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cistercians of the strict observance

VOL.4 N0.1MARCH 1970

L I T U R G YVol ume 4, Number 1 / March 1970

EditorialL I T U R G YRedivivalChrysogonu s Waddell1 SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW LECTIONARYPatrick Reardon3 WORD AND SACRAMENT IN VATICAN IIJohn Zay 10 ST BERNARD ON COMPOSING LITURGICAL OFFICESBasil Pennington 18 THE NEED TO EXPRESS "AD PATREM" IN THE PASCHAL VIGILJohn Zay 21

THE GOOD FRIDAY PSALTER: Gethsemani 1969Chrysogonus Waddell 28

A FOOTNOTE TO AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE RITE OF PENANCE: THE STOLE

Chrysogonus Waddell 37

THE GLENSTAL LITURGY COURSE

Fr. Cyril of Mount St. Bernard 44

A LETTER TO MOTHER LAETITIA ABOUT THE FUNERAL OF FATHER LOUIS

Chrysogonus Waddell 45

LITURGICAL RENEWAL AND LAY-OUT OF CHURCHES

Cardinal Pellegrino 69

AN AMERICAN HYMN PROJECT FOR CISTERCIAN MONASTERIES

Chrysogonus Waddell 91 TEXTS: ANTIPHONS AND COLLECTS FOR THE TIME OF LENT Chrysogonus Waddell 106

LITURGY Bulletin serves to share with others whatever thoughts and experiences may contribute toward the development of a liv ing liturgy for today.

Manuscripts should be forwarded to: Chrysogonus Waddell, Geth semani Abbey, Trappist, Kentucky 40073 (U.S.A.)

Printed at Gethsemani Abbey, Trappist, Kentucky

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L I T U R G YRedi vi va!

After a year long period of silence,our LITURGY bulletin returns again to the scene . Even in an Order which wholeheartedly embraces the otium contem pZationis as an essential part of the life style, a year long interval between

issues seems and is a bit excessive; and this delay calls for both an explana tion and an apology.

Once again, the better has become the enemy of the good (or at least, of the adequate ). The last to issues in 1968, professionally edited and printed by Br. Mark of New Melleray, marked an enormous advance over our earlier home spun issues : varied typography and format, footnotes on the same page as the text they accompanied, even tinted paper In the normal course of events, the bulk of the material included in the current issue would have appeared in the early spring of '69.But when Br. Mark advised us that his presses would be tied up till July with General Chapter printing chores, it was decided to turn the spring issue into a summer issue . Summer dragged into autumn, autumn into winter And due to a whole concatenation of circumstances beyond the control of Br. Mark or of anyone else, the New Melleray presses are still tied up with General Chapter material and other necessary projects.In the circumstances, then, we are returning to a humbler mode of production.

In the light of the long time lapse between issues, no one will be surprised if an occasional paragraph of this or that article already appears to be a bit dated.This is to be expected even in ordinary circumstances in a periodical concerned chiefly with sharing thoughts and experiences which might possibly

contribute toward the development of an ever more living liturgy in our present

day connnunities.An article might be of only ephemeral interest; but if it can help even a few of us experience a provisional situation at greater depth, then such an article is amply justified.Accordingly, our editorial policy is any thing but rigid: we welcome gratefully anything whatsoever which might help someone to experience more vitally Christ present and acting in our liturgy.

And though this periodical happens to be printed in a Cistercian monastery, and appears in virtue of a mandate from the Liturgy Connnission of the Order, there is nothing exclusively "Cistercian" in our scope. One might conceivably argue that we have a "Cistercian rite" proper to us; but if we look at things objectively, we realize that the scope of our concerns and the nature of our liturgy are by no means "Cistercian particularities." The interest expressed by readers of other Orders and even of other churches is proof of this. May we

not hope that the table of contents of future issues will reflect this communi ty of interests and concerns?

With much regret I announce that, for at least the next few issues, the name of Fr. Armand VEILLEUX will not appear at the bottom of the editorial page.

But this is surely the only element of regret in our. general rejoicing over

his recent election as Father Abbot of the brethren of Our Lady of Mistassin i,

Canada.Many othersjoin me in expressing the hope that Dom Armand will soon be able to resume his role as editor-in-chief.And let us also take this oc casion to congratulate Dom Armand on yet another score . The Canadian govern ment has recently awarded him a prize in recognition of the excellence of his doctoral dissertation (defended summa aum Laude at the Pontifical Institute of Sant' Anselmo, Rome). From recent surveys of periodicals, it is clear that Dom

Armand's La liturgie dans le alnobitisme paah0mien au quatPime sieale [=Studia Anselmiana 57 (1968)] has already assumed the importance of a standard refer ence work.

For the present issue, special thanks are due to Fr. Baldwin and to Br. An elm, both of Gethsemani, who undertook the typing and most of the preparation of

the script. With the completion of this issue, our new style-sheet has become more or less stabilized.Future issues will offer (we hope) fewer inconsis tencies and incongruities than is the case with the current issue.

We have high hopes of offering you two more issues this year . Material for the summer issue should arrive at Gethsemani Abbey by early June at the latest; early October will be the deadline for the fall I winter issue.

Chrysogonus Waddell

Monk of Gethsemani Abbey

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3

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE NE.'{,\] LEcrr

Among con temporary developments in the evolution of Ca tholic worship, there is surely a spe cia l impor tan ce in the appear ance of the new Ordo Le c

tion um Missae. 1The f ruit of f ive years ' work , characterized at once by the f irmness of its s tructure and the weight of erudite research which it repre sen ts , this volume readi ly commends itse lf as a valuab le instrumen t of li tur gical renewal.The in ten tion of the present article is to sketch brie f ly the

corcposition of this lectionary outline and to of fe r a f ew sugges tions regard ing its theological background , by way of in troduction of its ef fective use.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW LECTIONARY 2

One immediate ly observes that we are dealing, in f act, wi th a t riple lectionary cove ring each of the cycles of the liturgical year:Sundays , weekdays and f easts of the saints .Each of these in the arrangemen t of its readings is independen t of the others , and can be treated separate ly .

The readings for Sunday , or the dominical cycle , f ollow patterns which are to some e xten t new to the Roman rite .To be gin with , the Mass on such days

will always con tain three readings f rom Scripture:a f irs t f rom the Old Testa-

men t,

3 a secon d f rom the New and a third f rom the Gospels .It is understood,

of course , that this is no real innovation .The Roman rite already employed

a like schema on certain days of Len t, and considerable basis f or such a prac tice can be f ound in other venerable tradi tions of Catholic worship .These

new Sundays readings, f urthermore , will be spread ove r a cycle of th ree years ,

thus corcp lying to and specifying a desire f ormulated by Vati can II . 4

Each of

these th ree years will be characte rized by extensive use of one of the Synoptic Gospe ls .The Four th Gospel , on the other hand, will preserve its an cient eminence by being employed in the highe r poin ts of the liturgical year .

In the choice of these readings care has been taken to re late the Old Testament passage to the Gospel periscope whenever possible .Th us , f or example , on the 16th Sunday throughout the year , during the second phase of the cyc le ,

we f ind Jeremiah 23, 1-6 paralle led to Mark 6 , 30-34.These two texts are ob

vious ly united by a common theme :'!:he good shepherd. 5 Again , r the sown seed

as symbolic of God 's word is central to the message of Isaiah 55 , 10 f . and Matthew 13, 1-9 , both read on the 15th Sunday throughout the year during the

f irs t phase of the cy cle .In all of this we are aware of a classical idea of

Ch ris tian theology :the f ulf illI!V3n t of the Old Testament in the New . 6

The le ctionary f or week days f ollows a general pattem of "contin uity read ings" , as distin ct f rom "selected readings " oIt is f ounded on a two-year

cy cle , and is structured along the same line as the Le ctionary .!!. Week das

hitherto enp loyed.In the feastday lectionary , finally , we f ind a re turn to "selected readings" , chosen to sui t the feast .According to this schema the larger feasts will have three Scriptural passages, and the lesser ones twoo In the " common" of the feastday calendar is of fe red an extensive choice of readings , and the same is true f or votive and special Masses .

A THEOLOGY OF P ROCLAMATION

This renewed in te rest in the li turgical proclamation of Sacred Scripture , of which the Ordo Le ction um is but an importan t manifestation , f lows f rom a

dive rsity of f actors in Church his tory during the p resent century .One thinks , for e xample , of Beauduin , easel, Guardini, Mi che l and the othe r early names in the liturgical movemen t.Their contenporaries in the Biblical movemen t in cluded f igures like Lagrange , Bea and Vaccarri.Then , of course , there was

the nouvelle theologie associated wi th names like Chenu , Congar , Bouyer ,

Boui llard, e tc.Simultaneous ly , on the other side of the Rhine , arose the

f ruitf ully controversial subject of ''kerygmatic theology" , involving Jungmann and the brothe rs Rahner o

This rich conp lexi ty an d cross-fertilization of though t and experien ce attained a ce rtain quasi-de f initive f orm in the great even t of Vatican II . To be ce rtain of this we need but examine some state.ments of the Coun cil in regard to the liturgical proclama tion of God 's word . For exarrple , starting

f rom its general principle that "S acred Scripture is of paramoun t importance

in the ce lebration of the li turgy" , 7 Vati can I I goes on to insist that" the treasures of the Bible are to be opened up more lavish ly , so that riche r f are

may be provided f or the f ai thf ul at the table of God ' s word" . 8

This symbol of the table is of great importan ce in the Council's approach

to the Bible .To begin with , the ide a of the word of God as f ood and drink is extremely tradi tiona l in the Church . 9The image f ur ther sugges ts a re lation-

(4)

(Some Re f Zeations on the New Leationa:ry) (5)

ship between the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Eucharis t, and Vatican II does in f act become ve r:y spe cif ic on this poin t

The Church h as always vene rated the di vine Scriptures jus t as she venerates the Body of the Lord, since f rom

the table of both the word of God and of the Body of Christ she un ce asingly receives and of fers to the f ai th f ul the

b read of life , especially in the sacred liturgy . ,,10

In this te xt we are righ t in seeing the f rui ts of recen t study in to one of the key polarities of ecclesia l life : word and sacrament , Bari ptura.e-my ste:tia e t Eaa Zesia.e saaramenta. 11The in trinsic and dynami c relationship be tween

the Bible and the Eucharist is among the mos t traditional themes of Ch ris tian

pi.e ty , 12

and the Counc1' l

re turns to 1. t e lsewhere . 13

On thi's very i.ssue an

importan t in te rven tion at Vatican II was made by Neophytus Ede lby , Titular Archbishop of Edessa , on Octobe r 5, 1964:

