The Liturgical Movement

Common liturgical practice in the Roman Catholic Church prior to the LM:
Hence while the celebrant “read” the mass at the altar with his back to the people, the faithful were busy with
other devotional exercises, mostly of a subjective nature. They sang hymns in the vernacular, whose content
had little or even nothing at all to do with the liturgy; they read, wrapped up in themselves, a “mass devotion”
or prayed the Rosary silently to themselves. Only at the three main parts of the eucharist: the offertory, the
consecration, and the communion did the faithful, raised by the server’s bell, turn their attention briefly to the
sacred action that was being performed at the altar, in order that they might make certain recommended
“affectations.” Seldom indeed was it the custom for them to take any active part in the sacrifice of the mass by
making an inward offering of themselves or by actually making their communion … instead of actual
communion they were often earnestly exhorted to make an act of spiritual communion. (Theodor Klauser, A
Short History of the Western Liturgy, 2nd ed. [Oxford: OUP, 1979], 117.)

France
Prosper Guéranger (1805-75)
 refounded the French Benedictine monastery of Solesmes, France, in 1833; professed as a
Benedictine monk in 1837, and was made abbot
 proposed the “romanizing” of the French liturgy through a rigid uniformity, proposing the
Middle Ages as the period of greatest liturgical development
 promoted Gregorian chant
 classic work is L’Année liturgique (nine of twelve proposed volumes completed from 1841-75)
 also founded the scholarly journal Institutions liturgiques (1841)
 a tendency to “an antiquarian or archaeological approach” (Spinks, 19)

Later French contributions

 Centre de Pastorale Liturgique, Paris (founded 1943)
 the important periodical La Maison-Dieu (1945)
 scholarly pioneers: A.-G. Martimort (The Church at Prayer), Bernard Botte, Pierre-Marie Gy,
Louis Bouyer, and Joseph Gelineau

Germany
Benedictine Abbey of Beuron
 refounded in 1863 under the influence of Solesmes, by Maurus and Placidus Wolter
 encouraged Gregorian chant and art, together with social work
 head of a “Beuronese” congregation that led to Maredsous, Mont César, and Maria Laach
(below)
 Dom Anselm Schott published the first German-Latin missal in 1884, including excerpts from
Guéranger
Benedictine abbey of Maria Laach
 refounded by Beuronese monks in 1893
 Abbot Ildefons Herwegen, together with monks Kunibert Mohlberg and Odo Casel, shifted the
centre of the movement from Beuron to Maria Laach
 at a Holy Week mass in 1914 the congregation joined the assistant in saying the response (in
German)

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  in 1918 initiated a series of publications: Ecclesia Orans [praying church], Liturgiegeschichtliche
Quellen [Documents on liturgical history], and Liturgiegeschichtliche Forschungen
[Investigations into liturgical history]
 founded the journal Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft [Annual of liturgical studies] in 1921
 Missa recitata (6 August 1921): included praying the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and
responses in common, involving the whole assembly
 other German chaplains under influence of Maria Laach introduced participatory masses

Odo Casel (1886-1948)

 monk of Maria Laach who wrote his classic work Das christliche Kultmysterium (1932),
translated as The Mystery of Christian Worship (1962)
 argued that the pagan mystery cults were a preparation for the Christian sacraments
 “The Mysterium is a holy, cultic action in which the redemptive act is rendered present in the
rite; since the cultic community accomplishes the rite, it participates in the saving act and
through it attains redemption” (DCK, 101)
 although this theory is no longer accepted, his work promoted a rich understanding of the
church as the mystical body of Christ expressed through sacramental participation

Belgium
 Benedictine monastery of Maredsous, refounded 1872
 first French-Latin missal (1872), edited by Dom Gérard van Caloen, who also founded the
review Messager des fidéles (later Revue bénédictine)
 monks from Maredsous founded the monastery at Mont César, Louvain, in 1899
 Benedictines of Mont César inaugurated the periodical Les Questions liturgiques in 1910, and
began the “sémaines liturgiques” conferences in 1912
Lambert Beauduin (1873-1960)
 entered Mont César in 1906
 delivered lecture “La vraie prière de l’Église” [the true prayer of the church] at the National
Congress of Catholic Works, Malines (Sept. 1909) – considered the founding of the
Liturgical Movement
 called for full and active participation in church life and worship; piety should be based on a
corporate liturgy, not private devotion; proposed to put a translation of the Latin missal into
the hands of the people; encouraged the daily office
 wrote La piété de l’Église [the piety of the church] in 1914 as a public declaration of the LM

