Liturgical Movement
Encyclopedia
The Liturgical Movement began as a movement of scholarship for the reform of worship
within the Roman Catholic Church
. It has grown over the last century and a half and has affected many other Christian Churches, including the Church of England
and other Churches of the Anglican Communion
, and some Protestant churches. A similar reform in the Church of England and Anglican Communion, known as the Oxford Movement
, began to change theology and liturgy in the United Kingdom and United States in the mid-nineteenth century. The Liturgical Movement has been one of the major influences on the process of the Ecumenical Movement, in favor of reversing the divisions which began at the Reformation
.
The movement has a number of facets. First, it was an attempt to rediscover the worship of the Middle Ages
, which in the 19th century was held to be the ideal form of worship. Second, it became a scholarly exercise in examining the history of worship. Third, it broadened into an examination of the nature of worship as a human activity. Fourth, it became an attempt to renew worship in order that it could be more expressive for worshippers and as an instrument of teaching and mission. Fifth, it has been a movement attempting to bring about reconciliation between the churches on both sides of the Protestant Reformation
.
At the Reformation of the sixteenth century, while the new Protestant Churches abandoned the old Latin Mass
, the Roman Catholic Church reformed and revised it. The split between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches was in part a difference about beliefs regarding the language to be used in the liturgy. A Mass in Latin, some argued, would be something one would primarily see and hear; a vernacular service, one in the language of the worshipper, would be one which the worshipper was supposed to understand and take part in. The revision of the Roman liturgy which followed, and which provided a single use for the whole Western Church, restated in opposition to the Reformers, the sacramental and the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. The Liturgical Movement, which began as a further attempt to restore the liturgy to its ancient principles, resulted in changes that have affected both Roman Catholics and Protestants.
, (1545–1563), which adopted the Tridentine Mass
as the standard for Roman Catholic worship, the Latin Mass remained substantially unchanged for four hundred years.
Meanwhile, the churches of the Reformation (Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, and others) altered their liturgies more or less radically: the language of the people was used at mass. Deliberately distancing themselves from "Roman" practices, these churches became “Churches of the Word” – of Scripture and preaching – breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church's focus on sacraments. The practice of the remembrance of the Last Supper
became more infrequent and was supplemented in many churches by the service of Morning and Evening Prayer. In some Lutheran traditions, the Mass was stripped of some of its character, such as replacing the Canon of the Mass with the Words of Institution ("This is my Body... this is my Blood"). Common practice was to make the service of the day (the ante-communion) into a preaching service.
The first stirrings of interest in liturgical scholarship (and thence liturgical change) within the Roman Catholic Church arose in 1832, when the French Benedictine abbey at Solesmes was refounded under Dom Prosper Guéranger. For a long time, Benedictines were the pioneers in restoring Roman liturgy to its medieval form. At first Guéranger and his contemporaries focused on studying and recovering authentic Gregorian Chant
and the liturgical forms of the Middle Ages
, which were held to be the ideals. Other scholars such as Cabrol and Batiffol
also contributed to the investigation of the origins and history of the liturgy, but practical application of this learning was lacking.
The 19th century saw the increased availability of patristic texts and the discovery of new ones. Jacques Paul Migne
published editions of various early theological texts in two massive compilations: Patrologia Latina
and Patrologia Graeca
. In addition, the Didache
, one of the earliest manuals of Christian morals and practice, was found in 1875 in a library in Constantinople, and the Apostolic Tradition
, attributed to the 3rd-century Roman theologian Hippolytus
, was published in 1900. This latter was a Church Orders
containing the full text of a Eucharistic liturgy; it was to prove highly influential.
Pope Pius X
, elected in 1903, encouraged such reforms. In the same year he issued a motu proprio
on church music, inviting the faithful to participate actively in the liturgy, which he saw as a source for the renewal of Christian spirituality. He called for more frequent communion of the faithful, the young in particular. Subsequently he was concerned with the revision of the Breviary
. Pius's engagement would prove to be the necessary spark.
argued that Christ's sacrifice, beginning from his self-offering at the Last Supper
, completed in the Passion
and continued in the Mass
, were all one act. There was only one immolation – that of Christ at Calvary, to which the Supper looks forward and on which the Mass looks back. Although Taille was not a liturgist, his work created a huge controversy which raised interest in the form and character of the Mass. His argument, whilst not yet congenial to Protestants, removed the objection that each mass was a separate and new 'immolation' of Christ, a repeated and thus efficacious act.
Pastoral considerations played a major part. Such motives lay behind the tone of the papacy of Pius X. In 1909 he called a conference, the Congrès National des Oeuvres Catholiques in Mechelen
in Belgium, which is held to have inaugurated the Liturgical Movement proper in the Catholic Church. Liturgy was to be the means of instructing the people in Christian faith and life; the mass would be translated into the vernacular to promote active participation of the faithful. One of the leading participants in the conference, Dom Lambert Beauduin
of Louvain, argued that worship was the common action of the people of God and not solely performed by the priest. Many of the movement's principles were based in Beauduin's book, La Pieté de l'Eglise.
At almost the same time, in Germany Abbot Ildefons Herwegen of Maria Laach
convened a liturgical conference in Holy Week 1914 for lay people. Herwegen thereafter promoted research which resulted in a series of publications for clergy and lay people during and after World War I
. One of the foremost German scholars was Odo Casel. Having begun by studying the Middle Ages, Casel looked at the origins of Christian liturgy in pagan cultic acts, understanding liturgy as a profound universal human act as well as a religious one. In his Ecclesia Orans (The Praying Church) (1918), Casel studied and interpreted the pagan mysteries of ancient Greece and Rome, discussing similarities and differences between them and the Christian mysteries. The conclusions of Casel were studied in various places, notably at Klosterneuburg
in Austria, where the Augustinian canon Pius Parsch
applied the principles in his church of St. Gertrude, which he took over in 1919. With laymen he worked out the relevance of the Bible to liturgy. Similar experiments were to take place in Leipzig during the Second World War.
In France, in spite of the publication of the Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne de de liturgie, it was only through contact with German and Austrian movements that practical experiments were begun. Most changes occurred after the Second World War. In 1943 the Centre National de Pastorale Liturgique was founded and the magazine La Maison-Dieu began publication.
The idea of liturgy as an inclusive activity, subversive of individualism, while exciting to some, also raised anxieties in Rome. In 1947 Pope Pius XII
issued the encyclical Mediator Dei
which warned of false innovations, radical changes and protestantizing influences in the liturgical movement. At the same time he encouraged the "authentic" liturgical movement, which promoted active participation of the congregation in chant and gestures.
. In 1963, the Council adopted, by an overwhelming majority, the Constitution On Sacred Liturgy "Sacrosantum Concilium". For the first time the vernacular liturgy was permitted, even if to a possibly minor extent to the one actually reached afterwards by national churches; the emphasis in the liturgy was now on anamnesis (memorial character), such as de la Taille had advocated. The influence of Hippolytus
was evident in the form of Eucharistic Prayers. Accompanying this was the encouragement for liturgies to express local culture (subject to approval by the Holy See).
The recovery of the Liturgy of the Hours
(also called the Divine Office), the daily prayer of the Church was just as startling. As liturgical prayer is the prayer of the Church, the Constitution states that "in choir" (common) office prayer is always preferable with respect to individual one.
, the liturgy was revised and replaced with the Book of Common Prayer
. The changes were relatively conservative and did not substantially shift after the sixteenth century. In Victorian England, interest in medieval liturgy had grown through the work of the Oxford Movement
, which drew attention to the church's history and relation to the Roman Catholic Church. The Cambridge Camden Society
(1839–63), originally formed for the study of ecclesiastical art, generated an interest in liturgy that led to the ceremonial revival of the later nineteenth century. The revival brought Anglican scholars into conversation with their Roman colleagues.
By the 20th century, the Church of England
had made quite radical ceremonial and ritual changes, most of them a revival of medieval Christian practice.Tractarians, followers of the Oxford Movement who published religious tract were initially concerned with the relationship of the Church of England to the universal Church. They became interested in liturgy and, in particular, in the practice of Communion. Gradually, dress and ceremonial were altered with adoption of traditional Roman aspects from the Middle Ages, e.g. stoles, chasuble
s, cope
s and biretta
s; the use of candles multiplied, incense was burnt; priests learned to genuflect and bow. Gradually, the Eucharist became more common as the main Sunday Service, often enhanced by using prayers translated from the Missal
. The English Missal
, published first in 1912, was a conflation of the Eucharistic rite in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
and the Latin prayers of the Roman Missal, including the rubrics indicating the posture and manual acts. It was a recognition of practices which had been widespread for many years. The changes were the subject of controversy, opposition, hostility and legal action. Some viewed such liturgical change not as reform, but a retreat to mediaeval models; many bishops and clergy perceived such change as 'popish'.
The attempt to revise the Book of Common Prayer
in 1927 and 1928 was still rooted in the past, owing little to the researches or practices of continental scholars. With the publication in 1935 of Gabriel Hebert
's Liturgy and Society, the debate in England began about the relationship between worship and the world. Hebert, a Kelham Father
, interpreted the liturgy on wider social principles, rejecting, in the process, the idea of the eucharistic fast as being impractical. Its members wished for more frequent communion, not merely attendance at Mass; they wanted to relate the eucharist to the world of ordinary life. Through its influence, the offertory
was restored, though not without protracted controversy. The ideas of the Parish Communion movement
, as it came to be called, were in advance of English Roman Catholic scholars. The liturgy remained officially unaltered until the 1960s, when the synodical process began which was to produce the Alternative Service Book
in 1980 and Common Worship
in 2000.
, for example, has been strongly influenced by the movement in its vesture and ritual. Black gowns have long been replaced by traditional Catholic vestments. The St. Thomas Mass returned the fuller use of ceremonial (the liturgical action, in which movement takes place during the liturgy to express its different parts).
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
, the largest Lutheran body in the United States, has also revived a greater appreciation of the liturgy and its ancient origins. Its clergy and congregations have adopted many traditional liturgical symbols, such as the sign of the cross, incense, and the full chasuble, which have become more common than in years past. While some freedom in style is exercised by individual congregations, the overall style of the aspects of liturgical worship – including vestments, altar adornments, and a general return of many formal practices – has become closer to the styles of the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions.
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod has led in the recovery of Lutheran liturgical practice. Such practices as chanting the psalms and other parts of the service and the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday are relatively common.
In the United States, numerous inter-church organizations classifying themselves as Lutheran bodies exist, due mostly to the waves of immigration
in the late 19th century and early 20th from northern Europe
an and Scandinavia
n countries. Because of the differences in languages and customs, congregations grew along 'national' lines, establishing their own version of the 'church back home' – for example, the Norwegian Lutherans, Danish Lutherans, etc. These early churches used the vernacular language of their native country. As settlers and their descendants adopted the use of English, the need for foreign-language worship and identification with national churches dropped.
In the state churches of the Saxon Electorate and the Thuringian principalities, the excising of the Eucharistic Prayer by Martin Luther
was reversed in the decade after the Second World War. New service books were published.
).
Worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...
within the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. It has grown over the last century and a half and has affected many other Christian Churches, including the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and other Churches of the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
, and some Protestant churches. A similar reform in the Church of England and Anglican Communion, known as the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, began to change theology and liturgy in the United Kingdom and United States in the mid-nineteenth century. The Liturgical Movement has been one of the major influences on the process of the Ecumenical Movement, in favor of reversing the divisions which began at the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
.
The movement has a number of facets. First, it was an attempt to rediscover the worship of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, which in the 19th century was held to be the ideal form of worship. Second, it became a scholarly exercise in examining the history of worship. Third, it broadened into an examination of the nature of worship as a human activity. Fourth, it became an attempt to renew worship in order that it could be more expressive for worshippers and as an instrument of teaching and mission. Fifth, it has been a movement attempting to bring about reconciliation between the churches on both sides of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
.