Scripture is a prophe tic and li turgical reality ; it is a proclamation more than a book , it is the tes timony of the Spi rit in regard to the Christ Even t whose privi leged momen t is the Eucharistic Liturgy .By this testimony of the Spirit, all of the plan in regard to the Son reveals the Father . The pos t-Triden tine con troversy has tended to view Scripture almos t exclusive ly as a written norm, whereas the Orien tal Churches see in Scripture a

consecration of Salvation History unde r the spe cies

of the human word, and they consider this consecration as inseparable f rom the consecration of the Eucharis t

in which all history is summed up in the Body of Chris t.14

In short , Scripture is f ulfi lled in the Paschal Mystery of Christ , and this latte r is re-enacted and made presen t f or us in the sacrif icial banque t of the Eucharist.We are not, then , con ce rned with the juxtaposition of two holy things , each of which would have an in tegral existen ce apart f rom the other.Rather are we dealing with two manifestations of a single mystery - two manifestations which are , moreove r , in trinsically orde red to one anothe r. As the matter was stated by a recent theologian :

On the one h and, the Eucharis t is the me ans of f reeing Chris t's historical h umani ty f rom the con f ines of

time and space , of in corporating all in to the Body of Christ, making them in Christ one body .On the othe r hand, Scripture is i tself orien ted toward a bodi ly expression of revela tion , not because Scrip

ture is an in complete f orm of revelation , but because Scripture mus t be bodied f orth in transf orming man .

These two form a harmonious whole in the sacramen tal celebration of the liturgy of the Word and the li turgy of the Eucharist.It is precisely because we be lieve in God' s Word as proclaimed by the Church that we are led f ur ther to the sacramen t in which the se lf-giving of Chris t is presen ted and corcp le ted "The en tire eucharis tic celebration is th us a servi ce of the Word, and the whole eucharistic celebration is a sacramen tal

event ' ."".15

The proclamation of God' s word in the Christian assembly of worship tends towards the Eucharist by the very dyn amism of its own inne r structure .The Eucharist , on the other hand, is the most perfect response to the revelation God makes of Himse lf in the word - "Let us give thanks(euahari stein!) to the Lord our God" .In the li turgy of the word, then , the Church resembles the two discip les who walked with the Lord on the way to Emnuas .Jesus was expounding

to them the Ch ristian meaning of the Bible , the meaning the word of God h as

in the ligh t of its f ulf illment in the Pas chal Mystery .And ye t that "procla mation" by the Lord Himself f oi.md its perfection in the decisive moment when the dis ciples re cognized Him the breaking of the bread.Eve:cy celebration of the Mass is ma rked by the same structure:word leading to Euch arist, and Eucharist pe rfecting proclama tion .

Be cause the Bible and the Eucharist a:i:-e f ound thus organically oriented

to one another , it is to be supposed tha:t each has the same theological struc ture , L e 01 the same theological dimensions within the analogy of f aith .One may demonstrate this by examing both Scripture and Eucharist in two of these dimensions :e cclesiology and eschatology .

To begin with , one need at tempt no defense f or the ecclesial dimension of the Eucharis t.Pre cisely "be cause the re is one bread, we who are many are one

body , f or we all partake of the one b read"(I Cor 10 , 17)

16 It is the

Eucharist which f orms the Church , and this is why , f ollowing St. Thomas , theologians speak of the' or deeper reali ty , of the Blessed Sacrament as

"the unity of the Body of Christ" .Much the same is true , howeve r, of Scrip tural proclamation .What is proclaimed is meant to establish communion between

speaker and hearer , as is clear in the opening verses of the First Epistle of

John " 1?

Paul ref ers to it as a logos akoes - a "word of hearing" .I t is the

Word of Ch ris t which passes f rom one person to anothe r (Cf . Ran 10, 17) in an in tegrally human communication . That is , it establishes a bond be tween and among persons , a communion in f aith .The proclamation of the word, then , is

not in tended me re ly as the vehicle of a great idea, but as the binding force of the Ch ris tian community oI t is essen tially dianoe tic and transpersonal. The Church is the gathering of those called toge the r by the proclamation of the word, and this is i tse lf in tension towards the f ulness of communion in the Euch aris t.

The Eucharis t is likewise eschatological, f or "this is the bread which

comes down f rom heaven , that a man may eat of it and not die" , and "if anyone eats of this b read, he will live f or ever" (Jn 6 , 50 .51) .The Eucharis t is

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(7) (Some Reflections on the New Lectionary)

the pha:r>makon athanasi as - "the drug of immortality" ,

18 f or he "who eats lt'!Y

flesh and drinks lt'!Y blood has e terna l life , and I will raise him up at the las t

(1)day" (v. 54) . na 1 1. fe. 19

The Eucha rist is always vi ati cum, a direct preparation f or eter It is eve r celebrated in view of the return of Ch ris t Our Lord

(Cf . I Cor 11,26) .But the same is true f or the proclamation of God' s Word. Eve ry reve lation of God is a foreshadowing of that final reve la tion .S crip ture is an open book - it opens on to e te mi ty . The deepes t leve 1 of i ts f ul f illmen t is the ete rnal vision of God , "f or , as the centuries succeed one another , the Chur ch constan tly moves f o:cward toward the f ullness of divine

truth un ti l the words of God reach their complete f ulf illmen t in he r" .20 The Bib le is the book of God 's promises . 21In it we know Him now by f aith , through which we pray to be led to the con templation of His f ace . 22Eve ry

sounding of the voice of Ch rist in the liturgica l assembly is a preparation f or the day when that same voice will trunpe t the world's final hour , and gathe r the Ch ur ch f rom the ends of the earth .

Patrick Henry Reardon

Bellarmi ne - Ursuline College

NOTES

1. Vatican Press , 1969 , xxv + 434pp .

2 . Cf . also T . Neve , "Les structures du nouveaued:l.onnaire ," Asserrb i/es

du Seigneu.r>J2nd series , vol 3, Paris 1969 , pp. 7-29.

3. There have been many recent studies on the importance of reading the

Old Testament in the Ch ristian assembly .One might note cf : J. Schildenberger , "Das Alte Tes tament in seiner Be ziehung zur Liturgie ," in Litu:rigie und Ml:mahtwn,

1953 u pp. 68-85;A. Deissler, "The Fundamental Message of the Old Testamen t and Its Proclamation Today ," in The Word: Readings in Theology J New York 1964 , pp. 9 3-10 3;P.-M. Guillaume , "Pourquoi une lecture de l' ancien testament?" in As semb lies du SeigneurJvol. ci t., pp. 31-47 .

4 . Cons ti tution on the Saa:rie d Liturgy J n . 51.

5 . The signif icance of the "shepherd" qua lity of the multiplication ac coun t in Mark 6 has been no secret to modern scholarship , as we see in recent studies of F riedrich , Knackstedt, Van Iersel , Zierner , De la Potte rie and others .

6 . Am:>ng modern pursui ts of this subject, the rrost prestigious by f ar is

a f our-volume work by H.de Lubac , Exegese MedilvaleJParis 1959-62 .

7 . Cons ti tution on the Saared U turgy J n . 24

8. doc. cit.J n . 51

9 . Cf . Origen , In Num. XXVi.t, 1: In Cant . I , 3; In Matt .J 100 ; In Joan.

x, 13; St . Basil, In He xaemeronJIII , 10 ; In Psalmos J XLIV , 3;LIX , 2 ;

De Je junioJI I , 8; etc .

10 . Dogmatia Constitution on Divine Reve lationJ n. 21

11. The phrase is f rom Sicard of Cremona , Mi tra Ze , II , 5 (PL 213, 79A) .

Among modern investigations of this polarity , attention may be called to M.-J . Le Guillou , "Parole de Dieu et sacrif ice , " in La Paraole de Dieu en Jesus-Chris t, Paris 1964 , pp. 200-207; J.M .R. Tillard, "Proclamation de la parole etve'nement sacramentel ," in AssembUes du SeigneurJvol. cit.,

pp. 83-115 .

12 . Cf . Origen , In Joan ., x, 13; St . Amb rose , In Luaarn, VI , 33.It is a matter of f act that hesitations concerning this parallelism were voiced at

the Council itself , and the Doctrinal Commission replied by citing such texts as St . Jerome , In Ecal ., III , 13 and st. Augus tine , Sermo LVI , 10 .

13. Dogmati c Cons ti tution on Divine Reve lation, n .26 ; De a:riee on the Appro pri ate Renewa l of Re ligious U fe J n .6 . Cf . also the Euahari stia Instruation of 196 7, n .10 , Aota Aposto Zi aae Se dis J vol. 59 , pp. 547 f .

14. Quoted by Luis Alanso-SchBkel , The Inspired Word, New York , 1965, p . 249 .

15 . Stanks , "The Eucharist: Chris t ' s Self-Communication as a Revelato:ry Event," in TheoZogiaa l Stud:ies J 28 (1967) , p. 39.His quotation is f rom Schi llebeeckx.

16 . Cited in the Dogmatic Constitution on the ChurohJ n .3.

17. Cited in the Dogmatio Constitution on Divine Reve Zation, n .l.Cf . al so B . Henneken , Verkflndigung und Prophetie im Ers ten Thessa loniaherb'Pie f J Stuttgart 1969 , pp. 48 f .

18. Ignatius of Antioch , Ad Rom., 7 .

19 . In traditional us age the word "viaticum" is by no means limited to

f inal Communion .Cf ., for example: "Caro Christi est viatictun" - Guerric of Igny , Resur., I , 6 (PL 185 , 144C ) .

20 . Cons titution on Divine Reve ZationJ n . 8.This same Constitution re turns to the idea that all reve lation tends by its very nature to the vision

of God - cf.nn. 4 & 7. The idea is eminently traditional; cf. St.Augustine

En. in Ps aZmos , XCIII1 6, cxrx, 6 1 In Joan ., xxxv, 93 etc.

21. This idea is a favorite of St.Augustine - Cf.En. in Psa Zmos , LXXXV,

9; CII, 5; CXVIII, xi.ii, l; etc.

