Adoremus Bulletin

MAY 2016
Vol. XXI, No. 7
Mother Angelica:
Requiescat in Pace!
by Father Jerry Pokorsky – page 3
Altar as Alter
Christus: Ontology
and Sacramentality
by Denis McNamara – page 4
Painting the Walls
of the New Jerusalem:
Phoenix’s new
Liturgical Art Studio
Story by Joseph O’Brien – page 6
The Beuronese
School: Nature and
Grace in Liturgical Art
by David Clayton - page 9
Departments:
News and Views – page 2
Questions
of Faith – page 10
Donors and
Memorials – page 11
T
“
he experience of mercy,” Pope Francis says, “becomes
visible in the witness of concrete signs as Jesus himself
taught us.” These are the spiritual and corporal works of
mercy, which during the Jubilee of Mercy are among the ways
to obtain the Jubilee Year Indulgence. The Corporal Works
of Mercy, here depicted by the “Master of Alkmaar” in the
early 16th century, are feeding the hungry, giving drink to the
thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, healing the
sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead. Can you
identify each of the Corporal Works of Mercy in these images?
Source: Wikimedia.
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
NEWS & VIEWS
Amoris Laetitia
Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic
exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“On Love
in the Family”) was promulgated March
19, 2016, the Solemnity of St. Joseph the
Workman. The letter caps recent years of
reflection on the family, beginning with
the October 2014 Extraordinary General
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, followed by the September 2015 World
Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, and
concluding with the October 2015 Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops. This latter synod sent to the Holy
Father its own final report, which included
an invitation to issue “a document on the
family, so that the family, the domestic
Church, might increasingly radiate Christ,
who is the light of the world.”
Amoris Laetitia was released to the
public on Friday, April 8, and since then
there has been no lack of coverage, confusion, and opinion on all sides, particularly
concerning the question of communion to
those in “various situations of weakness
or imperfection”. (296) But in addition
to this question, the Holy Father, like the
Synod itself, comments on the liturgical
rite of marriage.
Concerning the ministers of the Rite,
the Holy Father reiterates the Church’s
tradition: “In the Church’s Latin tradition,
the ministers of the sacrament of marriage
are the man and the woman who marry
[Cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Mystici
Corporis Christi (29 June 1943): AAS 35
(1943), 202: “Matrimonio enim quo coniuges sibi invicem sunt ministri gratiae
…”]; by manifesting their consent and expressing it physically, they receive a great
gift. Their consent and their bodily union
are the divinely appointed means whereby
they become ‘one flesh.’ By their baptismal consecration, they were enabled to
join in marriage as the Lord’s ministers
and thus to respond to God’s call. Hence,
when two non-Christian spouses receive
baptism, they need not renew their marriage vows; they need simply not reject
them, since by the reception of baptism
their union automatically becomes sacramental. Canon Law also recognizes the validity of certain unions celebrated without
the presence of an ordained minister [Cf.
Code of Canon Law, cc. 1116; 1161-1165;
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches,
832; 848-852]. The natural order has been
so imbued with the redemptive grace of
Jesus that ‘a valid matrimonial contract
cannot exist between the baptized without
it being by that fact a sacrament” [Ibid.,
c. 1055 §2]. The Church can require that
the wedding be celebrated publicly, with
the presence of witnesses and other conditions that have varied over the course
of time, but this does not detract from the
fact that the couple who marry are the
ministers of the sacrament. Nor does it affect the centrality of the consent given by
the man and the woman, which of itself
establishes the sacramental bond. This
having been said, there is a need for further reflection on God’s action in the marriage rite; this is clearly manifested in the
Oriental Churches through the importance
of the blessing that the couple receive as a
sign of the gift of the Spirit. (75)
On the prayerful preparation for the liturgical celebration, the Holy Father says:
“The couple can also meditate on the biblical readings and the meaningfulness of
the rings they will exchange and the other
signs that are part of the rite. Nor would
it be good for them to arrive at the wedding without ever having prayed together,
one for the other, to seek God’s help in remaining faithful and generous, to ask the
page 2
Lord together what he wants of them, and
to consecrate their love before an image of
the Virgin Mary. Those who help prepare
them for marriage should help them experience these moments of prayer that can
prove so beneficial. ‘The marriage liturgy
is a unique event, which is both a family
and a community celebration. The first
signs of Jesus were performed at the wedding feast of Cana. The good wine, resulting from the Lord’s miracle that brought
joy to the beginning of a new family, is
the new wine of Christ’s covenant with
the men and women of every age…. Frequently, the celebrant speaks to a congregation that includes people who seldom
participate in the life of the Church, or
who are members of other Christian denominations or religious communities.
The occasion thus provides a valuable
opportunity to proclaim the Gospel of
Christ’” [Relatio Finalis 2015, 59]. (216)
The above excerpts and, indeed, the
entire letter are an impetus to understand
fully and celebrate faithfully the Marriage
Rite, recently published in its second edition.
Promulgation of the
Second Edition of the
Marriage Rite
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President of
the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has announced that the Second Edition of the Rite of Marriage has
been approved and may be used as early
as September 8. As that date approaches,
publishers are preparing ritual book editions, and regional workshops led by the
Bishops’ Secretariat for Divine Worship
and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical
Commissions are being held. The actual
decree states:
“In accord with the norms established
by decree of the Sacred Congregation of
Rites in Cum, nostra ætate (January 27,
1966) and of the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Liturgiam authenticam (March
28, 2001), this edition of the Order of
Celebrating Matrimony is declared to be
the vernacular typical edition of the Ordo
Celebrandi Matrimonium, editio typica
altera, and is published by authority of
the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
“The Order of Celebrating Matrimony
was canonically approved by the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops on
November 12, 2013, and was subsequently confirmed by the Apostolic See by decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
on June 29, 2015 (Prot. n. 84/14).
“The Order of Celebrating Matrimony
may be used in the Liturgy as of September 8, 2016, the Feast of the Nativity of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and its use is
obligatory as of December 30, 2016, the
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary
and Joseph. From that date forward, no
other English edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony may be used in the
dioceses of the United States of America.”
Adoremus’ readers will recall Benedict
Nguyen’s “Marriage Law Revisited: Addressing Common Misunderstandings
of the Sacrament of Matrimony” in both
the January and March issues of Adoremus Bulletin, where he clearly explained
many aspects of canon and liturgical law
about this sacrament. In addition, Father
Randy Stice’s entry, “The Wondrous Design of Your Love: An Introduction to the
Sacrament of Matrimony and the Nuptial
Blessing” from the November 2015 issue
laid much of the theological and liturgical foundation for marriage. Father Stice
will give an in-depth look at the ritual elements of the Marriage Rite in the September 2016 issue.
Liturgy and Evangelization Conferences
The Notre Dame Center for Liturgy’s 2016 Symposium, “Liturgy and the
New Evangelization,” will be held June
20-23. According to organizers, the conCatholic Music
ference “seeks to discern how liturgical
Association of America
prayer, sacramental formation, and liturgical catechesis can contribute to the new
Annual Colloquium
Professional musicians, parish choir evangelization.” Liturgy and sacraments,
members, priests, deacons, seminarians while the privileged means of worshipand others interested in learning more ping God, impel worshippers to spread
about sacred music in Catholic worship the good news beyond the Church walls.
have two opportunities to take part in ex- Pope Francis himself, particularly through
tended workshops on the art of chant in his 2013 apostolic exhortation, “The Joy
of the Gospel” (Evengelii Gaudium), emJune.
On June 10-12, Holy Family Par- phasizes the baptismal call to go out to the
ish, Dayton, OH, is offering a Gregorian peripheries.
The Symposium’s speakers include
Chant Intensive at Holy Family Catholic
Church, Dayton. The following week, James Pauley, associate professor of theJune 20-25, the Church Music Associa- ology and catechetics, Franciscan Unition of America (CMAA) is hosting its versity, Steubenville OH; Anthony Ruff,
O.S.B., associate professor of theology,
26th Colloquium in St. Louis, MO.
Saint John’s School of Theology and
Holy Family Parish Intensive
Seminary, Collegeville, MN; and ChrisThe Dayton event welcomes Dr. Ed- tian Smith, who is the William R. Kenan,
ward Schaefer, professor of music at the Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of
University of Florida, to host a three-day the Center for the Study of Religion and
workshop on the basics of chant semiol- Society, University of Notre Dame.
ogy with applications in several liturgical
Complete information, along with regsettings.
istration details, is available at www.litA well-known chant expert, author urgy.nd.edu/.
and translator of books on Church muThe Society of Catholic Liturgy will
sic, Schaefer is a frequent presenter at the host its annual liturgy conference, “The
CMAA’s colloquium. Serving as schola Liturgy and the New Evangelization,”
director for the Latin Mass in the Gaines- September 29-October 1, 2016, at Our
ville, Florida, area, Schaefer is a perma- Lady of the Angels Cathedral Conference
nent deacon in the Church.
Center, Los Angeles, CA. Distinguished
Dr. Schaefer’s research is focused on speakers and topics for this year include,
Gregorian chant and the music of the Ro- among others, the Most Reverend Jose
man Catholic Mass. In October of 2005 H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles,
he spoke to the annual convention of the who explains the necessity of popular piCatholic Medical Association on the topic ety for public worship and evangelization,
of music and spiritual formation.
and Bishop Abdallah Elias Zaidan of the
Holy Family Schola Director John Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, who
Schauble said that “the Intensive is struc- explores the power of the Liturgy for the
tured to be meaningful to all those who Church Persecuted.
Additional topics include the liturgical
are interested in chant, regardless of
whether they are new to chant or more ex- and sacramental challenges for parishes
perienced.” Participants may sign up for in the new evangelization; preaching the
single events or bundles so that attendees’ Gospel of Christ in post-Christian societschedule limitations allow them as much ies; liturgical art and popular piety in the
mission of the Church today; and liturgy
involvement as possible.
