{"id":16115,"date":"2012-09-03T08:59:51","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T14:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=16115"},"modified":"2012-09-03T08:59:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-03T14:59:51","slug":"this-weeks-discussion-question-stability-and-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/03\/this-weeks-discussion-question-stability-and-flexibility\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week’s Discussion Question: Stability and Flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the great liturgical scholar Fr. Robert Taft, SJ, received the Berekah Award<\/a> from the North American Academy of Liturgy<\/a> in 1985, he said this in his acceptance speech about spontaneity:<\/p>\n

[L]et me enunciate a liturgical principle: ritual\u2026, a certain stability in the d\u00e9roulement of worship, far from precluding spontaneity and congregational participation, is its conditio sine qua non<\/em>, as is indeed true of any social event. Italian crowds spontaneously shout \u201cbrava\u201d to divas at the opera \u2013 but not in the middle of a an aria, because the conventions of civility dictate that there is a time and place for everything.<\/p>\n

When liturgy professionals talk about spontaneity, they mean their<\/em> spontaneity, not the community\u2019s. The only way to secure the congregation\u2019s appropriation of worship is to celebrate the order of worship that is theirs, and not lay on their already weary shoulders a spontaneity trip in which they have had no part. So variety must be limited, and the spontaneity of the congregation, not that of the celebrant, given pride of place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sounds rather like a call to order \u2013 which was no doubt needed back in the 1980s, when creativity and downright silliness were the done thing in many quarters. Taft appeals, an anthropological grounds, to the necessity that rituals be stable so that congregations can make the rituals their own.<\/p>\n

But in yesterday\u2019s Gospel reading<\/a>, Jesus is critical of the Pharisees who \u201ckeep the tradition of the elders\u201d and carefully follow the rules of ritual purification. Jesus quotes Isaiah, \u201cThis people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.\u201d Jesus says of the legalistic Pharisees: \u201cYou disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think Fr. Taft gets it right about stability and spontaneity. He rightly criticizes celebrants and others who disregard the ltiurgical books and impose their spontaneity upon congregations. This doesn\u2019t preclude spontaneity, but makes it possible. (It\u2019d be interesting to hear more about how this spontaneity evolves and what it looks like, but Taft didn\u2019t go into that in his speech.)<\/p>\n

Let me ask: what is the greater danger today, over 25 years later, to the Church\u2019s liturgical life? Is it disregard of the books, imposition of private agendas, and loss of a common ritual vocabulary? Or is it Pharasaic legalism, idolatrous divinizing of merely human social constructions?<\/p>\n

On anthropological grounds, stability is necessary. On evangelical grounds, human aspects of organized religion must not be absolutized.<\/p>\n

What needs reassertion today? Stability or flexibility? Do we need to respect the nature of the rite? Or take a deep breath and relax?<\/p>\n

awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the greater danger today to the Church\u2019s liturgical life? Is it disregard of the books, imposition of private agendas, and loss of a common ritual vocabulary? Or is it Pharasaic legalism, idolatrous divinizing of merely human social constructions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[2140,38,2139,625],"class_list":["post-16115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgical-spirituality","tag-berekah-award","tag-naal","tag-ritual","tag-robert-taft"],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week's Discussion Question: Stability and Flexibility - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/03\/this-weeks-discussion-question-stability-and-flexibility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week's Discussion Question: Stability and Flexibility - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the greater danger today to the Church\u2019s liturgical life? 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