Come into the Light

Come

As a child, my father, George, used to prepare for the Sunday Eucharist first on Saturday evening when his Sundaybest clothes were laid out for him at their home high on the river bluffs in St. Joseph, Mo. This simple gesture claimed his night’s rest and morning routine as part of his preparation. In the morning the family used to walk downhill a couple of blocks to the Church of the Immaculate Conception and enter through its doors, opening between twin towers. There they always paused for a moment to remember their baptism by crossing themselves with its water and by renewing their profession of faith in the Triune God, ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. Their procession to church would continue as they walked up the nave until they found a pew. There, they would pray and listen to the Scripture proclaimed and explained. Finally they would resume their procession towards communion shared at the altar railing. Then they would turn around and begin their journey homeward, pausing for a final prayer and a blessing before continuing on their way. These simple actions become life-long habits and form who we are in gentle ways that tell the profound stories of our lives (text adapted from the introduction to Come into the Light).

That church was built as an expression of the faith and of the mysteries once celebrated there, but it has long since been closed and re-opened as a museum. The church’s liturgy, however, has been renewed and calls for renewed places of worship so that the beautiful harmony that once existed between that liturgy and edifice may also be achieved in our time as we celebrate liturgy in churches build in our own age.

Because liturgy is a unitary and organic whole, its renewal was based on fundamental principles that enlivened the whole, as an organism, in all its structures and parts. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) that mandated the liturgical renewal did not, however, also give a clear blueprint for the design of church buildings to suit the renewed liturgy – the Council of Trent (1545-1563) gave none – because the church finds a home in every people and cultural expression.

Pastors rightly have a hand in renovating or designing new churches, and their pastoral insights gained from celebrating the renewed liturgy have proven invaluable. Some architects have begun to develop their own understanding of the liturgy which corresponds to the style of building they wish to design. These typically focus on a few elements such as a central altar, a tabernacle placed front and center, a dominant crucifix and a particular arrangement of pews. The voice of the liturgical scholar has been lacking in this dialogue with the result that a more comprehensive account of architecture and the arts for the celebration of liturgy has not yet emerged. Developing the contribution of liturgical scholarship would enable liturgists, architects and pastors to contribute from their own source of wisdom and experience.

into the light

by Fr. Daniel McCarthy

My father’s family lived their lives in a way that led to their celebration of the Sunday liturgy and also flowed from it; this way of life is part of my family heritage. My monastic vocation has provided the opportunity to undertake a prolonged period of study so that both the monastic way and my particular path of research and reflection might likewise contribute to the celebration of liturgy and flow from it.

Abbot Owen and Abbot Barnabas ensured that I could pursue advanced studies in liturgy first at Notre Dame and then in Rome where I now teach. Here I see daily the universality of the church and her many different cultural expressions. These have helped me to gain a greater perspective and so to contribute something fresh. The study of languages has opened up doors to different worlds of meaning and given a depth of access to the perspectives of different peoples and their cultural flowering at various periods of history that have produced as their monument the liturgy we celebrate.

My persistence in studying Latin throughout these past seventeen years with the best living Latinist, Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, prepared me to serve as an advisor to the Vox clara, “Clear voice”, committee of the Vatican Congregation of Divine Worship, where I consider the official Latin texts and give advice on the quality of their English translations for the liturgy. The book Fr. Reginald and I wrote on his method of teaching the Latin language will be available in September 2016.

Abbot James has ensured that I can bring these decades of study and reflection now to fruition in publications and teaching. The results of such extended focus are my contribution to the universal church and to the local church in Kansas, the fruition of my monastic vocation.

I presented these results first to the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery, when I gave their retreat in 2014. Thus I returned to my roots among the Benedictines of Atchison to test the validity of what I had learned abroad and so to be strengthened by their guiding wisdom.

“The Ritual Model” is the name I give to a developing synthesis of the design of churches for celebrating liturgy. My goal is not to define one floor plan that settles the matter, as if one size fits all. Rather, I am discerning the principles that guide the celebration of liturgy so that these may enliven the whole built edifice, as an organism, in all the building’s structures and parts. The basis of church architecture is the actions of the people celebrating liturgy, the ebb and flow of their procession toward Christ who comes to them in Word and in his body and blood shared in communion. This double procession toward Christ who comes, leads to an encounter where we are changed both in our daily actions and in our dignity as the body of Christ. So renewed, we turn around and return to our daily lives.

Come into the Light is a first-fruit of this reflection. The book’s very title suggests that following my vocation is a process of coming into the light, allowing light to permeate and expand the horizons of my world as I grow in awareness. My vocation is a path made by walking. In the very act of walking, I forge my own way, keeping in mind the courage and resolve of my family and friends following their own journeys. As a monk I walk with the help of abbots, confreres and sisters who do not so much show me the path, as support me while I trace my unique way.

The Liturgy Week, Architecture for Liturgy, is a second contribution in which I speak as a liturgical scholar to architects, artists, diocesan personnel and pastors. I tell them how our actions in liturgy narrate the saving mysteries at work in us today. Our liturgical actions need not be complex, or fancy, because in the simple action of preparing a child for Sunday mass, walking together, teaching the child how to make the sign of the cross, listening to the Word, sharing communion and returning home, we thereby teach a way of life and life’s meaning. This inner meaning is expressed outwardly in the art of a church, and this way of life is supported by the church’s architectural design.

I once explained my research to Dr. Evan Peterson of Wathena, Kan., who wisely responded that all my efforts would not amount to a hill of beans until they touch the person in the pews. I hope this book, Come into the Light, will finally amount to a hill of beans. My father, George W. McCarthy, as an altar server I believe at the chapel of the Madames of the Sacred Heart in St. Joseph Missouri, just up the hill from the parish of the Immaculate Conception. The religious sisters were called “Madames”. They gave “Georgie” breakfast after mass. He continued to serve well into young adulthood, when a young woman also attended the mass, his eventual wife, Annette (Cunningham) McCarthy.

Fr. Daniel serves as a Professor at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Rome. You may inquire about Fr. Daniel’s book Come into the Light from the Advancement Office, of St. Benedict’s Abbey or see Fr. Daniel’s websites: www.architectureforliturgy.org • www.liturgyinstitute.org/come-into-the-light