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Liturgy

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Libuany

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VOL.6 N0.1

MARCH 1972

L I T U R G YVol ume 6, Number 1 / March 1972

EDITOR Is PAGE1

SONG AND CELEBRATION3Jean LEBONTHE CELEBRATION OF SEXT IN THE REFECTORY:A REPORT ON THE BRICQUEBEC

Jean-Pierre CHATELI N

EXPERIMENT7

PSYCHOPHONY IN THE MONASTERY or "MADAME AUCHER IN OUR MIDST"17Cl ai re CUSSETA CIRCULAR LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF OUR LITURGY COMMISSION23Gerard DUBOISMEETI NG OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERATION OF DIOCESAN LITURGY COMMISSIONS, AT THE MONASTERY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, JANUARY

Anthony DELISI

197239

THE FOURTH GENERAL MEETI NG OF THE CISTERCIAN FRANCOPHONE LITURGY COMMISSION:BELVAL, NOVEMBER 10-1 3, 197143Mari e-Cl ai re SACHOTTHREE ROYAL PSALMS WITH ANTIPHONS71Father Benedi ct of AvaFROM THE SINS OF MY YOUTH: AN ESSAY WITH THE TITLE 11AN ASPECT OFTHE CHANT REFORM CALLED 'BERNARDINE'"81

Chrysogonus WADDELL

LITURGY Bulletin serves to share with others whatever thoughts and expe riences may contribute towards the development of a living liturgy for today.

Manuscripts should be forwarded to: Fr. Chrysogonus

Gethsemani Abbey

Trappist, Kentucky 40073 USA)

1

EDITOR Is PAGE

So long as the undersigned is responsible for the redaction of our English-version Liturgy O.C.S.O., it seems unlikely that the Editor 's Page is going to be remarkable for the profundity of the thoughts there expressed. In point of fact, what I offer in this current issue is only a sort of brief Newsletter touching on a few unrelated topics.

First, a word about Liturgy itself. Most of our readers are aware

that we also have a French version which goes by the title Liturgie O.C.S.O.

When our Liturgy Colltlllissio first inaugurated this liturgy bulletin, it was presumed that the two versions (French and English) would always be

more or less identical as regards contents.This was an illusion which was soon dispelled.At a very early date, material contributed to one or the other language-edition dealt with matters so uni,quely French, or so- uniquely Anglo-American, that the idea of parallel publications proved impractical .

Since that time, however, contributions from the English-speaking world have been all too rare; and most of the material to appear in these pages has come to us. from French-speaking monks and nuns. It would bemost en

couraging indeed, were more material to appear in original English versions, and not in the tortured English prose which represents my attempts at ren dering French articles into a rough English equivalent.A more abundant in flux of English contributions would in no way diminish the steady and valu able flow of French contributions, but would simply mean a somewhat faster rhythm of publication.

Until the yery recent past, Dom Armand Veilleux of l1istassini, Canada, has been the equivalent of our 'Editor-in-chief". The pressure of abbatial duties has resulted in his request that a substitute be found, and his man tle has fallen on the very worthy shoulders of a confrere whom both Fr. Ar mand and I have known and loved since our student days in Rome -Fr. Jean Eudes David of Bricquebec . Readers of Liturgyare already acquainted with Fr. Jean-Eudes, thanks to his many and valuable contributions to these pages (which actually represent only a fraction of his contribution s to our French bulletin Litu:rigie). Poet, Scripture scholar, theologian, musician, monk and priest -Fr.Jean-Eudes is "ye compleat liturgist'.

2

'Dui;-ing the past several months, I've received a number of letters asking fo,r information about our Holy Week and Paschal Vigil project ap proved by our last General Chapter (April-May, 1971). Through some un accountable oversight, the project wasnl t submitted to the Sacred Congre gation for Divine Worship in the immediate aftermath of the General Chap ter. In late January I was with the President of our Liturgy -connnission, Fr. Grard Dubois, who, like me, had come to Rome to take part in several inter-Order meetings devoted to questions touching on the calendar, the Office, and a Monastic Lectionary Supplement (1'3,rd Nocturn" homilies), On this occasion we re-worked the "presentation text" in the light of recent legislation and developments . Fr. Gerard put everything into its final shape after his return to his monastery; and this was the version presented to the Holy See through the usual channels. I've heard nothing further by way of official correspondence . However, our Anglo-American Definitor,

Dom Bernard Johnson, has just informed me viva voae that the text has been

approved on a temporary basis, pending further and more leisurely study of the project by the experts in the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship.

Many of us are also deeply interested in the problem of inter-Order collaboration with a view to shaping up a monastic calendar common to the Benedictine Confederation and to the Cistercian Observances; and even more problematical is the question of a basic Office-structure and series of psalm-distribution schemes obligatory for the same monastic families. Af ter the inter-Order discussions held at Rome in early February, the Abbot General of the Connnon Observance, Dom Sighard Kleiner, took the initiative of contacting the Abbot Primate of the Benedictines as well as our own Ab bot General, with a view to arranging a "top-level" confrontation of the rpresentatives of the three Orders with Cardinal Tabera and Archbishop Bugnini. An interview had tentatively been projected for early April, if not late March. But so far, this plan has not been put into effect.

Deeply concerned as many of us might be, it would be a mistake to be come s o concerned that we lose our sensitivity to the really important things, Liturgy follows real life and authentic spiritual experience,

The future shape of our liturgy will be determined less by extrinsic fac tors than by the quality and intensity of our life in Christ. Our real con tribution to li:.twg;i::ca,1 rene'Wal, then, is- going to be our life in the Spir

it, From that, all else will follow.('s i.-

3

SONG AND CELEBRATION *

There are a thousand diff e.rent ways of expressing love or friend-

ship: f ran a p:>ern to a bouquet of f lowers; fran a sinple but deeply express ive gesture to the nost intense kind of silence, with inbetween stages

marked by w::>rds in greater or lesser abundance.The variety is limitless!

But one cannot interchange all these various fOllllS of expression; and it

is real love alone which always f inds the perfect expression. However, this does not mean that the best fom of expression is always the ItDst ref ined one, or the nost solemn.

The same is true for prayer.Music is only one neans of expression a m::mg many others; and the value attached to our prayer is not to be neasured acoording to the richness of the means enployed."For I desire steadfast love and not sacrif ice'' (Hos 6:6) "I hate, I despise your feasts'' (Amos

5:21 ) . These biblical citations serve to derrthologize the adage sanetines

used a bit thoughtlessly -To sillg is to pray twice.

Music and UnanimityBut once this has been said, it renains true that

sin]ing is one of the privileged neans of expressing our oc::mmmity prayer, because it f acilitates a certain kind of unanimity. Indeed, the very nature of our faith makes us pray with one single heart. How can we better signify this than by praying as of one sillgle voice? And how can we pray as of one single voice if we do not have the support of song?

Prayer of the Whole Man On the other hand, rrusic gives the words a reso

nance, a halo, an impetus of life which they

would not othe.l::wise have.

For quite sane tine we have been reacting -and rightly so -against a sort of mystic inebriation srrothered in billows of incense srroke and the

*This a:l'ticZe appea:l's with the kind permission of the Author, who is di rector of the IMS at LiUe, France, and of the Editors of the magazine

in which the French originaZ of this a:l'ticZe first appea:l'ed, Information liturgique aux communauts religieuses 14 (1971), pp .4-5. The principZes here enunciated appZy no Zess weZl to the celebration of the Eucha:l'ist than to the celebration of the Office.

4

lush sounds of a ranantic organ:all of which is like a musty whiff of neo paganism, against which our f aith always has to be on its guard.rut could it be possible that the pendulun is swingin:J too far in the opposite direc tiai?We a.re perhaps running the risk of celebratin:J in an overly cerebral manner, and of forgetting that we a.re oot only intellectbut also affectivi ty which should also have its role in the expression of our prayer.

So f ar as God is ooncemed, it does oot matter much whether we sin} or whether we do not sin:J;but so f ar as we a.re concerned, we have to be in volved in the totality of our be:inJ.When I pray , I sey what I am, but I also bec::ane what I say, I beccrce what I do. My prayer acts on me in a sort of boorerang return.If my prayer is only an act of my intellect, it will

af fect only my .intellect, without producirg rnuch of an ef fect on my af fectivi ty, and still less on my suboonscious.Now, it pertains to art to express

the inexpressible, and thereby to penetrate within myself at all the dif ferent levels of my personality.

The Feast of the "Saved"lt>reover, is it a real celebration if we celebrate

in a purely cerebral manner?Where then is that "feast" which man so badly needs?Where is that feast which se:rves as the prophetic and irreplaceable sign of "those who are saved"?Without this ex pression of joy at being saved, just what VJOuld our ccmm.mities be a sign of ? Aid it is quite clear that there is oo feast without music!

Rhytl!n and Contrastsane Christians react against singing.("I.et us alone so that we can pray in pea.eel '' )This reaction is nore

than just an q:p:>sition to singirg and to music as such;it expresses a dif f iculty arising fran an imbalance and an undue use of music as a means of pray:inJ.Let me explain.

If a celebration is 90.in;J to be dynamic, it has to have a rhytlmtic structure.No, it is oot a question of guitars, but of the structure of

the ce'lebration., of its dynamism. This structure has its surmdts, its points of tension, its periods of release fran tension.Now, rhythn -and this is a law of lif e and of art -is based on contrast . In their f ailure to grasp this, sane choir directors, with the very best of intentions, exercize their

holy zeal by insistinJ that everyth.i.n] be stmg.The ef fect thus obtained is the same deadly sameness characteristic in tines past of the "low Mass" , where all the texts were read, and were thus reduced to the indif ferentiated

Song and CeZebration5

saneness where everything sounded the sane.

