Author: Kathleen Pluth

I view the office hymns not only as devotional but as theological sources. This is not my own romantic idea but a theological method that St. Thomas Aquinas used in his works.

This is one of several reasons why the hymns we sing at Mass must not only be theologically sound, but theologically compelling. The hymns at Mass should not only not-weaken and not-threaten faith; singing hymns should be occasions for expressing faith and growing in faith.

I’m not exactly sure why this needs to be said, but it does.

In this hymn In caelesti collegio for the feast of St. Francis, October 4, the theological emphasis is on St. Francis’ likeness to Christ as stamped on his very person, in the gift of the stigmata. Thus being conformed to Christ, he has a special grace of association with each group of saints. Francis belongs with the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, and the virgins. Christ is the exemplar of all of these choirs of saints, and since Francis is conformed to Him, he belongs, with Him, with them.

St. Robert Bellarmine’s office hymn Orbis Patrator optime

It’s called The Low Churchman’s Guide to the Solemn High Mass: Keeping Loyal Anglicans Safe from Superstition Since 2013. And it is a riot. A sample from the post “Masters of Ceremonies.”

If a loyal churchman were to attend a Solemn High Mass (we are speaking here, of course, in purely hypothetical terms), he would see a throng of strangely-dressed people behaving oddly. By the time the service reaches its full swing, a wide variety of functionaries will be fulfilling various tasks: the organist is playing something, the choristers are screeching, the verger is guarding the chancel entrance, the thurifer is thurifing, and the sacred ministers are shuffling awkwardly in their ill-fitting shoes. Yet a closer look would reveal a person who doesn’t seem to be doing anything; he is wearing a cassock and surplice, and occasionally directs peremptory gestures toward the other people in the chancel. Who is he and what is he doing?

This person is an MC (Master of Ceremonies), and what he is doing is destroying Anglicanism.

On a day when some are recklessly ch-ch-charging the Ordinariates with over-ritualizing, um, rituals, it seems only right to hear from a dissenting voice.

I’m living for awhile in the Eternal City for studies, and spent some time wandering the city center today. I’ve come up with one single conclusion:

Rome is a city of facts.

Love or hate the churches and empire and buildings and streets and culture, you can’t escape the settled facts of the place. Rome so abounds with ancient things that every vista mirrors back its own longevity and one’s own impermanence. There’s a corner nearby: look down one direction, and there is the Forum. Look down another direction, and there’s the Colosseum. The things one meets at eye-level, the first-floor commonplaces of every city, are ephemeral and passing: the graffiti and the shops, and even the scooters. But look up, or over, or down aways, and you will see many, many things that have been and will be for centuries.

Of course, it’s not military or economic empire that makes Rome Rome for us as Catholics. It is our center because of the blood of Sts. Peter and Paul, those prime apostles and eyewitnesses to the Resurrected Crucified One, as these office hymns show.

St. Peter, downward crucified—
To honor God in how he died—
Securely tied, he sees unfold
The death his Shepherd once foretold.

On such foundations Rome may claim
The highest service of God’s name.
His noble blood has dignified
The city where this prophet died.

Let all the world, then, run to Rome.
Let families of nations come!
The head of nations teaches there
Beside the nations’ teacher’s chair. (from Apostolorum Passio)

The heavens’ porter, and earth’s sage,
The world’s bright lights who judge the age.
One wins by cross, and one by sword,
And life on high is their reward.

These are your princes, happy Rome!
Their precious blood clothes you, their home.
We praise not you, but praise their worth,
Beyond all beauty of the earth. (From Aurea Luce)

Musically, our facts are similarly ineluctable. Gregorian chant simply is. It has been here before you and me, and it will perdure, not only because of its history–which for us as Catholics is not a negligible matter–but particularly because of its suitability as a musical language of cantillation. Flexible, multiform, and gentle, it accompanies the scriptural words of prayer in a way that is sensitive to the words, as the kind of immovable facts they are: eternal, living, and effective.

Most things in this world are settled through marketing.

For example, there’s that old story about the Jesuit seminarian and the Franciscan seminarian. They both smoked cigarettes, and at their seminary they would hang out in the smokers’ doorway during classroom breaks. One day they got to talking about the way their religious activities limited their tobacco use, and resolved to do something about it. Both men committed to asking permission to smoke during prayer time.

The Franciscan student went to his superior and said, “Father Master, would you mind if I smoke during prayer time?” Father Master lost his cool. “Of course I mind, Brother! You’re a Franciscan! You’re supposed to be concerned about creation, and here you are smoking! Look at the carbon monoxide, think of your lungs! And, those things are very expensive, and you’re supposed to be in love with poverty! It’s bad enough that you smoke at all, much less during prayer time. Absolutely not!”

The Jesuit student went to his superior and said, “Father Master, would you mind if I pray while I smoke?”

It’s all in how you sell it.

Now, we who know Gregorian chant know that it’s what every parish needs. But perhaps we could do a better job of marketing. What if we were to phrase the question in a way that practically demands a “yes?”

1. Father, would you like the children in your parish to learn to pray?
2. Father, would you like the people in your parish to become more aware of the liturgical year?
3. Father, would you like the teenagers in your parish to be prepared to sing at international gatherings such as World Youth Day?
4. Father, would you like to improve the quality of the music in your parish?
5. Father, would you like to increase the sense of Catholic identity among the faithful?
6. Father, would you like to give the people in your parish the tools that they need to become better disciples?
7. Father, would you like to save money on hymnals and worship aids?
8. Father, would you like to take the guesswork out of choosing appropriate music for your parish?
9. Father, would you like your Sunday Masses to be more meaningful and awe-inspiring?
10. Father, would you like to attract young, professional-level singers, eager to volunteer to sing at your parish, simply because the music program is so wonderful?

If your Pastor says “yes” to three or more of the above questions, then you need to check out the latest in quality music, the Graduale Romanum and its companion volume, the Gregorian Missal. Think of it as an instant upgrade to the new i-Phone, except it’s for Liturgy.