Liturgical Silence
Dobel, J. Patrick
associated with fraternal "socialist" countries, and in no in- ship should result in Russian-Chinese detente, it is unlikely stance has the United States instigated them. Consider...
...spaces in the Mass are of special importance and rubrically Silent liturgical moments of reflection and awareness before compatible with the reforms...
...The fruition of participation in the Word ever, often interfere with the reflective activity of the mind...
...3:15...
...it should not control...
...For there is a "time to keep silence, and a in trust shall be your strength" (Is...
...less dramatic outbreaks in Poland and East Germany and There is no cause to be Pollyannaish about the international other displays of anti-Soviet feeling among the Warsaw Pact and national security problems confronting the United States: countries...
...aware" participation which the mind and openness permit...
...In his church, as in most churches, the place which congregation as choirs sang and the priests mumbled incomsuggested "optional silence" or "communion song" had -'prehensible words, the dominant image of silence in the Conbeen filled with the militantly joyful singing of community stitution is that of mindless passivity...
...But we must have time knowledge our fear, shame and sorrow and through grace and to reflect and "make the word our own...
...Angela O'Gorman, Kansas City, Missouri Ms...
...Pax Christi membership is open to all who wish to share its City, State, Zip purpose and services...
...clear weapon that is not yet fully deployed...
...To concentrate upon the "glow of fellowship" from human immediacy ignores Bonhoeffer's warnings that " Christian brotherhood is a spiritual and not a psychic reality," and that "we are bound together by faith, not by experience...
...associated with fraternal "socialist" countries, and in no in- ship should result in Russian-Chinese detente, it is unlikely stance has the United States instigated them...
...we live in a dangerous, often-times unpredictable world...
...Peace and silence are times tages of turning to the vernacular will be easily lost...
...To the melody of your harp I will not listen...
...Raw fear only too reflect, experience and absorb God's presence and Word...
...hydrogen bomb there is no longer any distinction between The commonly accepted position that the U.S...
...sing psalms and experienced most appropriately in silence...
...John of the Cross puts it this way, posed to be performing, be it sleep, work, wake-up, or patrio"The Father spoke one Word, which was His Son, and this tic activities...
...MAKING ROOM FOR PUBLICANS IN CHURCH Liturgical silence J. PATRICK DOBEL wife asking him to "sing along" because his obvious silence and intensity were setting a bad example for the children who And the publican, standing afar off, would not wanted to know why "dad doesn't sing...
...It would insure that SALT H actually more than a half million times the destructive power of the limits arms, rather than merely managing them...
...These attempts to create a community upon emotional the appropriate responses to God are possible...
...Negotiations must, and crippled...
...4:6...
...We look rather to continuing dialogue to produce a can, produce better results...
...The absolute should deterrence fail and give way to mutually assured de- break in the planning and production of new weaponry would struction...
...The real not mediated or controlled by the community but is an ineluctcompletion of hearing the Word is learning the Word and ably free personal encounter more intimate than any available affirming it as a determinative part of one's existence...
...My point is that we need a liturgy in which all gation...
...He would silently reflect Sacred Liturgy...
...and sacramental symbol is a rich awareness of God's grace and 3 August 1979: 431 (ADVERTISEMENT) PAX CHRISTI CAMPAIGN...
...I easily leads us to hide behind silence (Job 31:32) and take believe this evolution of the liturgy violates the spirit of the Amos's advice, "therefore he who is prudent will keep silent liturgical reforms...
...have to take risks and make sacrifices to protect ourselves and All of the above have significant implications for the ability to achieve our international objectives...
...Third, silence is and to practice justice and bear witness without noise, posturappropriate for some basic worship-full responses we make to ing and incessant emotional recharging for "in quietness and God's presence...
...S II.ENCE AND reflection can easily be integrated into the Finally, the church can resurrect some of the meditative and liturgy without undermining the basic thrusts of the re- devotional services often shunted aside in the rush to maximal forms...
...The institution can manipulate the emotions of people and create the illusion of a community based upon he moment should be uncoerced and common good feelings and if everyone at least feels the same, no congregational song or associated the harder questions of dogma and discipline can be ignored...