To register, call John Schauble at 513- and religious freedom. Complete details
are available at www.liturgysociety.org.
405-5094.
CMAA Colloquium
The June 20-25 2016 CMAA colloquium will celebrate the liturgy at three venues – the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis,
the Shrine of St. Joseph, and Pro-Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and Apostle, all in St. Louis.
The CMAA Colloquium focuses on instruction and experience in chant and the
Catholic sacred music tradition, ordinary
and extraordinary form Masses, Latin or
English texts, evening Vespers, and sung
morning and night prayer.
Billed by organizers as “the largest and
most in-depth teaching conference and retreat on sacred music in the world,” the
CMAA conference includes extensive
training in Gregorian chant, special training for priests, deacons and seminarians,
and breakout sessions on topics such as
directing, organist master classes, and
children’s programs. Each participant receives a copy of the CMAA’s The Parish
Book of Chant and discounts on all books
sales.
For general registration, the CMAA accepts check or credit card at time of registration. Register online at https://shop.
musicasacra.com/colloquium-2016. Registrations must be received at the CMAA
Office (by mail or online) by the close of
business, June 7th, after which, registration is only available by telephone by calling the CMAA office at (505) 263-6298
on a space available basis.
The conference hotel for Colloquium
2016 is the St. Louis City Center Hotel.
Adoremus
Society for the Renewal of the
Sacred Liturgy
Editor - publisher:
Christopher Carstens
Postal Address: PO BOX 385 La Crosse, WI 54602-0385
Phone: 608-521-0385
Editorial E-mail:
[email protected]
Membership Requests,
Change of address:
[email protected]
Website: www.adoremus.org
Adoremus Executive Committee:
The Rev. Jerry Pokorsky
✝
Helen Hull Hitchcock
The Rev. Joseph Fessio, SJ
Contents copyright © 2016 by ADOREMUS.
All rights reserved.
Adoremus Bulletin (ISSN 1088-8233) is published six
times a year by ADOREMUS—SOCIETY FOR THE
RENEWAL OF THE SACRED LITURGY, in La Crosse,
Wisconsin. ADOREMUS is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation of the State of California. Non-profit
periodicals postage paid at various US mailing offices.
Change service requested.
ADOREMUS—SOCIETY FOR THE RENEWAL OF
THE SACRED LITURGY was established in June 1995
to promote authentic reform of the Liturgy of the Roman Rite in accordance with the Second Vatican Council’s decree on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.
Adoremus Bulletin is sent on request to members of
ADOREMUS. Suggested donation: $40 per year, US;
$45 foreign.
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
Campaign 2016: Road to the White House and the City upon the Hill
By Christopher Carstens
Editor
L
ike it or not, we hear a great deal
nowadays about the “race for the
White House.” Who will make it,
and how will he or she get there? Twists
and turns, dead-ends and detours: the path
to the center of the city set upon the hill
is – even for the bystander – long, tiring,
wearisome – and worrisome.
But if American presidential politics is
not to your liking, or if you need a healthy
alternative to this year’s race, consider
another similar, yet far superior race: the
Christian pilgrimage.
I say “similar” since both roads seek a
glorious destination, one that rewards and
satisfies an arduous journey. Both pilgrimage and presidential run take time,
and there are no shortcuts. And both satisfy a human need: man the “political animal” (if we accept Aristotle on this point)
is made ultimately for a supernatural destiny, the City of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Despite the parallels, though, the divergences are even sharper. The principal
way in which pilgrimage offers what politics cannot is, for good or ill, Jesus himself. Very few – if any – would confuse
a political campaign for a meeting with
Christ, yet the whole point of the Christian Pilgrimage is to imitate, radiate, and
ultimately encounter Jesus.
American presidential races have a colored history, but these pale in comparison to
the history and spirituality of a pilgrimage.
On the merely human level, life itself is
read as a road and a passage. From Frank
Sinatra’s “My Way” or, more recently,
Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway,”
to such expressions as “It’s all about the
journey,” human beings naturally relate
to stages and passages. But in this regard, and left to our own devices, men
and women are without a compass, not
knowing where they are going. Modern
man seems especially susceptible to being lost. As Catholic novelist Walker Percy asks: Why is it easier to know more
about a star that is thousands of light
years away than to make it successfully
and joyfully through an average Wednesday afternoon? We are, naturally speaking, “lost in the cosmos.”
But the “Morning Star” begins to appear in the time of the Old Covenant.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and many
other figures) are directed by God to a
destination of God’s own choosing. The
Chosen People, led by God through the
persons of Moses and Joshua – prefigurements of Christ – go on pilgrimage from
a land of slavery, death, and darkness into
a land of freedom and life, one “flowing
with milk and honey.” Since that great
exodus, Hebrew males were required by
divine law to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem each year to commemorate the event.
The great exodus journey of the Chosen
People is fulfilled in Christ. At the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah speak to Jesus of “the exodus he was about to make
in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:41). This exodus,
which is history’s definitive race and pilgrimage, begins “beyond the Jordan”
(John 10:40), from where Jesus passes
through the Jordan (as another Joshua before him had done), enters God’s city of
Jerusalem, and through his suffering and
death on the cross, he ascends to the Father.
When Jesus “accomplished in himself the mystery of the Temple and had
passed from this world to the Father (cf.
John 13:1), thereby going through the
definitive exodus in his own person, no
pilgrimage was binding any longer on
his disciples: their entire lives now become a pilgrimage towards the sanctuary
of heaven and the Church is seen as an
‘earthly pilgrimage’” (Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety
and the Liturgy, 281).
Today, “all Christians are invited to
become part of the great pilgrimage that
Christ, the Church and mankind have
made and must continue to make in history” (Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, The Shrine: Memory, Presence, and
Prophecy of the Living God, 1), and the
pilgrimages that we make today – and are
called to make by the Church – are sacramental expressions, individual embodiments of Christ’s own journey back to the
Father’s house.
The Year of Mercy, which concludes on
the Solemnity of Christ the King, emphasizes this longstanding Christian practice:
“The practice of pilgrimage has a special
place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this
life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the
human being is a viator, a pilgrim travelling along the road, making his way
to the desired destination” (Misericordiae Vultus, 14). To this end, cathedrals,
shrines, and other pilgrimage churches
have been established around the world,
and making a pilgrimage to one of these,
and perhaps passing through their Holy
“I also saw the holy city, a new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband.”
—Revelation 21:2
Photo: Mike Norton
Mont St. Michel in Normandy, France, has long been a pilgrimage destination. A true
“city upon a hill,” Mont St. Michel is a tangible symbol of heaven, the destination of
life’s pilgrimage.
Door, is an indulgenced act. For those
unable to make the physical pilgrimage,
a sort of “spiritual pilgrimage” (akin to
the practice of “spiritual communion”)
is encouraged: the sick or homebound
are to unite their sufferings to those
of Christ’s “royal road which gives
meaning to pain and loneliness,” while
prisoners are to consider the threshold of their cells a type of “holy door”
(November 11, 2015 Message of Pope
Francis).
As the warmer summer months approach (while never forgetting our readers who grow colder in the Southern
hemisphere!), consider supplementing
the “race to the White House” with the
“race to God’s house.” Your faith, your
peace of mind, and even your country
will be better for it.
Mother Angelica: Requiescat in Pace!
by Father Jerry Pokorsky Mother Angelica (Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation) departed
this world at the age of 92 on March
27. Mother suffered from a debilitating
stroke in 2001 and had been long absent
from the TV screen, so her passing may
not have been much of a surprise, and
perhaps met with a sense of relief after
a long and difficult decline. Mother’s
funeral attracted many Catholic luminaries (including papal nuncio to the
U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano,
who delivered Pope Francis’ prayer for
the repose of her soul, and Archbishop
Charles Chaput of Philadelphia). She
was a remarkable woman of faith. But
she was ever so – and wonderfully – ordinary.
I remember Mother’s talk at a seminary in the 1980s – a couple years after her founding of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in a converted
garage in Birmingham, Alabama. Her
unscripted remarks were mashed potatoes Catholicism, taking playful and casual swipes at the theological fashions
of the day, to the chagrin of some of the
local academics. I do not recall the substance of her gibes (probably having to
do with the historical-critical method
of Scripture research), but I remember
her relaxed, confident demeanor, not at
all arrogant or angry, but motherly and
kind if a bit crusty, firm and joyful. She
asked for our prayers, I recall, so that
going forward in her newfound success
she “wouldn’t blow it.” Her faith was
straightforward and unsophisticated like
the rough and tumble Galileans of the
Gospel who followed Christ, but unlike
the sophisticated and more frequently
skeptical Judeans.
Mother’s encounter with Cardinal
Roger Mahony of Los Angeles upon the
release of his document on the celebration of the Eucharist is a good example
of her pattern of resisting attempts to
“nuance” (i.e., tinker with) her faith. But
after promising, with her signature huff,
“zero obedience” to Cardinal Mahony
(because of ambiguities in the discussion
of the Real Presence) she found herself
in a serious damage control situation,
with ecclesiastical threats of censure.
The following week she responded like
a prizefighter that can take a punch, but
punches right back. If her “zero obedience” response lacked the necessary ecclesiastical nuances, Mother responded
with an acknowledgement of her excess,
but added a few nuances of her own, all
in defense of the Church’s orthodox understanding of the Real Presence. Mother never allowed a crisis to go to waste.