For the sake of c:x:mcreteness, here are bD exanq;>les of contrast:

- Contrast between song and \\Ord: Af ter camtunion, a good hymn has

united the cx:mnunity in a unison song;then the celebrant follCMS t:hroU]h

with the concluding prayer , but a SJX>k.en prayer.If this prayer is really spoken weZZ, is there anyone who fails to experience the fact that this text is full of the music whichpreceded?

- Contrast between silence and music: This above-mentioned hymn was pre ceded by a real silence.And so one f elt that, even "t:lDugh the hymn was

very much sanethin::] which involved the whole cx:mnunity, it was also shot through with all the personal prayers expressed by each individual in si lence.

canbine these bvo exanq;>les, and you have a living structure with plenty of roan for breathin::], a structure such as m one will f ind encumbering. In much the sane way, it was Claude , I think, who said, "The IOOSt beautif ul thin] about music is the silence whidl follCMS."My dear brother-musici ens, let us make silence; or rather, let our nusic be in the service of silence1

I. et us have before all else a g ZobaZ percep tion of the celebration. I.et

our rhythms and our m:xlulatians not be the result of sheer f antasy , but the fruit of a liberty based an truth.If we really have this, our Christian brethren will be slowe;I; to get fed up with the Mass, our sisters will be less eager to get through the Of f ice as soon as :i;:ossible.

TruthThis is my conclusion.Sin;Jin;J does not exist in itself .'!here are f irst of all people, a singin;J carmunity \\h.ich perfQtmS the act of

sin;Jin;J.Because singing is an act, a gesture -every bit as much as a

f l.aver which one offers, or an outstretched hand.And this act of singing

has to be an authentic act, a true gesture.

We discover this truth only when we situate the action within its con text in the celebration.Why do I sin] or not sing for the entrance rite

or for the C'amrunion?Why do we ask the organ to be played during the pre paration of the gif ts? or af ter the hanily?'!he one responsible for these decisions always has to go beyond the letter of the rubrics, and be able to justify his choice with a real reason.This he can do only if he puts him self within the context of the given cxmnunity; and this cx:mnunity he has to

6

knCM throu:;Jh and through, he has to be aware of and feel its spiritua1 aspirations.There are sane days, sane periods or rocments, when the as sembly needs to sin], or to speak, or to remain silent.

We should sin], of cxrurse, and sin] well -so lcn,J as the quality of

our singin;:J is the sign of truth, so lon:J as we place our talent and our heart

in the service of prayer in cxnm:>n.But before all else, we have to sing "in spirit and in truth"

Trans Zation, Gethsemani AbbeyJean LEB:N

7

THE CELEBRATION OF SEXT IN THE REFECTORY A REPORT ON THE BRICQUEBECEXPERIMENT

GENESIS

For sare t:ine past there were already sane rranbers of the c::amnmity keenly aware of the ananaly and overloaded nature of the SUnday succession of Terce - High Mass - Sext - grace before meals - dinner - grace after meals.This led us to SU]gest to the camnmity, little by little, that,

thanks to the possibilities afforded us by the loi-cadre, there was amther

i;x:>ssible and doubtless nore desirable way of doing things.

As the first stage, we detached Terce fran this ensanble so as to pro vide for its recitation in groups. This experience of an Office celebrated outside its usual settirg gave us an initial preparation enabling us to ac cept still further evolutions.

There was another factor which likewise intervened. Towards the begin ning of 1970, the celebration of the Little !burs beJan to integrate elanents of prayer more specifically attached to the period of the day or the activi tie which. ,f()I]'OO:d the :hlJrJediate oontext of the celebration. In this way the prayer of Sext quite naturally evoked the work which had :imrediately preceded,

as well as the ireaJ. which.d Oa;in in just a few-minutes we were not

long iJl teeling,er, tha,t ext follCMed by the meal w,lth its prayers be fore and af ter, fOJ::IOOd a sanewhat re;retable doublet. Mention was several times made of the possibility of a celebration in the refectocy;'but this

did not result in an inmediate cx:mmmity consensus. However, we were not very satisfied with our refectory prayers. A nunber of us found than too ponderous, too f ixed.With a view to providing an answer to the desire for an arrelioratal version, tb::>se in charge of the liturgy shaped up a project. TlDugh this 'Benedicite" was maintained as an autanaoous prayer-fonnulacy, it see:ned to than that, in spite of everything, it ought oot to be reduced to too nod.est proportions. When this project becane the subject of criti cism, the request was once nore ma.de that Sext and the refectory prayers be joined in a single fOllllUlacy.

8

As a parallel devel.opnent to this liturgical evolution, the re-build ing and ref umishinJ of the storeys .inmediately above the refectory led us to realize to the full the importance of this place \\here the ccmnunity

gathers several ti.mas daily far an "exercise" to which the I:bly Rule attaciles so much importance, as we well kncM Vbat had before been only a big rec tangular rocm painted white and witmut character, acquired, through means involving a minimum of expense, a wann, pleasant atnK:>sphere.We retained

the decorative brick pa.vement, mich is quite interesting; but we stri

and sanded down the walls so that the original stones DCM appear -an ex trenely pleasing ef fect.Between the large concrete beams which support the upper storey we suspended a f alse-ceiling made of slats separated by spa.ces s'blf f ed with absorba.nt material.The visual ef fect is good, and the acous tical result is excellent.This point deserves to be noted, because the visual and acoustical enviromient thus created was antant f actor which facilitated our experll'nent.

The arran;Jaoont of the tables also had its inq;x:>rtance.A vestige of the traditional arran;Jaoont was retained, though the tables were placed on either side of the reader 's p.llpit (situated between 0...0 central windc:Ms

opening onto the nonasterycourt) , and the Superiors' table was placed

in such'

a wey that it f aces the reader.This leaves a rather inp:>rtant area

free in the middle of the refectory; this spa.ce, which is well lighted, has its area delimited nore or less by the arrangement of the tables, and it

foIIllS at one and the. sane time both the center of the refectory and an ideal place far the cx:mnunity to gather.

Vestil;ul-e

Reader

C;ross,.Of f iae

_,,I .I_,

'

The Celebration of Sext in the Refeatory9

When the work of reoonstxuction was f inished, the structure for a refectory celebration of Sext had already been sketched out by our group several months earlier; and this structure, while integratin;J the meal ti.ne "Bened.icite'' , .included all the elements of , and retained the charac ter of a canonical !bur.Further thought had also made it clear that an Of f ice of Sext celebrated in the ref ectory inmed.iately before the meal would make possible a better balance .in the horarium, and would thus fa cilitate the participation of a larger number of the brethren.

Af ter the new ref ectory had been re-occupied for a f eN days , the oan

munity launched the experiment on Easter Tuesday , April 13, 1971.

IMPLEMENI'ATION OF THE PIDJ.Err.

We f irst of all gj:.ve an outline of the arra,nganent of the Off ice. We

shall next oonsider a few particular points which it seems opportune to stress,either because of the problems these entailed f or the carrying out of the project, or sinply by reason of their general .interest.

A.lbw the Of f i ce Is Celebrated

The em of rroming work Con weekdays) is marked by the Angelus rung in

church.

Five minutes bef ore the Of f ice, the bells are rung in church again as a signal for the ccmnunity.

We gather in the central area of the refectory described above, and stand either .in a circle or .in a square.There is no hard and f ast rule; it depends on the number of those present.

We then have a sort of station in silence.When everyone is ready, the

Superior makes the sign of the cross. This is the signal f or the beginning

of the Of f ice. All make the sign of the cross, followed by a profound bc:M.

The opening verse is the usual "O God, care to my assistance Glory be

to the Father " (with Alleluia on Sundays and during the Easter season) .

H;y.rnn ("Le Fils de. Dieu ")

A single psalm, alternated distich by distich between soloist and choir.

The psalm we use at :present is Psalm 66with the antiphon "The earth has yielded its fruit,;t;or God, our God , has blessed us."

A. short ,rea,ding. As at the other Little Hours, this rea,ding is chosen , as a general .rule.,.in function of the Mass readings and of the particular lbur.

10

A slx>rt period of silence follsen at

the discretion of the cantor in function of the reading orof the Hour.

A prayer said by the Hebdanadary , the there of which bears on the

Hour and the meal which is to follow.

Then a short litany in which we generally find the following elements:

an introduction which includes a nention of Our Lady's intercession;

three intentions:the first one is often general; the ranai.ning two

concern our absent brethren and the departed.

This is fm:mulated. in such a way that acxx>lmt is taken of the Hour,

of the meal, and occasional y even of the reading. For instance:

We c:xnmand ourselves to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin

Mary, M:>ther of God,and we pray to you, O lord:

For those Y.dlo hunger and thirst for justice.

R. lord, have marcy.

For our brothers detained by their work.R. lord

For those who have cxxnpleted their task here below. R. lord... ' Then the Supeior introduces the recitation in cx::moon of the lord's

Prayer, and for this he uses the non-variable nnnition assigned to the Lit tle Hours: "And DCM let us all pray the lord's f>rayer together."

Imrediately after the lord's Prayer, the superior says a blessin:J of the following kind: "May the everlasting King of glory grant us a place at his table in his Kingdon.R. Atren. "

Each of the brethren goes to his place for the meal .

B. Ranarks

1. The PlaceSane brethren might experience a bit of difficulty at the idea of celebrating an Office in the refectory; but

the surprise would doubtless be occasioned nnre by the simple fact of a cba.n:Je in practice, rather than by a really deep reason. The notion of the dignity of the place which could serve as an ejection is extremely rela

tive. In any case, the quasi-liturgical context accorded the meal by nnnastic tradition seans to render the practice of having an Office in the refectory quite acceptable.

The CeZebration of Sext in the Refectory11

(2.The Material ArrangenentShould wekeep the traditional arrange-ment forthe ''Benedicite" , with each)m:mk at his place at table? We rejected. this solution for tw:> reasons: 0

- First of all, the question is one of celebrating that part of the Divine Of f ice which is the Hour of Sext.In other words, it is the "Bene dicite'' which is integrated with Sext, and not Sext with the ''Benedicite". It is preferable, then, that the arrangement adopted for the celebration not be the same as the arrangement of the cx:mnunity for the neal which is to f ollow.

