Eggheads, pumpkin heads, & liturgical popularism

...This is but one part, albeit an important one, of a broader area of focus...

...Hawk feathers," I fibbed, hoping that this would not go much further...

...Somewhat non-plussed I said that I didn't know, but then had the happy thought, "Do you want to give it a try...

...He studied me for a few moments and said,' 'Hawks are no use...

...It is rooted very much in who and what we are, but it is also supposed to relate this to a God who is not our own creation...

...One of the liturgy's chief purposes is to serve as a transcendent symbol...

...25 April 1980: 237...

...My premise concerns the popularism of the new, American liturgy...

...If they dq not have what is truly transcendent they will create spiritual counterfeits...

...But the rubrics notwithstanding, there is a major difference in the liturgy as it is celebrated...

...Thomas More...

...People have a basic need for the transcendent...

...Last year I had a Mass composed for the 5OOth anniversary of the birth of St...

...And in this day of the increasing need to earn a congregation it doesn' t hurt to be thought of as a priest who does Mass real nice...

...Today we celebrate liturgies that have lost a sense of the transcendent...

...A deepening of the communal nature of the liturgy does not require that the minister of the liturgy put on a show...

...Augustine, a medieval creation despite its name and which has been incorporated into the groundwork of a number of religious orders, the religious and priests are instructed to stand out by the goodness of their lives, not because of their dress...

...He said, no, that he wanted something guaranteed to work...

...The intellectual, on the other hand, does not focus his or her credibility issues on the single priest celebrating the liturgy...

...When the intellectuals also happen to be scholars our need for and dependence on that inner process are especially acute...

...What, the medal...

...In fairness to them we should try to nourish their spiritual lives...

...There is an important inner process, what could be called a dialogue with himself...

...Rather, by intellectual I refer to people who, be it by innate ability, or by osmosis, or through good preaching and ministry, or education, have come to understand the church, its life and its belief, and who value this understanding...

...There is no good reason why we cannot have contemporary liturgy which pulls together the needs of people today with what is timeless...

...Initially I was moved by their sincerity and faith...

...The conscience of the church begins its movement frequently in our intellectuals' inner, private dialogues...

...Our popular and communal liturgy is not only not transcendent but seems to have the effect of focusing attention on the people in the liturgy...

...People need to find their church credible, and for many people this need for credibility has been focused on the clergy, on the single priest's ability to put on a good show...

...Ritual and transcendence are not co-extensive, and non-transcendent ritual is probably an important ingredient in magic...

...Hand-wringing or mourning the past, or even trying to recapture the past, are all efforts to no good purpose...

...Today we see some of our Catholic people moving into magic in a way which indicates that we are failing in our liturgy...

...contact with comfort...

...This was not intended in the liturgical reform and it is not built into the new liturgy, at least not to the extent that it is realized...

...I suspect that there are many more of these people in our church pews than we think...

...Considering the clergy's skill as showmen we are well advised to avoid the stage or run the risk of becoming peddlers of kitsch...

...That is what they were trying to accomplish...

...Among those not addressed by the new liturgy are our intellectuals...

...The problem is obviously not a new one...

...In addition to the dialectic process in the liturgy, we have developed a practice in the American liturgy which is common and, I believe, harmful...

...Because our new liturgy was produced as the result of so much hope and effort I believe that it would be wrong to offer a criticism without, as our young man suggested, an adequate theory...

...In addition there were a number of men and women, not Commonweal: 234 professionally involved in the work of the church, but very much, and thoughtfully, involved in its life...

...What we, the rest of us, receive from the intellectual in large part is the fruit of those dialogues, the conclusions...

...The new Hturgy makes much of the person of the priest...

...Is IT FAIR to lay this problem at the feet of the liturgy's new popularism and, if so, how does this affect the intellectual...

...Our liturgy has the potential for making the transcendent real in our lives...

...But all of it has a common and identifiable shape...

...And there is the dialogue with God...

...But it is an outgrowth of the popular dimension that is a part of the liturgy...

...I used to wonder how church could be good or bad—church was church...

...For whatever reason it no longer functions...

...But even if we do not see ourselves as having a responsibility to support their spiritual processes, then we should at least be smart enough to have our collective self-interest come into play in their support...

...For some reason we seem reluctant to do either today...

...The church in the past has tried to present its faith using transcendent symbols...

...I asked...

...It sounds elitist...

...programs for teaching seven-year-olds how to write Eucharistic prayers...

...As a result we have people looking, like this young man, for the right kind of feathers, or for a priest with the power...

...Recently I was approached by a young man I can describe only as a "Berkeley type...

...IT MAY BE tempting to add facetious remarks about that morning's liturgy, but that would be to miss the point...

...I hesitate to use the word intellectual...

...that the Mass is more communal and certainly more popular than in the past...

...I think it is fair...

...15, 1978]— "Here's where I came in"—and admit that we may well wonder whether this is saying something other than that the new liturgy is not as transcendent or reverent as the old...

...The readings were prepared and well read, the theologically rich homily brought compliments from a number of people afterwards, the prayers of petition were appropriate, and the music, both from the choir and congregation, unusually well done...

