, on the other hand, I am gradually teaching the chant tradition and moving toward the correct seasonal and festal chants. In general, it is praiseworthy to aim at singing in the plainchant style, which is the ecclesiastical manner of singing par excellence, as Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict explains in many places. This would be the right goal for the sung celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, and this new Hymnal can supply an important piece of it.

In short, sing as you can, not as you can’t—but at least use the right words, the words of the liturgy!

PK: Can you tell us about the translations used?

Fr. Weber: There are many fine poets responsible for the translations—just to list a few, Thomas Buffer, Edward Caswall, John David Chambers, William Copeland, Percy Dearmer, Mark Higdon, Placidus Kempf, Thomas Ken, John Mason Neale, Dylan Schrader, as well as translations taken from the Monastic Diurnal, Saint Cecilia's Abbey, and Stanbrook Abbey. I have used the most elegant and accurate translations available at the present time; some of the texts rhyme, others do not, but all are in what could be called "the classic style," which suits the nobility of the chant melodies. There are 481 hymns in toto, with a supplement of additional texts.

As time goes on, it is my hope that this collection will inspire gifted poets to improve on the translations included in this volume, and so enrich the prayer life of the Church for those who choose to use the English language.

The book also includes the Gospel Canticles—the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis—with all their ferial antiphons, and each in all 8 modes. For a celebration of Lauds, Vespers, or Compline in English, this will all come in handy.

I should add that it has been my goal all along to make these chants available either for free or at the lowest possible cost of publication. A condition for the use of many of the hymn texts was that the Hymnal generate no profits but be simply a service to the People of God. That is the reason we can make the book available for only $17.10 (paperback) or $25.50 (hardcover).

PK: For priests and religious who wish to fulfill their obligation to pray the office, does this book come with official ecclesiastical approval?

Fr. Weber: As this book is being published as a hymnal, it requires the approbation of the local ordinary. The Archbishop of San Francisco has given his approbation for the book to be published and used for the Liturgy of the Hours as a source for hymns for the Church throughout the world. I am also grateful to Cardinal Burke for contributing a splendid Foreword that is really a mini-treatise on the history and theology of hymns.

PK: Out of curiosity, how long did it take to produce this 730-page book?

Fr. Weber: I have been collecting hymn texts and melodies and fitting English hymns to the Gregorian models for decades, so it would be no exaggeration to say that this book, which collects all of these chants in one place in a systematic way, is the result of more than four decades of work. Over these years many have made special requests for these hymns. For the most part, the hymnal now presented is the result of fulfilling those requests, brought together in one volume.

PK: Why is the sung celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office) something we should be striving for? And is it even attainable for most communities?

Fr. Weber: For me it would depend on the group. Some weeks ago I was with a corporate retreat group of lay people who work in chancery offices. At 6:00 a.m., 60 of them gathered for Lauds. I had prepared a booklet for chanting. We practiced for about 90 seconds. They had never prayed the Office before. A bishop was present, and he was so kind as to be the celebrant. I was the cantor and alternated with all, thus “lining-out” the chant tones. All present imitated and repeated the tones. They did an excellent job. They even imitated the pauses at the *. It was quite an uplifting experience. After Lauds, we celebrated a sung Mass singing the Propers and using Latin for the Sanctus, Pater noster and Agnus Dei. No problem. It went off without a hitch! It was quite impressive.

Later, I was in a rectory with three other priests. Before supper in the evening, we gathered in the common room of the rectory with our Breviaries. They were not singers. We just quietly read the sacred texts, with pauses for silence after the psalms and readings (the silence is as important as the sound in our prayer!), about twenty seconds of silence. This approach worked fine with this small group.

Singing is a wonderful thing and should be encouraged much more than it is, but it's not as if we must always sing everything; there are times for quiet recitation. Still, as Vatican II reminded us, singing the text of the liturgy elevates it to a more solemn level, makes it altogether more "impressive" in the fullest sense of the word, and that is very important, whether it happens daily or weekly or whenever practicable.

