The Pillars of Anti-Liturgical Heresy

Found in the writings of Dom Prosper Gueranger (Solesmes), and summarized in the writings of Dom Alcuin Reid.

...hatred of Tradition in the formulas of divine worship

...substitution of writings from Sacred Scripture for formulas composed by the Church

...fabrication and introduction of new liturgical formulas

...the contradictory principle that operates from an affection for antiquity that seeks to “reproduce divine worship in its original purity” while spurning development later in liturgical Tradition and yet introducing new elements of “incontestably human” origin

...Guéranger proscribes the rationalistic removal of ceremonies and formulas that leads to a loss of the supernatural or mystical element of the Liturgy without regard for its tangible and poetic nature

...the total extinction of the spirit of prayer or unction from the Liturgy. Guéranger speaks here of pharisaical coldness and cites the Protestant insistence on the vernacular by way of example

...use of the vernacular itself is the eighth. Here Guéranger warns of the transience of the vernacular and of the dangers of using mundane language in worship

...desire to lessen the burden of the Liturgy (by shortening it)

...Rejection of all things papal or Roman

...presbyterianism that downplays the ministerial priesthood forms the eleventh characteristic

...Guéranger deprecates secular or lay persons assuming authority in liturgical reform lest the Liturgy, and consequently dogma, become an entity limited by the boundaries of a nation or region...

As we have mentioned a few times, the Liturgical Movement did not begin in 1963; it had been around since the late 1800's and was largely centered in Germany at the outset.  Gueranger saw the above as dangers already present even in his times.

Bp. Athanasius Schneider's call for re-instituting the pre-1965 Offertory prayers fit neatly into the fourth, fifth, and sixth issues above, by the way.

Gueranger's warning makes him an intellectual predecessor of the "reform of the reform" leaders of today.

Good.

HT:  LiturgyGuy