Adoremus Bulletin - May 2016 Issue

MAY 2016

Vol. XXI, No. 7

Mother Angelica: Requiescat in Pace!

by Father Jerry Pokorsky – page 3

Altar as Alter Christus: Ontology and Sacramentality

by Denis McNamara – page 4

Painting the Walls of the New Jerusalem: Phoenix’s new Liturgical Art Studio

Story by Joseph O’Brien – page 6

The Beuronese School: Nature and Grace in Liturgical Art

by David Clayton - page 9

Departments: News and Views – page 2 Questions of Faith – page 10 Donors and Memorials – page 11

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he experience of mercy,” Pope Francis says, “becomes visible in the witness of concrete signs as Jesus himself taught us.” These are the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, which during the Jubilee of Mercy are among the ways to obtain the Jubilee Year Indulgence. The Corporal Works of Mercy, here depicted by the “Master of Alkmaar” in the early 16th century, are feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead. Can you identify each of the Corporal Works of Mercy in these images?

Source: Wikimedia.

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

NEWS & VIEWS Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“On Love in the Family”) was promulgated March 19, 2016, the Solemnity of St. Joseph the Workman. The letter caps recent years of reflection on the family, beginning with the October 2014 Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, followed by the September 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, and concluding with the October 2015 Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. This latter synod sent to the Holy Father its own final report, which included an invitation to issue “a document on the family, so that the family, the domestic Church, might increasingly radiate Christ, who is the light of the world.”

Amoris Laetitia was released to the public on Friday, April 8, and since then there has been no lack of coverage, confusion, and opinion on all sides, particularly concerning the question of communion to those in “various situations of weakness or imperfection”. (296) But in addition to this question, the Holy Father, like the Synod itself, comments on the liturgical rite of marriage.

Concerning the ministers of the Rite, the Holy Father reiterates the Church’s tradition: “In the Church’s Latin tradition, the ministers of the sacrament of marriage are the man and the woman who marry [Cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Mystici Corporis Christi (29 June 1943): AAS 35 (1943), 202: “Matrimonio enim quo coniuges sibi invicem sunt ministri gratiae …”]; by manifesting their consent and expressing it physically, they receive a great gift. Their consent and their bodily union are the divinely appointed means whereby they become ‘one flesh.’ By their baptismal consecration, they were enabled to join in marriage as the Lord’s ministers and thus to respond to God’s call. Hence, when two non-Christian spouses receive baptism, they need not renew their marriage vows; they need simply not reject them, since by the reception of baptism their union automatically becomes sacramental. Canon Law also recognizes the validity of certain unions celebrated without the presence of an ordained minister [Cf. Code of Canon Law, cc. 1116; 1161-1165; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, 832; 848-852]. The natural order has been so imbued with the redemptive grace of Jesus that ‘a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptized without it being by that fact a sacrament” [Ibid., c. 1055 §2]. The Church can require that the wedding be celebrated publicly, with the presence of witnesses and other conditions that have varied over the course of time, but this does not detract from the fact that the couple who marry are the ministers of the sacrament. Nor does it affect the centrality of the consent given by the man and the woman, which of itself establishes the sacramental bond. This having been said, there is a need for further reflection on God’s action in the marriage rite; this is clearly manifested in the Oriental Churches through the importance of the blessing that the couple receive as a sign of the gift of the Spirit. (75) On the prayerful preparation for the liturgical celebration, the Holy Father says: “The couple can also meditate on the biblical readings and the meaningfulness of the rings they will exchange and the other signs that are part of the rite. Nor would it be good for them to arrive at the wedding without ever having prayed together, one for the other, to seek God’s help in remaining faithful and generous, to ask the

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Lord together what he wants of them, and to consecrate their love before an image of the Virgin Mary. Those who help prepare them for marriage should help them experience these moments of prayer that can prove so beneficial. ‘The marriage liturgy is a unique event, which is both a family and a community celebration. The first signs of Jesus were performed at the wedding feast of Cana. The good wine, resulting from the Lord’s miracle that brought joy to the beginning of a new family, is the new wine of Christ’s covenant with the men and women of every age…. Frequently, the celebrant speaks to a congregation that includes people who seldom participate in the life of the Church, or who are members of other Christian denominations or religious communities.

The occasion thus provides a valuable opportunity to proclaim the Gospel of Christ’” [Relatio Finalis 2015, 59]. (216) The above excerpts and, indeed, the entire letter are an impetus to understand fully and celebrate faithfully the Marriage Rite, recently published in its second edition.

Promulgation of the Second Edition of the Marriage Rite

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has announced that the Second Edition of the Rite of Marriage has been approved and may be used as early as September 8. As that date approaches, publishers are preparing ritual book editions, and regional workshops led by the Bishops’ Secretariat for Divine Worship and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions are being held. The actual decree states: “In accord with the norms established by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in Cum, nostra ætate (January 27, 1966) and of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Liturgiam authenticam (March 28, 2001), this edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony is declared to be the vernacular typical edition of the Ordo Celebrandi Matrimonium, editio typica altera, and is published by authority of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The Order of Celebrating Matrimony was canonically approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on November 12, 2013, and was subsequently confirmed by the Apostolic See by decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on June 29, 2015 (Prot. n. 84/14).

“The Order of Celebrating Matrimony may be used in the Liturgy as of September 8, 2016, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and its use is obligatory as of December 30, 2016, the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. From that date forward, no other English edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony may be used in the dioceses of the United States of America.”

Adoremus’ readers will recall Benedict Nguyen’s “Marriage Law Revisited: Addressing Common Misunderstandings of the Sacrament of Matrimony” in both the January and March issues of Adoremus Bulletin, where he clearly explained many aspects of canon and liturgical law about this sacrament. In addition, Father Randy Stice’s entry, “The Wondrous Design of Your Love: An Introduction to the Sacrament of Matrimony and the Nuptial Blessing” from the November 2015 issue

laid much of the theological and liturgical foundation for marriage. Father Stice will give an in-depth look at the ritual elements of the Marriage Rite in the September 2016 issue.

Liturgy and Evangelization Conferences

The Notre Dame Center for Liturgy’s 2016 Symposium, “Liturgy and the New Evangelization,” will be held June 20-23. According to organizers, the conCatholic Music ference “seeks to discern how liturgical Association of America prayer, sacramental formation, and liturgical catechesis can contribute to the new Annual Colloquium Professional musicians, parish choir evangelization.” Liturgy and sacraments, members, priests, deacons, seminarians while the privileged means of worshipand others interested in learning more ping God, impel worshippers to spread about sacred music in Catholic worship the good news beyond the Church walls. have two opportunities to take part in ex- Pope Francis himself, particularly through tended workshops on the art of chant in his 2013 apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel” (Evengelii Gaudium), emJune.

On June 10-12, Holy Family Par- phasizes the baptismal call to go out to the ish, Dayton, OH, is offering a Gregorian peripheries.

The Symposium’s speakers include Chant Intensive at Holy Family Catholic Church, Dayton. The following week, James Pauley, associate professor of theJune 20-25, the Church Music Associa- ology and catechetics, Franciscan Unition of America (CMAA) is hosting its versity, Steubenville OH; Anthony Ruff, O.S.B., associate professor of theology, 26th Colloquium in St. Louis, MO. Saint John’s School of Theology and Holy Family Parish Intensive Seminary, Collegeville, MN; and ChrisThe Dayton event welcomes Dr. Ed- tian Smith, who is the William R. Kenan, ward Schaefer, professor of music at the Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of University of Florida, to host a three-day the Center for the Study of Religion and workshop on the basics of chant semiol- Society, University of Notre Dame. ogy with applications in several liturgical Complete information, along with regsettings. istration details, is available at www.litA well-known chant expert, author urgy.nd.edu/. and translator of books on Church muThe Society of Catholic Liturgy will sic, Schaefer is a frequent presenter at the host its annual liturgy conference, “The CMAA’s colloquium. Serving as schola Liturgy and the New Evangelization,” director for the Latin Mass in the Gaines- September 29-October 1, 2016, at Our ville, Florida, area, Schaefer is a perma- Lady of the Angels Cathedral Conference nent deacon in the Church.

Center, Los Angeles, CA. Distinguished Dr. Schaefer’s research is focused on speakers and topics for this year include, Gregorian chant and the music of the Ro- among others, the Most Reverend Jose man Catholic Mass. In October of 2005 H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, he spoke to the annual convention of the who explains the necessity of popular piCatholic Medical Association on the topic ety for public worship and evangelization, of music and spiritual formation. and Bishop Abdallah Elias Zaidan of the Holy Family Schola Director John Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, who Schauble said that “the Intensive is struc- explores the power of the Liturgy for the tured to be meaningful to all those who Church Persecuted.

Additional topics include the liturgical are interested in chant, regardless of whether they are new to chant or more ex- and sacramental challenges for parishes perienced.” Participants may sign up for in the new evangelization; preaching the single events or bundles so that attendees’ Gospel of Christ in post-Christian societschedule limitations allow them as much ies; liturgical art and popular piety in the mission of the Church today; and liturgy involvement as possible.

To register, call John Schauble at 513- and religious freedom. Complete details are available at www.liturgysociety.org.

