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Liturgy

c is t e r c ia ns

o f

t he

s t r ic t

o bs e r v a nc e

fOL.7 N0.3

NOVEMBER 1973

Ge;tb:: rr1an iAbbe(1J

Libvza

L I T U R G YVol ume 7, Number 3 / November 1973

EDITOR Is PAGE1

TOWARDS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF RITUAL ...OR RITUALISM3Grard DUBOISHUMILITY AND THE SACRAMENTS OF FAITH IN WILLIAM OF SAINT-

THIERRY IsSPECU LUM FI DEI1 7

Chrysogonus WADDELLGROUP MASSES IN A MONASTERY25

Vi ncent LESCANNE

FRANCOPHONE REGION IN EUROPE AND CANADA:

THE CELEBRATION OF VIGILS DURING THE PASCHAL TRIDUUM

THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY33

Edmond FRANDIN

A LOCAL AMERICAN PROJECT FOR

THE CELEBRATION OF VIGILS DURING THE PASCHAL TRIDUUM

AT GETHSEMANI ABBEY45

Chrysogonus WADDELL

A HOMILY BY FATHER JEAN LECLERCQ:

ORTHODOX-CISTERCI AN SYMPOSIUM, OXFORD, AUGUST 27, 197361

Jean LECLERCQ

SIGN AND SYMBOL: THOUGHTS ABOUT COMMUNION AND COMMUNICATION67

Thomas IMHOFF

THE EXERCISE OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN THINGS LITURGICAL85

Mari e GOUJOT

LITURGY Bulletin serves to share with others whatever thoughts and experiences may contribute towards the development of a living lit urgy for today.

Manuscripts should be forwarded to: Fr Chrysogonus

Gethsemani Abbey

Trappist, Kentucky 40073 (U.S.A.)

1

E D ITO R Is PAGE

In the last issue of Liturgy I made a rather rash promise.The President of our Order'sLiturgy Commission, Fr. Gerard Dubois, had drawn up a progress report, giving a brief run down of our attempts to comply withthe letter of July 8, 1971, sent by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship to the three branches of the Benedictine family, and asking them to come to some sort of agreement as regards the basic ele ments of a monastic Liturgy of the Hours, A working commission had been organized, and much blood, sweat and tears had been expended on drafting such a project with a view to further discussion by the Superiors of the

Benedictine Confederation, who were to meet in Rome 5 at Sant' Anselmo, in mid-September of this year.The key document in the dossier was a two

page series of General Princi-ples or "Praenotanda", giving the basic prin ciples for the celebration of the Divine Office, but ensuring much the

same sort of flexibility made possible for us by our present "loi-cadre" legislation.I twice intruded into Fr. Glrard's reportthe remark that the latest version of this Praenotanda-draf t would be published "in the next issue of Liturgy" (p.8 and p.13 of the July, 1973 issue).

In point of fact, there is now little point to publishing in these pages the latest version of the Praenotanda, since the situation has radi cally changed, and the draft referred to is of putely historical interest. How so?Because at the Benedictine Congresso, the Superiors of the Bene dictine Confederation voted overwhelmingly in favor of an entirely new document which would ensure -- if approved by the Holy Seethe same degree of flexibility in things liturgical which now obtains, thanks to

the broad provisions of the "loi-cadre '. The vote in favor of the new document-a Declaratio de Liturgia HoraY'WTI iu::cta Ritum Monastieum - was approved by an overwhelming 190 in favor, as opposed to only 23 not in favor, with a single abstention. This is all the more remarkable in

view of the fact that the Abbot Primate had read to the Congresso a letter received from the Prefectof the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, stating -to quote one of my three informants -"that we had to have a

2

('.)conunon breviary-1

In a letter from one of the Abbot Primate's secretaries,

I was told that the abbots ejected by a good two-thirds any imposition of a uniform breviary, but (they) agreed that -for those houses that might need it. they would work out a sample breviary. " The same "man on the spot" went on to write that "Neither Cult nor Religious seemed too happy with this decision (I rather think they were badly informed as to the mood of the abbots) and so we went directly to the Pope." Personally, I hope

to receive further light on this score, since our Procurator General, Fa ther Vincent Hermans, wrote to Father Gerard and myself that it was the Abbot Primate himself who spoke at great length withMgr. Bugnini (S.C. for Divine Worship) and Mgr. Mayer(S.C. for Religious), and later to Cardinal Villot (Secretary of State), who promised to speak about it with the Holy Father. At the moment of writing, the only thing I know about the Holy Father'sattitude as regards the new development is that, when speak

ing to the Benedictine abbots, he said only that "the problem of the liturgy is difficult" , and that "it will be seriously studied" .

With everything still up in the air, it would be misleading were I to try to give any kind of a clear picture of what the present situation really

is. In fact, my three principal informants differ a bit as to concrete details,

althoughallthree are religious who attended the Congresso, and who are closely connected with the principal figures involved.However, were I to have to summarize in a single sentence the pertinent facts as of this moment, it would read something like this:

The Holy See has asked the three branches of the Benedictine family to come up with either a common breviary or with something tending in that direction; but the Benedictine Superiors have re pliedin effect that they can 't implement this request with out failing in their pastoral responsibility to their communities.

Is this disobedience? disrespect? Of course not!We' re simply witness ing an excellent concrete exemplification of what Saint Benedict is talking about in his chapter 68: "If a Brother Be Commanded to Do Impossible Things" . The Holy See has asked of us something which the Benedictine Superiors as a whole think might well be ultimately harmful . These Benedictines are currently "explaining tlle reasons(for this persuasion) calmly and in due season, with out pride, obstinacy, or contentiousness ." What the final outcome will be,

I don 't know -except that, no matter what it is, it will be our own fault

if we fail in that love and faith and ecclesial sense which alone will en- sure for us Christ present and acting in our living, monastic liturgy.

---

6 ./J/l . ('//V/ Stf

TOWARDS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF

RITUAL

OR RITUALISM

Let's begin with a sto:ry. It's taken fran Haner's The Odyssey; and it's abcut the welcare given by Nestor and his family to Telefuiakhos and his canpanions.

Polykaste, a fair girl, Nestor's youngest, had meanwhile given a bath to Telenakhos -

bathing him first, then rubbing him with oil.

She held fine clothes and a cloak to put around him when he had c::are goo.like from the bathing place; then out he went to take his place with Nestor.

When the best cuts were broiled and off the spits, they all sat dONn to banquet. Gentle squires

kept eve:ry golden wine cup brirrming full.

And so they feasted to their heart's content

Book III, 435-444 (tr. R. Fitzgerald)

The wela:roe given Telanakhos takes on the fonn of an i n i t i a -

t i o n. In point of fact, so long as a traveller, an exile, a shi?l!-"ecked person entering upon foreign territo:ry hadn't received these rites fran sare citizen of the c:ount:ry, he wasn't safe, and fell outside the protec tion of the law. As we've seen in Haner's account (and see also Book N,

48 and Book X, 463), these rites included a bath and an anointing with oil, the clothing of the guest, and a neal . For a long time this was the camon practice in most civilizations. (In the Jewish milieu at the time of Christ: Jesus carplained that S.irron the Pharisee had neither washed his feet nor anointed his head with oil; the then current rites of hospitality

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for citizens of the sane a:>untry were based en the rites of "initiaticn" .)

And in the case of saneane's being introduced into the ecclesial c:x::mrunity, what was the rite of welcome? A bath , an anointing with oil, the reception of a white gru:ment, and a meal:baptism, conf innaticn,

and the Eucharist.For us men of the 20th centw:y , these actions aren 't particularly "natural" ; but in the timeof the early Church , these ritu al acts were taken f or granted.Christ didn 't adopt as signs of his work of grace actions or gestures which were out of the ordinary, foreign to daily lif e;he assumedo u rvery hunan actions and gestures, but in vested than with a new meaning, an absolutely new point of reference - the Paschal Mystery.The Church isn 't just a simple hunan association ,

a club, a family;it 's the Bcx1y of Christ. And to becane a nenber of the Church means to be inoorporated into the Body . 'of Christ by means of his death and resurrection;and it 's precisely this death and this resurrection Which are operative in the sacramental actions.These actions and gestures, hc:Mever , are in the f irst instance human actions and gestures.Just as it 's my sacrifice which is transubstantiated into the Sacrif ice of Christ, and just as it 's my prayer which is taken up by him and transfonred into his prayer, so also it 's our expression of the rite of hospitality which is taken up and transfomed so as to becare the ritual expression of our inoor

poration into Christ.This is true, each in its CMI1 way , in the case of

the other sacranents, and in the case of all the sacramentals and other rites of the Church.The root syrrbolism of the hunan action remains, but it takes on a radically new meaning.But this new meaning is invested in a reality which is already part and parcel of our life: a new quality of our life, and not sanething apart f ran our life.We have to avoid, an the one hand , the reduction of the sacranental action to a purely human dimension, and, on

the other hand, the separaticn into two closed canpartrcents of our life as human beings and the salvation given us in Christ.Grace isn 't sanething tacked on, a sort of "sea:md storey" of our house, without direct access

from the f irst f loor;rather, grace means achange in the quality of our human life; sanething which aff ects and transforms our very life, by making it transcend itself , and, in this sense, rise above itsel.