PK: There is a resurgence today around the United States (and even abroad) of singing chant at Mass, whether in Latin or in the vernacular. Could you comment on this movement—why is it important, what are its prospects for the future, and what steps can be taken at the local parish?

Fr. Weber: Again, first, it is all about the Word of God. The sacred texts are of primary importance. (I've written more about this in "Taking Up the Psalter: A Letter to Some Friends.") It's especially clear in the Liturgy of the Hours, which is almost entirely made up of Scripture, but it is no less true of the Mass.

Once the decision is made to “sing the Mass, rather than sing unrelated words at the Mass,” then correct, well-arranged music is needed, music that will work well with the congregation assembled for worship. This works best a cappella. A solid, confident cantor is needed to lead. All follow.

Again and again—in seminaries, in convents, in parishes—I hear the words "reverent, devout, holy" in reference to the music needed for divine worship. Indeed, for all the sacred signs, and for the atmosphere that best serves those who gather to adore the One God as it behooves His true servants to do. The Mass is about God, it’s not about me...  in the first place. The sacred liturgy shapes me; I don’t shape the sacred liturgy.

Cardinal Arinze once said: "Let’s not confuse what we do in the parish hall at coffee and donuts with what we do in Church." Recently an Archbishop gave a talk to his seminarians about the crisis of “narcissism” that has taken over today in the Latin Church. This pretty well sums it all up. In contrast, a recent article in the New York Times, about vocations to the priesthood and religious life in rural Michigan, can tell us volumes just from the accompanying photo. Look at the parish church. This is not an accident. Sacred signs that are treasured by the whole community bring blessings to the people. Our Catholic culture lived to the full produces holy men and women, families filled with blessings.

My Irish grandmother frequently used to say: "There are only two things worth doing in life: to know the truth and to be in love." We sing the appointed psalms of David because we want the truth, and we want to know love in our lives. These are the words God wants on our lips, and God wants them planted in our hearts. In virtue of Baptism, we are all “custodians of the sacred formulas” that God wants planted in our hearts. These are the sacred formulas that nourish us and bring about growth in the spiritual life. These are the holy words that bring blessings to family life, inspire the spouses, and delight the children.

PK: But isn't it true that the hymns in your book are not the Word of God? Couldn't someone say: "We have always sung poems written by Christians; aren't we doing the same thing today when we pick out contemporary hymns?"

Fr. Weber: Yes, it is true: over the centuries God inspires other poets, like St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great, and St. Thomas Aquinas, to create sacred texts: orations, sequences, the hymns of the Divine Office. With the approval of the Church, they too can serve as spiritual nourishment. They paraphrase and meditate on the Word of God. They lead us back to the sacred Scriptures as the Church reads these holy writings in her sacred Liturgy. But never, in the history of the Church, have the clergy or laity replaced the appointed texts of the sacred liturgy with words of their own choosing simply because it “pleases” them to do so.

I was once celebrating Mass in a parish. The appointed Communion Antiphon was NOT being sung during Holy Communion. Instead, these words: "Let us break bread together on our knees. Let us drink wine together on our knees." The “on our knees” part was okay—I can support that! I appreciate that. But what about the message? After Holy Communion, I asked the congregation to be seated. I used the opportunity to explain to them that we are “not drinking wine” during Holy Communion. Nothing of "what it is to BE wine" remains; only its appearance remains, but "what it IS" is Christ the Lord. I spoke—by way of reminder, I hope—of the meaning of the Sacrifice of the Mass, of propitiation for our sins, of our growth in grace. I shared with them the antiphon of St. Thomas Aquinas, “O sacrum convivium” and explained it to them phrase by phrase, hoping to undo the harm done by singing over and over again false words that directly contradict the most essential truths of our Faith.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

NLM Exclusive: Archbishop Cordileone on the Sacred Liturgy

Courtesy of Fr. Samuel F. Weber, O.S.B., Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, the Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, has graciously agreed to share with the readers of New Liturgical Movement a portion of the conference he gave to seminarians of St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, on February 12, 2014, entitled “Doing the ‘Pastoral Thing’ Will Always Be Harder, but Right.” The portion reproduced below is where the Archbishop addresses liturgical issues.

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“Doing the ‘Pastoral Thing’ Will Always Be Harder, but Right”

The Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone

Some of the directives in these documents [Sacrosanctum Concilium and The General Instruction of the Roman Missal] have been observed in the life of the Church on the local level, but others have been ignored or misunderstood. So I would like to cite some passages to give some examples of where we need to focus our efforts to make our worship more in line with what the Church is asking us to do.

First of all, Sacrosanctum Concilium states at n. 36:

… the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites. But since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended. This will apply in the first place to the readings and directives, and to some of the prayers and chants … 

So we can see that it was not the mind of the Council to abolish the use of Latin in the liturgy by any means; quite the contrary. But a more generous use of the vernacular was allowed in order to engage the people in the liturgy more conscientiously. It later has this to say about music (n. 116):

The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given first place in liturgical services. But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action.

Again here, the intention of the Council was quite contrary to abolishing the Church repertoire of sacred music from her worship. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal repeats this passage from Sacrosanctum Concilium at number 41, and then goes on to add: “Since faithful from different countries come together ever more frequently, it is fitting that they know how to sing together at least some parts of the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin, especially the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, set to the simpler melodies.” In 1974, Pope Paul VI even issued a little booklet, Iubilate Deo, containing these more classic chants and sent it to all the bishops of the world in order to help implement this vision. And how appropriate it is for us here in the Bay Area, where every Sunday in many of our parishes, and certainly in Masses at the diocesan level, people from different cultural and language backgrounds come together to worship.

We have to remember that, in addition to its practical purpose as a means of communication, language also has a symbolic value. When I was installed as the Bishop of Oakland, the first reading for the Mass was in Tigrinya. Never heard of it? Neither had I before then. Tigrinya is the language of Eritrea. Now, with all of the bishops and priests present there (older priests!), more people in the Oakland Cathedral that day would have understood the first reading if it had been in Latin than in Tigrinya. But Tigrinya had a symbolic value: the East Bay prides itself on its cultural diversity (as we all do here in the Bay Area), and there is a small but vibrant community of people from Eritrea living there, who have their own priest with their own rite. It was a powerful symbol of the universality of the Church which is quite visible here on the local level.

Likewise, Latin – which I once heard the late Cardinal Hickey refer to as the Church’s “old vernacular” – has both a practical and symbolic value. The practical value is that it is the common patrimony of all Catholics, and so a way that people of different languages can worship together, using texts and formulas that have been preserved from antiquity. But it also has a symbolic value: precisely because it is our common patrimony, belonging to all Catholics of all cultures and languages – indeed, it is constituent of our common Catholic culture – it teaches us that the liturgy is not ours to with as we will. No, the liturgy is a given; it is our job to celebrate it well and faithfully, not tinker with it for the sake of “creativity” or “self-expression.” This once again is a matter of succumbing to the culture of narcissism. We hear much talk today about “servant leadership.” To have credibility, we have to model that first and foremost at the liturgy: we are the servants of the liturgy, not its creators. This takes a great deal of discipline, restraint and humility on the part of the liturgical ministers, and most especially the celebrant.

Let’s hear more from Sacrosanctum Concilum about music in the liturgy, this time about the use of instruments (n. 120):

In the Latin Church the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church's ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things. But other instruments also may be admitted for use in divine worship ... This may be done, however, only on condition that the instruments are suitable, or can be made suitable, for sacred use, accord with the dignity of the temple, and truly contribute to the edification of the faithful.

