Anyone Read Venite ad me? Thoughts? Opinions? Criticisms? Concerns?
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 890
    I’ve been slowly reading it in light of my Diocese’s synodal renewal thing happening that I’m somewhat skeptical about given that the Patron Saint of Missionaries is St. Therese of Lisieux, a cloistered nun who lived a hidden life doing small hidden acts of charity. Meanwhile, there’s an excessive over-emphasis on doing, being active, being seen, not being in the background, etc. The part that’s distinctly Catholic, the part about the hidden acts of charity that work through the Mystical Body of Christ that fuels the external acts, the stuff that makes us distinctively Catholic as opposed to Protestant Evangelicals doing benevolent works. I find myself having to re-read Catholic Doctrine to remind myself that I’m still Catholic doing and believing what the Church teaches even if I feel like a completely different religion at times.

    I skipped some parts initially and went right down to the section on the Liturgy as well as Art and Beauty.

    One thing I noticed immediately was a complete shift in language and tone. As if someone else wrote it. I also noticed that where other Church documents would say, “full, conscious, active participation”, they left out “active”, which has been poorly translated from the Latin, and mistakenly meant that people aren’t participating unless they’re actively doing something visible. Then the document goes on to say in paragraph 93:
    In addition, the liturgy can be experienced in different ways. [...] To understand this, we can cite a beautiful account by Romano Guardini, in which he recounts his visit to Sicily: “Today I saw something magnificent: Monreale. […] When we arrived—it was Holy Thursday—the solemn Mass had proceeded beyond the consecration. […] What should I say about the splendor of this place? […] The crowd sat and watched. […] Almost no one was reading. All were living in the gaze; all were intent on contemplation. Then it became clear to me what the foundation of true liturgical piety is: the ability to perceive the ‘sacred’ within the image and its dynamism.


    This is completely different than what has been written about the congregation’s participation in the Church’s liturgies.

    There’s also a section on music as well. I can’t help but feel like there was a veiled Led Zeppelin reference in it regarding a Stairway to Heaven.
    99. From this perspective, special attention should be given to music, which, as a privileged expression of the via pulchritudinis, constitutes an essential language for the transmission of the faith, capable of touching the deepest chords of the human heart and communicating the truth of the Gospel through beauty.[107] It is not merely an aesthetic embellishment of celebrations but a missionary tool that works through attraction, making the glory of the Risen One perceptible especially where words struggle to reach. In fact, as Pope Leo XIV observed, “Music is like a bridge that leads us to God. It is capable of transmitting feelings, emotions, even the deepest stirrings of the soul, lifting them up and transforming them into an imaginary stairway connecting earth and heaven.”[108] Through music, the faith finds unique avenues of expression that purely verbal proclamation, on its own, does not always reach. These considerations prompt us to urge artists and writers who are believers to make a special creative effort to manifest the beauty of the Christian faith and spiritual experience.


    You can read the full document here:
    https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20261022_venite-ad-me_en.html#Liturgy
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 906
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Venite ad Me, SponsaChristi. I was unaware of this document until you mentioned it. I was immediately drawn to Chapter III, sections 47–53: "The Crisis in the Transmission of the Faith."

    The reality that "faith isn't being passed down" is no surprise to me—both from my fifty years in the choir loft across two parishes and what I documented in my booklet, A Parish Inheritance. In my lived experience, so many Novus Ordo music programs have become horizontal and anthropocentric, marked by a weak Eucharistic realism that directly impacts how the Faith is received in the pews.

    Undeniably, external forces like societal shifts and the culture of death play a role. Yet internally, our parish tools for transmitting the Faith have deteriorated over six decades. Historically, hymnody served as a primary instrument of catechesis; today, it is largely treated as an unvetted devotional aid. This breakdown prompted me to check if Venite ad Me addressed music—and it does, directly in Chapter V, section 99.

    I am always looking for ways to stress-test A Parish Inheritance, and it touches on this exact crisis on a local level: when sacred music loses its vertical pull and reduces liturgy to a performance-driven community sing-along, it starves the sense of mystery and transcendent longing that younger generations seek. It serves almost as a practical, grassroots blueprint for the renewal Chapter V calls for in four key areas:

    •Recovering Liturgical Reality Over Horizontal Entertainment: Venite ad Me warns against reducing liturgy to a "mere formal performance." My booklet addresses this by identifying how modern hymnals drifted into therapeutic, anthropocentric language (Category C4) that shifts focus away from God onto the assembly.

    •The Power of Beauty and Tradition (via pulchritudinis): Chapter V emphasizes art and sacred heritage as vital transmission tools. My work preserves this by documenting traditional Eucharistic, Marian, and Sacred Heart hymnody that forms the devotional imagination across generations.

    •Active Participation vs. "Busyness": True participation includes silent contemplation and "living-in-the-gaze" (citing Romano Guardini). My booklet similarly stresses that music must serve the sacred action of the Mass rather than turning the congregation into performers of modern folk-style refrains.

    •Catechesis Through Sung Prayer (Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi): What we sing shapes what we believe. Just as Venite ad Me urges a return to clear doctrinal language, my fourfold categorization system (C1–C4) and parish bulletin series provide the practical formation needed to restore theological clarity.

    In short, Venite ad Me provides the high-level theological diagnosis of the crisis in faith transmission, while A Parish Inheritance provides the localized autopsy and toolkit for fixing it at the parish organ bench.
    Thanked by 2SponsaChristi Lars
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