Mark Searle

Mark Searle September 19, 1941 - August 16, 1992

Mark Searle died August 16, 1992, after a fifteen month bout with cancer. He was born September 19, 1941, in Bristol, England. As a young adult, he joined the Franciscan community in England, and then he went to Europe to complete his studies.

Mark came to the United States in 1978 and taught at the University of Notre Dame. He left the priesthood and married Barbara Schmich in 1980. There three children are Anna Clare, Matthew Thomas, and Justin Francis.

After his marriage, Mark worked at the Center for Pastoral Liturgy and then on the theology faculty at Notre Dame, where he served as coordinator of the graduate program in liturgical studies and, from 1983 to 1988, director of the master's degree program in theology. He also influenced numerous students in summer programs and lectures throughout the United States and in other countries from England to New Zealand.

Mark was a lecturer of keen insight, the editor of Assembly magazine, a consultant for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, and the editor of several books. He was a word crafter, a person who cared about what he said and how he said it. While he limited the number of times that he accepted speaking engagements, when he did choose to speak, he never failed to challenge the best that is in us. And just last year, in what became his final article for Pastoral Musician (15:6 [August-September 1991]), he challenged us to trust our rituals or face "the triumph of bad taste," calling us to remember that "the whole of the liturgy, beginning with the very congregating of the people, is sacramental."

He had a deep affinity with the National Association of Pastoral Musicians because of his personal commitment to the development of pastoral liturgy as a field of academic study, an equal partner, as he would say, with the historical study of the liturgical rites. His development and reporting of the Notre Dame Study of Parishes, especailly the component on liturgy and music (see Pastoral Music 10:5 [June-July 1986] and 10:6 [August-September 1986]), were instrumental in providing a more scientific approach to pastoral liturgical studies.

But I knew Mark best through the North American Academy of Liturgy and its social sciences subgroup. Each year, for two or three days, we gathered with others of similar interest to share "our latest thinking" about the church and the world of social science. Those discussions led to his studying semiotics in the Netherlands.

Mark was a scholar of unusual insight. When sickness invaded his body, he told me that he could make some meaning of the sickness for himself, a little meaning of it for his wife, but no meaning whatsoever for his children. So he turned to prayer and diet. As the homilist at his funeral indicated, Mark was in search of the source of life. He did not allow the sickness to take away his search, striving for the fullness of life even in his illness. And he believed that, if you eat the bread of life, you will live forever.

Each of us who knew him will have our own best memory of him, and mine is a memory of our two-day visit to Disneyland in 1981, which took place after several days of intense discussion at an Academy meeting. Mark's first child had just been born, and he was still delighting in that wonder. I can see him now, shaking hands solemnly with Mickey Mouse and saying that he had looked forward to this meeting. I love a man who does his research.

Tribute prepared by NPM staff, published in Pastoral Music, October-November 1992, pg. 10. Reprinted with permission.

Alexander Peloquin

Alexander Peloquin
1919 - 1997

C. Alexander Peloquin, composer, cathedral organist, and director of music ministries, had a special relationship to the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. He served on our first Board of Directors; in fact, he dominated our first Board meeting, as only Alex Peloquin could! The year was 1976, and the day was November 19. NPM had just been formed and everyone on the Board had dreams of what was needed in the area of church music.

Alexander Peloquin was very much part of the Board’s discussions about what NPM ought to be. But Alex was also interested in telling us that “a lot of religious music today is boring, and I don’t think worship calls us to boredom.” He then spoke, at length, about the importance of syncopation (one of his favorite themes) and jazz rhythms and how they showed up in various religious works. He went on to point out that the harmonies in his music were reminiscent of those used by George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein. The NPM Board did not meet again for another seventeen years!

Alexander Peloquin was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, and began music training on the piano when he was eight. He had a regular radio spot for piano performance at age eleven, gave an organ recital in his teens, and played piano with Leonard Bernstein. In World War II, he served as a bandmaster for the 314th Army Band, bringing the sounds of Gershwin to GIs in Italy, France, and Morocco. Starting in the 1950s Peloquin began a 13-year relationship with the The Catholic Hour, first on NBC radio, then on CBS television. In the course of his life he composed more than 150 works.

At the National Liturgical Week in 1964 in St. Louis, Missouri, he directed his composition of the first Mass using an English text, while during that same week Clarence Rivers was introducing “God is Love” and the rest of his “American Mass Program.” Alexander Peloquin was one of the few classically trained composers inspired by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The compositions by Peloquin that most lay people would probably recognize is the very successful Gloria from Mass of the Bells and the Lyric Liturgy.

After conducting the Papal Mass at Grant Park, Chicago, in 1979, Alexander Peloquin came across town to conduct a choir at the memorable closing ceremony of the Second NPM National Convention. After completing his beautiful version of All the Ends of the Earth and receiving a standing ovation which concluded the performance and the event, Alex, dressed in his trademark white suit, bowed to the audience several times, asked for quiet, and then suggested that “we should do it again in order to get the rhythm right.” We did.

Alex was the Organist and Director of Music Ministries for the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul in Providence (1960-1991), and he was responsible for the installation of the magnificent Casavant Frères organ in that cathedral. During this time, he was also affiliated with Boston College, teaching courses in choral conducting and composition, serving as composer-in-residence, and forming and maintaining the Peloquin Chorale, with his close friend Laetitia Blain serving as soloist on many occasions.

Alexander Peloquin received the NPM Pastoral Musician of the Year Award in 1989 and the NPM President’s Citation in 1993 on the occasion of his retirement. But no award can give adequate honor to this man who spent his life in service of the renewal of the liturgical life of the Church through music. Alex now gives glory to God with the heavenly choir, and, we are certain, he already has them singing in perfect rhythm!

Tribute prepared by NPM staff, published in Pastoral Music, April-May 1997, pg. 10. Reprinted with permission.

Sue Seid Martin

Sue Seid Martin
March 11, 1938 - August 10, 1998

Sue Seid Martin, gifted musician and liturgist, died August 10, 1998 after a long illness. Sue was organist and music director at parishes in Iowa, Texas and New York before becoming the Director of Chapel Music at the University of Notre Dame. From there she came to the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and over the years taught at the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul Seminary and United Theological Seminary. She also was a frequent guest speaker in archdiocesan parishes. She had tremendous influence on liturgists and musicians wherever she lived; her passion for the liturgy was infectious, her vision unwavering.

I can remember the early days of the Association of Liturgical Ministers (ALM). We met for Evening Prayer on Sunday nights at the old St. Paul Seminary Chapel. Parish Music Directors should have been exhausted on Sunday night, but somehow that Evening Prayer together was energizing rather than draining. Then we went over to the Administration Building and sat in the parlor, dragging in extra chairs or sitting on the floor, to hear a speaker and have cookies and punch and coffee. Sue helped maintain the format and content of those early meetings, meetings that built the foundation of the organization.

I can remember going to see her in her office at the College of St. Catherine while I was still teaching at Hill-Murray High School. Someone had said she was a good person to talk with if one was interested in getting involved with liturgy. I don’t remember the actual words of the conversation, but I remember sound advice was given, as well as inspiration and affirmation. That type of meeting was repeated often through the years as I sought her advice on different matters. Sue had the ability to recognize the gifts in others and the grace to step aside and let people find and use their gifts.

I can remember dozens of committee meetings; for the 1987 NPM National Convention, for 2 different conferences with Mark Searle, for the continuing education workshops on the seasons of the Church year at the Seminary, for the North American Academy of Liturgy meeting, for other conventions, other workshops. I can remember dozens of liturgical events, concerts, talks, and rehearsals. She was truly a pastoral Church musician. She believed that the music serves the liturgy and she has a gift for choosing the right music for each ritual moment.

I can remember being called together for a meeting one last time by Sue to help plan her funeral. And I can remember all we said that day and all we said and did on the day we implemented those plans at the vigil and funeral celebrating Sue’s life. I can remember thinking Sue must have been pleased with the ritual and music and happy to see so many of us put into action all she had taught us over the years.

I will remember Sue forever and I will miss her a great deal. She challenged all of us to be the best liturgical ministers we could be and she taught us to strive to help our assemblies participate in the liturgy with full, conscious and active hearts and minds.

Tribute prepared by Vicki Klima, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Worship Center.

Additional tribute:

Madeleine Sue Henderson Seid Martin died on Sunday, August 10, in St. Paul, MN, after a long struggle with cancer and its complications. Born in Indiana, she taught at the University of Notre Dame, the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, the School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and at the United Theological Seminary, New Brighton, MN. She also served as music director for Presbyterian churches in Iowa and Texas, and for Episcopal parishes in Wichita Falls, TX, and Rochester, NY, before going to the University of Notre Dame as its Director of Chapel Music.