- On the other hand, in our own refectory, the "Benedicite" arran;Jenent

of the brethren, with each one at his place at table,'WOUl.d not have suf ficiently respected the assanbly-aspect proper to the Off ice.It is true that, for meals, the entire ccmmmity is present (or at least, those who can be present) ; and all are present in the sane place;but, for all that, they do not fonn a really ooherent assanbly.Scatterin:J separate groups

around tables in a l.a;rge area, with still f urther gaps caused by the absence of sare of the brethren -all this corresponds better , if I dare sa::f so, to the oonvenience of ef f icient table service rather than to the exigiencies of

the liturgy.

On the contrary, the arran;Jaoont which we settled upon seems to answer

I

well to these tw:>atiyes:to make a distinction between the celebration

of Sext and the meal which follows,and to gather the a:nmunity togethe,r in an assarbly of celebration, but in a way which is simple and not overly cere IOOili.ous.

The problan obviously oould well be dif ferent in other places.

One detail raises a question at the yery start, and it hqs its imp:>r tance.For architecturalreasons, the cross was retained in the place it had previously occupied, "above" the ref ectoryere it would be nore prani nent.Should we not group ourselves in this area at one end of the refecto

ry?

This IX>Ssibility was envisaged, and was certainly not excluded a priori.

But in the f inal analysis it seemed better to occupy the central area de

scribed above - at least for the beginning of the experiment:

u

- The central part of the refectory is really and truly the cen-

ter of the locale, and it seems m::>re natural to foxrn a group there rather tllan at an extremity of the refectory.The better the ar ranc.:Jement f;ran a spatial standpoint, the nore it mideniably fos ters the authenticity of the celebration.

- Then too, 1:.akirg into acoount the general at:ran:Jenent of the place, the follll adopted f acilitates both the arrival of late-cx:mers and the table-serving.

- The rancirk wa,s made that , in point of f act, we have the same ar

ranc.:Jement m choir:there is 00 grouping around the crucif ix' but

around the altar (this is clear, and quite natural when the cruci f i)c is ne;t:ther an the altar, nor inmadiately behind it in the cen ter, but off to one side) ; and our profound bcMs are usually made

with choir f acing choir (rarely towards the altar) , and not witlx>ut

a profound reason based an our f aith:the presence of the Risen

One m the midst of those who are gathered together in his nama.

The crucif i)c serves only as a raninder or an evocation.

3. The SiSJllal fo r the Begirming of the Of f i ceNothing but the sign of

the cross made in silence by the Superior, and then by everyone together. No "shock" of bell-ringing (this is our practice, moreover, for all the Of f ices) : this fosters "pres ence" and attention to one another, recollection and tranquillity fran the

very be:Ji.nrliJYJ of the celebration.It is with regard to points as minor as

this one that we can appreciate the very great importance of details in volved in the carrying out of a celebration.

4. The PsahoodyIt seaned less desirable to us to have too much psalloody

for this lbur, especially when , an Sundays and feast.days , this Of f ice follows the b;rief interval af ter the ooncelebrated Mass.re aver, it seared preferable to be able to sing the psalms by heart.

Acoordinjly, up to the present time we have used, as noted above, cnly Psalm 66, which is well adapted to this lbur both by reason of its character

ot universal praise, of calli.n} down Godls blessing,and by reason of verse

7, which is used as an antiphon at beginning and end: 1

The Celebration of Sext in the Refectory13

The earth has yielded it fruit, for God, our God, has blessed us.

Nevertheless, we envisage the progressive enrichment of this psalm:rly,

and a variety in the choice of the psaJms acx:x>rding to the day.

s.The PrayerThe fo.xroulas we use sean suitable enough, but we need a a still greater variety.2One cannot ask the Hebdana

daries always to be ;Q:rp.:rov;i.sing, and this is doubtless not even desirable. But a greater range of choice would make possible a better adaptation to the oonc:rete cirCL1TIStances, and would render easier the minor glosses or m:xiifi cations of the text such as oould effectively make these prayers really meaningful for everyone

It would be good to have in this repertory of follllUlas a careful bal ance betlYeen universal or general intentions(we ought oot to forget that the prayer we should be expl"essing is the prayer of the Church)and those requests which oonc:Eml m:>xe particularly the ccmmmity (we ought not to be any less mindful of the fact that the prayer which roust be put into words ls the prayer of this particular group of brethren living hie et nunc in these particular cirCL1TIStances).

6. The Litany

The preceding rana.rk is oo less true far the litany. It will already have been remarked how the arrangement

of the intentions Satisfies this exigency. But we want to a:nphasize that

the proposed structure is oo more than a bare canvas needing to be filled in

It should be noted that the introduction to this litany includes a mention of Our Lady:one possible solution -one annng others -of the problem of "Marian antiphons". What we want is to ensure the presence of Our Lady at the very heart of the Office, and not in sarething tacked on

at the end, or at the beginning as a kind of preamble. Her presence within our Office should be at one and the sane time consonant with her dignity, with our devotion, and should be integrated hanroniously in the developnent of our prayer. This position, imnediately preced the lord's Prayer, seans to us to satisfy this exigency admirably well. But we repeat that

we are fully aware that there are certainly other possible solutions.

In the example quoted above, the Virgin Mary is greeted as Mother of

God.This title, which for Tradition is the title par exceU,ence, and which

14

best expresses Ma.ty' s sup.i;e-oe digru:ty, allows of nus variations based on the current litlll9ical feast ot season. It also lends itself to adapta- tions made according to our personal inspiration, thus enabling us to even better express in our devotion, and making it possible to thrCM into greater relief this 1'1a,ria,n element -. on condition, of oourse, that we re main within the bounds of disc;i;etion.Examples:M:>the.r of God and Mother of the Church;M:>tller of God and Queen of Citeaux;Blessed anDng vanen; Favored by God;Th,rone of Wisdan One can also saret.;bnes introduce an al lusion to sane.thing ;i,n the preceding reading or praye,r.The possibility

for variable texts is considerable (think, for instance, of the Litany of Our Lady) ; but we insist on the f act that discretionis absolutely neces sary.3

7.The Blessing

In the example given aboye, the Reader will have recognized the blessing given the reader of the

refectory in times past (do we need to recall, ha-rever, that this blessing concerns the entire assanbly as well as the reader?) .We adopted this text to start with simply because it was already conveniently at hand, and it has the advantage of clearly signifying that its ;function is to serve as the "blessing at table'' , which is also an element in this celebration, and npre particularly in the f inal section.

Nevertheless, here again it w::>uld be good to of fer the Superior a choice f ran anDng a number of variable fonmilas , according to the liturgical season.

Think, far instance, of the dif f erent oolor or nuance this blessing \\OUld

take on in Lent or in Eastertime .

FRJITS

What f ruits have we so f ar gathered f ran this experiment?

One manif est and brutal fact was , f irst of all, that the change was called for.When the Of f ice of Sext was celebrated in church, this Off ice was the one far whidl atten::iance was certainly the weakest.Since we have been celebrating Sext in the refectory, this Of f ice is one of the best so far as attendance is concerned, and this in a habitual marmer.

Apart fran this basic f act, which derives, no doubt, fran several rea sons,we can point out still otbe;J: advqntages:

- There is a. bette,r dj:ptinctian between the -various levels of celebra

tion: Sext does oot have the sane inp:>rtance as Mass or Vespers, and this

The Celebration of Sext in the Refectory15

acoordin]ly is clearly evident in the Jnanner in which we solamize these various celebrations.

- A progressiye educa,tion, th.rough actual exper;i.ence on the part of the cx:mnunity, in a new style of celebration.Thus, it is striking to see

h:Jw the arranganent adopted became progressively nore f lexible.In the be g.inning, thetoge was clumsy and rather rigid.Then, little by little, we sa,w the camJUili taking on a certain f lexibility, so that nUt undue fuss so as to open ranks for a latecc::ner , or manif est with s.inplicity the concem and attention -we have for each other. We perceived that, little by little, the ''tone" of the various spoken interventions be came simpler, no.re at the level of camnmication between brothers.It is also evident that the atnosphere is of ten calm and very interior.All this seans to mean an enr;i.chnent for the Off ice, and gives it a greater dignity.

There is, of course, still roan for progress. This was clear enough f ran a number of the remarks made in the preceding pages.

It is also quite clear that, in describing this experiment-experience, we have no intention of presenting our ON1l particular solutions as roodels to be mutated.We simply wanted to deal with a particular point, and bear

' s.inple witness to the enrichment we have recei:ved thanks to the lei-cadre.

Translation, Gethsemani AbbeyJean-Pierre CHATELrn

Bricquebec

N O T E S

1A slight detail. For the f inal rep.rise, the psalm-ref rain .reads as follows in th:! version we have adopted :

Let the peoples praise you, o Gcxl;

let all the peoples praise you.

But -we m:xlify the last line slightly: "Let all the peoples proclaim - " which leads, then, directly into the doxology: "Glor.y be to the Fa-

ther "In this way the trinitarian doxology becates of the object of the oonfession of f aith expressed in the f inal line of the psalm. Cfr. Jn 17:3.

2It is self-evident that not all available folllllllas an&Wer suf f iciently to our concrete situation.The French version of this Liturgy bulletin has furnished us with a number of suitable texts (nos.12-13, Novanber

1970 , and the current issue, no. 16 , February 1972) . But we still need

othertexts alo:1l3' the lines of the follCMing :

16

lord, with your word you nourished

Mary of Bet:hapy who listened at your feet,

and you received the devotion of Marthawho served you.

Through this meal we are about to take in your presence,

ma,ke us more attentive to your \\Ord ,

nore ready and willing in the service of our brethren,

today and ;for all eternity.