405-5094.

CMAA Colloquium The June 20-25 2016 CMAA colloquium will celebrate the liturgy at three venues – the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, the Shrine of St. Joseph, and Pro-Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and Apostle, all in St. Louis.

The CMAA Colloquium focuses on instruction and experience in chant and the Catholic sacred music tradition, ordinary and extraordinary form Masses, Latin or English texts, evening Vespers, and sung morning and night prayer.

Billed by organizers as “the largest and most in-depth teaching conference and retreat on sacred music in the world,” the CMAA conference includes extensive training in Gregorian chant, special training for priests, deacons and seminarians, and breakout sessions on topics such as directing, organist master classes, and children’s programs. Each participant receives a copy of the CMAA’s The Parish Book of Chant and discounts on all books sales.

For general registration, the CMAA accepts check or credit card at time of registration. Register online at https://shop. musicasacra.com/colloquium-2016. Registrations must be received at the CMAA Office (by mail or online) by the close of business, June 7th, after which, registration is only available by telephone by calling the CMAA office at (505) 263-6298 on a space available basis.

The conference hotel for Colloquium 2016 is the St. Louis City Center Hotel.

Adoremus Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy

Editor - publisher:

Christopher Carstens Postal Address: PO BOX 385 La Crosse, WI 54602-0385 Phone: 608-521-0385 Editorial E-mail: editor@adoremus.org Membership Requests, Change of address: info@adoremus.org Website: www.adoremus.org Adoremus Executive Committee: The Rev. Jerry Pokorsky ✝ Helen Hull Hitchcock The Rev. Joseph Fessio, SJ Contents copyright © 2016 by ADOREMUS. All rights reserved.

Adoremus Bulletin (ISSN 1088-8233) is published six times a year by ADOREMUS—SOCIETY FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE SACRED LITURGY, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. ADOREMUS is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation of the State of California. Non-profit periodicals postage paid at various US mailing offices.

Change service requested.

ADOREMUS—SOCIETY FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE SACRED LITURGY was established in June 1995 to promote authentic reform of the Liturgy of the Roman Rite in accordance with the Second Vatican Council’s decree on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

Adoremus Bulletin is sent on request to members of ADOREMUS. Suggested donation: $40 per year, US; $45 foreign.

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

Campaign 2016: Road to the White House and the City upon the Hill

By Christopher Carstens Editor

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ike it or not, we hear a great deal nowadays about the “race for the White House.” Who will make it, and how will he or she get there? Twists and turns, dead-ends and detours: the path to the center of the city set upon the hill is – even for the bystander – long, tiring, wearisome – and worrisome.

But if American presidential politics is not to your liking, or if you need a healthy alternative to this year’s race, consider another similar, yet far superior race: the Christian pilgrimage.

I say “similar” since both roads seek a glorious destination, one that rewards and satisfies an arduous journey. Both pilgrimage and presidential run take time, and there are no shortcuts. And both satisfy a human need: man the “political animal” (if we accept Aristotle on this point) is made ultimately for a supernatural destiny, the City of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Despite the parallels, though, the divergences are even sharper. The principal way in which pilgrimage offers what politics cannot is, for good or ill, Jesus himself. Very few – if any – would confuse a political campaign for a meeting with Christ, yet the whole point of the Christian Pilgrimage is to imitate, radiate, and ultimately encounter Jesus.

American presidential races have a colored history, but these pale in comparison to the history and spirituality of a pilgrimage.

On the merely human level, life itself is read as a road and a passage. From Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” or, more recently, Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway,” to such expressions as “It’s all about the journey,” human beings naturally relate to stages and passages. But in this regard, and left to our own devices, men and women are without a compass, not knowing where they are going. Modern man seems especially susceptible to being lost. As Catholic novelist Walker Percy asks: Why is it easier to know more about a star that is thousands of light years away than to make it successfully and joyfully through an average Wednesday afternoon? We are, naturally speaking, “lost in the cosmos.”

But the “Morning Star” begins to appear in the time of the Old Covenant.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and many other figures) are directed by God to a destination of God’s own choosing. The Chosen People, led by God through the persons of Moses and Joshua – prefigurements of Christ – go on pilgrimage from a land of slavery, death, and darkness into a land of freedom and life, one “flowing with milk and honey.” Since that great exodus, Hebrew males were required by divine law to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem each year to commemorate the event.

The great exodus journey of the Chosen People is fulfilled in Christ. At the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah speak to Jesus of “the exodus he was about to make in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:41). This exodus, which is history’s definitive race and pilgrimage, begins “beyond the Jordan” (John 10:40), from where Jesus passes through the Jordan (as another Joshua before him had done), enters God’s city of Jerusalem, and through his suffering and death on the cross, he ascends to the Father.

When Jesus “accomplished in himself the mystery of the Temple and had passed from this world to the Father (cf.

John 13:1), thereby going through the definitive exodus in his own person, no pilgrimage was binding any longer on his disciples: their entire lives now become a pilgrimage towards the sanctuary

of heaven and the Church is seen as an ‘earthly pilgrimage’” (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, 281).

Today, “all Christians are invited to become part of the great pilgrimage that Christ, the Church and mankind have made and must continue to make in history” (Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, The Shrine: Memory, Presence, and Prophecy of the Living God, 1), and the pilgrimages that we make today – and are called to make by the Church – are sacramental expressions, individual embodiments of Christ’s own journey back to the Father’s house.

The Year of Mercy, which concludes on the Solemnity of Christ the King, emphasizes this longstanding Christian practice: “The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim travelling along the road, making his way to the desired destination” (Misericordiae Vultus, 14). To this end, cathedrals, shrines, and other pilgrimage churches have been established around the world, and making a pilgrimage to one of these, and perhaps passing through their Holy

“I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

—Revelation 21:2

Photo: Mike Norton Mont St. Michel in Normandy, France, has long been a pilgrimage destination. A true “city upon a hill,” Mont St. Michel is a tangible symbol of heaven, the destination of life’s pilgrimage.

Door, is an indulgenced act. For those unable to make the physical pilgrimage, a sort of “spiritual pilgrimage” (akin to the practice of “spiritual communion”) is encouraged: the sick or homebound are to unite their sufferings to those of Christ’s “royal road which gives meaning to pain and loneliness,” while prisoners are to consider the threshold of their cells a type of “holy door”

(November 11, 2015 Message of Pope Francis).

As the warmer summer months approach (while never forgetting our readers who grow colder in the Southern

hemisphere!), consider supplementing the “race to the White House” with the “race to God’s house.” Your faith, your peace of mind, and even your country will be better for it.

Mother Angelica: Requiescat in Pace!

by Father Jerry Pokorsky Mother Angelica (Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation) departed this world at the age of 92 on March 27. Mother suffered from a debilitating stroke in 2001 and had been long absent from the TV screen, so her passing may not have been much of a surprise, and perhaps met with a sense of relief after a long and difficult decline. Mother’s funeral attracted many Catholic luminaries (including papal nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who delivered Pope Francis’ prayer for the repose of her soul, and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia). She was a remarkable woman of faith. But she was ever so – and wonderfully – ordinary.

I remember Mother’s talk at a seminary in the 1980s – a couple years after her founding of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in a converted garage in Birmingham, Alabama. Her unscripted remarks were mashed potatoes Catholicism, taking playful and casual swipes at the theological fashions of the day, to the chagrin of some of the local academics. I do not recall the substance of her gibes (probably having to do with the historical-critical method of Scripture research), but I remember her relaxed, confident demeanor, not at all arrogant or angry, but motherly and kind if a bit crusty, firm and joyful. She asked for our prayers, I recall, so that going forward in her newfound success she “wouldn’t blow it.” Her faith was straightforward and unsophisticated like the rough and tumble Galileans of the Gospel who followed Christ, but unlike the sophisticated and more frequently skeptical Judeans.

Mother’s encounter with Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles upon the release of his document on the celebration of the Eucharist is a good example of her pattern of resisting attempts to “nuance” (i.e., tinker with) her faith. But after promising, with her signature huff, “zero obedience” to Cardinal Mahony (because of ambiguities in the discussion

of the Real Presence) she found herself in a serious damage control situation, with ecclesiastical threats of censure.

The following week she responded like a prizefighter that can take a punch, but punches right back. If her “zero obedience” response lacked the necessary ecclesiastical nuances, Mother responded with an acknowledgement of her excess, but added a few nuances of her own, all in defense of the Church’s orthodox understanding of the Real Presence. Mother never allowed a crisis to go to waste.

During the liturgical (Roman Missal and Lectionary) “translation wars” of the 1990s, I appeared with her on “Mother Angelica Live” two or three times, first as a representative of CREDO, a society of priests dedicated to the faithful translation of the Liturgy, and then with CREDO’s daughter organization, Adoremus. (Our founding editor, the late Helen Hull Hitchcock, appeared far more frequently and for a time was on the Board of EWTN.) On those occasions, like a kindly grandmother, Mother made me feel at home with her attentiveness and good humor. Her relaxed confidence in basic Church teaching drew out healthy orthodox – and often erudite – discussions on the controversial ecclesiastical issues of the day. (The hot-button topic of so-called “inclusive language,” for example, was unexpectedly important and fascinating in its impact on the transla-

tions of biblical and liturgical texts.) For such a basic, simple and good woman, her performance was a relentless display of media genius that could only come from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working through a heart that was without guile. Still, I got the sense I didn’t want to find myself on her wrong side.