...This is aggravated by the decline of the Catholic educathrough the uniquely personal act of eating and digesting food, tional system and the failure to replace Catholic schools with we must respect the integrity of the symbolism and the unique any workable or effective form of religious education for individuality of each person's meeting the Lord...
...culation that they can do so may bring about the confrontation Turning to Sino-Soviet enmity, even if a change in leader- both wish to avoid...
...True convictions personal conviction...
...A spokesman for the State merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation...
...port...
...The music was finely modulated to role: "there was silence, then I heard a voice" (Job 4:16...
...11:1...
...Isaiah's angry plaint, "listen to me in silence," fills life with song, dance, constant community activity and was normal for the prophets...
...First, the time of reflection after God allow us to come to a greater and fuller integrity of belief, the homily must be respected...
...A liturgy that fails to help people God...
...of invited reflection and comprehension of the meaning of the Doctors know only too well that the body and soul often heal words...
...stockpile of nuclear warheads, ally assured destruction...
...The most intimate reflection and intellect do not engender true Christian indi- moment of a Christian's life is all too often violated by song viduals capable of bearing witness in the world...
...hand, unable to sustain individuals in the world, the commu- The moments of silence and reflection can be accompanied nity swallows them and generates public posturing and asser- by music and choral work, but only of a certain variety...
...Here brings despair...
...These moments also provide choir song or unaccompanied music would be appropriate as appropriate opportunities for intimacy with the Lord to acthe offerings are brought up to the altar...
...Too much silence, however, would be as inappropriate as a We hear, listen and meet God in the openness of our life in service with no room for silence...
...These are the convictions capable of recollection and of the reflective emergence and deepening of daily life in a predominantly pagan culture...
...This uncertainty is clearly worth many do so, neither can return to a by-gone era when they could divisions, yet defense experts citing.the superiority of the shape events to their liking if they were prepared to risk a Warsaw Pact over NATO often do not mention it...
...Thus article 27 states, "The presence t is easier to create a visceral orthodoxy and active participation of the people, this way of celebrating through emotional and behavioral is to be preferred, as far as possible, to a celebration that is manipulation than' to give free range to individual and quasi-private...
...After Jerusalem had been sacked "the elders of silence and reflection, the whole liturgy shortcircuits the rethe daughters of Zion sit on the ground in silence" (Lam...
...Enclosed is $___to support Pax Christi's peace education work...
...But it is a gross error to of the Soviet Union to achieve its foreign policy objectives...
...Three complement the new Mass rites...
...First, entails an enduring emotional commitment which is fortified silence is integral to learning...
...In "waiting upon",the Lord, our silence is not soporific but The speaking and noise of others and even oneself, how- complete and full...
...participation...
...Peace, has as its primary objective to work with all people • I wish to join Pax Christi...
...treaty that would actually limit nuclear arms now...
...Luke 18:13) parts of human and religious life...
...I recall the story of a friend who M UCH of of the problem can be traced to ambiguities about recounted how the few moments during communion time were the role of silence and reflection in the Constitution of the a very important moment in his life...
...The community which relies upon emotional immediacy for its unity mistakes "togetherness" for a community mediated by similar to Thomas's "My Lord and my God...
...tion...
...In B U'r THE present liturgy undervalues the role of silence and silence we bask in God's love and acceptance and return our reflection and encourages maximal forms of "external own unfettered by language...
...It is important in foundations of sand often produce their own backlash...
...oneself to God's presence and be under no compulsion to sing, In silence also lie the sources of freedom, intention and speak or gesture...
...deep reflection to complete the act of hearing...
...It conference for religious leaders...
...It further denigrates the role of silence with its Awe-full worship and intimacy are emotional responses to increasing exclusion of the classical repertoire of music and God's presence for which silence is often the most appropriate song which provided an opportunity for individuals to pray, mode of experience, but there are others...
...Pax Christi USA Executive Council Mr...
...Gerard Vanderhaar, Memphis, Tennessee Chairperson, Executive Council Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Detroit, Michigan President, Pax Christi USA Dr...
...Even today, an soul...
...II The creation of real convictions involves a transformation of will and intellect, not just emotional responses to a "call...
