There is a wistful streak in human nature, leading us to long for the good-old days when the world was a better place. A few years ago, I visited the church in Peoria, Illinois where Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the remarkable Catholic preacher and television celebrity, had spent his youth. I was struck by a photograph of the altar in 1900, its marbles swathed in linen and brocade, and I wondered why things had to change. The 1890s was a high point of the old liturgical order when the directives of the reformed Tridentine Mass of 1570 were still followed to the letter. For some it was the last glimpse of a golden age revealing the way things were before modern liturgical reforms began.
In the late 1800s, American Catholic Churches on Sunday were often crowded with devout worshipers. The congregation stood for the Gospel, and sat during the sermon, but otherwise knelt from the beginning to the end of the service. The faithful were keenly aware of the awesome mystery transpiring before them but followed it at a distance. But apart from the moments when the priest raised consecrated bread and wine for the all to view, the assembly paid little attention to the actions of the priest praying quietly at the altar with his back toward them. Churchgoers focused instead on personal prayer, quietly reciting the rosary or reading their prayer books.
In the church law of the time, members of the laity were required “to hear” Mass on Sundays, although for the person in the pews, hearing was difficult. The fact that Latin was used hardly mattered. The priests and altar servers would exchange short prayers, but these were quietly said. Apart from the words of consecration, the most important prayers of the Mass were not said aloud. When the priest spoke, he did so only loudly enough to be heard by the servers, and those in the first few rows of the church. One writer describes ordinary Masses at this time as “silent apart from the homily and altar bells.”
The prayer books used by some worshipers offered meditation to be read, if desired, during the different parts of the Mass, but the selection and use of such devotional literature was a private matter. During the course of the Mass there were no responses or prayers recited in unison.
Many things in the Mass received little attention that we now take for granted. The liturgy was directed almost entirely to the act of transforming the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. A primary concern was assuring that the priest accord proper reverence to the Eucharistic body and blood of Eucharist by the priest, and every gesture of the priest was minutely prescribed. The placement of items on the altar was delineated, and there were frequent blessings and genuflections. At mention of the name of Jesus a bow was to be made to the crucifix. If there was a reference made to Mary, the saint whose feast was being celebrated, or the Holy Father, a simple bow to the Missal sufficed. As befitted what was regarded as the “priest’s Mass,” the celebrant stood alone and apart, with his back to the congregation. In liturgical books, he was admonished to maintain “a grave and modest deportment” throughout the service.
Scripture played a remarkably minor role in Masses of this era. The Epistle and a Gospel were read in Latin in a low voice. Only on Sundays would the priest face the people and proclaim the Scripture readings in English.
The reception of Communion by the faithful was not considered an essential part of the Mass, but as a separate ritual that might be inserted into the liturgy if necessary. In certain parishes, communion took place before or after, rather than during Mass.
Some devotional books recommended receiving communion before Mass, so that the entire Mass could be used as a period of thanksgiving.
Communion of the faithful was far less frequent than it is today, and young people were not allowed to receive the Eucharist until early adolescence. Following the lead of a popular Catholic book of prayer, there was a common belief that a “spiritual communion” was the more appropriate devotional act of the laity on most occasions. 1
Music played a relatively minor part in parish Masses. The congregations had some ability to take part in singing fixed parts of the High Mass. On more formal occasions, however, professional singers and musicians were hired, leaving worshipers little to do than listen respectfully.
American Catholics showed little interest in changing the old ways. In 1885, American bishops approved the Baltimore Catechism a summary of faith reflecting traditional perspectives: The role of the priest at Mass was to offer the sacred sacrifice while the laity were, as the Catechism emphasized “to pray and meditate…on Christ’s sufferings and death.” The separation between the prayers of clergy and laity, however, slowly began to give way.
A significant change occurred that same year, when Pope Leo XIII asked that the rosary be recited aloud by the congregation in the vernacular at Mass during the month of October. The following year, other vernacular prayers consisting of three” Hail Mary’s,” the “Hail Holy Queen,” a petition to various saints, and to St. Michael the Archangel were added to the end of the Mass. But as late as 1897, the Church’s Index of Forbidden Books still prohibited the the translation of the official prayers of the Mass into vernacular languages.2
Shortly after 1900, the first steps of what we know today as the “Liturgical Movement” took place. The nature of Church music was redefined and the age of first communion lowered. By the 1920s, English/Latin missals had come into use in the United States. Catholic scholars began to study the liturgical practices of the early Church. Annual liturgical conferences began to take place in Europe and in 1948, Pope Pius XII created a pontifical commission for the reform of the liturgy. During the 1950s the Easter Vigial and Holy Week rites were restored, and the “dialog Mass” became widespread in which the faithful were encouraged to take part in Latin responses formerly reserved to altar servers. All of this was a prelude to Vatican Council’s landmark decree, the Constitution on the Liturgy, whose main purpose was to enable ordinary Catholics attending Mass to “take part …fully, actively and as a community”.
The scholarship and pastoral insight underlying the liturgical reforms of Vatican Council II provided the church a solid scriptural and doctrinal foundation for the implementation decrees that followed. They brought Catholicism to a new level of awareness that tapped into the spiritualities of the Eastern and mission churches and opened doors for future developments. Parish worship took on a new life with increased lay involvement and congregational singing. They inspired the colors and sounds of vibrant Third World churches. Remarkable changes took place at all levels of the faith community. None of these changes have come without serious challenge by those drawn to the devotionalism and aesthetics of the Tridentine Latin Mass.
In the late 19th century, the prayers and readings the Mass were largely inaccessible to the ordinary layperson. In their place, popular piety resorted to devotional elements that spoke to the sensitivities of the time, but were disconnected from the spiritual and theological legacies of the Church. Notably absent was a place for God’s living word, a broad understanding of the Eucharist, or an appreciation for the communitarian nature of the Mass. The devout but silent worship of the 1890s was emblematic of a world that would not last. It was a stepping stone, but not an end point, in the history of the liturgy.
- For a classic compendium of Catholic devotional life in the 19th century, see Bishop Richard Challoner, The Garden of the Soul, A Manual of Spiritual Exercises and Instructions for Christians Who Living in the World, Aspire to Devotion . T. Haydock, Manchester, England 1812, p.90.