When secular celebrities die the world mourns in various ways, usually as pagans without hope. They’re “devastated” and “shocked” or lament that the world “lost an icon,” as if the intrusion of death comes always as an unwelcome surprise.

Maybe it’s because I myself am entering into the fourth quarter of my life according to the actuarial tables, but Mother’s passing after a long and beautiful life brings me a sense of happiness. Her death, to my eye, was just another step in the right and necessary direction.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away’” (Rev. 21: 1-5). ____________ Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. Father Pokorsky also serves as a director and treasurer of Human Life International. page 3

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

Altar as Alter Christus: Ontology and Sacramentality

By Denis R. McNamara

An altar’s reality as a heavenly table can be indicated by its use of multicolored marbles, which not only resemble the jewel-like quality of the Heavenly Jerusalem, but signify the many members of the Mystical Body of Christ, each of whom are “little altars” who together are united as Christ. St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Aiken, South Carolina, 2015. James McCrery, architect. Rugo Stone, fabricator.

A

longstanding theological maxim states that Christ is the priest, the victim and the altar of his own selfsacrificial offering.1 He is the priest because he is the one who offers, and he is the victim because he is simultaneously the one offered. But his body is also the very “place” of this sacrificial offering, and so follows another traditional saying: “the altar is Christ.”

This high theology of the altar comes directly from Christ’s fulfillment of the biblical types that prefigured him. He fulfilled every previous priesthood and every previous sacrifice by becoming the True High Priest and True Victim.

So, too, his body fulfilled and replaced every previous altar erected to the worship of God. Christ, then, took up and recapitulated every previous prefigurement of his own action in the world and returned them to the Father in heaven.

But in the sacramental system of the Church, the things of heaven come to us as sacramental revelations. Priest and people symbolize the Mystical Body of Christ, scripture makes known the word of God, and, supremely, the Eucharist renders present Christ’s very reality. The things of heaven come to us through signs, but nonetheless provide a real—though sacramental—encounter.

In art and architecture, a similar sacramental process occurs. In his 1999 Letter to Artists, Pope John Paul II wrote that in sacred art, some aspect of the Incarnation can be made knowable to the senses as a “sensory evocation of the mystery.”2 In other words, the material “stuff” of the world can serve not only to memorialize things past, but provide a sacramental anticipation of things to come. Simply put, the altar symbolizes Christ himself in the many facets of his existence: as fulfillment of the Old Testament typologies, as God present with his people on earth, and the prefigurement of the eternal, glorious banquet of heaven which is wholly communion and feast.

Mystagogical Catechesis This intensely theological description of the altar may at first sound daunting,

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This newly-designed altar made for the renovation of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, uses the ornamental motifs of wreath, bundles of leaves and flowers, and the early Christian symbol of the chi-rho to indicate the importance and festivity of the altar. The angel provides “mystical support” for the altar’s mensa. 2011. Duncan Stroik, architect. Cody Swanson, sculptor.

but the questions about the nature of an altar from the point of view of being itself—known as its ontological reality—prove central not only to decisionmaking in the design of new altars, but in entering into the mysteries celebrated there. A simple wooden altar, for instance, by its nature indicates the idea of a table. A marble altar properly ornamented with fine stonework and glittering mosaic, however, indicates not only a table, but also a table transformed to heavenly glory. Similarly, a mensa, the top slab of an altar, can be left plain or it can be incised with five crosses to represent the five wounds of Christ and the five marks of its anointing. In the first case, the viewer is given a bare minimum of sign value. In the latter, something more of the deep, interior meaning of the altar is given. The architect’s choices, then, either help or hinder the

process of being led from the external signs to the deep sacramental meaning that the altar is meant to convey. Here in a nutshell is the concept of “mystagogical catechesis”: a Christian is meant to encounter the realities of God by seeing earthly “signs” and be lead through them to encounter the heavenly realties which break through them.3 Mystagogical catechesis lies at the heart of every Christian life because it is more than a human pedagogical method; it is the privileged method established for communication between heaven and earth. The God who is outside of time and space created human beings who acquire knowledge through the senses within time and space. Therefore, Christ took on matter in the Incarnation so that he could be seen, heard and touched, and his presence continues

in the world in a similar way. A person who learns to see beyond the appearances of a piece of bread and see the Presence of God in the Eucharist has experienced mystagogical catechesis.

But this movement from visible signs to invisible spiritual realties does not always come easily. It requires bringing a receptive mind and heart to a foundational literacy of what external signs mean and how they are fulfilled in salvation history. But even the most highly educated person cannot encounter what is not present, and so theological knowledge matters when making any decisions about celebrating the sacred liturgy. If a worshipper is to be led to the mysteries, the signs necessary to encounter those mysteries must be there to Continued on Page 5

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

Columnar legs, enclosing panels and substantial mensa in alternating colors indicate the nature of the altar as table, tomb and place of sacrifice. St. Michael the Archangel Church, Leawood, Kansas, 2009. David Meleca, architect.

Continued from Page 4

be perceived. And here is why ontology matters in understanding the altar: only if the nature of the altar is understood can it be designed so as to express that nature in a way perceivable by others.

The Nature of the Altar Because Christ sums up all things in himself (Eph 1:10), the altar in turn signifies many of Christ’s attributes.

In The Spirit of the Liturgy, Cardinal Ratzinger noted that Christian worship is fundamentally different from other religious sacrifices through history. In many religions, a human priest is designated to place gifts upon an altar, hoping they will be accepted by the deity. In Catholic liturgy, however, the priest and people together sacramentalize Christ’s Mystical Body, rendering present in external signs what is already true: Christ himself offering the sacrifice to the Father. “The real ‘action’ of the liturgy in which we are supposed to participate,” he says, “is the action of God himself.”4 Since the liturgy is Christ’s action expressed in the symbol system of the rite, the altar is Christ rendered in architectonic form which rightly takes on the attributes of Christ himself. Four of these attributes are highlighted here.

1. The Altar is Christ.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states plainly that the “Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful” (1383). The altar is therefore not a remote and isolated image of Christ, but one standing in the midst of his people. For this reason the altar is given the most prominent location in a church, occupying a place which is “truly the center toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns.”5 For similar reasons, the Church’s legislation strongly encourages that altars be fixed to the floor to indicate Christ’s eternity and never-ending commitment to his people.6 Moreover, at least its mensa is to be made of stone, echoing the scriptures which repeatedly call Christ a rock and cornerstone (see 1 Pt 2:4, 1 Cor 10:4, Eph 2:20). Although

exceptions are allowed in particular cases for wooden or portable altars, stone is meant to indicate Christ’s strength and permanence.

When an altar is dedicated, it is anointed and incensed. These liturgical actions reveal the sacramental reality of the altar as sacrament of Christ.7 At the Prayer of Dedication, an altar is anointed with sacred chrism precisely because Christ is the One anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit, making him “high priest, who on the altar of his Body, would offer the sacrifice of his life for the salvation of all.”8 Incense is burned to signify that the perfect sacrifice of Christ ascends to God “as an odor of sweetness.” Thomas Aquinas noted in the Summa that not only does the altar itself signify Christ, but the consecration “signifies Christ’s holiness.”9 The lighting of candles on the altar follows, not only indicating that festive nature of the event, but to signify Christ as the “light to enlighten the nations.”10 The rites of the Church, then, lead the viewer from the external sign to the sacramental mystery it makes present: in looking at an earthly object made of stone, even Christ’s holiness can be encountered.

Practically speaking, any enrichment given to an altar should increase the revelation that the altar itself is Christ; it should not be a signboard for an unrelated pious image or devotional slogan.

The five consecration crosses on the mensa of the altar, for instance, reveal that the altar is Christ because they indicate his five wounds. They belong to the nature of Christ himself, and therefore to the nature of the altar itself.

Inset areas of gold mosaic or multicolored stone, similarly, express in architectural terms the gem-like radiance of heaven which corresponds to Christ’s own glory.

2. The Altar is a Place of Sacrifice.

Any altar, by definition, is a structure on which sacrifice is offered.11 Sacrosanctum Concilium repeatedly speaks of the Mass as a sacrifice, noting that at the Last Supper, Christ instituted “the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood” in order to “perpetuate the sac-

rifice of the cross through the centuries” (47). The very same sacrifice that Christ offered to the Father on the cross was instituted “in the form of a sacrificial banquet.”12 The Christian altar, then, is fundamentally different from other altars through history because it is not simply a dedicated table upon which gifts are offered to a god. It is Christ present among his people, who then receive the sacrifice that he offers “on” his very person.

This sacrificial quality is further expressed by the inclusion of relics under the altar. Traditional explanations claim that the liturgy was celebrated upon the tombs of martyrs in the catacombs of early Christian Rome. Today’s liturgical instructions, however, give primacy to the altar as the object which renders honor to the burial place of martyrs, and so the presence of relics indicates not the sacrifice of the martyrs alone, but more precisely their share in the sacrifice of Christ. The Order of the Dedication of an Altar notes that it is fitting for saints’ relics to be placed under altars so that “the triumphant victims come to their rest in the place where Christ is victim” (5).

