By JAMES MONTI
Described by one co-organizer, Dr. Jennifer Donelson, as a four-day ascent of Mount Tabor to be with the Lord and with one another, the Sacra Liturgia USA 2015 conference began on June 1 with introductory messages of hope and encouragement for the progress of the new liturgical movement initiated by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, bolstered by news that His Holiness Pope Francis has expressed his desire that his Predecessor’s liturgical movement should by all means be continued.
The first and second days of the conference were graced by the most distinguished presence of one of the greatest promoters of Pope Benedict’s liturgical vision for the Church, Raymond Cardinal Burke, likewise esteemed for his apostolic courage in upholding the Church’s timeless teachings on marriage, family life, and chastity, greeted by repeated avid rounds of applause from a large audience that included dozens of young priests and seminarians.
The best news on Day One was related by the founding father of the Sacra Liturgia conference series that began in 2013, Dom Alcuin Reid. He announced what came as an unexpected and happy surprise for the organizers: a message of support to the conference from Robert Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (see The Wanderer, June 11, 2015, p. 3B, for the full text).
In his message, Cardinal Sarah revealed that when upon being asked by Pope Francis to head the congregation he in turn asked His Holiness what he desired him to do in this office. The Holy Father replied, “I want you to continue to implement the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, and I want you to continue the good work in the liturgy begun by Pope Benedict XVI.”
His Eminence asked the approximately 300 participants to help him fulfill these two tasks given to him by the Holy Father, citing specifically with regard to the latter Pope Benedict’s 2007 apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis and his motu proprio from the same year, Summorum Pontificum.
Invoking in this context our Lord’s commendation of the steward who knows how to bring forth from his treasury both the new and the old (Matt. 13:52), the cardinal called upon the participants to be like this steward in wisdom, “so that the Sacred Liturgy as it is celebrated and lived today may lose nothing of the estimable riches of the Church’s liturgical tradition, whilst always being open to legitimate development (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 23).”
Regarding the purpose of the conference, Cardinal Sarah stressed the need to work for the recognition of “the primacy of Almighty God” in the sacred liturgy, adding:
“One cannot encounter God, my brothers and sisters, without trembling, without awe, without profound respect and holy fear. This is why we must rank what Cardinal Ratzinger called ‘the right way of celebrating the Liturgy, inwardly and outwardly’ first amongst our concerns” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2000, p. 9).
His Eminence proposed two particularly critical objectives for the liturgical renewal, namely a clear affirmation of “what Catholic liturgy is . . . the worship of Almighty God”: “The liturgy is not some social occasion or meeting where we come first, where what is important is that we express our identity. No: God comes first.” In this context he emphasized the need for total fidelity to the rubrics of the liturgical books, in recognition that the liturgy “is given to us in tradition,” and not as something anyone can change on his own.
The second critical objective that His Eminence proposed to the conference participants is “the promotion of sound liturgical formation” for the clergy, religious, and the lay faithful, noting that His Holiness Pope Francis has specifically asked for this. Cardinal Sarah concluded by expressing his hope of attending in person the next Sacra Liturgia conference scheduled for July 2016 in London.
Dom Alcuin then proceeded to the message of His Excellency Bishop Dominique Rey, the ordinary of Fréjus-Toulon, France, a key supporter of the Sacra Liturgia conference series from its inception in 2013 who had wanted to attend the 2015 event but was prevented by a meeting of French bishops scheduled for the same period.
Citing our Lord’s teaching on the two great commandments (Matt. 22:38-39), Cardinal Rey stressed that the fulfillment of the first commandment, the love of God, requires an “optimal celebration” of the liturgy:
“. . . The right worship of God is our first duty. . . . If our liturgical rites and celebrations are impoverished or are in any way not as they should be, we are not giving to Almighty God what is rightly His due: all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and finally, all our lives.”
The second great commandment, love of neighbor, likewise finds fulfillment in the fitting celebration of the sacred liturgy:
“Celebrating the Sacred Liturgy as the Church wishes us to celebrate it, as best as we are able, beautifully, with that ars celebrandi of which Pope Benedict XVI spoke (cf. Sacramentum Caritatis, nn. 38-42), forms Christians, it produces apostles, it empowers evangelization.”