International
Papal documents
 the Motu Proprio: Tra le Sollecitudini of Pope Pius X (22 Nov. 1903) called for a reform of church
music and described the liturgy as the true and indispensable source; it stressed Gregorian
chant as the “supreme model” of church music; it forbids the vernacular, but encourages the
involvement of the people in singing the chants and frequent Communion
 Sacra Tridentina: Decree on Frequent and Daily Reception of Holy Communion (1905) urged all
present to commune orally, and laid down the necessary conditions for frequent Communion
 Mystici corporis (1943) and Mediator Dei (1947) approved many of the principles of the LM, but
warn against “liturgical archaeologism” (romanticizing the past)

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  the Second Vatican Council on 4 Dec. 1963 promulgated the Liturgy Constitution Sacrosanctum
concilium, the so-called crowning achievement of the LM
Societas Liturgica
 an ecumenical and international organization founded in 1965, it publishes Studia Liturgica

United Kingdom
Oxford Movement
 Tractarians Edward Pusey and John Keble stressed loyalty to the Prayer Book and its rubrics
(1833- )
 second-generation Tractarianism developed into Anglo-catholicism, assimilating Roman
rubrics to Anglican usage and “enriching” the Anglican rite from RC sources
Henry de Candole (1895-1971)
 read Questions liturgiques and developed parish Communion at St John’s, Newcastle
 wrote The Church’s Offering: A Brief Study of Eucharistic Worship (1935) and The Sacraments
and the Church: A Study of the Corporate Nature of the Church (1935)
 argued that the eucharist should be the main worship of the church, and should be a corporate
action
 helped found the Parish and People organization after WWII to promote these ideas

Gregory Dix (1901-52)

 The Shape of the Liturgy (1945) looks at the “ritual pattern” of Christianity as a cultural system
of religious ideas, following a comparative religions approach
 identified the four actions of “taking, blessing, breaking, and sharing” as at the heart of the
rd th
great 3 -5 century rites, and believed they had apostolic (even Jewish) origins
 the actions are more important than the words; he saw them as the action of “the whole
church and not of one celebrant only” (15)
Church of England Liturgical Commission (founded 1955)
 led to experimental rites in the 1960s
 included Ronald Jaspar, Edward Ratcliff, Arthur Couratin, Geoffrey Willis, Geoffrey Cuming,
and Colin Buchanan
 early 1970s saw services in modern English
 The Alternative Service Book (1980) supplemented the BCP until 2000, when it was replaced by
Common Worship

Austria
Josef Jungmann (1889-1975)
 Jesuit liturgiologist
 wrote Missarum Solemnia (1949), trans. The Mass of the Roman Rite (1951); The Early Liturgy
(1959); and The Place of Christ in Liturgical Prayer (1965)
Pius Parsch (d. 1954)
 Augustinian monk of Kosterneuberg, who brought a pastoral focus
 initiated Das Jahr des Heiles [the year of salvation] in 1923 a pastoral commentary on the
eucharist and the hours for the entire church year
 founded Bibel und Liturgie in 1926

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  argued that the eucharist is a sacrifice offered by the entire parish community and is a meal
eaten in common
 called for an expanded use of Scripture within the liturgy

USA
Notable characteristics
 a strong concern for social justice
 large lay involvement
 strongest in the Midwest where German influence made congregational participation more
acceptable
Virgil Michel (d. 1938)
 a German-American Benedictine monk of St John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota
 influenced by Beauduin and the great Benedictine monasteries of Europe that he had visited in
1924-25
 founded the periodical Orates Fratres (later Worship) and The Liturgical Press, both in 1926

Liturgical Conference
 founded in 1940, this annual three-day event has attracted as many as 12 000 people
 publishes Liturgy and Homily Service

St Jerome Society
 founded in 1946 by H. A. Reinhold to promote English in the liturgy
 linked to the Vernacular Society in Britain, it later took the same name

University of Notre Dame

 Summer School in Liturgy (founded in 1947) leads to a full graduate programme in liturgical
studies

Principles
1. Mystical Body of Christ
 viewed with suspicion at the time as undermining the hierarchy, it rapidly won acceptance in
the Roman church
 thus the liturgy is not simply the action of the priest alone, but of Christ Himself through His
entire mystical body
 this is the presupposition of the following:

a. Participative Worship
 “full, conscious, and active participation”
 canticles and responses to be sung by the congregation, rather than the server alone
 emphasis on frequent Communion: actually receiving Christ’s Body, rather than just observing
the priest
 restoration of the cup to the laity in RC churches

b. Priesthood of believers
 the mass is sacrificed not by the ordained priest alone, but by the entire parish community
 thus, the liturgy is “the work of the people”

