Today we start a series of three episodes, all looking at the period from the Council of Trent up to the Second Vatican Council. Specifically, we focus on what’s called “The Liturgical Movement.” This was a movement for the restoration of the Liturgy; renewing its discipline; and broadening the education of both the faithful and the clergy about the Mass itself. In the beginnings of the movement, it had a positive purpose, and it started out well. What we explore is what went wrong with the movement and the social, political, and ecclesiastical forces that disrupted an otherwise noble enterprise.

Today we’ll trace the development of both the Divine Office and the Mass over 1,000 years, beginning with St. Gregory the Great in the 6th century and concluding with the reforms of the Council of Trent. We’ll discuss how St. Gregory helped shape the liturgical framework and preserved unity while allowing local traditions to thrive. Moving forward, we’ll trace how these traditions evolved, influencing lots of different rites across Europe. We’re not used to thinking that lots of rites are good – but what was good about them? And why did these ultimately lead to the standardization by Pope St. Pius V, known as the Tridentine Mass. Join us as we journey through this intricate and fascinating liturgical history.

Last episode, we saw what Christ intended to leave us in the Mass – how He is both priest and victim, God and man. In this episode, we’ll investigate what happened after the Last Supper – after Our Lord Ascended into Heaven. Did the Mass celebrated by the first bishops look like the Tridentine Latin Mass we have today? How did the early Eucharist ceremonies develop, and how did various regions influence the way that the ceremonies of the Liturgy were practiced? We’ll also take a look at the immense influence that the Jewish synagogue ceremonies played in the early development and
practices of Christian Liturgy.

We have examined the Old Testament sacrifices, and how they all pre-figure the Mass. But instead of offering lambs, in the New Testament we offer bread and wine. Instead of the priest and victim being separate beings, today, they are one. Why? Why did God wish to have a sacrifice done this way? Why did Christ institute the Mass at the Last Supper, before His Sacrifice? We will look at the Last Supper and the Passion from a theological, historical, and anthropological perspective. We will see that Jesus knew full well what any first-century Jew would have known: when it came to the Passover, you did not only have to kill the lamb; to fulfill God’s law, to be saved from death, you had to eat the lamb.

The Old Testament is foreign to modern people in many ways. And one of the most striking examples of a “weird” practice has to do with the very specific, and often very messy practices surrounding ritual sacrifice. Last episode, we saw how sacrifice is required by God. But we’ll continue with this conversation, and look at the specific sacrifices in the Old Testament in different occasions. There were sin-offerings, peace-offerings, and holocausts, which are burnt-offerings. They also made use of bread, wine, food – and very often, whole animals, blood, fat – why? And more interesting to us today, what does this all represent about the Mass celebrated at your chapel this morning?

When did mankind begin to make sacrifices to God? What did they look like? As we have seen already in this series, the concept of making a sacrifice, or of putting something aside for the worship of God, is nothing new and it is not exclusive to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Man understands that he has duties to his creator. So today we will look back at our ancestors, specifically the practices of the Chosen People and how they worshipped God. In part two of this subject, we’ll see how it all connects to the Mass. But this week, let’s see how we worshipped – millennia ago.