First Sunday of Advent
29 November 2003
Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
Catholics at least forty years old remember when the entire sacred liturgy was celebrated in Latin. From the third Christian century, Latin (which was then the common tongue of the empire) was the language of prayer in the Western Church, and this remained true for Catholics until the late 1960’s. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) authorized a massive renewal of the Church’s liturgical texts and made significant adaptations of ancient ways of praying, including permitting the use of languages other than Latin. But while the Council decided to permit the use of modern languages in the sacred liturgy, it was never the intent of the Council Fathers to abandon or prohibit the use of Latin. Quite the contrary.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (_Sacrosactum Concilium_) of the Second Vatican Council, which authorized the use of the various modern languages in the sacred liturgy, also contains this instruction: "steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them" (No. 54). The Council Fathers also taught this: "The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy; therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services" (No. 116). In other words, Catholic congregations all over the world should be able to say or sing in Latin those parts of the Mass in which the lay faithful are invited to join, and the plainchant of the Roman Church is the preferred musical setting for these texts.
During the years of my service here, I have gradually begun to implement these teachings of the Second Vatican Council by assisting the congregation to sing several liturgical texts in Latin using Gregorian chant. In fidelity to the liturgical renewal of the Council, we will continue this gradual process until the congregation is able to sing all of its parts in both Latin and English. Beginning this First Sunday of Advent, we return to singing the Sanctus in Latin (a simple melody at 5 pm and 9 am; a more complex composition at 11 am), and in the months ahead we will add other texts one at a time. In this way we will learn to pray in the Church’s ancient language and to join our voices to those of Christians from every culture, race, nation, and tongue.
Father Newman