A very important instruction on sacred music issued in 1967, Musicam Sacram, repeats this passage from Sacrosanctum Concilium, and then adds the following:

63. In permitting and using musical instruments, the culture and traditions of individual peoples must be taken into account. However, those instruments which are, by common opinion and use, suitable for secular music only, are to be altogether prohibited from every liturgical celebration and from popular devotions.

       Any musical instrument permitted in divine worship should be used in such a way that it meets the needs of the liturgical celebration, and is in the interests both of the beauty of worship and the edification of the faithful.

       64. The use of musical instruments to accompany the singing can act as a support to the voices, render participation easier, and achieve a deeper union in the assembly. However, their sound should not so overwhelm the voices that it is difficult to make out the text; and when some part is proclaimed aloud by the priest or a minister by virtue of his role, they should be silent.

It is true that, given the broader sense of enculturation of the liturgy that we have today, it is much more common to utilize other instruments which in some cultures are associated with worship in the mindset and practice of the people. Nonetheless, the basic liturgical principles enunciated here are timeless, and still apply as much today as they did the day they were written, namely: (1) the primary purpose of instrumentation is to support the singing of the assembly, and therefore it should not overpower the voices of the people, both in terms of volume (the number of instruments employed should therefore not be exaggerated) and of style (showy musical embellishments more appropriate to a performance should be avoided); (2) instruments commonly associated with secular use must be incorporated in such a way as to be consistent with the sacred character of the liturgy, and not simply reproduce the profane in a sacred context; and (3) there nonetheless remain some instruments that, by their very nature, cannot be suitably adapted into a sacred context.

In the Parish Context 

Now, some people might say that this is all fine and dandy, but it’s irrelevant because it’s not what’s happening in our parishes. Well, if you see a discrepancy between what is in the pages of the Church’s documents and what is going on in our parishes’ liturgies, it’s not because the documents are wrong!

This is where the three approaches can be so easily illustrated. The ideologue will simply start mandating changes without talking to people, seeking to understand them, and, most importantly, teaching them. He’s in charge, so he does what he wants, and even if what he wants is what the Church says we should be doing, he alienates people. The lazy priest simply lets things drift off on their own, and get further and further away from what the Church teaches about how we are to worship. This, too, will inevitably begin to affect how and what his people believe, and so weaken their faith. But the pastoral priest will educate his people about what the Church teaches, what the Council really had in mind for authentic liturgical reform; he will begin to introduce changes gradually, probably targeting one principal Sunday Mass to build it up as the one with special solemnity. He also will not take anything away from his people; he will keep the contemporary music at the other Masses, and teach the musicians how to do it well. In this way, he will facilitate liturgical renewal organically. And it can be done. I’ve seen it done. I know pastors who inherited a parish in shambles (in one of them, the kids’ swing set was in the pastor’s back yard!), and, by approaching it precisely this way, they have completely transformed their parishes: the Masses are full, there are long lines for confessions, the full spectrum of ministries abound – even including the teaching of Natural Family Planning – and people are on fire for their faith.

This won’t happen with the ideologue or the slouch. When the ideologue discovers that the high school kid is having a great time banging away at the drums at Mass, he’ll tell him to take a hike. Never mind that this was his one connection to the Church, and maybe even hope for keeping out of trouble. Of course, the slouch will just let it continue, maybe even encourage it, and pretend as if it’s enjoyable. The true pastor will befriend the young man, guide him as to how he can use his instrument in a way that supports the singing rather than drown it out, and begin to sensitize the musicians to their proper role. When the young man graduates and leaves for college, there is an opportunity to make a subtle change of direction.

This pastoral, organic approach is what we are trying to model here at St. Patrick’s Seminary. Gregorian chant is to have the first place in music for worship; one day a week and one Sunday a month is hardly “first place.” But it’s a start in educating you in this rich patrimony of the Church. If you are going to implement what the Church is asking us to do, you first need to understand it and appreciate it so that you have the vision; you then need to learn how to do it in a pastoral way. But if you don’t have the vision, it will never happen. This is an institution dedicated to the formation of Catholic priests; how could anyone consider it unreasonable that it wants to educate you in Gregorian chant? You are – God willing – going to be Catholic priests! Catholic priests should not know Gregorian chant?

