In the year 1964-1965 we at St. Basil's Seminary set about implementing the recommendations of the new Conciliar document. We placed a small altar in front of the main altar facing the congregation and began to celebrate the Eucharist with more emphasis on participation. Beginning November 29, 1964, the first Sunday of Advent, we began using English for the entire mass, except for the canon, as the Canadian bishops had permitted. Suddenly we realized that the Gregorian chant in Latin no longer quite fitted the mass in the vernacular. Brave attempts were made to adapt it to the English language, not always with edifying success, and composers began a frantic search for new and appropriate music of genuine religious inspiration, again with uneven results. In the spring of 1965 we began using the restored rite of concelebration. Our traditional morning and evening prayers, the acts of faith, hope, and charity, etc., were abandoned in favour of Lauds and Vespers recited antiphonally in English.

Although no new thing was introduced into our worship without prior discussion and preparation both among the seminary staff and the body of seminarians, change had nonetheless come in the heart of seminary life with an unexpected swiftness which resulted in a kind of breathless euphoria for the enthusiasts and an uneasy malaise for the rest. A number of priests and seminarians preferred the mass in Latin, they did not like concelebration, they did not like guitars in the chapel and they seriously questioned whether Lauds and Vespers in English fulfilled the obligation of the Divine Office for those hours. So we entered the new liturgical age of the Church amidst cheers and sighs.