22 ut qui jam te ex fid.e aognovimus , usque ad aontemp Zandam speaiem tua.e ae Z situdinis perduaamur Oration for Epiphany.

SUGGESTED READING

K. Rahner, R .Latourelle, et alii - The Word: Readings in Theo Zogy , New York, Kennedy, 1964.

Y. Congar - "Sacramental Worship and Preaching," in Conai Zium, vol. 33 (1968), pp. 51-63.

A. Martimort, et alii - The U turgy and the Word of God, Collegeville, Litur gical Press, 1959.

H. u.Von Balthasar - Word and Reve Zation, New York, Herder, 1964.

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(Some. Re f le ations on the New Le ationary) (9)

IDRD AND SACRAMENl' IN VATICAN II

'Ihe Secrn.d Vatican Council will go dam in histoi:y not so Iruch for the questions it settled , but for the questions it cpened up.One of these ques tic:ns is the relatic:nship between Word and Sacra.rrent.It would be a mistake to dub this questic:n as "liturgical" in a narrc:M sense, as sinply pertaining to the way the two parts of the Mass should be united.In :reality , this question pertains to the vei:y nature of the Church.shall atten\)t to shew this later an .

Yet , if the liturgy is tJ::ul.y the fons e t au Zmen, the souroo and sunmit of the Churdl 's life and activity (Cons titution on the Saare d U turgy , n .10 ), it is, in a sense , proper to call this a liturgical question.'!he Church will eJrd of God and by the Eucharistic bread (cf.A ate 2: 42)"

'Ihis mission clearly involves the whole Church, but it involves the Church's officers in a special waythey are specially chosen and carmissioned to serve God's Pecple through their ministry of W:>rd and Sacrarcent .'Ihe De aree on the Ministry and Li fe of Pnes ts ccnt.inually rrenticns this twofold missicn and is, to a large degree, structured around it. For exanple, N.13 describes priests as "ministers of God's Word" and "ministers of sacred realities, es pecially in the Sacrifice of the Mass." Again in n. 2: 11 their ministry, which takes its start from the gospel rressage, derives its pcwer and force from the sacrifice of Christ."

'Ihe fullness of this ministry belongs, of course, to bishcps, and n.26

'

of the Cons titution on the Churah states:"By their ministry of the Word,

they (bishops) comrnmicate God's pcwer to those who believe unto salvation (cf.Rom 1: 16 ) 'Ihrough the Sacrarrents they sanctify the faithful." In this sarre Constitution, n.28 is devoted to priests, who "are ccnsecrated to preach the gospel, shepherd the faithful, and celebrate divine worshipacting in

the person of Olrist, and proclaiming his rrvste:ry, they jo.in the offering of the faithful to the sacrifice of their Head." Deacons, too, "serve the Peo

ple of God in the ministry of the liturgy, of the word, and of charity." (n.29)

Here the quasticn could, and should, be asked:what is the relaticn of this Word and Sacrarrent therre to the triple function of teaching, sanctifying, and governing which the Church has received from Christ hirrself, Prophet, Priest, and King? Space does not permit a thorough treatment of this rela tionship, but the nnst irrportant th.ing about it can be put briefly:the two

fold ministry and the threefold function are sinply two aspects, two approaches to describing the cne reality of Olrist's am presence and action in and

through his Body ,the Churdl today.

'!he unity of these two thenes can be seen, f or exarrple, in the De cree on Pries tly Formation n. 4which f irst speaks of Christ the rrodel of priests as "Teacher, Priest, and Shepherd," and then goes oo: "Iet these students , then, be readied f or the minist:ry of the word f or the minist.zy of worship and sanctification for the ministJ:y of a shepherd."

M::>reover , in the Word and Sacranent theme , there is a vei:y vital third elenent which must nCM occupy our attentioo.

'll:IE aruROI IS FORMED BY WORD AND SACRAMENT

2. Koinonia

"'!he Holy Spirit, who calls all nen to Christ by the seeds of the Word and by the preaching of the gospel gathers them into the ooe Pecple of Gcxl. by reason of the Eucharistic sacrif ice , this camrunity is ceaselessly oo the wey to the Father.Caref ully nourished oo the Word of God, it bears witness to Christ."In this quotation from the De cree on the Mis sionary Activity ofthe Church, n. 15, we see thatrd and Sacranent together f orm the twofold real ity which , through the Spirit, ef fects unity, ccmnunian, fellavship, k oinonia. '!he Church is the fellCMShip of the Spirit through Word and Sacranent.

One of the rrost isgnif icant f acts in this area is the Council's use of

a Scripture text, Acts 2: 42, to which v.re have already referred above.'!his text cams up eight tines in the docunents and of ten in a very central posi tion .For exanple , the second chapter of the Cons titution on the Church is devoted to the People of Gcxl..Paragraph n. 10 shCMS Christ the Priest form ing his priestly people; paragraph n. 11 then treats of the sacranents . Par agraph n. 12 shCMS Christ the Prophet, whose dynamic Word is received and witnessed to in faith , through the Spirit.'!hen paragraph n. 13 shCMS Christ the King, bringing about the unity of God's peq>le through his Spirit, who concretely ef fects this through Word and Sacranent.'!he length of the follc:M ing quotation is justif ied by its key positioo in the Church 's self-expressioo through Vatican II: "Af ter his children were scattered, (God) decreed that

they should at length be unitedagain (cf . Jn 11: 52 ) It was f or this rea son that God sent his San, whom he appointed heir of all things (cf . Heb.1: 2 ) , that he might be Teacher , King, and Priest of all, the Head of the new and universal people of the sans of God.For this, God f inally sent his Son's Spirit as IDrd and Lifegiver.He it is who, oo behalf of the whole Church

and each and every ooe of those who believe, is the principle of their oaming

(16)

(Word and Sacrament in Vatican I I)

together and remaining together in the teaching of the apostles and in fella.v ship, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (cf . Aats 2: 42J Greek text) ."

'Ib preach the Word and to celebrate the Sacranent is not sinply , then , the mission of the re serious work here is essential. With scholars of all f aiths , exegetes , philologists, form critli.cs , 1iturgists llUlSt cc:ntinually and deeply search these ever relevant pages where the real rreaning of 1iturgy lies, the real rreaning of Word and Sacrarrent. "'For the Word of God is living and ef fective ' and is ' able to build up and give the inheritance a.rcon.g all the sanctif ied.' " (Cons titution on Divine Reve tation,

n. 21)

Jchn Zay

lt:rlk of New Melleray

BIBLI be

used which will please the hear ts of the heare rs and be use f ul to them because of the dignity both of the expression and of the author .Futhermore , the texts mus t be clear , shinn ing f orth wi th unclouded tr uth , proclaiming jus tice urging

h umi lity , teaching equity.They should br ing f orth truth in our minds , virtue in our action ; crucify our vices , in f lame devotion , and discipline our senses. The chant if it is errployed should be quite soleI!U'l , nothing sensuous or r us tic. I ts sweetness should not be f rivolous.It should please the ear on ly tha t i t migh t move the hear t, tak ing away sorrow and mitigating wrath.I t should not

de tract f rom the sense of the words , but rather make it more f ruitf ul. I t is not a little blow to spiritual prof it when more atten tion is paid to feats of voice than to the meaning of words .

This then is what ough t to be heard in the Ch urch and the kin d of man the author ough t to be .Am I such a man , and have I ever corrposed such things?

And never theless you come pounding on the door of my pover ty , arous ing me .

If not be cause of your friendship, cer tainly because of your irrportun ity , I have risen , according to the word of the Lord, to give you what you have de mandee .(Lk 11: 8) I have given you not what you really wan ted, but what has come to my hand; what I could manage , and not what you wished.Basing myse lf on the facts found in the an cient lif e of the Saint which you sen t me , I have di ctated two sermons , using my own mode of expression.I have tried not to be tiresome ly long.Then in regard to the singing I have corrposed a hymn in

which I have sacrif iced the me ter in orde r that the meaning migh t stand out

(20)

(21)

be tte r.I have arranged twe lve responsori.es and

twen ty-seven an ti.phons , 1

putting each in its proper place .There is also a responsory f or the f irst vespers and, according to your cus tom, two shor t responsories f or the feas t,

one f or lauds and the othe r for vespers .For all this I demand my pay .I will not be wi thout my reward.So what?Whe the r you are pleased with it or not , that matters little to me , f or I have given you what I have.The ref ore , give

me my pay :your praye rs.

note :

1."Twen ty-seven" is the re ading in Mabillon , but the more common reading of "thirty-seven" would seem to be the correct one .There are also man uscripts which read "thirty-four" .See Dom Jean Le cle rcq 's in teres ting s tudy on the

Of f ice :"Saint Bernard Ecrivain d 'apres l' Of f ice de Saint Victor" in Revue Bened:i atine , LXXIV (196 4) , p. 156 , reproduced in Re cmei Z d 'Etud.es sur Saint Bemard e t ses Eal"i ts II , Rome : Edi zioni di Storia e Li tteratura , 1966 , p. 150

Basil Pennington ,

Monk of Spence r

THE NEED 'ID EXPRESS

AD PA'l'REM

IN THE PASCHAL VIGIL

Introduction

M3ny elerrents of the Paschal Vigil call out for ref orrn in the light of sev

1

enteen years of notable progress in liturgical science and practice since 1951.

This reform must be pursued at rrany dif f erent levels and tmder rrany dif ferent aspects. 2In this paper I intend to take a theological-pastoral approach to the Paschal Vigil as a whole and to its expression of the Paschalstery.First,

I will try to shcm that the Oiurch today, in the docurrents of Vatican II, is presenting the Trinitarian dialectic of the Paschal Mystery , and its dynamic

"ad Patrem" elerrent in particular , as sorrething especially rreaningful and vital

for rran today.Secondly , it should then be clear that the Paschal Vigil, as the great celebraticn of the Paschal Myste:ry , needs to incorporate and to express this dynamism nore f ully.Finally , I will suggest that the use of John's Gospel would be one ve:ry ef fective way of doing this.