Sue had been very active in NPM as a clinician and teacher until her illness limited her activities. She coordinated the liturgies for the Second NPM National Convention, held in Chicago in 1979, and she served as a clinician for the NPM Choir Director Institute, teaching and encouraging pastoral musicians to serve God through their musical performance.

Her funeral began with a twenty-four hour vigil on August 21, at St. William Church, Fridley, MN, during which the entire book of psalms was prayed, sung, and danced, led by her many friends; the funeral Mass was on August 22, and the ministers included Sue's children (Laurel, Leslie, and Michael) and grandchildren.

Sue never compromised on the need for excellence and competence in musical worship, and she always held a deep passion for her own work as a pastoral musician, knowing well that her music was always at the service of others. David Haas noted of her life that her "influence on liturgical music in this country is hard to measure. She always knew what kind of music was needed for the church. From her, I learned. . . the integrity that all of us are called to as ministers. We have lost a true light, one . . . by which others were able to move forward."

Tribute prepared by NPM staff, published in Pastoral Music, October-November 1998, pg. 12. Reprinted with permission.

Theophane Hytrek, SSSF

Theophane Hytrek, SSSF
1915 - 1992

On Wednesday, August 12, Sister Theophane taught her regular class at the NPM School of Organists in Milwaukee, at Alverno College. Always ready to do more than was expected, she then gave private lessons to one of the participants in the school. She went to sleep that evening and was found dead the next morning. It seems that she did not struggle when death came to take her. Stunned at the news, the faculty and students of the school gathered to celebrate the Eucharist, led by faculty members Rev. Ronald Brassard, Dr. James Kosnik, and Theophane's close friends Sr. Mary Jane Wagner, SSSF, and Sr. Mary Hueller, SSSF.

Born in 1915, Theophane's early interest in religion and music led her to become a School Sister of St. Francis and, through her work as a pastoral musician, educator, organist, and composer, she was recognized, even before Vatican II, as a leader in the field of liturgical music. She held master's degrees in organ and composition as well as a doctorate in composition from the University of Rochester, and she was a fellow of the American Guild of Organists. Her published works include Masses, motets, psalms, hymns, and organ compositions. Her Pilgrim Mass was commissioned for the 41st International Eucharistic Congress in 1976. In recent years she had "retired" from full-time teaching to become the organ and liturgy consultant for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and Alverno College.

Sister Theophane played a key role in the founding of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in 1976, serving on our first board of directors. She had long recognized the church's need for musical and liturgical excellence coupled with a realistic commitment to serve in a parish situation. In fact, she helped us define the skills needed by a "pastoral musician" in an early issue of Pastoral Music. There (October-November 1977 [2:1] 18-9) she listed the skills required of pastoral musicians. She wrote, "The skills of the church musician must be those, first of all, of a good musician." But to be pastoral, she said, a musician must also "experience a musical leadership role in a given community by implementing worship . . . in collaboration with others." And that role requires liturgical, communication, and management skills as well. Above all, she made clear, the musician's focus must be on the singing assembly, for the musician must "select . . . lead . . . and teach . . . the music of the congregation."

No doubt a key reason for the high quality of music and liturgy in the Midwest today is due to the day-to-day leadership of Sister Theophane Hytrek. Catholic musicians will miss her leadership.

Tribute prepared by NPM staff, published in Pastoral Music, October-November 1992, pg. 8. Reprinted with permission.

Teri Dlugosch

Teri Luann Dlugosch
February 16, 1951 - January 14, 2006

Teri was born on February 16, 1951 in Rush City, MN to Harold and Zola (Thomas) Chollett. She married Richard J. Dlugosch on May 8, 1971 in Edina, MN. For 32 years she served the Church of Saint Augustine, St. Cloud, MN, as organist and liturgist and was currently serving Saint Joseph’s parish in St. Joseph, MN. She worked in various Liturgical Ministries for the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Office of Worship, was employed as a music teacher at Saint Augustine’s Grade School, and was self-employed as a piano teacher. She was a member of the National Pastoral Musicians Association and the Minnesota Center Chorale.

Teri was a talented musician who touched the lives of many by sharing her musical gifts. She was an accomplished organist and also played piano, guitar, accordion, and several other instruments. In addition to playing liturgical music at church, Teri played music at numerous ceremonies, receptions, and parties. Through music, she volunteered for the Daughters of Isabella, Christian Women, school-children, nursing home tenants, and U.S. Veterans. She was dedicated to the monks at Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, MN, to the sisters at Saint Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, MN, and to the Diocese of Saint Cloud. She accompanied music for many diocesan liturgies and events including the televised Mass and the annual Clergy Conference.

Teri was a loving wife, mother, aunt, sister, godmother, and daughter. She was passionate about her family, and she was actively involved in the lives of her children. She was well known by family and friends for her unique sense of humor and dynamic personality.

Survivors include her husband Richard, children: Patrick (Carrie) of Minneapolis, Candice (Spec. US Army) in Heidelberg, Germany, Rebekah of Grand Forks, ND, Brendan of St. Cloud; mother Zola Bach of Kimball; brother and sister: Gary of Cloverdale and Trudi Knopes of Clarkston, WA. She was preceded in death by her father, brother Richard, and sister Lois.

Urban Gertken, OSB

Urban (Teresa) Gertken, OSB
January 5, 1893 - April 10, 1987

Sister Urban (Teresa) Gertken, OSB, was born in Richmond, MN, on January 5, 1893, the ninth of thirteen children in the family of Lucas and Margaret (Schneider) Gertken. She attended the Richmond District School, where the teachers were Benedictine Sisters, and came to Saint Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, MN, in 1908. She graduated from Saint Benedict's Academy in 1910, entered the novitiate in 1911 and made vows on July 11, 1912.

Sister Urban's first organ teacher was her father; at Saint Benedict's she was Sister Ulric Beste's pupil. She earned a B.A. in Music from the College of Saint Benedict in 1924 and a Master's in Music from Chicago Musical College in 1938. She did graduate work in choral and liturgical music under outstanding Benedictine authorities.

Sister Urban lived all of her life as a religious at Saint Benedict's, using her musical gifts for teaching piano, organ, Gregorian chant and rubrics, and as organist and choir director. She began teaching organ and piano in Saint Benedict's Academy in 1912, was a member of the first College of Saint Benedict faculty and head of the Music Department from the early 1930's to 1948. She served as organist for the chapel from 1910 to 1966 and in addition directed the Schola from 1921 to 1961. Under her direction the Schola recorded for the Gregorian Institute of America and for radio programs.

Sister Urban taught the Sisters the musical elements of the Divine Office beginning in 1926 when it was adopted by the community. Her greatest contribution was to establish Saint Benedict's Monastery's liturgical life on the firm theological and liturgical principals which the Liturgical Movement, promoted by Virgil Michel, OSB, was promulgating in America. When the Sisters then went out to the one-hundred-plus schools to teach, they, in turn, affected the liturgical revival in the parishes.

Sister Urban (Teresa) Gertken, 94, died at Saint Benedict's Monastery on April 10, 1987, three months before her 75th anniversary of profession as a Benedictine Sister. Her sisters, Sisters, Assumpta, Gemma and Cecile, and other Sisters were with her, singing the "Exu1tet."

Sister is survived by three of her six sisters who entered our community. Four sisters and five brothers, four of whom were Benedictine monks, preceded her in death. Throughout her life Sister Urban praised God and helped others praise God with prayerful music. May God now receive her into the fullness of life and joy.

Tribute prepared by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minnesota.

Norita Lanners, OSB

Norita Lanners, OSB
1935 - 1999

Sister Norita Lanners, OSB, was born in St. Leo, MN, was the sixth of John and Mary (Dittberner) Lanners' eight children. She came to Saint Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, MN, in August, 1949, and after graduating from Saint Benedict's Academy, she entered the novitiate as Sister Meinrad in 1953. On July 11, 1954, she professed vows and in 1968 resumed her baptismal name, Norita.

