A Glossary of Catholic Terms, Part 2

From "neoscholastic reductionism" to "usus antiquior," learn the definitions of unfamiliar terms as well as new aspects of familiar ones

On Monday, I shared the first half of the Glossary from my book Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright (Angelico Press, 2020). Today, we resume with the letter N.

NEOSCHOLASTIC REDUCTIONISM. An approach to liturgy that focuses so narrowly on the combination of “form and matter” (the correct formulae and the correct material items) required for the minimum threshold of sacramental validity that it fails to give adequate consideration to the dogmatic, pedagogical, aesthetic, ascetic, and mystical functions of liturgical rites in their traditional totality and integrity. This approach tends to cause neglect of the key notion of fittingness and the role of the dispositions of agents and recipients. See Peter Kwasniewski, “The Long Shadow of Neoscholastic Reductionism,” New Liturgical Movement, July 3, 2017, and “‘The Way is the Goal’: Against Reducing the Mass to a Sacramental Delivery System,” New Liturgical Movement, February 11, 2019.

NOVUS ORDO. A way of referring to the Mass created by the Consilium and published by Pope Paul VI on April 3, 1969. While to some ears the phrase comes across as pejorative, it must be noted that Paul VI himself frequently connected the word “new” (novus) with his liturgical reforms. In his general audience of March 7, 1965, he spoke of a “new order [of worship],” a “new scheme of things,” “new liturgical books,” “new form,” “new liturgy,” “new habit,” and “liturgical innovation” — and all this, about changes far less drastic than those he would publish four years later! Many things that people today would assume must have entered with the Novus Ordo in 1969 were already around prior to it, as the traditional liturgy was progressively altered in the 1950s and 1960s: turning the priest toward the people, praying Mass in the vernacular, dropping the prayers at the foot of the altar and the last Gospel, bringing in new (ad experimentum) lectionaries, using multiple Eucharistic Prayers, having the people say the Lord’s Prayer at the liturgy together with the priest (something never done in the Roman tradition prior to 1955), discarding some liturgical vestments, etc. In the general audience of November 19, 1969, explaining why he had brought out a new missal, Paul VI — this time with greater justice — referred to “a new rite of Mass” (four times), “a new spirit,” “new directions,” “new rules,” “innovation.” In the general audience one week later, he mentioned “the liturgical innovation of the new rite of the Mass” and mentioned the “new rite” seven times; he used words like “new,” “newness,” “renewal,” “innovation,” “novelty,” a total of 18 times. At a consistory for the appointment of twenty cardinals on May 24, 1976, he used the expression novus Ordo [Missae]: “usus novi Ordinis Missae” and “Novus Ordo promulgatus est” (“the use of the new Order of Mass”; “the new Order has been promulgated”). Readers should also be aware that the phrase “Novus Ordo” is broad enough to include the new lectionary, which is a set of books separate from the missal; at times the phrase can even mean “anything having to do with the postconciliar liturgical reform,” as in: “They did a Novus Ordo baptism” or “let’s avoid the Novus Ordo blessing of holy water.” This usage is not precise and should be avoided; it would be better to say, e.g., “let’s avoid the new rite of baptism” or “we prefer the old blessing of holy water.”

OFFICE. The “office” of a Sunday or feastday refers to the changing parts for the Divine Office analogous to the Proper of the Mass, such as the antiphons for the psalms, the chapter or reading, the hymns, versicles, responsories, Collect, etc. This term can also be shorthand for the Divine Office itself (“I prayed the Office today”).

ORATIONS. In a liturgical context, the trio of prayers in the traditional Roman rite of Mass, dictated by the Mass formulary of the day: the Collect, the Secret, and the Postcommunion (see separate entry under each word), all three ending with a full doxology in honor of the Blessed Trinity. Many of the orations in the usus antiquior are extremely ancient and exhibit a realistic understanding of man’s needs and weaknesses as well as the attributes of God and the power of divine grace working through the mysteries of the life of Christ and the sacraments He instituted. The venerable Roman rite often features two or more sets of orations per Mass, e.g., a Collect mentioning the main saint of the day or liturgical season, followed by a Collect commemorating a group of other saints or a particular need. Only 13% of the orations from the Tridentine missal were carried over untouched into the Novus Ordo; the remaining texts, regardless of their sources, were heavily redacted in accord with the reformers’ ideas of what was “suitable” for modern times. Moreover, the doxologies were cut from the Secret (renamed, with an antiquarian frisson, Prayer over the Offerings) and the Postcommunion.