'Ihe Paschal f\'ste:ry is indeed Trinitarian.It tmfolds within a "Trinitarian dialectic" - to use Cyprian Vagaggini 's phrase -..a Patre , per Filium, in Spi ri tu, ad Patrem. '!he vitality and dynamism of this Trinitarian dirrension of the Paschalste:ry is one of the richest re-discoveries of nodem theology.Re discove:ry is the proper word here , and is closely botmd up with the re-discove:ry of the f ull rreanirtg of the Gcspel of John as the richest and f ullest expressicn

(.)of this theology 3

It is the duty and privilege of the liturgist to help this theology cone alive in celebration.And where rrore than in the Paschal Vigil should this dy namic theology be clearly and strongly central?

'!he present Paschal Vigil does , of course, contain this Trinitarian dialec tic, indeed admirably so in sorre of its euchology.Yet, in 11 opinion, it is sorcewhat insuf f icient.I feel that if the Paschal Vigil is to be - as it should be - an authentic errbodirrent of contenpora:ry theology , it rrrust express nore

clearly and forcef ully the Trinitarian dirrension of the Paschal fste:ry , and in>

particular the ' a.a Patre.m elerrent of thisste:ry.

I.

In the docurrents of Vatican II, the full dinensims of the Paschalstery

are repeatedly set f orth and utilized as the basis for the Church 's teaching and action.One of the great rrerits of the Liturgy Constitution was precisely to have initiated this.

'Illus , by baptism, mm are plunged into the paschal nwstery of Christ: they die with Him, are buried with Him, and rise with Him fof . Rom.6 : 4; Eph. 2:6 ; Col. 3: 1; 2 Tim. 2: 11);they receive the spirit of adopticn

as sens "by virtue of which we cry: Abba, Father" (Rom. 8: Z5 ) , and thus becorce those true adorers whom the Father seeks (Cf . Jn 4: 23) .

Saaros a:natum Conoi Zium, 6 .

In the subsequent docu:rcents, this theology of the Paschal Mystery was rrore and rrore develcped in the context of a strong Trinitarian dialectic.The open ing sections of Lumen Gentium, for exarrple , conprise a veritable treatise on the

Paschalstery , shaving the distinct but unif ied action of Father , San and Spirit. 4'lhe sane rray be said of the Missicn Decree, Ad Gentes , f rom which the

f ollo;ving rray be quoted:

Andso the plan of the Creator , who forrred mm to His CMn irrage and likeness, will be realized at last when all who share one human nature , regenerated in Christ through the Holy Spirit and beholding together

the glory of Qxl, will be able to say, "Our Father. "

Ad Gentes, 7.

In Gaudium e t Spes the Trinitarian dialectic, and in particular the Father ward dynamism, of the Paschal Mystery is seen as an integral and f unctional ele ment in the Church' s dialogue with mm today.The Paschal r'stery is at the

core of the Church ' s thought and response to the prablerrs of the rrodem world.

A close lcok at the structure of the f irst part, "The Church and Man 's Calling," reveals this Paschal Mystery dialectic at the clirrax of eadl chapter.The

f irst chapter , "'lhe Dignity of the Human Person , "ends with the section on Christ as the New Man ,

who, by the revelation of the II!{Stery of the Father and his love ,

f ully reveals mm to mm himself and makes his suprerre calling clear

Cllrist has risen , destroying death by his death rHe has lavished life upcn us so that, as sons in the Son , we can cry out in the Spirit: Abba , Father.

Gaudium e t Spes , 2 2

OJ.apter Two, "'lhe Ccmrrunity of Mankind," ends with the section on the In carnate Word and Human Solidarity , and the third chapter , "Man ' s Activity 'lhroughout the World," closes with two rragnif icent sections entitles , "Human

(22)

("Ad Patrum" in the Pasaha Z VigiZ) (23)

Activity Finds Perfection in the Paschalstery" and " A New Earth and a New Heaven." Of special significance here is the passage from 1 Coro 15: 240It occurs several tirres in the Council docunents and is one of Paul's strongest staterrents on the Father-ward rroverrent of the Paschal Mystery.

Finally, the fourth chapter, "The Role of the Church in the M:rlern World", 5

re-assuming the three preceding chapters,

Ortega ,

ends with Christ, the Alpha and

whom the Father raised from the dead, lifted rn high, set at his right hand, making him judge of the living and the dead. Enliveried and united in his Spirit, we journey t.a.vard the consumration of

hurran history, one which fully accords with the counsel of God 's love:

"'Ib re-establish all things in Christ" (Eph. 1:10)

Gaudium e t Spes , 45

The Council docunents, then, put an evident stress rn the Trinitarian dia lectic of the Paschalstery, and on thead Patremelerrent in particular. 'Ihis stress seems providential.Man and his world today is developing by leaps and bounds, but he feels a certain aimlessness. He has yet to find his final ity, an ultimate goal to work for, a direction to folla.v . 'Ihat goal, the

Church proclaims, istid Patrem .and the way to it is Christ. 'Ihis confron

tation of the dynamism of the world with the Paschalstery has enorrrous crn sequences for the Christian today.6 For exanple, it shavs that secularization

is a Olristian phenarenon, in this sense that everything, "the world", has a true value through the Resurrection, a value to be pursued and developed'but a value that is out-going, dynamic, ultimately 4d Patrerrithrough Christ, the first-born of the New Creation, the ultimate Adam . This in contrast to secu larism in which the world is suicidally narcissistic, self-contained and self centered, the first Adam. In this context, too, the dilerrma of the inmanence transcendence of God today is seen to be not so much a dilerrma to be solved

by eliminating one or the other elerrent, but rather a paradox of the mutually inclusive dynamism which is the Paschal Mystery.

II.

We seem to have strayed rather far from the celebration of the Paschal Vi gil, yet this is precisely the problem to which Iam addressing nwself. W'lere rrore than in the Paschal Vigil should this Father-ward dynamism of Orrist's Paschal t1istery stand out clear and strong, proclaiming to Christians and to all rren of gocd will that our world, our life has a rreaning, a direction -

ad Patrem through the resurrection of Christ?

Liturgists stressf and rightly so, the irrportance of this holiest of nights for all Christiansr yet I feel that the celebratioo. itself doesn't rreasure up to its exalted pw:poseoOne of its rrost inportant functions lies precisely

in showing rran today what he so needs to be sh0tm - that his life, because of Christ's and his ONl1 death and resurrectioo., has a direction, a thrust, along with Christ and all creation, to the Father.

A sirrple and open study of the present rites and prayers of the Paschal Vigil nakes it clear that this Trinitarian dynamism of the Paschal !1{stecy is not as prominent and functional as it should be . At all tirres, but espe

cially an this night, the liturgy should talk about, pray about, sing about, rejoire about, synbolize and actualize the Father-ward rroverrent of Christ's Paschal !1{stecy. As the Liturgy Constitution says about the relebraticn of the Paschal Mystecy each SUnday:

by hearing the 'Word of Gerl and taking part in the Eucharist, they may call to mind the passion, the resurrection, and the glorification of the lord Jesus, and may thank Gerl (the Father) who ''has begotten

us again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto a living hope."(1 Pet. 1:3)

III.

Saarosanatwn ConaiZiwn, 106

I have a single, broad suggestion for the reform of the Paschal Vigil in order to better express and celebrate the Trinitarian dirrension of the Paschal

!1{stecy, in particular its Father-ward rroverrent. It is sinply this - let the

Paschal Vigil utilize, and utilize extensively, the Gospel of John. In John

7

we have the richest theology of the Paschal rtystecy conceivable.

The full

ness of Father, San and Spirit in action is set before us in the context of Christ's hour, his glorification. No one rrore than John should inspire the readings, rites, songs and prayers on the night when that hour is celebrated.1. Readings

John 17-20 should be the climactic reading of the Paschal Vigil.In this sequence of chapters, the Paschal Mystecy is presented in its full dynamism. Christ's hour - of death and resurrection, is seen in its total Trinitarian dialectic, in Christ's rroverrent, his passing over, to the Father. An here the

Christian can see his place in this reystecy, his passing over with Christ, through the death and new life of Baptism, to the Father.8

T.he value and desirability of this reading can be sh0tm in answering the

f ollowing objections to it:

a} It is too lcng.Yes, it is long, but nore tine will be available for this vital reading when the Paschal Vigil is stripped of its many currbersone accretiais and its essential "vigil" character is restored, 9alrng with a tmi

ficatian of the Liturgy of the Word - the Baptisrral cerem:ny coming af ter the G:>spel.Furtherm:>re, sone judicious abbreviatirn could be naae in the text. 'Ihe higher ideal of presenting Jchn 's total picture of the Paschalste:r:y should overrule a certain overly naterialistic oonaern for always reading

the whole text word tor word.

b} '!he Passion of Jchn belongs to Good Friday.Yes, .there is a rather ancient traditirn in the Roman Rite f or the reading of Jchn 18-19 an Good Fri day.'!he Evangeliorum Capitulare Romanum A of Wurzburg would place it in the

sixth centu:r:y 10But what is to be gained - and what is to be lost - by a sinple naterial f idelity to this fact of liturgical archeology?Must liturgi cal renewal begin and end with the oldest Roman books?Certainly these have great value , but th.ere are other f actors to be considered here if reform is going to be truly f aithf ul to the dynamism of liturgical tradition .have

in the intrinsic nature of Jchn ' s Gospel the strongest argunent for its use

at the Paschal Vigil.M:>reover , the present use of Jchn 18-19 alrne does vio

lence to the thrust of Jchn 's Boak of Glo:r:y .

c}'Ad Pat:roemis celebrated on the Ascension.'lllis again is true, but once again it does violence to the Jdlannine theology of the Paschalste:r:y (which in f act places the Ascension on Easter Day) to separate conpletely the ad Pat:roemel.errent f rcm the Resurrection of Christ.It is very good to cele brate the Ascension ' .;.. and Pentecost - en their respective days, but they rrust

be celebrated in 'Ille Pasdlal Vigil, too, if we are to celebrate the full real

(26)

("Ad Pat:roem" in the Pa.s ohal Vigil) (25)

()ity of the Resurrecticn. 11

'lllis is just what Jchn 's Gospel does.

It nay be good to note here that although this paper seerrs to be sadly neglecting thein sp:tr>i'tu' ele:rrent of the Paschalste:r:y , this is only be cause it is considered just as inportant as the "ad Patrem" elerrent and sould need a cooplete study by itself .M:>reover , the suggested use of Jdln in the Paschal Vigil really involves the Spirit as nuc::h as the Father, for who rcore than Jchn brings out the dynamism of the Spirit in the Paschalste:r:y?