3We are not aware of undue exaggeration in speaking about the :importance of this elarent in our celebration, brief though it be. It is a fact of experience that this quite simple appeal forthe prayer of OUr Lady, foll.CMed by one of the titles dear to Olristian (and Cistercian) tradi tion, makes it possible to express with real depth and in a very hunan, realistic manner, the intensity of our Marian devotion.

To the extent that one can attarpt to explain this pherr.menon at the level of literary technique, it seans that it is precisely the possi bility of havin;J a variable foDnUla which is m:>st effective. The "ir ruption" of sarething unexpected within a fixed, pre-detennined setting or structure, but where this "sarething unexpected" is not an elsrent of surprise, fosters attention and ensures that the word spoken and re

ceived is marked with truth and authenticity.In this context, there is ro longer a question of quantity.

As we remc::irked with regard to the prayer, the same holds true for every' discreet, appropriate gloss or m:>dification of familiar faonulas - provided that the ccmnunity is prepared for this.

17

psycaopHON N THE MONASTERY

or "MADAME AUCHER lN OUR MIDST "

Transl ator 's Note : The title terrifies.But it really seems to be a fair ly exaat translation of the original, Frenah: La psychophonie au monastere ou: ''Madame Auch.er parmi nous'' Contrary to one 's initiaZ impression, 'psyahophony ' is not a speaies of deadly viPU.s infeation or a special kind of mass psyahosi s; "but the T'X'ansZator is hard put to say precisely what it reaZly is. The massive Heaths Standard French and English Dictionary, even with the 1955 Supplement, is of absolutely no help . Even the casual reader of the foZZowing Unes wiZZ easily gather, however, that ''psyahophony" must be some kind of physaal-spiritual disaipZine whiah comprises in its scope elements of voiae-training, eurhythmics, meditation, yoga.

The adventure began on December 17, 1969.The Ccmnunity , like the rest of France, was in the grip of a f lu epidemic. At 9 A.M. on that norning, three of us were called to Reverend Mother 's off ice:w:>uld we agree to

leave for the rocmastery of Ia.val at noon of the sane day? A session on voice culture was to be held there from Decanber 18 to the 23rd A good nunber of those who had enrolled had to cancel their enrol.hrent because of

the f lu, and the organizers of the session were t.I.ying to f ill up the gaps

Abraham, pack your bags and go to the land that I will shc:M you.

This oountry which we were going to discover and to begin to explore during the oourse of this session at Ia.val, under the direction of Mlle Michalon, was indeed a badly kn:>Wn, even unknown oountry -our own body.

We were going to leam hc:M our body, when rightly understocx:l and loved, can be a marvelous f actor of haxm:>ny within us and anong us, a \\Underful instru ment for camrunication, for sending out and receiving vibrations.What were the beSt things we learned during the oourse of our f irst oontact with psy cbophony?HcM to breathe, hCM to relax, how to sleep, how to produce a

sound in a fully conscious act, hCM to ove.rc:x:::ne sta.ge-tright, hCM to listen, hCM to perceive the na,tural rhythm of our life, of life in general

Fran April 14 to 19, 1970, we participated -this tiloo gladly and whole heartedly -in the 100re advanced session directed by Madarre Aucher at Angers. This session at Angers was marked f or us by two discoveries: the discovery of Madame Aucher, with her dynamism, her radiant spirit and gCXJdness, her extra-

18

ordinazy gi:et for openness, CXJllllUil:i..ca"Uon, intui:tion; and then, the dis oovery of riches tj.11 then unknown but yet doi:roant withjn us' the disoov ery of that factor of u.n!ty which a::mes about when we f ind and share with

others our intertor riches, Might I not say that, at Angers, we better

grasped what love is, we better grasped love's power to liberate and to create?I think that Madane Aucher wanted to make us sensitive to the filf icult problem of a:mnunicatianwhen she placed before our eyes, in her opening talk, the l.Drd who stretched out his ams on. the cross.

Durin} these days we came to realize particularly that Madame Aucher 's teaching went beyond, in all its dimensions, the l.llnits of what we usually speak of as ''vocal teclmique'' We had the feeling that many of our sisters would have been able to take fran her teaching a tasty, bracin3 f ruit, and

that even the Whole cx:mnunity could f ind a great deal of help in what

had to say.But, an the one hapd, we recognized our total inability to set ourselves up as "monitors of psychophony'' ; and, an the other hand, if still other sessions were to be organized, two or three sisters at best might be able to prof it fran these sessions.

Then one even.in;J , in the cou;rse of a prj,,vate conversation, Madame Au cher asked us about our monastery. How many nuns did we have?What was the average age? etc "I'd be happy to conduct a session of psychophony for your cx:mnunity."We could hardly believe our own ears.But then, hCM were we goin{1to make our ccmnunity really want this session, since we were al ready receiving so Imlch help thanks to the tireless devotion of Mlle Gounard, the noted teacher of vocal technique?

It so happened that, a few days af ter our retum to the m::inastery , corwersation turned to the preparation of the coomuni:ty feastday "'1.ich traditionally takes place every year on Mothers' Day.We of fered to ini tiate our sisters into Madame Aucher 's method for spontaneous canposition. Proposal accepted.The technique was duly explained, and the volunteers divided into six groups.We had two weeks available, and the maxinrum of

liberty as regards creativity.In order to f acilitate the participation

,.

of the greatest nunber possible, we also organized a workshopfor free ex-

pression with follllS and colors. Qlrs was the joy of discovering natural

gif ts ch had heretofore gone unsuspected; we had the joy of disoovering each other under a nfM aspect -talent for poetry, for IIUlSic, f or choreo graphy, for humor -talents \'bi.ch all along had been prudently slumbering

Psyohophony in the Monastey19

wrapped up in cotton like Christmas-manger figurines in their cardboard boxes, and which, once awakened frcm this long, long sleep,uld be able to give perfect expression to a whole wealth of rich experience so as to render it cx:mnunicable to others(This sort of thing is rare in a style of life which doesn t encourage much by way of relaxation in cx:mnon. )

The carmunity was converted. The canpositions were sent toAu cher, along with an invitation for her to remember what she had proposed.

So fran Novariber 16 to 21, 1970, we had Madame Auch.er in our midst.

There were twenty-five sisters enrolled on the official list of participants; ten others asked to assist at the conferences as obsei:vers; and the evening choralrk gathered a still greater number of amateurs.A certain number of observers, however, soon abandoned their relatively passive role and becarre

active participants in all therk and exercise; and they even asked for

the chance of havin} private sessions with Madane Aucher. The sane phenan

enon took place at the second session held at a later date.

This second, IOC>re advanced session took place last Noveajber, fi:om the 15th to the 20th. Madane Auch.er was aca:mpanied by one of her pupils.Sev eral took note of a difference of intensity between the two sessions.The first one had been awaited and follc:Med with enthusiasm, but without a real ly profound interior grasp of the essential of what was taught; the second session made it possible for a good number of us to experience this teach ing in a deeper , rnore personal way, so that the results produced were rnore conscious and more lasting .

Experience confi.nned Madane Auch.er s judgment; teaching which, in an initial stage, is grasped only confusedly and in part, makes its way in the sub-soil, only to expand and flourish above ground at a later stage of growth. In particular, this teaching attains its full efficacy when it can be received by the cx:mnunity as a whole -even though the levels of parti cipation may differ -and within the ccmnunityin the setting of its day to day existence.

The first advantage of havin:1 suchrshops within one's CMil m:mas -

let's be realistic -is financial:the cost of such a session roughly e quals the expense incurred by four or five members going to another cx:mnuni ty for a similar session.

20

AIX>thertqge, at the level o;f our maW and hl.lllail carxiiti.on, is this;a session outside one's cmmunity i.nevitqbly necessitates time and the effort to edapt oneself to a dj,fferent environment (place, rorari un, persons, liturgical life, etc ) , and all this represents a certain kind of going outside onets true self 1 one has the feeling of being sane

of a. stra,nger or outsider.But a session held in one' s own nonaste:ry

is integrated into the setting and rhythm of camnmity lif e, so that the religious doesn t have to leave his normal surroundings. This means that there's no real ''dis-traction" or dispersion; silence and quiet remain

just as noxmal.And in this milieu of day to day life, each person re:nains perf ectly his true self , so that the OCll1lOil exercises are gone through with out dif f iculty or tension -even in the case of the nore timid individuals.

On the other hand - and always at the practical level -the exercises included in our session were in large measure adapted to our CMn liturgy,

to our CMn church, to our own style and to our CMn liabilities.Reoo.t:dings

were made , then subjected to criticism in c::amon; f aults were oorrect.ed, advice was given, we W'.)rked on new pieces, or went over old material, etc

A much deeper benef it was situated at the level of our camrunity life of sisters living together. When teaching is received in OCllllOil, and fran the sane source, this can create a perception shared in OCllllOil , it can fos

ter a oarnon ideal; and all this cannot f ail to facilitate unity in the area of liturgical expression.The session also gave us the C>pIX>rtunity to krXJW each other under a dif ferent aspect , to appreciate possibilities or qualities which Madane Aucher knew hcM to draw forth and bring to light;it also helped us to better understand each other 's dif f iculties.It 's quite cer tain that our judgments became oonsiderably nore serene, more objective, kinder.Finally, the f act that we had beoane oonscious of the way in which each person reveals hilllself or herself , and ocmnunicates with others by maans of the tone of one's voice and by one 's attitude -all this enabled us to observe and set aright the wey in which we ourselves present ourselves to others, and to get the knack of seeing how others present thanselves to us,

so that we can know hcM best to be open to them.

There still remains to be stressed the nost :inp:::>rtant aspect: the bene

f it received at the spiritual level. This is also the nost dif f icult aspect

Psycihophony in the Monaster y21

to describe: each of us perceived it in function of her own spiritual bent, and each of us will live it and develop it acce>ruld doubtless provj.de plenty of material for study by a spec;i.alist in spirituality.Here I can do no no.re than try to point out a few orientations aitK>ng many others:

- First of all, it"s evj:,.dent that hampny in our relations with one's own self , with those who are around us -and even our hal:nony with all be.in;Js and with the cosnos -oone of this can be disassociated ;f:ran the ha.l:nony of our relations with God.