ORDER OF THE MASS. In Latin, Ordo Missae: the complete structural outline of the celebration of the Mass, with the elements that remain (with rare exceptions during the liturgical year) constant and fixed from day to day. This Order would include, e.g., the prayers at the foot of the altar, the five great chants (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) sung by the choir or schola and sometimes the people, the Offertory rite, the Preface and Roman Canon, the Communion rite from the Lord’s Prayer to the ablutions, the dismissal, Placeat tibi, blessing, and Last Gospel.

ORDINARY OF THE MASS. As most commonly used, the five fixed chants of the Order of Mass that are sung daily or weekly — the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei, as distinguished from the “Propers” of the Mass, which, in a musical context, refer to the set of antiphons appointed for a given day. The chant settings of the Ordinary of the Mass, or the Kyriale, are among the oldest and most beautiful in the Gregorian repertoire. The monks of Solesmes grouped them for convenience into “Mass Ordinaries” recommended for different seasons or levels of feasts (e.g., Mass I for Eastertide, Mass IX for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mass XI for Sundays “through the year”), although there is no hard and fast rule for their use. The Kyriale is found in all standard chant books, e.g., the Liber Usualis, the Liber Brevior, and the Graduale Romanum.

PERICOPE. A segment of Scripture that is either intended by its author to be a self-contained unit (e.g., the individual parables and miracles of Jesus) or is capable of being treated as a stand-alone reading. Early on, Christians read segments of the Bible at their Eucharistic worship, which forged associations between certain pericopes and certain days of the liturgical year. Over time this developed into lectionaries for Mass, which offer “lections” or readings for Sundays, feastdays, and Commons. The approach of the traditional Roman Mass towards pericopes is significantly different from the approach of the postconciliar lectionary that was built from scratch for the Novus Ordo. In the former, the readings are generally shorter and only very rarely omit or skip over verses. In the latter, the readings are much more numerous, very often longer, and frequently omit verses deemed too “difficult” for modern congregations. In comparison, the traditional pericopes that the Church has been using for over a millennium have greater impact, are more memorable, and convey a greater range of revealed truth.

POSTCOMMUNION. The oration said or sung by the priest after Communion (or more precisely, after the ablutions by which he cleanses his fingers and the vessels and covers them again with a veil). The prayer always relates to the holy mysteries just received; on a feastday, it will usually make mention of the saint or the mystery being commemorated.

PREFACE. The great prayer that prepares for and leads into the Canon of the Mass. In its opening dialogue, we are summoned to “lift up our hearts” and “give thanks to the Lord our God”; in its text, certain truths or persons or blessings are gratefully called to mind, leading into the hymn of the angels, the Sanctus.

PROPERS. In contrast to the fixed Order of Mass, the Propers are those parts that change from day to day; also called “Proper of the Mass.” These would include, more narrowly speaking, the “proper chants” (or “propers” for short) sung by the choir or schola — the Introit or entrance antiphon, the interlectional chants (Gradual, Alleluia/Tract), the Offertory antiphon, and the Communion antiphon — and, more broadly, the orations (Collect, Secret, Postcommunion), readings (Epistle and Gospel), and Preface. “Mass formulary” is another way to refer to that which is proper to a certain day.

