By Br. Matthew Paul Grote, O.P. 

There is a new unity among Christians today, unforeseen and unwanted though it may be. But it is here, whether we like it or not. Across the country and all over the world, the churchgoing faithful have been given a new liturgical season, and we have all had to adapt it to our own various denominations. On top of this, our new season has come with its own liturgy! In the Roman Church we might term it the Novus Ordo Covidii, or—for those in the Anglican Communion—Rite III for Pandemictide, perhaps? 

However, in this Pandemictide, not all have been called and few have been chosen to attend in person, most parishioners being relegated to attending liturgy via their computers and smartphones. But, for those of us who are lucky enough to have been counted among the “elect,” we have already seen the introduction of fashionable new liturgical masks, and the increasingly popular Purell Sprinkling Rite! And though our new season is not without its drawbacks, as we struggle to implement our new Lex Orandi, our leaders within the church have not left us orphans.

A few weeks ago, I was privileged to attend a marvelous and timely webinar, hosted by the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes (CEEP) Network, in collaboration with the Anglican Theological Review and Nashotah House Theological Seminary. The webinar included prominent and distinguished speakers, the Rev. Matthew S.C. Olver, Ph.D., Marty Wheeler Burnett, D.Min., the Rev. Jeremy S. Begbie, Ph.D., and Geoffrey Williams, D.M.A., and was excellently moderated by Dr. Timothy O’Malley, Ph.D. The webinar, titled “The Role of Liturgy and Music in Formation” covered many pertinent topics which, I believe, are of some urgency in our modern church. 

In C.S. Lewis’s classic novel, The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape gives his young tempter a bit of sage—if infernal—advice: “Whatever their bodies do,” he says, “affects their souls. It is funny,” the demon continues, “…how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out...” As if in answer to this diabolical reality, Fr. Olver began the webinar with a talk which he titled “The Loss of Ritual in Covidtide.” In his talk, Fr. Olver offered a moving reminder of what it truly means to be a Christian: namely, to be one who worships at Eucharist and knows why. The sacrifice offered at Holy Eucharist, he emphasized, is the “most fundamental, primordial, act of praise” that we can offer, and that which gives the baptized their fundamental identity as a priestly people. Indeed, Fr. Olver continued, “it is offering worship together on the Lord’s Day that allows us to be fully human.” And it is precisely this physical, bodily, transforming, act of worship which so many are denied during this time of Covid-19. Not only are many salutary spiritual realities being “kept out” of our minds during this time of fear and hardship, but many are literally being kept out of liturgy. We need worship for our basic nourishment, and we cannot be sustained, said Fr. Olver, on virtual, or “drive-through, fast-food style,” liturgy. Instead, we must continue to be creative, and we must pray for the precious privilege of attending Holy Eucharist again if we wish to be who Christ has called us to be. 

Dr. Marty Wheeler Burnett spoke on the transformational power of liturgy and music for the faithful, especially for Christian youth. In her profession Dr. Burnett has traveled the country, as part of and working with many youth choirs. All the best choirs, Dr. Burnett remarked, had a common trait: they all incorporated active worship and careful study of the liturgy into their programs. Furthermore, it must be said that religious formation is a two-way street, for we—her members—make up the body of the church. If we allow the church to nourish us with the Scriptures and the musical traditions of our respective denominations, we will simultaneously be forming that same church by our active presence within it. It is this very active presence which Dr. Burnett emphasized.

Youth today, posited Dr. Burnett, have a renewed attraction to ritual and liturgy, but they want more than that—they also want to change the world. Transformation is the goal of these young women and men; they seek to be transformed through the grace of God that they might, in turn, transform the world. Is this not the command of our resurrected Lord: to set the world aflame, making disciples of all nations? If so, then liturgy is necessarily an integral part of that transformation. Expounding on the formational abilities of music and liturgy, Rev’d Jeremy S. Begbie spoke on what he sees as the two main ingredients of this transformation. 

Music and liturgy, says Fr. Begbie, have a twofold capacity: one for concentration, and another for representation. Fr. Begbie defines the capacity for concentration, in this context, as the ability to collect, consolidate, boil down, and clarify all the many (and often confusing) thoughts and feelings which live in the human heart. It is true that we often do not know how to pray, and for this reason St. Paul tells us that the Holy Ghost prays for us, and within us, with “unspeakable groanings.” The prayers, chants, and hymns of liturgical worship, according to Fr. Begbie, are not unlike this action of the Spirit who prays in us on our behalf. The job of music, and even of the collects and eucharistic prayers, is to show us not a mirror image of our own confused hearts, but to show us what it is that we could—or, perhaps, should—pray for. In this way liturgy has its second capacity, i.e., to represent us (both to ourselves, and to our Father who loves us). In this way, we are opened to God’s grace and, thereby, we are transformed! 

But how do we go about forming ourselves and others in the liturgy that we might, in turn, form the church as a whole? Dr. Geoffrey Williams says that it is through, “exposure and dosage.” Relating the story of his own upbringing as a chorister and sacred musician, Dr. Williams emphasized the importance of steady exposure to the wide treasury of the church’s tradition: not through doctrinal study alone, but through lived experience. Dr. Williams suggests broadening your experience of varying liturgical and musical styles, and—above all—engaging consciously in the scriptural and musical themes of the Sunday liturgy. It is through this “exposure and dosage” of what Fr. Begbie termed the concentrating and representing power of the liturgy that contributed to Dr. Williams’s own transformation. Dr. Williams now forms his students by leading them in worship and study in both Rites I and II of the English Church, and by providing them with continued exposure to her musical traditions. 

In short, sisters and brothers, if we wish to become a priestly people of the gospel, we must be transformed by the grace of God offered in the liturgy. We must participate, we must study, and we must share the fruits of our labors! In short, we must be Christians.

Br. Matthew Paul Grote, O.P., is a Roman Catholic religious brother in the Order of Friars Preachers, for the United States Province of Saint Albert the Great. While Br. Grote is currently studying for priestly ordination, his background is in liturgical music and vocal performance, having received his B.A. in Sacred Music from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. Before entering the Order of Preachers, Br. Grote worked as a choir director, vocal instructor, and church organist for Faith Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana, and St. Boniface Catholic Church in Lafayette, Indiana. He has also spent years in youth and adult parish ministry, in both volunteer and director positions. He is currently in his third year of graduate studies at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO, where he is pursuing his M.A. in Theology and his Master’s of Divinity.