At the Reformation of the sixteenth century, while the new Protestant Churches abandoned the old Latin Mass
Pre-Tridentine Mass
The term Pre-Tridentine Mass here refers to the variants of the liturgical rite of Mass in Rome before 1570, when, with his bull Quo primum, Pope Pius V made the Roman Missal, as revised by him, obligatory throughout the Latin-Rite or Western Church, except for those places and congregations whose...
, the Roman Catholic Church reformed and revised it. The split between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches was in part a difference about beliefs regarding the language to be used in the liturgy. A Mass in Latin, some argued, would be something one would primarily see and hear; a vernacular service, one in the language of the worshipper, would be one which the worshipper was supposed to understand and take part in. The revision of the Roman liturgy which followed, and which provided a single use for the whole Western Church, restated in opposition to the Reformers, the sacramental and the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. The Liturgical Movement, which began as a further attempt to restore the liturgy to its ancient principles, resulted in changes that have affected both Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Origins
The Catholic Church responded to the breaking away of European Protestants by engaging in its own reform, the so-called Counter Reformation. Following the Council of TrentCouncil of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
, (1545–1563), which adopted the Tridentine Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
as the standard for Roman Catholic worship, the Latin Mass remained substantially unchanged for four hundred years.
Meanwhile, the churches of the Reformation (Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, and others) altered their liturgies more or less radically: the language of the people was used at mass. Deliberately distancing themselves from "Roman" practices, these churches became “Churches of the Word” – of Scripture and preaching – breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church's focus on sacraments. The practice of the remembrance of the Last Supper
Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...
became more infrequent and was supplemented in many churches by the service of Morning and Evening Prayer. In some Lutheran traditions, the Mass was stripped of some of its character, such as replacing the Canon of the Mass with the Words of Institution ("This is my Body... this is my Blood"). Common practice was to make the service of the day (the ante-communion) into a preaching service.
The first stirrings of interest in liturgical scholarship (and thence liturgical change) within the Roman Catholic Church arose in 1832, when the French Benedictine abbey at Solesmes was refounded under Dom Prosper Guéranger. For a long time, Benedictines were the pioneers in restoring Roman liturgy to its medieval form. At first Guéranger and his contemporaries focused on studying and recovering authentic Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
and the liturgical forms of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, which were held to be the ideals. Other scholars such as Cabrol and Batiffol
Pierre Batiffol
Pierre Batiffol was a prominent French catholic priest and Church historian, known particularly as a historian of dogma....
also contributed to the investigation of the origins and history of the liturgy, but practical application of this learning was lacking.
The 19th century saw the increased availability of patristic texts and the discovery of new ones. Jacques Paul Migne
Migné
Migné is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-References:*...
published editions of various early theological texts in two massive compilations: Patrologia Latina
Patrologia Latina
The Patrologia Latina is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865....
and Patrologia Graeca
Patrologia Graeca
The Patrologia Graeca is an edited collection of writings by the Christian Church Fathers and various secular writers, in the ancient Koine or medieval variants of the Greek language. It consists of 161 volumes produced in 1857–1866 by J. P. Migne's Imprimerie Catholique...
. In addition, the Didache
Didache
The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...
, one of the earliest manuals of Christian morals and practice, was found in 1875 in a library in Constantinople, and the Apostolic Tradition
Apostolic Tradition
The Apostolic Tradition is an early Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. It has been described as of "incomparable importance as a source of information about church life and liturgy in the third century".Re-discovered in the 19th century, it was given the name of...
, attributed to the 3rd-century Roman theologian Hippolytus
Hippolytus (writer)
Hippolytus of Rome was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. Photios I of Constantinople describes him in his Bibliotheca Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome,...
, was published in 1900. This latter was a Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders is a genre of early Christian literature, ranging from 1st to 5th century, which has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy and Church organization....
containing the full text of a Eucharistic liturgy; it was to prove highly influential.
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
, elected in 1903, encouraged such reforms. In the same year he issued a motu proprio
Motu proprio
A motu proprio is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him....
on church music, inviting the faithful to participate actively in the liturgy, which he saw as a source for the renewal of Christian spirituality. He called for more frequent communion of the faithful, the young in particular. Subsequently he was concerned with the revision of the Breviary
Breviary
A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...