All this we already knCM; but it's good to emphasize the point since, in actual practice, our ordinary daily rites of hospitality no longer oonsist in oiir giving guests a bath andanointing than; and it's no longer in the oontext of an ordinary neal that bread and wine becorre signs of the Body and Blood of Christ. Under one aspect, this distinction between two types or series of actions or gestures -our human actions as opposed to sacred rites -is legitimate and satisfy ing (I'm not at all a partisan of having the Eucharist celebrated in the oontext of a carmmity meal ) But, under a different aspect, this distinction entails the risk of introducing a "rupture" between

life and rite.The unfortunate oonsequence would be, on the one hand, the absence of a spiritual di.nension to our ordinary life (which would no longer be directly affected by the Myste:ry of salvation); and, on the other hand, the absence or lack of a vital resonance, the "vacuity" or lack of contact between ritual actions and our senses. {And ho.v many Christians there are, for whan the Mass has becx:me a penswn, a burden sare duty, sarething done fran a sense of duty, but which no longer has

a real inpact on life! For such as these, the Mass has becorre pure "rite"; it's no longer that sacrament which, starting fran the objective reality

of a sbnple human fella.vship or brotherhood makes us pass through the Pasch of Orrist into full a:mnunion with God; for such people, the Mass

is no longer that which gives meaning and finality to human existence; it's

no longer the "feast")

Though, in spite of the evident risk involved, it might well be a good thing that the major sacramants instituted by Christ have developed along the lines of ritual acts of worship distinct fran the actions of eve:ryday life {this expresses the dirrension of the "otherness" of the sa cred), it doesn 't necessarily follCM that the various "sacramentals" also ought to acquire a certain autonCJT\Y relative to the actions which they're neant to "sanctify".Were they to do so, the result would be an exagger ated ritualism; and there's really no reason why the sacramantals ought not to be more bound up with the hunan actions to which they refer.The sacranents are actions instituted by Christ, and we can't modify the basic

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human action: the bath, the anointing, etc. ; but in the case of the sacra mentals, this is not true, because in this area the Church has f ull liber ty. It 's useless, for instance, to ritualize an action which no longer is in current use, or which no longer has any meaning in man 's real lif e.

On the contrary, however, it might be good to 11celebrate11 this or that happening or action 'Which is now part of our experience, even if this has n 't been done in past centuries.

let ' s take an example.our Cistercian RituaZe makes provisions for

a particular cererony on the occasion of the Father Irnmediate 's first visit to his daughter house.This is normal , because this visit is a real event, a "happening" with a real meaning; rnoreover , this visit is directly geared tofurther our progress in the spiritual life.However , 'What 's actually relebrated, ritualized, is the welcx::rne itself -a welcx::rne reserved to the Father Irrmediate.His caning, his arrival is what 's celebrated, and not

in a purely human manner , but in its specif ically Christian dimension.

It onre happened (a long time ago!) that in one rnonaste:ry , the Father Im

nediate arrived sooner than expected, and there was no one to meet him. Since it was time for Vespers , he cane to dloir , and then took the evening neal with the a:mnunity; he even spoke that evening in chapter.But the

next day, af ter Terce, the crmrunity gathered on the church steps , the Fa ther IlmEdiate made his grand entrance fran the guest house , and the 11litur gical rereption" then took plare.What was the human act which was thus being celebrated?In point of fact, the real welcx::rne had already taken plare.Af ter Terce, the cx:mrro.mity was no longer in the "welcaning mood"

as would have been the case had the Father Irornediater e a 1 1yarrived

at that time.The liturgical action no longer had thes u p p o r tof the human action.It had becnrre pure rite(if not pure canedy) carried out in the name of fidelity to a rule.It was no longer the sanctif ication or relebration through prayer of a human action.This sort of thing leads straight to ritualism.

Along these lines, it 's a shame, for instanre ( -though, what can 'We do about it?) , that the abbatial blessing doesn 't coincide with the canonical installation of the abbot elect.

All the above represents a f irst series of remarks which might be made with regard to ritual: be especially caref ul to preserve the link between rite and lif e. What has to be sanctif ied is a r e a 1 h u- m a n s i t u a t i o n; and this real hunan situation takes on a new

meaning in the context of the .Myste:ry of Olrist. This is why the particu lar hunan situation is celebrated under a special aspect and in a particu lar way (ritual} ; but this ritual aspect must never be separated f rom,

or rendered autonooous relative to thesituation actually experienced; othe:rwise, this will lead to a false distinction between the sacred and the prof ane.Concrete solutions are doubtless not easy to find; but it 's in this general direction that we ought to proceed . (We'll take a look at a precise exarrple -the reception of the hflbit - later in this article.}

+

A second series of remarks:

The reality which is thus sanctif ied, which takes on a new meaning because of the Mystery of Christ, and which can consequently be celebrated

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in a liturgical manner,is ah u m a n

t h i n g.

s i t u a t i o nand not a

Of course, things are used -bread, wine, water , oil, vestzrents. But these are used as materials \\'hi.di are part of an action: a meal, a bath , an anointing. . , an action which is at the same time (if we re-

call what I said above in the f irst part of these notes} ah u m a nsitu ation with its CMn specif ic and proper density. (For instance, a meal is

not just any sort of thing, and there are all sorts of meals:which is the

specif ic type of meal which is experienced in this particular liturgical ac tion?}There are sane things which can even beca:ne transf ormed as a re

sult of the way in which they are used; and this is the case in the instance of the eucharistic breadand wine.However , this is the only instance;

and even here, this transfonnation is ef fected with a view towards sane thing else -our ccmrrunion with Orrist.(In scholastic language, one would

say that the real presence is the res et signum; res: this means the spiri tual reality , the intimate fruit of a certain action , the "result" of the consecration; but it 's also a signum, that is to say , a means destined to produce yet another spiritual reality, another specif ic result; it 's not

simply an end only, res tantum.}

I know vey well that there are also a great many blessings of ob jects in the Rituale : we ronsecrate chalices; we bless religious habits, candles, even houses,autos,airplanes, and all sorts of things 1 !1 But precisely these blessings saretimes raise serious problems , and are not without their risk:

either because of superstition or fetidlism, whidl are to be f mmdver:ypresent in certain strata of the population in sane regions , where there 's a need felt f or magic fonnulas, talismans , amulets.

(We sprinkle holy water in order to ward off the devil; we have a Saint Olristopher medal in our car: in itself , this is f ine; it 's similar to derorating our n:xxns with picfures of the saints or ikons.But if

this is thought of rather as a good luck chann to supply for our careless driving or our lack of knowled:Je of driving regulations . ! ! )

or f olklore, which no longer has anything about it specif ically Christian.

In France, a f ew years ago, there were sane priests who had parishes in ship-building tCMns, and who asked themselves questions about the "christening" of ships and boats Launching a ship provides the oc casion f or the traditional cerem::>ny involving both religious and civil authorities.The "sponsor" (i.e., the godf ather or godrrother) dashes a l:x>ttle of champagne against the prav of the ship, while the priest sprin kles it with holy water.Just what is the meaning , the Christian meaning ,

of a cerenony such as this , and of the accanpanying blessing?At Dunke:r:que , one of these priests said, backin 1968:

The blessing of a ship isn 't a means of winning God 's might and power during storms at sea, but rather the of fering made

by a team of workmen , and a prayer of fered God so that the ship might f ulf ill its mission of ef fecting a f raternal link between oontinent and continent.

Note that the point of reference here is not things, but men. God 's blessing is directed t.CMards men; and another one of these priests had

this to add:

God deesn 't bless just anyone , or anything, or at just anyti.rre, or in any manner. God gives his blessing to those who are tcy ing to bring their life into hanrony with his will, with his

Gospel or their a:mscience. If this ship is used in the serv ice of men , and not just in the seJ:Vice of making a profit, then God will bless those who tum to lllin

-Informations CathoZiques InternationaZes n 308/15 mars 1968,

p.15.

So the ref erence is to human situationsrather than to things.

And isn 't this what the Constitution on the Liturgy has to say in n 60?

The "sacramentals" are sacred signs which bear a resenblance to the sacraments;they signify ef f ects, particularly of a spiritual kind, which are obtained through the Churdl's in tercession.By themm e nare disposed to receive the

drief eff ect of the sacraments,and variouso c c a s i o n s i n1 i f eare rendered holy.

Nothing is said aboutt h i n g s.N 61 does make an allusion to things, but only to mantion their beingu s e d:

Thus, for well-disposed rrerrbers of the f aithf ul, the litur gy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctif ies alnost ev- e:ryevent in their lives There is hardly any prop-

er use of material things whidl cannot thus be directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God .

This is the spirit in which we ought to envisage the various bless ings of objects.MJreover, the Council reCXJg11izes the fact that a re fonn of our current practice is called for:

With the passage of time, there have crept into the rites of the sacraments and sacramentals certain features which have rendered their nature and purpose less clear to the people of today;and hence to that extent the need arises to adjust

certain aspects of these rites to the requirerrents of our tilres.

-Ibid., n 62 .

(Towards a Better Understanding of Ritual...or Ritualism) (9)

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let's apply the above to our rites of m:mastic initiation.

1- Just what is thes i t u a t i o ninvolved in the rites of m::mastic initiation?The situation is this: we welc:x:roo into the cxmnuni ty anew nerber, who is a novice.This is the principal element of

the cereroony.The chief thing isn 't the blessincJ of the habit.This wela::me can be expressed, of course, in various actions; and one of these actions can be that of clothing the novice in the habit wom by the camrunity (rerrenber the wela:ma given TelSnakhos , described at the begi.rming of this article )But note that , even in this instance, what wee x p r e s sby givi.ng the habit as a gesture of welcxxne de rives , not f:ram the f act that it 's a "sacred" habit , but that it 's the habit wom by the a::mnunity. (The cx:mnunity , of course, is a cxmnunity consecrated to God; but this isn 't the primary neaning of the giving

of the habit.Besides, the habit given the novice isn 't the CXJWl, but

the usual habit.)

