Several articles (and an upcoming book) on the liturgical reform

[Brennan_Doherty]

In another thread someone mentioned the book “Ever Directed Towards the Lord” which was a conference on the liturgy at Oxford.

amazon.com/Ever-Directed-Towards-Lord-Eucharist/dp/0567031330/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217901681&sr=1-9

Dom Alcuin Reid notes in his review:

“The research of the American, Dr Lauren Pristas has not been noted by many. But liturgists world-wide shall soon have to take account of her incisive and painstaking work. For she is preparing a book Collects of the Roman Missal: A Study in Liturgical Reform in which she examines the ideologically inspired theological evacuation that took place in the reform of the prayers proper to each day in the liturgical year. At Oxford Pristas presented a paper on the reform of the prayers for Lent. In the work of the 1960’s reformers she identifies, amongst other things, a distinct aversion to that staple of Lent, fasting, and concludes: “The revised Lenten collects that neither expect, nor insistently invite, us to fast have done us a distinct disservice.” Such conclusions look behind the (commendable) work of ICEL to give us an accurate translation of the Latin prayers of the new missal and insist that we look again at the quality of the Latin original of the reformed prayers themselves.”

Apparently her book is not quite out yet, but if anyone would like to get a taste of her work I just came across her faculty page which looks like it has several interesting articles:

faculty.caldwell.edu/lpristas/

God bless.

 

[cathguy]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this.

 

[Brennan_Doherty]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this.

You’re welcome. I started reading the first article, “The Orations of the Vatican II Missal: Policies for Revision”

communio-icr.com/articles/PDF/pristas30-4.pdf

It’s really interesting because she included a translation from the French of the person who was on the commission and wrote about the principles they used during the revision. Quite interesting.

 

[cathguy]

You’re welcome. I started reading the first article, “The Orations of the Vatican II Missal: Policies for Revision”

communio-icr.com/articles/PDF/pristas30-4.pdf

It’s really interesting because she included a translation from the French of the person who was on the commission and wrote about the principles they used during the revision. Quite interesting.

Since reading your post I skipped to Dr. Pristas’ essay in “Ever Directed Towards the Lord” and read her article on “The Post Vatican II Revision of the Lenten Collects.”

First the obvious: Pristas is a powerhouse of a theologian. The reading is dense. Even though, as Pristas points out in her introduction, the essay is just “a shorter version of an unpublished chapter that [she] summarized for the conference presentation” there is so much detail in the analysis that it would be impossible to do justice to here. I can only say people NEED to read this somehow!!

She begins with a history of Lenten observance which is as stunning as it is brief. I tried to read through all the footnotes but was so captivated by what was unfolding I just gave up. I checked and you need permission of the publisher to excerpt, so I won’t quote her here.

After discussing the history of Lent she gives some context on the history of the Council and the process for the revisions.

She then moves on to an exhaustive comparison of the collects. (The article I read only does a few… the full chapter does them all)

Many of the collects in use in the 1962 missal were in use from the 8th CENTURY. We are talking nearly 1300 YEARS of continuous and uninterrupted use by the Church. They had enjoyed organic development up until that time.

With the Council, the decision was made to rewrite. (That is the definition of blithely changing things in my book!)

The new Collects do NOT reflect a traditional Lenten spirituality as well as the old. The scholarship here is exhaustive.

Wow… wow… and more wow.

When her book comes out, everyone should get it. It will be dense, but the reading will be most illuminating.

Already my wife and I have talked and we will be revising our Lenten practice this season. No more going out for fish every friday and calling it a sacrifice. Traditional Lenten asceticism calls for MUCH more than this.

It can be argued that the new liturgy, specifically the new collects, fails to give the necessary structure to the faithful in encouraging them to a deeply faithful Lenten sacrifice.

Great read!