Next:

Help fo,r our preyer and especially for our lif e of prayer throu:Jh the practice of ''cerebral respiratiai" , of maintaining an interior vision, and of havinJ a f lexible, open attitude;

Integration, manducation, incarnation of the word as spoken, sung,

rhythmed;

Discipline and sublimation of instinctive drives;

Receptivity of one's whole being to the vibrations (whether of so\llld or of silence) which reach us f ran every source; pc:Mer to receive the \\Ord, but also to camrunicate at a level beyond \\Ords; the pc:Mer of personalities who, while being in the \\Orld, are able to dif fuse peace, purity, love ("This is the radiance of the saints, of contanplatives. '' - "But then, do

you know what this really maa.ns?the Incarnation!" - "But of course ")

All these are f amiliar theres, but they take on a new intensity , a new

reality \'tlich is bcxlily \\bile at the same being no.re truly spiritua.l.

We 're gratef ul to you, Madame Aucher 1

Trans lation Gethsemani Abbe yClaire ClJSSEI'

I. es Gard.es

Novanber 29, 1971

23

ACIRCULAR LETTER

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF OUR LITURGY COMMI SSION

Note: This letteP was sent by FP. GePard Dubois, PY.esident of our OPder's LituPgy Corrunission, to all SupePiors of the OPdeP.The contents, however, are of general intePest both to Cistercian and Benedictine PeadePs from

the Pank and file. The letter deals with two topics:

1- A Benedictine-Cistepcian pPoject foP a Calendarium Monasticum Gene rale.

2- The question of an Office-structure and psalter-arrangement comnon to the Benedictine OPder and the two Cistercian Observances.

o.c.s.o.

Liturgy Camnissian

(M::>ther ,)Dear Reverend Father ,

M::>nt-des-Cats February 19 , 1972

The purpose of this circular letter is to aa:pllnt you with the results of the survey undertaken last Decanber 28, dealing with theGeneral Monastic Calendar, and also to give you the results of the meeting of the "mixed" Ccmnission (OSB-OCist-OCSO) mich met at Sant' Ansel.Iro, Rane, on February 1 and 2 of the current year.

To this report I' ll add a f ew ref lections meant to serve as a reply to:

- ranarks or wishes expressed in the questiormaire retm:ns;

- to the questions raised by our Procurator General, Dan Vincent Her- mans, af ter his meeting with Dan Sighard Kleiner, Abbot General of the Camnon Observance.These questions were raised by Dan Vincent in his letter of February 16, sent to a number of dif ferent Abbots, in particular to the Presidents of the various Regional Conferences. My CMn reply is made at the request of Dan Vincent himself .

This circular letter, then, is divided into four parts.

I. RE&JLTS OF THE SURVEY OF DECEMBER 28, 1971

I received 75 replies f ran 41 nonasteries of nonks OJesides the personal reply by our Abbot General) a,nd f ran 33 nona.steries of nuns (or: 50.6% and

73.3 % , which.. canes to a total of 58.7% of our houses) .

24

For the npst part, evexyane is agreed that we can envisage a cx:irpro

mise on the points roted in the questionnaire.Changes .in the dates of

the various celebrations o;t:;fer no dif f ;tculties. 'l\..U replies point out, how

ever, that August 30 i$ the Aim.iversary of the Da:lication of a number of

our churdles;but in the particular calendar proper to each m:m.aste.t:y , the cx:mnunities in question ca,n celebrate Sts. Am3deus and warren (or St. Amedeus only) on August 31.

However:

1. A quj...te strong oppost,tion is against the suppression of M:mastic All Saints, Novanber 13; 50 (25 + 25) In other 'WOrds,thirds of the replies.Only 2 .repliesessa:l agrearent, and 3 seared to express a di vided opinion. The ranaining 20 said nothing.

AmJ1l3' the .reasons in f avor of retaining the feast, in spite of the

Sola:nnity Of All Saints, Novanber 1:

- Sane say that the liturgical texts oould express aspects of the

.nonastic lif e which .receive little or no menticn in the Novanber

1st celebration;

others point out that we're dealing with a f amily feast.

A nmnber answer the argurrent invoka:l in the d.ra.f t of the project (our m::>nastic saints are already included in the Novanber 1st celebration) by sayin:J that, if this argument is correct, we ought to suppress all the feasts or rnaroria.ls and be content

with the Novanber 1st celebration.This reply is mt without its hurrorous aspect ..but it 's mt wholly convincing.Th:>ugh it might

be true that a g e n e r a 1feast ought mt to suppressi n d i -

y i d u a 1 feasts of the saints, it 's hard to see that we ought to have t'WO g e n e r a 1 "All Saints". The similarity between the t'WO was stressa:l in the Latin breviary, noreover , by the f act

that the antiphons for November 13 were borrowed straight fran the Off ice for Novanber 1.

2. There was m majority consensus reached, but a .rather :i.n'qxlrtant num

ber (31: 18 + 13) were mt favorable to the introduction of a second feast of St. Penedict, especially during Lent.

- This ''doublet'' \\OUld not be in keeping with n.SOb of the General

No;ons of the :F,anan Calendar;

- and the m::>tive which led us to opt for the July 11 sola:nnity (which was jn the Order 's calendar as the ..Translatio SPN Benedicti" at least ran the 13th century till 1871) was precisely that of leav ing Lent relatively free of feasts, oo as to give primacy to the lenten liturgy.

- Moreover, since we already have two other feasts (o.r ad li.bitum sola:nnities) ofpatrons; the Foonders of c tea.ux, and St.

Bernard, we have less reason than the Benedictines to introduce a second f east of St. Benedict (even though March 21 is also the

A Cira-uZa.r Letter from the President of Our Liturgy Commission25

anniversary of the foundation of citeaux} .

H:Mever, there were 3 ,qpTh$teries which expressei agt for a second feast on Ma,rch 21, and 2 others were di.vi.ded or hesitant. On the contrary , 4 preferred that we care ha.ck to a single sol.elJility, March 21.

3. 16 m:masteries (9 + 7) were aga,inst admitting the Dedication of the Later as af e a, s ton Novr 9. (The dedication of a churdl, it was said, is essentially a1 o c a 1 f east.} 11other replies expressed agree ment and even satisf action with regard to the rank of celebration proposed.

4. For St. M a r t i n9 replies asked why the marorial should be raised to the rank of a feast, while 7 others expressed agrearent with the proposal.

5.On the ot.ha- point:

7 pref er that St. ;I?eter Damia,n rauain optional;

1prefers that Gregory of Nazia,nzen remain o!\January 27.

There were yet other desires expressed -but these faJ,led to concern those points which represent a departure of this draf t of a Calendariun Genera.le f rcm the decisions of the General Chapter of 1971; rather, these wishes represent abjections to the decisions of the General Chapter.They will be dealt with in the secx:md section of this report.

As regards thep r o c e d u r eto be followed in theinstance in which the members of the mixed Cdmli.ssion OSB-OCist-OCSO can cane to an agreement:

monks (36 replied to this question) :

29 agree to the Abbot General 's presenting the mixed Ccmnission 's project for the appxobation of the Holy See; but one adds that, should a doubt arise, we ought to wait till the June neeting of the Consilium Generale;

1rallies in advance to whatever the majority of replies indicates;

1refers the matter to the judgment of the President of the Liturgy Ccmnission;

4 say tha,t we at least ought to have the advice of the Consiliun Generale, even though (one reply adds) the af fair is one of lesser

.importance;

1wants to have a vote of the abl:x:>ts by correspondence.

26

nuns

22 agree to the Abbot General's presentin] the project for the appro- bation of the Holy See;

1wants a general oonsultaticn of the nonaste.ries on the f inal shai;e

of the project;

1 says that we ought to have the advice of the Cansilium Generale.

II. REFLECTIONS NDJr SCME OF THE REMARKS MADE IN THE IONNAIRE RElURNS A- On a n 0 sepa,rate occasions (Camtl.ssion re[X>rts and minutes; Acts of the General Chapter of 1971 Jp.44 of the French text]; :Praenotaroa of

the Ordos for 1971 and 1972) it was stated clearly that all the saints .in

the Ranan Calendar could be taken ad li.bitu:n by each m:mastery, but that the only saints which \'nlld listed in the Ordo or in the calendar for the whole Order would be:1- o b 1ig a t o r ycelebrations, and

2.- celebrationsp r o p e rto our Order .

The General 1-Pnastic Calendar (draf t circulated last Decanber 28) adopts

a scmewhat dif ferent practice in that it also includes somao p t i o n a 1 marorials :oot proper to us, and taken f ran the Ranan calendar.It makes, then, a certain selection fran am:>n;J the Ranan mem:>rials whidt would :oot be obliga

tory for us (but this wouldnt t keep those who desire to do so f ran taking yet

other celebrations fran the Ranan Calendar, even though these were not .re tained in our own calendar:once again, any celebration in the Ranan Calen dar can be adopted by any of our xoonasteries as an optional celebration)

This n:eans, then, that tot>gw that St. Justin or St. Josefh the Worker or St.1 Ranuald once IOOX'e appear in the Dec. 28 calendar project really neans very little: they could have been celebrated even without being explicitly

rcentioned in the calendar; on the ccntrary, to regret the fact that, in the new calendar project, we f ind the optional nerorials of the First Ranan Mar tyrs on June 30 (not an ''All Saints" for Ranan martyrs, but a celebration of the particular group marty,red in the Vatican Circus under Nero in 64 A.D.) , of St. Sixtus II, or of Pontian and HiPIX>lytus -this,too, has little

real mean:in]:since these celebrations were already in the Ranan Calendar, they -were by that very title (and ranain so) f acultative for us. Noth:in] has been changed, except that the explicit rcention in our calendarium Generale has thereby resulted in a certain emphasis -which, of oourse, can be a rea son of satistac-0..on or of regret, deperding on one s personal preferences.

So too, to CCJgi;>l.$ a,bout the emission of St. Pius V or of St. George, or to express surprise that we 've ''excluded" or "suppressed" or "refused"

A CirauZa.r Letter from tfie President of Our Liturgy Commission27

the Inmaculate Heart of Maxy, St. Maria Goretti, st. Damasus, or St. Nicholas -this simply has no real maaning: these nerorials are inscribed in the Ranan Calendar and are in no way excluded fran being celebrated by us, should we so desire; they simply renain optional for us, just as they are optional celebrations even in the Roman Calendar.There were no parti cular reasons to render than obligatory, nor even -in the perspective of

the General Mtnastic Calendar -to call special !..attention to than by an ex plicit mention.

On the contrary, one ndght question the f act that certain JnellPrials o bligatory in the Rana.n Calendar were lef to p t i o n a l in our own calen dar (butn o tsuppressed) , such as the Dedication of the Lateran or the Guardian Angels. In the latter case, the reason was that, in keeping with our earlier tradition, the feast of September 29 proposed not just the three arch an:Jels, but St. Michael anda 1 1 the An:Jels.So did we have to .inp:>se

the obligation of celebrating a second ccnmarroration of a group of particular an:Jels (the October 2 celebration had been in our Cistercian calendar only since the 17th century; useless, then, to invoke St. Bernard) ?Helpful remarks with

regard to these various cases can be found in the Minutes of the Liturgy can-

mission at Viaceli (1969) and Roscrea U970) .

B- The object of the present revision was lbnited to the m:lnimum required to arrive at an understanding with the Benedictines and the othe,r Cistercians (OCist. or Camon Observance) concerning a c:x:moon p,roject for a General Mo- nastic Calendar; and also to take account of other exigencies manif ested by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship.

This is why:

1- We did not feel that we had a, mandate to call into question the Proper of the Order approved by the General Chapter of 1971.We were unable, then , to act upon certain suggestions such as that of grouping the members of St.

Bernard's f amily on the same day: Gerard, Humbeline . ; or that of making St. Bernard an obligatory solemnity or, on the contrary , a simple feast; or that of making St. Peter of Tarentaise obligatory:

,2- Still less could we have proposed new solutions for points ccmnon

to the Roman calendar and our own, and already settled in the Ranan calendar:

not only did the General Chapter of 1971 ratif y our confOJ'.Irtity with the Raoan prescript.ions, but, also,

our departure f ran the Ranan nonns would have rendered our consensus

28

with the other m:mastic Orde;rs still iro,re dift'icult, since these 'WOUld

have had to accept our CMn ''particularities".

Moreover, it was unreasonable to hope that the lbly See \\Ould have granted us anything we might have askai with regard to a departure fran the Ianan JlOllll. In spite of the ;fact that were retaining a latin but non Ranan calendar, the Holy See has decreed certain ncmns which hold good e

ven for this kind of calenda,r.

a- Thus, it ;is j:rc;x>ss ;ible to have a different o;r:ganizatim of the litur gical year (far inst.a.nee, by maintaining the Pentecost Octave) ;

b- .inp:>ssible, too, to .lllscribe as o 1 e m n i t yor af e a s t

a:m:oon to us and the Rana,n Calendaran a day other than that of the Ranan Calendar (Instruction of June 24 , 1970 , n.23) .This holds good for Epiphany and for the Solannity of the Body and Blood of Christ: we have to take into acoount the no;on which f ixes these solemnities to their properday - Jan.

6 and the Thursday af ter Trinity Sunday in rountries where these days are

of precept; elsewhere, the Sunday following Jan. 1 an:1 the Sunday af ter Trin ity Sunday.Our Calendar project has to be urrlerstood in the sane way.This principle holds good, too, with regard to other suggestions proposed: to aII>hasize the Christmas Octave by transferrin:j elsewhere the feasts of St.

Stephen, the Holy Innocents, or the H:>ly Family; or to replace this last feast by that of the Holy Nane of Jesus; or to reduce St. Josepi to the rank of a feast.

c- It was sjmilarly ;i.Jrp:>ssible for us to re-introduce feasts which are oot proper to us, and which were dropped fran the Rana.n Calendar: the Precious Blood (July 1) , the Holy Narre of Jesus, the lbly Name of Mary, or even the Reception of the Crc:Mn of Thoms.

Sane of these requests for calendar changes derive, it would seen, fran an .lllsuff icient understanding of the Ranan refonn.

- 'llllls, the suppression of the :P e n t e c o s tO c t a v edoesn't

resultra\lly lack of devotion tcMards the H:>ly Spirit, Wt fran a perfectly correct (and ancient} understanding of the nature of the Easter Season, which is an extension of the Paschal Solanni.ty by 7 x 7 days: that is to say, by

an octave of weeks.The Easter Season is a single, great "day" of the Pasch. (This is why we m longer speak of the 1st, 2nd, 3ro $llrldeysa f t e r

Easter, but rather of the- 2nd, 3rd, 4th SUndayo fEaster.)The SOth

A CirauZar Letter from the FTesident of Our Li-tur>gy Commission29

day c 1 o s e sthis pe;t;i,od.'lb prolon;J it by an additional week would result fran a flure to grasp the character and true nature of the Faster Sea.son -which is wha.t happened sta,rting with the 7th century.St. Ia:> knew oot.hin;J ot such. an Octa,ve aeter :Pentecost, and the Fa.stern Rites have

always retained the custan o;f closing the Easter Season on Pentecost evening. This is why it's incorrect to write that "the Fa.stern Cllristians must :think of us as ba:tbarians."We should note that, in the new Missal, the last

week of the Faster Sea.son is devoted to the expectation of the lbly Spirit. Sane of the texts are even taken fran the fo.i:rrer Pentecost Octave; and the "Veni Creator" f itsbefore Pentecost than af ter

The ;ijnposition of the Nane of Jesus is carmarorated in the solamity of January 1, which is the 8th day af terisbnas, theday on 'Vbich the Nate of Jesus was actually given to the newo-bom Child.There's oo reason

why one oouldn 't sing, ;for instance, the fa.nous "Iesu, dulcis neooria" during Benediction.

The Precious Blood is celebrated a.t the saire Ume as the Body of Christ (Solannity of the Body and Blood of Christ) .

For a better under:rtanding of the Rana,n ref onn, see the of f icial camen

tary in the Latin edition (lane, 1969) of the CaZendariwn Romanwn.

III. RESULTS OF THE CALENDAR MEET AT SANT' ANSEIMO, FEBRUARY 1AND 2

A:- Fr. Dumas , o.s.B., a manber of the secretariate in the Sacred Congrega tion far Divine Vlrship, gave us to understand that this Congregation oon sidered it .inp)rta,nt that the Foman Calendar should be the basis of our

proper calendar , and that ituld not accept too great a singularity on

the part of us .naiks.

In point of f act, howeye,r, it seaned to us tha,t to adoptap rio r i

the Pallan calendar, and to be satisf ied simply with adding oursaints,

-v.ould be to adopt a. p r i n c ip 1ewhich might well ha.ve haxmful oon sequences at sane la,ter date -not only for the calendar (we wuld have to foll.cM in deta,il the J:uture evolution of the Foman Calendar with regard to the new saints who.will surely be added ) but especially far other ques tions, the Off ice, for instance.If we adopt the above principle for the calendar, we might run the risk of always being told, nFollCM the Ranan Rite.''

30

We rejected the p,i;inciple dese,ribed above -that of an a prioX'i a lignment with the RalJan Wendar; but in order better to enSQI'e our own

:p:>Sition, we wanted to avoid an\\hi.ch might serve as an obstacle to the oonsultors of the Sacred Congregation for Divine W::>rship, without in any wey being really .iluportant for ourselves.This is why we re-exanined the list of feasts and ofo b lig a t o r ynenorials in the :Ebnan Calendar , with. a vito our not diverging fi:an it in too unreasonable a manner .

For the feasts, the only difference was St. Lawrence, whan we had as am e m o r ia 1in our project. We felt that th.ere was no serious inoonvenience involved in our keeping it as a feast.

In much the same way, opposition to the feast of the Dedication of

the Lateran didn't involye a majority (16 replies out of 75, with llexpress ing explicit a;Jreemmt) ; so we thought it best to ref rain fran opposing this feast in the narce of the Order.

With. rega,rd to the 63 obligatory nerorials of the Ianan calendar:

only 26 {of which 2 -St. Benedict and st. Martin -had a higher rank) were ;included in the project described in the letter of Decerrber 28. This nunber seared too reduced to be defended in a discussion with the Sa cred Congregation, especially since the greater number of the menorials we anitted were already in our fonoer calendars (for us, the calendar approved

in 1965) .

In order to obtain a nore balanced proportion, the Benedictines

admitted as obligatory for than too the 10 msrorials which our own General Chapter of 1971had already accepted as obligatory {Paul Miki, Cyril and Methcxlius, Polycarp, Charles I.Man.ga, Pius x, Our Lady of SorrcMS, Therese

of Lisieux, Presentation of OUr Lady,Martha, Mary , and Lazarus,Francis

xavier) ; accordingly, for these saints now included am::>ng the obligatory me norials of the General M::mastic calendar, we' 11no lonJer have to include than in the Proper of our order.

There were 9 other nenorials which seerm to be of such general interest that it was a bit dif f icult to refuse t:ben as d:>ligatory in our present context: Tinothy and Titus, Perpetua and Felicity (since they always cx:me in :rent, their celebration is by that very f act f acultative) , Justin,

Boniface (a 100ilkl , Bona;ventu,re (;iroportant doctor of spirituality) , OUr Lady

'

of the a:>sary.r Chqrles Bo,rraneo Conly represent.qtive of the Tri&ntine re-

A CirC!U Za:l' Letter from the Pl'esident of Our Liturgy Commission31

newal) , Cecilia, Jolm o;f; the Cross.These nenorials \\Ould be obligatory.

There were two other obligatory menorials in the Ranan calendar which ooincide with IIetPrials proper to our General Monastic Calendar. These tv.o nonastic nenorials will have to be obligatory so that they can replace the Ranan ones: Theodore the Studite, November 12 (to replace Josaphat) ; and Gertrude, who remains on her dies nataUs (in the place of Elizabeth of Hungary. In a pa,rticula,r calendar -in Gennany, for instance -Elizabeth

of Hungary could be giyen pxecedence over Gertrude, if there is a particular

reason for this; a,nd Gert.rude would then be celebrated on the 16th)

The rena.ining 16 marorials of the Ronan Calendar \\Ould be only facultative in the General Monastic Calendar (Francis de Sales, Jolm Bosa::>, .Agatha, John Baptist de la Salle, Cather;i.ne of Siena, Philip Neri, Anthony of Padua, !Duis

de Gonza;rue, Alphons de Liguori, Jea,n-Ma.rie Via,nney, Clare, Mary Queen (we celebrate Our Lady under the title of Queen of Heaven and Earth on August 15) , Monica, Vincent de Paul, Gua,rdia,n Angels (included in the galaxy of angels celebrated on Septanber 29) , :Wey.

St. Martin remains a feast as in our earlier project (only 9 replies were opposed, so f ar qs our own Order is conce,rned.St. Benedict had a spe cial devotion towards St. Martin , "prophetis oc:mpar, apostolis conserte ") .

St. Peter Damian remains f acultative.Only 4 of the Ranan Rite op tional lllE!l"Orials have becane abligato.ry in the Qrdo Monasticus: Gertrude, as already explained, and the 3 saints alrea,dy accepted by our General Chapter of 1971: Anselm, Bede the venerqble, and Bnmo.

This neans that 45 of the 63 Ranan Rite rretDrials are likewise obliga tory in the General M:>nastic Calendar.2 of these have a higher rank: St. Benedict and St. Martin.(And the Benedictines, in their proper calendar, are also raising the rank of St. Grego.ry and St. Scholastica. }

B- Monastic Saints

The neoorial of the Founders o;f; ctteauxf;L.xed in the General Caleniar on Janua,ry 21; but our own Order (and the Ccmron Observance) , in raising the rank, tra,nsfers it to January 26 , and puts Sts. Tim:>thy and Ti tus on the 27th.The Benedictines ha,ve adopted the maoorial o;f; our Abbots of ctteaux qs an ob]J.gato;ry ine:norial; and it seared suitable for us to do like wise wi.th. re:;q.rd to the memorial of the Abbots of Cluny, the list of which rJ:M mclud.es 1 besi.des Odo, Ma.leul, ee above) , the mercrial of the Transitus of St. Benedict on ]1arch 21 (which remains, in the General calendar, a

nerorial in keeping with the des;ire expressed by IIJallY in our OJ:der; but since it always f alls in Lent, it au1:anqti.cally becx:mes a ;facultati.ve mennrial) ; Pach:anius, Maur and Placid.This neans that there are, then, 6 obligatory nerorials \'bi.ch a,rep r o p e rto the General 1-bnastic Calendar; and, to

these, our a-m Qrde;r has added Aelred, Illtgard, Eugene III, and Guerric.

The feast of JYPnastic All saints13} will be inscribed in our Order 's calendar (and that of the camon Observance) , since a rather large majority is in f avor of retaining it.

The points wch rial in 1971) .

and of st. Lawrence and St. Martin (both ooligatory lYIEJOC>rials in 1971) .

12 m3tPrials are DCM obligatory rather than optional (ooe of which is new: Theodore the Studite) ; for the list see the end of p. 30, and the 1st canplete paragraph on p. 31, to which should be added the Abbots

of Cluny.

st. Hilarion has been replaced by st. Sabbas.

The change of dates nentioned in the letter of Decari>er 28. (The date for St. Pachanius isn't yet certain; the adv;tce of specialists has been asked} .

rJ. EVENI'S CWERED BY lXM VINCENI'S LEl'l'ER CF FEBWMY 16 , 1972.

On ;February 17 of the current y , Dan Vincent net with Dan Sighard Kleiner , Abl:x>t General of the Cistercian Order (camon Observance) Dan Sighard told Dan Vincent that the Ablx>t Pr:imate of the Benedictines had pre sented card:inal Tabe.ra (head of the Sac.red Congregation for Divine W":>rship) with the result of our calendar session at Sant ' AnselllD. The cardinal was quite sati:afied; but "WOrd of IOOUth had it that M_". Bugnini was of a dif fer ent opinion: accardi.ng to him, we llD1lks ought to accept the Ianan Calendar

as is, and be content s:imply with adding to it our avn proper saints.Dan Sighard Kleiner x-ecalled the f act that the Cistercians have always had their own proper liturgy, even though, for the Mass, they adopted for all intents and purposes theMass rite in the 17th century. Ikln Sighard is afraid that the result of our havin} projects in CClt11Dil with the Benedictines, in keeping with the letter fran the Congregation dated July 8, 1971, will be

A Circ:uZar Letter from the President of Our Liturgy Commission33

the eventual loss ot our rite to a particular liturgy.He agrees to the idea of a set of camion principles to detexmine the shape o;f the liturgy in

the various m:>nastic Orders; but he wants to maintain our own proper denani

nation "C i s t e r c i a n'' (even with regard to the calendar)

Dem Ranbert Weakland, Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, is able to share this point of view; and he has agreed to speak about it with Cardinal Tabera af ter his return to Rane... around Faster, alonSighard Kleiner

and our own Abbot General (or, in his absence, Dem Vincent) ; but it's neces

sary that we are all really in agreanent.

Dem Vincent answered, f irst of all, that, in our own Order, we didn 't insist to the sane extent on the need of having a proper liturgy, since, in

the f inal analysis, the new Ranan Rite is richer in many respects than our own;

and, in point of fact, we've already adopted the Ronan liturgy in part.

But Dem Vincent has consulted others, and has asked what their opinion is.

It obviously pertains to the Abbots to say what they want with regard to this question. Here I can do no m:>re than indicate a few thanes for ref lec tion, in order to help fonn sane idea of the situation.What follCMS , then, is only a sort of status quaestionis.

1- The Sacred Ccn]reqation for Divine V:>rship and Its Desire for Unif onnity

This desire is quite manifest; aiid -with regard to what concerns the calendar -we were informed of this when we met for the calendar session

at Sant ' Anselm::>, asappears in the preceding report (see above, III A) . The reader will have noted that we didn ' t feel we ought to rally around the Ranan Calendar pure and simple; while at the same time we wished to be perf ectly "reasonable" in the position we adopted.

Were it exclusively a question of the calendar, this concern for unifonni ty expressed by the Sacred Con]regation for Divine W:>rshipwouldn 't be too serious.But this policy rould well extend to other p:::>ints.(Recall, f or instance, what happened to our request for a Cistercian Ordo Missae. We al-

so have to be concerned about the Cistercian Ritual.)

I believe that rather many want to ensure a certain pluralism which would respect our own pa,.rticula,r situation, which is cU.f;ferent ;fran what one f inds in a pa,rish. or mrotl9 the secula,r clergy.In this line we have to do all we

can to ruwe applied to ourse what Pope Paul VI wrote to the Carthusians in April, 1971: "Your vocaticn has gradually given shape to a particular liturgy,

34

and this liturgystrivi.n;;J to mamtain, since it corresponds to

your solitary cont.anplatiye lif e.The Church does oot reject a certain pluralism in the man;i.festation of religious experience and in the expression of divine worship, so long as the dif f erent ways of seek.in;r Gcx1 and honor.in;r

him counsel such a diversity.And so the Church approves th::>se sound no

nastic traditions which, if they are observed in practice with great care, contribute a great deal to the growth of that aith and spiritual fervor which gave than birth."This, noreover, is in line with nn. 4 and 37-38 of the Constitution on the liturgy.

2- Should We Try to D;i,Sl;J,Ssocjate Ourselves f ran the Benedictines?

a- Fran the standpoint of the Benedictines, we f ind a similar desire for "pluralism" and a certain distance to be respected as regards dependance on the Ranan Rite.At our Calendar seesion,I took note of the fact that Dan Ranbert Weakland, Abbot Primate of the Benedictine ec..ttederation, was

wholly decided to do what he could so tha,t ironks need not be constrained

to align tl'anselyes on theRite pure and s.inq;>le, or to adopt a mti.fonn liturgy in all the ironasteries.In this sense we have ooth.ing to fear fran collaboration with the Benedictine brethren; indeed, if it's true that there is strength in union, then perhaps the Benedictines can lend us a support which we ought not to neglect.

b- It CX>Uld be objected, listolic See.

But fran the m:roent the Ranan Rite and the other Latin rites cany out a refox:m based, one.fik tradition anterior to these codif ications, and on the other hand, on the actual needs of our generation, it's dif f icult to

see in what respect our own "rite" should be characterized, apart f:ran points of detail, ,particular usages, local adaptations -all inp:lrtant,

of course, but much too minimal to constitute a proper "rite".This line of reasoning (already apparent during the course of the Liturgy Ccmnission sessions at Viaceli and Roscrea.) is exactly what notivated, one may believe,

the article which appeared in the January, 1972 issue of Notitiae , pp. 17-18,

which justif ied the abolition of theD o rn i n ic a nR i t e. Its juri d ica,l sitj._onthe sqne a::1 ours (even though the Daninicans might be

;irore involved tha,n we a,re in pastoral acitivity) .