Hence, the cardinal explained, the proper celebration of the liturgy fosters our personal growth in holiness and thereby perfects the witness to Christ that we give in the world. And it is for these reasons, he concluded, that a liturgical formation in the fitting and correct celebration of the liturgy needs to be fostered, which is the purpose of Sacra Liturgia.
In announcing the messages from Cardinal Sarah and Bishop Rey, Dom Alcuin also related that when he presented to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI a copy of the proceedings from the first Sacra Liturgia conference convened in Rome in 2013, the retired Pontiff “was overjoyed.”
In a letter addressed to the conference, the archbishop of New York, His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who had planned to welcome the participants in person but was unable to do so after another urgent matter arose, greeted his brother bishops and all the clergy, religious, and laity attending the event, declaring, “…You do the Church in New York, and indeed the whole Church, a service in continuing the conversation of authentic liturgical renewal and reform.”
Describing the liturgy as the “fuel of the New Evangelization,” Bishop Frank Caggiano, the ordinary of Bridgeport, Conn., who as conference co-organizer Fr. Richard Cipolla pointed out, has repeatedly spoken of the need for the “recovery of the sacred,” told the conference participants in an opening address that it is precisely the sacred liturgy when fittingly celebrated that can touch the hardest hearts.
He spoke of what the Sacra Liturgia conference is doing as a “sacred” work that is all the more “imperative” in view of the spiritual crisis of the contemporary world. He observed that there is nothing that haunts him more than the often-repeated comment of so many in our present society, “I am spiritual, but I am not religious,” a tacit rejection of any organized religion.
Yet, he continued, this very comment demonstrates that the spiritual search for God is still alive. Citing the observation of one archbishop that a key goal of the New Evangelization is to respond to the troubling “indifference” of so many, Bishop Caggiano added that what the conference is doing is precisely how we can respond to and work to change that indifference.
Finally, invoking the Holy Father Pope Francis’ emphasis upon the need for works of charity and mercy, His Excellency noted that only those who authentically love can be considered authentic believers. In this connection he stressed how the liturgy expresses our love for God and how important it is “that we worship our God rightly” and worship Him “in right adoration”; for the liturgy is a “sacred bridge” between God and us whereby “we glimpse the beauty of God.”
Fellowship And Communion
In her comments welcoming the participants, conference co-organizer Dr. Jennifer Donelson described Sacra Liturgia USA 2015 as a spiritual ascent of Mount Tabor, that we like the apostles might spend the four days of the conference with the Lord on the mountaintop, contemplating together “the most heavenly of activities at the center of our lives,” the sacred liturgy, which in turn is centered upon “the sacramental presence of our Lord.”
Citing the Psalm verse, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1), she likewise stressed the fellowship and communion that the conference is meant to foster among those who share a profound love for the sacred liturgy, a fellowship made all the more important, she added, by the sad fact that many of the participants have experienced a sense of isolation in finding that their love for the liturgy is not shared by those around them in their everyday lives.
She expressed her confident hope that the bonds of friendship forged and deepened during the conference would enable the participants, united in their “zeal for the courts of the Lord,” to attract others to the worship of God.
Beauty And The Liturgy
The first day of the conference climaxed with a profound keynote address by Cardinal Burke on seeking truth, beauty, and goodness through the fitting celebration of the sacred liturgy (see the separate article on this), followed by a stunningly magnificent celebration of Solemn Vespers in the cardinal’s presence at the Dominicans’ Manhattan Church of St. Catherine of Siena.
After kissing a large crucifix presented by the church’s pastor, Fr. Jordan Kelly, OP, His Eminence processed down the central aisle wearing the traditional long red cloak of his office, the cappa magna, to the magnificent strains of Johann Baptist Singenberger’s arrangement of the responsory Ecce sacerdos magnus.
The rite was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form from the 1961 Breviarium Romanum, with an incensation of the altar at the chanting of the Magnificat.
At the conclusion, a long line of those present formed to greet the cardinal personally, with many exchanging warm words with His Eminence, who generously gave them his time and attention.
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