Practice as Prayer?

There is a very good piece by Michael Lawrence on the New Liturgical Movement Blog. Here is an extract:-

The process of learning a piece of music is an organic one, much like watching a plant grow. So, to say that only the "finished product" is capable of rendering praise to God is a bit like saying that a child cannot praise God, but his father can. Or it is like saying that the beauty of a sapling does not praise God even if the beauty of a tree does. Without saplings there would be no trees; without children, no fathers. Without the daily effort of practicing, there would be no musical performance worth listening to.

It seems to me that practicing and performance are all a part of the same work, and so the act of praise begins the moment the musical score is cracked open for the very first time. It is not the mistakes and the bumbling around that take place during the practicing that offer praise, but rather the persistent daily effort to attain the ability to sing or play a piece of music in a manner that is truly worthy of divine worship. It is an act of devotion that comes from the musician's awareness that God is deserving of the very best. Sacred music is a sacrifice of jubilation, as the Psalmist called it, and not a self-serving act of showing off.

We musicians should therefore resolve not to bury the talents we have but to nurture them each day and to keep in mind as we practice that what we are undertaking is no mundane, purely necessary task, but rather the first whisperings of the loud praise we shall later offer at the altar of God.

Summorum Pontificum

The long-awaited Motu Proprio has finally arrived! Published on 7 July, it seems to do pretty much all that could reasonably be expected. It states clearly that the Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962 must be given due honour and it is permissible to use it for the celebration of Mass as an extraordinary form of the Liturgy of the Church. The Missal of Paul VI is described as the ordinary expression of the Lex orandi of the Latin rite.

Article 2 gives an unrestricted right to any priest to use the Missal of Blessed John XXIII in Masses celebrated without the people. Article 4 says that such Masses may also be attended by faithful who, of their own free will, ask to be admitted. Don't you just love Vatican drafting...

Article 5 puts an obligation on parish priests to respond to requests from a stable group of faithful who request the Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

The Motu Proprio comes into effect on 14 September.

Whereas the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei" of John Paul II left provision of the traditional liturgy very much the in the hands of the bishops, this new document transfers that down the chain of the hierarchy to priests. This is a great opportunity for them but also a great responsibility.

On the question of nomenclature, I am not too keen on the use of the words 'ordinary' and 'extraordinary' to differentiate the two forms of the Roman rite. I think I prefer 'the Missal of Blessed John XXIII' and 'the Missal of Paul VI'.

To celebrate the publication of the Motu Proprio we sang the Te Deum after Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII at St Joseph's Gateshead on Sunday.