During the liturgical (Roman Missal
and Lectionary) “translation wars” of the
1990s, I appeared with her on “Mother
Angelica Live” two or three times, first
as a representative of CREDO, a society of priests dedicated to the faithful
translation of the Liturgy, and then with
CREDO’s daughter organization, Adoremus. (Our founding editor, the late Helen
Hull Hitchcock, appeared far more frequently and for a time was on the Board
of EWTN.) On those occasions, like a
kindly grandmother, Mother made me
feel at home with her attentiveness and
good humor. Her relaxed confidence in
basic Church teaching drew out healthy
orthodox – and often erudite – discussions on the controversial ecclesiastical
issues of the day. (The hot-button topic
of so-called “inclusive language,” for example, was unexpectedly important and
fascinating in its impact on the transla-
tions of biblical and liturgical texts.) For
such a basic, simple and good woman,
her performance was a relentless display
of media genius that could only come
from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
working through a heart that was without
guile. Still, I got the sense I didn’t want
to find myself on her wrong side.
When secular celebrities die the world
mourns in various ways, usually as pagans without hope. They’re “devastated”
and “shocked” or lament that the world
“lost an icon,” as if the intrusion of death
comes always as an unwelcome surprise.
Maybe it’s because I myself am entering
into the fourth quarter of my life according to the actuarial tables, but Mother’s
passing after a long and beautiful life
brings me a sense of happiness. Her
death, to my eye, was just another step in
the right and necessary direction.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no
more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband; and I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling
of God is with men. He will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and
God himself will be with them; he will
wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more, neither shall
there be mourning nor crying nor pain
any more, for the former things have
passed away’” (Rev. 21: 1-5).
____________
Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served
as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and
accounting, he also holds a Master of
Divinity and a master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both
CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a
number of Catholic websites and magazines. Father Pokorsky also serves as a
director and treasurer of Human Life International.
page 3
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
Altar as Alter Christus: Ontology and Sacramentality
By Denis R. McNamara
An altar’s reality as a heavenly table can be indicated by its use of multicolored marbles, which not only resemble the jewel-like quality of the Heavenly Jerusalem, but signify
the many members of the Mystical Body of Christ, each of whom are “little altars” who together are united as Christ. St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Aiken, South Carolina, 2015. James McCrery, architect. Rugo Stone, fabricator.
A
longstanding theological maxim
states that Christ is the priest, the
victim and the altar of his own selfsacrificial offering.1 He is the priest
because he is the one who offers, and
he is the victim because he is simultaneously the one offered. But his body
is also the very “place” of this sacrificial offering, and so follows another
traditional saying: “the altar is Christ.”
This high theology of the altar comes
directly from Christ’s fulfillment of the
biblical types that prefigured him. He
fulfilled every previous priesthood and
every previous sacrifice by becoming
the True High Priest and True Victim.
So, too, his body fulfilled and replaced
every previous altar erected to the worship of God. Christ, then, took up and
recapitulated every previous prefigurement of his own action in the world and
returned them to the Father in heaven.
But in the sacramental system of the
Church, the things of heaven come to us
as sacramental revelations. Priest and
people symbolize the Mystical Body
of Christ, scripture makes known the
word of God, and, supremely, the Eucharist renders present Christ’s very reality. The things of heaven come to us
through signs, but nonetheless provide a
real—though sacramental—encounter.
In art and architecture, a similar sacramental process occurs. In his 1999 Letter to Artists, Pope John Paul II wrote
that in sacred art, some aspect of the Incarnation can be made knowable to the
senses as a “sensory evocation of the
mystery.”2 In other words, the material
“stuff” of the world can serve not only
to memorialize things past, but provide
a sacramental anticipation of things to
come. Simply put, the altar symbolizes
Christ himself in the many facets of his
existence: as fulfillment of the Old Testament typologies, as God present with
his people on earth, and the prefigurement of the eternal, glorious banquet
of heaven which is wholly communion
and feast.
Mystagogical Catechesis
This intensely theological description
of the altar may at first sound daunting,
page 4
This newly-designed altar made for the renovation of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, uses the ornamental motifs of wreath, bundles of leaves and flowers, and the early Christian symbol of the chi-rho to indicate the importance and
festivity of the altar. The angel provides “mystical support” for the altar’s mensa. 2011. Duncan Stroik, architect. Cody Swanson,
sculptor.
but the questions about the nature of an
altar from the point of view of being
itself—known as its ontological reality—prove central not only to decisionmaking in the design of new altars, but
in entering into the mysteries celebrated there. A simple wooden altar, for instance, by its nature indicates the idea
of a table. A marble altar properly ornamented with fine stonework and glittering mosaic, however, indicates not only
a table, but also a table transformed to
heavenly glory. Similarly, a mensa, the
top slab of an altar, can be left plain or it
can be incised with five crosses to represent the five wounds of Christ and the
five marks of its anointing. In the first
case, the viewer is given a bare minimum of sign value. In the latter, something more of the deep, interior meaning of the altar is given. The architect’s
choices, then, either help or hinder the
process of being led from the external
signs to the deep sacramental meaning
that the altar is meant to convey. Here in
a nutshell is the concept of “mystagogical catechesis”: a Christian is meant to
encounter the realities of God by seeing earthly “signs” and be lead through
them to encounter the heavenly realties
which break through them.3
Mystagogical catechesis lies at the
heart of every Christian life because
it is more than a human pedagogical
method; it is the privileged method established for communication between
heaven and earth. The God who is outside of time and space created human
beings who acquire knowledge through
the senses within time and space. Therefore, Christ took on matter in the Incarnation so that he could be seen, heard
and touched, and his presence continues
in the world in a similar way. A person
who learns to see beyond the appearances of a piece of bread and see the
Presence of God in the Eucharist has
experienced mystagogical catechesis.
But this movement from visible signs
to invisible spiritual realties does not always come easily. It requires bringing
a receptive mind and heart to a foundational literacy of what external signs
mean and how they are fulfilled in salvation history. But even the most highly educated person cannot encounter
what is not present, and so theological
knowledge matters when making any
decisions about celebrating the sacred
liturgy. If a worshipper is to be led to
the mysteries, the signs necessary to encounter those mysteries must be there to
Continued on Page 5
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
Columnar legs, enclosing panels and substantial mensa in alternating colors indicate the nature of the altar as table, tomb and
place of sacrifice. St. Michael the Archangel Church, Leawood, Kansas, 2009. David Meleca, architect.
Continued from Page 4
be perceived. And here is why ontology
matters in understanding the altar: only
if the nature of the altar is understood
can it be designed so as to express that
nature in a way perceivable by others.
The Nature of the Altar
Because Christ sums up all things
in himself (Eph 1:10), the altar in turn
signifies many of Christ’s attributes.
In The Spirit of the Liturgy, Cardinal
Ratzinger noted that Christian worship
is fundamentally different from other
religious sacrifices through history. In
many religions, a human priest is designated to place gifts upon an altar, hoping they will be accepted by the deity. In
Catholic liturgy, however, the priest and
people together sacramentalize Christ’s
Mystical Body, rendering present in external signs what is already true: Christ
himself offering the sacrifice to the Father. “The real ‘action’ of the liturgy in
which we are supposed to participate,”
he says, “is the action of God himself.”4
Since the liturgy is Christ’s action expressed in the symbol system of the rite,
the altar is Christ rendered in architectonic form which rightly takes on the attributes of Christ himself. Four of these
attributes are highlighted here.
1. The Altar is Christ.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
states plainly that the “Christian altar is
the symbol of Christ himself, present in
the midst of the assembly of his faithful” (1383). The altar is therefore not
a remote and isolated image of Christ,
but one standing in the midst of his people. For this reason the altar is given the
most prominent location in a church,
occupying a place which is “truly the
center toward which the attention of the
whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns.”5 For similar reasons, the
Church’s legislation strongly encourages that altars be fixed to the floor to indicate Christ’s eternity and never-ending
commitment to his people.6 Moreover,
at least its mensa is to be made of stone,
echoing the scriptures which repeatedly
call Christ a rock and cornerstone (see 1
Pt 2:4, 1 Cor 10:4, Eph 2:20). Although
exceptions are allowed in particular cases for wooden or portable altars, stone is
meant to indicate Christ’s strength and
permanence.
When an altar is dedicated, it is
anointed and incensed. These liturgical actions reveal the sacramental reality of the altar as sacrament of Christ.7
At the Prayer of Dedication, an altar is
anointed with sacred chrism precisely
because Christ is the One anointed by
the Father with the Holy Spirit, making him “high priest, who on the altar
of his Body, would offer the sacrifice of
his life for the salvation of all.”8 Incense
is burned to signify that the perfect sacrifice of Christ ascends to God “as an
odor of sweetness.” Thomas Aquinas
noted in the Summa that not only does
the altar itself signify Christ, but the
consecration “signifies Christ’s holiness.”9 The lighting of candles on the
altar follows, not only indicating that
festive nature of the event, but to signify
Christ as the “light to enlighten the nations.”10 The rites of the Church, then,
lead the viewer from the external sign to
the sacramental mystery it makes present: in looking at an earthly object made
of stone, even Christ’s holiness can be
encountered.
Practically speaking, any enrichment
given to an altar should increase the revelation that the altar itself is Christ; it
should not be a signboard for an unrelated pious image or devotional slogan.
The five consecration crosses on the
mensa of the altar, for instance, reveal
that the altar is Christ because they indicate his five wounds. They belong to
the nature of Christ himself, and therefore to the nature of the altar itself.
Inset areas of gold mosaic or multicolored stone, similarly, express in architectural terms the gem-like radiance of
heaven which corresponds to Christ’s
own glory.
2. The Altar is a Place of Sacrifice.
Any altar, by definition, is a structure
on which sacrifice is offered.11 Sacrosanctum Concilium repeatedly speaks
of the Mass as a sacrifice, noting that at
the Last Supper, Christ instituted “the
Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and
Blood” in order to “perpetuate the sac-
rifice of the cross through the centuries”
(47). The very same sacrifice that Christ
offered to the Father on the cross was instituted “in the form of a sacrificial banquet.”12 The Christian altar, then, is fundamentally different from other altars
through history because it is not simply a dedicated table upon which gifts
are offered to a god. It is Christ present
among his people, who then receive the
sacrifice that he offers “on” his very person.