. Pius's engagement would prove to be the necessary spark.
Development
The movement had a number of elements: Liturgical Scholarship, Pastoral Theology, and Liturgical Renewal. As to the first of these, in his influential book Mysterium Fidei (1921), Maurice de la TailleMaurice de la Taille
Fr. Maurice de la Taille, S.J. was a French priest whose writings influenced the Liturgical Movement. He entered the Jesuit order in 1890 and taught theology at the Catholic University of the West in Angers. From 1916-1918 he was military chaplain to the Canadian army...
argued that Christ's sacrifice, beginning from his self-offering at the Last Supper
Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...
, completed in the Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
and continued in the Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
, were all one act. There was only one immolation – that of Christ at Calvary, to which the Supper looks forward and on which the Mass looks back. Although Taille was not a liturgist, his work created a huge controversy which raised interest in the form and character of the Mass. His argument, whilst not yet congenial to Protestants, removed the objection that each mass was a separate and new 'immolation' of Christ, a repeated and thus efficacious act.
Pastoral considerations played a major part. Such motives lay behind the tone of the papacy of Pius X. In 1909 he called a conference, the Congrès National des Oeuvres Catholiques in Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
in Belgium, which is held to have inaugurated the Liturgical Movement proper in the Catholic Church. Liturgy was to be the means of instructing the people in Christian faith and life; the mass would be translated into the vernacular to promote active participation of the faithful. One of the leading participants in the conference, Dom Lambert Beauduin
Dom Lambert Beauduin
Dom Lambert Beauduin was a Belgian monk who founded the monastery now known as Chevetogne Abbey in 1925.He had previously been a monk of the Benedictine Mont César Abbey in Leuven, and been deeply involved with the liturgical movement in Belgium...
of Louvain, argued that worship was the common action of the people of God and not solely performed by the priest. Many of the movement's principles were based in Beauduin's book, La Pieté de l'Eglise.
At almost the same time, in Germany Abbot Ildefons Herwegen of Maria Laach
Maria Laach Abbey
Maria Laach Abbey is a Benedictine abbey situated on the southwestern shore of the Laacher See , near Andernach, in the Eifel region of the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is a member of the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation...
convened a liturgical conference in Holy Week 1914 for lay people. Herwegen thereafter promoted research which resulted in a series of publications for clergy and lay people during and after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. One of the foremost German scholars was Odo Casel. Having begun by studying the Middle Ages, Casel looked at the origins of Christian liturgy in pagan cultic acts, understanding liturgy as a profound universal human act as well as a religious one. In his Ecclesia Orans (The Praying Church) (1918), Casel studied and interpreted the pagan mysteries of ancient Greece and Rome, discussing similarities and differences between them and the Christian mysteries. The conclusions of Casel were studied in various places, notably at Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg is an attractive small town in Lower Austria, Austria with a population of 24,442.It is located on the Danube, immediately north of Vienna, from which it is separated by the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg hills...
in Austria, where the Augustinian canon Pius Parsch
Pius Parsch
Pius Parsch, born John Bruno Parsch on May 18, 1884 in Neustift near Olmutz, Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He died on March 11, 1954 in Klosterneuburg. He was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He was given the name Pius when he entered the community of Canons Regular in...
applied the principles in his church of St. Gertrude, which he took over in 1919. With laymen he worked out the relevance of the Bible to liturgy. Similar experiments were to take place in Leipzig during the Second World War.
In France, in spite of the publication of the Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne de de liturgie, it was only through contact with German and Austrian movements that practical experiments were begun. Most changes occurred after the Second World War. In 1943 the Centre National de Pastorale Liturgique was founded and the magazine La Maison-Dieu began publication.