Sister Norita's admiration for two Benedictine aunts and a Notre Dame teacher spurred her to realize that "God is exciting," and drew her to religious life. Wonder and joy continued throughout her lifelong involvement with liturgical music and prayer. In 1962 she earned the B.A. degree in Music at the College of Saint Benedict, and in 1968 the M.A. degree in Music Education at the University of Minnesota. From 1957 to 1969 she taught music and played the organ in Maple Lake, MN, and Staples, MN, then returned to Saint Benedict's as Renewal Director and Liturgy Coordinator. In 1973-74 Sister Norita served in the Bahamas as music consultant, then traveled westward and for three years taught music at Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, directed the choir and played the organ at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

In 1977 she founded the Salt Lake Diocesan Office of Liturgy and for ten years coordinated the liturgy at the Cathedral. While in Utah she was elected to the National Board and Executive Committee of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions. In 1983 she was awarded an M.A. degree in Liturgical Studies at Saint John's School of Theology. In 1984 she was a keynote speaker at the National Association of Pastoral Musicians Convention in Washington, D.C., and in 1987 audited the Program for Church Leaders at Notre Dame University. In 1990 illness obliged her to return to Saint Benedict's. Here she continued preparing liturgies. In 1996, the Southwest Liturgical Conference presented her with an award reading: "To the Mother Of All Liturgy In Utah," for bringing to birth and nurturing a new vision of liturgy in that area.

Sister Norita Lanners, OSB, 64, died at Saint Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud, MN, in September 1999 after suffering more than ten years from a rare form of cancer of the blood and lymph system. Surviving Sister Norita are two brothers and a sister. While coping with disabling pain for many years, Sister Norita continued expressing her profound spirituality with creativity, gratitude and joy—always believing in the glory of eternal life.

Tribute prepared by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minnesota.

Mary Anthony Wagner, OSB

Mary Anthony (Bernice) Wagner, OSB

1917 - 2002

Sister Mary Anthony (Bernice) Wagner, OSB, the second of Anton and Marie (Wagner) Wagner's three children, was born in Miesville, MN. After grade school in New Trier, MN, she came to Saint Benedict's Monastery and attended high school as aspirant and postulant. In June 1935, she graduated and entered the novitiate. On July 11, 1936, Sister professed vows.

Sister Mary Anthony taught departmentally in grades 5 to 10 at Buckman, MN, for three years, and catechetics for public school children from grades one to six in Farmington, MN, for four years, then attended St. Louis University, and in 1945 earned the B.A. degree in Religion. For two years she taught Religion in the high school at Saint Benedict's and assisted the aspirants' prefect, then went to the Catholic University, Washington, D.C., for her M.A. degree in Religious Education. From 1948 to 1954, while Director of Aspirants, she taught Theology in the College for two years and was Principal of the High School for four years. From 1954 to 1956, she attended Notre Dame University, and in 1957 earned a Doctorate in Theology.

Then, except for two years in Pierz, MN, as Memorial High School Principal and Convent Superior, Sister ministered at Saint Benedict's in the high school, college, monastery and as a source of inspiration and encouragement for individual Sisters. She taught Theology at the College for a total of 37 years and in 1991 retired from the classroom with distinction as Professor Emerita. With Father Paschal Botz, OSB, she founded the Benedictine Institute of Sacred Theology, which became Saint John's Graduate School of Theology. Here she served from 1964 to 1974 as Associate Dean and from 1974 to 1978 as Dean. For leadership in the Theology program she was presented in 1997 with a presidential citation by Saint John's University.

From 1972 to 2002, Sister was Director of the Oblates of Saint Benedict's Monastery. From 1979 until the final issue, in November 2000, she edited the national publication, Sisters Today. In 1993 Liturgical Press published her book, Sacred World of the Christian: Sensed in Faith. She has been active in Pax Christi and Amnesty-International, as retreat presenter, homilist, lecturer, ethics consultant, and often served on monastery committees. In the early 1980s, the contribution of her expertise in theology and liturgy helped effect a renovation of Sacred Heart Chapel at Saint Benedict's Monastery that reflects the Vatican II reforms.

Sister Mary Anthony Anthony, 85, died quietly and unexpectedly at Saint Scholastica Convent on September 18, 2002. She is survived by her only sister, Dolores Stoffel, St. Paul Park, MN. Her only brother is deceased. Sister Mary Anthony was a woman of the Word, formed by Scripture, a model of the Benedictine spirit, who lived in the presence of God. We are assured that she has awakened in God's likeness, knowing everlasting peace.

Tribute prepared by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minnesota.

Louise Walz, OSB

Louise (Louisa) Walz, OSB
December 19, 1864 - January 22, 1944

Mother Louise (Louisa) Walz was born in Baden, Germany, on December 19, 1864, the daughter of Ferdinand Walz and Ursula Haller. At the age of 8 she came to the United States with her parents. She entered St. Benedict's Monastery on October 18, 1884, and pronounced her perpetual vows on July 11, 1880. Prior to her election as prioress in 1919 she served the community as teacher, assistant novice mistress, and as subprioress from 1902-1919. During her three terms as prioress (1919-37) she continued the brick and mortar expansion policy of her predecessor, Mother Cecilia Kapsner. St. Walburg's Hall was built as a dormitory and art needlework department; the Scholasticate was erected to accommodate the large number of candidates; and the St. Cloud Hospital was completed in 1928. Due to the debt incurred by the latter building just before the Great Depression, Mother Louise had to use all of her resourcefulness to keep the community afloat financially.

Among her many duties was service as the President of the College of St. Benedict. Although she herself had only an eighth grade education, the college received accreditation during her term. She knew how to get and rely on a competent lay advisors in her many daring ventures as prioress. It was also during her term that the community was called upon to carry the light of Christianity across the Pacific to the Far East. In response to this call a Chinese mission was accepted, and in 1930 six sisters left to open a women's college at the Catholic University of Peking.

In the area of spirituality and liturgy, she will be forever gratefully remembered for bringing the community back to its monastic roots by restoring the Divine Office as the community prayer. Under Abbot Boniface Wimmer’s rule in their early years in America, the Sisters prayed the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary and some of the early prioresses had introduced other devotional prayers. The community, however, had maintained a strong desire for the Office of the Church as it was handed down in the Benedictine monastic tradition. It was Mother Louise’s kind but firm adherence to monastic values that led the community into the liturgical revival that was being promoted by the Liturgy Movement led by Virgil Michel, OSB. Not only was the community’s liturgical life strengthened, but as the Sisters went to teach in the various schools, they helped promote a revival of liturgy in the parishes.

Mother Louise died on January 22, 1944, but the legacy this strong woman is still felt by her community.

Tribute prepared by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minnesota.

Cecile Gertken, OSB

Cecile Gertken, OSB
1902 - 2001

Sister Cecile (Cecelia) Gertken, O.S.B., was born in Richmond, MN, the eleventh of Luke and Margaret (Schneider) Gertken's thirteen children. One brother died in infancy, the remaining four became Benedictine monks. Seven of the eight girls joined St.Benedict's Monastery. Their father, a renowned teacher and organist, was a great role model. All of the Gertken children sang and read music. Sister Cecile earned the B.A. degree in piano at the College of Saint Benedict in 1925, entered St. Benedict's Monastery in 1926 and professed vows on July II, 1928.

From 1928 to 1960 Sister Cecile taught piano and band instruments, and directed choirs in schools in Bismarck, ND; Mauston, WI; St. Cloud, Wadena, Watkins, Robbinsdale, Sauk Centre and Long Prairie. In 1943 she began attending summer sessions at the U. of MN. There, composing accompaniments for the "Opus Dei," Sister was led to the principles of modal accompaniment and described them in her book, CHANT MELODIES SIMPLIFIED, published by the Liturgical Press in 1960. Between 1961 and 1975 Sister Cecile taught piano and chant at the College of Saint Benedict. Here she was awarded the rank of Professor Emerita.

Vatican II's approval of the vernacular for liturgical prayer prompted her to devote her talents to preserving the ancient chant melodies, fitting them to English translations of the new Mass texts, and to translating and adapting antiphons and hymns for the Divine Office. Her goal was to provide assurance that the ancient Gregorian chant would not be lost. Her booklets of Mass ordinaries, and for monastic prayer hours, published from 1975 to 1993, culminated with SEASONAL HYMNS OF THE LIBER HYMNARIUS. Her contributions became known in many parts of the world. Requests for her booklets have come from St. Cecilia Abbey, England, for distribution in India and Nigeria; from Australia and from Sri Lanka. Beginning in 1975 she assisted the Trappist monks in Huntsville, Utah, translate chants into English. Living at St. Scholastica since 1995, Sister Cecile continued her mission of stressing the beauty and importance of singing the ancient chants. In November, 1999, the new organ in the oratory at St. Benedict's Monastery was blessed in memory of the Gertken Sisters.

Sister Cecile, 99, died at St. Scholastica Convent on November 24, 2001. She is survived by her Benedictine community and many friends. Five brothers and seven sisters are deceased. Sister Cecile sang praise to God throughout her lifetime. In chanting the "Opus Dei" she promised to sing while she had being. We are confident that in her new fullness of being she is keeping that promise with God-given joy.

Tribute prepared by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minnesota.