In this sense, a rite centered on the blessing and giving of the "religious" habit risks focussing too nuich attention on an cbject, to the detrinent of the real situation, which is the celebration of a wel

cone.(The very text of the prayer found in our Rituale of 1689 made no allusionto the novice 's entry into the ccmnunity , but only to the symbolism of the habit; the symbolism didn 't even refer to a change in

one 's life, but rather to the breastplate which protects against the at tacks of the enemv , the mantle which presees one f ran bad weather, the covering which hides sin, the nuptial robe whidl enables one to enter into the Kingdan -as if the novice couldn 't be saved unless he perse veres) Besides, even in the case in which the change of clothing would express the aspirant 's itegratian into the ccmnunity, there 's no need that this take place right in chapter.It 's no longer the practice to take off clothes and put them an in public . . . It 's much nore in keep ing with the situation as really experienced to make this rite a cele bration of welcx::me.

This is the perspective in whidl the Order 's Liturgy Ccmnission prepared its project , which was approved by the General Chapter of 1971. The rite includes neither the blessing nor the giving of the habit in

chapter. The rite is carried out with a maximum of liberty, according to the local situation. The type proposed by the Liturgy carmission is ccnprised of a reading of a passage from the Holy Rule, the postulant's request to be received, the exhortation by the Abbot, and his acceptance of the postulant as novice, a prayer, and sore kind of chant or song.

There's nothing against lengthening the cererrony by a nore spontaneous sort of expression of good wishes -for instance, in the novitiate, when the novice returns after having dlanged into the novices' habit.

In doing as described above, we're simply returning to our tradition current in the Middle Ages.

It's quite clear that, up to the time of the Middle Ages, having one's hair shorn (the tonsure) and the change of habit took place only at one's p r o f e s s i o n (for the habit, see what Saint Benedict

has to say in his chapter on the'reception of brethren into the a::rrmunity;

in the West, this tradition was codified in 816, at the Synod of Aix-la Chapelle). In the Middle Ages, Citeaux maintained the tonsure in the a:m text of profession; so also, the clothing with the cu.vl took place only after the actual profession. The novices, hc:wever, apparently word ordi nacy clothes similar to those worn by the brethren of the cxmnunity.This habit wasn't blessed, and it was put on in the wardrcbe roan after the chapter roan cererrony. Cluny, an the contrary, gave the habit and the ton sure at the ve:ry beginning of the period of probation. But these actions didn't take place in chapter; as at c1teaux, they took place a f t e r the reception in the chapter roan.

It would be interesting to t:ry to discern the influences operative in the evolution of the rites such as we find them in our Rituale 1689,

which is the first witness we have to our till recently familiar practice. There must have been two factors at work:a certain kind of confusion with the roonastic profession rites, and a desire to establish a parallel between entryinto the nonastic life and ent:ry into the clerical state.

COnfusion with the rites of nonastic profession:

There are sane rronastic rituals (ms .fran the 14th oentu:ry, quoted by Martene, De antiquis monachorum ritibus, Lib. I ,5, c.l, n4)which have the cu.vl given already at the beginning of the novitiate; others en-

(TOUJards a Better Understanding of Ritual...or Ritualism) (11)

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visage the novice's a::mnittrrent as, it would seem, definitive -and this has its :roots in Hildanar, tCJ.\Tards the middle of the 9th century . Is it not in this optic that the three petitions prescribed by the Rule during the novitiate were actually made, at dteaux, b e f o r e one's entry into the novitiate, during the three or four days spent by the postulant in the guesthouse? {An analogous rite is found in the 9th century, in Hildauar, who has already been referred to.} Sarething of this still re mained till recent times, since, at the beg.inning of the postulancy, the postulant made his first petition. Our current practice has restored

the three original.petitions to the key rrarents of the period of prcba tion: the beginning of the novitiate, the first vCMs, and the solemn pro fession.

Influence of the rites of ent:ry into the clerical state:

The starting point was the tonsure, which the Cluniacs gave already at the beginning of the novitiate.This smacked of the clerical practice; and it led to the clerical- "ritualization" of the reception of the

habit. The monastic tonsure was, naturally erough, patterned on the cleric al tonsure .The Constitutions of Hirsau, dating fran the end of the 11th

century, are a case in point {PL 150:934 ff.}. We've already stated above

I

that the change of habit took place at the same tine as the giving of the tonsure, that is to say, after the ceren:>ny in chapter. At the beginning, the novice went to the wardrobe rcx:m after receiving the tonsure in church; but the tinecame when he received the habit in the same place where he had received the tonsure {just as the cleric received the surplice in the sane place where he received the tonsure}; little by little, the reception of the tonsure and of the habit became parts of a single rite. The first manuscript evidence is found in the 14th century ritual referred to above. HCMever, the 13th centmy English custanacy fran Eynsham already marks a step in this direction:the giving of the tonsure and the reception of the habit take place in the infi:rrna:ry chapel.The abbot presides over both actions. He removes the postulant's clothes as he says"Exuat te ",

and he then gives the ca.vl (yes, the c o w 1 ! !!} as he says "Induat

te " The novice is next sprinkled with holy water.The habit, havever,

is not blessed; and the abbot puts aside his crozier and renoves his stole before proceeding to the clothing of the novice. True enough , at

dteaux, the tonsure wasn 't given at the same time as the habit; but it 's doubtless through the intennedia:ry of the Benedictinesthat ther i t e for the reception of the habit was introduced at sane particular period which we can 't specif y.It 's interesting, isn 't it, that our fonner rite for the reception of the habit used to end with the prayer "Adesto, Danine, supplicatianibus" , which was the prayer used for the tonsure rite (cf . M. Andrieu [editor] , Pont. Rom. Germ. du Xe siecle, T.I , 5).

2- WelCXITie into the c:xmnunity: this is the lived situation which we celebrate liturgically, inasmuch as this weloome has a dimension other than that of a simple f raternal gesture.We 're a camn.m.ity of men who

seek God, and we 're entering into a :rronastic "tradition"

This doesn 't neant that we have to have this celebration coincide with the day the postulant arrives.Because the reality involved in this wela:xre is cx:mplex, and it 's carprised of several degrees: sane we receive simply as guests or :etreatants; others we receive as persons on probation; and still others -at the other extremity of the procedure -as fully

f ledged menbers of the carmunity , in virtue of their solerrn1. profession. But before we arrive at this f inal stage, there are preliminary stages; and anong these is the candidates admissionas a novice, at the term of a certain period of time in our midst.As the nacre itself suggests, the "postulant" ("one who asks") remains , so to speak , outside the cx:nnu.mi.ty;

he 's precisely asking to be admitted into the a:mnunity.The novice is received as a rrerrber of the family, but as a a "novice" nanber.The bond created at this stage between novice and a::mnunity is stronger than is the case when a postulant arrives;and it 's nonual that we reserve the welcane in the strict sense until this stage of rronastic initiation is reached.

It 'sat this manent that the applicant will begin wearing the rronaste:ry habit.

Obviously, this situation can be experienced dif ferently from one nonaste:ry to another.This is why the Abbot has been lef t f ree to decide the best time for the celebration of this rite of welcane.

+

(Toar>ds a BetteP UndePstanding of Ritual...or Ritualism) (13)

(14)

Another application of this principle: The LI'l'CffiGY OF THE HOORS

.An'Dng the various htmtan situations, there are sare which are bound up witht i m e;and, were we to develop this point, it 's here that we wruld find the Liturgy of the Hours , which , acoording to the Constituticn on the Liturgy, has as its proper f unction the sanctif ica tion of the day.

We f ind, hc:Mever, the same principles enumerated above.

What we have to sanctify is not the earth 's position relative to the sun (if this were true,we would have to change the tirre for Lauds and Vespers every day ) The thing that oounts is the sanctif ica tion of theh u m a ns i t u a t i o nwhich is experienced at those "oosmic" periods of rooming, evening, night , full noon , etc.Because ,

man is rooted in a spatio-tenp:>ral universe, and he 's marked even in his psychological depths by the alternations of light/darkness, day/night (There are times when the industrial world wruld like to ignore this f act; there are, for instance, certain f actories wherethree dif ferent shif ts succeed each other independantly of the cycle of the day/night , and by reason of the exigencies of assenbly-line production; but it 's precisely this which we f ind nn-natural, even anti-natural -and with good reason.)

It 's our CMil ooncretelye x p e r i e n c e dsituation whidl

has got to be sanctif ied, and not the ooncrete experienced situation of

the ancient Romans or Gauls This justif ies the principle of an adap tation of the rhythm of the Of fice to our modem oonditions of daily life, and to those of the daily life of our oomnunities. This is the reasc:n

for the liberty given each monastery to shape up its CMil daily schedule (within, of oourse, limits .inposed by the very nature of our celebrations and the Order 's spirituality: prayer at night, prayer at dawn , etc.) .

There's no reason to be scandalized if the Little Hours , for instance,

are scheduled at precise times in function of the rhythm of the daily work . Just as the time for Lauds and Vespers is detennined by their link with "cosmic" tirre, so also the specif ication of the "third" , "sixth" , and

ninth" hoursis tributary to our ooncretec i v i 1 iz a t io n.And

our CMil civilization is not the sane as that of the RJmans In practice, ha-lever , there 's anple opportunity for a certain degreeof convergence - prayer before leaving for the m:>ming work (or else the mid-noming break , the "oof fee break") , prayer before the noontiroe break for dinner, prayer before leaving for the af temoan work.