...no question that Soviet distrust of the East Europeans serves as Both still possess enormous capacity to wreak havoc in the a limiting factor to the Soviets fully utilizing their economic, world, but neither has the means to control the fate of the vast political and military leverage in Europe and, under certain majority of people who live outside their borders...
...SALT II does not answer to the need to change our these groups who saw SALT H and successive SALT treaties weapons policy...
...Create-the hour is ripe and time presses- ever wider areas of disarmament...
...too dangerous to continued adherence to community norms...
...People return for their weekly doses of good feelings, which soon dissipate in a secular world...
...To worship the truth, we must first hear and learn the program depicted an anti-utopia where the society was forced Word of a God "who cannot deceive...
...30:15...
...One would think hand, individuals leave their Sunday well of good feeling, and the normal desultory response at that time would inform the with no rational or ethical demands upon them they easily priest and song leader that there is something else happening make their accommodations with the world...
...not do when he told Congress that a policy based on nuclear By this vote, PAX CHRISTI chose a different path from weapons erases the distinction between global war and global eighteen religious groups...
...By denying opportunities for of it in silence...
...These familiar the kiss of peace make it very easy to confuse glandular unity sounds tap easily accessible emotional rewith true community...
...and Word leads to profound transformations in our ethical life...
...Without abetting this aspect, the great initial advanbest in prescribing rest and silence...
...In an age of the mutually assured destruction...
...weapons global war and global suicide...
...PAX CHRISTI USA has as Its priorities Disarmament, A Just World Order, The Primacy of Conscience, Education • Please send me-copies of this petition so that I can for Peace, and Alternatives to Violence...
...presence which are almost always associated with "peace...
...Solitary time to quietly and calmly reflect is bly kept silence," before he would preach...
...Joseph Fahey, New York City Dr...
...We must "be still before the Lord and wait paabsorbing of the word into one's being requires silence and tiently for him" (Ps...
...The miscalconditions, elsewhere as well...
...This equation of silence with being University of Michigan, Dearborn...
...Programs to im- promote the campaign...
...We need to reinte- bureaucrats and overzealous reformers...
...Personal communion is ultimately God's truth (Summa Theologica, 11,11, Q.4 A.1...
...estranged or passive was reinforced by the rediscovery of the Commonweal: 430 intensely public and communal nature of most Christian celebrations and sacraments...
...as a step forward in the relations between the world's two An amendment to SALT II should, at the very least, make mightiest powers...
...likely that one will look upon the other with fear and suspicion, -the Hungarian and Czechoslovakian revolutions in 1956 and causing both to maintain troops along a mutual border forty1968...
...But there is serious confrontation...
...five hundred miles long...
...At silence is banished by the Mass and sacraments...
...It L IruRGICAL silence serves three broad functions...
...from which we dissociate ourselves totally...
...Despite this emphasis, there are ample grounds in the Con- The exasperated phrase, "I can't hear myself think," sums up stitution for encouraging "liturgical silence" -a time during the dangers of not having what Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, the liturgy for free acts of the mind and consciousness, a time calls the "wonderful power of clarification, purification and when one can freely reflect, recollect, hear, meditate, or open concentration upon the essential in being quiet...
...There is a sense, of awe and involuntary worship (Habb...
...require an end to all research, development, testing, manufac- Pax Christi's Executive Council did not join other religious ture and deployment of any new weapon that is not yet fully groups urging ratification on the grounds that the terms of the deployed...
...Pax Christi intended no criticism of suicide...
...but far more imporgrate silence and reflection into the - rites to allow for the tantly it stems from the church's institutional need for some completion of our conscious hearing of the Word and to form of social control and consensus...
...If ignored, as it often is, then a moral conviction and worship...
...This to mortals...
...The tive prayer groups...
...preaching, militantly participatory congregational song and There is no need to abolish the new modes of external forging moments of emotional immediacy among the congreparticipation...
...A specific ban on such weaponry was pronounced by the bishops of the world at the Second Vatican Council in the words: Pax Christi USA and SALT II Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction Pax Christi USA was one of the organizations invited to of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their Washington in October, 1978, to participate in a SALT II populations is a crime against God and man himself...
...With its own authority respect the autonomous power of the sacrament and the in- crumbling and its symbolic and dogmatic panoply in considereluctable moments of unity with God's real presence...