The idea of liturgy as an inclusive activity, subversive of individualism, while exciting to some, also raised anxieties in Rome. In 1947 Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
issued the encyclical Mediator Dei
Mediator Dei
Mediator Dei, a papal encyclical was issued by Pope Pius XII in 1947. The encyclical suggests new directions and active participation instead of a merely passive role of the faithful in the liturgy, in liturgical ceremonies and in the life of their parish. The encyclical also emphasizes the...
which warned of false innovations, radical changes and protestantizing influences in the liturgical movement. At the same time he encouraged the "authentic" liturgical movement, which promoted active participation of the congregation in chant and gestures.
The Second Vatican Council
The Latin Tridentine Mass remained the standard eucharistic liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church in the West until the Second Vatican CouncilSecond Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. In 1963, the Council adopted, by an overwhelming majority, the Constitution On Sacred Liturgy "Sacrosantum Concilium". For the first time the vernacular liturgy was permitted, even if to a possibly minor extent to the one actually reached afterwards by national churches; the emphasis in the liturgy was now on anamnesis (memorial character), such as de la Taille had advocated. The influence of Hippolytus
Hippolytus (writer)
Hippolytus of Rome was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. Photios I of Constantinople describes him in his Bibliotheca Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome,...
was evident in the form of Eucharistic Prayers. Accompanying this was the encouragement for liturgies to express local culture (subject to approval by the Holy See).
The recovery of the Liturgy of the Hours
Liturgy of the hours
The Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
(also called the Divine Office), the daily prayer of the Church was just as startling. As liturgical prayer is the prayer of the Church, the Constitution states that "in choir" (common) office prayer is always preferable with respect to individual one.
Anglican Communion
At the time of the English ReformationEnglish Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
, the liturgy was revised and replaced with the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
. The changes were relatively conservative and did not substantially shift after the sixteenth century. In Victorian England, interest in medieval liturgy had grown through the work of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, which drew attention to the church's history and relation to the Roman Catholic Church. The Cambridge Camden Society
Cambridge Camden Society
The Cambridge Camden Society, later known as the Ecclesiological Society from 1845 when it moved to London, was a learned architectural society founded in 1839 by undergraduates at Cambridge University to promote "the study of Gothic Architecture, and of Ecclesiastical Antiques." Its activities...
(1839–63), originally formed for the study of ecclesiastical art, generated an interest in liturgy that led to the ceremonial revival of the later nineteenth century. The revival brought Anglican scholars into conversation with their Roman colleagues.
By the 20th century, the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
had made quite radical ceremonial and ritual changes, most of them a revival of medieval Christian practice.Tractarians, followers of the Oxford Movement who published religious tract were initially concerned with the relationship of the Church of England to the universal Church. They became interested in liturgy and, in particular, in the practice of Communion. Gradually, dress and ceremonial were altered with adoption of traditional Roman aspects from the Middle Ages, e.g. stoles, chasuble
Chasuble
The chasuble is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian Churches that use full vestments, primarily in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, as well as in some parts of the United Methodist Church...
s, cope
Cope
The cope is a liturgical vestment, a very long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour....
s and biretta
Biretta
The biretta is a square cap with three or four peaks or horns, sometimes surmounted by a tuft. Traditionally the three peaked biretta is worn by Roman Catholic clergy and some Anglican and Lutheran clergy. The four peaked biretta is worn as academic dress by those holding a doctoral degree from a...
s; the use of candles multiplied, incense was burnt; priests learned to genuflect and bow. Gradually, the Eucharist became more common as the main Sunday Service, often enhanced by using prayers translated from the Missal
Missal
A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.-History:Before the compilation of such books, several books were used when celebrating Mass...
. The English Missal
English Missal
The English Missal is a translation of the Roman Missal used by some liturgically advanced Anglo-Catholic parish churches. After its publication by W. Knott & Son Limited in 1912, the English Missal was rapidly endorsed by the growing Ritualist movement of Anglo-Catholic clergy, who viewed the...
, published first in 1912, was a conflation of the Eucharistic rite in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
and the Latin prayers of the Roman Missal, including the rubrics indicating the posture and manual acts. It was a recognition of practices which had been widespread for many years. The changes were the subject of controversy, opposition, hostility and legal action. Some viewed such liturgical change not as reform, but a retreat to mediaeval models; many bishops and clergy perceived such change as 'popish'.