In designing a new altar, its sacrificial character should be expressed. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to make the mensa out of stone of significant thickness, perhaps three inches or more. A colorful stone given a high polish will indicate a glorified altar, one that has taken on gem-like qualities that signify heavenly conditions (Rv 21:19).

Relics are no longer placed in the mensa itself as they once were, where a piece was removed from the top slab to insert the relics. According to today’s liturgical instructions, relics are placed underneath rather than within the altar slab itself. This preserves the integrity of the mensa as an image of Christ, and reinforces the place of relics under, and not in, the altar. In this way, the sign value of the altar as an image of the martyrs participating in Christ’s own sacrifice becomes clear, helping the signs lead to revelation of the mysteries.

3. The Altar is a Table.

In the years since the Second Vati-

can Council, the table-ness of the altar has perhaps been emphasized above all other attributes. While an altar is indeed a table, it signifies much more than domestic furniture. The Order of the Dedication of an Altar calls the altar a “table of sacrifice and of the paschal banquet” (4). “Paschal banquet” refers back to the Last Supper, when Christ becomes the new Passover victim. The altar indicates therefore the fulfillment of the sacred meal of the Last Supper in service of the community, since “Christ made holy the table where the community would come to celebrate their Passover.”13 So the altar is a table of the Christian community, where the “Church’s children gather to give thanks to God and receive the body and blood of Christ”14 as the apostles did. But this table was precisely the place where Christ initiated the sacrifice of the Eucharist, hence the term “table of sacrifice.”

The altar not only shows the table of the Last Supper fulfilled, but prefigures the table of the heavenly banquet, the eternal heavenly feast which celebrates the full reunification of God and creation.15 Sacrosanctum Concilium makes it clear that “in the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem” (8), and the Catechism notes that in the Eucharistic celebration “we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life” (CCC 1326).

For this reason, the Church uses the fine arts to render this present in our own time and space, as Sacrosanctum Concilium notes: “all things set apart for divine worship should be composed of signs and symbols of heavenly realities” (122). An altar, then, gives a foretaste of the table of heaven because Christ is “the living altar in the heavenly Temple”16 who serves the “heavenly meal.”17 It follows naturally that the altar is a place of festivity since it is the locus of the joyful work of salvation and a real anticipation of the heavenly delight.

Similarly, the rites of the Church are not so much performed as celebrated, and the altar is the place of that joyful celebration. When a new church is dedicated, the altar is covered with a white cloth, indicating that it is prepared for a sacrificial banquet and “adorned as for a feast.”18 The Order of the Dedication of a Church states that the dressing of the altar “clearly signifies that it is the Lord’s table at which all God’s people joyously meet to be refreshed with divine food.”19 In designing new altars, the tableness of the altar can be brought forward through the use of leg-like vertical supports which need not eliminate the solidity afforded by enclosing the altar’s supports with inset panels. As already noted, heavenliness, in Biblical terms, is frequently associated with gem-like color and reflectivity, and while relatively little should be done to enrich the mensa itself, the supporting structure beneath can include carved or inset ornamental motifs that bring forward the nature of the altar as festive sacrificial table. Similarly, richly colored marbles and inset gold or colored mosaic can indicate the altar’s eschatological status as heavenly banquet table.

4. The Altar is a Sacred Thing.

It is worth noting that an altar is a place where sacred actions occur in what the Church again and again calls “sacred buildings.” Sacrosanctum Concilium even speaks of “sacred furnishings.”20 To be made sacred is to be set Continued on Page 8

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

Painting the Walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem: Phoenix’s New Liturgical Art Studio

By Joseph O’Brien Managing Editor Ruth and Geoff Stricklin are seeking to unify beauty and worship by putting their artistic talents to work for the Church’s liturgy – and their own marriage is in many ways an embodiment of that effort.

As the founders of New Jerusalem Studios, Phoenix, AZ, the Stricklins are producing murals that will seek to bring liturgical art to the foreground of the Catholic liturgical renewal, even as their work serves as a glorious background for the sacred liturgy.

Adopting the principles of the Beuron School of art, the Stricklins seek to integrate the principles of this art style as an organic part of the liturgy, favoring beautiful imitation over provocative originality, and seeking the glory of God through individual talent.

Founded by 19th century Benedictines, the Beuron style adapts the principles of ancient iconography to the needs of the Western Church. The style was named for the Beuron Archabbey, a Benedictine community in the upper Danube valley of southern Germany, where many of these monastic artists worked.

The Stricklins have completed two major projects in the Phoenix area and are preparing to branch out to other parts of the country. In 2007, thenchaplain of Xavier College Preparatory High School, Phoenix, Father John Muir, asked Ruth Stricklin to paint a 25-foot tall altar mural for the school’s celebration of the Mass. The mural, a triptych, depicts Christ coming in glory, surrounded by the heavenly hosts.

In 2014, Ruth Stricklin was also commissioned by Xavier to paint large portraits of the four female doctors of the Church, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Hildegard of Bingen. Each of the four saints depicted has been assigned as a patroness to one of Xavier’s four grade levels.

In 2013, the chaplain for All Saints Catholic Newman Center at Arizona State University, Phoenix, Father Robert Clement, commissioned the couple to paint a 20-foot tall mural for the main sanctuary of the Newman Center’s newly constructed chapel. It too depicts Christ coming in glory. A year before its completion in 2015, the Stricklins officially established New Jerusalem Studios.

With new commissions coming in, the Stricklins plan to complete eight additional murals and decorative painting for the Newman chapel in the future. Currently, they are under contract to work on another 25-foot tall mural for the worship area at St. Mary’s High School, Phoenix, which will depict the Blessed Virgin Mary and Christ crucified. The couple is also committed to design work for the interior of Sacred Heart Church, Phoenix. The Stricklins may also undertake a project further afield at a Catholic university (although since they’re still in discussion with school officials, they’re not at liberty to identify the school).

Life sketches Having experienced the bad liturgical art of the 1970s and 1980s, Geoff Stricklin knows the important role beauty plays – and ought to play – in Catholic worship. page 6

Xavier College Preparatory High School, Phoenix, and its 25-foot tall altar mural for the school’s celebration of the Mass in the gymnasium. The mural, a triptych, depicts Christ coming in glory, surrounded by the heavenly hosts.

“I grew up Catholic in Huntington Beach, California, in the 1980’s,” he says. “My experience of liturgy was plenty of felt banners, improvisation, pop music, theologically dubious song lyrics, and extreme casualness in the celebration.”

He’s quick to point out that in his own experience of the faith, he was not immune to the secular drift of the times. “I was negatively influenced by the whole feminist push in the Church,” he says, “the use of inclusive language, and, in general, an adoption of secular moral values on issues such as abortion.”

After encountering the writings of Pope John Paul II and attending liturgy more clearly informed by Church teaching, however, Stricklin experienced “a profound conversion of faith and understanding.”

“In contrast to the highly emotional evangelical worship to which I had earlier been drawn, the Monastic style of liturgy exerted a more integrative force, (not overly emotional, nor void of emotion), a quality I later learned that Pope Benedict described as “sober inebriation.”

In 2007, working as director of liturgy at St. Magdalene de Pazzi Parish, Flemington, New Jersey, Geoff enrolled in the Liturgical Institute (LI) at University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL. “During my time at the Institute, my love of the liturgy grew as I discovered deeper and deeper richness,” he says.

“The sacramental nature of creation and the economy of salvation became my natural lens.”

Painted by Ruth Stricklin of New Jerusalem Studios, Phoenix, AZ, this altar mural of Christ glorified in heaven serves as the backdrop for the recently built main chapel of All Saints Newman Center, University of Arizona, Tempe, AZ.

Writing on the wall Taking a very different path to LI, Ruth Stricklin (nee Ristow) wasn’t Catholic when she began to consider the importance of liturgical art in the life of faith. Born in rural Alaska, she grew up as a member of the Church of the Nazarene, an offshoot of the Wesleyan profession.

As a Protestant, Ruth was taught that God’s word needed no visual aids – and that images of any kind in the context of worship were a form of idol worship.

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016 Continued from Page 6

Despite these strictures, she says she found enough beauty to inspire her in the Book of Nature and began painting at a young age. While common sights in the Forget-Me-Not State, the Aurora Borealis, Alaska’s mountain ranges, and the occasional moose wandering into her front yard, Ruth Stricklin says, were also for her a window to the transcendent.

“To see something so beautiful, I wanted to hold it, to experience the fullness of it and not be separated from it,” she says. “It was my first awareness of God, and I was being drawn to him through the beauty of his creation.”

After high school, while on a trip to Europe, Ruth Stricklin discovered that art and worship could find a happy marriage in a Catholic context.

“One of our group’s first stops was in Toledo, Spain,” she says. “We went to the cathedral there, and I was deeply impacted. I remember entering and being overwhelmed by the transcendent beauty. Upon seeing this place, I knew God was real. He was tangible, not just a thought in my head. And when I knew he was real, my first instinct was to fall down and worship him…. This was a moment when my awareness of the invisible God and my love for visible beauty were beginning to come together.”

