College Students on Why Church Music Should Be Sacred Music

It is often assumed as a given that the only way to reach youths today with the message of Catholicism is to hand it to them on a platter of their own design, couched in the language of their world, with the soundtrack of their music. And while this approach has had its ephemeral successes, the once-promised mass conversion of young people to the Lord of the Dance has never materialized, with studies showing an accelerating exodus from all organized religion, including Catholicism, no matter how emotional and relevant we think we are making it. (I have frequently addressed what is wrong with the “deculturation” approach and why we should harness the uncanny “shock value” of tradition: see, for instance, here, here, here, and here.)

What I want to write about today is the fact that there is a quiet counter-witness rising up from the very same young people to whom things like LifeTeen and the charismatic renewal are supposed to appeal, even though they often do not. Now I am not saying that these youths are the norm (if only!), but only that they represent a greater thoughtfulness and spiritual hunger than our society, and all too often, I'm afraid, our Church, believes to be possible in men and women their age.

So, then, to the quotations I would like to share. In the final examination for my music course at Wyoming Catholic College, students wrote essays in which they tried to express why contemporary styles of music are not appropriate for the liturgy. While most of what they said was a rehashing of Pope Pius X and Benedict XVI (not a bad thing—would that we had more rehashing in a world of forgetfulness), there were certain statements that struck me as well said and full of wisdom. Here are a number of passages I transcribed from their handwritten finals.

Man should be struck dumb with wonder at the immortal freshness of Christ’s unimaginable sacrifice and wish only to sing what is most like the choir of angels. Bringing in “rock Masses” or Praise and Worship not only fails to grasp the solemnity of the event, but turns it toward the people, who at that moment should be emptying themselves to God. … Far beyond accenting the participation of the individual, sacred music must aid men in decentering and forgetting themselves, so that they can melt like wax into the fire of the divine romance.

Another student made a similar point about the incurving trajectory (incurvatus in se, as St. Albert the Great says of self-love) of what is fashionable to our own generation and reflective of our preoccupations:

Instead of coming to worship God and conform oneself to His rationality, popular styles are necessarily the expression of a particular community. This quality encourages worship to cease movement towards God and reflect back to the congregation: it is their music, their choice, their expression of their emotions toward their God. Such action is not worship, but self-indulgence.

(One has to admit that this student has put a finger on a problem that is now endemic to the Latin rite, with its option-ridden and pluralistic Novus Ordo and the availability of the Tridentine Mass as well as the Anglican Ordinariate, namely, that how we worship as Roman Catholics becomes a matter of choice rather than something inherited, accepted as a given. But discussion of this point surely belongs to a different post than the present.)

Another student:

The mysterious nature of the liturgy keeps us from comprehending it, but also draws us closer because of the beauty and depth.  If we destroy this sanctity through a desire for acceptance by contemporary culture, then we have abandoned the great mystery.

And another:

Arvo Pärt’s music now contributes to the manifestation and diffusion of God’s holiness, artistry, and universality.

Could this not be said of all worthy sacred music? Its three qualities, as St. Pius X defined them in Tra le Sollecitudini, end up being a means by which God’s own perfect possession of those qualities is made known in the world.

Yet another:

Thus, “relevant” music should not bow to the influences of the century, but rather the truly relevant music of the liturgy ought to influence the people of the century to refocus and worship the presence of the Lord within the Mass.

I like how this student redefined relevant as that which is inherently so, and therefore informs and impresses itself on people, to make them relevant, in a way, to it, and to the Lord it announces. We are the ones who are clay in the potter's hands, and we need to be reshaped until we are relevant to God, rather than the other way around.

A different student had written in similar fashion:

Far from seeking a temporary, debatable, and always shifting “relevance,” church music must retain within itself elements that will keep it relevant to tradition.

That's a striking thought: our practices themselves, summoned to the court of truth, must defend their own relevance to the tradition we have inherited. If they are foreign to it, in tension with it, at oblique angles to it, they lose and tradition wins.

Another student, drawing on insights of Ratzinger:

Liturgical music must reflect the knowledge that liturgical action is an historical, cosmic, and mysterious reality. Pop music rejects the notion that sacred music takes part in a rich history which draws from its past as it develops. It also ignores the notion that worship is larger than any one person, any one group, or any one time; it drives all sense down into the particular alone. Finally, pop music treats worship as something to do, not as something to receive. In other words, the use of popular styles directly undermines the approach to God in the most insidious way possible; it preys on the congregation’s own enthusiasm and emotion towards their God and shuffles it back into themselves.
The sacred, far from needing help from modern styles, remains relevant: it is a conduit to universal truths. With its ground in transcendent reality, true sacred music needs to shake off modernizing influences like dust from its feet.