2.Rites

A Dl.lCh-abbreviated opening cerem:ny of Light will take en rcore neaning

through a f uller use of Jchannine therres.

'llle Homily should, of course , be inspired by Jdm.See, f or exanple the

straig Jchannine f lavor in sana of the earliest Pasdlal han:i.lies we possess -

M:!lito of Sardis, Hippolytus , etc.12'Ibis hanily should then lead to the cele bratic:n of Baptism (or renewal of Baptismal VCMS) whim should again use the

rich Jahannine thenes that would help to give the Baptisnal camdtnent a real thrust "ad Patrem. "

J. Song and Pray er

'lllese could be nore ef fective if they were not so exclusively traditimal. 'Ihe thanes of John could be artfully worked into new oarposition, "in the best traclition", that would evcke a f ully alive and aware respcnse of people today to the Pasdlalst:ery in all its dinensialS.

Finally, the Mass of the Paschal Vigil should have its own special cancn,

sb:algly inspired by John.

M:>re oould be said about various rites and prayers, but ny aim has been not so m.ich to nake specif ic suggestials, as tX> sinply provoke scree thought en the use of John 's Gospel at the Paschal Vigil in general.

In ocnclusion ,Ihave tried to shew that:

1) The Church today is presenting the Trinitarian dialectic of the Pas chalstay , and its dynamic "ad Patrem" el.enent in particular, as sooething especially rceaningf ul and vital for nan today .

2) '1he Paschal Vigil, as the celebratiai par eXCBllenoe of the Paschal stery , needs to inooq>0rate and express this dynamism nore fully.

3)'1he use of John 's Gospel in various ways will be aie very ef fective nanner of doing this, of expressing and celebrating the resurrection of Christ, who says at Easter , "I am ascending to ny Father and your Father." ( Jn 20: 1?J

Jdm Zay

of New M3lleray

1. See A. Nooent, R'touahes ?z Za U turgie d8 Za Semai ne Sainte? Nouve Z Ze Revue ThioZogiqUB 99 (1967) 1069-1084 . Also, T. c. SWeeney, Ho Zy Week Re con sidered: (Liturgy 34 (1965) 94-99 and ibid. 35 (1966) 11-16 , 38-41, and 94-

96. J

"Ad Patrem" in the Pasaha Z Vigi Z27

2.A ver:y fine exanple of this thorough ground-wo:rk for renewal is had in La Maison-Dieu 67 and 68 (1961) - "La Liturgie dustere Pascal, Renouveau de la Senaine Sainte, I and II.

3. See the copious bibliographical referenoos in R.Schnackenburg, New

Tes tament Theo logy Today (London, 1963), chapter 6, "'!he 'Iheology of St.John ," pp.90-106. Also, 01 a nore popular level, R.BrCMn, "'!he Fourth GJspel in M:xlem Fesearch":The Bib Ze Today , I (1965) 1302-1310.

4. Lumen Gentium,, 2, 3, and 4.

5. Gaudium e t Spes ,,Chapter 1 in n.41; chapter 2 in n.42; and chapter 3 in n.43.

6. D.zeril, "Ie r-ystere Pascal et l'horme d'aujourd'hui":La Maison-Dieu,,

68 (1961) 188-202.

7. Besides the references in R.Schnackenburg, op. ait.,, see the following m::nographs:R.Leut, "Paque Juive et Paque Chretienne":Bib le et Vie Chre tienne , 62 (1965) 14-26; C.H.Dodd, "The Prologue to the Fourth G::>spel and Christian Worship", in Studies in the Fourth Gospe Z,, ed.F. L.Cross (London , 1957) 9-22; J.Giblet, "Jesus et le Pere dans le Ive Evangile", in L' Evan

gi Ze de Je an = Re aherahes Bib Zique III (Paris, 1958) 111-130; A,Guilding,

The Fourth Gospe l and Jewish Woriship,, 1960; C.J. Pinto de Oliveira, "le Verne didanai came expression des rapports du Pere et du Fils dans le Ive Evangile:" Re vue des Saienaes Phi Zosophiques e t Theo Zogique 49 (1965) 81-104.

8. en John and the sacranents of Christian initiaticn see: B.Vawter, "'!he Johannine Sacranentar:y" :TheoZogiaa Z S tudies 17 (1956) 151-166; B.Vaw

ter, "'!he Jchannine Sacranentar:y Reccnsidered":ibid. 23 (1962) 183-206; F.M. Braun, "Ie Dai de Dieu et l'Initiaticn Ottetienne": Nouve Z Ze Revue TheoZogique ,, 86 (1964) 1025-1048.

9. See P.Littner, "La Structure de la Vigile Pascale":La Mai son-Die u,,

53 (1958) 145-148. 'lhis is a res of the treatrrent of the Paschal Vigil by A.Baurrstark, Noaturna Laua(Munster, 1957). See also P.Jounel, "La Nuit Pascale: la Traditicn de l'Eglise":La Maison-Dieu 67 (l96U 123-144.

10. See P.Jounel, "Le Vendredi Saint:la Traditim de l'Eglise":La Mai son-Dieu 67 (1961) 199-214. Also, G.Dix, The Shape ofthe Liturg y(Lmdan , 1945) 337 ff. cn the use of the Fourth G:>spel in the early Church in general,

see F.M.Braun, Jean Ze TheoZogien e t son Evangi Ze dans Z 'Eg Zise Anaienne

(Paris, 1959)

11. See the superb article of E.Schillebeeckx, "Ascension and Pentecost":

Worship 34 (1961) 336-363.

12. M.9liton de Sardes, Sur Za P0que ,, ed.o. Perler = Sources Chrietiennes ,,

(=)123 (Paris, 1966). For Hippolytus, etc.see HomeU es PasaaZes I, II, and III, ed.P.NautinSouriaes Chretiennes ,, 27, 36, and 48. Later, see for exanple the Resurrection serm::ns of St.Ieo the Great in Semons ,, Tome II I ,, ed.R. Dolle = Souraes Ch:t>tftiennes ,, 74 (Paris, 1961).

'!HE axm FRIDAY PSALTER

Gethsemani,1969

There is evei:y indication that the camunity recitaticn of the Good Friday psalter is fast on its way to J::ecaning a thing of the past in many of our m:n asteries. Sorre regret the fact; others are quite happy about it. But no mat ter what one's personal option, it would surely J::e wrong to attach overmuch inportance to the quastian.- '!he Good Friday psalter is certainly a rich, eminently traditicnal Holy Week devotion; but our attachment to it should be only cormensurate with its efficacy in drawing us deeper into our celebration of the paschal rrrrstei:y. If, in a given ccmnunity, e:xperience shCMS that the canrunity :recitaticn of the psalter in whole or in part has been nore of a hindrance than a help to our celebration of the paschal Itstery, it would certainly be in the best interests of the brethren to :review the situation calmly and Objectively. Few things are no:re destructive of our life in ly a reans of deepening the nmk 's corcmunioo. with Christ, and

of feeding his prayer life with the help of the psalter, the heart of which is Christ.6

Recent DevelqmentsIn our CM.n day the General Chapter has nodif ied our man ner of praying the Good Friday psalter.It is true that sare of the brethren are rather takenthe idea of a penitential psalter calling for endurance and stamina; and -they feel -it is mly normal if we are asked to feel a bit of exhaustic:n during the hebdomada poenosa,, the week of suf fering.But

others of us have never been able to reccncile the "psalter-rrarathc:n approach" with our desire to pray the psalrrs always and everywhere with an mterior at tention and mvolverrent which go beycnd the aspect of the psalter as a primar ily ascetic practice.(Alm:Jst any prayer , of course, involves a genuine asce sis ! And to pray the psalrrs with genuine mterior attentioo. of ten involves a discipline and asceticism of heroic dirensions .)Many of us still renenber

the Good Friday psalter recited at top-speed, without rediant pauses, and

"gcne through" f rom start to finish without a single pause.In a fEM ccmmmi ties, a rrore prayerf ul approach was adopted, with the result that in at least cne m::naste:cy , the Good Friday psalter accounted for a six and a-half hour stretch.So the Fathers of the General Chapter of 1958 tock carpassion an the llU.lltitude; they prscribed a set duration f or the psalter, without regard for the integrity of the psalter, and made provisicns for the recitation of the

psalter in groups or relays, in such a way that the entire recitaticn lasts two hours c:nly. ?

'!hough many of the brethren have been grateful for such changes , not ev eryc:ne has found them wholly satisfying.'lllere is still a problem of the hour lcng uninterrupted recitation of a group of psalrrs .'lhus the sarre problem perdures, though not with the sane intensity as bef ore, when it involved the entire psalter.It is mly to be expected, then, that many conrmmities will abandal a form of prayer which is (for many of us ) denon.strably less satisfy ing than the psalter as we pray it in the ordinaJ:y carmmity Of f ice.

A Iooal Project for the Good Friday PsalterI suspect that, if the Good Fri

day psalter survives in any of our houses at all (and it is by no reans neces-

sa:cy that it should) , it will prcbably be in a rrodified f onn.

Over the past several years, our own practice here at Gethsernani has evol ved step by step.I forget hc:M lcng ago it was when we f irst decided to use cnly select psalms.I renercber shaping up a booklet giving the psalm num

bers , together with a brief ccmnent of the thematic ccntent of the psalm as related to the pasdlal reystecy.At that tine, evei:ything was still in Latin. Later , still using the principle of select psalms , we were able to aCbpt Eng lish for the Good Friday psalter, amidst rejoicing which was all but unanim:>lJ.S . I believe , hcwever , that we have nCM hit upcn a fonn of celebraticn which will probably undergo cnly slight nodif ication as lcng as we ocntinue to retain

our Good Friday psalter.We have follcwed the basic pattem for the past two years, and the brethren have been :r:eascnably happy with it -so rnudl so that I haven 't heard it suggested that we sinply drq;> the Good Friday psalter. (Ac tually , I Ieyself made this suggesticn , but our local liturgy oanmittee over ruled it.)