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  the free-standing altar is introduced to promote this principle: the priesthood of believers and
the ordained priest surround the altar to offer the sacrifice together
c. Vernacular
 an issue only in the RC church
 at first bilingual missals translated the Latin for the people, to bring the existing rite within
reach of the people
 movements towards participative worship in the language of the people accelerated after
WW2 and lead to Vatican II’s approval of the same
2. Romanticism
 early proponents advocated a return to mediaeval patterns of ceremony and a certain
“rubricism”
3. Early Church History
th
 the 20 century movement has been characterized by a move beyond the mediaeval church to
the practice of the early, “undivided” church
 thus also an interest in borrowing from the Eastern Orthodox tradition, which results in
eclecticism and borrowing between denominations
4. Scripture
 more Scripture is read as a result of the three-year lectionary and the restoration of OT
readings
 preaching is restored to every mass, and good preaching is promoted
 eventually masses in the vernacular are approved, and promoted after Vatican II

5. Restoration of Morning and Evening Prayer

 Vatican II (Sacrosanctum concilium) stresses morning and evening prayer as the two hinges on
which daily prayer pivots; the minor offices (prime, terce, etc.) are downplayed
6. New Service Books
 the above principles are incorporated into new books from the 1960s onwards
 historically non-liturgical Protestant churches began to use orders of service based on the
Western rite of the mass; thus a convergence of worship between Roman Catholics and
Protestants occurs
7. Social Justice
 particularly characteristic of the American movement, especially its Episcopal side
 worship is seen as the central activity of the church from which all other activity flows
 the restoration of the early, non-liturgical diaconate is one result

Influence on North American Lutheranism

 The Liturgical Society of St. James, founded in 1926 by Frederick R. Webber, Adolph Wismar,
Berthold von Schenk, and Carl Bergen; they advocate pastors wearing historic vestments,
decking their altars with flowers and tapers, emphasizing the crucifix, reviving traditional
Lutheran rubrics, singing only the purest liturgical music
 Luther Reed’s second edition of The Lutheran Liturgy (1947, 1959) is substantially reworked to
include advocacy of a full-blown eucharistic prayer and Dix’s fourfold shape
 Luther’s removal of the canon of the mass is referred to as “liturgical butchering” (decisively
debunked by Bryan Spinks in 1982)

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  Ernest Koenker’s Worship in Word and Sacrament is published by CPH in 1959, lending
legitimacy to LM ideas, particularly to Dix
 Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship comes into existence with the goal of producing a
joint hymnal for all North American Lutherans
 Service Book and Hymnal (1958) and Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) move substantially away
from the Common Service and the old Lutheran liturgical tradition in light of LM ideas
 Worship Supplement (1969) has new eucharistic prayers and a service following a fourfold
action; LBW has a full-blown “Eucharistic Prayer” on LM models
 LBW’s Manual on the Liturgy includes a chapter entitled, “[Liturgy as] The Work of the
People”
 the term “Presiding Minister” emphasizes him as leader of the people, rather than servant of
God
 the “Assisting Minister” parts in LBW and LW derive from LM participative principles; this
develops quickly from the idea of multiple clergy to lay assistants
 new Lutheran buildings have free-standing altars, and old ones are renovated to have them
 the Roman three-year lectionary is adopted and adapted
 ceremony is generally increased (Gospel processions, offertory processions, paschal candles,
incense, chasubles, crucifixes) and the Holy Week services are expanded (e.g. Easter Vigil)
 LBW, LW, and LSB adopt to a greater or lesser extent “ecumenical” translations of liturgical
texts
 The sacramental greeting “P: The Lord be with you. C: and with your spirit” is replaced with
the anthropocentric response “and also with you.”
 inspires a call for weekly Communion in accord with the Book of Concord
 restoration of the pastor’s chant music to the standard editions of Lutheran hymnals

References
 “Liturgical Movement”, in PAUL BRADSHAW, ed., The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy
and Worship (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), pp. 283-89.
 QUILL, TIMOTHY C. J., The Impact of the Liturgical Movement on American Lutheranism (Lanham,
MD, and London: Scarecrow Press, 1997).
 SASSE, HERMANN, This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of
the Altar, rev. ed. (Adelaide: Lutheran Publishing House, 1977) [contains the most substantial
Lutheran response to the LM]
 SPINKS, BRYAN, and JOHN FENWICK, Worship in Transition: The Liturgical Movement in the
Twentieth Century (New York: Continuum, 1995)

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