I find in the foregoing words an admirably precise critique of popular musical styles in the liturgy. They are bad, spiritually bad, because they are divorced from history, particularized, and activist, and thus anti-incarnational, anti-ecclesial, and anti-receptive. Essentially, this approach undermines Catholicism as such.

Again:

Pop music is not timeless. The music of the Church ought to be like her — transcending age, taste, mood, etc. However, pop music is specific to our modern time. We have decided to make shallow music for shallow men. We must remember that the music of the liturgy should reflect the reality it describes. Since the Mass contains mysteries ineffable and transcendent, should not our music reflect this? 

Should it not, indeed? That is the million-dollar question, as they say, and it is only our Catholic tradition, in its lofty ideals and clear priorities amidst artistic variety, that furnishes an answer not doomed to premature obsolescence.

A better paradigm

New Video Explaining the Traditional Office of Tenebrae

NLM readers may be interested in this short video that explains the Office of Tenebrae and why it is so powerful a way of entering into the Passion of the Lord. The video was produced by a group of students at Wyoming Catholic College, where we have been chanting Tenebrae for the past ten years. In recent years polyphony has been added to the chant (the video includes excerpts from a setting of the Lamentations by Palestrina and two responsories by Victoria, all for equal voices); this year the mixed Choir is preparing to sing Allegri's Miserere as part of two Tenebrae services. The video interviews Fr. Robert Frederick, chaplain at the College, as well as myself as the Choir and Schola director. Among other things, I touch on how popular Tenebrae has become, in spite of (or because of) the challenge it represents. While I don't say it expressly, the message is clear: the New Evangelization will reach young people better when it takes advantage of treasures like this. Enjoy!

The All Souls Requiem Mass at Wyoming Catholic College

In an earlier post I shared some photos of the Eucharistic Procession and Vespers with which Wyoming Catholic College sets apart All Saints as a special day.

The chaplaincy also sets apart November 2nd as a special day by celebrating a Requiem Missa cantata. This year the men’s schola prepared the Introit from Cristóbal de Morales’ five-part Requiem, often considered one of his final works and a sublime masterpiece by any standard. Morales gives the cantus firmus of the introit chant to the top line, here sung by the countertenor freshman whom we are delighted to have in the ensemble!

The remainder of the Mass was sung in the chant given in the Liber Usualis. Here is the Gradual.

A few photos of the occasion:

Lighting the Sanctus candle

ADDENDUM

Another motet from the WCC Men’s Schola: Jacob Handl’s 4-part “In nomine Jesu.”

Eucharistic Procession for All Saints’ Day at Wyoming Catholic College

A few years ago, students at Wyoming Catholic College decided to ask if they could do a Eucharistic Procession on the Solemnity of All Saints, in honor of Christ, the King of all the Saints. Since students are always gone in the summer time at Corpus Christi, they wanted to find a different opportunity to express their faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Thus was born an annual custom of processing from the downtown chapel (“De Smet”) to the town’s parish church of the Holy Rosary, singing English and Latin hymns. Students made banners based on their dorms’ patron saints. The traffic slows to have a look, and pedestrians step respectfully to the side, watching the long train of  students, faculty, staff, and family members pass by... watching Christ pass by.

The New Evangelization can surely take many forms, but without a doubt we need public forms like this one, a peaceful but powerful witness to our faith in Emmanuel, God among us, the Word made flesh. Once the procession reached the church, the faithful chanted Solemn Vespers, which concluded with Benediction.

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Tenebrae at Wyoming Catholic College

For the past seven years, the Wyoming Catholic College community has participated in the traditional Tenebrae service for Maundy Thursday on Wednesday of Holy Week. This year, with the enthusiastic agreement of the Schola, we added the Tenebrae service on Friday night for Holy Saturday. Both were well attended. It was for me a profound experience to get to know the Holy Saturday Tenebrae -- what an incredible example of lex orandi, lex credendi! The Faith would be far better known and loved if such liturgies as Tenebrae were a consistent part of the experience of the faithful.

Here are some photos, from both nights.

Tenebrae of Maundy Thursday

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Solemn High Mass with Monks of Norcia at Wyoming Catholic College for the Feast of St. Andrew

On November 30, the students, faculty, and staff of Wyoming Catholic College enjoyed the privilege of hosting a visit from two of the monks of the monastery of Norcia, Fr. Benedict Nivakoff, the Prior, and Fr. Martin Bernhard. The monks, together with college chaplain Fr. Robert Frederick, celebrated a Solemn High Mass for the Feast of St. Andrew. The student Schola chanted the Propers and the student Choir sang Hassler's Missa Dixit Maria, Verdelot's "Sit Nomen Domini," Byrd's "Ave verum Corpus," and Tye's "Laudate Nomen Domini."