This sacrificial quality is further expressed by the inclusion of relics under
the altar. Traditional explanations claim
that the liturgy was celebrated upon the
tombs of martyrs in the catacombs of
early Christian Rome. Today’s liturgical instructions, however, give primacy
to the altar as the object which renders
honor to the burial place of martyrs, and
so the presence of relics indicates not the
sacrifice of the martyrs alone, but more
precisely their share in the sacrifice of
Christ. The Order of the Dedication of
an Altar notes that it is fitting for saints’
relics to be placed under altars so that
“the triumphant victims come to their
rest in the place where Christ is victim”
(5).
In designing a new altar, its sacrificial
character should be expressed. One of
the most effective ways to accomplish
this is to make the mensa out of stone of
significant thickness, perhaps three inches or more. A colorful stone given a high
polish will indicate a glorified altar, one
that has taken on gem-like qualities that
signify heavenly conditions (Rv 21:19).
Relics are no longer placed in the mensa
itself as they once were, where a piece
was removed from the top slab to insert
the relics. According to today’s liturgical instructions, relics are placed underneath rather than within the altar slab itself. This preserves the integrity of the
mensa as an image of Christ, and reinforces the place of relics under, and not
in, the altar. In this way, the sign value
of the altar as an image of the martyrs
participating in Christ’s own sacrifice
becomes clear, helping the signs lead to
revelation of the mysteries.
3. The Altar is a Table.
In the years since the Second Vati-
can Council, the table-ness of the altar
has perhaps been emphasized above all
other attributes. While an altar is indeed
a table, it signifies much more than domestic furniture. The Order of the Dedication of an Altar calls the altar a “table
of sacrifice and of the paschal banquet”
(4). “Paschal banquet” refers back to the
Last Supper, when Christ becomes the
new Passover victim. The altar indicates
therefore the fulfillment of the sacred
meal of the Last Supper in service of the
community, since “Christ made holy the
table where the community would come
to celebrate their Passover.”13 So the altar is a table of the Christian community, where the “Church’s children gather
to give thanks to God and receive the
body and blood of Christ”14 as the apostles did. But this table was precisely the
place where Christ initiated the sacrifice
of the Eucharist, hence the term “table
of sacrifice.”
The altar not only shows the table of
the Last Supper fulfilled, but prefigures the table of the heavenly banquet,
the eternal heavenly feast which celebrates the full reunification of God and
creation.15 Sacrosanctum Concilium
makes it clear that “in the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that
heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in
the holy city of Jerusalem” (8), and the
Catechism notes that in the Eucharistic celebration “we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and
anticipate eternal life” (CCC 1326).
For this reason, the Church uses the
fine arts to render this present in our
own time and space, as Sacrosanctum
Concilium notes: “all things set apart
for divine worship should be composed
of signs and symbols of heavenly realities” (122). An altar, then, gives a
foretaste of the table of heaven because
Christ is “the living altar in the heavenly Temple”16 who serves the “heavenly
meal.”17
It follows naturally that the altar is a
place of festivity since it is the locus of
the joyful work of salvation and a real
anticipation of the heavenly delight.
Similarly, the rites of the Church are
not so much performed as celebrated,
and the altar is the place of that joyful
celebration. When a new church is dedicated, the altar is covered with a white
cloth, indicating that it is prepared for a
sacrificial banquet and “adorned as for
a feast.”18 The Order of the Dedication
of a Church states that the dressing of
the altar “clearly signifies that it is the
Lord’s table at which all God’s people
joyously meet to be refreshed with divine food.”19
In designing new altars, the tableness of the altar can be brought forward
through the use of leg-like vertical supports which need not eliminate the solidity afforded by enclosing the altar’s
supports with inset panels. As already
noted, heavenliness, in Biblical terms,
is frequently associated with gem-like
color and reflectivity, and while relatively little should be done to enrich the
mensa itself, the supporting structure
beneath can include carved or inset ornamental motifs that bring forward the
nature of the altar as festive sacrificial
table. Similarly, richly colored marbles
and inset gold or colored mosaic can
indicate the altar’s eschatological status
as heavenly banquet table.
4. The Altar is a Sacred Thing.
It is worth noting that an altar is a
place where sacred actions occur in
what the Church again and again calls
“sacred buildings.” Sacrosanctum Concilium even speaks of “sacred furnishings.”20 To be made sacred is to be set
Continued on Page 8
page 5
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
Painting the Walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem:
Phoenix’s New Liturgical Art Studio
By Joseph O’Brien
Managing Editor
Ruth and Geoff Stricklin are seeking
to unify beauty and worship by putting their artistic talents to work for the
Church’s liturgy – and their own marriage is in many ways an embodiment
of that effort.
As the founders of New Jerusalem
Studios, Phoenix, AZ, the Stricklins
are producing murals that will seek to
bring liturgical art to the foreground of
the Catholic liturgical renewal, even as
their work serves as a glorious background for the sacred liturgy.
Adopting the principles of the Beuron School of art, the Stricklins seek to
integrate the principles of this art style
as an organic part of the liturgy, favoring beautiful imitation over provocative originality, and seeking the glory of
God through individual talent.
Founded by 19th century Benedictines, the Beuron style adapts the principles of ancient iconography to the
needs of the Western Church. The style
was named for the Beuron Archabbey,
a Benedictine community in the upper
Danube valley of southern Germany,
where many of these monastic artists
worked.
The Stricklins have completed two
major projects in the Phoenix area and
are preparing to branch out to other
parts of the country. In 2007, thenchaplain of Xavier College Preparatory High School, Phoenix, Father John
Muir, asked Ruth Stricklin to paint a
25-foot tall altar mural for the school’s
celebration of the Mass. The mural, a
triptych, depicts Christ coming in glory,
surrounded by the heavenly hosts.
In 2014, Ruth Stricklin was also commissioned by Xavier to paint large portraits of the four female doctors of the
Church, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese of Lisieux and
St. Hildegard of Bingen. Each of the
four saints depicted has been assigned
as a patroness to one of Xavier’s four
grade levels.
In 2013, the chaplain for All Saints
Catholic Newman Center at Arizona
State University, Phoenix, Father Robert Clement, commissioned the couple
to paint a 20-foot tall mural for the main
sanctuary of the Newman Center’s
newly constructed chapel. It too depicts
Christ coming in glory. A year before its
completion in 2015, the Stricklins officially established New Jerusalem Studios.
With new commissions coming in,
the Stricklins plan to complete eight
additional murals and decorative painting for the Newman chapel in the future. Currently, they are under contract
to work on another 25-foot tall mural
for the worship area at St. Mary’s High
School, Phoenix, which will depict the
Blessed Virgin Mary and Christ crucified. The couple is also committed to
design work for the interior of Sacred
Heart Church, Phoenix. The Stricklins
may also undertake a project further
afield at a Catholic university (although
since they’re still in discussion with
school officials, they’re not at liberty to
identify the school).
Life sketches
Having experienced the bad liturgical art of the 1970s and 1980s, Geoff
Stricklin knows the important role
beauty plays – and ought to play – in
Catholic worship.
page 6
Xavier College Preparatory High School, Phoenix, and its 25-foot tall altar mural for the school’s celebration of the Mass in the
gymnasium. The mural, a triptych, depicts Christ coming in glory, surrounded by the heavenly hosts.
“I grew up Catholic in Huntington
Beach, California, in the 1980’s,” he
says. “My experience of liturgy was
plenty of felt banners, improvisation,
pop music, theologically dubious song
lyrics, and extreme casualness in the
celebration.”
He’s quick to point out that in his own
experience of the faith, he was not immune to the secular drift of the times. “I
was negatively influenced by the whole
feminist push in the Church,” he says,
“the use of inclusive language, and, in
general, an adoption of secular moral
values on issues such as abortion.”
After encountering the writings of
Pope John Paul II and attending liturgy more clearly informed by Church
teaching, however, Stricklin experienced “a profound conversion of faith
and understanding.”
“In contrast to the highly emotional
evangelical worship to which I had earlier been drawn, the Monastic style of
liturgy exerted a more integrative force,
(not overly emotional, nor void of emotion), a quality I later learned that Pope
Benedict described as “sober inebriation.”
In 2007, working as director of liturgy at St. Magdalene de Pazzi Parish, Flemington, New Jersey, Geoff
enrolled in the Liturgical Institute (LI)
at University of St. Mary of the Lake,
Mundelein, IL.
“During my time at the Institute, my
love of the liturgy grew as I discovered
deeper and deeper richness,” he says.
“The sacramental nature of creation
and the economy of salvation became
my natural lens.”
Painted by Ruth Stricklin of New Jerusalem Studios, Phoenix, AZ, this altar mural of
Christ glorified in heaven serves as the backdrop for the recently built main chapel of
All Saints Newman Center, University of Arizona, Tempe, AZ.
Writing on the wall
Taking a very different path to LI,
Ruth Stricklin (nee Ristow) wasn’t
Catholic when she began to consider
the importance of liturgical art in the
life of faith. Born in rural Alaska, she
grew up as a member of the Church of
the Nazarene, an offshoot of the Wesleyan profession.
As a Protestant, Ruth was taught that
God’s word needed no visual aids – and
that images of any kind in the context
of worship were a form of idol worship.
Continued on Page 7
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
Continued from Page 6
Despite these strictures, she says she
found enough beauty to inspire her in
the Book of Nature and began painting
at a young age. While common sights
in the Forget-Me-Not State, the Aurora Borealis, Alaska’s mountain ranges,
and the occasional moose wandering
into her front yard, Ruth Stricklin says,
were also for her a window to the transcendent.
“To see something so beautiful, I
wanted to hold it, to experience the fullness of it and not be separated from it,”
she says. “It was my first awareness
of God, and I was being drawn to him
through the beauty of his creation.”
After high school, while on a trip to
Europe, Ruth Stricklin discovered that
art and worship could find a happy marriage in a Catholic context.