(In certain camru:nities, there can be a problem with reqard to COrpline, so of ten as we want Vespers to be an Hour which gathers together the en tire camruni:ty.This means that the time for Vespers has to be quite quite late; and that it oould pe:rhaps take on the aspect of the f inal cmmunity prayer , i.nnediately before retiring for the night. )

At any rate, in keeping with n 88 of the Constitution on the Litur gy, we have to respect the vePitas HoraPUm, i.e., the relationship between each Hour and the oorresponding time of day or night; we have to respect , too, the oonditions of present day life;that is to say , we have to cele brate the situation as really experienced -sanething which the very texts used in the Liturgy of the Hours pre-supposeio..ir practice of even f airly recent tines is no longer thinkable -when, during Lent , in order to re spect the1e t t e rof the law (which wanted us to f ast till Vespers) , we f inished all the day Hours (Vespers included) before noon; or when, on Holy Saturday , we celebrated the Paschal "Vigil" ("O beatan o x") at

9 A.M.

Trans., Gethsemani Abbeyaro OOOOIS

M:>nt-des-Cats

(Towards a Better Understanding of Ritual...or Ritualism) (15)

* H UMI L ITY AN D TH E SACRAME NTS O F FAITH

I N W I L L I AM O F SAI NT-TH I E RR Y ' S SPECULUM FIDEI 1

Like his great and good friend Bemard of Clai:rvaux, Willimn of Saint-Thiercy was endcMed with a prodigious ability to assimilate and

to make his own ideas and expressions borrowed from many different sour ces. Indeed, a certain amount of William 's literacy out-put consists

of little nnre than patristic and biblical exoe:rpts strtmg together so as to fonn sane kind of a coherent whole. The De sacramento aUaris, for instance, ends with a florilegiwn of such texts used by William to

undergird his own preceding treatise.2So also, two of his ca:nmenta

ries on The Song of Songs, consisting respectively of texts by Ambrose J and Gregm::y the Great, 4oontributed massively to his later and highly original Exposi tio altera super Cantica Canticorwn; 5 and in the prologue to his Expositio in Epistolam ad Romanos, 6 William describes his role

as author-cnmpiler in tenns of a bird with borrowed 'plumage: if the ori

ginal owners of the feathers were to demand back their plumage, William would be one bare little bird without a feather of his own.7

But even when William is less explicit as regards his sources, the knowledgeable reader is aware that whole paragraphs are sanet:i.mas cribbed

straight from Augustine; or that William must have written this or that

(k;)folio with his copy of Gregocy of Nyssa open before him on his work-des8

and Etienne Gilson claims (a bit far-fetchedly, pe:rhaps) that, to the really perceptive ear, there are echoes of Pseudo-Deni;> to be found even

in William 's literacy style.9At times, one even has the impression

that William of Saint-Thiercy is imitating William of Saint-Thierry.

But no matter hOW' derivative William might be by reason of his sources, what he does with this material is often astonishingly original. cassian once wrote that the monk should so interiorize the texts of the

* This paper was originally prepared for the series of Cistercian conferen ces given in 1973 at Western Michigan University, in connection with the annual program sponsored by the Medieval Academy.

(18)

(17)

psalms , that when he prays them, they becx:me, as it were, his own new creations.This is what William himself often did with his biblical and patristic sources.

The puri;:ose of this paper is to draw attention to one or two such "original" pages in William 's Specu Zwn f i dei , written probably between

1140 and 1143 in the inmediate af tennath of William's polemic against

Master Peter Abelard, Prince of Dialecticians. lO

This treatise represents a systematic attempt to deal with sane of the problems touching on the genesis, developrent, and structure of the act of faith.These were, for William and his oo-evals, no merely

speculative problems.The quality of their f aith detennined the quali ty of their whole lif e in Christ;and there were nonks in William 's rronastic milieu whose f aith rested on f limsy foundations indeed. It was sympotanatic of William 's theological realism that he broke of f his lof ty considerations on The Song of Songs in order to address himself f irst to

the ref utation of Peter Abelard, and then, in a nore positive wey , to a

systematic treatment of matters touching on the act of f aith.

Not unexpectedly , the role of reason in the genesis and evolution

of the act of f aith looms large on William's horizon;and, for the f irst half of the treatise, so of ten as William touches on the relationship be tween reason and f aith , he writes a.lnost exactly what the reader of An selm, or of Peter Iarbard, or of Thanas .AqUinas,would expect him to write: f aith requires the submission of reason to divine authority; f aith is based, not on the imnediateevidence of the revealed truth, but on

God 's authority;faith is not acquired by logic or dialectics;humility

and absolute submission of reason to authority are essential oonditions

for the subsequent understanding of what one believes . . 11Indeed , so insistent is William on the problans posed by reason , that the reader , though he reoognizes the orthodoxy of each of William 'sstaterrents, be gins to wonder vhether, deep dc:Mn, this champion of f aith can envisage reason other than as a nost unfortunate obstacle to a really serious spiri tual lif e.William a.lnost seems to look on reason in much the same way

Teresa of Avila, centuries later, looked on the imagination in certain kinds of prayer: it was the mad WJitlaI1 of the house.

Strange to say, it is later on in the Speculum, in sections dealing with new subject-matter, that William 's insight into the relationship be tween faith and reason finds a particularly ridl and original expression. Midway through the treatise, he suddenly interrupts his penetrating dis cussion about the man whose whole being strains to attain to an intellec tual understanding of the faith he professes. Without wanring, he rroves from the level of reason to another level:

Fear not, servant of God;let your feet not stumble, nor your footsteps slip. Men without faith ask for signs; and men of hesitant faith seek for wisdan. 'As for yoo, enbrace

Christ crucified If you heed the flesh with its senses, (he} will appear foolish and weak; but if, with the A>s tle Paul, you have the mind of Christ, you will understand that the Word of God is sovereign Wisdan 12

And, with the help of Pauline texts on the wisdom of God seen as fool ishness by men (1 Cor 1:23-24}, William goes on to shcm that "the fool ishness of God 's Wisdom is the flesh of the incarnate Word", and that the fleshly-minded man can find healing only in the flesh of the Word

made flesh (whidl William equates with the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel and with the sinplicity of faith). 13

Becx:xne foolish, then, in order to becane wise; and the econany of the Myste:ry (of Christ} hidden fran before all ages in God the Creator, will becx:xne clear to yoo.

Becx:xne weak with the weakness of God , and you shall learn what is the i.mneasurable greatness of his paver in us who believe acoording to the wo!king of his great might.14

The inp:>rt of what William is saying bea::::mes all the rrore astonish ing when we situate ourselves in the intellectual climate of the early 12th centu:ry . Western European man was at last beginning to exploit his intellectual resources in a wey undreamed of before the redisoove:ry of Aristotle and the revival of dialectical discourse. A new universe was waiting to be explored, and there were many understandably eager to ex ploit to the full the resources offered by dialectics and the new learn-

(19) (Humility and the Sacraments of Faith)

20

ing.The f rontiers of the then knavn world of ideas were waiting to be crossed;and the experienre - nu.ist have been as heady as it was f or Co lurrbus sailing across an uncharted ocean to disrover a New World, or for the astronauts landing on the mx>n.

But here is William telling us to foi:get all that , and to enbrace Cllrist crucif ied.Is he being reactionary?anti-intellectual?Not in the least.Because, for William, as for the Cistercians in general, there was nothing static in the experience of the nonk who resolutely entered into the EXJVerty of the 11sacraments of f aith11 - and by 11sacraments 11 , William usually (but not consistently) rreans sacraments in the early pa tristic sense;that is to sey , those sacred realities which express and give access to yet deeper , nore divine realities:the Sacred Humanity of

the incarnate Word, the Scriptures, the Church and the whole systan of sacrament-signs (baptism, Eucharist , etc.) . 15

It is true, William tells us , that we have been created for eterni ty , and that our spirit, which is aapa:x: Dei , has by its very nature a

certain af f inity with the divine, eternal realities. 16It is also true

that, by reason alone, we can attain to a true , even lof ty knowledge about

God:we can knCM that he exists, and we can knCM sanething about his providence and his attributes. 1 7But a knowledge of God sudl as this

is not what the nonk is af ter.Rather than preoccupy ourselves with this type of rational, discursive knCMledge about God, we have to enter with oourage and conviction into a quite diff erent universe.It is not an in accessible God outside space and tine, but the incarnate Word of God who is the proper object of our f aith:and when William speaks of the Incar

nation, he includes all that goes with it -the earthiness and materiality of birth , suf f ering, death on a cross;a sacramental system in which spiritual realities becx:me accessible only through material substances as hurrble as water, bread, wine, and oil;sacred books written in an of ten uncouth idian, and teeming with events and seyings of fensive to right rea

son All this is sarewhat scandalous 'When we considerthespiritual nature of man, created in the .iroage and likeness of God. 18

But once we have entered into all the la.diness of this hurrble eCXlt'lany of salvation, things begin to happen. Because, the life of faith, rooted as it is in the scandal of the Incamatian, has its arm in-built dynamism. William distinguishes three degrees of kna.vledge in this gra.vth in faith.

The first he describes in te:rm:; of a sarewhat grudging "hospi tality11.

"He who believes will be saved ', says the Lord.So the first degree oonsists of not refusing the grace of hos pitality to those things which care to us fran outside our selves (that is to say, the whole eronomy of salvation as described by the gospels, in cx:>ntrast to the truths we can deduce about God by reflecting an our own spiritual na ture); one simply obeys the Lord, and gives one's sirrple assent.19

This rather strained "hospitality" leads, ha.vever, to a nore in

timate type of relationship -one of "friendship".

The serond degree ronsists of a familiar friendship based on good will: like a friendship between fellCJN-citizens of the same city, between nembers of the same camrunity, between men who cx:>mnune and share in the same bread and in the sarne chalice.20

But this deeper, nore intimate perception of the divine realities gra.vs into an even richer experience, much nore intimate:

The final degree is a sort of marriage in the depths of the soul -a marriage between the truths {of faith)whidl have been received fran outside oneself, and the imnanent truths (i.e., those acCE!ssible to man by means of his faculty of reason). 21

In other words, all the "philosophical" truths we can kna.v thanks to reascm -truths such as God's existence, his providence, his attri butes -are na.v kna.vn in a manner radically different f:rom the way these truths are knarm by the dialectician. This is nCJN no merely speculative, abstract knCJNledge, but a 11taste-and see" experienre of the living God, an experience which admits of an ever g:ro.ving perfectibility.

Th:ispresentation of faith in tenns of a dynamic g:ro.vth in which the subject is transfonred. in proportion as the realities of faith are progressively interiorized, is perfectly in line with the type of experi-

(Humility and the Sacraments of Faith) (21)

22

enoe decsribed in the very heart of the Benedictine Rule, in Chapter

VII "On the Degrees of Humility".In 1959, Fr.Placide Deseille, o.c.s.o.,

published an irrportant article 2 2 in which he analyzed with finesse the

doctrine contained in this chapter, and shaved that this teaching, media ted to Benedict by a line runnioo. from The Rule of the Master back to Cassian, back to Evagrius, and finally back to the cx:mrondoatrinaof

the desert fathers, had the same inbuilt dynamism. In the first degree of humility, the rronk is i;x:>ssessed by an alrrost animal fear of an angry

God.Depressing as this starting-i;x:>int might sound, it is, after all, on ly a starting-i;x:>int. And the rronk who manages to ascend all twelve de grees of humility attains at last to a perfection of love and interior freedcm in \\h.ich all that had been done, in times past, with constraint frcm without, is nCM done spontaneously, by seoond nature, as it were,

out of love for Christ and for the sheer joy of virtue. William, it would seem, has treated the evolution of the act of faith in teDllS of the sane sort of dynamism.

Fran the 12th century until the tine of the Council of Trent, theo logians in general agreed that one of the reasons for the institution of the sacraments was our need to be exercized in the virtue of hunility.

(Tl-..ard24.Thomas n.rn,;1"125d26Th)A line of developnent can be traced from Hugh of Saint-Victor 23 to Peter

.LA.Aliu,.,to'""":1.as,an to Bonaventure.e variations are many, but the main there rings clear. By his sin of discDedi.ence, Marn turned frcm God , the uncreated substantial Good, to a material, cre ated gocxl inferior to man 's CMn spiritual nature. Consequently, God, in his justice, has willed that we regain our lost likeness to God by means

of an econCJey' of salvation essentially bound up with material realities.

Since man ranains spiritual by nature, this dependence on material realities as vehicles of grace involves a real huniliation.27All this sounds

vaguely similar to William's insistence on the humble, lo.vly nature of the "sacraments of faith". But nc:Mhere in Hugh of Saint-Victor or in the later theologians do we find, in this sacramental context, anything resembling William's teaching about the radical dynamism of that faith which, adhering to Christ crucified, expands in a love and kno.vledge of the deepest sort possible.

One f inal note.William was not the only Cistercian who had a predilection for what was poorest and nost hurrble as a rreans of entering nore perf ectly into the deep things of Gc:xl.Saint Bernard 's devotion

to the Sacred Humanity of Cllrist was an expression of the same basic approach..Pe:rhaps the "mystique" of poverty characteristic of the earli-: est Cistercians, but soon lost, was the fruit of the same type of experi ence;and much the same oould be said of the ideas expressed by the

White Monks in the areas of art , architecture, liturgy, music In their CMll way, they too were interested in passing beyond the f rontiers of the then kn0N11 world of ideas;and in their CMn , pe:rhaps they suc ceeded.

Cllrysogonus WADDELL Gethsanani Abbey

N O T E S

1The best edition is the one by J.M.ch.anet, O. S.B., GuiZZa:ume d,e Saint-Thieriry: Le miroir de Za foi, Bruges [Editions Charles Bey aert] , 1946.Also excellent is the edition by M.-M. Davy , Deu:x: triaitefs sur Za foi, Paris [Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin] , 1959 . The text is also in PL 180 :365-398.

2PL 180 :341-366.

3PL 15:1947-2060 .

4PL 180 :441-474 .

5PL 180:473-546.

6PL 180 :547-694.

7 PL 180 :547.The f igure of the bird is bor?:OWed f rom Horace.

8 William's sou.roes have been studied by Demchanet, Aux souraes de la spiritualite de Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, Bruges [Editions

Cllarles Beyaert] , 1940 . His tentative oonclusions are nCJN the sub ject of discussion by a number of scholars interested in the prob lem of William 's sources.The current tendency is to reduce oon siderably the direct inf luence of Eastern writers on William..

9 The Mystiaal Theology of Saint Bernard , London-New York [Sheed and

Ward] , 1940 , p.219 , note 22.

10 Cf .chanet, edition cited in Note 1, supra, pp. 11-17 and 36-40 .

11 In the Dech.anet edition , Cllapitre III , pp. 74-93 ( = PL 180 :372- 376 , passim .

(Humili ty and the Saaraments of Faith) (23)

24

12dlanet, 112-113; PL 180:38lb.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.; biblical references fran Eph 3:9 and 1:19.

15 Excellent note on William's concept of saaramentum indlanet,

op. cit., p.25, with valuable remarks about William's witness to

an aspect of 12th century sacranental theology deserving of closer study.

16Dechanet, 134-135; PL 180:386bc.

17Dechanet, 144-145; PL 180:389d.

18In thedlanet edition, Chapitre VI, pp .166-129 (= PL 180:382- 385), passim.

19chanet, 138-139; PL 180:387b.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 "A propos de I'epilogue du dlapitre VII de la Regle", in CoUeatanea O.C.R . 21 (1959), pp.289-301.

23 Summa Sententiarum, Tract. Dl, Cap.I, in PL 176:117-118 (Hugh 's au thorship of this treatise is disputed}; De saaramentis Z-egis natura l-is et sariptae, in PL 176:34.

24 Petri Lombardi Libri IV Sententiarum, Lib. Dl, Cap.5, Ed.Quarrachi, Firenze, 1916, T.II, p.747.

25 Summa Theologiaa III, q.61, a.2; In IV Sent., dist. 1, q.l, a.2,

1 ad 2um.

26 In IV Sent., Dist.I, Pars 1, q.l, Ed.Quarrachi, Firenze, 1949, editio minor, T.4, pp.5-6.

27 Cf . P.Innocenzo Colosio, O.P., "La prassi sacranentale cnre eserci zio di mri.lita", in Rivista di Ascetiaa e Mistica 9 (1964), pp.101- 116.

G R 0 U PM A S S E S

I NAM 0 N A S T E R Y

During the past f our years our crmnunity here at Pierre-qui-vire

has been experiencing sarething which , so f ar , doesn 't seem to be prac ticed at large to any great extent.Once a week we don 't have a oonventu al Mass.Each of the brethren is given, on those occasions, the opportu

nity of celebrating the Eucharist in sore other fonn.

I think that it might be usef ul to other ccmnunities if I t:ry to sey sarething about our experience of the past four years.After a brief "histo:ry" of this experi.nent (its genesis and the reascns behind it) ,

we '11 see how, in the ooncrete, we car:ry it out in actual practice. We '11 end with a brief sw.vey of the results -the positive f ruits as well as the limitations.

HIS'IORY

It might be a goodthing to begin by saying a fEM words about our cx:mnunity. We have 85 roonks. Alnost two-thirds of us are priests.This reans sore forty ooncelebrants every day , in a sanctuary which, even four years ago, was small enough. (Actually , we f inished re-wo.Iking the interior of our church a few rocmths ago.)The conventual Mass is celebrated an weekdays at 9 A.M.It 's preceded by lectio divina or one 's avn personal projects, and is followed by manual work.

'lb be perfectly frank about it , the reascns which urged us to attanpt a dif ferent rrode of celebrating the Eucharist were , in part, negative: in particular, the large size of the cxmm.mity , and the proportionately large nunber of concelebrants.All this meant too much solemnity on even the least important ferial days. Then, too, there was too great a distance be tween the sanctua:ry, where the concelebrants were, and the monks ' choir.

Taking these two cisrcurrstances in consideration , it became rather dif fi-

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26

cult to experience at depth the cxmnunity dimension of the celebration.

But there were also positive reasons. Am:>ng these was . the need

of assuring that each of the many groups which visit our monaste:ry should be able to participate in the Eucharist in the marmer best suited to it. (There has been, havever, an evolution as regards the need experienced

by these groups to have a special fonn of the Eucharist.) But the chief reason was the desire that a greater diversity in our manner of living the Eucharist would help us penetrate deeper into the fullness of its ridles.

CXJR PRACI'ICE IN THE CDNCRETE

The usual day, which we call the 11free day" , is more often than not Thursday. On this day, there's no conventual Mass, and each monk is free to celebrate Mass as he wishes.

For saoo, this means an extrerrely quiet, solitary Mass -rather like the "private" Masses of times past.

More often, perhaps, Thursday provides the occasion for groups of the brethren to share in the sane celebration:

Groups fonred during the past four years or more take advantage of this opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist as a group.

Each week, a number of similar groups are fonned spontaneously.

One or- rrore of the brethren write their naires on a notice board, and those who wish to share in their celebration of the Eucharist do so. The rea sons for detennining the choice of a particular group vary: the time or the place; the texts chosen for the Mass; or sinply the personality of the first naire on the list, since he's the one who gives the Eucharist its "style" for that particular celebration:one is rrore meditative, another more lyrical; one tends to be brief, another more anple; and sanetimes the "pole of attraction"is saoo special guest -the retreat master or sane visiting- abbot.

Another interesting instance of such groups is given by those

_pe::r::manent groups within the carmunity , which invite others to join thent.

