Documentary filmmaker Cameron O'Hearn interviewed me at the end of June in a far-ranging conversation about various aspects of Catholic liturgical tradition. The conversation first appeared live on Facebook, and afterwards was published on YouTube:
Topics covered:
• What is your favorite piece of sacred music?
• What are Gregorian chant and polyphony?
• How the ancients made music
• Heritage of Gregorian chant and the Saints
• What are you “not saying” about the traditional Mass vs. the new Mass?
• The organic development of the liturgy
• The problems with the new Lectionary
• What about a “reverent Novus Ordo”?
• Vatican II and the Consilium
• The gap between the rubrics and the way the Mass is celebrated
• Where's all the asceticism, prayer, and fasting?
• How the Latin Mass is “the great catechizer”
• Michael Fiedrowicz's The Traditional Mass
• Bringing children to the Latin Mass
• Four basic acts of the liturgy for raising holy children
• “How can anyone receive the Eucharist and not die?”
• Silence in the Mass
• Pope Benedict on Silence
• Ad orientem worship in every parish
• Lex orandi, lex credendi
• How does a return to reverent liturgy act as a seed to true social change?
• If there is no Latin Mass reachable from where we are, what should we do?
• How should we go about conversations about the TLM with our priests?
The energetic O'Hearn has also interviewed Scott Hahn, Eric Sammons, Peter Kreeft, Matt Fradd, and Derya Little.
Also at the end of June, Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. interviewed me for his program Reconquest, and thanks to the folks at Sensus Fidelium, the audio was converted into a YouTube video with lots of photographs of beautiful liturgy:
Topics covered:
• The Mass is not a reenactment of the Last Supper, which is a Protestant view of Christian worship; it is first and foremost and essentially a sacrifice, which is also a sacred banquet
• The Latin tradition developed a “sonic iconostasis” in three elements: the continued use of Latin; the singing of Gregorian Chant; the prominence of silence
• “Actual participation” vs. “activist participation”
• Why it's good that the TLM is “steep, craggy, and sublime”; how it reminds us of our creaturely dependency and humbles us so that we may be lifted up to God by grace
• How children benefit from the TLM in what it shows and what it does not show
• The formative power of our traditional rites and the importance of avoiding “little doses of poison” from the modern rites
I'm grateful for these opportunities to share the truly good news of Catholic Tradition, a gift that cannot be destroyed, and will continue for as long as the world endures.
