Ecclesia offers series on ‘Gifts of Sacrosanctum Concilium’

On Dec. 4, 1963, the Second Vatican Council released its first groundbreaking document, Sacrosanctum Concilium (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy). In celebration of the 50th anniversary of this groundbreaking work, the Ecclesia program at Mount St. Mary’s College is presenting four workshops early in 2014 to address various aspects of the document.

“Gifts of Sacrosanctum Concilium” includes three sessions led by Jesuit Father Felix Just (Jan. 18, Feb. 8 and March 22), and one led by John Flaherty specifically on music (Feb. 15). All will take place 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at MSMC’s Doheny Campus Donahue Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Father Just is executive director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality in Orange, has taught at several universities (including Loyola Marymount in Westchester) and is a frequent public lecturer, educator and retreat director on a wide variety of scriptural themes.

Flaherty is associate director of Campus Ministry for Liturgy at LMU, where he teaches Pastoral Liturgy and Pastoral Music with the Center for Religion and Spirituality. Since 1991, he has served as director of music and chair of the liturgy committee for the Religious Education Congress.

Father Just’s series includes:

---“The Renewal of the Church’s Liturgy” (Jan. 18), based on the Constitution’s declaration that “full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members.” (SC, n. 7).

---“A New Lectionary and Liturgical Calendar” (Feb. 8), rooted in the declaration that “sacred scripture is of the greatest importance in the celebration of the liturgy.” (SC, n. 24).

---“The Renewal of the Liturgy of the Hours” (March 22), elaborating on the declaration that “pastors ... should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in Church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts.” (SC, n. 100).

Flaherty’s Feb. 15 workshop on “New Music for Our Common Prayer” is rooted in the Constitution’s section on sacred music, specifically n. 121: “Composers, filled with the Christian spirit, should feel that their vocation is to cultivate sacred music and increase its store of treasures. Let them produce compositions which have the qualities proper to genuine sacred music, not confining themselves to works which can be sung only by large choirs, but providing also for the needs of small choirs and for the active participation of the entire assembly of the faithful.”

Individual, series and group rates are available for the workshops. For more information about these and other workshops in the Ecclesia program, call (310) 954-4126 or visit www.msmc.la.edu/ecclesia.asp.