At the same time, you all need to be familiar with classic hymnody. There is a certain repertoire of hymns that all Catholics should know. You need to know this repertoire and appreciate it yourself, if you are going to inculcate it in the people of your parish. And, yes, it is true that, at the majority of our parishes’ Masses, it’s contemporary music that is used. You need to know how to use that well; you need a lot of discernment here. There is just simply a lot of bad music out there; you need to know how to distinguish bad music from good. And you also have to pay attention to the words, because there is also a lot of bad theology. For example, a lot of popular contemporary Church songs use the phrase, “we are the body of Christ.” That is not Catholic theology, and it is not scriptural. St. Paul says that we are “one body in Christ.” “We are the body of Christ” says that this is our body to do with as we will. Sound like a familiar argument? There we see narcissism reeling its ugly head again. There is one song that even explicitly endorses narcissism. The refrain goes like this: “Behold the Body of Christ, Jesus our Savior and Life! Rejoice O people of God! We are the Body of Christ!” You have all studied logic, so do the syllogism: major premise – behold the body of Christ; minor premise – we are the body of Christ; conclusion – let us behold ourselves. But if we are one body in Christ, with him as our head and we the members of the body under him our head, that is something quite different. We are under his authority and dominion. It’s his Church, and he gave her to us for our sanctification, not to do with as we will.

In addition to paying attention to the quality of the music and the words, you also have to be sensitive to the liturgical season of the year. What the Church really envisions us doing at Mass is singing the propers at the entrance, at the preparation rite, and at Communion. In fact, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal lists the options, in order of preference, this way (n. 48; cf. nn. 74 and 87):

(1) the antiphon from the Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song from another collection of psalms and antiphons; (4) a suitable liturgical song … approved by the Conference of Bishops or the diocesan Bishop.

Notice how the lowest preference is the one that is almost always done. This can’t be changed overnight, but it is possible to pick hymns and songs conducive to the season, and perhaps even to the given entrance and Communion antiphon from the Roman Missal for the given Mass. Besides the ones with bad theology, there are also a lot of contemporary songs that are straight from Scripture, especially the psalms. There will be times that you can find a wellknown contemporary song that is taken from the same psalm (or other Scripture passage) as one or both of the antiphons from the Mass of that day.

The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music - Guest Article by Roseanne T. Sullivan

Our thanks to Ms. Sullivan for this write-up of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, newly founded in the diocese of San Francisco by His Grace Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Fr. Samuel Weber, O.S.B. 

If you are a lover of reverent Masses, this is the kind of news that could make your heart soar. 

Regina Magazine’s Secret Insider’s Guide for Priests issue (December, 2013), included an article with breaking news about a new liturgical institute that was about to be launched in the archdiocese of San Francisco. On January 5, 2014, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Father Samuel Weber, OSB, the institute’s founder, officially revealed more specific details about the goals of the institute. 

In his introduction, Archbishop Cordileone announced the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship. The institute is fittingly named after the Pope whose book The Spirit of the Liturgy, written before his election to the Papacy, made a persuasive case for many liturgical practices that had fallen out of favor in the liturgical reforms that took place after the Second Vatican Council. Benedict XVI, of course, is the same Pope whose motu proprio Summorum Pontificum defended the Traditional Latin Mass as never having been abrogated, named it the “Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite,” affirmed it was just as validly a part of the Roman Rite as the Ordinary Form, and gave permission for it to be celebrated more freely with fewer restrictions. This new liturgical institute is just one of several initiatives that Archbishop Cordileone has launched to put the principles of The Spirit of the Liturgy and Summorum Pontificum into practice. 