'Ihanks to our lei-cadre indult, there is no need to juxtapose two Of fices ccnsisting chief ly of Psalrrody.Terce s.inply takes the fonn of the Psalter Of fice. B

In shaping up our Good Friday psalter service , several points were kept in mind.First of all, the celebration should cbviously be centered upon the psalter , and the psalter prayed in the irmediate ocntext of the Sacred Triduum. '!his rceant, evidently , that the bulk of the Of f ice should ccnsist of psalnody , and that rceans should be adcpted to remind us f rc:m tirce to tirce of the ocn text in whidl the psalter was being prayed.(Of course, every attenpt to im pose a rigid approach to praying the psalms should be absolutely excluded as

a sin against the Holy Spirit and against the individual m::nk.)Seccndly , it was clear that an hour-long celebration :requires caref ul structuring, so as to avoid Italotany as well as undua cx:nplications.'!here had to be a clearly defined starting point, and a satisfying point of arrival;and the area be tween these two points had to be bridged in a quiet mythm calculated to open us to the reality of Christ pent and acting through our di.anting of the psalm;.It seemed, too, that in spite of the danger of subjectivity in our choice of psal.ns , the principle of select psalm; -so f ruitfiil:. in our past

experience -should be retained.

As it ercerged, the structure was this; an Of fice begm by silent prayer

with a collect orientating the 'Whole celebraticn , and ccncluded by a suitable prayer (both of which were corcposed ad hoa) ; within cane the psal.nody in groups of three psalms.'lb f acilitate interior attenticn , the f irst two psal.ms of

each group were alternated between choirs . A third psalm was assigned to a psalmist.'Ibis led to a period of silent prayer tenn:i.nated by a psalter ool lect inspired by the last psalm of each group.'lhe result provided an excel lent rllythm: the rrore "active" psa recitation leading to the rrore "passive" (but interiorly active) psalm-listening, leading in tum to a prayer 'Wholly interior.Succeeding waves of such groups could be sustained over a fairly long period without unduadanger of m:notany and p ro forma rrouthing of words. Finally, it was evicent that doxologies with ccncanitant bcws should be ex cluded.In view of the multiplicity of psalrrs, this would have rreant constant changes in posture inimical to the quiet rllytlun of the Of fice.So, too, we remained seated for the psalter oollects , which were prayed by our Father Philip.Anycne who wished to stand at any natent of the Of fice was , of oourse, f ree to do so.t-e stood as a group only for the ccncluding psalms of cosmic

praise for the rrrrste:cy of creatiai and redenption.

All that nc:M remains for rre is to present the texts we used.I' 11begin with an exact oopy of the out-line prepared for the brethren.

Ving the CCMl for their meals and for sleeping; so that, in tine, the ccwl was thought of chief ly as the

of ficial habit f or choir. 11By the 17th oentw:y, the sane nentality was prev

alent arrcng the Write M:Dks.'Ihus , it becarre necessary at a later tine to specify the wearing of the ccwl in many instances where, in an earlier age , this wohld have been taken for granted.Evidently, the ccwl would have been called for whenever there was questicn of dloir , or the administraticn and reticn of sorre sacrarcent or sacranental.'Ihus the 1689 Rituale prescrip ticn , with its reference to the CXJWl, cx:ncems the penitent as rmdl as the cx:nfessor.'!here is, noreover, not the slightest suggesticn that the oonfes sor's ccwl in any way serves as a substitute for a stole; and cne losed.

Please do not cc:nclude f rom the foregoing that I am inclined in the direc ticn of "stole-less ccnfessicns" for Cistercians. Quite ccntrary is the case. r.\1 am persooal persuasicn is that our grc:Ming appreciation of the sacrarrent

of penitence in its full ecclesial dimension f avors the neaningful use of the

stole in our ccnfessicn rite.

It is certainly trm that the historical evic:Ence f or the use of the stole in the western ccnfessicn rites becares clear and cc:nstant cnly at a :relatively late date (though there are indaed scattered references to such a practice

prior to the 12th oentw:y) .Specific reference to the stole in sudl docurcents is quite prcbably indicative of a healthy tendency to enphasize the presic:En role of the priest in the a:debraticn of this sacrament.Dan 'lltlen:y

Maertens , whan I have already quoted, points out that, at an earlier period ,

the sacrarrent took place ooram altari (before the altar) and coram testibus (in the presence of wiblesses) , and that the priest, d:!legated by his bishop ,

sat en the sarre dlair f:can which he presided over the Eucharistic assenbly. 1

It would certainly be wrcng to generalize such a practice in an absolute wcq; and anyaie who has skinned over so quickly through even part of the literature

en the subject realizes what a variety of practice there was 9 and what a cc:n stant evolutim tc:x::K place alm:>st everywhere.But eveeywhere there are vestiges of the presic:Ential role of the priest.Since the stole eventually was looked m as the synbol of the priest's of ficial missicn to preach and to

prcq (in fact, cne of the words used for the stole was "orarium" ) , 15 it was

mly to be expected that the stole should find its way into the ccnfessim rite.

In m:nasteries, the situaticn was quite carplex when it cane to ccnfessim al practices , and it is even dif ficult at tines to distinguish be'bveen what m:x1em theologians would term sacrarrental and nc:n-sacrarrental cmfessicns and absoluticns.Olapters of fault, private self-accusaticns, ccnfessicns nade

at the end of Of fice to me's neighbors in choir, general ccnfessions and absoluticns during the liturgy, to sey nothing of the sacranent of penitence in the strict sense...For a full appreciaticn of the nW.titudinous varieties of such practices, the reader would do well to read the article by Dc::rn Claude

42

lt>rgand, o.s.B., "La discipline p&iitentielle et l' Of fiaium aa:pitule d ' apres le Memoria Ze qua Zi ter," in Revue bn d:i atine 72 (1962) , 22-60 .Practically all the usages there described remained quite standard in nost western rronas teries for centuries .It would have been a miracle if the sacranent of peni

tenoo (in the strict sense) had sw:vived ritually diversif ied in its specif i cally ecclesial character.It is havever, this specif ically ecclesial charac ter of the sacranent whidl we are new caning to appreciate no:re and nore.

Witness Fr. Jean-Marie's f ine article, and many of the articles and books he refers to in his bibliogral,ilical notes.

Evidently, then, the ecclesial dirrensicn of confession should be expressed in the IIXlSt :rceaningful way possible in our ccntext.(I amsuggesting that we need go back to confession coram altari et coram testibus!)I 'm sure that a future :refo:rm of the ritual will provide texts as well as a rite which will

f avor this ecclesial dinensicn to the full.In the :rceanti:rce , I would not be unhappy if nw cwn ccnf essor were to make a point of putting en an anple stole, to remind hirrself and rre of a dirrension of the sacranent less well expressed

in the present rite.16

Chrysogcnus Waddell

lt>nk of C?ethsemani

NOI'ES

(1) Liturogy 3 (1968) , 11-14.

(2) Art . ai t ., 14 .

(3) Aates de la Comrrrission de Liturgie ,stmalle 1952, p. 118.I have corrected the quote from the Ri tuale, which involves no less than three mis prints in two lines.

(4) ) Title :XCIII in our rrost ancient extant :redaction of the Eaalesiastiaa

Of fiaia Cisteraiensis Ordinis, ed. by Fr. Brmo Griesser, S.O.Cist., in Ana le ata s.o. Gist . 12 (1956 ) , 234-237; the standard chapter nurrber in posterior

:redactions is Chapter LXX.

(5) For the date, see Fr. Brmo Griesser , s.O.Cist., ed. ai t . in p:rereding not;e , p. 174 .

(6) E.g.Laibach (Jugoslavia) University Library, ns.31; Paris, Biblioetheque nation.ale , rrs . lat. 4346; Dijcn , Bibliothe:Ioo rnunicipale, rrs. 114 (82) .

(7) Obse wanaes monastiques , v. "L'habit m::::nastiqte," in Anale ata S .O.Cist .

11 (1955) , 178-182.

(8) Art . ai t ., 179. (9 ) Art . ait ., 180 .

(10) Consuetudines LXXV "De labo:re". In the Dijon ms., edited by Philip Gui gnai:d, Les Monuments primi tifsde la Rg le ais tezaaienne , Dijon 1878, p. 178 , the text reads: "Notandum tanen quia prior absente abbate ibi (i.e., at the plaoo of work ) canfessicnes recipere poterit. si neoes!!e f oorit.Suppriori vero etj.am abbate et priore absentibus ccnfessionern ibi recipere ncn lireat nisi de aliqua parva re "'!his detail is a mid-12th century ad.dition not fomd in the earlier Trent rrs. of 1130/1134.

(11) Cf . Fr. Ansel.ne Dimier, o.c.s.o., art . ai t ., 179.

(12) In La pln itenae est une al lJbration [=Paroi sse et U tu!'(Jie 58] , St.-Anare, Bruges 1963, 18.

(13) Published as volurres 3 and 4 of the series, Forsohungen zur Ges ohiohte des innerkiroh liahen Lebens , Innsbruck 1932 .

(14) Art. ai t. supra, Note 12 , pp 16-17.

(15) J. Bram , Die liturgis ohe Gewand:ung,. Frei.burg 1907, 567.

(16) ) Mentim might also b e nade of th e f act that, in actual practice, th e ccwl is 1ESs and 1ESS us Erl for ccnf ESsims.In sare camruni ties , th e ccwl is wom m ly for Of fire; sometime not ar en for Of fice, duringriods of :intense h eat.

(The Rite of Penanae: The Stole) (43)

44

THE GLENSTAL LITURGY COURSE.

'!he Anglo-Irish region de cided in 1968 that a short course of two or three mon ths f or those teaching liturgy in the houses of the region would do some thing to meet the need f or basic training and well in f ormed opinion that the recen t reforms and the advent of the Loi-cadre have rendered more necessary than ever.Howe ver , it was f ound to be impossible to organise a course of

this length , and eventually a two-weeks ' crash course ' at the Benedi ctine monastery of Glenstal, Co. Lime rick , was arranged.Somewhere along the line the original idea of the course became somewhat obscured, and the f ortnigh t could not by any s tretch of the imagination be said to provide basi c training

f or those teaching liturgy , and indeed, it was hardly conce rned with the ques tion of teaching as such .But i t was still very profitable: the opportuni ty

to meet and exchange ideas , to see what problems others houses had encounte red and how they had solved them, and the ' availability ' of the Glenstal community , espe cially Frs. P:).a.cid Murray and Vincen t Ryan , made the time spen t at Glenstal of real value.