“One of our group’s first stops was
in Toledo, Spain,” she says. “We went
to the cathedral there, and I was deeply
impacted. I remember entering and being overwhelmed by the transcendent
beauty. Upon seeing this place, I knew
God was real. He was tangible, not
just a thought in my head. And when I
knew he was real, my first instinct was
to fall down and worship him…. This
was a moment when my awareness of
the invisible God and my love for visible beauty were beginning to come together.”
As her love for beauty and God grew,
Ruth began searching for a way to unify the two in her own art. After college,
she moved to the Phoenix area and took
up this cause with a passion as a freelance artist, designer and muralist for
private residences, local businesses and
a local evangelical Protestant church
she had joined.
“Art became a form of worship for
me,” she says of her time with this
church. “Worship services were a concert with backdrops and elaborate set
pieces, theatrical lighting and projection and so on. It was over the top, but
at least I was able to see that God could
use my creative gifts to draw me and
others to himself.”
New beginning
Taking these gifts back to school,
Ruth Stricklin interviewed with the
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), who served Xavier.
In 2006, they hired her to work as a set
designer for the school’s theater department.
“Xavier was a beautiful environment,
and a true community,” she says. “I saw
the witness of the Sisters of Charity,
their communal life, their dedication to
service, and how they welcomed and
nurtured my gifts. Even though I wasn’t
Catholic, I was given many opportunities to grow, I was allowed to thrive,
and the environment was welcoming to
an open expression and development of
faith.”
And grow she did – both spiritually
and artistically – as she was invited
to use her talents to beautify the regular celebration of Mass in the school’s
gymnasium.
“The gym was as you’d expect – a
utilitarian space that lacked a sense of
the sacred,” she says. “So Father Muir
thought that a backdrop displaying the
vision of heavenly worship from the
Book of Revelation would help the students focus and pray.”
In preparation for the work, she says,
she studied the Church’s rich tradition of art and architecture, leading her
deeper into the Catholic faith and to a
clearer understanding of worship than
she had from her own formation as a
Protestant.
“During our school Masses, I was
supposed to behave in chapel. But
when the altar mural was up there, the
students would instinctively stop talking and their gaze would go from their
friends and rise up to where the mural
was. Like anyone, high school students
will lose focus in Mass, but they would
lose it by gazing at the glorified Jesus
in heaven. You could see them reacting
more instinctively with a reverence and
a good, fruitful fear of the Lord as they
came into the presence of God in the liturgy.”
Looking back on his decision to commission the piece, Father Muir says he
did succeed in bringing the students of
Xavier to a new place in worship.
“The altar mural is physically large
and it gave the students a sense that the
Mass and the Church is not one more
thing in life,” he says. “Instead, with the
help of the mural, the students can see
that Mass is the all-encompassing mystery of reality and the altar mural in its
sheer beauty and size expressed that.”
This portrait of St. Catherine of Siena, rendered in the 19th century Beuronese style,
is part of a series of four portraits painted by Ruth Stricklin of New Jerusalem Studios
featuring the four female doctors of the Church. St. Catherine and her three fellow
doctors, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Hildegard of Bingen, adorn
the atrium of Xavier College Preparatory High School, an all-female Catholic school
in Phoenix, AZ.
drawn to what was happening in the liturgy, the beauty of the ritual that was
still so mysterious to me,” she says.
“But I knew something important was
happening here, and the sacramental
signs were bringing it into reality for
me . . . the beauty and richness of the
vestments, the vessels, incense, the reverence in the ritual – my senses were
welcomed in the Mass.”
the ordinary.
“I realized that it was hard to draw
the students into the mystery of the liturgy when they’re looking at basketball
hoops,” he says. “So out of nowhere I
asked Ruth if she knew how to paint,
and would she be able to paint an altar
mural. She said, ‘What’s an altar mural?’ That question was the beginning
of pretty intense catechesis for her. She
approached the subject matter of the art
Liturgical renewal
of the mural with the objective eye of
As Xavier’s chaplain at the time, an artist.”
Father Muir was duly imAccording to Father Muir,
pressed by Ruth’s great
what began as a repassion for beauty.
search project for
“When I discovered
Now serving as
Ruth
Stricklin
pastor of St.
turned into an
sacred art, it was a
Thomas Aquiabiding love
nas, Avonfor the truth.
treasure house, filled
dale,
AZ,
“She did
with rich symbolism. There so much reand Assistant Direcsearch and
was a purpose to it – the
tor of the
studying so
Office of glory of God – and it helped she could
Worship for
paint it and
me focus on particular
the Diocese
in the proof Phoenix,
cess she was
things for the
Father Muir
falling in love
was
ordained
with the truths
worship of God.”
for the Diocese of
she was painting,”
Phoenix in 2007.
he says. “It was the
“With [Xavier prinright place at the right
cipal and BVM] Sister Joan
time, for me, and I was priviFitzgerald’s permission,” he says, “I leged to be there. I would answer her
asked Ruth to paint an altar mural for questions and she would read everythe Masses we would have in the gym,” thing that I suggested to her.”
he says. “After a few conversations –
Once the altar mural was unveiled,
and I don’t think I even realized Ruth Father Muir says, the effect on the stuwasn’t Catholic at the time – I could see dents during Mass was almost immedithat she had such an instinct for art and ate.
beauty.”
“Among the students,” he says,
In launching the project, Father “there was a shift from chapel etiquette
Muir hoped to be able to transform the to reverence and fear of the Lord. At the
school’s gym during Mass and give beginning we would try to command
Xavier students an experience out of the students and tell them how they’re
Life of faith
Even as she completed the murals for
Xavier, Ruth Stricklin’s own purpose
was becoming clearer to her – and she
was received into the Catholic Church
in 2010. Shortly afterwards, she says,
Father Muir had recommended she take
a class at the Liturgical Institute and
that’s when her vocation to the married
life also came into focus.
“I wanted to know more about sacred
art so the chaplain who brought me into
the Church recommended a course at
LI in sacramental aesthetics. I signed
up for this class, not recognizing that
it was a grad level class, but I took the
class over the summer and I met Geoff.
He was in his final period of classes
over a five year study program and in
another couple weeks we would never
have met!”
In 2013, Geoffrey Stricklin moved
out to Phoenix to be nearer to his future
wife and to take on the duties of theology instructor at Xavier, a position he
still holds today. On May 23, 2015, the
Stricklins were married, becoming partners for life and partners in sacred art.
“Both of us so clearly see God’s
hand in bringing us together,” Geoffrey
Stricklin says, “not only to fulfill our
vocations, but seemingly also for the
work of liturgical renewal.”
As if to confirm them in this work,
the Stricklins’ art caught the attention of Father Clements, who invited
Ruth Stricklin to paint a mural for the
Newman Center – and challenged her
to consider painting the mural in the
Beuronese style. In preparation for the
work, she traveled to Conception Abbey in northwest Missouri, which lays
claim to the Beuronese legacy in the
murals adorning the abbey’s Basilica of
the Immaculate Conception.
At Conception, she says, “I learned
that the Beuronese style was developed
in the late 1800s as a counter to the indulgent and sensual styles of Romanticism. Art in the Beuronese style makes
use of muted colors and a sober, sedate,
and reverent, tone, thus not drawing attention to itself, but drawing the viewer
into worship. The emotional element
was restrained as well, much like iconography.”
Paradoxically, Ruth Stricklin sees the
restraints and requirements of sacred art
– and the Beuronese style in particular
– as a way to liberate her artistic talents.
In the modern art scene, she says,
“there’s a pressure to be self-expressive, come up with your own style and
do something provocative. But I found
I didn’t have anything to say as an artist
in that way, and so when I discovered
Continued on Page 8
page 7
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
Continued from Page 7
sacred art, it was a treasure house, filled
with rich symbolism. There was a purpose to it – the glory of God – and it
helped me focus on particular things for
the worship of God.”
By embracing the Beuronese style,
Ruth says, she’s not indulging in nostalgia, but undertaking an artistic style that
provides a real-time 21st century application to the liturgy.
“We recognize that the qualities of
Beuronese art have particular sacramental value,” she says, including “the
iconographic spirit, unobtrusive style,
and emphasis on the heavenly expression of the glorified figures, among other elements.”
Wall to All
While New Jerusalem Studios has
no permanent home yet, when the
Stricklins aren’t working in Xavier’s
theater, they’ll usually be working onsite for their projects.
“Father Clements is allowing us to
paint the Newman Center mural in the
choir loft,” Geoff says, “which is up
above and in the back of the church.
The ceiling is high enough that the remaining murals of the Newman Center
will be painted right there as we build
the framing and take them down from
right there.”
The Stricklins chose to name their
studio after the City of God – the New
Jerusalem – because of the name’s liturgical implications.
“Essentially when we celebrate
Mass we’re participating in that eternal
worship in a heavenly city, and it’s
sometimes called the New Jerusalem,”
Geoff says. “Our mission is to present
images that evoke that heavenly
worship, so we thought it appropriate to
name after that reality.”
Besides providing a livelihood,
New Jerusalem Studios also gives the
Stricklins a chance to work together in
a harmony of hearts and minds in their
love for beauty.
Continued from Page 5
apart from other things, and the Rite of
Blessing of a Church notes that since
churches “are permanently set aside for
the celebration of the divine mysteries, it
is right for them to receive a dedication
to God” (1). Thomas Aquinas writes
in the Summa that altars are not consecrated “because they are capable of receiving grace, but because they acquire
special spiritual virtue from the consecration, whereby they are rendered fit
for the Divine worship.”21 While the
altar does receive special treatment in
its anointing, incensing, covering and
lighting, The Order of the Dedication
of an Altar indicates that “the altar becomes sacred principally by the celebration of the Eucharist” (13).
Conclusion
In the section entitled “Art at the Service of the Liturgy” in Sacramentum
Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI wrote:
“Everything related to the Eucharist
should be marked by beauty” (41).
