Pondering a great gift

Fr John Saward reviews The Case for Liturgical Restoration

I could get away with simply placing an enthusiastic ditto underneath the endorsements written for this book by such great and good men as Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider, and Professor de Mattei. I agree with everything they say. The ‘case for liturgical restoration’ is, in my opinion, eloquently and convincingly made. (But then, I didn’t need convincing.)

If I’m to add anything, let it be this: I think I’m authorized to bring you an endorsement from St Thomas Aquinas, his teacher St Albert, too, and his friend St Bonaventure. You see, each of these saints, like many of the Doctors who preceded and followed them, composed expositions of the rites and ceremonies of the Mass, including much of what is discussed in this new book. The actions of the priest at the altar, says St Thomas in a deliciously easy bit of Latin, are not ridiculosae gesticulationes: they all have a purpose and a meaning; they are performed to express reverence and to symbolize something. So, the many signs of the Cross made by the priest during the Canon of the Mass represent the various stages of our Lord’s Passion. For example, the five signs at hostiam pura, hostiam sanctam, hostiam immaculatam, panem sanctum vitae aeternae et calicem salutis perpetuae stand for the five wounds.

There is this difference, of course, in historical context between the Patristic and Medieval expositiones and The Case for Liturgical Restoration . Without the pressure of controversy, the Fathers and Doctors were concerned, simply and serenely, with deepening understanding of the Eucharistic mystery, and with increasing devotion to it, through a study of the rite. By contrast, the Una Voce authors are responding to six decades of liturgical revolution, a revolution beyond the imagining of the holy Doctors. However, despite the difference in context, the principal purpose of The Case remains close in spirit to the meditations of the Fathers and Doctors. In the words of Cardinal Burke: this collection of studies is ‘a defence of the usus antiquior of the Roman rite, not in the sense of a polemic … but as an invitation to ponder and to plumb the great gift of the usus antiquior … [It is directed at] enrich[ing] and deepen[ing] the knowledge and love of Christ alive for us in the Church, His Mystical Body – alive, above all, in the sacred liturgy.’ There you are. His Eminence has said it all for me. Buy this book!

The Case for Liturgical Restoration, edited by Joseph Shaw, is available from the LMS online shop: paperback £16.50, hardback £24 + p&p.