It struck me as wonderfully fitting that on this feastday of St. Cecilia, heavenly patroness of music, I would be discussing with my juniors and seniors today texts that, in different ways, are closely connected with her.
The juniors in Christology are reading Colossians, Philippians, and Hebrews. There is a particular verse in Colossians that has always been cited in connection with St. Cecilia herself, in the acts of her martyrdom: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts” (Col 3:16). The Psalter of David, above all, connects us with thousands of years of Jewish and Christian worship, and more importantly, connects us right now with the prayer of Christ and the angels and saints in heaven. We are so blessed that every day at the College chaplaincy’s principal Mass, the cantors and congregation sing, in Latin and English chant, the inspired words of the psalms at the Introit, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion, thus fulfilling the explicit wishes of the Second Vatican Council.
The seniors, for their part, in the course on sacramental and liturgical theology are reading Venerable Pius XII’s magnificent encyclical on the sacred liturgy, Mediator Dei, which includes an extensive treatment of the beauty of liturgical music and of chanting of the Divine Office, woven of “psalms, hymns, and songs.” Through the study of Pius XII and other classic documents, we learn better how to balance and relate the nova et vetera, the “new things and old,” that Holy Mother Church gives to us in her public liturgy—above all, how to celebrate the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite in continuity with the great Tradition of the Church, embodied in the Extraordinary Form. Even as Pope Benedict XVI desires and has legislated for the universal Church, so we celebrate both Forms at Wyoming Catholic College, with a sound understanding of how the active participation of the faithful is to be pursued through gestures, words, singing, and meditative listening.
In keeping with our emphasis on dignified public worship in accord with the best of the Church’s Tradition, the College community is greatly looking forward to the implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal, which will come into effect this weekend, the First Sunday of Advent. All students, faculty, and staff received a copy of the Magnificat Roman Missal Companion as a way of preparing for the change, so that we might have a better appreciation for the riches about to be made available to all. I want to highlight the closing words of Anthony Esolen in his splendid essay “On the Art of Translation” (pp. 15–24 in the Companion): “So when we pray in this [new] translation, let us not be embarrassed by beauty, by intricacy, by elevation, by mystery, by the potency of repetition, by fullness of heart and of expression. Let us instead consider every word of the Latin to be like the wine at Cana, and let us be grateful for translators who humbled themselves to accept that wine, without desiring to translate it back into water.” In a community like WCC’s, which, in keeping with Vatican II and the subsequent Magisterium, already warmly embraces the use of Latin chant, it can only come as truly good news that our English-language Masses will now reflect more accurately the beauty of the official Latin Missal.
Sancta Caecilia, ora pro nobis!
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Wyoming Catholic College, as well as Instructor in Music History and Theory.
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