Sub Tuum: Liturgical progress, give it a try!

You don't really notice how much things are changing when it has all been part of the progression of your every day life, but as I was sorting photos today, the differences between the older and newer feast day pictures struck me.

Our worship at Spring Bank was always reverent and remains simple and identifiably Cistercian, contested and vague though that term may be, but these two photos, one from the Canon of the Mass on St. Bernard's Day 2008 and one from the Canon of the Mass at this morning's Conventual Mass for the Feast of the Founders, brought home that we have been fairly busy over the past two-and-a-half years:

St. Bernard's Day, August 2008.

The Feast of the Founders, January 2011.

On January 1, 2009, we moved to ad orientem celebration of all Masses. Last month, we finished the first phase of renovations to our oratory. In between there have been many less dramatic steps, from more frequent choir rehearsals to returning to more traditional vestments to numerous tiny clean-ups to the customary. We are a small house and are far from being a model of the liturgical renewal, but I think what we have done is a testament to the fact that no matter the circumstances in which you find yourself, there are always concrete ways to move forward. It took our priests about two weeks to be comfortable saying Mass ad orientem. We made major improvements in our chapel for very little money by doing the work ourselves and being creative about materials. We sing better because we practiced, which is free.

I think that too many people who would like to do things better fixate on the places with incredible resources and ample personnel and become discouraged. It is far less daunting to look no further than where you are and to begin to think about what could be different that is within your reach. Spring Bank will, most likely, never approach the liturgical and musical heights of our brothers in Austria, but by taking things one step at a time and making changes in manageable chunks, we have made considerable progress in renewing our liturgical life in just over two years. Give it a try.

Sub Tuum

Amen Brother!  Amen!