...lift up so much as his eyes ur.:o heaven, but The pressures to end moments of silence and reflection are smote upon his breast, saying, God be merci- profoundly misguided...
...5:8...
...Meinrad, Indiana Treasurer Bishop Carroll Dozier, Memphis, Tennessee Ms...
...This very has roused himself from his holy dwelling" (Zech...
...Faith is...
...But let the space of reflection...
...There are no membership dues, but the organization depends on its members for financial sup...
...ments led to a clear statement of priorities in Article 30, "To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and hymns, as well as by actions, gestures and body attitudes...
...He is hands full of toil and a striving after wind" (Eccl...
...Hebrew made one of the forms of silence a we must adore and "be silent, ail flesh, before the Lord...
...to an interpretive reading of the Gospel or a finely wrought Not only do we comprehend and resolve, but we also worsermon...
...the other end of the spectrum, silence is the natural state of many of our most intimate moments...
...Our foreign The Soviets clearly cannot place much faith in the loyalty of policy and defense posture must be designed on the basis of the allies who in several circumstances have turned their weapons fact that, even if leaders in Washington and Moscow wished to on Russian troops...
...Consider for that the two Communist superpowers will ever manage to example: work effectively together as a single power center...
...They -can be moved into the framework of the liturgy with the priest's explanation, or introduced with IV a few potential lines of reflection which emerge from the scripture and homily...
...On the other which ought to be respected...
...Department reminded the group that the basis for peace in our By first use of such weaponry, hundreds of thousands of day is the possibility of mutually assured destruction, MAD human beings, chiefly non-combatants, were cremated alive for short...
...or intrude upon A liturgy which concentrates upon external participation reflection and meditation...
...publican in today's Catholic liturgy...
...When able disarray, the older definitions of community no longer God chooses to make his presence available to individuals work...
...It The central importance of God's truth through the word is is easier to create a visceral orthodoxy through emotional and underlined by the new liturgical importance of scripture, hom- behavioral manipulation than to give free range to the mysily and vernacular...
...On the one leaders demanding participation and control...
...free, strong and mature, or has it made him weak and depen- Third, the reception of communion should be a time of silence dent...
...Gordon Zahn, Boston, Massachusetts Sr...
...for peace for all humankind, always witnessing to the peace of Christ...
...Thomas Cornell, Nyack, New York Sr...
...3:20...
...12:4) before the majesty of the Lord...
...The image of silence as deadening and the reemphasis upon the social nature of the sacra- the mysteries of silence...
...junct from the liturgy...
...express, many of which are the word of Christ dwell in you richly...
...Ultimately liturgies and communities which ignore perhaps with choir or instrumental music...
...for he synonym for death and descent into the underworld...
...hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts" One centrall response, often ignored in the new liturgy, is the (Col...
...as being in opposition to ratification of SALT U. This would The fact is that most of these weapons would not be ready for have placed the organization side by side with groups who do use within that period...
...The freedom from compulsion or emotional ethical autonomy, and silent reflection upon God's presence intrusion is' absolutely crucial...
...A few years ago a television true...
...Congregational song and the recitative vernacular place an almost con- I stant burden upon the worshipper to speak, sing, gesture and "actively participate...
...The moment should be uncoerced and no congregational carry abiding convictions of justice and charity into the world song or associated music should be used...
...Great shame and sorrow poses significant dangers to the nature of the faith...
...It had encouraged adequate preparation and not find a word to say" (Nem...
...These song, Vespers, Stations of Cross and thoughtful novenas can should be used and respected instead of run through...
...We cannot support We trust that other groups concerned with peace as well as the possession of weaponry that would tell our Russian individuals will join with Pax Christi in urging a crucial and brothers and sisters that this is what we have in mind for them realistic amendment to the SALT II Protocol...
...also lead to silence...
...37:7...
...discussion were not moral terms with which Pax Christi could This amendment would give hope to those who see in SALT identify...
...flective process and denies individuals the "rich" and "fully 2:10...
...Hiroshima bomb, have do warrant in the gospel of Jesus...
...Devastating types of silence must be avoided...
...The importance of a underground and every place except the rulers' living quarters fully conscious "hearing" gives silence its primary liturgical had piped-in music...
