Primacy of Gregorian Chant

This past April, for this year's Confirmation Mass, the bishop forbade the pastor of the parish from including hymns or chants in Latin. He said: "no Latin." And, unfortunately, the pastor obeyed him, which he had no obligation to do since the bishop is clearly contradicting the liturgical laws of the Roman Catholic liturgy.

Not only is Latin chant allowed, it is highly preferred for any and all Masses, especially the ones with the bishop, especially even cathedral Masses!!! Would that the bishops would get in line with the laws of holy mother Church regarding the liturgy! It would make our worship more sublime and our obedience to our bishops less perplexing! Thank God for His Holiness the Bishop of Rome who is doing his part in fidelity to the Latinitas of our liturgy.

"The Church recognizes Gregorian chant as being specially suited to the Roman liturgy. Therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."

Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116.

In the excellent autobiography on his conversion and priestly/monastic vocation, The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton (who nevertheless later in life went off to dubious doctrines and practices) mentions the sublimity of Gregorian chant and its timeless profundity in a couple of eloquent passages.

"But the cold stones of the Abbey church ring with a chant that glows with living flame, with clean, profound desire. It is an austere warmth, the warmth of Gregorian chant. It is deep beyond ordinary emotion, and that is one reason why you never get tired of it. It never wears you out by making a lot of cheap demands on your sensibilities. Instead of drawing you out into the open field of feelings where your enemies, the devil and your own imagination and the inherent vulgarity of your own corrupted nature can get at you with their blades and cut you to pieces, it draws you within, where you are lulled in peace and recollection and where you find God.

"You rest in Him, and He heals you with His secret wisdom.

"That first evening in choir I tried to sing my first few notes of Gregorian chant with the worst cold I had ever had in my life...

"It was the second vespers of St. Lucy and we chanted the psalms of the Commune virginum, but after that the capitulum was of the second Sunday of Advent, and presently the cantor intoned the lovely Advent hymn, Conditor Alme Siderum.

"What measure and balance and strength there is in the simplicity of that hymn! Its structure is mighty with a perfection that despises the effects of the most grandiloquent secular music--and says more that Bach without even exhausting the whole range of one octave. That evening I saw how the measured tone took the old words of St. Ambrose and infused into them even more strength and suppleness and conviction and meaning than they already had and made them flower before God in beauty and in fire, flower along the stones and vanish in the darkness of the vaulted ceiling. And their echo died and left ours souls full of peace and grace.

"When we began the chant the Magnificat I almost wept..." 379-380

He speaks of the Holy Saturday triple "alleluia" and the "Easter invitatory that is nothing short of gorgeous in its exultation."

"How mighty they are, those hymns and those antiphons of the Easter office! Gregorian chant that should, by rights, be monotonous, because it has absolutely none of the tricks and resources of modern music, is full of a variety infinitely rich because it is subtle and spiritual and deep, and lies rooted far beyond the shallow level of virtuosity and 'technique,' even in the abysses of the spirit, and of the human soul. Those Easter 'alleluias,' without leaving the narrow range prescribed by the eight Gregorian modes, have discovered color and warmth and meaning and gladness that no other music possesses. Like everything else Cistercian--like the monks themselves, these antiphons, by submitting to the rigor of a Rule that would seem to destroy individuality, have actually acquired a character that is unique, unparalleled." 401

It seems to me that there are no Trappist monasteries of men in America that do the Gregorian Chant so exalted by Merton! Why not a traditional Trappist monastery in America? I suppose it would be very attractive. Take one of the existing monasteries and just turn back to pre-1962. It probably would be relatively easy. Many of them perhaps still have the old books and the old monks who remember how to use them. With some traditionalist younger vocations it would probably make for a wonderful combination and a great success. I am thinking in particular of Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner South Carolina which has had a significant role in my life.