The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-07-22

i
| (Written for The Catholic Bulletin by
| Rev. William Busch, st. Paul
| Seminary
| "Laudate, pueri, Dominum, Iaudate
nomen Domini.
| Praise the Lord, ye children, praise
We the name of the Lord"
| psalm 112)
| Two summers ago, in June of 1920,
| attended the Gregorian Congress in
New York, when some three thousand
parochial school children were gath
| cred in st. Patrick's Cathedral on
three successive days to sing the Mass
with one voice in the old Gregorian
| chant. 1t was the first great public
expression of the grand idea of the
| Rev. DR.. Shields and of Mrs Justine
B. Ward-the advancement of the
| program of Pope Plus X-the restora-
| tion of the liturgical chant through
| little children. 1t was a thrilling and
inspiring example of the supreme act
of divine worship, the great drama of
| the Mass, properly rendered "ex ore
infantium"
1t seemed to me the beginning of the
realization of an almost extravagant
| hope; it seemed something so full of
promise that when | looked for a
| phrase to express what it meant to
me, | found it in a breviary lesson
which l read on one of the days of
| the congress: "And the Lord said
to Samuel Ito the child Samuel), Be
hold do thing in Israel and who
| soever shall hear it both his ears shall
ring"
| There may have been present some
who had ears and did not hear, but
as for me, the significance of the Chill,
| dren's Mass at the Gregorian Congress
in New York in 1920 has not ceased
to ring in my ears. The wonderful
work of DR.. Shields and Mrs. Ward
goes on IN the schools throughout the
country, and every now and then we
shall hear more and more public ex-
preston of it, until at length the
| Mass will again be the great drama of
| divine worship in which the body Of
| the faithful will take due part.
Congress in ST. Paul.
| We in st. Paul have recently been
favored in this year of 1922, on the
occasion of our educational congress
on June 10 and II, with such an ex-
ample of what the Ward musical pro-
gram means in the restoration of the
liturgy. Some thousand of our pa
rochial school children were gathered
at the pontifcal Mass celebrated by
| our Archbishop in the Chapel of the
College of st. Thomas. The Mass
was sung in the old liturgical, com
| munity way-by the Archbishop and
his assistant ministers and by all the
children, with a few seminarians to
chant the more difficult proper
parts. The number of those present
who were there ito hear the music
| was reduced to a minimum. There
was, one may say, no audience" All
were there to take part, real organic
part, in the great corporate act of
prayer which the Mass is.
The Mass is not a private prayer;
it is the great public prayer of Christ
and His Church And therefore it is
properly high Mass and not low Mass.
For long years in the history of the
Church low Mass was rare; and when
it became more frequent it was still
the exception; the high Mass remains
always the ordinary and proper form
for the celebration of the great prayer
of Christ and His Church.
High and Low Mass.
| Pastors still remind their people
that the Sunday high Mass is 'the par
ish Mass" But for various reasons
and in larger city parishes especially
people unfortunately are coming to
regard the low Mass as quite equiva
lent to the high Mass. Whether be
cause they wish to give less of theil
time or because modern high Mass
music does not impress them, they
crowd to the low Masses and leave
the high Mass poorly attended In
stead of regarding the low Mass as ar
unfortunate abbreviation of the higf
Mass, they regard the high Mas.
as the low Mass with the ad
dition of some music which means lit
tie to them and very little beyond
music. And the low Mass comes tt
be regarded mere and more as some
thing that the priest does at the ALTA
while the people engage in privat,
prayer as they wish, sometimes say
ing the Rosary, sometimes readin,
| from book prayers which may b,
? or may not be related to the Mass
Now all this means an increasin;
ignorance Of the liturgy, that is, of tn,
official, corporate prayer of tn,
Church, our great Christian faflil,
, prayer in which we being many ar,
made one in Christ.
Fl MissaI for the Laity.
X But there are signs Of new growtl
in the midst of decay, signs of desir
on the part of an ever increasing
! number to know the Mass more init
mately and to take closer part in il
One of these signs is the growing mum
: Der of those who use the MissaI a
} Il Mass. They have discovered that th
best prayer book for the Mass is tn