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 17, 1963
Present were Fathers John, Daniel, Michael, Gerard, Aelred, Camillus, Wenceslaus, Fr. Adam, and Bro. Gerard.
This meeting was particularly lively, centering around a discussion of what form of Mass was to be televised on November 24. As to the form of a Solemn High Mass, Father Daniel wondered if we were being insincere by deviating from our plan of having a solemnized Low Mass on this Sunday for the benefit of our students and if we weren’t staging something of a show instead. Father Aelred thought that a Solemn High Mass stresses secondary elements such as incense too much; he proposed having a missa cantata. Father Wenceslaus objected on the grounds that if we as an Abbey were committed to the liturgical movement—a notion held by many people, including dignitaries such as Cardinal McIntyre, as Xavier Rynne’s book brings out—then we were certainly committed to a concern so essential to the liturgical movement as the restoration of the vernacular. Hence he favored having a solemnized Low Mass. Some members of the committee expressed the fear that some people viewing a televised solemnized Low Mass would be confused or disappointed at not having a Solemn High Mass. Father Daniel replied that this would be a wonderful occasion to carry out our apostolate to the liturgical movement by suggesting to Father Abbot that he preach on why we are having a solemnized Low Mass, the basic reason being that it allows our students greater participation in the Mass.
To Father Michael, as well as to other members of the committee, the very idea of televising a Mass presented real difficulty. In televising the Mass, the producers would be presenting a symbol without reality—the reality being only at St. John’s. Further, doesn’t the televising of Mass in some way profanate the Mass by allowing the program to be brought into bars, cafes, etc. There have been cases reported of nuns genuflecting to the TV set as they cross the street, of a priest genuflecting to a Mass program on TV on his way to the altar where the reality itself will be made present, of an atheist cursing at a televised Mass.
In the voting, one member voted for a missa cantata, with the others voting for a solemnized Low Mass, with the chairman abstaining. Fathers Michael and Wenceslaus stated once more that we are for the sung Mass as a higher form of participation in theory; but we are not for it at the present time because it is not yet in the vernacular.
The committee decided that on some Sunday such as Nov. 10 the oratio fidelium should be prayed while the priest sits down, to bring out its proper character; then afterwards we could have some offertory hymn. Further points decided by the committee were that the novices should not be made to follow statio in coming out of their choir stalls to receive communion; further, that when the Brothers begin to attend Mass there be song at the opening and closing of Mass in English, since the Mass is a celebration, and that the redesigns be in English. Father Gerard is to supervise the song. Another suggestion of the committee was that on Sundays the procession should be short, from the sacristy to the altar, so that the prayers at the foot of the altar be somewhat downgraded, in corresponding to their character as a private preparation for Mass on the part of the celebrant.
Another suggestion was that the revised standard edition of the Bible be used at table for the Old Testament readings, since our Bishop has already approved of its use for certain publication of the Lit. Press, and since this will help the movement towards a common version of the Bible, one of the important steps in the ecumenical movement.
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