The Mass in Transition

In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, numerous Catholics, having rediscovered the treasures of tradition that pioneers of the Liturgical Movement such as Dom Prosper Guéranger savored and sought to disseminate, are now casting about for explanations of what exactly happened in the upheavals of the 1960s—why so many things were changed so drastically, and who was responsible for it. Naturally, the sources for such research are abundant, but many are poorly known or hard to come by.

A case in point is the present work, The Mass in Transition. Jesuit Father Gerald Ellard was a famous popularizer of the “best ideas” of the Liturgical Movement—whether in fact they turned out to be for the best or otherwise. His work is largely forgotten today because of the tsunami of change that overtook not only the unsuspecting laity but also many lower-level liturgists, who, if they were not part of the innermost circles, could hardly have dared to believe the magnitude of the revolution in Catholic worship that was about to come, leaving behind a mountain of suddenly outdated literature.

Fr. Ellard’s book is a fine specimen of the kind of detailed commentary specialists of the 1950s were writing in order to prepare clergy and laity for the advent of what they perceived as long-overdue and hard-won revisions to the Mass (not to mention much else in Church life). First published in 1956, the year when Pius XII’s “restored” Holy Week came into effect, The Mass in Transition presents with admirable forthrightness the agenda of a mid-century American liturgist, an agenda he attributes, with varying degrees of plausibility, to a succession of popes from Pius X through Pius XII. It is thus a valuable historical witness from which we can learn a great deal about the state of discussion, the expectations, the prejudices and errors, that together served as preconditions for revolution.

“Slowly and thoughtfully the Church has acted. Changes have come into being; others are being considered. For man years Father Ellard has observed the growth of the liturgical reform with an expert eye. His earlier work, The Mass of the Future . . . has been completely rewritten and retitled The Mass in Transition. Starting with the simplification of the calendar, the Rubrics for the Mass, and the Breviary, Father Ellard immediately places the reader in the midst of the whole movement. . . . He notes the interest of other churches in Catholic ritual reforms, giving excerpts from writings of Protestants interested in a service similar to the Catholic Mass. A highly competent, thorough report on the contemporary situation.” —from the original 1956 dust jacket