The attempt to revise the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
in 1927 and 1928 was still rooted in the past, owing little to the researches or practices of continental scholars. With the publication in 1935 of Gabriel Hebert
Gabriel Hebert
Arthur Gabriel Hebert SSM was a monk from Kelham, Nottinghamshire, and a proponent within Anglicanism of the ideas of the Liturgical Movement. As such he was in familiar contact with Benedictine monasteries in Austria and Germany...
's Liturgy and Society, the debate in England began about the relationship between worship and the world. Hebert, a Kelham Father
Society of the Sacred Mission
The Society of the Sacred Mission is an Anglican religious order founded in 1893 by Father Herbert Kelly, envisaged such that "members of the Society share a common life of prayer and fellowship in a variety of educational, pastoral and community activities in England, Australia, Japan, Lesotho,...
, interpreted the liturgy on wider social principles, rejecting, in the process, the idea of the eucharistic fast as being impractical. Its members wished for more frequent communion, not merely attendance at Mass; they wanted to relate the eucharist to the world of ordinary life. Through its influence, the offertory
Offertory
The Offertory is the portion of a Eucharistic service when bread and wine are brought to the altar. The offertory exists in many liturgical Christian denominations, though the Eucharistic theology varies among celebrations conducted by these denominations....
was restored, though not without protracted controversy. The ideas of the Parish Communion movement
Parish Communion movement
The Parish Communion movement is a movement in the Church of England which aims to make Parish Communion on a Sunday the main act of worship in a parish....
, as it came to be called, were in advance of English Roman Catholic scholars. The liturgy remained officially unaltered until the 1960s, when the synodical process began which was to produce the Alternative Service Book
Alternative Service Book
The Alternative Service Book 1980 was the first complete prayer book produced by the Church of England since 1662. Its name derives from the fact that it was proposed not as a replacement for the Book of Common Prayer but merely as an alternative to it...
in 1980 and Common Worship
Common Worship
Common Worship is the name given to the series of services authorised by the General Synod of the Church of England and launched on the first Sunday of Advent in 2000. It represents the most recent stage of development of the Liturgical Movement within the Church and is the successor to the...
in 2000.
Churches of the Lutheran tradition
Equally dramatic in some places has been the change in some of the Lutheran churches. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of FinlandEvangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is the national church of Finland. The church professes the Lutheran branch of Christianity, and is a member of the Porvoo Communion....
, for example, has been strongly influenced by the movement in its vesture and ritual. Black gowns have long been replaced by traditional Catholic vestments. The St. Thomas Mass returned the fuller use of ceremonial (the liturgical action, in which movement takes place during the liturgy to express its different parts).
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches. As of December 31, 2009, it had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them...
, the largest Lutheran body in the United States, has also revived a greater appreciation of the liturgy and its ancient origins. Its clergy and congregations have adopted many traditional liturgical symbols, such as the sign of the cross, incense, and the full chasuble, which have become more common than in years past. While some freedom in style is exercised by individual congregations, the overall style of the aspects of liturgical worship – including vestments, altar adornments, and a general return of many formal practices – has become closer to the styles of the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions.
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod has led in the recovery of Lutheran liturgical practice. Such practices as chanting the psalms and other parts of the service and the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday are relatively common.
In the United States, numerous inter-church organizations classifying themselves as Lutheran bodies exist, due mostly to the waves of immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
in the late 19th century and early 20th from northern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n countries. Because of the differences in languages and customs, congregations grew along 'national' lines, establishing their own version of the 'church back home' – for example, the Norwegian Lutherans, Danish Lutherans, etc. These early churches used the vernacular language of their native country. As settlers and their descendants adopted the use of English, the need for foreign-language worship and identification with national churches dropped.
In the state churches of the Saxon Electorate and the Thuringian principalities, the excising of the Eucharistic Prayer by Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
was reversed in the decade after the Second World War. New service books were published.
