There they go again, those old lefties from the ivory towers of academia\u2026holding morning prayer in Latin. This was an unicum, for the 20th anniversary of the Medieval Liturgy seminar. (Much of the work of NAAL happens in seminars which meet together for their specific topic area throughout the conference.) Ably compiled by Dr. John Leonard, who was also precentor and primicerius scholae. A well thought-out mix of mostly Latin and some English (well-done adaptations of Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB), with schola doing the harder parts and all doing the easier parts.<\/p>\n
My reaction? I thought it worked well. Not everyone found it easy to chime in, but I sensed everyone trying with a good spirit. It bothered me that we celebrated the \u201cTertia Die infra Octavam Epiphaniae,\u201d which it isn\u2019t in the current Roman rite since Epiphany no longer has an octave. [I fully expect the Summorum folks to comment on that last statement.] But the idea was to follow medieval useage, albeit with common sense adaptations for this group.<\/p>\n
Checking my emotional barometer, I realized why I felt pretty calm as the whole thing went forward. Being in an academic setting, and with so many Protestants, somehow made it OK. In a post-modern world devoid of firm standards or canons, any and all aesthetic experiences are legit, including this one. Diversity and all that. But if it had been all Roman Catholics with a bishop presiding, the tension would have been unbearable \u2013 35 minutes of politicized angst about \u201creform of the reform\u201d and the meaning of Vatican II and you know the rest. Then this hit me: \u201cI bet older Catholics who remember The Bad Old Days aren\u2019t having my pleasant experience at all.\u201d It didn\u2019t take long for this to be confirmed. One fellow member of the Mystical Body found the service to be\u2026wait for it\u2026 \u201coppressive.\u201d Don\u2019t ya love generational differences?<\/p>\n
If there is a general outcry for it, I will offer up my wonkish critique of the psalm pointing, source selection, neume treatment, and such. But I\u2019ll wait for the general outcry on that.<\/p>\n
awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There they go again, those old lefties from the ivory towers of academia\u2026holding morning prayer in Latin. <\/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":[11,21],"tags":[621,38],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences-workshops-meetings","category-music-chant","tag-cal","tag-naal"],"yoast_head":"\n