Thursday, September 14, 2006

St Cecelia's Abbey, Ryde, Isle of Wight






I used to say Mass, occassionally, for these nuns in their rather austere Church. Have a look at their website, they are known for their erudition, their chant, of which there are lots of recordings available. You could also look out books by Sr Mary David Totah OSB, especially Undivided Heart: Another Look at Enclosure (not on Amazon). On their website there is a very interest faq section I was struck by this:

Why do you still have your liturgy in Latin?
We always have the Mass readings in English, and on Sundays and other days when there’s a large congregation we have the prayers in English too. In the Divine Office we have the Patristic readings in English. We made a deliberate choice to keep the rest in Latin for several reasons. First, the Gregorian Chant which we use for all our liturgy was composed for Latin texts. The melodies weren’t written first and then the words fitted to them; the melodies were made for the existing texts (almost all quotations from Scripture). We couldn’t use the same melodies for English words, and they’re so subtle and beautiful that to adapt them would be to spoil them. These chants evolved from the music of the synagogues which the first Christians adopted, and developed over more than a thousand years. There’s often a theology in the melody itself - for example, as it becomes more elaborate at the important words or phrases. Then, all the great monastic figures in the western Church wrote in Latin and it’s good to keep in touch with them. Often we’re singing chants which they would have known and prayed with just as we do. While Vatican II allowed the use of modern languages and modern music in the liturgy, it also insisted on the value of the Latin language and Gregorian Chant, and subsequent Popes have stressed that Benedictine monasteries have a particular duty and privilege to cherish and draw life from this wonderful spiritual heritage.

There is even a short lesson on Chant on the site as well.

2 comments:

FatherTF said...

I regularly visit St Cecilia's. Nowadays, it is generally on the morning after celebrating the old Mass at St mary's for the LMS. I was at Oxford with Sr Claire and we get a chance to swap news after Mass. It is so encouraging to celebrate Mass and see a full choir of nuns of all ages. And the chant - out of this world!

Anonymous said...

The nun's sing so beautifully there.

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