Influence and criticisms
The influence of the Roman shape of the liturgy has been considerable among most liturgical churches of the west, including the whole of the Anglican communion, the Methodist Church in England and including less formally liturgical churches such as the United Methodist Church of the United States. On the other hand, there has been various criticisms, mostly from within the Roman Catholic Church, at the loss of mystery and the reduction in the sacrificial element of the Mass (see Mass of Paul VIMass of Paul VI
The Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council...
).
See also
- Romano GuardiniRomano GuardiniRomano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century.- Life and work:...
- Alexander SchmemannAlexander SchmemannAlexander Schmemann was a prominent 20th century Orthodox Christian priest, teacher, and writer.-Early life:...
- Friedrich HeilerFriedrich HeilerFriedrich Heiler was a German theologian and historian of religion.Heiler came from a Roman Catholic family...
- Hermann SasseHermann SasseHermann Otto Erich ctonSasse was a Lutheran theologian and author. He was considered one of the foremost confessional Lutheran theologians of the 20th century....
- Gunnar RosendalGunnar RosendalGunnar Rosendal was a Swedish Lutheran priest, Doctor of Theology, and parish priest of Osby...
- Gregory DixGregory DixGeorge Eglinton Alston Dix was an English monk and priest of Nashdom Abbey, an Anglican Benedictine community. He was a noted liturgical scholar whose work had particular influence on the reform of Anglican liturgy in the mid-20th century.-Life:Dix was born in Woolwich...
- Annibale BugniniAnnibale BugniniAnnibale Bugnini, C.M. was a Roman Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1936 and named archbishop in 1972, he was secretary of the commission that worked on the reform of the Catholic liturgy that followed the Second Vatican Council....
- Marion J. HatchettMarion J. HatchettMarion Josiah Hatchett was an Episcopal priest, scholar, and one of the primary liturgists who shaped 1979 Book of Common Prayer.Born in Monroe, South Carolina, Hatchett was the son of a United Methodist minister. In December 1946 he was confirmed as an Episcopalian while a student at Wofford...
- Gabriel HebertGabriel HebertArthur Gabriel Hebert SSM was a monk from Kelham, Nottinghamshire, and a proponent within Anglicanism of the ideas of the Liturgical Movement. As such he was in familiar contact with Benedictine monasteries in Austria and Germany...
- Max ThurianMax ThurianBrother Max Thurian was the subprior of the Taizé community, an ecumenical monastic community in France. He was the subprior at Taizé since its inception in the 1940s. During the Second Vatican Council, he was invited by Pope Paul VI to participate in the liturgical reform of the Catholic Mass...
- Clarence Rivers
- Lex orandi, lex credendiLex orandi, lex credendiLex orandi, lex credendi refers to the relationship between worship and belief, and is an ancient Christian principle which provided a measure for developing the ancient Christian creeds, the canon of scripture and other doctrinal matters based on the prayer texts of the Church, that is, the...
- Sacrosanctum ConciliumSacrosanctum ConciliumSacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963...
- Berneuchen MovementBerneuchen MovementBerneuchen Movement is part of the Lutheran Liturgical movement in Germany. It originates from German Youth Movement.The movement was born in 1920s, after the radical changes caused by World War I...
- Kirchliche Arbeit AlpirsbachKirchliche Arbeit AlpirsbachKirchliche Arbeit Alpirsbach is one of the organisations of the protestant Liturgical Movement in Germany and was previously called Alpirsbach Circle. Its center is Alpirsbach Abbey located near Freudenstadt in the Black Forest. Kirchliche Arbeit Alpirsbach has been influenced by theology of Karl...
- Evangelical Catholic
- Convergence MovementConvergence MovementThe Convergence Movement refers to a move among evangelical and charismatic churches in the United States to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical sources. The Movement was inspired by the spiritual pilgrimages of modern Evangelical writers...
- Reynold Henry HillenbrandReynold Henry HillenbrandReynold Henry Hillenbrand was a seminal American Roman Catholic Church leader in the Liturgical Movement, Chicago priest and seminary rector,...
- Virgil Michael
- Louis BouyerLouis BouyerLouis Bouyer was a French Lutheran minister who converted to Catholicism in 1939. During his religious career he was a scholar who was relied upon during the Second Vatican Council....