Authentic liturgical formation: where to begin?
  • john m
    Posts: 136
    A friend and colleague, a former member of our Diocesan Choir, recently left a lengthy and detailed cry for help on my office voice-mail. She has just taken a parish music job in another diocese and, while being educated in music, she has not had a solid formation in the Church's liturgical tradition. She asks me to recommend some very basic and accessible reading to help her make good liturgical music decisions.

    I am inclined to recommend that she not approach the post-conciliar state of affairs without a grasp of what has preceded it, and therefore to read Tra le sollecitudine. Also, of course, Sacrosanctam Concilium and Musicam sacram. These are of course a "given". I am also inclined to advise her to avoid such things a Music In Catholic Worship and Sing To The Lord, although she should certainly read them later on. I think Ratzinger's "Feast of Faith" and "The Spirit of the Liturgy" would also be on the list of must-haves.

    Can anyone recommend other accessible sources?
  • jdambuul
    Posts: 17
    Reading and referring to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal is helpful. There are many guidelines that can help a Liturgist make decisions. It is available online at the US catholic conference of bishops website.

    This website also has some helpful information for Liturgical planning and traditions:
    http://www.canticanova.com/pln_main.htm
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577

    ___THE___CHURCH___DOCUMENT___LIST___

    EVERYTHING FROM 1903 TO PRESENT

    EVERYTHING IN ENGLISH

    TODOS EN ESPANOL

    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=2182
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    She needs to know the official documents. The ability to cite the GIRM is invaluable. It seems to get people's attention. They're used to ignoring most of the others or arguing about "pastoral" needs. Depending on the circumstances in her diocese, she should also be familiar with the liberal understanding and "argot" for liturgy. As we used to say, she needs to "know where these folks are coming from." The easiest way to do this is get into a library that has a pile of things from Collegeville, a dash of GIA, OCP, and back issues of the various journals. Get an armful and go through them very quickly. The themes and the buzzwords will emerge.

    I did the NPM Pastoral Liturgy Institute a couple of years ago. It was useful in helping me sound authoritative with more liberal clergy - and I needed that at the time. Now I'd go to the library, read some stuff, and go to the CMAA colloquium instead.
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    The GIRM is very important, but, so are the documents listed in the second post. The writings of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments are also very good guides. She might also want to check out www.adoremus.org since it has a listing of the Church's documents on music beginning with the encyclical written by Pope St. PIus X and the Chirograph on Sacred Music that Servant of God Pope John paul II wrote to mark the encyclical's 100th anniversary. Pope John Paul gives some good parameters concerning sacred music.

    It is interesting to note that the problems that the saintly Pontiff wrote about are still present 105 years later. However, instead of contending with opera and theater in the music, we are now struggling with Protestant Praise Music and strong pop influences.

    I am disappointed with Sing a New Song because it does not have any teeth to it. The powerpoint that the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship looked very promising; however, when the NPM and the FLDC lobbied against a lot of the stuff that was in the works, the thing was reduced in its efficacy. Pope Benedict XVI makes stronger statements (and theologically and liturgicall sound ones) in his books "The Spirit of the Liturgy" and "A New Song for the Lord". These are also very good points of references becasue it will give music directors a clear idea of where the Benedictine express is heading, as far as sacred music and the liturgy are concerned. What the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger believed then is coming into play under the reign of Pope Benedict XVI.
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    "Tra le solicitudine"? "Musicam Sacram"? "Redemptionis Sacramentum"? (Typical responses from staff when I mention these documents).

    "We've moved past all that. Our spirituality has evolved beyond celebrating in a language people don't understand, with the priest's back to them." (One of our most highly-placed formation staff members)

    "The folks in Rome don't understand the dynamic of an American suburban parish." (Again, one of our formation staff members, tenured for at least 20 years).

    I can't make this stuff up, and I've tried charity, humility, silence, prayer, screaming (at God), screaming (at other people), screaming (on this forum) to figure out just the "right way" to do it. Nothing seems to work.

    I may be in a situation where I'm dealing with folks who are "invincibly ignorant."
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    I think you can do very well with nothing but the Gregorian Missal and the GIRM. The documents are fine, but they basically just tell you why we should be singing from the former according the norms in the latter. For someone just starting out, the practical may be more useful than the theoretical. And that list of documents is daunting even to someone who has -- slowly over a number of years -- read them all.
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