As her love for beauty and God grew, Ruth began searching for a way to unify the two in her own art. After college, she moved to the Phoenix area and took up this cause with a passion as a freelance artist, designer and muralist for private residences, local businesses and a local evangelical Protestant church she had joined.

“Art became a form of worship for me,” she says of her time with this church. “Worship services were a concert with backdrops and elaborate set pieces, theatrical lighting and projection and so on. It was over the top, but at least I was able to see that God could use my creative gifts to draw me and others to himself.”

New beginning Taking these gifts back to school, Ruth Stricklin interviewed with the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), who served Xavier.

In 2006, they hired her to work as a set designer for the school’s theater department.

“Xavier was a beautiful environment, and a true community,” she says. “I saw the witness of the Sisters of Charity, their communal life, their dedication to service, and how they welcomed and nurtured my gifts. Even though I wasn’t Catholic, I was given many opportunities to grow, I was allowed to thrive, and the environment was welcoming to an open expression and development of faith.”

And grow she did – both spiritually and artistically – as she was invited to use her talents to beautify the regular celebration of Mass in the school’s gymnasium.

“The gym was as you’d expect – a utilitarian space that lacked a sense of the sacred,” she says. “So Father Muir thought that a backdrop displaying the vision of heavenly worship from the Book of Revelation would help the students focus and pray.”

In preparation for the work, she says, she studied the Church’s rich tradition of art and architecture, leading her deeper into the Catholic faith and to a clearer understanding of worship than she had from her own formation as a Protestant.

“During our school Masses, I was

supposed to behave in chapel. But when the altar mural was up there, the students would instinctively stop talking and their gaze would go from their friends and rise up to where the mural was. Like anyone, high school students will lose focus in Mass, but they would lose it by gazing at the glorified Jesus in heaven. You could see them reacting more instinctively with a reverence and a good, fruitful fear of the Lord as they came into the presence of God in the liturgy.”

Looking back on his decision to commission the piece, Father Muir says he did succeed in bringing the students of Xavier to a new place in worship.

“The altar mural is physically large and it gave the students a sense that the Mass and the Church is not one more thing in life,” he says. “Instead, with the help of the mural, the students can see that Mass is the all-encompassing mystery of reality and the altar mural in its sheer beauty and size expressed that.”

This portrait of St. Catherine of Siena, rendered in the 19th century Beuronese style, is part of a series of four portraits painted by Ruth Stricklin of New Jerusalem Studios featuring the four female doctors of the Church. St. Catherine and her three fellow doctors, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Hildegard of Bingen, adorn the atrium of Xavier College Preparatory High School, an all-female Catholic school in Phoenix, AZ.

drawn to what was happening in the liturgy, the beauty of the ritual that was still so mysterious to me,” she says.

“But I knew something important was happening here, and the sacramental signs were bringing it into reality for me . . . the beauty and richness of the vestments, the vessels, incense, the reverence in the ritual – my senses were welcomed in the Mass.”

the ordinary.

“I realized that it was hard to draw the students into the mystery of the liturgy when they’re looking at basketball hoops,” he says. “So out of nowhere I asked Ruth if she knew how to paint, and would she be able to paint an altar mural. She said, ‘What’s an altar mural?’ That question was the beginning of pretty intense catechesis for her. She approached the subject matter of the art Liturgical renewal of the mural with the objective eye of As Xavier’s chaplain at the time, an artist.”

Father Muir was duly imAccording to Father Muir, pressed by Ruth’s great what began as a repassion for beauty. search project for “When I discovered Now serving as Ruth Stricklin pastor of St. turned into an sacred art, it was a Thomas Aquiabiding love nas, Avonfor the truth. treasure house, filled dale, AZ, “She did with rich symbolism. There so much reand Assistant Direcsearch and was a purpose to it – the tor of the studying so Office of glory of God – and it helped she could Worship for paint it and me focus on particular the Diocese in the proof Phoenix, cess she was things for the Father Muir falling in love was ordained with the truths worship of God.” for the Diocese of she was painting,” Phoenix in 2007. he says. “It was the “With [Xavier prinright place at the right cipal and BVM] Sister Joan time, for me, and I was priviFitzgerald’s permission,” he says, “I leged to be there. I would answer her asked Ruth to paint an altar mural for questions and she would read everythe Masses we would have in the gym,” thing that I suggested to her.” he says. “After a few conversations – Once the altar mural was unveiled, and I don’t think I even realized Ruth Father Muir says, the effect on the stuwasn’t Catholic at the time – I could see dents during Mass was almost immedithat she had such an instinct for art and ate. beauty.”

“Among the students,” he says, In launching the project, Father “there was a shift from chapel etiquette Muir hoped to be able to transform the to reverence and fear of the Lord. At the school’s gym during Mass and give beginning we would try to command Xavier students an experience out of the students and tell them how they’re

Life of faith Even as she completed the murals for Xavier, Ruth Stricklin’s own purpose was becoming clearer to her – and she was received into the Catholic Church in 2010. Shortly afterwards, she says, Father Muir had recommended she take a class at the Liturgical Institute and that’s when her vocation to the married life also came into focus.

“I wanted to know more about sacred art so the chaplain who brought me into the Church recommended a course at LI in sacramental aesthetics. I signed up for this class, not recognizing that it was a grad level class, but I took the class over the summer and I met Geoff.

He was in his final period of classes over a five year study program and in another couple weeks we would never have met!”

In 2013, Geoffrey Stricklin moved out to Phoenix to be nearer to his future wife and to take on the duties of theology instructor at Xavier, a position he still holds today. On May 23, 2015, the Stricklins were married, becoming partners for life and partners in sacred art.

“Both of us so clearly see God’s hand in bringing us together,” Geoffrey Stricklin says, “not only to fulfill our vocations, but seemingly also for the work of liturgical renewal.”

As if to confirm them in this work, the Stricklins’ art caught the attention of Father Clements, who invited Ruth Stricklin to paint a mural for the Newman Center – and challenged her to consider painting the mural in the Beuronese style. In preparation for the work, she traveled to Conception Abbey in northwest Missouri, which lays claim to the Beuronese legacy in the murals adorning the abbey’s Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

At Conception, she says, “I learned that the Beuronese style was developed in the late 1800s as a counter to the indulgent and sensual styles of Romanticism. Art in the Beuronese style makes use of muted colors and a sober, sedate, and reverent, tone, thus not drawing attention to itself, but drawing the viewer into worship. The emotional element was restrained as well, much like iconography.”

Paradoxically, Ruth Stricklin sees the restraints and requirements of sacred art – and the Beuronese style in particular – as a way to liberate her artistic talents.

In the modern art scene, she says, “there’s a pressure to be self-expressive, come up with your own style and do something provocative. But I found I didn’t have anything to say as an artist in that way, and so when I discovered Continued on Page 8

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016 Continued from Page 7 sacred art, it was a treasure house, filled with rich symbolism. There was a purpose to it – the glory of God – and it helped me focus on particular things for the worship of God.” By embracing the Beuronese style, Ruth says, she’s not indulging in nostalgia, but undertaking an artistic style that provides a real-time 21st century application to the liturgy.

“We recognize that the qualities of Beuronese art have particular sacramental value,” she says, including “the iconographic spirit, unobtrusive style, and emphasis on the heavenly expression of the glorified figures, among other elements.”

Wall to All While New Jerusalem Studios has no permanent home yet, when the Stricklins aren’t working in Xavier’s theater, they’ll usually be working onsite for their projects.

“Father Clements is allowing us to paint the Newman Center mural in the choir loft,” Geoff says, “which is up above and in the back of the church.

The ceiling is high enough that the remaining murals of the Newman Center will be painted right there as we build the framing and take them down from right there.”

The Stricklins chose to name their studio after the City of God – the New Jerusalem – because of the name’s liturgical implications.

“Essentially when we celebrate Mass we’re participating in that eternal worship in a heavenly city, and it’s sometimes called the New Jerusalem,” Geoff says. “Our mission is to present images that evoke that heavenly worship, so we thought it appropriate to name after that reality.”

Besides providing a livelihood, New Jerusalem Studios also gives the Stricklins a chance to work together in a harmony of hearts and minds in their love for beauty.

Continued from Page 5

apart from other things, and the Rite of Blessing of a Church notes that since churches “are permanently set aside for the celebration of the divine mysteries, it is right for them to receive a dedication to God” (1). Thomas Aquinas writes in the Summa that altars are not consecrated “because they are capable of receiving grace, but because they acquire special spiritual virtue from the consecration, whereby they are rendered fit for the Divine worship.”21 While the altar does receive special treatment in its anointing, incensing, covering and lighting, The Order of the Dedication of an Altar indicates that “the altar becomes sacred principally by the celebration of the Eucharist” (13).

Conclusion In the section entitled “Art at the Service of the Liturgy” in Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Everything related to the Eucharist should be marked by beauty” (41).