Johnelle Becker, OSF

Johnelle Becker, OSF
December 11, 1932 - January 5, 2004

Sister Johnelle was born December 11, 1932, in St. Michael, Minn. She was the fourth of six children born to the late Thomas and Anastasia (Kolles) Becker. She was accepted as a Franciscan Sister of Little Falls, Minn., on July 31, 1951. She made her first profession of vows on August 12, 1953, and final vows on August 12, 1956. She celebrated 50 years as a Franciscan Sister in 2001.

Johnelle earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in education and history from the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minn., a Master of Science Degree in administration from the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, and a Certificate of Liturgy from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Wash. She also studied at Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Mass.

Johnelle ministered as an elementary teacher and principal, religious education coordinator, music coordinator, liturgist, organist, Administrator of Ministries for the Franciscan Sisters and most recently, Pastoral Minister of Sacred Heart Parish in Sauk Rapids, Minn., where she had also served as principal of Sacred Heart School, 1979-1984. She also ministered in St. Cloud, Osakis, Alexandria, Morris, Anoka and Little Falls.

Johnelle was loved by her family and many friends because of her deep spirituality, genuineness, humor and passionate love for people. She will be remembered for her many talents especially in the realm of music. Her love for singing found her on stage in Alexandria, MN, in "The Sound of Music," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Oklahoma," "Carnival," and "Hello Dolly," as well as in the Ordway's McKnight Theater in St. Paul, 1994. High on her list of musical instruments were organ, piano, guitar and accordion. Since 1990, she assisted with Residents Encounter Christ (REC), giving weekend retreats to persons in prison at St. Cloud Correctional Facility and Jail, Lino Lakes Jail, Douglas County Jail and finally to the Morrison County Jail, Little Falls. Of those experiences she said, "I have met wonderful people searching for a deeper relationship with Christ. The miracles of conversion I have witnessed have been numerous." She helped lead pilgrimages, one to the Holy Land in 1998, in 2000 to Oberammergau and Lourdes, and in 2002 to Mexico. Of them she said, "They were highlights in my spiritual journey."

Tribute prepared by Saint Francis Convent, Little Falls, MN.

Raymond [Benedict] Avery

Raymond [Benedict] Avery

Reverend Raymond Avery, 88, died Tuesday, March 25, 2008, at McCarrick Care Center in Somerset.

Born in San Francisco, Calif., he resided in Somerset for the past 15 years. He was ordained a priest on June 4, 1944, in St. John Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. He was a priest for 63 years, formerly with the Trenton Diocese, and then the Metuchen Diocese where he has served for 21 years.

He served as parochial vicar at St. Ambrose Church, Old Bridge; Our Lady of the Mount Church, Warren; Immaculate Conception Church, Somerville; Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Whitehouse Station; St. John the Evangelist Church, Dunellen; Most Holy Rosary Church,Hopelawn; Blessed Sacrament Church, Martinsville, and Sacred Heart Church, New Brunswick.

The body of Rev. Raymond Avery will be received at 2 p.m. Friday, March 28, at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church, 500 Route 22 East, Bridgewater, by the Reverend Daniel Herlihy, Episcopal Vicar of Somerset County. Visiting hours will be from 2:15 p.m.-7:15 p.m. Friday at the church. The Bishop Emeritus Edward T. Hughes will celebrate the Mass of Christ the High Priest at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Bishop Paul G. Bootkowski will celebrate the Mass of Resurrection at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church, Bridgewater. Interment will be at Resurrection Cemetery, Piscataway.

Michael Hay

Michael H. Hay
June 23, 1953 - April 14, 1999

Michael H. Hay died at the age of forty-five on Wednesday, April 14, in Norwalk, Ohio. He was born in Norwalk on June 23, 1953, and graduated from the local Saint Paul High School. He graduated from Saint Meinrad College in Indiana, and then went on to earn music degrees at Notre Dame and DePaul University in Chicago.

Mike was a teacher, music editor, liturgical advisor, recording artist and producer, composer, and pastoral musician. He taught at the high school from which he graduated and at Niles College and Loyola University in Chicago, at Notre Dame, and at the Oglala Sioux School in Marty, South Dakota. He served as music editor and recording artist for World Library Publications in Chicago, and he served as a liturgical advisor to the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Toledo. At the time of his death he was serving as music minister for the 4:30 PM Mass at his home parish in Norwalk.

NPM members will remember him from his leadership at many conventions. His voice rang out in leadership, inviting the assembly to sing in full-voiced conviction. As the voice soared, as at the 1981 Detroit convention, the spirit driving the voice radiated an unmistakable cue for all to join in the singing: “In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fam’ly bound by love throughout the whole wide earth.” NPM in its gatherings has never sung better than when we were being led by Mike Hay.

Mike was there from the beginning, from the very first conventions, bringing his indomitable spirit and thrilling voice to serve the Association and the Church. Serving as cantor and psalmist, he brought us the gift of performance at the highest level marked by pastoral sensitivity. Asking the hard questions and presenting the difficult requirements of preparation for music ministry, Mike still enchanted students in classes and workshops. In his teaching and his performance he always called forth what was best, what was right for the liturgy, what was appropriate for the worshiping community being led in sung prayer. Mike set a standard for our field.

Those privileged to know Mike knew someone whose faith and determination were immeasurably deep, though tried physically by two devastating car accidents and spiritually by other challenges. No challenge seemed ultimately insurmountable to him. Despite daily pain, he still loved life, hoped for the future, smiled that incredible smile, and laughed aloud. He found renewal in life’s simple miracles—in flowers blooming outside his room, in the delight of “fine dining,” in the beauty of children’s faces as they sang.

Mike’s funeral was celebrated at Saint Paul, Norwalk, on April 17-18, and he was remembered in Chicago at a special memorial Mass on Monday, May 10, at Madonna della Strada Chapel at Loyola University.

Mike set people at the center of the work of his heart and mind. Blessed are we to have known him and to have called him brother.

Tribute prepared by NPM staff, published in Pastoral Music, June-July 1999, pg. 6. Reprinted with permission.

John Neville, OSC

John Neville, OSC
August 6, 1935 - June 23, 2008

Fr. John Neville, osc, was born August 6, 1935, and raised in Indiana where he came to know the Crosier Fathers and Brothers as a youth in Fort Wayne. It was a diocesan priest in Indiana, Fr. Ed Hession, who suggested to young John that he “check out the Crosiers up at Wawasee.” John fell in love with the Crosier way of life, made his first profession of vows on August 28, 1956, and was ordained a priest on May 27, 1961.

John’s first assignment was to the Crosier Community of Onamia, Minnesota, where, except for two sabbaticals, he spent about 30 years. He held a number of teaching and academic jobs at Onamia including serving as rector of Crosier Seminary and dean of the college. He also held positions of leadership in the Province of Saint Odilia including Councilor to the Provincial and Formation Director, and in 1994, was elected by his Crosier brothers to serve as Prior Provincial.

Although John had a B.A. degree in mathematics with a minor in education, and held a doctoral degree in educational administration, his first love was music. As a child and young adult, he learned to play several instruments and, over the years, had accompanied band and choral groups on piano and had played at Crosier community prayer and Eucharist. He also composed and arranged music.

Following his five-year service as Provincial and a sabbatical year, John moved to the Crosier Formation Community at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago, Illinois. He joined the CTU faculty as administrator and director of technology to network their educational and formation programs, and to find ways to make the use of technology easier.

During his time at CTU, John was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer, which required both radiation and chemotherapy treatment. With the help and support of his Crosier Community, relatives, and the CTU community, he was able to complete his treatment program in Chicago before transferring to the Crosier Community in Phoenix, Arizona. Before he left Chicago, CTU honored him by naming its technology center after him.

Music played a significant role in John’s life and had a strong hand in the music department at Crosier Seminary and the Crosier Community in Phoenix. He enjoyed listening to classical music and recordings of the Crosier Seminary Chorus, which he accompanied for ten years.

Following the surgery to remove the upper right lobe of his lung, the doctor told John that in a case like his, the cancer normally re-emerges in two years. Humbly, he said that he did not take for granted the fact that he had exceeded the two-year time limit. He was thankful for having his life and work collapse around him because it had brought a certain depth. He began using his energy and time to get closer to people in the real sense, not in the work sense, and to get closer to God.

John died from the effects of cancer on June 23, 2008, at the age of 72. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Friday, June 27, 2008, at the Crosier Priory Church in Onamia. Internment took place at the Neville family burial plot in Indiana.