Nine Cis te rcians f rom the seven houses of the region - the convents sent no participants - took par t , and it is a measure of the generosity of the Glenstal community that no 1ess than eight of them took lectures or workshop discussions.The ground covered in these was very broad:the usual tendency that monks seem to have of wande ring of f the point was well in evidence , and

we had to be brought back to the sub ject f airly of ten - though these digressions could be very inf ormative as well as in teresting.An account of the subjects studied and discussed would be of little interest to those not taking par t:

in general all seemed to be convinced of the usef ulness of this sort of monas tic exchange , while recognising the need f or discretion in allowing or encouraging it to multip ly , and also the need f or serious preparation if it

is to yield really worthwhile results . Whethe r this meeting at Glenstal will prove to be an isolated incident or the beginning of a closer collaboration between the houses of the region is some thing that remains to be seen .

Fr . Cyril

Monk of Moun t St. Bernard

A LE'ITER 'ID M:YlHER LAETITIA ABOUT THE FUNERAL OF FR. LOUIS

Easter Friday , 1969

Gethseneni

Dear M:>ther Laetitia,

Christ is risen , alleluia!Your letter of mid-Deoenber was cne of neny hundreds asking for details about the death and burial of our Father I.Duis.

I hope that you wcn ' t mind helping rre out.It's all but irrpossible f or rre to answer f ully the neny letters asking for nore specif ic details about Fr.

Louis' f meral; and I find it equally inpossible to write an account of a gen

eral nature addressed to no cne in particular.So I hope that you' 11 agree to nw writing you a perscnal letter whidl, though addressed to you, can be

shared by anycne who, like you, wishes to knc:w sorrething about Fr. I.Duis' funeral Mass and burial.

At the tirre you wrote rre last Decenber, there were still neny unsettled questions about Fr. Louis' death by accid3ntal electrocuticn in Bangkok.M:Jst of these questicns have lcng since been settled, and a nunber of periodicals have already published or socn will pl.i>lish accounts about Fr. Louis' trip to Asia, his visit with the Dalai Lana, his other ccntacts in India , and his last

days in Bangkok.So nw pw:pose here is sinply to supply you with a few details

about hc:w our aonmunity here at Gethsemani celebrated the final honec:oming and burial of a nan whom neny had knarm as a spiritual father , and whom all had knarm as a brother.

I had a rather curious e:xperience the day we received news of Fr. Louis' death.I was up to nw neck in work cx:nnected with the texts and music of the

Christmas seascn , and felt nore than a bit uncomfortable at being several days behind schedule in the various projects. I was working as usual in the trail er hidden behind a knd:> a bit less than a mile from the naiaste:cy , where I

have nost of the tools of the mJSical trade I need for Il work -including a sonewhat battered but still serviceable spinet piano.I had been working all noming, felt worn out, but felt no less the need for pushing ai. with the work at hand.I was a bit surprised, then, suddenly to find Il!{Self at the piano

with the Kalmus ur-text of the M:Jzart scnatas c.pen en the nusic rack and nw

fingers noving over the keys.Here I was , playing M:>zart, and thinking about the opening pages of Fr. Louis' Conjeaturesof a Gui Zty BystancJer,where he

(45)

46

writes so wcnderf ully well about Karl Barth and. M:>zart.A few minutes later

the phone rang.It was our cantor , Br. Clu:ysostom, calling to tell ne that

Fr. Flavian had just armounoed to the breth:ren the news about Fr. I.Duis' sudden death in Bangkther of God, and it is ale with them all for they are all cne, and Olrist,

God, is this s t think , with a clear f orekne:Ml edge of the circunstances of his death in the silence and solitude he loved so well, because they were filled for him with the presence of Olrist.

If , at the nareri.t of our death , death cones to us as an unwelcare stranger , it will be because Olrist also has always been to us an mwel oorre stranger.For when death cones, Olrist cares also, bringing us the everlasting life which le has bought for us by His avn death.'!hose who love true life, theref ore, f requently think about their death.'!heir life is full of a silence that is an anticipated victo:cy over death.

Silence , indeed, makes death our servant and even our friend.'Ihoughts and prayers that grcM up out of the silent thought of death are like trees gre:Ming where there is water.'Ihey are strcng thoughts , that overcooe the fear of misf ortune because they have overcorre passicn and desire.'lhey tum the f ace of our soul , in ccnstant desire, ta-1ard the f ace of Christ.

If I say that a whole lit:etine of silence is ordered to a f inal utterance , I do not nean that we must all ccntrive to die with pious speeches en our lips .It is not necessa:cy that our last words should have sone special or dramatic signif icance worthy of being written dc:Mn .Eve:cy good death, eve:cy death that hands us over from the mcertainties of this world to the tmfailing peace and silence of the love of Cllrist, is itself an utterance and a ccnclusion.It says, either in words or without them, that it is good for life to care to its appointed end, for the body to retum to dust and for the spirit to ascend to the Father , through the nercy of Our lord Jesus Olrist.

A silent death may speak with rrore elcquent peace than a death punctuated by vivid expressicns.A lcnely death, a tragic death, may

(The Funeral of Fa ther Louis) (49)

50

yet have rrore to say of the peace and rrercy of Olrist than rrany another comfortable death.

For the elcqu:mce of death is the elcquence of human poverty corning face to face with the riches of divine rrercy.'lhe rrore we are aw"are that our poverty is suprenely great, the greater will be the rreaning of our death:and the greater its poverty.For the saints are those who wanted to be pcx>rest in life , and who, above all else , exulted in the suprerre poverty of death.

'lhe rreditatien psalm is also by Fr. I.ouis , and f rom the sane No Man I s an Is Zand. In the section entitled " Soul Rerrerrbered God," Father , in corment ing en the words of Psalm 76 , "'lhis is the change of the right hand of the

.r.Dst High ," spare about our passage f rom death to life ef fected in the Holy Spirit, through whom all th:ings are made new.'lhis passage ends with this wcnderf ul psalm which would be ideal for Ccrcpline even in a rrore ordinary centext.

'lhe secx::nd reading was a cx::nf lation of two passages straddling the extrerres of Sign of J ona.s , where Fr. I.ouis rreditates en the nwsteriousness of his voca tien , writing :in part:

A M:nk can always legitimately and signif icantly corrpare himself to a prcphet, because the m:nks are the heirs of the prq>hets. 'lhe prophet is a nan whose life is a living witness of the providential actien of God

in the world.Evezy prophet is a sign and a witness of Olrist.Evezy m::nk , in whan Olrist lives , and in whom all the prophecies are therefore f ulfilled, is a witness and a sign of the Kingdan of God.Even our mis takes are eloquent, rrore than we kna-1.

'lhe sign Jesus promised to the generatien that did not mderstand Him was the "sign of Jenas the prophet" -that is, the sign of His CMn resurrectien.'lhe life of evezy m:rik , of every priest, of every Olristian is signed with the sign of Jonas , because we all live by the pa-1er of Olrist's resurrectien.But I feel that nw CMn life is espe,.. cially sealed with this great sign , which baptism and m:nastic profes sien and priestly ordinaticn have bumed into the roots of nw being,

because like Jenas hinself I fotmd nwself traveling tavard ItW destiny in the belly of a paradox.

Like the prophet, Jcnas, whan God ordered to go to Nineveh, I fomd nwself with an alnost mccntrollable desire to go in the opposite direction.God pointed cne way and all nw "ideals" po:inted in the other. It was when Jcnas was traveling as fast as he could CMay f rom Nineveh, tc:Mard 'lharsis , that he was thrCMn ove:cboard, and swallcwed by a whale who took him where God wanted him to go

'lhe hand lies open. '!he heart is dunb. 'lhe soul that held nw Substance together I like a hard getn in the hOllCM Of I'IW CMil paver I will cne day totally give in.

You, Wlo sleep in rrw breast, are not net with words , but in the errergence of life within life and of wisdan within wisdom.You are found in ccmnunioo: 'Ihou in rre and Iin 'Ihee and 'Ihou in them and them in rre: dispossession within dispossessioo, dispassioo within dispassioo, enptiness within enptiness, f reedan within freedom.I am alene.

'Ihou art alcne.'Ihe Father and I are Qle.

'Ihe Voice of God is heard in Paradise:

''What was vi Ze has become pre cious .What is now preci ous was never vi le.I have a aua:ys knoum the vile as pre cious : fori what is vile I knau not at aU .

"What was crue l has become merci ful .What is now merci ful was ne ver crue l .I have a aua:ys overshadaued Jonas with My meray , and criue l ty I kncM no t at a ZZ .Have y ou had sight of Me , Jonas My ahi ld?Meray

within meriay wi thin meray .I have fon,Jiventhe universe without end, be cause I have never knOIUn sin.

"What was poor has be aome infinite.What is infinite was never poor.I have aways known poverty as infinite:ri ahes I love not at aU .Pri sons within prisons within prisons .Do not lay up for you se lves e as tasies upon e arth, where time and spaae corrupt, where the minutes break in and s teal.No more lay hold on time , J onas , My son, Zes t the rivers bear you CIJJ)a:y .

"What was f'X'af!i Ze has be come power ful .I loved what was mos t f'l'ai l .I looked upon what was no thing .I touched what was without subs tance , and within what was not, I am."

'Ihe antiphoo f or the rreditatien psalm was taken , of course , f rom the pre ceding reading.And what other psalm would have been so apprq:>riate as the Seng of Jena in the belly of the whale?

For Reading III I cenf lated several passages from Father's connentai:y oo Psalm 90 , in Bread in the Wi ldemess .Psalm 90 is, of course,Conpline psalm; it was also, for Fr. Louis, one of the psalm; which best e:xpressed the deepest aspect of the ccntenplative life.'Ihe caref ul reader of the original passage , "'Ihe Shadcw of 'Ihy Wings , " will easily note that Fr. Louis is actually writing about the nvstical death and the darkness and silence through which

God leads us to the f ullness of our life in Olrist.Read in the ccntext of Fr.

Iouis' death , the passage takes en an even deeper rreaning, and cne .realizes

hCM our m:nastic life is truly a ccntinual dying and passing into God, and that our physical death should ideally be the final seal rn the life of a persen

who has al.ready passed fran death to life.