Beauty, theologically understood, results when a thing reveals its very nature—its ontological reality—to the
viewer. And an altar becomes knowable, and therefore beautiful, when its
“altar-ness” is revealed in the very matter of which it is made. A theologicallyinformed architect makes decisions regarding the design of an altar—material, size, shape and level of enrichment—
and these decisions are then made into
page 8
Founders of New Jerusalem Studios, Phoenix, AZ, Ruth and Geoffrey Stricklin are
under contract to work on a 25-foot tall mural for the worship area at St. Mary’s High
School, Phoenix, which will depict the Blessed Virgin Mary beneath Christ crucified.
This rendering is an initial sketch of the proposed mural.
“We think a lot a like and our sensibilities are similar,” Geoffrey Stricklin
says. “Even though Ruth comes from a
Protestant background, she thinks and
sees like a Catholic. Since I teach theology, principally revelation, my knowledge of the Bible as the story of salvation helps inform Ruth’s designs.”
The division of labor is never sharply
defined at New Jerusalem Studios, the
Stricklins say; instead, they work in
easy collaboration.
“I’ll be in the middle or finishing a
painting,” Ruth says, “and Geoff will
come up behind me and say, ‘Did you
mean to do that?’ when he sees a pos-
built form. All of these choices in the
mind of an architect join with the craftsman’s skill to become outward signs for
others to see. Such signs lead the viewer
to know what an altar is at the very level
of its reality. In doing so, the altar participates in the process of mystagogical catechesis and plays its part in the
“sanctification of man [which] is signified by signs perceptible to the senses”
(SC, 7). Then an altar will “look like”
an altar precisely because it is an altar at
the ontological level: a sacred table for
a sacrificial heavenly banquet which is
an image of Christ himself.
_____________
enly City: The Architectural Tradition
of Catholic Chicago (Liturgy Training
Publications, 2005), and How to Read
Churches: A Crash Course in Ecclesiastical Architecture (Rizzoli, 2011).
Denis R. McNamara is Associate Director and faculty member at the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint
Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary,
a graduate program in liturgical studies. He holds a BA in the History of Art
from Yale University and a PhD in Architectural History from the University
of Virginia, where he concentrated his
research on the study of ecclesiastical
architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has served on the
Art and Architecture Commission of the
Archdiocese of Chicago and works frequently with architects and pastors all
over the United States in church renovations and new design. Dr. McNamara is
the author of Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy (Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2009), Heav-
1. Preface V of Easter in the Roman
Missal includes the phrase: “As He
gave Himself into Your hands for our
salvation, He showed Himself to be
the Priest, the Altar, and the Lamb of
sacrifice.” In his classic 1933 work
on the nature of the altar, The Liturgical Altar, architect Geoffrey Webb,
stated it with typical clarity: “[the
Church] has proclaimed again and
again that in her mind the altar represents the Lord himself.” Pope Benedict XVI reiterated this in his 2007
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Sacramentum Caritatis, 23. See further explanation in the Catechism of
the Catholic Church (CCC), 1383.
2. John Paul II, Letter to Artists (1999),
nos. 7-8.
3. See the CCC, 1075. “Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the
mystery of Christ (It is ‘mystagogy’)
by proceeding from the visible to the
invisible, from the sign to the things
signified, from the ‘sacraments’ to
the ‘mysteries.’”
4. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit
of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 173.
eneral Instruction of the Roman
5. G
Missal (GIRM), 299.
6. See GIRM, nos. 298, 301.
sible misstep, or ‘Are you going to work
on that?’ when he sees a gap. And his
suggestion is right every time. I find
that I’ll be too close after working on
a painting for six months. He’s my second set of eyes and he comes to the
work with an integrity I appreciate.”
An important component of the artistic process, Geoffrey Stricklin says, is
the spiritual focus involved in composition.
“Ruth tries to create a prayerful environment when painting,” he says. “She
found this indispensible because she
has plenty of talent but she knows that
God is working through her.”
According to Geoff, prayer is at the
heart of New Jerusalem Studios and the
Stricklins work seeks, above all, to enter
into the heart of the Church’s prayer. If
done well, he says, the mural is a seamless part of the liturgy and helps draw
heaven and earth together in a unified
and visual whole.
“The earthly liturgy,” he says, “is an
image and sacramental sign of the ultimate reality in God’s plan, the heavenly
liturgy, where all creation is drawn into
the divine life of the Trinity. Properly
speaking liturgical images draw together the whole mystery and history of salvation. The present images of the liturgy here on earth give us a clear picture
of the worship we are called to, that is,
our ultimate destiny.”
Because murals are sacred art painted
large, Ruth says that, even in the process of composition on such a majestic
scale, the mural proves its merit.
“When I’m painting at Xavier, the
murals draw a lot of attention from the
students,” she says. “I love that they get
to see the process, and it draws them
in, even at the beginning process of the
painting. The whole community gets to
see the project develop and that’s something really needed right now in the
Church – a rediscovery of beauty.”
For more information on New
Jerusalem Studios, call the Stricklins at
480-242-7018, or contact Ruth Stricklin
at [email protected].
7. See Rite of Dedication of a Church
and Altar (RDCA), “The Order of a
Dedication of a Church,” nos. 15-16
and 63-71.
8. RDCA, “Order of Dedication of a
Church,” 16.
9. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIª q. 83 a. 3 ad 2.
10. RDCA, “Order of Dedication of a
Church,” 16.
11. J. B O’Connell, Church Building and Furnishing: The Church’s
Way (South Bend, IN: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1955), 139. A
helpful resource on legislation and
theological reflection before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
12. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication
of An Altar,” 3.
13. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication
of An Altar,” 3.
14.RDCA, “The Order of Dedication
of An Altar,” 4,
15. See CCC 1329.
16. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication
of An Altar,” 1.
17. RDCA, Decree.
18. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication
of A Church,” 16.
19. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication
of A Church,” 16.
20. See SC, 122. See also RDCA, Introduction, 3 and GIRM nos. 291 and
294.
21. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIª q. 83 a. 3 ad 3.
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
The Beuronese School: Nature and Grace in Liturgical Art
By David Clayton
The major styles of sacred art – the
Iconographic, the Baroque and the Gothic – are all well known to Catholics,
even if they can’t identity these styles by
name. Sometimes a school of sacred art
develops, however, which owes a debt
to one or the other of these styles but is,
as the expression goes, “neither fish nor
fowl.” Such is the case with the Beuronese School of Art.
Stylistically, the Beuronese School is
an interesting cul-de-sac that sits outside
the mainstream of the Christian tradition. It is named after the southern German town of Beuron, the location of the
Benedictine community in which this
mid-19th century school originated. The
best-known artists who painted in this
style in Europe are Desiderius Lenz (d
1928) and Gabriel Wuger (d 1892), both
Benedictine monks from Beuron.
In the United States, too, the Beuron
style can be found. The walls and the
ceiling of the abbey church of the Benedictines at Conception Abbey, Missouri,
are decorated primarily with authentic
examples of the Beuronese style. The abbey website states that the work on these
walls was done between 1893 and 1897
by several Conception monks, most notably Lukas Etlin (d. 1927), Hildebrand
Roseler (d. 1923), and Ildephonse Kuhn
(d. 1921). Sitting at the feet of the masters, so to speak, the latter two monks
had studied art at Beuron.
The original 19th century Beuronese
artists were reacting against what was
the dominant form of sacred art employed at the time by churches of the
Roman Rite. Overly naturalistic and sentimental form, this art was also stiflingly
academic and produced by the French
academies and ateliers. The exemplar
of this decadent form is the Frenchman
William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Authentic Christian art has a style that
is always a carefully worked out balance
of naturalism (sometimes referred to as
“realism”) and idealism. The naturalism in art tells us visually what is being
painted. Put simply, if an artist wants to
paint a man it must look like a man, with
a human trunk, a head, limbs and so on.
The artist then achieves the idealistic element in his composition through a controlled deviation from strict adherence to
natural appearances by which the artist
reveals invisible truths. For example, an
artist’s style can communicate that humans have a soul and a spirit, and that
these are known as the intellect and will.
It is this deviation from strict “photographic”* naturalism that characterizes
the style of art. All work produced in a
particular artistic tradition will have in
common certain methods (called “controlled abstractions”) by which the artist reveals the Christian understanding
of what his work portrays. It is through
perception of these methods that we are
able to recognize an artist’s style. For example, we recognize the iconographic
style because a painting in that style renders the eyes of the subject enlarged, the
mouth diminished, and the nose elongated in a particular way. Tradition developed these elements of iconographic
style to help the observer see beyond the
particular characteristics in the person
portrayed to the truths they represent,
truths, in the case of iconography, appropriate for a saint.
It is easy to distort appearances, to
hide the truth and to create the equivalent of a visual lie through style. Many
advertisements present airbrushed photographs – that is, photos that have been
deliberately distorted to exaggerate such
sexual attributes that advertisers hope
will help sell their products. This decep-
Photo courtesy of Saint John’s Abbey.
The former Abbey Church at St. John’s Collegeville, Minnesota, is among the finest
examples of Beuronese art in the United States.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
The Crucifixion, 1869, by Bueronese monk
Gabriel Wüger. The Beurone style combines naturally recognizable features with
particular Greek and Egyptian proportions
to introduce the supernatural element
which in part characterizes its style.
tion, perfected by the venal “Mad Men”
of Madison Avenue, tells us that it is not
enough for the Christian artist to be able
to stylize. Indeed, the Christian artist has
a great responsibility and must reveal the
truth through his stylizations, rather than
to deceive by hiding or distorting these
truths. As even this brief foray into aesthetics indicates, art is serious stuff; if
the artist gets these fundamental principles wrong, he can lead souls astray.
