Alcuin Reid interviewed on past, present, future of liturgy
"Sacred Liturgy: Past, Present, and Future" (Catholic World Report, February 27, 2013): An interview with Dom Alcuin Reid about the liturgy, Vatican II, and the upcoming Sacra Liturgia 2013 conference in Rome
"Perhaps it may be clearer, today, to speak about being “connected” to the liturgical action. Liturgical connectivity is what the Council called for, because it is by means of this connection Christ touches us and empowers us to respond to his grace with lives of faithful service. This is the motivation for the liturgical reforms called for by Vatican II."
SPIN! Like cotton candy, it reduces to nothing, except perhaps a tackily sweet aftertaste. First we were commanded by the "Spirit of V2" mandarins to follow in our disposable missalettes, gesticulate to our fellows on cue, act like we were enjoying ourselves, like at a successful cocktail party, and sing sing sing. Everyone knows how well that strategem of aggiornamento worked out. Now Dom Reid spins the message in a different, bacon-saving direction: what the fathers REALLY meant was "liturgical connectivity."
And what is that exactly? Well, mostly it means that, for now at least, Bugnini is out, Guardini is in. It means that we are expected to disavow what is happening before our eyes in the typical NO anti-liturgy, and interpret it through a foggy Guardinian lens. Forget the man behind the curtain -- Bugnini -- Teheran's favorite papal nuncio -- and embrace the foggy-minded generalities of a man whose ornamental way of saying nothing that can be pinned down calls to mind the language of the V2 documents themselves.
In addition to this, please remember that Guardini's gaudily written gems of liturgical meditation were produced long before 1970. They applied not to the anti-liturgical NO, but to the TLM. However, given the latter's de facto suppression (even in these post Summorum Pontificum days), a reasonable question to ask Dom Reid at his great big cirque de liturgique cum sales pitch is: CONNECT TO WHAT?? IT'S DIFFERENT EVERY TIME!!
"Perhaps it may be clearer, today, to speak about being “connected” to the liturgical action. Liturgical connectivity is what the Council called for, because it is by means of this connection Christ touches us and empowers us to respond to his grace with lives of faithful service. This is the motivation for the liturgical reforms called for by Vatican II."
ReplyDeleteSPIN! Like cotton candy, it reduces to nothing, except perhaps a tackily sweet aftertaste. First we were commanded by the "Spirit of V2" mandarins to follow in our disposable missalettes, gesticulate to our fellows on cue, act like we were enjoying ourselves, like at a successful cocktail party, and sing sing sing. Everyone knows how well that strategem of aggiornamento worked out. Now Dom Reid spins the message in a different, bacon-saving direction: what the fathers REALLY meant was "liturgical connectivity."
And what is that exactly? Well, mostly it means that, for now at least, Bugnini is out, Guardini is in. It means that we are expected to disavow what is happening before our eyes in the typical NO anti-liturgy, and interpret it through a foggy Guardinian lens. Forget the man behind the curtain -- Bugnini -- Teheran's favorite papal nuncio -- and embrace the foggy-minded generalities of a man whose ornamental way of saying nothing that can be pinned down calls to mind the language of the V2 documents themselves.
In addition to this, please remember that Guardini's gaudily written gems of liturgical meditation were produced long before 1970. They applied not to the anti-liturgical NO, but to the TLM. However, given the latter's de facto suppression (even in these post Summorum Pontificum days), a reasonable question to ask Dom Reid at his great big cirque de liturgique cum sales pitch is: CONNECT TO WHAT?? IT'S DIFFERENT EVERY TIME!!