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  • Singing His Song: A Short Introduction to the Liturgical Movement by Thomas M. Kocik
  • Kevin D. Magas
Thomas M. Kocik Singing His Song: A Short Introduction to the Liturgical Movement Revised and Expanded Edition Hong Kong: Chorabooks, 2019 68 pages. Paperback. $12.64.

Since then-Cardinal Ratzinger called for a "new liturgical movement" to "call to life the real heritage of the Second Vatican Council" in his memoir Milestones,2 there has been a renewed interest in reengaging the historical roots of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Liturgical Movements and their relationship to the Second Vatican Council and its implementation. Kocik's work aims to provide a short sketch of this historical trajectory by introducing a popular audience to some of the major phases, figures, and ideas in both the classical and "new" manifestations of the Liturgical Movement.

Kocik's introduction highlights the predominantly spiritual goals of the Liturgical Movement to restore liturgical worship to the center of Christian life. Kocik's explanation of his title provides a moving image of this: "to sing one's life and live one's song" is "being in tune with the life of Christ by nourishing and living our faith through the Church's sacred liturgy" (2). Kocik's exploration of the first phase of the Liturgical Movement, "Recovering Lost Treasures," introduces readers to early liturgical pioneers and major figures such [End Page 147] as Beauduin, Guardini, and Pius X. Kocik takes care not to romanticize the state of the celebration of the liturgy prior to the Second Vatican Council and highlights the reasons a liturgical renewal was called for. In general, the contours of Kocik's analysis follow Alcuin Reid's thesis that the Liturgical Movement had the restoration of a distinctively liturgical spirituality rather than ritual reform as its primary motivation.

The second phase, "The Movement Comes of Age," focuses on the affirmation of certain aspects of the movement in the magisterium of Pius XII as well as a criticism of its excesses, such as the dismissive attitude towards popular devotions in some of the movement's proponents. Here Kocik casts the shift towards a reform of the liturgical texts and rites themselves in a negative light, indicated by the subtitle "a storm brews."

While Kocik's account of the "Third Phase: Vatican II" contains only a brief expository description of the content of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, he devotes more time to postconciliar reforms and implementation. Kocik views the state of the liturgy after the council as debased and attributes the liturgical malaise to deficient social-cultural attitudes, a climate of dissent in the Church, and the weaknesses of the Consilium commissioned with the liturgical reform.

This fourth and final phase, "Towards a 'New Liturgical Movement'" provides an overview of the magisterial response of John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI to the postconciliar situation and the main proponents in the "reform of the reform" and "new liturgical movement" umbrella. Kocik concludes by offering his own reflections on the liturgical reform, which are critical not only of the implementation of the council but the revised liturgical books themselves. A final "liturgical examen" returns to the spiritual moorings of the introduction by leading readers through an examination of whether the rhythms of the liturgy truly shape their daily lives.

As a short introduction, Kocik's book favors breadth over depth and does well in distilling a wide range of ideas and figures in the complex history of twentieth-century liturgical reform and renewal. One of its major goals is to make available to non-specialists the more technical studies of the twentieth-century Liturgical Movement, and Kocik largely succeeds in translating the perspectives of Reid, Dobszay, [End Page 148] Bux, and his own previous writings to a more popular audience. Readers' perceptions of this work will depend on their own assessment of the postconciliar situation and whether they find the standard narrative of various "reform of the reform" or "restorationist" agendas convincing. This short work could likely serve as a book for a study group with some preliminary formation in liturgical issues.

Kocik's account is typically marked by a balanced tone but at times contains...

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