Pierre-Marie Gy, OP

Pierre-Marie Gy, OP
October 19, 1922 - December 20, 2004

Pierre-Marie Gy, O.P., was born in Paris on October 19, 1922. In 1940 he began medieval studies at the famous School of Chartes in Paris and a year later he entered the Dominican order. Ordained a priest in 1948, from 1949 to 1968 Père Gy taught sacramental theology and liturgy at the Dominican Faculty of Theology of Le Saulchoir. His own doctoral dissertation was on the history and theology of the Ritual of the Sacraments. From 1949 until 2001 he was a member of the Center of Pastoral Liturgy, which in 1964 became the official liturgical center of the French episcopate.

The two scholars whose work and personal presence influenced Père Gy the most were Dom Bernard Botte, O.S.B., of Louvain, the greatest historian of the liturgy in the 20th century, and Yves Congar, O.P., especially from 1945 to 1954 and during the last years of his life when Gy was Cardinal Congar's closest confidant. During the early part of his career, Père Gy had friendly scholarly contact with the great Anglican liturgist, Dom Gregory Dix, and—both before Vatican II and during the post-conciliar work of liturgical reform—with Fr. Joseph Andreas Jungmann, S.J., the eminent Austrian historian of the liturgy. It was due in great part to Balthasar Fischer and Père Gy's conciliating efforts that the head liturgist among the French, Aimé-Georges Martimort, and Johannes Wagner, the chief German liturgist, were able to work together in that post-war period, thereby making possible Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium as well as the later work of liturgical reform.

In 1956 Gy was named assistant director under Dom Bernard Botte of the new Institut supérieur de liturgie founded at the Institut catholique of Paris. Succeeding Botte as director in 1964, Gy continued on in that capacity until 1987 when he became director of doctoral studies and of the whole faculty of theology. His retirement from teaching came in 1990. During his tenure at the Institut supérieur de liturgie he directed a total of 50 doctorates in liturgy, a dozen of which were by Americans.

Together with Johannes Wagner and Aimé Georges Martimort, Père Gy was one of the principal architects of Sacrosanctum Concilium and of the post-conciliar liturgical reform. Over the years he has been the editor, first, of the Dominican Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques, and then of the extremely influential journal on the liturgy, La Maison Dieu. From 1971 to 1973 he served as the third president of the Societas Liturgica, an ecumenical and international association of liturgical scholars. A 1990 listing of his scholarly publications includes 137 articles, 19 annual bulletins on the liturgy, and numerous book reviews. Although formally retired, Père Gy has continued his writing through the past 13 years. One example of his productivity is his latest “Bulletin de Liturgie” in the Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques (86/4). This past year's yearly overview of recent scholarly activity in the liturgy across the world runs a total of 46 pages! Throughout his scholarly career Père Gy's primary concern has been to help re-establish the unity between sacramental theology and the Church's liturgy, both as historically understood and as celebrated.

Marquette University, named after one outstanding French priest and explorer, is deeply honored by the presence in its midst and the shared wisdom of yet another. For generations Père Pierre-Marie Gy, O.P., has served as an outstanding example of careful historical investigation into, and profound love for, the liturgy of the Church. Liturgical scholars across the world have benefited immeasurably from his dedicated life of learning, both those who had the privilege to study under him in Paris, and the many more who have read his work in the pages of La Maison Dieu and elsewhere.

He led us all to a greater appreciation of the unity between sacramental theology and the Church’s liturgy, both as historically understood and as celebrated. On December 20, 2004, Père Gy was called by the Lord to Himself.

Tribute prepared by John D. Laurance, S.J., Marquette University.

Bernard Botte, OSB

Bernard Botte, OSB
1893 — 1980

On March 4 Dom Bernard Botte died at the Abbey of Mont César in Louvain, where for so many hears he had devoted his unique talents to the cause of liturgical renewal. As Cardinal Knox, Prefect of the Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship, noted on the occasion, we are all deeply indebted to him. His contribution to liturgical scholarship was equaled by few, if any, in this century.

For Dom Botte scholarship was not an end in itself. It was love of liturgical prayer that led him to monastic profession at Mont César more than sixty years ago, and it was love of liturgical prayer that motivated him throughout his long career of research and teaching.

Dom Botte began his career as a professor of Greek and Scripture, and he was very content with that. But Abbot Bernard Capelle, himself originally a scripture scholar, had become convinced that the liturgical movement, of which Mont César had become a center through the enterprise of Dom Lambert Beauduin, needed a scientific foundation. He proposed to institute a program of courses in liturgical studies, and he recruited Dom Botte to assist him in this.

As Dom Botte explained, he initiated himself in liturgical studies by preparing his courses. He had received a good philological formation, and in time he developed a rare degree of philological expertise. This, combined with a rigorous historical methodology and an abundance of good common sense, accounts for his eminence as a liturgical scholar.

I shall not attempt here to record Dom Botte's contributions to liturgical studies and liturgical renewal. An entire issue of Worship would hardly suffice for this. Furthermore, most of our readers are quite aware of the scope of his contributions.

Let me recall his long collaboration with the Centre de Pastoral Liturgique, beginning in 1948, and its study sessions at Vanves, as well as his involvement, from the beginning, with the ecumenical conferences conducted at the Russian Orthodox Institut Saint-Serge in Paris.

One could think that it was Dom Botte who inspired the insistence of the Constitution on the Liturgy that efforts of liturgical renewal would be futile without proper liturgical formation of priests, since that had long been his deep conviction. In the early 1950's he orgainzed summer study sessions for liturgy professors at Mont César. In 1956 he was named director of the Institut de Liturgie in Paris; he continued in this position for eight years and left a permanent mark. Scholars to whose formation he contributed are a major part of his legacy.

Anyone familiar with Dom Botte's research could point to particularly valuable contributions to liturgical scholarship. I recall, for instance, several articles on the development of the epiclesis in Eastern eucharistic liturgies. However, there can be no doubt that his major contribution to scholarship was his edition of the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus and his many articles establishing its importance in Catholic Tradition. We have him to thanks that the eucharistic anaphora of Hippolytus, as well as his prayer for the ordination of a bishop, havebeen incorporated into the Roman liturgy.

Those of us who had the great good fortune of having Dom Botte as a mentor in liturgical studies remember him as more than a great scholar. Père Bernard, as we called him, was a devoted monk, a rare human being, a free spirit.

Robert Hovda

Robert W. Hovda
April 10, 1920 - February 5, 1992

In the normal course of events this column [“The Amen Corner” in Worship] would have been written by Father Robert W. Hovda, but as many of our readers already know, he died suddenly on 5 February 1992 in his simple apartment in New York City. His funeral liturgy was celebrated at the oratory of Saint Boniface in Brooklyn, New York, where he frequently worshiped with the Oratorians following his retirement from Saint Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village. Since Father Hovda was a priest of the Diocese of Fargo, a funeral liturgy was also celebrated in Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo. Both liturgies attracted many of Bob’s friends who came from far and near to thank God for the significant deeds that had taken place in their lives and the life of the Church and world through the ministry of their special friend. Both Eucharists were indeed celebrations of gratitude and praise. There were friends from the Catholic Worker and the North American Academy of Liturgy, from the Paraclete Bookshop and the Liturgical Conference, from Saint John’s Abbey and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, from Liturgy Training Publications and Saint Joseph’s Parish in New York, from the Fargo presbyterate and the parish of Berlin, North Dakota, where Bob once served as pastor. All who gathered were deeply saddened by his death but thankful that their lives had been blessed by friendship with a man who was a committed Christian minister bringing us new insights, calling us to live more justly, and inviting us to see beauty and goodness where we had become blind.

Saint John’ Abbey and University held an important place in Father Hovda’s heart. He became a Roman Catholic in 1943 while waiting trial for his stance as a conscientious objector. Shortly thereafter he decided to pursue study for ordination to the priesthood. As he noted in his response to the North American Academy of Liturgy’s Berakah Award in 1982 (Worship, vol. 56, pp. 344-56), he met much rejection but was finally accepted at Saint John’s “without money or diocesan affiliation.” He said he could not have imagined another place where he could have survived, with his opinions and brashness, much less where he “could have been initiated into the savingly ancient Benedictine tradition, an orthodoxy untainted by Counter-Reformation hysteria, the writers and speakers and visitors who gravitated to such an oasis,…and a prayerful and serious liturgy.” Bob in turn made a significant contribution to Saint John’s by writing “The Amen Corner” for Worship from 1983 until his death.

Father Hovda gave countless lectures at liturgical conferences across the country and wrote numerous articles, but his most important contribution to liturgical theology and ministry would surely include Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy, first published by the Liturgical Conference in 1976 and now available through The Liturgical Press, and his work on Art and Environment in Catholic Worship, issued by the Bishops’ Committee on Liturgy in 1978. It has been said that the latter is one of the most impressive liturgical documents published in any language since the Second Vatican Council. Bob Hovda was the visionary behind the text and the principal writer of the document.

Each Christmas his many friends looked forward to his greeting. The card was either an original design by Frank Kacmarcik or a handsome reproduction from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in which Bob had inserted one of his prose-poems and usually a personal note. These poems have been treasured by those who received them. The one he shared with us in 1989 was especially powerful and provocative; its theme was the role of the prophet in our world and Church set out by one who was himself surely a prophet.

“There had not been such great distress in Israel
since the time prophets ceased to appear among the people” (1Mc 9:27).
Day of the Prophet: flesh-word, prospect given to the blind,
announced to the deaf, served by the powerless…
Day of Light: ferret-dawn lifting a self-seeking and time-serving veil
with license to pursue the happiness we call “God’s reign.”
Day of opportunity: to confess our blindness and our deafness
and the folly of our power, that we might see and hear and be prophets.

For all that Robert Hovda did for Worship over the years, the editors are deeply grateful. We are pleased to share with our readers some further reflections by Virginia Sloyan, long associated with Father Hovda at the Liturgical Conference, and the homily that Father Gerard Sloyan gave at the funeral liturgy in Brooklyn on 8 February 1992.

Tribute taken from Worship, 1992, pg. 263. Reprinted with permission.

Bill Brown

Bill V. Brown
June 2, 1950 - June 11, 2008

Bill Brown, an architect who was well known for the consultative process that he used to design or renovate churches, died on June 11, 2008. Bill worked as an architect for more than thirty-five years, and he founded Bill Brown AIA Professional Corporation in Colorado Springs, CO, to serve the churches in new building construction, renovation, addition, and historic preservation. He authored A Place of Catholic Worship, Building and Renovation Kit for Places of Catholic Worship (Liturgy Training Publications), and several articles about church renovation, including one for Pastoral Music (June-July 2001). His funeral liturgy was celebrated at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Colorado Springs on June 19.

Tribute prepared by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians and published in Pastoral Music, August-September 2008. Reprinted with permission.

Michael Marx

Michael Joseph Marx, O.S.B.
October 24, 1913 - May 5, 1993

Worship lost a very dear friend in the recent death of Father Michael Marx O.S.B. He was the managing editor of this journal (Worship) from 1963 until 1986. In that capacity, he exercised an important role in shaping the editorial policy of the magazine during the years following the promulgation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. He promoted the development of an ecumenical editorial board drawn from both Western and Eastern Christian Churches, a decision which wisely broadened the scope and raised the scholarly level of articles accepted for publication. If Worship is respected throughout the English-speaking world and beyond as an organ addressing serious liturgical issues in an interdisciplinary context and with sensitivity toward various Christian traditions, it is in many ways due to Father Michael's initiative, hard work, and perseverance in maintaining high standards. By nature he was rather shy, always self-effacing, and modest about his accomplishments.

Father Michael was a man of great integrity, capable of critical judgments but one who tempered his evaluations with deep loyalty to Church, monastery, family, and friends. Young liturgical scholars who submitted articles to him for publication were encouraged by his careful editing and his insightful direction; they knew he had the habit of checking all their footnotes in the library. As mature scholars they are now grateful for his friendship and wisdom. Although he himself never sought attention, he had a keen appreciation for monastic hospitality which he graciously shared with countless guests who visited Collegeville. He regularly brought people together for stimulating conversations sparked by his incisive questions often posed around the dining table. By training he was always respectful of authentic tradition; by nature he was inquisitive, open-minded, and sympathetic toward new developments. His close friends knew him as a man of sensitivity, compassion, and dependability.

Father Michael was born on 24 October 1913 in Saint Michael, Minnesota, on of fourteen children, four of whom became Benedictines. He was educated at Saint John's Preparatory School and University, was professed as a monk of Saint John's Abbey on 11 July 1936, and was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on 13 July 1941. He received a doctorate in sacred theology from the Collegio de Sant' Anselmo on Rome with a dissertation on "Incessant Prayer in Ancient Monastic Literature." It was published by Scuola Salesiana del Libre in 1946. He also received a licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Upon his return to the United Sates after the Second World War, Father Michael taught systematic theology in Saint John's Seminary and Graduate School of Theology from 1947 until his retirement in 1982. He died in the retirement center at Saint John's Abbey on 5 May 1993.

In 1988, along with Father Aelred Tegels O.S.B., Father Michael received the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy. The citation noted some of his special gifts: "editorial perspicuity," "unfailingly gracious labor," "exquisite patience," and "unerring good judgment." Those who knew and worked with him are grateful for those gifts. We hope and pray that he now shares fully in the Paschal Mystery which he taught and celebrated for so many years.

Tribute taken from Worship 1993, page 291. Reprinted with permission.

Ralph Keifer

Ralph A. Keifer
1940 - 1987

Dr Ralph A. Keifer, who served as an associate editor of Worship from 1974-80, died after a long illness in Chicago on 5 July, 1987. A graduate of Notre Dame University, he was well known in the fields of liturgical studies through his writings, public lectures and teaching. Most recently (1976-87) he was professor of liturgy at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. The author of several books and numerous articles, Dr Keifer was influential in furthering liturgical renewal among both Roman Catholics and other Christian churches. He took part in the Consultation on Common Texts, the International Consultation on Common Texts and the Committee for a Common Eucharistic Prayer. He also served as general editor (1971-73) and acting executive secretary (1972-73) for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.

Tribute from Worship, Vol. 61, No. 5, September 1987, pg. 461. Reprinted with permission.

Reynold Hillenbrand

Reynold Hillenbrand
1904 - 1979

Priest, pastor, educator, social justice advocate and liturgical reformer, Monsignor Reynold Hillenbrand, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, served as Rector of Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary from 1936 to 1944, and pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka, Illinois from 1944 to 1974. Known as one of Chicago's most influential and inspirational priests, Hillenbrand was a visionary leader of liturgical reform and social renewal. As one of the American pioneers of the Liturgical Movement in the United States, Hillenbrand began promoting active participation in the liturgy decades before the Second Vatican Council made today's liturgical practices the norm. Always conscious that worshippers formed a Mystical Body with Christ as its head, Hillenbrand encouraged appropriate lay participation so that Christ's work, which continued in the Church, could flourish on earth.

Deeply interested in social renewal during and after the Great Depression and World War II, Hillenbrand believed that Christians would be transformed by the Divine Life by participating fully in the sacred liturgy, giving praise to God and receiving sanctifying grace. These individuals, then transformed, would bring this overflowing Divine Life to others in the workplace, schools, at home, with the poor, and in all aspects of social interaction. This cultural renewal avoided the excesses of both unbridled capitalism and collectivist communism, instead finding its source in Christ.

As a prolific speaker and founder of numerous organizations and events, including the National Liturgical Weeks, the Summer Schools of Social Action and the Catholic Family Movement, Hillenbrand shaped the understanding of generations of priests and laypeople. He helped them to understand that the grace of Christ available in the sacred liturgy was the true source of personal and social renewal, and that this grace was most fruitful when people participated in the sacramental life of the Church most fully.

Reynold Hillenbrand was born on July 19, 1904, the second of nine children and the grandson of German immigrants who settled in Wisconsin. Reynold’s father, George, moved to Chicago to earn his degree in dentistry from Northwestern University, marrying Eleanor Schmidt in 1901. The family joined Saint Michael’s parish in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, which like many German parishes, had a strong sense of social justice. St. Michael’s published the bilingual magazine entitled Central Blatt and Social Justice, and participated in events sponsored by the German Central Verein, a Catholic organization which fought Freemasonry and looked after the welfare of Catholic immigrants in the United States. St. Michael's was also known for its rich liturgical and devotional traditions and strong music program. Hillenbrand would later take this formation to his own efforts in uniting liturgy and social justice.

Hillenbrand's formation remained deeply intertwined with the educational efforts of Cardinal George Mundelein, who founded both Quigley Preparatory Seminary and Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary, insisting on the highest educational standards and using the system to identify men of particular talent. Young Reynold was already known by his lifelong nicknames of “Hilly” and “Reiny.” He evidently showed leadership potential in his educational life, and his high school activities prefigure the many gifts he would use in his priestly ministry. The debate team no doubt prepared him as a preacher and persuasive orator. As founder and editor-in-chief of the school’s daily newspaper, The Candle, Hilly honed his writing and organizational skills, and as a member of the school’s orchestra and choir, he developed his skills in music which would prove central to his later innovations in congregational liturgical participation.

At Saint Mary of the Lake, Hillenbrand excelled academically, and was ordained to the priesthood earlier than the rest of his class as a special recognition of his abilities. He later completed his License and Doctorate at Saint Mary of the Lake and would eventually become its rector.

