The Organic Development of The Liturgy

·      Author: Dom Alcuin Reid

·      Pages: 374 pages

·      Publisher:  Ignasius Press, San Francisco (2005)

·      Language: English

About the Author

Dom Alcuin Reid is a monk of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France. After studies in Theology and in Education in Melbourne, Australia, he was awarded a PhD from King’s College, University of London, for a thesis on twentieth century liturgical reform (2002), which was subsequently published as The Organic Development of the Liturgy with a preface by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (this book).

Structure

Introduction

Chapter One             Liturgical Reform in History

Chapter Two             The Liturgical Movement and Liturgical Reform up to 1948

Chapter Three           The Liturgical Movement and Liturgical Reform from 1948 to the Second Vatican Council

General Conclusion

Appendix

Bibliography

Endnotes

Scope

Dom Alcuin Reid’s book wants to run through the history of the Roman Rite (Mass and Breviary), from its beginnings up to the eve of the Second Vatican Council. Reid seeks to establish the principles of liturgical development, and thus to draw from history — from its ups and downs — the standards on which every reform must be based. He believes that we must grasp the principles of liturgical reform operative in the history of the Roman rite and the relationship of the Liturgical Movement to the reformer of the liturgy (eg. Guéranger, Saint Pius X, Beauduin, Guardini, Parsch, Casel, and others). Only then can discussion of the legitimacy of any “reform of the reform”, or of its possible shape, be sufficiently informed.

THESIS

The book is divided into three parts.

The first, very brief (necessarily brief) part investigates the history of the reform of the Roman Rite from its beginnings up to the end of the nineteenth century. Significant reforms and the principles operative therein are considered. Concerning liturgical reform up to 1900, the author concludes: “At the close of the nineteenth century, a healthy respect for the Roman rite as a developed organic reality exists” (60). Moreover, in support of this, he quotes Fortescue: “The Roman Rite arrived at this point in history much developed indeed, but still that living organism that was the Roman Liturgy of the first Christian millennium. The developments had been prompted in part by necessity, and in part by the vicissitudes of history. Care had been taken to respect objective liturgical Tradition and to develop it organically. Reforms that were not organic were eventually proscribed” (60-61).

Part two is devoted to the Liturgical Movement up to 1948. The second chapter details the origins of the Liturgical Movement and demonstrates its nature as primarily a movement seeking to return liturgical piety to its rightfully central place in the life of the Church. The Movement’s consequent consideration of the desirability of liturgical reform and the stance taken by the Holy See with regard to the Liturgical Movement and to liturgical reform are examined. Again, the author’s conclusion concerning this phase was a favourable one: “The Liturgical Movement, then, approached its fortieth birthday . . . in good health and with a largely traditional and moderate mentality with regard to reform. .. Even though some reprobate practices arose, the Movement’s essence was to comprehend objective liturgical Tradition in order to give shape and meaning to Christian life, and indeed to society” (131).

The longest part — the third — deals with liturgical reform under Pius XII, up to the eve of the Second Vatican Council. The reforms enacted by the Holy See throughout this period are studied as are the parallel activities and writings of the Liturgical Movement in relation to liturgical reform. The author summing up of this phase, though it contains some praise, ends with a warning: “The Liturgical Movement achieved much between 1948 and the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Its goal of placing liturgical piety at the center of the life of the Church, underlined by Pius XII in Mediator Dei, was adopted and widely promoted by numerous individuals and groups . . . .A momentum, an expectation of, if not a thirst for, further reforms, builds up, pre-eminently among European liturgists and scholars, which could only intensify with the establishment of the preparatory liturgical commission for the forthcoming Council. There is a sense among some writers that almost everything is negotiable, resulting in at least an implicit devaluation of the objective nature of liturgical Tradition: something foreign to the Liturgical Movement in its origins” (282-283).

The general conclusion of the author concerning the effect of the Council is: “To some extent, then, we may say that reform moved too quickly prior to the Council. More time needed to be spent preparing the foundations before renovating the edifice . . .. Whilst clearly a metaphor, ‘organic development’ is, nevertheless, the metaphor employed by key persons throughout the Liturgical Movement and indeed by the Second Vatican Council itself when speaking of liturgical reform . . . . We conclude, then, that this, the principle, or law, of the organic development of objective liturgical Tradition, is indeed the sine qua non of Catholic liturgical reform . . . . However some of the Movement’s activists pressuring for reform before the Second Vatican Council moved beyond its bounds . . . . The task of a thorough assessment of whether this law was respected in the reforms enacted following the Second Vatican Council remains” (287-292).

 

REFLECTION

“History has proved a thousand times that there is nothing more dangerous for a religion, nothing is more likely to result in discontent, incertitude, division, and apostasy, than interference with the Liturgy and consequently with religious sensibility” (p. 285).

 

There is no doubt in me that this sentence struck me at most. However, I totally agree with this statement. There is a very popular attitude in the life of the Church―not only in respect to the Sacred Liturgy―that “Vatican II changed all that.” This is the popular slogan that summarizes what Benedict XVI called “a hermeneutic of rupture.” This is what the “spirit of the Council” meant at the grass-roots level. As Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in the preface that there are many ways liturgists think about Liturgy especially talking about the "development of liturgy." It is important, he says, to distinguish "actions that are helpful and healing from those that are violent and destructive." Personally, I have got much insight by reading this book. I learn to keep myself away from archeological enthusiasm but in the same time also pastoral pragmatism. In this book, Dom Alcuin Reid offers a "wealth of material" to highlight those principals and actions which guide or hinder the healthy organic growth of the liturgy through the centuries.

For me this book is an extremely scholarly work (25-page bibliography, over 1000 footnotes!). However, I am grateful because I have an opportunity to read it. By learning the development of liturgy in the history, I aware of being more attentive and not to be reactive with regard to face the challenges of the (future) Church. Futhermore, if a "reform of the reform" is to occur in the Church, and if it is to remain faithful to Tradition, it must follow the principles of authentic growth detailed in this book by Dom Alcuin Reid. As John Henry Cardinal Newman once said, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant."