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Sr. M. Ceceliatook her perpetual vows on July 9th, 2011 at Most Holy Trinity Parish Church in San Jose, California. View the gallery. |
A Pauline Centenary Pastoral Tool
ALBERIONE AND THE LITURGICAL MOVEMENT:
A Doctoral Thesis Presented at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute ***
THE PAULINE FAMILY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITURGICAL MOVEMENT
INTRODUCTION
The expression “Liturgical Movement” was used for the first time in 1851 by Prosper Gueranger in the third volume of the Institutions liturgiques to describe the revival of liturgical studies and general interest in understanding and improving liturgical practice. In the past there were various historical periods characterized by a strong attachment to liturgy which, with its highly charged spiritual character, have contributed to new liturgical forms, to the point of conditioning the liturgical attitudes of entire epochs. Nonetheless, the “Liturgical Movement” understood as a current or movement at work in a vast range of milieus, in view of the spiritual renewal of people’s lives through the power of the liturgy and/or the renewal of the liturgy itself on the basis of a deeper understanding of it and the laws governing it, is a historical-cultural phenomenon proper to our own time.
Our Founder Blessed James Alberione was shaped and imbued with the liturgical spirit. The natural and inevitable consequence of the liturgical spirit upon him was the liturgical apostolate. Indeed he had done much for the Liturgical Movement in Italy. Today, we can no longer ignore the hidden but vital contribution he gave in the fields of the liturgical apostolate and pastoral liturgy.
I. BLESSED ALBERIONE’S APOSTOLATE OF THE PRESS AND THE POPULARIZATION OF THE LITURGICAL MOVEMENT
One of the most important fields of ministry of the Pauline Family is the liturgical apostolate. Blessed Alberione was propelled by an apostolic imperative to propagate the liturgy as the prayer of the Church. Together with the Scriptures, he endeavored to bring to the people the saving action of the liturgy by entering into a zone of very concrete pastoral action: the parish. For Blessed Alberione, the parish is an apostolic field which involves the faithful more directly, and hence, a very strategic and vital area of liturgical apostolate for the Pauline Family. For him, the liturgical ministry in the parish and elsewhere is geared towards a specific purpose: that the entire person be quickened and raised up, that he may adore.
In its early years, the nascent Pauline Family, especially dedicated to the apostolate of the press, was already engaged in the propagation of the inseparable binomial: the Word and the Liturgy. Indeed, for the growing religious family, it was impossible to assume the apostolate of the Word without embracing likewise, the liturgical apostolate since the liturgy is the sacramentality of the Bible. Hence, an apostolic ministry dedicated to both the Word and the Liturgy in as much as they are inseparable entities.
One of the earliest initiatives of the Pauline Family’s apostolate of the press in view of liturgical animation of the parish was a liturgical manual of prayers entitled, La preghiera del parrochiano published in 1914. Fr. Aurelio Nosetti, SSP, remarked that the book was a true development and a beautiful initiative in the field of liturgy because it tried to give back to the people the contact with the liturgy which had long been neglected. In addition to ordinary prayers and common practices of piety, the manual contained a good number of prayers taken from the liturgical celebrations of Sundays and feasts. Moreover, it reported the texts of the epistle and the gospel readings and presented important sacramental rites such as baptism, matrimony, anointing of the sick, etc. Though the exact number of the diffusion could not be determined, Fr. Nosetti remarked that it must have certainly went beyond 50,000 copies. In 1914, when the Benedictines were inaugurating the Rivista Liturgica in their effort to bring the people close to the liturgy, the primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit, Blessed Alberione and his young aspirants were similarly engaged in printing a book of prayers according to the spirit of the Church’s liturgy. The prayer book, La preghiera del parrochiano, with its extremely rich liturgical content, was indicative of the future numerous liturgical initiatives of the Pauline Family’s apostolate of the press. As we shall see below, for Blessed Alberione and the whole Pauline Family, the apostolate of the press would be an important and effective instrument in the popularization and divulgence of the Church’s liturgical spirit.
A. Pauline Edition of the Roman Missal
The edition of the Roman missal was one of the most important liturgical initiatives of Blessed Alberione and the Pauline Family. He remarked that in 1932 the Society of St. Paul assumed as one of its initiatives, the task of revealing to the faithful the treasures of sacred liturgy through appropriate publications. One of these opportune publications was precisely the edition of the Roman missal following the way-truth-life method which Blessed Alberione delineated for the Pauline Family. The many missals they prepared rank among the most notable and successful missals ever diffused in Italy. The editorial program he laid out with regard to the popularization of the liturgy was systematic and progressive: daily missal, feastday missal, missal for young people, children’s missal, and finally, a daily missal connected with the breviary and with the entire Church’s liturgy.
The first Pauline-edited Roman missal came out in 1935. The text was translated from Latin to Italian by Fr. E. Tintori, PFM. The introductions, paraphrases and commentaries were prepared by four Pauline clerics who worked on its various parts: A. G. Colasanto, ordinary season of the year; A. B. Aurelio Nosetti, Advent-Lenten season; A. B. Angelo Segato, Easter-Pentecost; G. B. Chiesa, sanctoral cycle. The Bolletino Bibliografico section of the Rivista Liturgica, 1936 issue, presented a very positive evaluation of this Pauline liturgical initiative. It judged the work as well done and meeting the people’s approval also for the book’s staid and elegant appearance. The notes are in general, well adapted to the various seasons and character of the liturgical year. The reviewer concluded: “This edition is also laudable and merits diffusion.”
It is also interesting to cite the encouraging words and prayerful wishes of Msgr. Luigi Grassi, bishop of Alba, concerning the Pauline-edited Roman missal. Dated Alba Pompeia, February 25, 1935, Msgr. Grassi wrote:
It is my joy to bless this missal of the faithful and I do it wholeheartedly because I am sure about the great good it will bring. To pray with the Church, with her sentiments and words, united with the priest and Christ who is the celebrant himself; is this not the most ideal way of praying? May this Missal spread through the world and enter into families. Above all, may it be the youth’s companion in prayer. What a mine of Christian spirit will there be and an abundant fruit of grace in the heart! May it be so and I hope that through this missal, the liturgical spirit may imbue parish life. To have Christ’s own sentiments will therefore, be easier and more common.
The response of the people to this missal was very good. According to Fr. Nosetti, its diffusion in 1942 reached 50,000 copies. Other editions followed and in 1950, the Pauline editors have distributed 166,000 copies of their daily missal. With regard to the feastday missal, its diffusion from 1942 to 1952 reached a total of 96,000 copies.
B. Evangeliario Festivo
Another Pauline publication that proposed to reveal to the faithful the treasures of the liturgy was the Evangeliario festive testo italiano col comment dogmatic-morale-liturgico. It came out in 1933 and was prepared by Pierluigi Occelli, SSP. Printed in two sizes (the smaller one in 16 cm. format; the altar edition in 31 x 20 cm. format), the notice of the publication of this book came out in the bibliographical bulletin of the Ephemerides Liturgicae in 1935. Fr. Occelli’s dogmatic-moral-liturgical commentaries, drawn from the teachings of the Church Fathers, from catechism and the liturgy, faithfully followed the way-truth-life method indicated by Blessed Alberione and were consistent with the latter’s objective: that the Gospel be interpreted according to the mind of the Church – therefore with notes for the whole catechism – faith, morals and worship.
Blessed Alberione’s introduction to this Pauline-edited Evangeliario festivo is worth mentioning as it showed again his unmitigated way-truth-life approach to the liturgy – an approach which inspired Fr. Occelli to underline forcefully the dogmatic, moral and cultic aspects contained in the Word of God proclaimed in the liturgy. Blessed Alberione’s preface emphasized, moreover, the urgent task of the diffusion and proclamation of the Sunday gospel so that the faithful may truly grasp its meaning and be nourished by the life-giving Word. Blessed Alberione’s pastoral genius is commendable. He perceived that the domestic Church, which the family is, is the privileged place for vital and effective Gospel proclamation, rethinking and application.