REFORM OF THE REFORM. “A movement in Latin-rite Catholicism dating to the mid-1990s and consisting of loosely affiliated organizations and individuals united around the goal of redirecting the reform of Roman rite liturgy originating from the Second Vatican Council. The advocates of a ‘reform of the reform’ generally regard the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium of 1963, as having been justifiable and pastorally well oriented — the culmination of the sound ideals of the preconciliar liturgical movement. At the same time, they maintain that the official liturgical reform that followed Vatican II involved changes that were unwarranted by the Council and that, in many instances, break with liturgical and theological tradition. For this reason, they believe it is necessary to reshape Catholic liturgical practice according to the original intentions of the Council Fathers and in light of postconciliar experience” (Fr. Thomas M. Kocik, T&T Clark Companion to Liturgy, ed. Alcuin Reid [London/New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016], 316). The phrase was coined by German liturgist Msgr. Klaus Gamber in 1989 (ibid., 323) and taken up by Joseph Ratzinger and, subsequently, by organizations like the Adoremus Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy and the Society for Catholic Liturgy.

RELIGION. The virtue of religion, explains St. Thomas Aquinas, is that habit of justice by which we give to Almighty God that which we owe Him as our Creator and Lord: His right to proper worship, both in our external actions (e.g., praising Him with the lips, bowing before Him) and internal acts (such as the humble submission of mind and heart in adoration). For unfallen man, this virtue would have taken the form of a rational sacrifice of praise; for fallen man, it took the form of a bloody sacrificial worship by which God is honored and placated. God gave the old Law to Israel as a system for offering a set form of worship that would strongly bring out the need for a Mediator and a Redeemer, one who in Himself could offer to God a worship truly worthy of His rights over all creation. It is only by the once-for-all bloody Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, together with all His other actions and sufferings, that the virtue of religion is perfectly exercised by man towards God; we are inserted into this pleasing worship through the Church’s sacraments and liturgical prayer. From the virtue of religion is derived the more general sense of “religion” as a system of beliefs, morals, and rites by which we adhere to God.

ROMAN CANON. The anaphora or Eucharistic prayer is the heart of any Eucharistic liturgy: it is the prayer in and through which the consecration of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ occurs. The Roman Canon was the sole anaphora of the Western Church, prayed at every Mass by every Latin-rite priest from at least the fifth century until the 1960s, when a committee of scholars had the audacity to assemble several more anaphoras for the sake of variety. The Roman Canon is so ancient that its origins are lost in the early centuries of Christianity; echoes and fragments are found in texts of the Church Fathers. It was given its final form by St. Gregory the Great (reigned 590–604), and for this reason the classical Roman rite is sometimes called “the Gregorian rite.” One of its peculiar features is its lack of an epiclesis, due to the fact that the fourth- and fifth-century controversy in the East concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit, which led to the epiclesis being inserted in Eastern anaphoras, never occurred in the West (see “Reforming the Canon of the Mass: Some Considerations from Fr Hunwicke,” New Liturgical Movement, April 25, 2015). The silent praying of the Canon prevailed in Europe in the 9th century. On the sublime theology of the Roman Canon, see Fiedrowicz, Traditional Mass, 263–91.

While we’re at it: the widespread claim that the super-short “Eucharistic Prayer II” recovers an ancient anaphora by St. Hippolytus is no longer accepted by scholars. The current view is that this anaphora may not have been written by Hippolytus, was not Roman, and was probably not even used as a real Eucharistic prayer. And then there is the story of its final redaction into EP II, which does not inspire confidence. As Louis Bouyer, one of the most eminent twentieth-century theologians and a member of the Consilium, relates: “You’ll have some idea of the deplorable conditions in which this hasty [liturgical] reform was expedited when I recount how the second Eucharistic prayer was cobbled together. Between the indiscriminately archeologizing fanatics who wanted to banish the Sanctus and the intercessions from the Eucharistic prayer by taking Hippolytus’s [sic] Eucharist as is, and those others who couldn’t have cared less about his alleged Apostolic Tradition and wanted a slapdash Mass, Dom Botte and I were commissioned to patch up its text with a view to inserting these elements, which are certainly quite ancient — by the next morning! Luckily, I discovered, if not in a text by Hippolytus himself certainly in one in his style, a felicitous formula on the Holy Ghost that could provide a transition of the Vere Sanctus type to the short epiclesis. For his part Botte produced an intercession worthier of Paul Reboux’s ‘In the manner of…’ than of his actual scholarship. Still, I cannot reread that improbable composition without recalling the Trastevere café terrace where we had to put the finishing touches to our assignment in order to show up with it at the Bronze Gate by the time our masters had set!” (Memoirs, 221–22).