Beauty, theologically understood, results when a thing reveals its very nature—its ontological reality—to the viewer. And an altar becomes knowable, and therefore beautiful, when its “altar-ness” is revealed in the very matter of which it is made. A theologicallyinformed architect makes decisions regarding the design of an altar—material, size, shape and level of enrichment— and these decisions are then made into page 8

Founders of New Jerusalem Studios, Phoenix, AZ, Ruth and Geoffrey Stricklin are under contract to work on a 25-foot tall mural for the worship area at St. Mary’s High School, Phoenix, which will depict the Blessed Virgin Mary beneath Christ crucified.

This rendering is an initial sketch of the proposed mural.

“We think a lot a like and our sensibilities are similar,” Geoffrey Stricklin says. “Even though Ruth comes from a Protestant background, she thinks and sees like a Catholic. Since I teach theology, principally revelation, my knowledge of the Bible as the story of salvation helps inform Ruth’s designs.”

The division of labor is never sharply defined at New Jerusalem Studios, the Stricklins say; instead, they work in easy collaboration.

“I’ll be in the middle or finishing a painting,” Ruth says, “and Geoff will come up behind me and say, ‘Did you mean to do that?’ when he sees a pos-

built form. All of these choices in the mind of an architect join with the craftsman’s skill to become outward signs for others to see. Such signs lead the viewer to know what an altar is at the very level of its reality. In doing so, the altar participates in the process of mystagogical catechesis and plays its part in the “sanctification of man [which] is signified by signs perceptible to the senses” (SC, 7). Then an altar will “look like” an altar precisely because it is an altar at the ontological level: a sacred table for a sacrificial heavenly banquet which is an image of Christ himself. _____________

enly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago (Liturgy Training Publications, 2005), and How to Read Churches: A Crash Course in Ecclesiastical Architecture (Rizzoli, 2011).

Denis R. McNamara is Associate Director and faculty member at the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary, a graduate program in liturgical studies. He holds a BA in the History of Art from Yale University and a PhD in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, where he concentrated his research on the study of ecclesiastical architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has served on the Art and Architecture Commission of the Archdiocese of Chicago and works frequently with architects and pastors all over the United States in church renovations and new design. Dr. McNamara is the author of Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy (Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2009), Heav-

1. Preface V of Easter in the Roman Missal includes the phrase: “As He gave Himself into Your hands for our salvation, He showed Himself to be the Priest, the Altar, and the Lamb of sacrifice.” In his classic 1933 work on the nature of the altar, The Liturgical Altar, architect Geoffrey Webb, stated it with typical clarity: “[the Church] has proclaimed again and again that in her mind the altar represents the Lord himself.” Pope Benedict XVI reiterated this in his 2007 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, 23. See further explanation in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1383.

2. John Paul II, Letter to Artists (1999), nos. 7-8.

3. See the CCC, 1075. “Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ (It is ‘mystagogy’) by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the things signified, from the ‘sacraments’ to the ‘mysteries.’”

4. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 173. eneral Instruction of the Roman 5. G Missal (GIRM), 299.

6. See GIRM, nos. 298, 301.

sible misstep, or ‘Are you going to work on that?’ when he sees a gap. And his suggestion is right every time. I find that I’ll be too close after working on a painting for six months. He’s my second set of eyes and he comes to the work with an integrity I appreciate.”

An important component of the artistic process, Geoffrey Stricklin says, is the spiritual focus involved in composition.

“Ruth tries to create a prayerful environment when painting,” he says. “She found this indispensible because she has plenty of talent but she knows that God is working through her.”

According to Geoff, prayer is at the heart of New Jerusalem Studios and the Stricklins work seeks, above all, to enter into the heart of the Church’s prayer. If done well, he says, the mural is a seamless part of the liturgy and helps draw heaven and earth together in a unified and visual whole.

“The earthly liturgy,” he says, “is an image and sacramental sign of the ultimate reality in God’s plan, the heavenly liturgy, where all creation is drawn into the divine life of the Trinity. Properly speaking liturgical images draw together the whole mystery and history of salvation. The present images of the liturgy here on earth give us a clear picture of the worship we are called to, that is, our ultimate destiny.”

Because murals are sacred art painted large, Ruth says that, even in the process of composition on such a majestic scale, the mural proves its merit.

“When I’m painting at Xavier, the murals draw a lot of attention from the students,” she says. “I love that they get to see the process, and it draws them in, even at the beginning process of the painting. The whole community gets to see the project develop and that’s something really needed right now in the Church – a rediscovery of beauty.”

For more information on New Jerusalem Studios, call the Stricklins at 480-242-7018, or contact Ruth Stricklin at ruth.njstudios@gmail.com.

7. See Rite of Dedication of a Church and Altar (RDCA), “The Order of a Dedication of a Church,” nos. 15-16 and 63-71.

8. RDCA, “Order of Dedication of a Church,” 16.

9. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIª q. 83 a. 3 ad 2.

10. RDCA, “Order of Dedication of a Church,” 16.

11.

J. B O’Connell, Church Building and Furnishing: The Church’s Way (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1955), 139. A helpful resource on legislation and theological reflection before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

12. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication of An Altar,” 3.

13. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication of An Altar,” 3.

14. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication of An Altar,” 4, 15. See CCC 1329.

16. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication of An Altar,” 1.

17. RDCA, Decree.

18. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication of A Church,” 16.

19. RDCA, “The Order of Dedication of A Church,” 16.

20. See SC, 122. See also RDCA, Introduction, 3 and GIRM nos. 291 and 294.

21. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIª q. 83 a. 3 ad 3.

Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

The Beuronese School: Nature and Grace in Liturgical Art

By David Clayton The major styles of sacred art – the Iconographic, the Baroque and the Gothic – are all well known to Catholics, even if they can’t identity these styles by name. Sometimes a school of sacred art develops, however, which owes a debt to one or the other of these styles but is, as the expression goes, “neither fish nor fowl.” Such is the case with the Beuronese School of Art. Stylistically, the Beuronese School is an interesting cul-de-sac that sits outside the mainstream of the Christian tradition. It is named after the southern German town of Beuron, the location of the Benedictine community in which this mid-19th century school originated. The best-known artists who painted in this style in Europe are Desiderius Lenz (d 1928) and Gabriel Wuger (d 1892), both Benedictine monks from Beuron.

In the United States, too, the Beuron style can be found. The walls and the ceiling of the abbey church of the Benedictines at Conception Abbey, Missouri, are decorated primarily with authentic examples of the Beuronese style. The abbey website states that the work on these walls was done between 1893 and 1897 by several Conception monks, most notably Lukas Etlin (d. 1927), Hildebrand Roseler (d. 1923), and Ildephonse Kuhn (d. 1921). Sitting at the feet of the masters, so to speak, the latter two monks had studied art at Beuron.

The original 19th century Beuronese artists were reacting against what was the dominant form of sacred art employed at the time by churches of the Roman Rite. Overly naturalistic and sentimental form, this art was also stiflingly academic and produced by the French academies and ateliers. The exemplar of this decadent form is the Frenchman William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

Authentic Christian art has a style that is always a carefully worked out balance of naturalism (sometimes referred to as “realism”) and idealism. The naturalism in art tells us visually what is being painted. Put simply, if an artist wants to paint a man it must look like a man, with a human trunk, a head, limbs and so on.

The artist then achieves the idealistic element in his composition through a controlled deviation from strict adherence to natural appearances by which the artist reveals invisible truths. For example, an artist’s style can communicate that humans have a soul and a spirit, and that these are known as the intellect and will.

It is this deviation from strict “photographic”* naturalism that characterizes the style of art. All work produced in a particular artistic tradition will have in common certain methods (called “controlled abstractions”) by which the artist reveals the Christian understanding of what his work portrays. It is through perception of these methods that we are able to recognize an artist’s style. For example, we recognize the iconographic style because a painting in that style renders the eyes of the subject enlarged, the mouth diminished, and the nose elongated in a particular way. Tradition developed these elements of iconographic style to help the observer see beyond the particular characteristics in the person portrayed to the truths they represent, truths, in the case of iconography, appropriate for a saint.

It is easy to distort appearances, to hide the truth and to create the equivalent of a visual lie through style. Many advertisements present airbrushed photographs – that is, photos that have been deliberately distorted to exaggerate such sexual attributes that advertisers hope will help sell their products. This decep-

Photo courtesy of Saint John’s Abbey.

The former Abbey Church at St. John’s Collegeville, Minnesota, is among the finest examples of Beuronese art in the United States.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Crucifixion, 1869, by Bueronese monk Gabriel Wüger. The Beurone style combines naturally recognizable features with particular Greek and Egyptian proportions to introduce the supernatural element which in part characterizes its style.

tion, perfected by the venal “Mad Men” of Madison Avenue, tells us that it is not enough for the Christian artist to be able to stylize. Indeed, the Christian artist has a great responsibility and must reveal the truth through his stylizations, rather than to deceive by hiding or distorting these truths. As even this brief foray into aesthetics indicates, art is serious stuff; if the artist gets these fundamental principles wrong, he can lead souls astray.