Fr. Occelli, who was competent in classical languages and patristic-ecclesiastical literature, and who faithfully worked according to the theological and methodological framework suggested by Blessed Alberione, succeeded in choosing fitting texts to serve as commentaries, explanations and illustrations to the gospel passages proclaimed in the Sunday liturgy. The commentaries that he prepared were used by many priests as an aid in the preparation of homilies or sometimes, simply read by those who were unable to prepare them. In a personal interview I had with him in 1988, Fr. Occelli remarked that the Evangeliario festivo was like a breviary, abridged but extremely rich in content and complete in its dogmatic, moral and cultic aspects.
C. Bolletino Parrochiale Liturgico
Another liturgical publication undertaken by the Paulines, in response to their Founder’s inspiration and prompting to reveal to the faithful the treasures of the liturgy through opportune editions, was the Bolletino Parrochiale Liturgico, whose maiden issue came out in Alba on November 27, 1932. The first editor was the young cleric, Battista Ferrero, SSP, known more commonly by his religious name “Alfonso”. Fr. Ferrero, one of the Pauline pioneers in India, has worked as a missionary in that subcontinent since 1937. To our request for information regarding the beginning of this liturgical bulletin, he kindly answered with a letter dated Bombay (now Mumbai), 2nd February, 1988. He wrote:
The Bolletino Parrochiale Liturgico was issued once a month with four pages for each week. It explained the Sunday as well as the weekday liturgy. It gave liturgical instructions and explained to the people the importance of liturgy in Christian life and spirituality. It was rather a novelty, but the Liturgical Movement was taking foothold even in Italy. Everything was presented in a popular form but with a sober and constructive tone.
Fr. Ferrero stated that when he left for India in 1937 the bulletin was issuing 45,000 copies. According to Andrea Damino, SSP, the Bolletino Parrochiale Liturgico was suspended in October 1943 and reedited in December 1945. The publication ceased definitely in November 1947. A few years later La Vita in Cristo e nella Chiesa, which Blessed Alberione founded in 1951, took the place of the Bolletino Parrochiale Liturgico.
Some more interesting information was sent to us by Fr. Alfonso Ferrero in another letter dated Bombay, 1st March 1988.
There were not many books about the liturgy. I was reading the magazine Rivista Liturgica di Finalpia. It was published by the Benedictines of Finale Ligure, Savona. Card. Schuster had some good books. We were encouraged to use much of the Missalino Liturgico. Primo Maestro (= G. Alberione) was giving us instructions on the liturgy. It was a new aspect of the Pauline devotion and we liked it much …
You are opening an interesting aspect on Primo Maestro. The liturgy was something new and he was taking great interest in it. At times even going too forward. I remember when he asked the lay brothers (those days there were many of them, and a good number of them had very little formal education), to start saying the liturgical office in common, in Italian. I do not remember how he could find the books, but it was amusing at times to hear them make an effort to say it.
In Italian certain phrases were funny in the mouths of the Brothers. We had a good laugh one morning when one of the Brother Disciples who was leading, came out with the verse: “And God planted the vineyard”, and all the Brothers answering “Deo gratias”. He was the one in charge of the vineyard and also of the making of the wine.
Remember that the Office of the Readings was very in long those days, with nine psalms and nine readings. In spite of all the mistakes, due to inexperience, the message was clear. We had to start giving liturgy its place in our spirituality and life.
Fr. Ferrero’s letters presented a very limpid and down-to-earth testimony of one aspect of Blessed Alberione’s personality that had easily escaped the attention of many biographers. The personal account of a Pauline who had worked more directly with Blessed Alberione in the field of liturgical apostolate depicts a picture of a man fully imbued and strongly animated with the liturgical spirit. Blessed Alberione was a man who was greatly in love with the liturgy, so much so, that he embraced it as an apostolate and as a preoccupying concern of his life. His great love for the liturgy galvanized the Paulines into action and inspired in them the same love.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM
3700 North Cornelia Avenue
Fresno, CA-U.S.A.
Tel. (559) 275-9978