...Even if the United States suffered a massive first begin a reversal of the arms race and could be a step toward strike nuclear attack, our nuclear response could still wipe outtrue disarmament...
...it can process of healing...
...HELP STOP NEW WEAPONS PAX CHRISTI USA supports a proposal to amend the millions of people...
...Quoting Shakespeare he stated that "much madness in Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
...Perhaps the flush of rediscovering the social aspect of the Mass not to we should remember "better is .a handful of quietness than two forget that Christ is present at Mass in several other ways...
...In its present form, the SALT II Protocol limits the utiliza- The position taken by Pax Christi was erroneously reported tion of certain new weapons for a period of two to three years...
...Then as a separate afterthought, "And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence...
...In supporting two superpowers, estimated at the explosive power of more an amendment, we do not want to see the negotiating process than a half million Hiroshima bombs...
...Hang your head in shame" is a response The liturgical constitution had emphasized the importance to those moments when we fail to live up to God's expectations of becoming fully conscious of the sacrament, the Word and and like the rebuked slave traders we "were silent, and could the community...
...for renewing our acquaintance with God and ourselves as well In response to these disadvantages, more emphasis is being as regaining the strength and solace often denied us amid the placed on interpretive reading, drama, better rhetoric in noise and demands of life...
...Eccl.3:7) The relation between freedom and silence is well acknowlChristian faith, wrote Thomas Aquinas, ' ` is directed to the edged in social control strategies...
...3 August 1979: 435...
...devalue or exaggerate American or Soviet power...
...Thus the limitation is all but meaning- oppose ratification, and on vastly different grounds, chiefly less...
...The mass murder and apocalyptic destruction made II hardly more than a legitimation of a policy based on mutu- possible by the present U.S...
...Jeans school of liturgy too often swallows the moment by In commenting upon the hours one must spend in a secular using a studied casualness to turn the consecration into a world, Bonhoeffer asks a question of Christian liturgies and family meal, forgetting that it also partakes of the paschal communities, "Has fellowship served to make the individual sacrifice on the cross and evokes the real presence of God...
...for members to identify with and no institutional socialization, the church has concentrated upon creating a form of visceral Commonweal: 434 orthodoxy...
...there in his assembly but also in his Word, in his minister and This evolution partially results from the unreflective and ".finally and above all, in the eucharistic sacrament" (The intolerant enforcement of the "new orthodoxy" by church Rites,.Pueblo Publishing, 1976, p. 456...
...ADVERTISEMENT) "Make gestures of peace, even audacious ones, to break free from vicious circles and from the deadweight of passion inherited from history...
...President Carter said to the Joint Session of Congress following the signing of the SALT II Agreement: "The truth of Such an amendment would give hope to those who see in the nuclear age is that the United States and the Soviet Union SALT II hardly more than a legitimation of a policy based on must live in peace or we may not live at all...
...We want no part in preparastockpile makes it technically possible to kill every human tion for either...
...it controls one's private life with peer music must invite and create vaulting arches of open space for pressure and a constant agenda of community narcissism...
...and we may result in a major Russian-Chinese war...
...In SALT II in its present form we see only the being in the Soviet Union many times over, and to make an management of nuclear arms, not their limitation and eventual "instant Auschwitz" of each of the larger Soviet cities, is one elimination as instruments of foreign policy...
...The parent who holds a crying hurt child become boring and routine unless it takes place in the context slowly assures them of safety and brings them peace and quiet...
...Second, the sym- mercy to partake of the process of healing and renewal of our bolism of the consecration should be respected...
...The other side of fear, shame and sorrow before God is the Rote recitation is the same whether in Latin or English...
...Paul waited until "all the assem- group discussion...
...This mass killing was later deis divinely sent...
...The proposal we favor would amend the Protocol to the need to maintain arms superiority over the Soviets...
...time to speak...
...While filling some institutional needs, it in such a time, for it is an evil thing...
...Second, silence is an opening to God's enable the individual Christian to live in a world "of foes," presence and part of sacramental worship...
...impossible the development of any new weaponry that could Pax Christi's Executive Council decided that this particular repeat and magnify that butchery...
...the conviction of things not seen" (Heb...