With this same sense of responsibility and aware of the deficiencies of the sacred art of their time, Beuronese artists sought to introduce an idealization into their style by seeking inspiration from ancient Egyptian art and from ancient Greek principles of proportion. Visually it is easy to see the influence of the Egyptian papyri; but in addition the Beuronese artists used a canon of proportion derived from the ancient Greeks (although this is speculative on the artists’ part, given that the canon of Polyclitus, an important primary source on such matters, is lost). The link between ancient Greek art and Egyptian art is not an unnatural one. Plato praised the Egyptian style and historians speculate that Greek art from the classical period (around 500 B.C.) was influenced by Egyptian art.

Yet the Beuronese artists did not break completely with the style of the day; in fact, these artists trained in the same methods of the 19th century atelier that they were rejecting. The resulting artwork is a curious mixture of 19th century naturalism stiffened up, so to speak, by an injection of Egyptian art and Greek geometry.

What of the painting of Beuronese art today? In his 1947 encyclical about the sacred liturgy, Mediator Dei, Pius XII made it clear (in paragraph 195) that we should always be open to different styles of art for the liturgy, provided that such styles have the right balance of naturalism and idealism (he uses the words “realism” and “symbolism” to refer to these qualities). What should drive the style’s use, Pius XII advises, is the need of the Christian community and not the whim of the artist or patron.

In my experience, the Beuronese style does connect with people today in a way

The Holy Family’s flight into Egypt in the Beuronese style. Painted by Father Bonaventure Ostendarp from St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

that is appropriate for the liturgy. A piece of Beuronese art has sufficient naturalism for the observer to easily recognize the representation, while it has sufficient idealism to suggest another world beyond this one. Furthermore, contemporary culture provides natural reference points to allow modern people, even those without a classical education, to relate to this style. Art deco architecture, for example, is also derived from Egyptian styles. Strangely, many observers might find the Beuronese style with its Egyptian roots more accessible than a traditional icon in the classic Russian style of Andrei Rublev.

I have read in translation, On the Aesthetic of Beuron, by Father Desiderius Lenz, who many consider to be the main Beuronese theorist. As an account of the geometric proportions used in the human form, the book was complex and therefore difficult for any painter to use, except for very formal poses. As soon as an artist seeks to twist and turn a pose in the image, then the necessary foreshortening called for by Father Desiderius requires the painter to use an intuitive sense to relate distant parts to the nearer. In these cases, the artist may find it difficult to adhere to the canon of proportion. Therefore, when figures painted in the Beuronese style are less stiff and formal, the style doesn’t seem to work as well. On the other hand, the more relaxed poses of the Beuronese style produce art that looks like illustrations from the Bible I was given when I was a child.

Such a style is good in that context, perhaps, but too naturalistic for the liturgy.

The approach of the original Beuronese School is idiosyncratic – I do not know of any other Christian style of art that looked to Egypt for inspiration.

Nevertheless, when done well, the end result does strike me as having something sacred to it and worthy of attention.

Perhaps the efforts to control the modern temptation to individual expression have contributed to this, too. The school stressed, for example, the value of imitation of prototypes above the production of works originating in any one artist.

Furthermore, the artists collaborated on works and did not sign it once finished.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, though, that Catholic monks who dedicated their lives to God and his Church would prize humility over the glory and fame of artistic immortality. In suppressing their individualism, though, paradoxically, as a group, the Beuron School achieved a certain glory – most certainly with God but also among artists here on earth!

David Clayton is the newly appointed Provost of Pontifex University, the Catholic online education provider currently at pilot stage; he is a visiting fellow of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH; and author of the book The Way of Beauty published by Angelico Press in 2015. * Although in reality even a camera lens distorts appearances in a way that causes a photograph to be subtly different from what the eye actually sees.

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Adoremus Bulletin • Vol. XXI, No. 7 — May 2016

QUESTIONS Questions of Faith

Why is the practice in some parishes for the people to stand after the priest’s invitation, Orate, fratres (“Pray, brethren”) but before replying, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands…”?

– Answered by Christopher Carstens The Orate, fratres, literally, “Pray, brethren,” concludes the preparatory rites at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The gifs of bread and wine are presented; the priest says the berekah prayers while elevating the gifts slightly above the altar, and, after saying a short private prayer that our offerings and ourselves might be acceptable, washes his hands at the side of the altar. He then returns to the middle of the altar and says, “Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”

Some readers might recall that prior to the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal the assembly would make its response, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands” while still seated. But with the current edition, this practice changed.

Even though the Missal itself did not appear in English until 2011, its General Instruction (GIRM) was available

Questions of Faith

At the Penitential act, can settings of the Kyrie eleison from the past that have the Kyrie repeated three times, then the Christe three times, and then Kyrie three times be used in the Ordinary Form of the Mass? Could such be composed today?

– Answered by Adam Bartlett In his classic work, The Mass of the Roman Rite, Joseph Jungmann describes the development of the Kyrie eleison, which in its earliest form was said or sung as a response to various petitions by all the faithful, much like our practice of the Prayer of the Faithful today.1 This is the practice described by the fourth century pilgrim Aetheria (or Egeria) in her written memoirs of a journey to Jerusalem. By the time of Gregory the Great (590-604), the response Christe eleison was added to the Kyrie, and the preceding petitions gradually began to disappear “in order to linger longer on these two invocations,” as Gregory states.2 The Kyrie and Christe, Jungmann says, were often repeated many times over during Gregory’s time, up to as many as forty times in the Byzantine East. As the Kyrie took shape in the Roman liturgy in the eighth century and beyond, however, its normal ninefold form (Kyrie eleison 3x, Christe eleison 3x, Kyrie eleison 3x) was established, modeling itself after the Trinitarian pattern. As Jungmann describes, “custom had thus consecrated the number three.”3 Dom Prosper Guéranger describes the trinitarian significance of the ninefold Kyrie, saying: “The first three invocations are addressed to the Father, who is Lord: Kyrie, Eleison; (Lord, have mercy). The following three are addressed to Christ, the Son incarnate: Christe, eleison. The

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O F FA I T H

in approved translation in 2000, mostly, it is assumed, to help preparations for the Missal itself later (ten years later, as it turned out). At one point, the GIRM says that the people stand “from the invitation Orate, fratres (Pray, brethren), before the Prayer over the Offerings…” (n.43). Without the actual Order of Mass to consult (at least in English), this instruction came to be interpreted by most as having the people stand before the priest says to the assembly “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours,” much as the people would stand if they were incensed (with incense!) at Mass. This appears to be the practice in most parishes at the moment.

As it turns out, the people are not to stand before the priest says “Pray, brethren” or after they make their response. Instead, the Order of Mass has the assembly stand after the priest says “Pray, brethren” but before they respond “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands.” What was not clear in the GIRM is now clear in the Order of Mass: Standing at the middle of the altar, facing the people, extending and then joining his hands, he says: Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.

The people rise and reply:

last three are addressed to the Holy Ghost, who is Lord, together with the Father and the Son; and therefore, we say to him also: Kyrie, eleison.”4 The ninefold Kyrie normally has been sung by the schola cantorum, often in alternation between two choruses, from the eighth century up to the Second Vatican Council.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal issued after the Council introduced the innovation of the sixfold Kyrie into the Ordinary Form of the Mass, saying: “Since [the Kyrie] is a chant by which the faithful acclaim the Lord and implore his mercy, it is usually executed by everyone, that is to say, with the people and the choir or cantor taking part in it. Each acclamation is usually pronounced twice, though it is not to be excluded that it be repeated several times, by reason of the character of the various languages, as well as of the artistry of the music or of other circumstances.”5 Although congregational singing and the form of the sixfold Kyrie are given priority in the GIRM, the traditional practice of the ninefold Kyrie sung by the schola cantorum is not prohibited by it. In fact, the Kyriale Romanum6 issued following the Council contains several settings of the Kyrie from the Gregorian chant tradition that can only be sung in a ninefold manner.

The introduction to the typical edition Ordo Cantus Missae7 (Sung Order of Mass) — which in 1972 arranged the chants of the 1908 Graduale Romanum according to the revisions of the liturgical calendar and rites undertaken following the Second Vatican Council — reaffirms the traditional practice. Article 2 states that “[t]he acclamation, Kyrie eleison, may be distributed among two or three cantors or choirs as opportunity dictates.”8 While it goes on to mirror the GIRM, stating that “[e]ach acclamation is normally sung twice…,”9 it continues, saying that “this does not exclude a greater number, especially on account

May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.

But reading the rubric is one thing: knowing why it says what it does is another. Why does the rubric have the assembly stand before making its response? Let me suggest three reasons.

First, standing is an appropriate response to the priest’s command to prayer. I say “command” since the verb orate is just that, taking the imperative form. Orate is at its root ora, for prayer, and it takes the form of a command.

Orate is related to oremus, “Let us pray,” which the priest says before the Collect (or Opening Prayer) at the end of the Introductory Rites and before the Prayer After Communion. But in these cases the oremus is in the subjunctive form and serves more as an invitation than a command. In a certain sense, the command orate is similar to the military command “Attention!” – to which soldiers stand in response.

