Have you had a chance to read the Holy Father's Motu Proprio of 7/7/07?  There has certainly been a lot of buzz about it in the world of serious Catholics.  The traditionalist Catholics eagerly awaited the liberating of the "classical rite" and people like me are curious to see how the greater accessibility of the 1962 form of the Roman Rite will influence the authentic renewal of the "novus ordo" (the rite promulgated by Pope Paul VI and revised a couple of times by Pope John Paul II).

Pope Benedict was careful to define the 1962 missal and the current Roman missal as not two separate rites but two expressions of the one Latin rite... the current missal is the "ordinary" form of the Mass, while the 1962 missal is the "extraordinary" form.  (Both forms of the Latin rite, by the way, are in the Latin language and both can be offered in Latin.) So although there might be some ultra-traditional Catholics who hoped the motu proprio would restore the 1962 missal to the way the typical parish celebrates Mass, in fact, it is only allowed to be celebrated at one Sunday Mass at a parish, and there are conditions that have to be in place for that to happen, including an established group of people in the parish who ask for the 1962 Mass, and a priest trained in offering the Mass in that form.

Still, starting in September when the new laws governing the use of the 1962 missal will take effect, there will be opportunities for priests to get the training they need to be able to offer that Mass.  The Church Music Association's website is advertising a training for priests in the sung Mass, with tracks for both the current form and the 1962 form of the Mass.  In addition, I understand from one of the students that the buzz has also reached Mundelein Seminary's Liturgical Institute and there is a possibility of training in offering the 1962 Mass to be available starting next summer.

In addition to healing the wounds caused by the poor implementation of the post-Vatican II missal to those attached to the 1962 missal, the "liberating" of the older form of the Latin rite is also intended to have a good influence on the way the current form of the Mass is celebrated.  This is very relevant to church musicians interested in achieving what Vatican II called for, namely the pride of place of Gregorian chant in the liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concillium 116), and all the other related Church documents that call for keeping the Church's rich heritage and treasury of sacred music alive.  The 1962 form never lost the distinction between the high and low Mass, and the high Mass is sung.  The same should be true for the novus ordo.

Additionally, it is hoped that the newer form of the Latin rite will also have a good influence on the celebration of the 1962 form.  One way this is starting to manifest itself already is in the greater participation of the congregation in some celebrations of the 1962 rite.  I think of the Ward Method of teaching children to sing.  Justine Ward's goal was to enable children to be able to participate in singing Gregorian chant at Mass by the time they finished 8th grade, providing a singing congregation at Mass.  This was following on the call of Pope Pius X for a renewal of chant and greater participation in the liturgy.  In other words, this is not a new concept!  I've had the impression that during the 1962 rite, the congregation is merely spectators, but of course this is not the intention.  Somewhere between the renewal called for by Vatican II and the typical way the 1970 form of the rite is offered in parishes, the goal of Pope Pius X and the fathers of the second Vatican Council got mutilated and misconstrued.  Both forms of the Latin rite have the same goal, of providing most excellent worship to God.  There is room for improvement in both, and I am really looking forward to seeing how the typical parish Mass starts to transform in the years ahead.

For me, I'm adjusting to referring correctly to the two forms of the Latin rite, as you can probably tell from this entry.  It's wrong to call them two separate rites, because they truly are the same rite, whereas it is correct to say the Latin rite and the Ruthenian Byzantine rite are two separate (and legitimate) rites in the Catholic Church.  To call the older form of the Latin rite the "Tridentine Rite" is wrong on two counts: it is not a separate rite but the extraordinary form of the Latin rite, and it is not Tridentine because it does not date back to the council of Trent (1545-1563), but rather to Pope John XXIII and the year 1962, the same year Vatican II began.  The more recent term used mainly by traditionalist Catholics is the "classical Roman rite."  Again, it's incorrect to call it a separate rite, but the term classical is ambiguous or at least imprecise.  The Mass has had several forms across the ages, and the rite used in 1962 is the form immediately preceding the current missal, but it is not "the" classical Roman rite.  So I guess for now I'll stick with referring to the "Mass according to the 1962 Roman missal" and "Mass according to the current Roman missal" or something like that.  Awkward, but I believe it is accurate.

Besides the effects this motu proprio will have, there are other signs of hope for renewal of the liturgy.  In particular, it's impressive how much interest the Church Music Association has received for their Sacred Music Colloquium.  In part, it is due to the organization's recent good web marketing (getting better all the time in fact), but I think there is a great deal being done by the Holy Spirit in this area now.  My personal experience was a nagging feeling that although our parish's music was beautiful, it still was not quite right, and I didn't know why.  Now that I have tasted what it is supposed to be, I'm addicted and want to work to bring this beautiful sacred music to our own liturgies to help inspire the congregation, to help them pray and experience the universality and timelessness of the Body of Christ.