(52)

(The Funeral of Fat "her Louis) (51)

Evidently, the neditatiai psalm could be aily Psalm 90.Rather than use our familiar text, we used instead the lovely paraphrase by Janes M:ntgorrei:y (d. 1854 ) , a man af ter Fr. Louis' a-m heart.'Ihe sai of a M:>ravian minister ,

M:ntgonei:y was sent to a school at :Eulneck, near Ieeds , Ehgland.Poor Janes

did miserably, and was finally elled: he spent too much tine writing poehy !

He later asst.med editorship of a paper in which his strcng cmvictions and

f reedcm of thought were much in evidence.On 01.e occasion he was fined and even jail ed in Yor.k Castle for printing a poem celebrating the fall of the Bastille.He collaborated in many humanitarian endeavors, but it was partic ularly in his q>pesiticn to the slave trade that he was at his rrost character istic.I think that Fr. Iari.s would have found M:ntgorrei:y a singularly attractive personality.'Ihere is nothing of particular note about the hynn tune , except that it is a good cne ("Stuttgart," corrposed or arranged by C.F. Witt, and published in Gotha in 1715) , and that the sane nelody is used for

cne of our f avorite Advent hynns , "Cone, 'Ihou IDng Expected Jesus ."

'Ihe f inal secticn of the Of f ice follCMed our usual catpline structure:

a short litany (but with petitions for Fr. Louis, instead of the usual series) , the antiphcn of our Lady , "Hail, holy Queen ," with a coo.eluding collect either adapted frcm or inspired by (if I rerrenber aright) cne of Br. Max 'Ihurian ' s

beautif ul Marian prayers:

O Father of rrercy and coopassion,

you willed that your Sen be bom of a poor Virgin , that, in her poverty and sinplicity ,

the paNer and riches of your love might be made plain. Make us poor and hidden ,

even as Mu:y was poor and hidden,

so that we may share in her closeness to you,

and praise you by our lives of joy and adoration. 'Ihrough Jesus Christ

By 'Ihursday I had a f airly clear idea of the shape the actual funeral Mass and burial were to take.'Ihere was still a good chance, hCMever, that there

might be some last minute revisicns .Several weeks earlier, we had been cesig nated by our Archbishop and by Fr. Mc:Manus of the u.s. Bishops ' Liturgy Com mission as qualified to inplenent the Ccnsilium's revised funeral rites.

lhfortunately -or fortunately -the of ficial U. S. translations promised by Washingtcn f ailed to arrive.r.Eanwhile, I had a oopy of the Ccnsilium Latin project, so I was able to have a solid point of reference, while being rela tively free with regard to the choice and translati01. of texts.Evidently ,

there was no qrestion of sinply taking the Consilitnn project as it stands , but of adapting it in the light of our particular circumstances and of our CMn traditional funeral liturgy.But I was just as happy that the of ficial English texts never arrived, thus leaving rre a bit rcore f ree to use "ad hoc" texts . 'lllere was also a bit of uncertainty as to who would be Presiding Celebrant.

It locked as if several bishcps might be present.If one of them -were to ocn celebrate, he would autanatically assune the role of President.At the sane tirre, there was a special fittingness in Fr. Flavian's being Principal Cele brant, and f or d>vi.ous reascns.

By Friday (I think -II!{ nerco:cy is already a bit hazy) I had finished the booklet for the funeral Mass and burial.'!hen we leamed that the body would probably not arrive till sonetirre Sunday till sonetirre af ter midnight or early M:nday rcoming till early Tuesday rcoming.It was , in f act, around a half-hour af ter Conpline en M:nday that Fr. Flavian phcned rre in II!{ trailer to tell rre that it looked as if the f uneral would have to be postpcned till some tirre Tuesday af ternoon.It was clear, then, that the .Mass would have to be integrated with Vespers , and that the booklet finished the preceding Friday would have to be re-dcne.It was all for the best, hCM"ever, since the el.errents of the Vespers celebraticn provided ideal material for the f uneral liturgy.

First, however , cane recepticn of the body.W"lell. it becane clear that this would rcore or less coincide with the Of f ice of Ncne, it seerred best to adept

a special form of Ncne similar to the Catplin.e Of f ice celebrated a few days earlier.'Ihis sort of thing should always be dale with cauticn , since there is danger of t:cying to canbine two types of Ccmm.nity Of f ice, each with its own functicn and spirit.'Ihe result can easily be a mi.sh-mash of ill-ordered, rrerely juxtaposed elenents; but this was a danger avoided (I think) in the present instance.

OUr usual rite for the transfer of the body of a deceased brother f rom the infirma:ry to the church was substantially retained.'!his rite ccnsists chief ly of two stations -cne in the cloister and cne in the church, with a

prooessicn linking the two staticns.In the case of the recepticn of Fr. Louis'

body, the staticn in church took the form of Ncne.

A series of telei;ilcne calls had alerted us as to the irrminent arrival of Father 's body.'VE gathered in the cloister (chapter :roan wing) for the staticn which marked the actual recepticn of our departed brother.I do not kna-1 ha-1

(54)

(The Funeral of Father Louis) (53)

it is in other oonmunities; but in ours , this isthe rrarent for the chant ing of a leng respcnsm:y of the "Libera rre , Domine" type.Instead, the cantor reads a series of selected biblical texts en death and resUQ2cticn, while the funeral bier is carried to the plaoo of the f irst staticn, whe the brethren are already assenbled in silent: prayer and rreditaticn.'!he f irst staticn ccn sists of 1- an invi.tatozy by the Superior , 2- a litany led by the cantor, and sung during the inc:EnSaticn and sprinkling of the .body, and 3- a collect whidl

maxks the end of the station and initiates the short prooossion into dlurdl.

1- Invi.tato:cy DEAR Breth:ren ,

it was the lord Jesus hirrself who said,

"Corre to rre , all you who labor and are burdened, andwill give you rest."

Iet us pray , then, for our Father Iouis, that, having lived and died in the Iord, he nay rest nc:M fran his labors ,

and enter into the light and glo:cy of God's etemal Sabbath Rest.

'!his is the text we use for all the brethren , but it seerred especially apprcpriate for Fr. Iouis, who had a particular love for the introductozy "canfortable word" from St. Matthew.Iremenber his ccmrenting cnoo en this text, whidl we have in our Corpus Christi invitato:cy antiphen for Vigils.He told us that the text was a wcnderf ully "Cistercian" one, because it sumred q> the whole rreaning of the nonastic life as he understood it -an ever deepening respcnse to the Iord's invitaticn to enter into his CMl peaoo and rest.I liked, too, the specific rrenticn of the Sabbath Rest.Fr. Iouis had enoo in tended to ck> a bcx:k en St. relred, for whan the ccntenplative .life rreant a sharing in the Sabbath Rest of God.It was a cenoept about which Fr. Iouis wrote no.re than cnoo; and the title of the book was to have been "relred' s Sabbath. "

2- 'Ihe Litanyinvolves cnly a sinple ref rain en the part of the entire carmn ity.'1he individual petiticns I salvaged from cne ofLatin prayers cur rently assigned to be prayed during the washing of the body , i.e. , "Suscipe , Dani.ne reverentem ad te."Anycne who has studied the Latin text knc:M hew tangled it is in its present state.A oonparisan of rrs. souroos shews that

our present text is really a clurcsy fusicn of what was originally a litany

with invitatoi:y forrmtl.a.

'Ihe litany we nav use runs as f ollavs

R.Into your hands, o I.Drd, we ccmrend our brother N.

1- Receive, 0 I.Drd, your servant, for he returns to you.

2- Clothe him in his heavenly wedding garment,

and wash him in the holy font of everlasting life.

3- May he hear your words of invitaticn , "Ccne , you blessed of rey Father!"

4- May he gaze upon you, ID:rd , f ace to f ace, and taste the blessedness of perfect rest.

5- May angels surrmmd him,

and saints embrace him in peace.

3- '!he Collect both terminates the f irst station and, with its evident allusions to Psalm 83, initiates the proc::sssiarr to dlurch , during whim we chant Psalm 83.

ALMIGH'IY God, our Father in heaven,

before whom all live who die in the Lord \'ho died for us ,

receive our Brother N. into the courts of your heavenly dwelling place.

He has longed and yearned for your courts, O I.Drd; let his heart and soul nav ring out his joy

to you, O God, the living God,

the God of those who live!

'!his we ask through Orrist our I.Drd. R. Anen.

Psalm 83 makes an ideal processional chant to the place of the f inal sta tion in church, and it would be dif f icult to f ind another psalm rrore suitable f or its present purpose.As for the manner of chanting this psalm, we've adcpted the stanza (by schola) - refrain (by everycne) f orm as being the rrost practical and prayerf ul in the ccncrete situation.It provides a minimum of

technical dif f iculties so f ar as the conmmity at large is ccncemed, and this is inportant.One of the several reasons f or a rather widespread disenchant mmt with processions is the sad f act that, f or centuries, we have been f orced to chant a reperto:r:y of music in large part either unsuitable for processions , or else negotiable only by a rather catpetent schola.I am certainly not sug gesting that we adopt trivial texts or music for processions.It is rather a question of texts and music which are sinple, profound, beaut.iful , and

tional.Nor is there any need to forswear the use of "dif f icult" nrusic, so long as the musical resources are at hand, and the use of such material makes f or a rrore neaningf ul camnmity experience.Vbatever may be able to be said for Cistercian sinplicity , it would be f atal to reduce our chant to a nonoto-

(56)

(55) (The Funera Z of Father Louis)

nous saneness of style and structure; just as it would be fatal to indulge in mJSical extravagances ill-suited to a rronastic ccntext narked by sobriety and

sinplicity.cne simply has to knav hav to utilize cantor , schola, and can

m.mity at large in such a way that the chant ccntributes to a vital, pa;itive ccmrunity erience, without the brethren being unduly distracted by the ma terial demands of overly dif f icult rrrusic.

Tue station in church follaved our usual structure for a Little Hour.'Ihe daily None hynn would have served admirably for the purpose: 11 but let a holy death accord eternal glory with the Lord. 11Instead, we sang a hyrm au- .

thored by one of the 17th century rretaphysical poets to whom Fr. I.Duis was so attracted - Geol:'ge Hei::bert's lovely "care, rrrt Way, rqy Truth, II Life ,11 fran his posthunous collection 'Ihe 'Ierrple , published the sarre year as his death in 1633.'Ihe year bef ore he died, Fr. I.Duis gave a series of ccnferences en

Milton and the classical traditicn.I 'm not sure that he dealt with the neta physical pcets as a group; but roost o