Take, for example, the f ann brethren.Their work keeps them fran taking part in the weekday c:onventual Mass.As a general rule, these brethren (of whan there are three or four) have a c:oncelebrated Mass at the end of the rroming, in a small chapel on the f ann itself , only a mile or so from the rronastery.On the free day , if the work so allc:ms, they arrange to have their celebration at 9 A.M. It 's a rare thing that there aren 't two or three nonks f rcm the nonastery to join them for that Mass.Then, too, the Guestmaster sends , as of ten as possible, a feN guests to join them -usual y individuals who don 't belong to any of

the groups visiting the nonaste:ry .This is the plan which is follc:med

as a general rule. The brother who presides asks each of the participants

to introduce himself with a few words aboot who he is and what he does.

Af ter the gospel, there 's a brief exchange of ref lections on the text just read: no need to describe this f urther;but perhaps it might be good to note that this sharing of the gospel takes place in a calm; f riendly ,

wann atmosphere.It 's hard to say just what gives this particular tone

to the celebration.Perhaps it 's the setting -a small, unpretentious but inviting chapel, with a large windOt'which looks out on the f ields and woods; perllaps it 's the personality of the brethren who participate in

the celebration For the eucharistic liturgy , all group themselves around the altar.No one hesitatesply thisor that liturgical fonnu la to concrete situations, or to amplify the "Merrentos" so as to link

them with the remarks made af ter the reading of the gospel. The f act that there's a stable group which welcx:mes others into their celebration of

the Eucharist is doubtless what gives this celebration its special charac ter; for Father Guestrraster has of ten comnented on the prof ound impress ion made on the guest participants. It ' s by no means rare that this cele bration of the Eucharist marks for them, if not always a "starting point" , at least a "turning point" in their retreat at our rronastery.

-Yet another type of group situation.An already clearly def ined group (student groups f ram the sane school or town , the novices f ram sane religious house or institute, etc.) celebrate the Eucharist together with sare of the nonks.In this instance, it 's the m::mks who are integrated into the group celebration, rather than the group which is integrated in tothe rronaste:ry celebration.This experience is quite positive. At the

(28)

(Group Masses in a Monastery) (27)

very least, it provides imaginative ideas for the brethren, whose vow of stability precludes their going out to f ind ideas is other types of cele bration.

There's still an inf inite nunber of possibilities for variety. We've even seen one group gather at dGMil, on the edge of a small lake near the nonaste:ry.They had gone there to celebrate Christ , the rising Sun, who cx:xres to vi.sit us f rom on high."

Before taking a look at the results, we should say that in most in stanres the group celebrations of the Eucharist provide the occasion for an exdlange of ref lections based on the readings of the Mass -either those found in the lectionary , or those chosen for sane particular reason. In this latter instance, the readings are posted in advance. This prac tice of having a "dialogued hanily" is doubtless the reason why , nore re cently, sare have proposed having- a read Mass -that is to say , an ex tremely quiet Mass without any ref lective exchange based on the readings.

At sudl Masses, there are usually a number of brethren who participate, and rarely the sane ones.This is a good sign.

FRUITS

It might be doubted that the practice described above oould result in so rich a harvest of f ruit of eve:ry sort. Here we ' 11 tiy to make a brief invento:ry of sare of these f ruits.

It didn 't take long for us to bea:Jre oonscious of the f act that it was much easier to experience a trua a:mnunion in prayer when there were eight of us instead of a hundred.The alteration of :rhythm was also f elt by a great number of us as being helpf ul , because it interrupts routine and makes one pull oneself together.(At the sane time, we noted that sate of the brethren oonsider this as a dif ficulty.)

Another important disoove:ry occasioned by these group Eucharists was that of "shared ref lections on the gospel" . A large number of ncna

steries have already experi.rrented with this new way of praying the scriptur

al texts; in our case, it was the Eucharist which provided us with the prop-

Group Masses 'ln a Monastery29

er oontext for this experience.These shared ref lections have enriched us oonsiderably , because, for the greater number of us , they provided us with the first occasion f or speaking about tlrings spiritual in f ront of our brethren.A number of the brethren felt a new f reedan at being able

to express themselves in public in this manner.What a joy, too, to dis cover the riches of this or that brother, af ter having lived beside him for a number of years!Finally , the gospel was perceived under a new aspect.

We can note , too, that these Eucharists with a smaller number of participants make possible a greater liberty , and by this very f act, teach the a:mnunity how to make good use of a legitimate creativity in liturgical matters.

There 's yet another f ruit to begotten f mn these small group cele brations: for rronk-priests, they provide a good schooling in hCJN to pre sideat a celebration. At any rate, such celebrations make us nore de manding as regards ourselveseven in other oontexts , and at the larger conventual Masses.One gets a deeper insight into his prayer-lif e, so

that one can celebrate the ccmnunity liturgy at perhaps a deeper level.

Finally, in this type of prayer, which is si.rrpler , more f amiliar ,

and oonsequently easier to personalize , we 've of ten been able tobe closer to one of the brethren on the occasion of sare evert which touched him pro foundly -for instance, thedeath of a f ather or of a rrother .In too large an assembly , a certain amount of discretion is absolutely necessary.

DIFFia.JLTIES AND LIMITS

But it 's also quite clear that the above manner of celebrating group Masses has its dif f iculties and its limits.One of the first which we soon ran up against was the lack of equality, at the level of decision-making

and organization, between nonk-priests and monks who are not priests. These latter run the risk of being at the mercy of the fonner.In spite of dif

f erent attts to solve the problem, this is always going to remain a delicate point.

There's another difficulty which became apparent over only a long period: there were sore priest-non.ks who were unwilling to preside at a Mass, and so were afraid to sign up as participants in such groups. This reinforces a bit the objection ma.de in the preceding paragraph.

Another difficulty of an almost theological order:is it really legitimate to celebrate the Eucharist in small groups such as the fann brethren, for instance, or the students? (Note, too, that sore groups are oonstituted on the basis of mere friendship or canpatability of personali ties.) Ought not the Eudlarist, by its ver:y essence, to renain open? If one has experienced this, one perceives that it isn't easy to give a sim ple Yes or No answer. Sare have at times suffered a great deal because

of the restrictiveness inherent in such group Masses.

We also perceived that the Eucharist celebrated together is not necessarily the best and IOOSt imrrediate manner of having the groups with in the carmunity get to meet and knav each other.This type of group en counter is easy to effect, but is it always authentic? Doesn't it run the risk of illusion? We sanetirres had the impression that we were truly

sharing reflections on the gospel, and experiencing the Eucharist together; but, in i;x:>int of fact, weren't we saretimes just talking for the sake of talking? and didn't we remain centered on our avn selves and oor CMil par ticular problems? This can happen . On the other hand, if such group Eu charists make it possible to becare aware of a certain lack of camrunica tion between brethren, this itself is already a sign of progress.

We ought to note, too, that the problem of groups of young people with their particular needs has evolved over the past four years .In

the beginning, group Masses of this type put them at their ease, arrl ma.de it i;x:>Ssihle for them to meet nonks as persons, and not just as personages hieratically glued in their choir-stalls; it also made it p::>ssible for them to discover neN ways of celebrating the liturgy. Navadays, they

nore often than not have plenty of opportunity0 haring in small-scale

Eudlarists, while, on the contrar:y, they are more and nore deprived of a::mrnunity Masses of an arrpler density. Small group Eucharists, then,

(30)

Group Masses in a Monastery31

have lost their original aspect of being great discoveries; though, at the sane tin'e, the young people always appreciate a really deep reflec tion in a:mnon on the gospel read at Mass, to which they like to retum to re-read time and time again.Havever, 100re than in tin'es past, they appreciate the a:mventual Mass. True , it's less personalized; it's more

"d:>jective". But they experience it as a reality lived at depth by those who really believe in it.

Finally, we ought to point out that, when we first began this experi ment, we were thinking in tentlS of soon arriving at t w ofree days. each week . But we never went so far. Why? Doubtless because all that calls for nore preparation, 100re imagination, a 100re total gift of self.

As a whole, it might be extrerrely enriching; but it's also 100re demanding.

CDNCWSION

We've been quite aware of the fact that this experiment can't be transposed intact into a small cxmnunity -which, havever, would feel less acutely the need for such group Masses.

We also realize that this practice isn't a universal panacea, as

is a:nply clear fran the nere enumeration of the difficulties we enoountered. But we still think that our CMn experience might be of interest to others.

OUr avn cx:mnunity has undergone an authentic experience which helps us to make constant progress in our search for God .This is a source of joy for us; and we believe that it has been of real profit.

Trans., Gethsemani AbbeyVincent LESCANNE La Pierre-qui-vire

33

FRANCOPHONE REGION IN EUROPE AND CANADA:

T H EC E L E B R A T I 0 N0 FV I G I L S

D U R I N GT H EP A S C H A LT R I D U U M THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY

The heart of the liturgical mystery is the Paschal Vigil. On the basis of this fundamental core, the Church has developed the Pasdlal Mys te:cy.It was at a quite early date that she decided to solemnize the Vigils of the Paschal Triduum in a special way -Vigils of Good Friday and Holy Satumay.

It wasn't long before the day oelebrations of Holy Thursday -in particular, the rerrenbrance of the institution of the Eucharist -had

its repercussions an Vigils of Holy Thursday . It should be stressed, how

ever, that the Paschal Triduum begins only with the Mass of the Lord 's Supper, late in the afternoon or in the evening of Holy Thursday.

Still, it's perhaps nonnal that sarething of the remembranoe of the Last Supper should help detennine the character of Holy Thursday Vi gils.But in this instance, one has to take care that the change of to nality has its parallel in a change of structure of this particular Of fioe.

This explains the particular interest of this survey on the way our (French-speaking) corrmunities have handled the problem of these especially venerable Vigils.