Cardinal George Mundelein named Hillenbrand rector of Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in 1936 at the age of 31. The founding of the seminary was a project dear to Mundelein’s heart, and its leadership no doubt required a man Mundelein could trust profoundly. The intellectual and energetic Hillenbrand wasted no time in bringing new ideas to the seminary program. Putting his beliefs about the corporate nature of the liturgy as an action of the Mystical Body of Christ into action, Hillenbrand brought the seminarians, who had until then worshipped in separate chapels, into a sung communal Sunday High Mass. He urged the use of the “dialogue Mass” so that seminarians could sing the responses, and expected the celebrant of each Mass to preach a daily homily on topics relevant to the scriptures, liturgical feast, or season.

Hillenbrand developed and taught a liturgy course for the seminary which addressed the nature and doctrine of the liturgy itself rather than the externals of the ceremonies alone. “The all-essential thing in the liturgy is to understand the doctrinal basis,” he wrote in 1942. For that reason, he studied closely the “divine life and the Mystical Body, because without understanding these it is quite useless to talk about the details of the Mass.” Hillenbrand’s skills as a preacher were legendary. Throughout his life he never ceased to be bombarded with speaking invitations. Seminarians recalled how even when not attending Mass, they would sneak into the sacristy and listen to his sermons.

Always a loyal churchman, Hillenbrand’s lectures on liturgy remained rooted in the Church’s official teaching, especially the writings of Pope Pius X, whose 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini used the phrase “active participation” for the first time in relation to the liturgy. More important to Hillenbrand than classroom time, however, was the students’ lived experience of the liturgy. He insisted they learn the chants of the Mass, that appropriate liturgical colors and vestures be used, and that the Roman Missal be followed carefully.

Hillenbrand was known to students as formal and aloof, yet his ideas and preaching were considered magnetic and charismatic. At left he is shown outside the seminary chapel among students after an ordination ceremony in 1943.

Hillenbrand invited the nation’s leading liturgical minds to lecture at the seminary, including Virgil Michel, Martin Hellriegel, Catherine DeHuech Doherty, Godfrey Diekmann and Dorothy Day, placing the seminary on the forefront of liturgical theology and forming a generation of Chicago priests.

Tribute from The Liturgical Institute, University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL.

Hans Anscar Reinhold

Hans Anscar Reinhold
September 9, 1897 - January 26, 1968

Hans Anscar Reinhold was born in Hamburg, Germany on 1897 September 9. His parents placed great import on a good education and put effort into finding a good school for their children. Consequently, their son attended a public school with Lutheran affiliations, rather than the local private Catholic school. After discovering an interest in languages, history, art, and architecture, Reinhold's indifference to his early education turned to hard work and success. During World War I Reinhold served on the Russian front and in army intelligence translating English and French codes.

Following the Great War, Reinhold studied at the University of Freiburg where he read The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini. Reinhold marks this reading as a turning point in his life that gave him a more positive attitude towards Catholic teaching. In 1920 Reinhold entered the Jesuit seminary at Innsbruck. While at the monastery at Maria Laach in 1922, Reinhold had his first experience with the dialogue Mass and was impressed by the participation of the people in celebrating the Mass. In 1923 he studied at the University of Westphalia and followed it by a year and a half at the University of Münster and the diocesan seminary at Osnabrück.

Reinhold was ordained to the priesthood on 1925 December 19 at Osnabrück. His first assignment was in Niendorf where he introduced the dialogue Mass to the congregation. In 1929 he was assigned to be the priest for a mission to German Catholic seamen. The Seaman's Apostolate operated out of Bremerhaven until 1933 when Reinhold moved to Hamburg. Reinhold served in this capacity for six years and was an instrument in founding the International Council of the Apostolate of the Sea 1930. It was in this post that Reinhold connected the work of liturgical reform with social justice.

As Hitler and the Nazis took power in Germany in the 1930s, Reinhold's criticism of the government put him at risk with the Gestapo. Reinhold left Germany in 1935 and eventually settled in New York City where he worked for the Catholic section of the Protestant Refugee Committee. After brief service teaching in Rhode Island, Reinhold moved to Seattle, Washington in 1938 to be the port chaplain. He eventually received an assignment in a Yakima, Washington church, and in 1944 became the pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Sunnyside, Washington. Also in 1944 Reinhold became a United States citizen.

Reinhold left Washington in 1956 because of difficulties with his health and with Bishop Joseph Dougherty of Yakima. He moved to Pittsburgh and worked under Bishop John Wright, where he was permitted to speak and write. In 1957 Reinhold was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's Disease. Reinhold died in Pittsburgh on 1968 January 26.

Reinhold dedicated much of his adult life to liturgical reform. He emphasized celebration of Mass on the parish level, focusing on the spiritual importance of the liturgy, not just its literary, musical, artistic, and historical features. Reinhold was the author of seven books, among them The American Parish and the Roman Liturgy (1958), Bringing the Mass to the People (1960), and Liturgy and Art (1966). From 1938 to 1957 Reinhold wrote "Timely Tracts," a popular column in Orate Fratres (now Worship), a leading magazine of the American liturgical reform movement. He also wrote articles for Commonweal and various other publications.

Tribute from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College University Libraries.

William Busch

William J. Busch

Oct. 6, 1882 — Feb. 5, 1971

Msgr. William J. Busch died on February 5, 1971, in St. Paul, Minnesota, after having been hospitalized for nearly thirteen months as a result of a heart attach. In his death the American liturgical movement lost one of its great pioneers. For more than fifty years, as professor of church history at the St. Paul Seminary, he had shared with successive generations of future priests his critical understanding of cultural, political, and theological currents as they affected the church’s liturgy and devotional life through the centuries. He thereby gave his students reasoned insights into the wherefore of existing imbalances and hoped-for reforms.

There existed, moreover, what might be called a tacit conspiracy of affection between teacher and taught. There can be few among the latter, one suspects, who do not have their favorite story about “innocent” questions diverting the history lesson into the expected liturgical channel.

When Virgil Michel organized the Liturgical Press and began publication of Orate Fratres in 1926, Fr. Busch had been carrying on his liturgical apostolate in the classroom for more than a decade. Not only was he, therefore, an obvious choice as one of the eight original American associate editors of the magazine; he was closest at hand, always available for advice and support, a co-founder rather than an associate editor. It was in Orate Fratres - Worship, too, that he published most of his writings. Forty-two articles appeared in the course of the years over his signature; several of these were combined into the booklet The Mass-Drama, which long remained a standard study guide. His role as prophet is perhaps best illustrated in his essay “Death and Resurrection” (April 1931), in which he anticipated by some twenty years the contemporary reemphasis on the redemptive character of Christ's rising from the dead. The essay makes remarkably good reading even today.

When the National Liturgical Weeks began their annual meetings in 1940, it was again Fr. Busch’s name among the sponsors that helped allay some of the still prevalent fears and suspicions. He, after all, as many hundreds of priests and bishops who had been his pupils were happy to testify, was a sound man!

Perhaps the fact that his own love for the liturgy had been fashioned by the “classic” liturgical style of some of the European monasteries which he visited during his student days in Louvain contributed to his increasingly critical stance towards some of the liturgical developments since Vatican II. He rightly insisted on the need for reverence, on the priority of spiritual transformation as the goal of liturgical reforms; and he feared that these ideals were disappearing in the rush of reformist activism. One can only deeply regret that in his declining years the patriarch of the American liturgical movement was unable, because of diverging viewpoints, to take well-earned pleasure in the renewal he himself had done so much to launch.

He had, of course, himself been considered revolutionary as early as 1919 when, in a letter in the October Ecclesiastical Review, he advocated an altar of wood, with four legs, “the simple table of the Last Supper. . . the essential table, with the addition of things that have meaning and fitness, not with accretions drawn from commercial catalogues” (p. 440). And no doubt all of us could profit from keeping in mind his overriding concern: to advocate only those reforms which, in the light of history and theology, have “meaning and fitness” - and, as good teachers a la Wm. Busch, to make that meaning and fitness clear to others.

May our good friend and benefactor rest in peace.

Tribute from Worship, 1971, pg. 179. Reprinted with permission.

Gerald Ellard, SJ

Gerald Ellard, SJ
October 8, 1894 - April 1, 1963

To those gathered in this church this evening, Father Gerald Ellard was many things. To some, he was a little-known priest of the Society of Jesus; to some, an intimate friend and counselor. To many, he was a kind and gentle human being marked by his mildness and meekness. Some knew him as the scholar whose book Anointings in the Middle Ages was published here by the Medieval Academy of America, or knew him for his work on Alcuin, or his publications in scholarly journals. Some knew him from the gentle humor of the classroom or the retreat conference where he brought to us, in terms of our own understanding, the scholarship for which we had either not the capacity or the time. To many he was a symbol—a symbol of liturgical life and growth. And to many indeed he was one who, in a long lifetime in the priesthood, brought them the Bread of the Word that they might be reunited in Christ.

