I've been reflecting much on this maxim of Prosper of Aquitane's lately. It was actually the main topic of our very first conversation when my husband when I met 25 years ago on the Christendom College campus at a picnic table on a hot August afternoon. If there was ever a clash between the "OF" and the "EF" it was then and there since he was a traditionalist Catholic, and I was a Wanderer-reading "Novus Ordo" Catholic all the way. However, the good news is that the two can be harmoniously reconciled, but after all these years I finally understand to some extent what my husband was trying to convince me of long ago: it is the liturgical praxis which establishes the common creed of believers, and not the other way around.

Yesterday I came across a beautiful passage in Pope Pius XI's Divini cultus which illustrated that truth far better than I can ever hope to, and I think it's eminently worth sharing with all those who love the Catholic liturgy in all its forms:

From the earliest times the simple chants which graced the sacred prayers and the Liturgy gave a wonderful impulse to the piety of the people. History tells us how in the ancient basilicas, where bishop, clergy and people alternately sang the divine praises, the liturgical chant played no small part in converting many barbarians to Christianity and civilization. It was in the churches that heretics came to understand more fully the meaning of the communion of saints; thus the Emperor Valens, an Arian, being present at Mass celebrated by Saint Basil, was overcome by an extraordinary seizure and fainted. At Milan, Saint Ambrose was accused by heretics of attracting the crowds by means of liturgical chants. It was due to these that Saint Augustine made up his mind to become a Christian. It was in the churches, finally, where practically the whole city formed a great joint choir, that the workers, builders, artists, sculptors and writers gained from the Liturgy that deep knowledge of theology which is now so apparent in the monuments of the Middle Ages.

No wonder, then, that the Roman Pontiffs have been so solicitous to safeguard and protect the Liturgy. They have used the same care in making laws for the regulation of the Liturgy, in preserving it from adulteration, as they have in giving accurate expression to the dogmas of the faith. This is the reason why the Fathers made both spoken and written commentary upon the Liturgy or "the law of worship"; for this reason the Council of Trent ordained that the Liturgy should be expounded and explained to the faithful.