Archbishop Cordileone

After the archbishop’s introduction, Fr. Weber demonstrated that it is easier than people might imagine to train people to sing chant well without any instruction on how to read the chant notation. Rehearsing with a program he had prepared with chants of his own composition, Fr. Weber prepared the 200 or so people who attended the event to chant hymns and psalms at the Benediction and Vespers of the Epiphany. Even though most of those attending had never been exposed to chant before,  the congregation sang the Gregorian chant in the service very well. As one commenter on Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s blog noted, “Vespers was fantastic, presided over by Abp Cordileone, and cantored by Fr. Weber, chanted in its entirety. Before we went upstairs to the Church for vespers, Fr. Weber did a quick tutorial/run-through of the chants for vespers, and unsurprisingly, everyone picked them up quite easily.”
Photos courtesy of Roseanne T. Sullivan and Sancta Trinitas Unus Deus: Traditional Latin Mass Society of San Francisco. (sanctatrinitasunusdeus.com)

Fr. Weber training the faithful to sing Vespers.

The cover of the chant booklet put together for the event.

The hymn for Vespers of the Epiphany.

Incensation of the Blessed Sacrament at Benediction

Fr. Weber leading the congregation in chant.

Although the liturgical institute is housed at St. Patrick’s Seminary, its focus will not be only on seminarians but also on laity. Father Weber has affirmed that part of his work in the Institute includes teaching duties in liturgy and Latin at the seminary. “Seminarians who would like to learn the Extraordinary Form and have the permission of their diocese may do so. At the direction of the Archbishop, a chapel has been designated for celebrating the Extraordinary Form, which is available on certain days.”

A large part of the work of the institute will be to provide formation for lay people who are exercising ministries at parishes, and courses will be offered that will lead to certification in specific ministries. For example, Extraordinary Eucharistic ministers will be taught the theology of the Eucharist. Lectors will be taught Biblical theology, so that they will understand the context of the readings and what they mean in the history of salvation.

The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship supports pastors in their efforts to form lay people for liturgical ministries, including music directors, parish musicians, acolytes, and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. The Institute will offer courses toward certification both online and at parishes. The Institute is based at Saint Patrick's University and Seminary in Menlo Park, California in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. - http://www.benedictinstitute.org/

If we are going to enter into the true spirit of the liturgy, we need to inculcate a liturgical spirituality, a liturgical devotion – Archbishop Cordileone.

The archbishop emphasized the importance of music in the new institute: “The heart of the institute is music.” The goal is to “reclaim the sacred music that is so much at the heart of our celebration of the Mass.” To do this, the institute will promote “what the Church has been asking us to do for a really long time, beginning at the Second Vatican Council” and continuing with “so many documents since, including the current General Instruction on the Roman Missal: Gregorian chant is to have first place in music at Mass.” Even when contemporary music is used, the parish musicians, as in any field, need to understand the tradition, so a course in "The Tradition of Sacred Music" will be required.

For more information, see this article from Catholic San Francisco.

For photos of the event, click here. 

For a videos of the event, click here and here.

Archbishop Cordileone has taken several steps to improve the liturgy during his first year in office:
Initiated the creation of a Liturgical Institute at the seminary to improve the celebration of the Mass and church music, with the help of Fr. Weber, a world-renowned expert and composer of Gregorian chant, who previously founded and directed a trail-blazing Institute for Liturgical Music in St. Louis. See this article “New Liturgical Institute in San Francisco” for more details.

Established a weekly Extraordinary Form Mass at a San Francisco parish church during normal Sunday morning Mass hours (at 11:00 a.m.), weekdays at 7:30 a.m. and First Fridays at 6:30 p.m. When the pastor, Fr. Mark Mazza, asked Archbishop Cordileone who was going to celebrate the Masses, Cordileone told him that he was going to be the one. For the first time in about 50 years, what used to be the normal Latin Mass is being said regularly again in a centrally-located regular parish by a regular parish priest during regular Sunday Mass hours (before noon).  See this article for more details.

Commissioned the fledgling order of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph to dedicate themselves to liturgical reform in the archdiocese of San Francisco. Prof. William Mahrt, Church Music Association of America president, Editor of the journal Sacred Music, and director of St. Ann Choir has been teaching the two COSJ priests, and preparing booklets from them to use to chant the Divine Office. Canon Olivier Meney, a priest of the Institute of Christ the King, trained the priests in the Traditional Latin Mass, and they began offering a regular Sunday EF Mass at 5 p.m. in the city of South San Francisco on January 19, 2014, and daily Masses Monday to Friday at noon. They are also being called upon to teach others what they have learned. See this article, “New California Men’s Order Will Teach Roman Liturgy” for more details.

Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship

The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship is a new initiative which will be based at St Patrick's University and Seminary in Menlo Park, California in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Archbishop Cordileone is founding the Institute at the Seminary and has brought in Fr Samuel Weber OSB, a renowned Chant expert, to help set it up. It was Fr Weber who set up the Institute of Sacred Music in St. Louis in 2008 at the direction of Cardinal Burke. The Institute's website is here and you can sign up to be kept informed. Regina Magazine has more information and will shortly be publishing interviews with some of the key people involved. 

JT on: Institute for Sacred Music website

We have waited a long time for this, but it is finally here: a web presence for the Institute of Sacred Music, Archdiocese of St. Louis. Click on the left and we can finally see the first posted versions of Fr. Weber's propers for Advent and Christmas (the posting of which had previously been caught in the thicket of copyright confusion sewn by ICEL and others). This is a wonderful beginning.

Father Samuel Weber tells it like it is

Part II of the Zenit interview with Fr. Weber is even more powerful than Part I. Here he speaks very plainly and frankly about the musical difficulties of Catholic parishes, the reasons for them, and the prospects for the future. He speaks in a way that is very clear and without any of the meandering around and over-qualification tendency of many people when speaking about these issues.

Q: Why did the Second Vatican Council state that Gregorian chant should be given "pride of place" in the Church's liturgy?

Father Weber: The Second Vatican Council's constitution on the liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium," as well as numerous statements of the Popes and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal [GIRM], teach us that Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony -- that is, sacred music sung in harmony -- such as compositions of Palestrina, are to enjoy "pride of place" in sacred worship.

This means that chant is not only to be in common use in the liturgy, but it is also to provide examples and inspirations for new compositions.

The reason for this is to assure a genuine organic development in the sacred music Catholics experience in worship -- in continuity with the Church's history, and transcending limitations of time and cultures.

Understanding and appreciating this universality in Catholic music for worship might be seen as one facet of the obedience of faith.

We need to remember, of course, that the Council teaches under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God is telling us both how he wants to be worshiped, and what best serves the religious needs of those gathered for sacred rites.

Before all else, worship is about God. It is the duty of the creature to know, love and serve the Creator, and to render to God the service of prayer, praise and thanksgiving that is his due.

Worship is about us, the creatures, only insofar as we desire with all our hearts to serve God as he tells us he wants to be served.

Historically, Gregorian chant is in direct, organic development with ancient cantilation -- chanting -- patterns of the psalms in temple and synagogue. This was the background and experience of the first Christians. So our chanting today is in direct relationship with theirs.

One can see, then, that when we sing the chant, we are truly "in connection" with our fathers and mothers in the faith.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph heard and sang many of these patterns of sacred chant in synagogue and temple worship. The apostles, the martyrs, the great saints whose witness continues to inspire us today, were all nourished on these traditions of sacred chanting.

Even the saints and blesseds of our own day -- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, for example -- all sang, heard and knew the chant and the traditions of sacred music inspired by the chant.

They were formed in this "school of sacred music" that is the chant, and, to borrow a phrase from St. Athanasius, the "gymnasium of spiritual exercises" that is the Psalter -- the Psalms of David.