Personally, before I came to know him as a friend, I met him first some thirty-five years ago in a magazine article on the liturgy of the Eucharist, and then some few years later in the first edition of the book that has influenced untold numbers of college students—his text, Christian Life and Worship. He dedicated that remarkable textbook to the “Catholic collegians of America… into whose hands the cause of Christ in America passes.”

Father Gerald Ellard was not responsible for the growth of the liturgical apostolate in the United States. Many streams have come together to bring about the renewal—the revitalizing—of Christian life and Christian worship which is now in its beginnings here. Nor is it an isolated American phenomenon, nor yet something’s imported full-blown. The renewal is not the work of any individual or even group of individuals in the United States or elsewhere. If human judgment can be relied on, it is instead the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing keenly—cleanly—through our world.

But, Father Gerald Ellard was blest by God in his early grasp of the full import of the apostolate, of the true meaning of the liturgy, of the depth and riches of its scripturally-based spirituality. He was blest with qualities of scholarship and a great capacity to bring the fruits of scholarship to the ordinary person, without the time lag usually found between work in the halls of scholarship and its effect on the man in the street. He was blest with qualities of leadership of an unusual kind—mild and almost self-effacing. Courage, patience and prudence he knew—not the prudence of fear, but the virtuous prudence of courage.

Few here will know to what degree he stood alone in other days in his recognition of what Pius X called “the primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit.” Few can understand the pressures upon him then when he predicted and prayed for the return of evening Mass (which seems so natural to us here, tonight), the relaxation of the Eucharistic fast, or the reintegration of a liturgically based spirituality.

Few can reconstrust the suspicion and even scorn which were aroused by his repeated plea for active participation by the people in the Mass, and few in our historical context could be expected to know the antipathy to what he and a few others were calling a Missa recitata or a “dialogue Mass.” Strangely, in retrospect, he may have been spared some of the repercussions of the times because of his quality of meekness—some of those who opposed him did not recognize his strength.

For he was a meek man—certainly not meek in any pejorative popular sense of being spiritless and excessively submissive—but meek in that he was gentle, mild of temper, patient, and even long-suffering—meek in the real sense that he always had a true respect for the other person, the “thee” or “thou” of the conversation.

This quiet priest of many parts must, in his later lifetime, have had many occasions to sing his Nunc dimittis—times, for example, like that of the issuance of the encyclical on the Mystical Body or the encyclical on Sacred Worship, or occasions like the announcement of the restoration of the Easter liturgy, or of the reforms of missal and breviary, or of the papal instruction on active participation—or glorious days in the warm sun of Assisi when the International Congress on the Liturgy met with bishops and cardinals of the Church under the papal blessing. The Nunc dimittis must have been strong indeed when the Second Vatican Council recognized by the priority of its agenda that the sacred liturgy is indeed the primary and indispensable source of true Christian spirituality—and more—that the liturgy is the bridge capable of spanning the chasm between Christians, the chasm whose very existence has been a scandal of the centuries.

Short days ago, the Nunc dimittis could have been sung again when, here in the Harvard Colloquium, separated Christians sought the “Veritas” which all must seek, and Father Gerald Ellard was one of the principal contributors.

“Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace…”

The dismissal came soon after the Colloquium had reached its conclusion. Father Ellard has gone before us to the eternal vision. He traveled with us to the threshold of a new day. He led us toward that day. The “cause of Christ in America” and in the world, passes to other hands. And the work is only begun. May we be worthy to have some part in carrying it on during whatever time remains for each of us.

And, in the company of Jesus, may our great friend, Gerald Ellard, find “a place of refreshment, of light, and of peace”—through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Tribute prepared by Fr. Thomas J. Carroll, published in the May 1963 edition of Worship, volume 37, no 6, pg. 330.


Editor’s Note:
Father Carroll’s eulogy of the late Father Gerald Ellard, S.J., briefly summarizes some of the reasons for the sense of loss his death evoked in all who have even a passing acquaintance with the history of the liturgical movement in America. His contribution was major; and because it was made in such a reasonably persuasive manner, so patently inspired by his consuming concern for the greater glory of God through the proper exercise of the worshiping rights of God’s holy people, his pioneering labors resulted in the firm foundations upon which others have been confidently building ever since. The “sweet reasonableness” that characterized Father Ellard served also to minimize some of the sharp controversies and misunderstandings that are inevitably encountered by any new movement that challenges long established patters of behavior and thought.

Worship has, however, very special reasons to pay grateful tribute to the deceased. We mourn him as one of our founding fathers. When Orate Fratres was launched on the first Sunday of Advent, 1926, Father Ellard’s name appeared among the ten associate editors. And since then his signature has been appended to no less than fifty-four main articles, and even more frequently to book reviews. My own association with the magazine dates back to 1933. In all that time, Father Ellard not once failed to respond swiftly and cheerfully to any appeal for help, whether it involved a frantic last-minute plea for an essay on a particular subject, or the more leisurely spelling out of advice concerning policy or recurrent problems.

With Msgr. Busch and Msgr. Hellriegel, Father Ellard constituted the small group who collaborated most closely with Father Virgil Michel, OSB, in planning the magazine (Orate Fratres) and in keeping it alive during the first difficult years. Father Virgil died tragically early, in 1938. But it has undoubtedly been a very great blessing that the next death among the pioneers did not occur until a quarter of a century later: for it meant that these three founders could exercise a continuity of guidance of an entire generation of younger men. That stabilizing influence of wisdom and experience on the part of Monsignors Busch and Hellriegel is still, thank God, actively being felt. The former is this year celebrating his fiftieth anniversary of teaching at the Saint Paul Seminary and Msgr. Hellriegel who will observe the golden jubilee of his ordination next year, continues to lecture and conduct priests’ retreats besides directing a large suburban parish as pastor. Father Ellard in recent years had been less in the public eye than formerly. It was only at his funeral that I learned the reason: a cerebral hemorrhage suffered in 1953. To his friends who inquired about his health, he had in his usual self-deprecatory way always given a pleasant but evasively reassuring reply. As if it were a matter of small moment—let’s talk about something that’s important.

Father Ellard, I am sure, thoroughly enjoyed his own funeral. The office of the dead and the Mass in the Jesuit theologate where he had spent a lifetime sharing his vision of full, as well as true worship, with his young confreres, were celebrated with beauty and with maximum participation. It was a tribute of affectionate devotion to one of our generation’s most effective teachers. Deo gratias for Gerry Ellard.

Editor’s Note by Godfrey L. Diekmann, OSB, published in the May 1963 edition of Worship, volume 37, no 6, pg. 376. Reprinted with permission.


Biographical Note (from Boston College - University Libraries)

Gerald Ellard, S.J., was born on October 8, 1894, in Commonwealth, Wisconsin. He was the second of four children to Hugh and Margaret (Fitzgerald) Ellard. Gerald and his brother, Augustine, and his two sisters, Marian and Eileen, all entered the religious life. Gerald and Augustine entered the Society of Jesus, while Marian and Eileen entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Corondelet.

Ellard entered the Society of Jesus on July 27, 1912, at the Sacred Heart novitiate in Los Gatos, California. He was ordained on June 16, 1926. For the following five years, Ellard undertook his doctoral studies in Europe. On his return to the United States, he was assigned to a teaching post in history and religion at St. Louis University. When the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus transferred the theologate to St. Mary's College in Kansas, Ellard was assigned to the school starting in the fall of 1932. He taught as a professor of liturgy at St. Mary's from 1932 until his death in 1963.

In addition to his life as a teacher, Ellard was also significantly involved in the liturgical reform movement. Ellard co-founded the National Liturgical Conference, and wrote an influential book entitled Christian Life and Worship (1933). He also authored two books on the Mass entitled The Mass of the Future (1948) and The Mass in Transition (1956), both of which were viewed as radical at the time, but anticipated the changes that took effect with the Second Vatican Council.

Ellard devoted a significant amount of time to lectures and seminars addressing the subject of the liturgy. Just before his death, Ellard presented a seminar entitled "Sacrament and Symbol" at the Roman Catholic-Protestant Colloquium at the Harvard Divinity School. He was living at Boston College in preparation for the colloquium.

Ellard had a heart attack on 1963 April 1, and died the same day. Father William Leonard, S.J., of Boston College, a close friend and colleague in the liturgical reform movement, traveled with the body back to St. Mary's College in Kansas to preach the eulogy. Ellard was buried in the St. Mary's College cemetery.