Fr. Martin preached a rousing homily on how the words of Our Lord calling St. Andrew to drop everything and follow Him were not just spoken 2,000 years ago, but are spoken to us every time this Gospel is proclaimed in the liturgical action. Our Lord is calling young men and women in this very church to follow Him in a life of radical dedication, even a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience for the Kingdom of heaven.

Later in the afternoon, the monks led second Vespers for the feast, and met with men at the College who are discerning religious life.

We were delighted to have Fr. Benedict and Fr. Martin on campus (it was the third time monks of Norcia have come!) and we hope to welcome them or any of their confreres back again whenever they are next traveling anywhere near the Cowboy State.

Eucharistic Procession for All Saints and Mass for All Souls at Wyoming Catholic College

This past November 1, the students of Wyoming Catholic College organized a beautiful Eucharistic Procession through the downtown of the city of Lander and up to the parish church of Holy Rosary (where many collegiate liturgies are conducted). Chaplain Fr. Robert Frederick carried the monstrance. Once arrived at the parish church, the local pastor Fr. James Schumacher officiated at Solemn Vespers in Latin (OF), with the choir and the schola leading the chant. After Vespers, chaplain Fr. Hugo Blotsky conducted Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This, plus the college Mass at noon, made for a wonderful observance of this great feastday.

On the following day, the College celebrated the Commemoration of All Souls with an all-usus antiquior schedule: a Requiem Missa cantata before lunch, Vespers for the Dead before dinner, and finally a nighttime visit to the cemetery, where we prayed the Rosary, said prayers for the faithful departed, and returned to the church for Compline for the Dead (EF).

Candlelight Missa Cantata at Wyoming Catholic College for the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady

In honor of the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a candlelight Missa cantata was celebrated last night at Wyoming Catholic College. The collegiate Schola sang the Propers of the Mass.

Several things struck me about this Mass. The stark juxtaposition of light and dark threw into great relief the priest and his actions at the altar. Since reading a missal was difficult or impossible, one simply gave up on the idea of reading, and watched with eyes made keener by the surrounding black and the flickering flames. It was easy to surrender oneself to the motions of the priest at the altar as he went back and forth with the incense, or bowed to recite a prayer, or genuflected. His actions became mine: he was doing all this on my behalf, and I was assisting him with my internal attention and love. The unity of his action and mine was somehow strongly apparent: this was not "his work" but ours, as the Mystical Body of Christ, head and members.

Another thing that struck me was how the darkness deepened the silence and augmented the chant. A church fully lit can be silent, too, of course, but the very fact of everything being lit up in all its distinctness and multiplicity can create a certain "visual noise" that makes the space busy, perhaps even distracting. When you are in a dark church, the space collapses to the region of light: this become the light shining in the darkness that the dark cannot comprehend. The resulting silence is one of concentration, fullness, expectancy. How often is it so quiet that you feel your heart beating? The dark silence also "amplified" those parts of the Mass that were audible; it furnished a suitable but contrasting setting for the chant, like a gold ring for a precious stone.

Some of these things I had noticed before at our nocturnal singing of Tenebrae, but this was different because it was a Mass, and because the Schola was in the choir loft looking at the altar from afar. I don't know how it was for the many others who were present, but I know that I went away with an enormous peace in my soul, a sense of having entered more fully and deeply into the mystery of the Passion of our Lord and the Compassion of our Lady. For this, I say, once again and always, Deo gratias.

At the Introit

At the Gospel

Incense

Before Communion

Worthily Celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Outdoors

Now that we (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) are on the verge of summer and all the outdoor activities and traveling it makes possible, it seems worthwhile to discuss the phenomenon of outdoor Masses, which, if anything, seems to be growing in popularity as time goes on.

To state the obvious, there may not always be a good reason for having an outdoor Mass. As we know, Canon Law specifies that the normative place for worship is a consecrated church or chapel. On the other hand, if you are a group of Catholics who are going on a fairly long-term wilderness trek and you will be many miles (and even mountains) away from civilization, or if you are undertaking a multi-day pilgrimage from one shrine to another, then packing the Mass along with you may be exactly the right thing to do.

But it still must be done correctly — that is, reverently, with all essentials for the rite, and with no danger of profanation. In short, if one is going to have Mass outdoors, it must be done well; and if, for whatever reason, this is not possible, it would be better not to do it. Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801–1873), a true apostle of the American West, once said that one of the hardest things about being a missionary was how many times he couldn’t celebrate Mass because conditions were too hard.

