Pray Tell is running a series on the liturgical history of Collegeville. The sub-series “From the Archives” reprints some of the Liturgy Committee meeting minutes from 1963 to 1969. This sub-series is a behind-the-scenes look at liturgy in Collegeville during and immediately after the Second Vatican Council.
The next record from the Liturgy Committee:
Minutes of the Liturgy Committee
October 10, 1963
Present were Fathers John, Daniel, Michael, Gerard, Aelred, Camillus, Wenceslaus, Leon, Fr. Adam, and Bro. Gerard.
In view of Father Abbot’s plan to have the community continue its discussion on the liturgy on October 22, the liturgical committee decided that papers be prepared in advance and be passed out among the community to serve as a possible basis for discussion on Oct 22. Papers were envisaged on topics such as indirect participation, the conventual Mass, and the structure of Eucharistic liturgy. Father Michael proposed that some literature on the liturgy be made available to the community, such as the Instruction of Pope Pius XII of 1958, etc. Father Daniel referred to Clifford Howell’s discussion of the problem of Gregorian Chant in his writings.
The committee discussed what form of Mass to suggest to Father Abbot for the future Sundays. Father Gerard suggested having a cantata on Oct. 20 in order to prepare the people for a suggested High Mass on Oct. 27. This led to a discussion of whether any form of liturgy without readings in the vernacular could be called good liturgy. At the end of the discussion the committee agreed to suggest the following forms of Sunday conventual Mass to the Abbot: Oct. 20—Low Mass; Oct. 27—missa cum deacono; Nov. 1 and Nov. 3—Solemn High Mass (since our students would not be here); Nov. 10, 17, 24, and Dec. 1—solemnized Low Masses; Dec. 8—missa cum deacono. One of the problems considered in conjunction with the question of what forms of Sunday Mass to suggest to Father Abbot was that by having solemn liturgical forms on the great feasts we seem to render the liturgy more inaccessible to our people precisely at a time when we would be making it more accessible to them. European liturgists especially have noted this tendency.
In regard to the afternoon of November 1, the committee recommended that Vespers be celebrated at their proper time, instead of having the time advanced as has been customary, and that private visits to the cemetery should be made instead of a visit in procession.
The committee then accepted Fr. Adam’s suggestion that we recommend the purchase of more Gelinenu psalm books.
What disturbs many members of the committee is the custom of the heb. [Weekly Prayer Leader] entering the sanctuary before terce has properly been ended. The idea of “saving as much time as possible” does not seem compatible with the idea of “celebrating” Mass. Therefore, on days when hymns are sung the beh, [sic – heb.] should not enter the sanctuary until the hymn has been intoned.
The committee also decided that when the Brothers begin attending conventual Mass, the readings should be in the vernacular. This would be in line with the principle that the Word of God should be proclaimed in such a way and language that it be immediately understood.
A new translation of the Gloria, that is, other than the one contained in Our Parish Prays and Sings, was considered by the committee in its possible use for future Sundays, but it was not accepted on the grounds that it would be too confusing for our students. One suggestion towards solving the problem of undesirable translations would be to substitute new books for use by the students and congregation.
Other topics raised and briefly discussed were the possibilities of having students serve for the first shift of Masses so that they could communicate in the Masses and thus have fuller participation than our Brothers can have (they communicate at a previous Mass) and that of using a page-board on Sundays.
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