Vatican II Liturgy Called Gift Of The Holy Spirit

By CINDY WOODEN, CNS

Published: December 11, 2003

VATICAN CITY (CNS)—Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s document on the liturgy, Pope John Paul II, bishops and speakers at a Vatican conference called the council’s liturgical reforms a gift of the Holy Spirit.

While the council’s goal of increasing people’s understanding of the Mass and their participation in it has been achieved, the pope and others said it was time to focus on what is too often missing: silence, reverence and a sense of mystery.

“An aspect which must be cultivated with greater commitment in our communities is the experience of silence,” Pope John Paul wrote in a Dec. 4 apostolic letter marking the anniversary of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

When people’s daily lives are frantic and full of noise, “rediscovering the value of silence is vital,” the pope wrote in the document, which was distributed only in Italian.

Pope John Paul said the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council was one of God’s greatest gifts to the church in the 20th century.

The reform, he said, “demonstrated how it is possible to join norms which guarantee the identity and decorum of the liturgy with space for creativity and adaptation that draw the liturgy closer to the expressive needs of various regions, situations and cultures.”

A lack of respect for the norms, and not the reform itself, has led to some “serious abuses” that cast a shadow over the mystery being celebrated and that cause concern and tensions among Catholics, he said.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria, Ill., in a Nov. 30 pastoral letter, told people in his diocese that reverence during Mass, expressed in words, gestures, music and surroundings, inspires reverence for all of the Catholic faith and ultimately for God himself.

“I would ask everyone to show greater reverence for the mysteries we celebrate,” Bishop Jenky said in his letter explaining and commenting on the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which took effect in all U.S. dioceses on the first Sunday of Advent.

The bishop said reverence at Mass starts with actions such as dressing appropriately and arriving on time; praying and reflecting on the readings before Mass; observing the one-hour fast before Communion; repenting of one’s sins; going to confession frequently; performing acts of self-denial; and showing Christian charity to others.

Participation in the Mass includes silence at appropriate times, Bishop Jenky said. Periods of silence allow the mystery of Christ to “soak deeply into our soul” during the liturgy, he added.

The anniversary of the Vatican II document also was celebrated with a daylong Vatican conference sponsored by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

Claretian Father Matias Auge, a consultant to the congregation, told the conference that the church faces the challenge of balancing an individual’s need for a sense of devotion with the liturgy’s role as the prayer of a believing community.

“Putting in harmony the needs of the individual and those of the community” would solve many of the tensions currently surrounding the liturgy, he said at the Dec. 4 conference.

Father Auge said the widespread feeling that the new Mass has lost a “sense of mystery” must be addressed, but not by giving in to an attitude that liturgy should be “a strictly individual and purely private affair.”

Father Auge said respect must be given to the “spaces for silence, prayer and contemplation” called for in the liturgy because, even though people are praying together at Mass, they have a right not to be bombarded by an “arbitrary multiplication of words and gestures.”

Cardinal Ivan Dias of Mumbai, India, said the Second Vatican Council highlighted “the common priesthood of the faithful and the communal aspect of the people of God in liturgical celebrations, especially in the holy Mass.”

In the area of sacred music, the council encouraged singing by the entire assembly and the use of appropriate local music, he said.

Inculturation—allowing local culture to influence the music and gestures used in the liturgy—is especially important in mission territories “to avoid the risk that Christianity is considered a foreigner or even an intruder in the local culture,” the cardinal said.

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago told the conference there was need for more study and a better understanding of what it means to participate in the liturgy.

For many people, he said, “the emphasis is on verbal response and physical gesture and, in fact, the post-conciliar experience is one of an extremely verbal liturgy with much activity going on.”

While words, gestures and thinking are part of participating and understanding, he said, emotion, feeling and an appreciation of beauty also are involved.

Pope John Paul, in a separate document published Dec. 3, said that while Gregorian chant and pipe organs hold pride of place in Catholic liturgical music, the use of new compositions and other instruments are appropriate at Mass if they reflect the sacredness of the occasion and help people pray.

Sacred music functions both as a way to pray and to praise God as well as a way to involve the entire congregation in the celebration of the Mass, he said in the document marking the 100th anniversary of a document on sacred music written by Pope Pius X.

The music used at Mass must be sacred music based on sacred texts, he said. Its content and tempo must match the gestures and tone of the liturgical action it accompanies.

Secular music is not appropriate at Mass, the pope said, nor are “elitist” attempts to “introduce into the liturgy ancient or contemporary compositions which, while perhaps having artistic value, indulge in a language that is incomprehensible.”

The papal document also emphasized the importance of well-trained choirs, cantors and instrumentalists not only in making the Mass beautiful, but also in helping the congregation participate through singing.

When all those at a Mass fulfill their assigned roles, he said, the result is a “spiritual climate that makes the liturgical moment truly intense, participatory and fruitful.”

Pope John Paul asked the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments as well as bishops and priests around the world to be more vigilant in assuring an appropriate use of suitable liturgical music and to promote both the training of liturgical musicians and the work of composers.