From May 28 to 31, 2019, Una Voce Canada members Theresa V and her daughter Maria attended a Sacred Liturgy Conference called “The Living Waters of the Eucharist” in Spokane, Washington. Members of the Latin Mass communities at Sts. Joachim and Ann Parish in Aldergrove, British Columbia, and Holy Family Parish in Vancouver, they were assisted by a bursary from Una Voce Canada. In a two-part series, they share what they have learned and experienced.
Part 1: Information, Impressions, and Inspiration, by Theresa V | Part 2: The Living Waters in the Sacred Liturgy, by Maria V
All photos courtesy of Marc Salvatore / SacredLiturgyConference.org.
For information about Una Voce Canada’s bursary program, please email info@unavocecanada.org.
***
The Sacred Liturgy Conference titled “The Living Waters of the Eucharist” was held the last four days of May at the Gonzaga University campus in Spokane, except for two Masses, which were held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes. Both the University Church and the Cathedral were so beautiful, with spectacular stained glass windows, large, captivating Stations of the Cross statues set off from the wall, and lifelike marble Calvary scenes above their respective tabernacles. It was so edifying, especially at the Pontifical Mass of the Ascension of Our Lord, to see the entire Cathedral packed full of people of all ages, women wearing veils, families, various groups of sisters in traditional habits, altar servers, monks, deacons, priests, and bishops. It was very moving! The music of the Schola Cantus Angelorum enveloped us and lifted us into heavenly contemplation of, and gratitude for, the mysteries before us.
The conference featured multiple daytime lectures by various keynote speakers, interspersed with two workshops that ran simultaneously throughout, one on “How to Celebrate the Extraordinary Form Mass” and the other on “Gregorian Chant 101 for the Ordinary and Extraordinary Form.”
We decided to attend the latter as we thought the former would be more suited to priests and altar servers. We also chose the Gregorian chant workshop as our family is very involved in singing chant at the Extraordinary Form Masses in three different parishes in Vancouver for various Sundays or feast days. We were very happy that we did, as the speakers gave so much insight into the history, value, tradition, and practice of chant that I am convinced that everyone would benefit from learning about it, whether as a singer or a listener.
For example, we heard two chants of Psalm 113, one in Hebrew and the other in Latin, and guess what? They sounded surprisingly similar, thus demonstrating the fact that the Jews have chanted the Psalms in their synagogues for centuries, and these chants are no doubt the forebears of Gregorian chant. Jesus could well have chanted this very one! Chant was therefore a natural feature of the early Church. We were inspired by the great and long history of chant in the Church, of Jewish and then Apostolic tradition.
We were also shown a map of all the numerous rites of the church, including Ambrosian-Gallican, Roman-Latin, Basilian, Chrysostom, Byzantine, PS rites, Antioch, Jerusalem, East Syrian, Alexandrian, Coptic, Armenian, Syro-Malabar, and so on, which were intriguing to review. There were people from some of the last few rites at my table! Apparently, all the rites continue to have chant in all the churches, except for the Western Latin rite! A speaker remarked that it has been shown that when a language is wiped out, the culture is then lost. Another incentive to keep up that Latin! Thus, Latin chant, a musical icon of Catholicism, is a way of preserving Catholic culture.
The conference covered a variety of topics and talks between the chant series:
- Nathan Schmiedicke, a professor from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Nebraska did two lectures, and you will never read the story of the woman at the well the same way again.
- Cardinal Joseph Zen spoke on the history of the Church and the Extraordinary Form in China. It is a story of great heroism in defense of Christ and His Church. I found it also interesting to hear that the Chinese people love Latin in the Mass, especially the young. Cardinal Zen showed a video clip of a Mass, with all the altar servers doing the same things that ours do, women in veils like ours, and the congregation singing the same chants that we sing!
- Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco gave some facts and reflections on Holy Water, and his comparison of rites in this regard will only confirm for you how imperative it is to have your water blessed and baptisms done in the Extraordinary Form!
- Canon lawyer Magdalen Ross brought the canonical (and sometimes “cannonical”) side to bear on various topics and questions.
- Dr. Peter Kwasniewski (a founder of Wyoming Catholic College) gave two wonderfully insightful lectures, one of them on Gregorian chant. He and other speakers reinforced the idea of chant’s benefit to mental and spiritual health. They pointed to its accessibility to both listener and singer through its layered simplicity, and its beauty that opens the door to experiencing God and to the higher faculties of the soul. They demonstrated how wonderfully diverse chant is, and pointed out that it is the largest body of developed melody known to man.
- Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, Executive Director of ICEL, was the celebrant at the Extraordinary Form Requiem Mass.
The conference enriched our souls with holy knowledge, Divine truth, and a greater appreciation of the Church and her traditions. In addition, we have been able to take this experience and inspiration and live it in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with an even greater sense of gratitude for the privilege of being counted among the faithful. Words are truly inadequate to describe such things.
I am grateful to Una Voce Canada for making it possible for Maria and me to discover and benefit from more fully the priceless treasures of the Church through this conference. May God bless you for your generosity and for your investment in the youth and your work on behalf of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite!
