Artful Buildings Artful Liturgy

In our beautiful, masterfully crafted buildings where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, shouldn’t the Mass itself be just as rich in detail? After all, these stunning structures were created to honor the victory of Jesus Christ’s resurrection over sin and death.

Sacred music, especially the works of masters like Palestrina, Byrd, and Bach, complements the text of the Mass in ways that elevate and open hearts and minds to God's grace. Likewise, exquisite works of art—crafted from wood, glass, gold, and silver—serve to tell the story of redemption in Christ.

Does a bland liturgy fit into buildings designed to mirror the most wondrous miracle given to man for his salvation, namely the Holy Eucharist? The liturgies of our Eastern Catholic brethren, the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and Divine Worship of the Personal Ordinariates, are rich in fitting ornamentation that has been inspired by centuries of the action of the Holy Ghost working in the life of the Church. Do our buildings declare that here, in this place, heaven and earth meet?

Timid liturgies do not reflect the action of the Holy Ghost Who raises the actions of men to the level of art. The iconoclastic mentality of the 1960s and 1970s reduced the celebration of the Ordinary Form of the Mass (Novus Ordo Missae) to a casual table meal that obscures the profound nature of the Eucharistic Liturgy. Artful ritual honours the verbal beauty and divine structure of the Mass. In Catholic tradition, nonverbal rituals use a rich language of signs, gestures, and movements to express the sacred actions of Christ in the Mass, to embody the story of salvation in Christ. These rituals are theology in motion, meant to awaken an awareness of God’s presence. More than just movement, they focus attention on the work of Christ.

Was the reform of the Mass ever meant to be as drastic as some made it? Absolutely not. A closer look at the documents of the Second Vatican Council shows that only modest adjustments were encouraged, directions that were, whether intentionally or not, ignored by those entrusted with liturgical renewal.

Arguably, the Novus Ordo Mass is not the creation of truly artful minds. In practice, it has leaned toward an ideology of simplicity for its own sake, often misused in ways that prevent the Mass from being celebrated with the dignity and reverence befitting the Presence of God. A recovery of rubrical detail is overdue to assist clergy to celebrate the Mass with dignity.

The Bland Leading The Bland

Many Catholic churches built in the last 50 years feel as uninspired as the liturgies held within them. Plain buildings often reflect plain liturgies that are devoid of art, of theology embodied in stone and glass.

One does not need to be schooled in the fine arts to be able to appreciate beauty. Intuition, the forgotten power of the mind that recognizes meaning beyond the rational, and allows worshippers to enter into fruitful dialogue with God, feeds the imagination with truth directly perceived. Man's ability to intuit truth, goodness and beauty has been trapped behind rather sterile mechanisms and stifled by systems that flood us with poor imitations of art designed to stir feelings that trap us in devotion to lesser deities incapable of assisting man to grow in holiness. Art - Christian art - opens a pathway through which God, according to His will, pours His grace into our lives.

A younger generation, a generation of priests, religious and laity, is calling for depth, the deep art capable of seizing souls, of evoking in men courage to live the Gospel and to celebrate zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ. Not all younger Catholics are on board... yet. If, however, common experience is any indication, the future belongs to those who wholeheartedly seek the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Lord.