...What Salt II Does Not Do madness was not divinely sent and voted not to join the ReliPresident Carter underlined the reality of what SALT II does gious Committee for the Ratification of SALT II...
...Muzak' at shops and piped-in music at offices Word He always speaks in eternal silence, and in silence must and factories are designed by industrial psychologists to it be heard by"the world," short-circuit thought and influence behavior in certain patThe problem of gaining enough silence for God's word is terns...
...Mass approaches a weekly feel-good fix sponses and control the space of reflecaway from the world...
...The meeting place between a human being and will turning to God and an act of the intellect assenting to God isa a very quiet place...
...With no coherent set of beliefs, symbols or authority should provide space to amplify and enrich those moments...
...These familiar recalls the Lori's warning, "Take away from me the noise of sounds tap easily accessible emotional responses and control your songs...
...They are of special importance for deepening faith and conviction, and a liturgy without THERE IS very little room for the quiet prayers of the them becomes shallow and manipulative...
...justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an The moments of silence and reflection should not be diseverflowing stream" (Amos 5:23-24...
...As Christians we dissociate ourselves from SALT II Protocol to call for an end to all research, develop- a useless and loveless vengeance that denies the message of ment, testing, manufacture and deployment of any new nu- love and forgiveness brought to us by Jesus...
...Mary Evelyn Jegen, SND, Chicago, Illinois National Coordinator, Pax Christi USA 0 I authorize my name in support of the Pax Christi CamPAX CHRISTI, the International Catholic Movement for paign to Help Stop New Weapons...
...let all the earth keep silence before him" moment...
...we -the Sino-Soviet split which many commentators fear will must maintain military parity with the Soviets...
...Article 48 suggests this hymns...
...Any social organization which seeks control over life always there...
...It is more -the break with Tito in 1948...
...The musical tradition of the church and ignores internal participation recalls too many gospel abounds in music which, like the churches from which they stories-it is the Pharisee who loudly proclaims before God, it arose, evokes splendid settings for individuals to confront their is the publican who is saved...
...In our awareness of his presence, there is a wide range mand "joyful noise," and communal celebrations should "let of emotional...
...The liturgy children...
...Faith is not simply an emotional response teries of silence...
...Eileen Egan, New York City Bishop Walter Sullivan, Richmond, Virginia Dr...
...In maximize the efficiency of the function the people were supMaxims and Cbunsels, St...
...It does not touch the nuclear stockpiles of the as part of a process leading to an acceptable end...
...Finally in our deepest and comprehension on the part of the faithful and many of its darkest moments of honesty, we confront our sorrow and learn reforms tried to accomplish this...
...The Psalms constantly desilence...
...Silence and reflection are significant ful to me, a sinner...
...With care and integrity, Benediction, Eventhe Opening Prayer and Prayers after Communion...
...One day early in the new liturgy he was nudged by his quite clearly: "Christ's followers, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent specl. PATRICK DOBEL is assistant professor of political science at the tators (emphasis mine...
...Marjorie Keenan, RSHM, New York City Dr...
...3:13...
...To be in another's III presence and enjoy his or her company without the need to resort to words is a moment of profound joy and intimacy...
...Faith, deep and abiding faith, involves an act of the ship in silence...
...The concentration upon communal singing and moments like music should be used...
...We must provide for the moment when "The Lord is in involuntary hush descends over most congregations at that his holy temple...
...The rubrics already call for moments of silent prayer at participation...
...Yet the Levi God's presence and love...
...prayer and worship...
...Pope John Paul II, Message for World Day of Peace, 1979...
...plement these priorities include a newsletter, development Name of educational programs and materials, an annual national assembly, representation at the United Nations, and par- Address ticipation in the programs of Pax Christi International...
...responses we might...
...Reacting negatively to the familiar sight of upon his life and God or open himself to the sacramental rows of bowed or nodding heads, and vacant stares of the presence...
...wrenching moment of awe when we are left with "unspeaka- When God's voice is silent and his presence denied us, silence ble words" (2 Cor...
...it is the milieu of hearing and by reflection and reason...
...SALT II he maintained, should be supported scribed by Pope Paul VI as "a butchery of untold magnitude...
...Vincent DiLalla, St...
Vol. 106 • August 1979 • No. 14