ROMAN MISSAL. See Missale Romanum.

RUBRICS. Derived from the Latin rubrica terra, red earth used to make ink; ultimately from the Latin word for red, rubeus: instructions printed in liturgical books in red type, indicating what the ministers are to do. Medieval scribes often wrote instructions in a color other than the one used for words to be said or sung, but it was only with the invention of the printing press that black for what is said and red for what is done became a universal standard — hence the famous slogan of Fr. Zuhlsdorf: “Say the Black, Do the Red,” i.e., do not deviate extemporaneously from what is given to us in the official liturgical books. The rubrics in the old rite are considerably more numerous and detailed than in the new rite, leaving nothing to improvisation, chance, or guesswork. Liturgical reformers criticized this approach as mechanical and “unspiritual,” calling it “rubricism”; its defenders see it rather as a praiseworthy source of order, beauty, and reverence in handling the awesome mysteries of Christ. For example, normally the priest turns fully towards the people from the center of the altar when greeting them with “Dominus vobiscum.” If, however, the consecrated species, a filled ciborium, or a monstrance with the host is present upon the altar, the rubrics instruct him to issue this greeting slightly to the side and at an angle, so that he never turns his back on the Lord, really present in the Blessed Sacrament. Every detail has been thoughtfully considered over the centuries and the best solution arrived at.

SACRAMENTARY. Any codex or manuscript that contains texts (especially the orations) used by the celebrant at Mass and other liturgical ceremonies. The three most famous are the Leonine (6th/7th century), the Gelasian (7th/8th century), and the Gregorian (7th century). As time went on and the body of texts grew, they were distributed into various books: altar missals for priests, the Pontifical for bishops, the Ritual for blessings and exorcisms, and so forth. It is often said that the postconciliar liturgical reformers “enriched” the liturgy of the Catholic Church by extracting prayers from old sacramentaries that had long since fallen out of use. That practice might have been defensible, had they not then proceeded to modify almost every line to bring it into conformity with their theories about what “modern man” needed to hear. They could not even indulge their antiquarian appetites without bowdlerizing and innovating.

SCHOLA. Short for “schola cantorum” or school of singers: in ancient Rome, the picked and trained choir of boys and men who sang the chant at the papal Masses. Subsequently, it came to be used either for any ensemble that specializes in Gregorian chant (especially the Mass Propers, which are more demanding), or as a fancy name for a church choir.

SECRET. The “Secret” is the oration the priest says quietly over the bread and wine at the end of the Offertory rite. Originally referred to as the oratio super oblata or prayer over the offerings, and said aloud, the prayer came to be said silently in Carolingian times, under Eastern influence; hence its current name in the usus antiquior. The restoration of its original name and audible vocalization when an alternative practice had been stably present for over a millennium is an excellent example of the false antiquarianism condemned by Pius XII in Mediator Dei. See Kwasniewski, Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness, 250–55.

SOLEMN HIGH MASS. Sometimes called a “Solemn Mass,” which corresponds more closely to its Latin name, Missa solemnis: a sung Mass offered by a priest with the assistance of a deacon, a subdeacon, and other ministers (acolytes). This is the normative form of the Roman rite of Mass; the High Mass or Missa cantata and the Low Mass are derivative from it and developed much later — a sign of which is that in these simpler forms, the priest by himself performs a number of actions that can only be understood by reference to their origins as actions performed by the deacon and subdeacon. If it is not already in place, Solemn Mass every Sunday and Holy Day is the goal toward which TLM communities should be patiently working.