...Many a reform movement in the church has been built on prayerful and thoughtful evaluations of the way things ought to be...

...We also discovered that there are good composers who would be honored to be asked to compose for the new liturgy...

...Indeed, the liturgy was well done...

...Liturgy, our communal worship, issupposed to help us go beyond the world of our own making, a world by definition as limited as are we, and place us in contact with an eternal world...

...In short, like the double-knit TV evangelists with the styled hair-do's and the slick white shoes, the priest is expected to be a showman...

...In retrospect this seems about as transcendent as a triple martini...

...Now I know...

...I think I'll keep looking for someone with the right feathers...

...Blaise...

...Church becomes good or bad when the focus is on the show and not on the relationship with God...

...One inventive soul, obviously post-Whittaker Chambers, suggested the perfect liturgy in preparation for All Saints—stuffing hand-written prayers to your favorite saints into the Hallowe'en pumpkins set around the altar...

...We are witnessing the development of a priestly style in which the celebrant is expected to be able to ad lib in the fixed parts of the Mass as well as in those where he is expected to be adaptive...

...Things were beginning to seem funny by now, so I tried to think of something appropriate to the situation and said,' 'Feathers.'' I should have known better...

...patterns for wear-a-prayer vestments, whatever they are...

...It can suggest the individual whose learning might set him above the rest of humankind...

...To my surprise he was touched that his work should be used in the liturgy, asking only that the integrity of his designs be respected...

...It also has its drawbacks...

...But in the church we have long recognized the principle that the transcendent can be symbolized, and we have symbolized it...

...No, the blessing...

...The intellectual, I believe, needs to find the church's worship, as a whole, meaningful...

...In this context the individual priest does not loom so large, except for the priest who is on stage, and he can get in the wa>/ of the individual's participation in the liturgy...

...The composer and I both wanted it to be a Mass fully within the norms of the new liturgy, and in preparation decided that it would be good to see how other composers are dealing with the new liturgy...

...The reforms initiated by the Council have led to the development of an American liturgy, parts of it the results of the reform, parts not...

...The presuppositions about the person of the priest as he celebrates the liturgy are much the same as they were in earlier times...

...I suspect that the theologians who designed the new liturgy would agree with this view, and probably take it as a compliment...

...For these people, I suspect, the effort involved in knowing about the church is an important part of their spiritual lives...

...We have symbolized it by the willingness of Catholics to live Commonweal: 236 by transcendent values and have that willingness show, and we have done it by asking unusually creative individuals to benefit the church with their creativity...

...As he was fishing it out of his pocket he glanced sideways at the medal and asked, "Will it work...

...The liturgy has symbolized the transcendent in the past, and has done so because of human desire and effort that it should do so...

...Then I noticed that they were seeking the blessing of one priest in particular, and upon investigation it became clear that they thought he had more power than the others...

...In my youth, I recall, my Protestant friends might comment that, "Church was good today" or not, depending on the situation...

...We discovered that, for all practical purposes, they are not writing integral works for the liturgy, and are not doing so because no one is asking them to...

...We have symbolized it well and effectively, and there is no good reason to assume that we no longer can...

...There is no good reason why we cannot realize that same potential today...

...To begin with, the new liturgy is structurally more dialectic than the old, with the several parts of the congregation in dialogue with each other...

...This reluctance, however, seems primarily a clergy problem and is not based on an unwillingness on the part of the people...

...A liturgy which is centered primarily on any of the persons presenting it or involved in it is not apt to lead anyone to God...

...One genuinely pious and religious man commented to me that he liked to attend Father W's liturgies because "he does Mass real nice...

...I suspect that the most useful direction we could follow would be an effort to symbolize the transcendent, using the new liturgy to do so...

...The sets of dialogue in the course of the liturgy, such as the penitential rite, the public prayers of petition, the acclamations, and the sign of peace are examples of this principle in action...

...There is a difference between a heavily ritualized and spooky liturgy and one which conveys the message that there really is a God at the other end of the prayers and rites...

...He said that he had a medal he wanted me to bless...

...Nor is this singularity the preserve of the liberal...

...Granting that this popular-communal direction in the liturgy is a reality and not my own particular fantasy, and that it limits the usefulness of the liturgy for intellectuals, what can be done about it...

...I have witnessed attempts to recapture the transcendent by using the old liturgy and they ended up being no more than movements into magic...

...The showman with an antiquarian's penchant has a storehouse of properties at his disposal...

...He is not there to be a spectator to a one-man show...

...Even more, it can suggest a class, a group of people whose turn of mind gives them a claim to special treatment...

...Eggheads, pumpkin heads & liturgical popularism DAVID K. O'ROURKE HARDLY A DAY goes by but that the mail brings another encouragement to liturgical adventure: throatconformed candles for the feast of St...

...That movement beyond the community to God, without denying the presence of God in the community, is necessary for a full religious life for anyone, not just the intellectual...

...Not too many people today have that kind of faith that leads them to ask the blessing of a priest...