Of course, we ought not to go so f ar as to urge the abolition of our rite:this lNOUld have practical inoonveniences, especially for our Ritual;

but we ought not to have too high an estimation o,f the {30lidity of the founda

tions oa Cisterc 19.te

36

- 'lb what extent w:mld a Cistercian Rite obli9e the tw:> Observances

to do the sameand to a,dopt the same orientations with regard to the libl.rgical novanent? I'm sj:nply asking the question. It 's chief ly at this level that there are sanet.Unes dif f erences of viewpoint between the Liturgy Camri.ssions of the two Ordgrs. This is doubtless what Dcll1 Vincent 's letter referred to -even though, at the February meetin:J at Sant' Anselm:>, there

was little occasion for these dif f erences to be really apparent.We also

have to add the tu.rt.her practical dif f iculty:two dif ferent General Chapters, each one autonanous. How, in practice, can decisions be made in cx:mron?

c- But to return to the question of collaboration with the Benedictines,

I believe that, as regards the calendar , such a collaboration presents no dif f iculty.But is it the sane for the other point m:mtianed in the Sacred Congregation 's letter o.t July 8, 1971 -that is to say, the structure of the Ofice and the distribution of the psalms?

The Benedictines, of course, want as much as we do, even .irore, perhaps, that not:hin;J bei m p o s e d.But in their preparation of psalter-schenes to be proposed as ''nodels" , will it be possible to take into account our CMJl concrete situation? I don't dare af f inn it.Take, for instance, our Sc:hene B. It represents one of many dif ferent ways of dividing the psalms over a b> week period, with the repetition of certain psalms. Objectively, it might not be signif icantly better than sane other schare; and it's understandabl e that the Benedictine experts an the mixed CCmnissian should look for a nore objec tive principle for the distribution of psalms: certain options, for instance,

characteristic of the new Ranan Breviary.But we have a weightlyp a s t o -

r a 1reason to justify our wish that, for us Cistercians, Schane B be re tained arrongthe schare-types to be prqx:>sed: nore than 50 of our nonasteries already are us.in] it.can the Benedictines and ourselves cane to a practical agrea:nent? (So too for a sch.aoo dividing the psalms over a week-long period,

without any repetitions. It's already alm:>st certain that the schene to re

proposed will be that prepared by Fr. Ftiglister, and not our CMJl Schene c.)

It seans that, at this level, our dif ferent Orders have each its CMJl needs corresp::md;i:,ng to cilf.terent situations, and tha,t the line of action requesta:l by the Sqcred Co1:9regation for Divine lj)rship will be extranely dif f icult to follc:M; it might even be impossible. We 'll doubtless have to

. 9ive a report about Ws to the Sacred Congregation. (We could also invoke

the f act that our three schanes for psalm-distribution were al.ready approved

A Ci-.rCJU Za:r Lette:r from the President of OuP LituP(Jy Commission31

"ad experinentun'' by the Sa.c;red Congrega.tion -o;i;; rather, the Consilium - in the indult Of Decenber 15, 1967, Pr.n.3394/67.}

Hav1rY:1 sa.id all the above , if the line of action prqx:>sErl by ran Sig hard. Kleiner seens better calculated to obtain the possibility of having our particular situation, our sound :m:>nastic traditions, and our neErl for "ell:x:w roan'' respected,Ipersonally am not opi;x::>sErl; quite the opposite (though I don t want to hide that f act that our refU]e behW a so-callErl ''Cistercian Rite" involves sore slight measure of artif ice)

And it ranains for me only to excuse the length of this circular letter,

and to assure you of my best wishes

In the !Drd,

f . Geratd .Dulx:>is (signed)

President of the LitQJ;gy ccmnissj.on

..

39

MEETINGOF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OF THE

FEDERATION OF DIOCESAN LITURGYCOr+'IISSIONS

MEETI NG HELD AT THE MONASTERY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

January 1972

Nineteen members of the !bard of Directors of the Federation of Dioce san Liturgy Ccmnissions gathered at this Abbey of the Holy Spirit fran Janu ary 18 - 20 of the current year. This Federation was first set up two years ago for pranoting liturgy as the heart of Christian life, especially in the parish ccmnunity. As a professional organization of liturgists, they are to assist the Arrerican hierarchy and individual bishops in their leadership in the area of liturgical education and developtent. Their Constitutions give the following goals and purposes for the organization:

a- To foster and (X)();rdinate the wor.k of liturgical cx:mnissions as they affect the needs and utilize the resources of their people.

b- To gather, dispense and cxmmission infonna.tional materials which will aid individual cx::mni.ssions in car:rying out educational and praootional programs in their respective dioceses.

c- To oooperate with the Bishops'Carmittee on the Liturgy [=OCL]and its Secretariate in the sponsorship of national maetings of Diocesan Liturgical Camri.ssions.

d- To serve, in an adviso:ry capacity, the !CL, especially on matters to

be proposed to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops =NCCB].

e- To bring results of pastoral experience to the !CL.

f- To encourage and facilitate the legitimate adaptation of liturgical rites and cererronies to the Arrerican culture as envisioned by the Con stitution on the Sacred Liturgy, n.39.

g- To be the nediun through which diocesan cx::mni.ssions can contribute re spansibly and effectively in articulating the voice of priests, reli gious, and laity in the developnent of liturgy.

40

At ti.mas the work of the Federation becares quite f rustrating. Like rrost liturgists, they have many suggestions tohelp i.nprove the liturcu.

These in turn are coordinated and passed on tOthe Anerican :ocr...The :ocL

in tum submits their choice to the NCCB for vote.During the past year saoo 15 propositions were presented to the OCL;and of these, only six were presented to the Anerican bishops to be voted upon -of which rrost

were rejected.O:lnrmln:Lon in the hand was one such point that f ailed to get

to the f lr to be reconsidered; and yet the Federation keeps speaking stroIYJ ly in f avor of it.

The Federation would like to have ;restuli.ed the. enti;te penitential rite of our present Ordo Missae.This rite is badly placed.It rrore properly should follc:M the hanily and be associated with the sign of peace and recon ciliation.OUr entrance rite is too cx:::nplex.For weekdays it might be re

duced to a sinply greeting and prayer.This rite of introduction should stress the preparation for prayer rather than for penance.Mditional Eucharistic Prayers and a nore f lexible use of them is to be hoped for.

Duril'YJ the January m=eting held at this Abbey, the Board directed much of their ef f ort to the grass-roots level.It is hoped that xoore materials will be turned out for the education of the laity.Once this task is accx:m

plished, it is hoped th.at nore positive ooncern will be fortha::ming f ran those in authority.

HaViIYJ kncw.n sare of the Board nanbers as fellc:M-students at the Univer sity of Notre Dane, and havil'YJ net others during their stay here, If eel con f ident that they are cacq;ietent to accx:1Iq:>lish the tasks they have set for them selves.They have placed ne on their mailing-list, and I intend to fOJ:Ward material of interest to Liturgy.

The Federation of Diocesan Liturgy CCJnmissions lacks due representation by groups of religious.;ct is hoped that saoo change wi.11be made in their ' Constitutions,and in the near future they intend to vote for a possible dlan.ge in thei.t' makeup,and to change their tiUe to "Federation of Diocesan

and Provincial Liturgical cam:d.ssj:...ons''.Far the present, the only way a reli gious is able to beoaoo aof the orga,ni:_za,tion isby being f irst a m:m ber of a local diocesan cx:mnission.This presents problems for us Cistercians.

Meeting of the Boa:l'd of Direators of the FDLC41

I do hope that the day will a:ire when we will be able to share directly

in the positive work being done by the FDIC.

Anthony DELISI

Al:bey of the Spirit

43

THE FOURTH GENERAL MEETING OF THE

CISTERCIANFRANCOPHONE LITURGY COMMISSION BELVAL NOVEMBER 10 - 1 3, 1971

This year it was the Abbey of Belval (Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise) which

of fered the C.onmission its generous hospitality.The simple , smiling wel cxrre -attentive and yet discreet -given by the ..Mother Abbess and her Ccmnunity was much appreciated by everyone taking part in the sessions.

The than!p:roposed for our ref lections was that of "Litw:ycal 'play '

(jeu) and the conditions it requires."

Our ireeting began on November 10 , 1971, at 2 :15 P .M. ; and the f irst session was operied by Fr. Gerard Dubois of Mont-des-cats, President of the Order 's Liturgy Camri.ssion, and. new President of the Cistercian Franoophone Liturgy Ccmnission (ran Eimlanuel Coutant, Abbot of Bellefontaine , had had to

resign. for

reasons o health) .

First of all, a letter ;fran IXlm EMnanuel was read.He assured us that

we would be remembered by him, and he gave his every encouragerrent.The feel ings of our group were evident; and Fr. Ga'ard expressed, by way of return,

our CMn regret, our gratitude, and our best wishes for the newly resigned for

mer President of our Ccmnission.

The new Secretary-Treasurer, Fr. Jean-Eudes David, Ironk of Bri , who remains in chaxge of the carmi.ttee for Texts, was next presented to us; and he took up his duties as ncderator of the discussion without nore ado.

A brief introduction of each nenber taking part in the session ma.de us all aCXJ:Uaintanoes.

Besides the above mentioned President and Secretary, the follCMing man

bers were present:

Fr. Clarent de Bounront {Bellefontaine) , head of the Music carmi.ttee. Fr. Paul Houix (T:imadeuc) , head of the Conmittee for Info:onation and

Fo.IInation; and member of Ccmnittee for Texts.

Sr. Eillnanuel (Soleilm:mt) , member of the Music c.cmni.ttee.

44

Sr. Jeannine Huyghe (Belval) , manber of the canmittee f or Inf o:rmatian and Foxma.tion.

Sr. Marie-Pierre Faure (Charrbarand) , member of the Ccmnittee f or Texts.

Fr. Marie Goujot(Sept Fons) , member of the Carmittee for Texts.

Fr. Paul-Emnanuel Spies (Orval) , nenber of the Music Ccmnittee.

Fr. Placide Vernet