Second, standing is a posture of respect and, in this case, respectful entreaty. During the other presidential prayers, such as the Collect or Prayer After Communion, the assembly is standing, since it is addressing God (most often God the Father) through the person of the priest. At other times, such as during the Eucharistic Prayer, the assembly kneels, this also being,

among other things, a petitionary posture. But never in the Mass does the assembly as a whole pray to God from a sitting posture. And it is no small petition that the members of the assembly make: we pray that our sacrifice may be accepted for God’s glory and our sanctification. Offering an acceptable sacrifice which sanctifies us and glorifies God was (and is) the essence of Jesus’ own work, the ongoing ministry of the Church, and the most fundamental aspect of being a Christian. Standing expresses the importance of this petition in a way that sitting cannot.

Third, and related to number two, the act of standing (in both cult and culture) is a sign of readiness. The Chosen People were told to offer that first Paschal Sacrifice “with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand” because “you will eat it in a hurry” (Exodus 12:11). Like the Israelites, we too stand in readiness as we prepare our own sacrifice: the true Paschal Lamb and, with him, our own hearts. Standing thus also expresses and fosters our readiness to enter into the sacrifice at the altar.

So whether or not your own parish stands as the Missal indicates, we can at least be mindful of what these words and postures at this juncture signify: the command to sacrifice, the heart-felt petition that our sacrifice be acceptable for our holiness, and the readiness to join our own personal sacrifices to that of Jesus on the altar.

The “Mass of the Angels” (Missa de Angelis), “other things being equal” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116), is as appropriate today as it was a century ago, or in eternity to come.

of musical artistry….”10 Certain challenges and tensions arise in the singing of the Kyrie melodies found in the Kyriale Romanum as a result of the GIRM’s preference for the congregational singing of a sixfold Kyrie. Several of the more ancient melodies, such as the second Kyrie of Mass XVIII for the Mass for the Dead, are described by Jungmann as having a “plain litany-quality” in which “the same simple tune recurs eight times and only in the ninth is there any embellishment.”11 Several of such simpler settings can also be found in the Kyriale Simplex,12 many

of which even lack an embellished final Kyrie. These settings easily allow for the Kyrie to be sung in a sixfold manner as a kind of “call and response” form where the cantor sings a melody that is immediately repeated by the assembly for each of the three invocations.

Several of the more developed Kyrie melodies in the Kyriale Romanum move beyond the plain litanic form and provide a unique melody for each of the three invocations.13 In principle, these settings can be sung in a sixfold manner Continued on Page 12

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Mass IV, with a ninefold Kyrie, in Chant notation then and now.

Continued from Page 10

(as a call-and-response form) just as easily as they can be sung in a ninefold manner, with one exception: like the plain litanic form, this more developed form also includes a melodic embellishment, often unique in character, on the final Kyrie. When Kyries in either of these two genres are sung in the traditional manner (ninefold with alternation between two sections of a schola), the embellished ending serves as a perfectly featured melodic climax and conclusion. Often, after eight alternations between the two sections (sometimes highlighted by the contrast between all male and all female voices), section one begins the ninth Kyrie and sings up to the asterisk, where section two repeats what was just sung by section one, and at the double asterisk both sections come together for the concluding phrase which accentuates and definitively concludes the musical composition.14 In other settings the ninth Kyrie contains entirely unique melodic material.15 When these are sung in a ninefold manner they serve as a logical, fitting conclusion. When they are sung in a sixfold manner, the final Kyrie — which must be sung in order for melodic completeness —often comes as a surprise to the assembly at first, who intuitively expects a pure call-and-response form. It often occurs that when such settings are first introduced in a parish half of the congregation will treat the final Kyrie as a call-and-response, singing back what they have just heard, while the choir and the other half of the congregation sing the proper ending, creating a moment of melodic cacophony. Fortunately, these issues tend to resolve themselves after use for a few successive weeks, and perhaps more quickly with a prior brief note of instruction.

The Kyriale Romanum also includes settings that can only be sung in a ninefold manner.16 These settings anticipate the contrast of two choirs or sections singing in alternation and provide a

page 12

complementary contrast in the melodic form. These settings, in addition to having highly contrasting sections, are also often melismatic in form and of significant melodic complexity, representing a later and more developed form of the genre. By their nature, they are not well suited to congregational singing, either in a sixfold or ninefold manner.

In practice, the great majority of Gregorian chant settings of the Kyrie found in the Kyriale Romanum are easily and successfully adapted to sixfold singing, as long as an adequate amount of time is given for assemblies to learn them and their proper endings well. The nature of the Mass Ordinary itself is highly repetitive, unlike the Mass Proper which virtually presents new texts and chants every day. This repetition is a pedagogical feature. As new Kyries are introduced into parish life — and, especially, taught to children — and repeated enough so that they can be properly internalized, they will be learned, known and lovingly sung by the faithful for a lifetime, and handed on from one generation to the next. They are melodically rich and endure the test of time.

Further, for those who have the opportunity to sing them regularly in their appointed seasons, Kyrie lux et origo of Mass I begins to “sound like Easter,” while Kyrie orbis factor of Mass XI begins to “sound like Ordinary Time,” as can be the case in every season and for various classes of feasts.

When the Kyrie is sung in a ninefold manner, it would be most fitting for two contrasting sections of a choir to sing in alternation according to the traditional manner. The contrast of all male voices in one section against all female or treble voices in another is particularly beautiful! Further, if some of the simpler Kyries are sung ninefold, the congregation can be taught to sing in alternation with the choir, themselves serving as “choir two” which alternates with a cantor or a group of cantors. The greatest difficulty encountered in this situation is that the pattern of alternation causes

the congregation to initiate the Christe eleison without hearing it sung first by the choir. This task is not impossible, but will be best achieved with proper initial instruction and with a great deal of repetition over time. The greatest practical benefit of this approach is that the congregation can entirely avoid the embellished ninth Kyrie eleison at the end, which, according to the pattern of alternation in this case, is taken up by the properly trained and equipped choir or schola cantorum. In some cases, parishes that have employed the ninefold Kyrie have not made the effort to sing in alternation and as a result the choir and congregation sing the entire chant together, continuously and without contrast. This approach can create a kind of monotony and redundancy that is not envisioned by the genre, and might best be avoided.

In parishes today, a varied repertoire of the plain litanic Kyries from the Kyriale Simplex, of sixfold Kyries with embellished endings from the Kyriale Romanum, and perhaps a few ninefold Kyries, whether in Gregorian chant or polyphonic choral settings that can be sung by a well-trained schola cantorum on more solemn feasts, would provide a wonderful balance and variety that both respects the priorities of the GIRM and is rooted deeply in the sacred music tradition. This would be the case even more if they are sung along with their complementary Gloria, Sanctus and Angus Dei. The ninefold Kyrie can even be employed in new compositions, especially when these settings are intended to be sung by more highly trained choirs and scholae. It should be kept in mind, however, that the sixfold Kyrie sung in part by the congregation is the form that should be employed the majority of the time in the Ordinary Form of the Mass.

Adam Bartlett is a composer, conductor and teacher of Catholic sacred music and editor of liturgical and musical resources, and serves as President

and Editor of Illuminare Publications.

He received his B.A. degree in Music from Arizona State University, studied Gregorian chant as an apprentice to Dom Columba Kelly, OSB, of St. Meinrad Archabbey, and received his M.A. degree in Liturgical Studies from the Liturgical Institute of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. He is the composer and editor of Simple English Propers (CMAA, 2011), and is the editor of the Lumen Christi Series (Illuminare Publications, 2012-2016). Adam resides in Littleton, CO, with his wife and two daughters.

1. See Jungmann, Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. I (New York, Benziger, 1955) pp. 333-346.

2. Jungman, p. 339.

3. Ibid.

4. Prosper Guéranger, Explanation of the Prayers and Ceremonies of Holy Mass, http://www.sanctamissa. org/en/spirituality/explanation-of-the-prayersand-ceremonies-gueranger.pdf 5. General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 52.

6. Contained within the Graduale Romanum, and consisting of eighteen complete Mass Ordinaries in Gregorian chant, six settings of the sung Creed, and numerous ad libitum settings of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from the Gregorian chant tradition.

7. Ordo Cantus Missae, Editio typica altera. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 1988. The Ordo Cantus Missae is the official typical edition that provided the blueprint for the 1974 Solesmes edition of the Graduale Romanum, and other subsequent private performance editions.

8. Ordo Cantus Missae, Introduction, no. 2.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Jungmann, p. 344.

12. C ontained within the Graduale Simplex, which was produced following the Second Vatican Council as a response to the request of Sacrosanctum Concilium that “an edition be prepared containing simpler melodies, for use in small churches” (see SC 117). The Lumen Christi Missal and Lumen Christi Simple Gradual (Illuminare Publications, 2012-2014) contain the whole of the Kyriale Simplex in addition to four chant Masses in English and eight of the most commonly sung Masses from the Kyriale Romanum (for more information visit www.illuminarepublications.com).

13. S uch as Masses I, II, IV, V, VII, VIII, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XVI, XVII and XVIII. 14. Such as Masses IV and VIII, among others.

15. S uch as Masses I, XI, XVI, and XVIII, among others.

16. S uch as Masses III, VI, IX, X, and XV, in addition to the majority of the ad libitum settings.