With this same sense of responsibility and aware of the deficiencies of the
sacred art of their time, Beuronese artists sought to introduce an idealization
into their style by seeking inspiration
from ancient Egyptian art and from ancient Greek principles of proportion. Visually it is easy to see the influence of
the Egyptian papyri; but in addition the
Beuronese artists used a canon of proportion derived from the ancient Greeks
(although this is speculative on the artists’ part, given that the canon of Polyclitus, an important primary source on
such matters, is lost). The link between
ancient Greek art and Egyptian art is
not an unnatural one. Plato praised the
Egyptian style and historians speculate
that Greek art from the classical period
(around 500 B.C.) was influenced by
Egyptian art.
Yet the Beuronese artists did not break
completely with the style of the day;
in fact, these artists trained in the same
methods of the 19th century atelier that
they were rejecting. The resulting artwork is a curious mixture of 19th century naturalism stiffened up, so to speak,
by an injection of Egyptian art and Greek
geometry.
What of the painting of Beuronese art
today? In his 1947 encyclical about the
sacred liturgy, Mediator Dei, Pius XII
made it clear (in paragraph 195) that we
should always be open to different styles
of art for the liturgy, provided that such
styles have the right balance of naturalism and idealism (he uses the words “realism” and “symbolism” to refer to these
qualities). What should drive the style’s
use, Pius XII advises, is the need of the
Christian community and not the whim
of the artist or patron.
In my experience, the Beuronese style
does connect with people today in a way
The Holy Family’s flight into Egypt in the Beuronese style. Painted by Father Bonaventure Ostendarp from St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
that is appropriate for the liturgy. A piece
of Beuronese art has sufficient naturalism for the observer to easily recognize
the representation, while it has sufficient
idealism to suggest another world beyond this one. Furthermore, contemporary culture provides natural reference
points to allow modern people, even
those without a classical education, to
relate to this style. Art deco architecture,
for example, is also derived from Egyptian styles. Strangely, many observers
might find the Beuronese style with its
Egyptian roots more accessible than a
traditional icon in the classic Russian
style of Andrei Rublev.
I have read in translation, On the Aesthetic of Beuron, by Father Desiderius
Lenz, who many consider to be the main
Beuronese theorist. As an account of the
geometric proportions used in the human
form, the book was complex and therefore difficult for any painter to use, except for very formal poses. As soon as
an artist seeks to twist and turn a pose in
the image, then the necessary foreshortening called for by Father Desiderius
requires the painter to use an intuitive
sense to relate distant parts to the nearer. In these cases, the artist may find it
difficult to adhere to the canon of proportion. Therefore, when figures painted
in the Beuronese style are less stiff and
formal, the style doesn’t seem to work
as well. On the other hand, the more relaxed poses of the Beuronese style produce art that looks like illustrations from
the Bible I was given when I was a child.
Such a style is good in that context, perhaps, but too naturalistic for the liturgy.
The approach of the original Beuronese School is idiosyncratic – I do
not know of any other Christian style of
art that looked to Egypt for inspiration.
Nevertheless, when done well, the end
result does strike me as having something sacred to it and worthy of attention.
Perhaps the efforts to control the modern temptation to individual expression
have contributed to this, too. The school
stressed, for example, the value of imitation of prototypes above the production
of works originating in any one artist.
Furthermore, the artists collaborated on
works and did not sign it once finished.
Perhaps it’s not surprising, though, that
Catholic monks who dedicated their
lives to God and his Church would prize
humility over the glory and fame of artistic immortality. In suppressing their
individualism, though, paradoxically, as
a group, the Beuron School achieved a
certain glory – most certainly with God
but also among artists here on earth!
David Clayton is the newly appointed
Provost of Pontifex University, the Catholic online education provider currently
at pilot stage; he is a visiting fellow of
Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in
Merrimack, NH; and author of the book
The Way of Beauty published by Angelico Press in 2015.
* Although in reality even a camera lens distorts appearances in a way that causes a photograph to be subtly
different from what the eye actually sees.
page 9
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
QUESTIONS
Questions of Faith
Why is the practice in some
parishes for the people to
stand after the priest’s invitation, Orate, fratres (“Pray,
brethren”) but before replying,
“May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands…”?
– Answered by Christopher Carstens
The Orate, fratres, literally, “Pray,
brethren,” concludes the preparatory
rites at the beginning of the Liturgy
of the Eucharist. The gifs of bread and
wine are presented; the priest says the
berekah prayers while elevating the
gifts slightly above the altar, and, after
saying a short private prayer that our
offerings and ourselves might be acceptable, washes his hands at the side
of the altar. He then returns to the middle of the altar and says, “Pray, brethren
(brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice
and yours may be acceptable to God,
the almighty Father.”
Some readers might recall that prior
to the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal
the assembly would make its response,
“May the Lord accept the sacrifice
at your hands” while still seated. But
with the current edition, this practice
changed.
Even though the Missal itself did not
appear in English until 2011, its General Instruction (GIRM) was available
Questions of Faith
At the Penitential act, can
settings of the Kyrie eleison
from the past that have the
Kyrie repeated three times,
then the Christe three times,
and then Kyrie three times
be used in the Ordinary Form
of the Mass? Could such be
composed today?
– Answered by Adam Bartlett
In his classic work, The Mass of the
Roman Rite, Joseph Jungmann describes the development of the Kyrie
eleison, which in its earliest form was
said or sung as a response to various
petitions by all the faithful, much like
our practice of the Prayer of the Faithful today.1 This is the practice described
by the fourth century pilgrim Aetheria
(or Egeria) in her written memoirs of
a journey to Jerusalem. By the time of
Gregory the Great (590-604), the response Christe eleison was added to
the Kyrie, and the preceding petitions
gradually began to disappear “in order
to linger longer on these two invocations,” as Gregory states.2 The Kyrie
and Christe, Jungmann says, were often
repeated many times over during Gregory’s time, up to as many as forty times
in the Byzantine East. As the Kyrie took
shape in the Roman liturgy in the eighth
century and beyond, however, its normal ninefold form (Kyrie eleison 3x,
Christe eleison 3x, Kyrie eleison 3x)
was established, modeling itself after
the Trinitarian pattern. As Jungmann
describes, “custom had thus consecrated the number three.”3 Dom Prosper Guéranger describes the trinitarian
significance of the ninefold Kyrie, saying: “The first three invocations are addressed to the Father, who is Lord: Kyrie, Eleison; (Lord, have mercy). The
following three are addressed to Christ,
the Son incarnate: Christe, eleison. The
page 10
O F FA I T H
in approved translation in 2000, mostly,
it is assumed, to help preparations for
the Missal itself later (ten years later, as
it turned out). At one point, the GIRM
says that the people stand “from the invitation Orate, fratres (Pray, brethren),
before the Prayer over the Offerings…”
(n.43). Without the actual Order of
Mass to consult (at least in English),
this instruction came to be interpreted
by most as having the people stand
before the priest says to the assembly
“Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and
yours,” much as the people would stand
if they were incensed (with incense!) at
Mass. This appears to be the practice in
most parishes at the moment.
As it turns out, the people are not
to stand before the priest says “Pray,
brethren” or after they make their response. Instead, the Order of Mass has
the assembly stand after the priest says
“Pray, brethren” but before they respond “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands.” What was not clear
in the GIRM is now clear in the Order
of Mass:
Standing at the middle of the altar,
facing the people, extending and then
joining his hands, he says:
Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters),
that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.
The people rise and reply:
last three are addressed to the Holy
Ghost, who is Lord, together with the
Father and the Son; and therefore, we
say to him also: Kyrie, eleison.”4
The ninefold Kyrie normally has been
sung by the schola cantorum, often in
alternation between two choruses, from
the eighth century up to the Second Vatican Council.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal issued after the Council introduced the innovation of the sixfold
Kyrie into the Ordinary Form of the
Mass, saying: “Since [the Kyrie] is a
chant by which the faithful acclaim the
Lord and implore his mercy, it is usually executed by everyone, that is to say,
with the people and the choir or cantor taking part in it. Each acclamation
is usually pronounced twice, though it
is not to be excluded that it be repeated
several times, by reason of the character
of the various languages, as well as of
the artistry of the music or of other circumstances.”5 Although congregational singing and the form of the sixfold
Kyrie are given priority in the GIRM,
the traditional practice of the ninefold
Kyrie sung by the schola cantorum is
not prohibited by it. In fact, the Kyriale
Romanum6 issued following the Council contains several settings of the Kyrie
from the Gregorian chant tradition that
can only be sung in a ninefold manner.
The introduction to the typical edition
Ordo Cantus Missae7 (Sung Order of
Mass) — which in 1972 arranged the
chants of the 1908 Graduale Romanum
according to the revisions of the liturgical calendar and rites undertaken following the Second Vatican Council —
reaffirms the traditional practice. Article
2 states that “[t]he acclamation, Kyrie
eleison, may be distributed among two
or three cantors or choirs as opportunity
dictates.”8 While it goes on to mirror the
GIRM, stating that “[e]ach acclamation
is normally sung twice…,”9 it continues, saying that “this does not exclude
a greater number, especially on account
May the Lord accept the sacrifice at
your hands, for the praise and glory of
his name, for our good and the good of
all his holy Church.
But reading the rubric is one thing:
knowing why it says what it does is
another. Why does the rubric have the
assembly stand before making its response? Let me suggest three reasons.
First, standing is an appropriate response to the priest’s command to
prayer. I say “command” since the verb
orate is just that, taking the imperative
form. Orate is at its root ora, for prayer,
and it takes the form of a command.
Orate is related to oremus, “Let us
pray,” which the priest says before the
Collect (or Opening Prayer) at the end
of the Introductory Rites and before the
Prayer After Communion. But in these
cases the oremus is in the subjunctive
form and serves more as an invitation
than a command. In a certain sense, the
command orate is similar to the military command “Attention!” – to which
soldiers stand in response.