I think, too, of my grandparents and parents, so many beloved family members, teachers and friends, who have gone before us "marked with the sign of faith."

How they loved the sacred chants, and passed them on to me with piety, devotion and reverence. What an opportunity to participate in the Communion of Saints. What could be richer or more spiritually satisfying?

Gregorian chant serves the word of God. It has no other purpose than to draw us to the sacred text, especially the Psalms, and to enable us to treasure God's word ever more deeply in our hearts.

It is entirely free of anything that is contrary to the faith, free of purely human agendas or experiences that lead us away from God's will and plan for us. To use the language of our computer age: The chant is "safe and secure." No viruses can enter.

Q: Benedict XVI has given a number of speeches discussing the importance of preserving the Church's heritage of sacred music, and a number of documents have been issued by the Holy See calling the universal Church back to that grand tradition, yet little seems to have changed on the ground. Why is there resistance to what should be seen as a form of Vatican II's concept of "ressourcement," that is, return to the sources?

Father Weber: Perhaps it is not so much resistance as a lack of communication and ineffective teaching that stalled things.

Pope Benedict is tireless in his teaching -- even before he became Pope -- for example, "A New Song for the Lord." An accomplished musician himself, he fully understands the power of music on the human heart, thus the central role of music in the liturgy.

Clearly, part of our task is to help "get the word out." I think we can already see many positive results of the recent actions of the Holy See concerning the liturgy.

For one thing, there is a growing interest among Catholic people in reviving their immensely rich heritage of music and art, and a real desire for greater beauty, reverence and solemnity in worship.

But when there is actual resistance? In the end, I believe that this comes down to the perpetual struggle between good and evil. God is constantly giving us all the grace we need to know, love and serve him.

But we are tempted by the devil, and suffer under the effects of original sin, so we sometimes make choices that, sadly, draw us away from God our Creator, and even extinguish the fire of love in our hearts.

It is the duty of all the pastors -- that God in his love has given us -- to call people back to that which will bring us true peace and blessedness. With great wisdom, over the centuries the popes, the Councils, have understood the importance of sacred music, art, architecture and ritual in the spiritual formation of the human person.

As a result, they have never ceased to teach us about the care that must be exercised in cultivating all sacred arts that serve divine worship.

Now it is our job to receive this teaching and implement it in our lives for our spiritual good.

Q: The book "Why Catholics Can't Sing" highlighted the abysmal state of congregational singing present in most American parishes. Why do you think parishes will be able to handle Gregorian chant? Isn't that harder to sing?

Father Weber: The author, Thomas Day, suggested -- among other things -- that people don't sing because the music they often encounter at Mass is not really worth the effort. Silence is one response to music that is inappropriate -- whether from the standpoint of aesthetics or theology.

Another factor is the disappearance of choirs from parishes, since choirs can effectively lead and encourage congregational singing.

It's encouraging to know that many people who are discovering chant for the first time are so strongly attracted by its beauty and solemnity that they want to become a part of its revival.

Speaking from experience, I would agree that Gregorian chant may require a greater discipline, more attention and sacrifice of time and energy in order to "make it happen" in our parishes.

But difficulty is not a real impediment.

In our American society we greatly value sports. I'm a Green Bay Packers fan myself, rabid, actually. I'm really grateful to the Packers for all the hours they spend in practice and preparation for their games. All the sacrifices they make. It's worth it.

The payoff is really something awesome. We, the fans, would settle for no less. Doesn't this same expectation apply to the things of God? It really isn't that hard to understand, is it?

St. Augustine taught the people of Hippo: "Cantare amantis est." Singing is characteristic of a lover. If the supreme love is, as we believe, between Christ, the Bridegroom, and the Church, his Bride -- can any effort be spared to express this love in true beauty? Is any sacrifice too much?

We don't have to guess at the song. This tremendous Lover of ours tells us the song that he wants to hear from our lips and our hearts.

This is our Catholic faith. What more need be said? Let us begin!