Two Different Kinds of Worship

One of the Rad Trad's pet projects in his liturgy-oriented posts is to shock those attached to the older rites out of legalism and an undue attachment to the baroque, Counter-Reformation mindset—which includes aesthetics and style.

 

Behold examples of two very different kinds of worship, nominally using very similar books. Below is a very baroque low Mass on Paschal Thursday. A dandy organ plays flourishes and arpeggios over the prayers before the altar, the Gloria, the offertory, the Canon (!!!), and the end of Mass. The chasuble would only look proportionally correct on someone four feet tall. And the sanctuary, although rich and elegant, somehow does not look beautiful to my eye. Perhaps I am too picky, antiquarian, or stodgy. Moreover, something about this arrangement does not do justice to the liturgy. On the bright side, there is a votive commemoration for the Pope and something missing from the Canon. Some here will know what that means!

 

It is probably unfair to compare this weekday Mass to a solemn Mass done to the nines, but hear me out. The Sarum Mass below (I mention the rite so much I ought to do a series on it at some point) represents, I think, a very different approach to the liturgy, one that goes beyond high Mass vs. low Mass. The architecture of the sanctuary, the aesthetics (which even in the Middle Ages were distinct from the secular), the presence of cantors, the restrained use of instruments, and the role of those in attendance as more than spectators all contrast starkly with the vestments, style, and architecture latent in the above video. Moreover the variations in Sarum from the Roman rite, like the kiss of peace between the sacred ministers prior to ascending the altar, indicate a charismatic, spiritually adroit outlook in the celebrants who formed that liturgy.

 

 

Just food for thought.