This survey was made by the Father Prior of Bellefontaine.Question naires were sent to a nurrber of our cx:mnunities of French-speaking zronks and nuns, as well as to several cx:mnunities of Benedictines.We received replies fran 28 cx:mmmities, three of which are Benedictine. The results

of the survey here given may be ronsidered as a lement to the question naire returns published in the last issue of Liturgy O. C .S .O . - "The Cele bration of the Paschal Myste:ry", op. ait ., June 1973, pp .15-58.

I - GENERAL IMPRESSION

The really striking thing is the f act that so many have maintained the traditional structure of two or three Noctums .In nost instances, it was felt to be suff icient sinply to transpose into Frendl what used to be done in Latin.HcMever, there 's only one instance of a nore or less elSJant translation of the Latin texts , without any great ooncem

for making textual adjusbrents in the French version.

We should recognize that fact that the result of this survey isn 't particularly satisfying.In those instances where the three Ranan Noc tums have been retained, along with the proper responsories and antiphons , the Of fice has retained a certain imler cdlerenc:e.But often one has made

a particular dloice of only certain psalms , antiphons and responsories, without due attention to the unity of the Of fioe.The result is acertain imbalance in the spiritual synthesis proposed for our ireditation

The structure nost cxmronly adopted is the follCMing:

- OPENING: Invitatoi:y and hymn.

- 'nl NOCIURNS, each one with 3 or 4 psalms , with or without anti- phons (in one or two nonasteries, 6 psalms per nocturn) .

For the 1st Noctum, a biblical reading -usually a sung version of the Lamentations;

for the 2nd Noctum , a patristic reading with re

sponsocy.

- CCNCUJSION: a simplified fonn, with a f inal prayer and doxology.

Of the 28 monasteries, at least 24 present an Of fice of this type - with variations, of cx:>urSe.

II - PRESENTATIOO CF THE VARiaJS ELEMENTS

l- OPE:Nm:;

Psalm 94 isn 't the only invitatory psalm in use. A number of nnna- steries use the follCMing:

Tobit 13: Ubexy , Sept-Fans

Psalm 69: Les Neiges Psalm 95: Tamie

(34)

The Ce lebration ofVigils during the Pasahal Triduwn35

A few nonasteries seem to have no hymn.

The hynns nost often used are: "Par la Croix"

"Myst.ere du Calvaire" "Bois tout en feu"

So far, not much variety in the choice of hymns.At lt>nt-des-cats,

"Vend.redi saint, c'est l'heure des Tres".

2. PSAIIDDY

A gcxxl number of monasteries were cnntent to choose their psalms fran arrong the psalms sung in tirres past at the Good Friday and Holy Saturday Night Offices. A fEM carm.mities have been nore original.A tabulation of the psalms in use might be of interest -though, unfortu nately, not all the questionnaire retums were specific as to the precise choice of psalms .

G O O DF R I D A Y

La Trappe : 12, 21 A, 21B + 37, 53, 87+Is 49

Timadeuc:2, 21, 26 + 37, 39, 53

Mont-des-Cats:21A, 21B, 37 + 54, 34, 53

Sept Fons:12, 21, 25 +87, 68, 58

Les Neiges: 87, 54, 21 + 40, 41-42, 68

Tamie: 2, 37, 39, 53 + 58, 63, 93, 141

Igny: 21, 30, 34, 40 + 42, 54, 58, 68

Le Desert:2, 21, 30, 37 + 39, 53, 68, 93

St-Benoit-sur-Loire: 2, 21, 26, 27 + 39, 53, 87, 93

Bellefontaine: 2, 21, 26 + 39, 53, 68 + 87, 93, 98

The psalms most often retained are:

PS 21 (9 tilres)

Ps 37 (6 tines)

Pss 2, 39, 68, 87 ( 5 times)

Ps 93 (4 times)

H O L YS A T U R D A Y

La Trappe :4, 15, 23 + 29, 53, 76 + Jonah's Canticle

Timadeuc: 4, 14, 15 + 23, 26, 29

Mont-des-Cats: 3, 6, 12+ 15, 26, 29 Sept Fons: 8, 103, 102 + 76, 77A, 77B

Les Neiges: 87, 54, 21 + 40, 41-42, 73

Tami : 3, 15, 29, 26 +70, 75, 84, 87

Igny : 15, 16, 19, 27 +29, 39, 53, 70

Le Desert: 4, 10, 12, 15, 19, 26 +29, 55, 56, 62, 75, 87

St-Benoit-sur-IDire: 4, 15, 23, 26 + 29, 53, 75, 87

Bellefontaine: 4, 14, 15 +23, 29, 70 +75, 87, 96

We note the f requency of the following psalms: Pss 15 and 29: 8 times

Pss 4, 26, and 87:5 times

Ps 75:4 tines

ANI'IPHOOS

The greater number of xronasteries don 't seem to use antiphons; how ever, several have made an atterrpt to ef f ect a :renaval in this area. By wey of exanple, we off er the antiphons retained bya few cx:mnunities.

Tami(D)D FRIDAY

Net I Ps 2They arise, the kings of the earth,

princes plot against the ID:rd and his Anointed.

Ps 37 Like a lamb led to sacrif ice, the IDrd opened not his xrouth.

Ps 39 O let than tum back in conf usion,

who delight in my harm.

Ps 53 False witnesses rise up against me,

they breathe violence.

Net IIPs 58 Rescue me, God, f ran my foes;

protect me f ran those who attack me.

Ps 63 And ncM my soul is troubled: Father , save me fran this Hour!

Ps 93They attack the life of the Just

and rondemn. innocent blood.

Ps 141 Father, if I nust drink this cup,

let your will be done.

La Trappe

Net I Ps 12Give light to my eyes

lest Ifall asleep in death.

Ps 21A o IDni, do not leave me alone,

rescue my soul f rom the hand of the wicked!

Ps 21B I will tell of your name to my brethren and praise you where they are assarbled.

(38)

(The Ce lebration ofVigiZ s during the Pasoha Z Triduum) (37)

Net II Ps 37Those who plot against my life lay snares;

Ps 53O Gcx:l, hear my prayer. Ps 87. . .

Sep1: Fons

Net IPs 12 I was like a gentle lanb led to the slaughter;

Iknew not the evil designs they plotted against me .

Ps 21 Fram the sole of the foot even to the head,

there is no soundness in him,

but bruises and sores

and bleeding wounds;

they are not pressed out , or bound up, or sof tened with oil.

Ps 25He was 'l>unded for our transgressions ,

he was bruised for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.

Net II Ps 87Father , forgive them;

for they know not what they do.

Father , into your hands

Icx:nmend my spirit.

Ps 68Towards the ninth hour ,

Jesus cried out with a loud voioe,

"O God , It God ,

why have you forsaken me?"

Ps 58God was pleased to reooncile through Jesus all things to himself ,

whether on earth or in heaven , making peace by the blood of his cross.

f.t:>nt-des-cats

Net IPs 21A He had no forr cx:meliness

that we should desire him;

he was without beauty.

Ps 21B Gcx:1 will tum tcMa.rds the prayer of the poor man; he will not soom his prayer.

Ps 37Like a lamb led to sacrif ice, he opened not his :roouth.

Net II Ps 54The betrayer had given them a sign:

The one I shall kiss is the man: seize him!

Ps 34Listen, o wrd, to Il just cause, be attentive to Il supplication.

Ps 53No antiphon.

HOLY SA'IURDAY

Tami

Net I Ps4 I will lie down in peace;

in Godwill take my rest.

Ps 15 Even my body shall rest in safety.

Ps 29 O lord , you have raised my soul fran the dead.

Ps 26 I am sure I shall see the lord.ts gcxxmess in the land of the living.

Net IIPs 70 Keep my soul in peace,

close to you, O lord.

Ps 75 The earth in terror was still

when God arose to judge.

Ps 84 Those who hope in the lord will not be disawcinted..

Ps 87 You have laid ne in the depths of the tali:>,

in places that are dark, in the depths .

La Tr

Net IPs4 I will lie down in peace;

in Godwill take my rest.

Ps 15 Even my body shall rest in safety. Ps 23 At Saturday Vespers .

Net IIPs 29 o lord , you have raised my soul fran the dead.

Ps 53 Ps 73

Net III Ant. You restored me to life , O lord,

f ran those who sink into the grave.

Sept Fons

Net IPs8Multitudes were f illed with terror at sight of him;

yet, through him, multitudes will be f illed with joy.

Ps 103 You will restore me to life,

you will retum. and draw rre forth f ran the abyss , you will c::orre to console ne.

Ps 102 He has loved us,

and by his blocxl he has freed us f ran our sins: glo:ry and power be his for ever!

Net IIPs76 Was it not neoessa:ry that Christ should suf fer , and thus enter into his glo:ry?

Ps 77 A and BIt is good to wait in silence

for the salvation of the lord.

He is II'\Y' portion,

therefore I will hope in God.

Mont-des-cats

Net IPs3 I will lie davn in peace;

in God I will take my heart.

Ps6 In death, O lord, no one remembers you.

O lord, return, rescue my soul.

Ps 12 Give light to my eyes, o I.Drd,

lestfall asleep in death.

Net IIPs 15 Even my bcx1y shall rest in safety.

Ps 26 Because of your goodness

I hope in you, 0 I.Drd.

Ps 29 O IDrd, you have raised rqy soul from the dead.

PSAIM CDLLECl'S

These I found used only at Tami , where they 're xrentioned in connection with every other psalm; hence, two oollects per noctum.Psalm collects of this kind might be a resource which could be exploited on a larger scale. Since there is a dearth of really suitable antiphons at the present time,

psalm collects might conceivably contribute an important christological ele

IIEnt.

3. READINGS , RESPONSORIES, VER>ICLES READINGS

First noctum.Unfortunately, few nonasteries gave any precise details about the f irst noctum reading.The singing of the Larrentations (either in Latin or in French) seems to have been :retained in nost cases , with or with out an accx:mpanying responsory.

