Table Of ContentNoble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness
Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages
PETER KWASNIEWSKI
Noble Beauty,
Transcendent Holiness
Why the Modern Age
Needs the Mass of Ages
Foreword by
Martin Mosebach
First published in the USA
by Angelico Press 2017
© Peter Kwasniewski 2017
Foreword © Martin Mosebach 2017
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, without permission
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978 1 62138 284 3 pb
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Cover photograph of the Rood in the Holy Cross
Priory Church, Leicester, by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Cover design: Michael Schrauzer
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Foreword
1 Why the New Evangelization Needs the Old Mass
2 Reverence Is Not Enough: On the Importance of Tradition
3 The Spirit of the Liturgy in the Words and Actions of Our Lady
4 The New Liturgical Movement: Urgent Care for a Sick Church
5 Different Visions, Contrary Paths
6 Formed in the Spirit and Power of the Liturgy
7 Laying Our Foundation on Solid Rock
8 How the Usus Antiquior Elicits Superior Participation
9 A Perpetual Feast of All Saints
10 The Peace of Low Mass and the Glory of High Mass
11 Homage to Our Lady, Queen of the Liturgy
12 “Always Forward, Never Back”
Bibliography
About the Author
TABLE OF PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographs are listed according to the chapter before which they appear.
1 Main door, Cathedral of S. Rufino, Assisi, by Julian Kwasniewski
2 Bell tower, * Norcia, by Julian Kwasniewski
3 Wood carving of Calvary, in the Cloisters, New York, by Peter
Kwasniewski
4 Wood carving of a saint, the Cloisters, New York, by Julian Kwasniewski
5 St. Benedict of Nursia, in St. Germain des Prés, Paris, by Julian
Kwasniewski
6 Stained glass, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, Marytown,
Illinois, by Julian Kwasniewski
7 Sculpture on the wall of the courtyard of the Cathedral of S. Rufino, Assisi,
by Julian Kwasniewski
8 Church of St. Winifride, Holywell, North Wales, for a Latin Mass Society
Pilgrimage, courtesy of Dr. Joseph Shaw
9 Co-Cathedral of Norcia, * by Julian Kwasniewski
10 Church of St. Gallus, Gestratz, by Fr. Alban Cras, FSSP, © Priestly
Fraternity of St. Peter
11 Chapel, Silverstream Priory, County Meath, Ireland, © Pawel Kula, used
with permission
12 Lion, Palazzo Comunale, Norcia, by Julian Kwasniewski
* The places in these photographs were destroyed by the earthquakes in Norcia in the
second half of 2016.
IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF
Michael Davies (1936 – 2004)
László Dobszay (1935 – 2011)
Msgr. Klaus Gamber (1919 – 1987)
and others of their generation,
who fought the good fight in a time of great darkness,
and without whom no such book as this
could ever have been written.
May the Lord crown their labors
in the heavenly fatherland.
“The memory of you will go with me all my life, to comfort and encourage me.
You were a flame burning in darkness, and the fire which consumed you was the
love of Mass.”
Michael Kent, The Mass of Brother Michel
Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see and ask for the old paths
which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your
souls.
Jeremiah 6:16
The first characteristic of the anti-liturgical heresy is hatred of tradition as found
in the formulas used in divine worship. One cannot fail to note this special
characteristic in all heretics, from Vigilantius to Calvin, and the reason for it is
easy to explain. Every sectarian who wishes to introduce a new doctrine finds
himself, unfailingly, face to face with the Liturgy, which is Tradition at its
strongest and best, and he cannot rest until he has silenced this voice, until he
has torn up these pages which recall the faith of past centuries.
Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.
Repudiated by the Modernists, the beauty of the Catholic liturgy, with its
plainsong and its polyphony, with its noble prayers inherited from Christian
Rome, with its harmonious reverence and its sure appeal to the human heart, is a
cultural as well as a spiritual treasure. The traditional faith preserves not only the
fabric of ancient churches but their meaning, the worship for which they were
built and beautified. The works of the European past, in poetry, in painting, in
music, reach out to the Catholic tradition for their interpretation; the same
tradition guides the mind by a universal philosophy, one taken from the clarity of
Greece and refined by the highest minds in the European intellectual tradition. If
we would rise above the barbarism of modern society, we must turn to these
things to rediscover what it has thrown aside.
H.J.A. Sire
Acknowledgments
T of this book is woven out of previously published essays and
HE CONTENT
articles, rewritten and reorganized around the question: Why is the traditional
understanding and practice of liturgical worship right in itself, and therefore
crucial to recover in our day, when it has been largely abandoned?
Chapter 1 derives from a lecture delivered at the Franciscan University of
Steubenville on September 7, 2015; chapter 2 from a lecture at the
Premonstratensian Abbey of Strahov in Prague for the launch of the Czech
edition of Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis on October 14, 2016; and chapter 3
from my plenary address at the Annual General Meeting of the Vancouver
Traditional Mass Society on November 12, 2016. Part of Chapter 7 was
published at the blog OnePeterFive. Chapter 9 was published in Latin Mass: The
Journal of Catholic Culture and Tradition. Most of the other chapters contain
material that first appeared at Rorate Caeli, New Liturgical Movement, or Views
from the Choir Loft.
Passages of Sacred Scripture quoted in this book are generally drawn from
the Douay-Rheims translation. Citations of the Psalms follow the traditional
Vulgate numbering.
I express my gratitude to all the conference organizers who gave me the
opportunity to develop my thoughts in writing and to the various editors who,
over the years, have improved my work with their criticisms and counsel. In
particular, this manuscript benefited from the astute eye of Michael Martin. I
thank the friends, young and old, who have read my essays, corrected my errors,
and forced me to go deeper and further. Deserving of special thanks for the
handsome black and white photographs that adorn the chapters are Fr. Alban
Cras, F.S.S.P., Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., Pawel Kula, Dr. Joseph Shaw, and my
son Julian.
Martin Mosebach’s incisive writings on the liturgy have influenced me
greatly. It is therefore a special joy for me to be able to include, as the Foreword
