Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: February 25, 2018
I don’t have as much room for my column in this week’s issue of The Carpenter, but as we continue our Lenten journey together, I think I do have space enough to deal with one question that I’ve been asked already in this holy season.
Here at the Cathedral during Lent we typically sing the “ordinary” responses of the Mass during the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass in Latin. (We use the best-known musical setting of this, the Gregorian chant from the Missa XVIII, which we often use in English as well.) So the question I get asked is “Why?” That’s a fair question, and it’s good to have an opportunity to answer it.
There’s actually no liturgical law that requires it. But the Church recommends it, and for a couple of reasons: it’s part of our liturgical history and heritage, and it advances demonstrable unity.
That second one is the more “official” one. After the Second Vatican Council back in the 1960’s, when the Church began allowing liturgy to be in the vernacular (English here), it wasn’t intended that Latin disappear. Priests were told to “carefully see to it that the faithful … also know how to say or to sing together in the Latin language those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertains to them, especially with the use of simpler melodies” (SCR Instructio, 1964, art. 59). And it’s a rule that’s been repeated over and over again since then in various other liturgical documents of the Church, especially no. 41 in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal which we use today. To do this is an expression of unity, especially at “international” Masses attended by persons who don’t all speak the same language.
Yet here at the Cathedral, I think it’s the other reason that predominates. In our music, art and other ritual actions (for example, the use of incense), we strive to preserve our rich heritage as well as develop new and worthy expressions of faith and worship. Yes, we also seek to provide opportunities for persons of various backgrounds, from various places, to express our faith with the rest of the worshipping community. On Ash Wednesday in particular, it’s wonderful to have more than a thousand people from all over come to Mass, and to hear them united in singing the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as has been done in the Church for more than a millennium (and in our Parish for 2¼ centuries!). But we also don’t want to “lose” the artistic value that such musical treasures have, since such things are sources of grace and blessing too!
Sincerely yours in the Lord,
Fr. Paul