Occasional mention is made of Hebrews 9:11-18, as well as of Hebrews 2:10 - 3:2 + 7:25-28.

Seoond noctum.The patristic reading is taken fran one of the several available collections of Of f ice ReadingsPrires du Temps Present, or

the lectianariesedited by O:r:val, Toumay, the Daninican nuns, or En-Calcat.

sane houses have their own particular readings.

RESPONSORJES

At Bellefontaine, there are three Lanentatians, each follCMed by' a respan

so:r:y''L 'esprit est ardent" , "lt)n &e est triste'' , "O vous qui passez".

(40)

(39) (The Celebration of Vigils during the Pasahal Triduum)

Atoong the other French responsories used in other camn.mities, we

also f ind:

for Good Friday: "Tres sur la terre" (M:>nt-des.-Cats) .

"I.esres" ; "Au rront des Olives" (Igny , bon:owed f rom Belloc)

"Tu m'as crucif ie'' (La Trappe, taken fran the Taize Of f ice) .

"Christ-us f aetus est" (in Latin -Tamie , Bellef ontaine) . for Holy Saturday: The responsories f ran the Taiz Of f ice are used.1 or else:

"Pleure, gffid.s, rron peuple"; "Toi qui as bris la puis sance des enfers"; "Aujourdhui , notre Sauveur a bris les portes de la rrort" (Clai:rval)

Finally, there are sane rronasteries which have kept the gregorian respon sories.

VERSICLES

.lt>st m:>nasteries have dropped versicles. By way of exception:

G:>od FricI,ay:

La Trappe - Net Iv. They divide my clothing arrong them.

R. They cast lots for my robe.

Net II v. False witnesses rise up against me .

R. They breathe out lies and f ury.

Net III V. Drag me not Cbwn , O my God, into the night of the

R. Confound me not with men of blocxl.[wicked.

Mont-des-Cats - Net IV. I am a wonn and no man.

R. The butt of men , laughing-stock of the people.

Net II V. See how nru.ch the Father has loved us.

R. To deliver the se:rvants, he gave up his Son.

Holy Saturd.aY

La Trappe - Net IV. In him I shall take my rest.

R. I shall slumber in peace.

Net II V. Even my body.

R. Will rest in safety.

Net III V. I am reckoned as one in the tcrnb.

R. Like one alone arrong the dead.

Mont-des-Cats - Net Iv. In peace I shall sleep and take my rest.[safety.

R. For you alone, Lord , make me live and dwell in

v. You will not leave my srul arrong the dead.

R. Nor let your beloved know decay.

4. FINAL PRAYERS AND CONCUJSION

It's only occasionally that anyone has thought of using a litany-prayer in this place, even though such a litany 'WOuld be ideal for this particular day and for this particular Hour.

Oka is planning to corrpose a quite elaborate version of a litany.

Port du Salut man.lions the Seven Last Words of Jesus listened to in

total silence. This is 'WOrth exploring advantageously, it seems to ne.

As a general rule, the conclusion of Vigils on these last days of Holy Week seems st abridged. Mention is sanetines made of a prayer, of a doxology. Sorretines the responsory "Orristus factus est" is sung by way of conclusion.

III - ATI'EMl?TS AT RENEWAL

Three nonasteries have been nore original in their attarpts to revise

the Offices of the Paschal Triduum.

1.BRICQUEBEC

- Vi ils of Good Friday

These Vigils have been arranged in a special wey, so as to retain sanething fran the arrangenent of the psalms used in tines past, and so as to celebrate the Paschal Mystery acoording to the successive stages of its unfolding.

At Vigils, there are 12 to 15 psalms spread overor three noctums; but the structure of the Office isn't the usual one.After the opening section (invitatory and hymn, as usual), the rest of the Office takes on the fonn of

a Celebration of the Word. A c:xmrentator or "animateur" effects a snooth transition fran psalm to psalm, and shews hCM the Mystecy being celebrated is progressing. The brethren find this helpful. The choice of psalms can change f:ran year to year, so that a different aspect of the Mystecy can be celebrated and renewed .

- Vigils of Holy Saturday

These Vigils retain the traditional structure.The style is particularly austere; and the psalms are chosen in function of the day.

(44)

(The Celebration of Vigils during the Pasahal Triduum) (41)

2. OKA

On the one hand, thought is being given to re-arranging the recitation of the psalter in such a way as to shape up a real "vigil" or night-watch: participation left up to the individuai, who cares and goes as he likes; psalms read or sung only by individuals

On the other hand, Vigils would be structured so as to have as their point of departure a Lamentationsacething along these lines:

Lamentation;

A long New Testament reading;

Hanily by the Abbot or one of the brethren;

A rather elaborate litany-prayer.

3. EN CAICAT

Holy Thursday Vigils are built around the general thene of the Last Supper and Farewell Discourse. Several ideas are successively proposed for neditation:

1- One of you will betray me:

Biblical text : Jn 13:1

Responso:ry

Antiphon and Psalm 54 Reading:Jn 13:21-30 Responsory

Concluding prayer

2 - IDve one another:

Biblical text : Jn 15:9-13 Antiphon and Psalm ll7

3 - I give you my peace:

Biblical text : Jn 14:27-31 + 16:32-33

Antiphon and Psalm 114

Concluding prayer

4 - Lo::rd , where are you going?

Hynm

Litany-prayer Responsory

5 - Your sadness will change into joy:

Jn 16:20-23

Responsory

Antiphon and Psalm 65:6..,.14

Collect

6 - 'llle Bread which I give:

Biblical text : Jn 6 :49-58 Responso:ry "J 'ai desire"

7 - The High Priestly Prayer:

Jn 17 , with the intercalated ref rain-antiphcn, "Father, glorify your Son".

This Off ice has been IIDJ.ch appreciated by the brethren and the guests. At the same tine, those in charge of the liturgy at En-calcat say that this

Holy Thursday Of f ice is overly intellectual;it d.oesn 't provide suf f iciently for everyone ''s participation (psa.lnody and chants)

Gocx:1 FridayOn the contrary, this M::>ming Of f ice has been Imlch appreciated f i:an every point of view.It 's structure is considerably zoore classic than

on Holy Thursday, and is based on the following schena:

Hymn "Mystere du calvaire"

Psalm::>dyPs 55 with antiphon and refrain Ps 50 with antiphon

Ps 142 with antiphon

Pss 84 and 72 with versicles

Reading follaved by the :responso:ry "Pour nous le Christ s 'est f ait

(43) (The Celebration of Vigils during the Paschal Triduum)

(44)

Song of Zacha:ry

Iissante"

4 . SAINT-BEN01T- SUR-IDIRE

This ccmnunity includes, anong the other Of f ices, a penitential Of f ice celebrated at noon, Holy Thursday. Its structure is as f ollows:[l0-20

Invitator:y:A monition and a canticle (the Song of Hezechiah, Is 28: Readings:1st Reading with the antiphon, "Qui me sera"

2nd Reading with the antiphon "Obsecro"

3rd Reading

Hanily Examination of

conscience "Conf iteor"

Psalm 31 (recited seated}

Conclusion:Lord 's Prayer (sung) and Final Collect

Saint-Benolt.. sur-Ioiz is thinking of including the sacrament of penance for those want it. In this case, there would be fewer readings , and zoore ritual gestures (kiss of peace, gestures of reconciliation)

C O N C L U S I O N

By wey of conclusion to this sw:vey, the only thing I want to sey is that our Vigils for these holy days don t t seem to have found the optimum degree of spiritual and theological ridmess.This is an appeal to every body for further rneditative ref lectionat a greater spiritual depth -at the level of the individual and of the ccmrnmity .

Trans., Gethsemani AbbeyEclnand FRADilJ

Bellefontaine

A LOCAL AMERICAN PROJ ECT FOR

T H EC E L E B R A T I 0 N0 FV I G I L S

D U R I N GT H EP A S C H A LT R I D U U M AT GETHSEMANI ABBEY, KENTUCKY

ile typing the preceding survey dealing with the celebration of Vigils during the Paschal Triduum in French-speaking c:xmnunities of Europe and Canada,it occurred to me that sare readers might be interested in a few notes and texts .f n:m an Anerican-speaking ccmmmity .Perllaps a sm:vey

similar to the one described and analyzed by Br . Edrrond Fradin of Bellefontaine "WOuld be of valuea survey taking in the English-speaking camrunities of

both hemispheres.Pending the irrplementation of such a project , hc:Mever , the following is off ered simply as an exarrple of one fonn of Good Friday and Ho- ly Saturday Vigils as celebrated in one of our American Cistercian houses.

Our early Fathers, in their passionate love for the Rule of Saint Bene dict, f elt obliged to opt against the universal practice of the Western Church during the last few days of Holy Week. Since the early 9th century , Benedictine cxmmmities evei:ywh.ere had adopted the Ranan fonn of the Of f ice.Indeed, Monte

Cassino had been forerrost and among the f irst to celebrate the Of f ice of the Paschal Triduummore Romano.But since Saint Benedict himself had made no explicit , or even implicit, reference to such a derogation of the Of f ice- structure described in detail in his Rule, our Fathers maintained even during the f inal days of Holy Week the nonnal ferial-day type of Of f ice. Texts and

chants were, of oourse proper to these days; but for the critics of the White

Monks ' liturgy -critics such as Peter Abelard -this did nothing to of f - set the scandalof Cistercian particularism during those few days when all the rest of the Western Church Universal was celebrating the same liturgy in quite the sane way.But our Fathers managed to remain quite intransigent in the matter until the mid-17th cenury, when the traditional Cistercian

Of f ice undezwent a "ra