...It is easy to mock and thus to dismiss these attempts at ecclesiastical kitsch, attempts that assume that children are as dense as their parents are dotty...

...Travels through the country confirm the impression that this popular-communal orientation is common...

...We do not always share in the processes...

...I have witnessed some bizarre liturgies whose purpose seemed to be the display of tired junk from dusty sacristies...

...Furthermore, we need those conclusions, we need the result of that private dialogue...

...The liturgy has become a stage for the individual...

...It is a curious fact that in this age when we are stressing team ministry we are witnessing the development of a style of ministry that draws on the individual priest's personal resources in a singular way and much less on the office and function of the priesthood...

...I refer to the people for whom ideas are important, who look at the world around them, and their church, evaluatively, and who try to use intelligent and consistent norms in their evaluations...

...As I write this I am reminded of Abigail McCarthy's comment on my last article in Commonweal [Sept...

...The problem with this is that the intellectual does not function solely by means of a dialogue with the community around him or her...

...The problem lies in the structure of the liturgy, both the official structure and its unofficial but common American overlay...

...I recall a situation in which a group of charismatic Catholics were asking that they be blessed by the small group of priests who were praying with them...

...Granted, this is easier said than done...

...its social policies cogent and effective...

...In this context it is hard to avoid using the word intellectual without connoting a kind of snobbery, and that is not what I intend...

...THE OLD LITURGY, incidentally, is no solution to the problem...

...There are single hymns and settings for different parts of the liturgy, but there is little effort being directed toward creating musically integrated liturgies, rather than the spare-parts-specials we have today...

...It addresses itself to an overly narrow group of our Catholic people, in the process missing some significant groups...

...Following the lead of the Council they were attempting to emphasize the presence of Christ in the world and the continuation and embodiment of Christ's presence in and through the community, especially the community at worship...

...Recently, during the meditation period following Communion, I was looking out into my congregation, and chance seating had arranged an imposing group of men and women before me...

...its leadership believable...

...In the rule of St...

...What kind of feathers you got...

...The communal quality is evident, but I suspect that the popularism is both less evident and much more significant than is generally recognized...

...What is not so easy to dismiss is the orientation of the liturgy today which gives rise to these caricatures...

...I believe that the cause is the current and increasing need to establish credibility...

...All liturgy, past and present, is a social process, but the new liturgy is a social process focused primarily on the congregation itself...

...I believe it is saying something more...

...Nor does it require that his person be stressed.-To the contrary there is a deep and ancient tradition in the church which asks the clergy to make a concerted effort to subordinate their own persons to the Gospels, the offices they hold and the roles they fulfill, and to do this as an act of asceticism that is basic to their lives...

...Recently I asked an artist of some note for his help, and I admit that I did so with quaking knees, for his fees were said to be as great as his reputation...

...If I read the situation correctly though perhaps with a sense of metaphor, the intellectual is 25 April 1980: 235 there consciously taking a pilgrim's part in one moment of an on-going tradition, a tradition, which, I find, many people understand...

...What have you got that will make a blessing take...

...Mary Magdalen's Church and professor of pastoral theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California...

...Not too long ago one of our local antinomians, giving the city's parishes their semi-annual second chance while our neighboring seminary chapels were down for semester break, told me that he would probably go back to the chapels because I had "an inadequate theewee...

...At ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood, which usually involve a large number of concelebrants along with the ordaining bishop, the stoles worn by many of the priests are flamboyant to the point that they seem to be saying, "Look at me...

...The style and manner of the new rubrics, or directions for celebrating the revised Mass (and they are printed in the missal the priest uses) are not all that different from those in the old liturgy...

...There is a gap between the spiritual needs of our intellectuals and the liturgies we serve up in most of our churches...

...And it is to do so in helping us grasp that the quality of our relationship with God is established by the quality of our relationships with the people around us...

...It struck me that the basic shape of the new American liturgy does not have people like this in mind...

...Principally, I think FATHER DAVID K. O'ROURKE, OP., is Pastor of St...

...With the recent announcement that the American bishops' Committee on the Liturgy is to begin a three-year evaluation of this new liturgy I believe that an attempt to label it is timely...

...The liturgy as it is taught and celebrated in these parts (Berkeley and the surrounding area is home to one of the country's largest theological training centers) emphasizes the person of the priest frequently in an idiosyncratic way...

...More to the purpose is a conscious and definite effort to rework the liturgy so that it be transcendent, an effort to use symbols that function in a transcendent way...

...We in the church lean heavily on the conclusions of our intellectuals...

...we have left it behind us...

...Not knowing what he meant but fearing he might be right I promised to "give that some thought," which, around 3AM, led me to realize that he was talking about a theory...

...No one would seriously propose that we go back to the liturgy of the clerical elite...

...Obviously it has its good points...

...In that congregation were several individuals whose minds, scholarship and creative efforts have benefited the church on an international level, and an even larger number, including teachers and theologians, who contribute significantly to the life of the church in our own area...

...For these people the life of the church in all its aspects is part of a living tradition that admits of being parsed...