SUBDEACON. In the Roman tradition, the subdiaconate is one of the three “major orders,” the others being the diaconate and the priesthood; these follow upon the four “minor orders” of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. The existence of these orders — a common heritage of the Western and Eastern churches — is witnessed in abundant ancient sources from the first millennium and indeed the first half of the first millennium. In spite of lip service to antiquity and the East, the liturgical reform — or more specifically, Paul VI — abolished the minor orders and the subdiaconate in 1972, redistributing their functions to “ministries” of “instituted” lectors and acolytes. Despite this attempt at suppression, the minor and major orders have seen an unexpected resurgence with the growth of religious and clerical communities devoted to the usus antiquior, wherein all of these orders are still conferred with the old liturgical books. It would therefore be incorrect to say that they no longer exist in the Roman Church. At solemn Mass, the subdeacon chants the Epistle and assists in a variety of ways with chalice duties; perhaps most noticeably, during much of the Offertory and all of the Canon, he holds the paten, enclosed in a humeral veil (see FERMENTUM).

TENEBRAE. A special office of combined Matins and Lauds for the Triduum, traditionally celebrated in the evening prior to each day of the Triduum (thus, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights of Holy Week), and employing a large stand or “hearse” of candles extinguished one by one as the psalms are completed. The chants are exquisite. Some of the greatest polyphonic music ever composed was written for Tenebrae. It was awkwardly shifted to the mornings under Pius XII and then effectively abolished in the liturgical reform under Paul VI. Like many other things, it has made a significant comeback.

Here’s a video I put together some years ago to promote Tenebrae:

TRACT. Opinions differ about the etymology of this word, but there is no doubt what it refers to: the tractus is the melismatic or florid interlectional (between-the-readings) chant that replaces the Alleluia in the penitential seasons of Septuagesima and Lent, at Masses for the Dead, and on other occasions when the joy of the Alleluia is not appropriate. The texts are often quite lengthy and certain set melodies appear regularly. For example, the Tract of the First Sunday of Lent comprises much of Psalm 90 (vv. 1–7, 11–16) and, when sung in full, evokes the forty days Our Lord spent in the wilderness and the temptations He faced and crushed: exactly what the Gospel of the day narrates.

TRIDENTINE. The adjective formed from the name of the city Trent in northern Italy, location of the nineteenth Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church (1545–1563). In the face of an accelerating and divaricating Protestant Revolt that had rejected the traditional faith of Catholics, the Council of Trent promulgated dogmatic decrees on many pressing matters, including, notably, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist. Because this Council requested a restoration of liturgical books as a key step in Church reform, the resulting books, issued by Pius V, and therefore also the rites themselves, are often referred to as “Tridentine.” Some object to this nomenclature because it might seem to imply that the Missale Romanum of 1570 was invented by the Council of Trent’s command or by Pius V’s committee, that it received its authoritativeness solely from the will of a papal monarch, and/or that it remained frozen in that period; whereas, in truth, Pius V’s missal carefully transmits an immensely venerable liturgical tradition, which has also accommodated small changes since that time, such as the modification of rubrics and the creation of new feasts. However, the objection is beside the point. The 1570 missal gives us a definitively matured Roman rite that fully embodies the glorious and immutable dogmatic confession of Trent. Like the great composer who was christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, the greatest rite of the Western Church can also bear many names, as long as each is given a correct interpretation.

USUS ANTIQUIOR. Latin for “older use” (i.e., of the Roman rite). In the context of liturgy, a “use” is a certain variant of a rite, as the “Dominican use” is a variant of the Roman rite. Pope Benedict XVI referred to the traditional Roman rite as the usus antiquior in his letter to the bishops Con Grande Fiducia of July 7, 2007; similar language may be found in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum and in the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae. The term is comparative, implying an usus recentior or “more recent use,” namely, the Novus Ordo. Another pair of comparative terms is forma extraordinaria and forma ordinaria. As is clear from the motu proprio, Benedict XVI’s intention was to establish a canonical-juridical framework for a prudential solution; there remain thorny historical, liturgical, and theological problems with the unprecedented situation of two “uses” or “forms” of the Roman rite. (I enter into considerably more detail on this question in my book The Once and Future Roman Rite.)

Thank you for reading, and may God bless you!