A Tale Of Two Musicians...

Well, ok... one musician and one hymn-composer. I'm being generous with the term "hymn."

Joseph Shaw has an excellent rebuttal of the rather mean-spirited (and rather skewed) comments from Paul Inwood on how there are dreadful priests who should be taken to task by their bishops when they do things to the liturgy which the people don't like.

The problem lies in one's idea of what liturgy actually is, of course.

If one believes liturgy to be people coming together to have a good time and a bit of a sing-along to praise God, then yes, the views of the people would matter. But, if (as happens to be the case) the liturgy is the official worship of God by the Church, then the personal likes and dislikes of the people don't actually come into play.

The Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form are two valid forms of the one Roman Rite. Both forms should be available for the people of God. Naturally, in the average parish, this means that one Mass is likely to have to be changed: it's up to the Parish Priest to decide which one that should be.

Of course, Mr. Inwood is probably still smarting because the corrected translation of the Mass means that pieces such as his Alleluia-ch-ch ditty and Gathering Mass settings can no longer be used, even in the Novus Ordo. And, in his heart of hearts, he possibly blames the Extraordinary Form and its adherents, because, after all, there is a certain gravitational pull from the usus antiquior. Something to do with the idea that this isn't just a celebratory meal, but it's a sacrifice, and we're at the foot of the cross on Calvary not a community get-together.

The gravitational pull is demonstrated in this excellent article by the musician I mentioned: James MacMillan has only attended three Extraordinary Form Masses so far, but he's been very positively inspired by what he's seen...