I became interested in the question of outdoor Masses initially because of my involvement with Wyoming Catholic College, which features an intensive Outdoor Leadership Program that sends out all the freshmen on a three-week backpacking trip in the wilderness, with chaplains accompanying them for the first two weeks. Other outdoor trips, such as the freshmen’s week-long winter trip, have also been blessed by the presence and ministrations of our resident chaplains. I myself was fortunate to participate in a 12-day backpacking trip a few summers ago that was graced by the companionship of a Fraternity of St. Peter priest who offered the traditional Mass daily in the midst of some of the most breathtaking country I had ever seen. We even sang a High Mass for the Feast of the Transfiguration (I had packed a photocopy of the propers and ordinary).

My purpose here is to gather in a single article a sizeable number of photographs and pointers about outdoor Masses. In my opinion, someday a priest of traditional sensibilities who is at the same time highly experienced in backpacking trips and other outdoor events should write a comprehensive and amply illustrated book on the subject. While we await that publication, however, at least we have some wonderful photos to look to for inspiration and guidance, as well as ten pieces of advice that Fr. Antony Sumich, FSSP, shared with me as I was drafting this article.

Two Distinct Scenarios

When celebrating Mass outdoors, there are two distinct scenarios:

1. the “no holds barred” scenario, where, either due to the use of vehicles or a large number of people who can carry objects and don’t have to stay outdoors for a long period, one can set up the Mass with a certain fullness, including the use of tents, a portable altar, tall candlesticks, statues, chairs, and so forth, resulting in what might be called a temporary chapel; 
2. the “pack as lightly as you can” scenario, where fewness and lightness of objects is key, because the priest and his companions will be backpacking a long distance and carrying on their backs all their own food and gear. 

Of course, these two scenarios are not separated by a sharp line, and, in practice, one sees a variety of approaches and levels. The usus antiquior requires more items than the Novus Ordo, but, as the photos demonstrate, portable versions of everything have been developed with great ingenuity. (I suggest checking out St. Joseph's Apprentice, a company that offers many models, including the "Wilderness Altar." OnePeterFive ran a fascinating article by the carpenter who founded it.)

(1) Scenario 1: A Temporary Outdoor Chapel

Over the years, NLM has featured photos from many outdoor Masses that fit the description of the first scenario. Most notable, of course, are the Masses from the annual Chartres pilgrimage.

Another great example is the Mass celebrated by Fr. Sumich on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the African continent. Again, Father was assisted by lay Catholics who served as porters to carry up the table and other items seen in the photos.

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Newly Republished: Cantus Mariales — Rare 1903 Book of Marian Chants

Choirs and scholas often like to have a selection of devotional chants for ad libitum use. Books like The Parish Book of Chant have done an admirable job in this regard, but I often find there is a real dearth of Marian chants. I was therefore delighted when, some years ago, friends of mine delivered to me three copies of an exceptionally rare book published in 1903, Cantus Mariales, that contains 50 beautiful Marian chants for the entire Church year, as well as an Appendix of several litanies and antiphons. I am happy to announce today the publication of a facsimile edition, bringing this volume once again to choirs and scholas everywhere.

The story of how I came by these books is quite interesting. My friends were visiting Jerusalem, and happened to enter a monastery called St. Pierre de Sion, otherwise known as the Ratisbonne Monastery. They somehow got up into the choir loft (which is exactly what I would have tried to do myself!) and found a stash of old chant books, covered with dust and in various stages of disrepair, and evidently unused. When they asked a person who lived there if they could buy any of the books, he shrugged his shoulders and said: "Go ahead and take them, no one's using them." When my friends got back to Austria, they gave them to me and said: "You should be the one to get these, you'll know what to do with them."

One of the original books

Once I began to sing the chants inside Cantus Mariales — which bears the subtitle quos e fontibus antiquis eruit aut opere novo veterum instar concinnavit — I knew that I had stumbled on a goldmine that deserved to be republished. The editor, Dom Joseph Pothier, O.S.B., is well known to chant afficionados as one of the great maestros and paleographers of the Solesmes monastic movement. Dom Pothier ranged through manuscripts finding Marian sequences, proses, and rhythms from all centuries. Some of these were already fitted with melodies, others he adapted to existing melodies, and still others he set to neo-Gregorian compositions. At the end of most pieces, the sources of text and melody are indicated. (The preface and annotations are in Latin.) Here is the Table of Contents:

The short chant antiphons given for announcing each of the traditional 15 mysteries of the Rosary (pp. 125-31) are fascinating and could elevate the communal recitation of the Rosary in places where that is a custom, e.g., during a public Holy Hour.

The three original copies appear to be hand-produced: the pages show obvious signs of having been printed, cut, and assembled in small batches; each cover is marbled in a distinctive manner, and each book has discrepancies of spacing and placement, not to mention pencil and pen markings. The one I dismantled for scanning was in good shape and had few extraneous markings. I am happy to announce the availability of a full-color facsimile edition identical in content to the original, with a new cover.

An original copy (1903) and the new facsimile (2016)

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