Second, standing is a posture of respect and, in this case, respectful entreaty. During the other presidential
prayers, such as the Collect or Prayer
After Communion, the assembly is
standing, since it is addressing God
(most often God the Father) through
the person of the priest. At other times,
such as during the Eucharistic Prayer,
the assembly kneels, this also being,
among other things, a petitionary posture. But never in the Mass does the assembly as a whole pray to God from a
sitting posture. And it is no small petition that the members of the assembly
make: we pray that our sacrifice may be
accepted for God’s glory and our sanctification. Offering an acceptable sacrifice which sanctifies us and glorifies
God was (and is) the essence of Jesus’
own work, the ongoing ministry of the
Church, and the most fundamental aspect of being a Christian. Standing expresses the importance of this petition
in a way that sitting cannot.
Third, and related to number two, the
act of standing (in both cult and culture)
is a sign of readiness. The Chosen People were told to offer that first Paschal
Sacrifice “with your loins girt, sandals
on your feet and your staff in hand” because “you will eat it in a hurry” (Exodus 12:11). Like the Israelites, we too
stand in readiness as we prepare our
own sacrifice: the true Paschal Lamb
and, with him, our own hearts. Standing thus also expresses and fosters our
readiness to enter into the sacrifice at
the altar.
So whether or not your own parish
stands as the Missal indicates, we can
at least be mindful of what these words
and postures at this juncture signify:
the command to sacrifice, the heart-felt
petition that our sacrifice be acceptable
for our holiness, and the readiness to
join our own personal sacrifices to that
of Jesus on the altar.
The “Mass of the Angels” (Missa de Angelis), “other things being equal” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116), is as appropriate today as it was a century ago, or in eternity to
come.
of musical artistry….”10
Certain challenges and tensions arise
in the singing of the Kyrie melodies
found in the Kyriale Romanum as a result of the GIRM’s preference for the
congregational singing of a sixfold Kyrie. Several of the more ancient melodies, such as the second Kyrie of Mass
XVIII for the Mass for the Dead, are described by Jungmann as having a “plain
litany-quality” in which “the same simple tune recurs eight times and only in
the ninth is there any embellishment.”11
Several of such simpler settings can also
be found in the Kyriale Simplex,12 many
of which even lack an embellished final
Kyrie. These settings easily allow for
the Kyrie to be sung in a sixfold manner
as a kind of “call and response” form
where the cantor sings a melody that is
immediately repeated by the assembly
for each of the three invocations.
Several of the more developed Kyrie melodies in the Kyriale Romanum
move beyond the plain litanic form and
provide a unique melody for each of the
three invocations.13 In principle, these
settings can be sung in a sixfold manner
Continued on Page 12
Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016
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Mass IV, with a ninefold Kyrie, in Chant notation then and now.
Continued from Page 10
(as a call-and-response form) just as
easily as they can be sung in a ninefold
manner, with one exception: like the
plain litanic form, this more developed
form also includes a melodic embellishment, often unique in character, on
the final Kyrie. When Kyries in either
of these two genres are sung in the traditional manner (ninefold with alternation between two sections of a schola),
the embellished ending serves as a perfectly featured melodic climax and conclusion. Often, after eight alternations
between the two sections (sometimes
highlighted by the contrast between all
male and all female voices), section one
begins the ninth Kyrie and sings up to
the asterisk, where section two repeats
what was just sung by section one, and
at the double asterisk both sections
come together for the concluding phrase
which accentuates and definitively concludes the musical composition.14
In other settings the ninth Kyrie contains entirely unique melodic material.15
When these are sung in a ninefold manner they serve as a logical, fitting conclusion. When they are sung in a sixfold
manner, the final Kyrie — which must
be sung in order for melodic completeness —often comes as a surprise to the
assembly at first, who intuitively expects a pure call-and-response form. It
often occurs that when such settings are
first introduced in a parish half of the
congregation will treat the final Kyrie as
a call-and-response, singing back what
they have just heard, while the choir and
the other half of the congregation sing
the proper ending, creating a moment of
melodic cacophony. Fortunately, these
issues tend to resolve themselves after
use for a few successive weeks, and
perhaps more quickly with a prior brief
note of instruction.
The Kyriale Romanum also includes
settings that can only be sung in a ninefold manner.16 These settings anticipate
the contrast of two choirs or sections
singing in alternation and provide a
page 12
complementary contrast in the melodic
form. These settings, in addition to having highly contrasting sections, are also
often melismatic in form and of significant melodic complexity, representing
a later and more developed form of the
genre. By their nature, they are not well
suited to congregational singing, either
in a sixfold or ninefold manner.
In practice, the great majority of Gregorian chant settings of the Kyrie found
in the Kyriale Romanum are easily and
successfully adapted to sixfold singing,
as long as an adequate amount of time
is given for assemblies to learn them
and their proper endings well. The nature of the Mass Ordinary itself is highly repetitive, unlike the Mass Proper
which virtually presents new texts and
chants every day. This repetition is a
pedagogical feature. As new Kyries are
introduced into parish life — and, especially, taught to children — and repeated enough so that they can be properly internalized, they will be learned,
known and lovingly sung by the faithful
for a lifetime, and handed on from one
generation to the next. They are melodically rich and endure the test of time.
Further, for those who have the opportunity to sing them regularly in their appointed seasons, Kyrie lux et origo of
Mass I begins to “sound like Easter,”
while Kyrie orbis factor of Mass XI begins to “sound like Ordinary Time,” as
can be the case in every season and for
various classes of feasts.
When the Kyrie is sung in a ninefold
manner, it would be most fitting for two
contrasting sections of a choir to sing in
alternation according to the traditional
manner. The contrast of all male voices in one section against all female or
treble voices in another is particularly
beautiful! Further, if some of the simpler
Kyries are sung ninefold, the congregation can be taught to sing in alternation
with the choir, themselves serving as
“choir two” which alternates with a cantor or a group of cantors. The greatest
difficulty encountered in this situation
is that the pattern of alternation causes
the congregation to initiate the Christe
eleison without hearing it sung first by
the choir. This task is not impossible,
but will be best achieved with proper
initial instruction and with a great deal
of repetition over time. The greatest
practical benefit of this approach is that
the congregation can entirely avoid the
embellished ninth Kyrie eleison at the
end, which, according to the pattern of
alternation in this case, is taken up by
the properly trained and equipped choir
or schola cantorum. In some cases, parishes that have employed the ninefold
Kyrie have not made the effort to sing
in alternation and as a result the choir
and congregation sing the entire chant
together, continuously and without contrast. This approach can create a kind of
monotony and redundancy that is not
envisioned by the genre, and might best
be avoided.
In parishes today, a varied repertoire
of the plain litanic Kyries from the
Kyriale Simplex, of sixfold Kyries with
embellished endings from the Kyriale
Romanum, and perhaps a few ninefold
Kyries, whether in Gregorian chant or
polyphonic choral settings that can be
sung by a well-trained schola cantorum
on more solemn feasts, would provide
a wonderful balance and variety that
both respects the priorities of the GIRM
and is rooted deeply in the sacred music
tradition. This would be the case even
more if they are sung along with their
complementary Gloria, Sanctus and
Angus Dei.
The ninefold Kyrie can even be employed in new compositions, especially when these settings are intended to
be sung by more highly trained choirs
and scholae. It should be kept in mind,
however, that the sixfold Kyrie sung in
part by the congregation is the form that
should be employed the majority of the
time in the Ordinary Form of the Mass.
Adam Bartlett is a composer, conductor and teacher of Catholic sacred
music and editor of liturgical and musical resources, and serves as President
and Editor of Illuminare Publications.
He received his B.A. degree in Music
from Arizona State University, studied
Gregorian chant as an apprentice to
Dom Columba Kelly, OSB, of St. Meinrad Archabbey, and received his M.A.
degree in Liturgical Studies from the
Liturgical Institute of the University of
St. Mary of the Lake. He is the composer and editor of Simple English Propers
(CMAA, 2011), and is the editor of the
Lumen Christi Series (Illuminare Publications, 2012-2016). Adam resides
in Littleton, CO, with his wife and two
daughters.
1. See Jungmann, Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. I
(New York, Benziger, 1955) pp. 333-346.
2. Jungman, p. 339.
3. Ibid.
4. Prosper Guéranger, Explanation of the Prayers and
Ceremonies of Holy Mass, http://www.sanctamissa.
org/en/spirituality/explanation-of-the-prayersand-ceremonies-gueranger.pdf
5. General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 52.
6. Contained within the Graduale Romanum, and
consisting of eighteen complete Mass Ordinaries
in Gregorian chant, six settings of the sung Creed,
and numerous ad libitum settings of the Kyrie,
Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from the Gregorian
chant tradition.
7. Ordo Cantus Missae, Editio typica altera. Libreria
Editrice Vaticana. 1988. The Ordo Cantus Missae
is the official typical edition that provided the
blueprint for the 1974 Solesmes edition of the
Graduale Romanum, and other subsequent private
performance editions.
8. Ordo Cantus Missae, Introduction, no. 2.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Jungmann, p. 344.
12. C
ontained within the Graduale Simplex, which
was produced following the Second Vatican
Council as a response to the request of Sacrosanctum Concilium that “an edition be prepared
containing simpler melodies, for use in small
churches” (see SC 117). The Lumen Christi Missal
and Lumen Christi Simple Gradual (Illuminare
Publications, 2012-2014) contain the whole of the
Kyriale Simplex in addition to four chant Masses
in English and eight of the most commonly sung
Masses from the Kyriale Romanum (for more information visit www.illuminarepublications.com).
13. S uch as Masses I, II, IV, V, VII, VIII, XI, XII, XIII,
XIV, XVI, XVII and XVIII.
14. Such as Masses IV and VIII, among others.
15. S uch as Masses I, XI, XVI, and XVIII, among
others.
16. S uch as Masses III, VI, IX, X, and XV, in addition
to the majority of the ad libitum settings.