On Pandemics

I intinct in a cup of lies.
I intinct in a cup of fear.
I intinct in a cup of shame.

I break bread not chains.
I break bread not stereotypes.
I break bread not walls.

I pass on a pandemic not peace.

Where is the cup of salvation?
Where is the bread of life?
Who will they say that I am?

- Chris Travers ‘09

Strong, Loving & Wise and Elements of Rite in Conversation: Book Review

Aidan Kavanagh’s book Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style is comprised of six sections dealing with the essential elements and intentions necessary for transmitting and recapturing the mystery, beauty, celebration and meaning found within liturgical rites. The book is written with the thesis in mind that, as clergy practices with regards to the Roman liturgy took on an understanding that the forms of liturgy as they are found tend toward the mere practice of narrow rubricism. As a result of this view, Kavanagh suggests that the liturgical style of presiders and the liturgies themselves took on a malaise all of their own. Implicit within this argument is the notion that the presiders own understanding and spirit toward liturgical presidency can and does affect both the form of a given liturgical rite and the ability of a given worshiping community to pray and celebrate. The intentions of clergy toward movement away from perceived rubric marginalization of the rites appears to be, within his presentation, a movement forward to provide liturgies that were relevant for the time and place of the Church. This understanding further points to an understanding that the intentions of clergy were to attempt to unburden the worshipping assembly and its ministers from perceived rubrical encumbrance. Kavanagh proceeds, in development of the thesis presented, to suggest that the lack of success resulting from the clergies intentions was not a lack of ‘good’ intentions but rather a misunderstanding of the nature of human ritual in general and the liturgy in particular. (Kavanagh 1982, 1-2)

In so far as an understanding that the Ten Commandments provide God’s creatures with a greater freedom through obedience than chaos ever can, Kavanagh has proposed that the rubrics of a given liturgy provide the ministers and the worshipping assembly with a greater freedom within the rites themselves. The premise behind such an argument derives from an understanding that the laws and rubrics provide both congregation and minister with the necessary boundaries from which to experience God’s grace, mercy, judgment and love which the liturgical act that allows retention of the acts integrity as both a ritual act itself and as an act of the communion of churches which celebrate them. (Kavanagh 1982, 2)

The book does not concern itself with the specifics of the rubrics themselves. Kavanagh lays out rather an explanation of their value and reasoning which sustains their usage as foundational for the rites. One cannot, be they presider or member of the worshipping assembly, attain the freedom implicit and explicit in the rites, he suggests, if they are subject to the whims and tastes of the liturgies presider. Liturgies that have been thrown together as a way of simply avoiding the perceived narrow rubricism, despite ‘good’ intentions often if not always have the opposite affect.

Supporting Kavanagh’s thesis are ten affirmations concerning the nature of Christian liturgy: 1) Tradition and certain good order are qualities of Christian liturgical usage; 2) The liturgy is hierarchically structured; 3) The liturgy is an act of the Church; 4) The liturgy requires focal points in space and time which are constant and stable, and which have about them a certain sober splendour; 5) The fundamental criterion against which all liturgical things, words, gestures, and persons are measured is the liturgical assembly; 6) The liturgy happens in space and time; 7) The liturgy is neither a text nor an audio-visual aid; 8) The liturgy forms but does not educate; 9) Because the liturgy is a species of the genus ritual, it is rhythmic and repetitive; 10) The liturgy assumes the closest correlation between visual, sonic, and kinetic media of expression. (Kavanagh 1982, 10)

Kavanagh presents a relevant, consistent and theologically sound argument for the practice of and participation in the liturgical rites of the Church that is profound, knowledgeable and cuts across socio-cultural movements through time. Through the presupposition that the liturgy is in all places and at all times the common expression of the worshipping communities prayer, praise and function as it pertains to God’s revelation, Kavanagh has written a book that provides clear expression of how best to provide liturgies that are faithful to an understanding that at any liturgical experience the participants are partaking in the prayer of the Church universal. While this understanding of Kavanagh’s argument may at first appear to negate liturgical reform and hold to an explicit narrow rubricism to which many clergy believe impedes worship, the foundation as laid out behind the his thesis provides a framework for liturgical reform and renewal that finds expression within an understanding of the Christian community that is free in obedience and grounded in scripture, reason, and the tradition of the Church.

In as much as, Kavanagh’s thesis is dealing with the liturgical rites and Robert Hovda, in his handbook Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy provides an approach to presiding and an understanding of the foundational material necessary to preside faithfully, they are in agreement along a number of lines of thought. In both cases, the author’s provide a structure that provides for freedom within the boundaries of rubrics in the liturgy, and what could be called rubrics for the body as the role of the presider. For both sound liturgy and sound presidency require an intentional framework that speaks in unison with one another that enhances the worshipping communities prayer and praise and avoids ‘sloppy’ practices. Both Kavanagh and Hovda, stress the importance of repetition in ritual which grounds and centres a worshipping community in the presence of God. Within the multitude of worshipping communities I have found myself over the years, disregarding variations in liturgical styles, the ones that were done with clear intention, reverence, planning and forethought provided the space in time and location that transformed worship from an event that was spectacle to an event that was prayerful.

Bibliography

Hovda, Robert W. Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1976.

Kavanagh, Aidan. Elements of Right: A Handbook of Liturgical Style. New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1982.