Initial Thoughts on the Sacred Liturgy Conference, 2018

Last month, I attended the Sacred Liturgy Conference in Salem, Oregon. This is the second time I’ve attended, the first being back in 2016. It’s a transforming conference, and the daily conference liturgies in particular have made, and continue to make, a deep impression on me and others.

Obviously, it’s difficult to sum up a four day conference in just a few paragraphs, particularly one with speakers including Archbishop Alexander Sample, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop James Conley, Rev. Cassian Folsom, OSB, and Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, to name just a few.

I hope to revisit some of the other talks and events later, but right now I’d like to mention just three. I had hoped to do this in a brief fashion, but there was just so much. This is probably why these three stood out for me.

The headers below are quotes from the actual talks or events themselves.

“Chant is proper to the Roman Liturgy” (Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth)

Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, who is the Director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, gave a talk titled “The Importance of Singing the Liturgy with the Ancient Propers”. Might sound a little esoteric, but it was positively a barn-burner.

He began by saying that we were “in it to win it” – and heaven is the “it” we strive for. And where do we come closest to heaven in this life? The sacred liturgy. He spoke of the Mass as the place where we encounter God in His Truth and beauty – and where be begin to touch the great divine mystery.

He discussed the great Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, published as the first document of the Second Vatican Council in 1963. He pointed out that it upholds and promotes the use of Latin (¶ 36 and 54), Gregorian Chant (¶ 114 and 116), the pipe organ (¶ 121), and states that musical texts must be drawn from scriptural and liturgical sources and expound Catholic doctrine (¶ 120).

None of this has been upheld in the last fifty years. Msgr. Wadsworth said it succinctly, “Sacrosanctum Concilium stands in judgement of the modern liturgical culture”. And music, he said, “is the most powerful determinative of liturgical culture”.

He went on to say that a very slow restoration has begun since the publication of the new General Instruction and Missal translation in 2011.

And Sunday Masses, he said, should always be sung.

He gave us a lot of good resources for the chant propers in both Latin and English, including most especially the Musica Sacra website.

He finished with a ringing exhortation, excerpts of which I quote from:

Relearn Gregorian chant and be formed by its sacramental quality! … This is of the uttmost importance. We are rebuilding the liturgy and the liturgical culture. … This is essential for the restoration of the Church and the sanctification of the members of the Church. … The restoration of the liturgy is a prophetic mission in the Church today.”

“Our greatest treasure is Jesus in the Eucharist” (Msgr. Gerard O’Connor)

Msgr. Gerard O’Connor, who serves as Director of Divine Worship in the Archdiocese of Portland also gave a call to arms, backed up with a long list of practical tips, in his talk on “The Eucharistic Parish”.

He started out by saying that he was going to give a primer on “practical liturgy”.

He defined the chief problem facing the Church as thirty years of bland, generic Christianity. He decried the groupthink that says because you use a communion rail, you don’t care about the poor. He said that for the Church to fulfill her mission and flourish, you must have both a dedication to the sacred liturgy and to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

To turn this around, we must put the Eucharist, our greatest treasure, front and center of our parish life.

Get back to preaching, teaching, forming in the Eucharist – this will transform the liturgy.

The process must be gradual. We’ve had too much of titanic shifts in focus and liturgy, done all at once. Step by step. Start in your individual prayer life. Move on to our parishes, and then to our dioceses.

Don’t cause too much fuss or conflict. The examples he gave included just turning the presiders’ chairs to the liturgical north and moving the tabernacle back to the center… inch by inch each week if necessary.

The secret to a good parish is good preaching and good liturgy, both of which must be founded in the Eucharist.

Here were his practical steps:

1. Keep the church open: people will come. This may require some creative thinking (and possibly security cameras).
2. Close the parish office during Mass.
3. Parish staff must be onboard – either living the Catholic life or on a route to a conversion of life.
4. Leaders must be on fire for their faith – not lukewarm. This creates a domino effect that creates saints.
5. Focus on Mass attendance – call the people to Holy Mass, both as the center of our lives but also reminding them that missing it is a grave sin.
6. Stomp out laxity towards the Blessed Sacrament. Reverence is contagious. There should be one tabernacle key. Silence should be maintained in the presence of the Sacrament. Genuflect!
7. Altar servers should be under strict training and discipline. Their reverence informs the people, and they need to set an example. They should receive the Eucharist on the tongue.
8. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion – EMHCs should be extraordinary, and their use should be avoided if possible. If you don’t need them, don’t use them. Too many detract and distract from the Mass. Those that you have must be well formed, and their piety must be proportional to the great mystery they serve.
9. The tabernacle should be in the symmetrical center of the sanctuary, and it must be given due reverence (not perfunctory) at all times.
10. Adoration. Scheduled from the end of Mass until Vespers, with hourly sign-ups of at least two people each hour. This will totally transform the parish. It must be done properly, with the required candles, monstrance, and adorers. Monsignor also suggested each grade in the school spend a half hour per week in adoration, and all staff and faculty to take a holy hour each day.
11. Celebrate the Angelus every day at noon.

These are the results in the parishes he has served:

• Genuine pursuit of holiness in the parish.
• Money. Increased giving.
• High level of participation in the parish life.
• Vocations to priesthood and religious life.
• People have a thirst for more.

He finished by saying simply this, “the Lord converts His people, and the parish is transfigured”.

“Welcome to the Thirteenth Century” (Rev. Gabriel Mosher, OP)

All of the conference liturgies were glorious, whether celebrated in the Ordinary or Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite, or, like the one I wish to highlight here, in the Dominican Rite.

I almost didn’t get to go to this one. It was the final conference liturgy, and my train back home was scheduled to leave Salem shortly after it began. The Holy Spirit, however, had other ideas. I received a text from AMTRAK that my train would be arriving two hours late, and suddenly I was able to attend this Mass.

It was a Solemn High Mass in the Dominican Rite, a Votive Mass of our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated by Rev. Gabriel Mosher, OP, with Bishops Schneider and Conley in choir.

This was a revelation to me. This Mass was the most beautiful liturgy – the most beautiful human work – that I have ever seen. It was sheer poetry of motion, gesture, word, and sacrifice. I don’t know that I can explain it to anyone who hasn’t experienced it.

Father Mosher began his homily with the quote above, “welcome to the thirteenth century”, and it was perfectly apt. The homily itself was extremely good, seemingly casual but with great theological depth and a formal structure that I only noticed very near to the end.

But the Mass itself! At points I was crying in my pew.

And the only reason I was there at all was because my train was late.

Deo Gratias.

Perhaps in future, I will talk about some of the other experiences at the conference. In particular, some of the other talks that stood out for me were given by Rev. Cassian Folsom, OSB, Rev. Gabriel Mosher, OP, and Msgr. John Cihak, who is a former Papal MC. And I think I will have some things to say about an FSSP priest leading chanted Vespers according to the Liturgy of the Hours in the Ordinary Form in Latin.

But for now, hopefully this will give you a taste of the conference. Next year’s is in Spokane, Washington, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.