Say the Black Do the Red

Posted on 23 September 2008 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I received this nice note via e-mail from a seminarian in Rome:

Dear Fr. Z,

You will pleased to hear that you received a bit of a tip of the biretta this morning.  At the first Fourth Year liturgical conference this morning (at the NAC), given by the Director of Liturgy, he began discussing beauty in the liturgy, and said: In order to achieve beauty within the liturgy, one need only "Say the Black, and Do the Red."

Thought you would be pleased.

I am!  And thanks for the news.

So many things would be better in the Church, and society, if priests would just take that motto to heart.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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4 Comments

  1. Fr. Bill D. says:
    23 September 2008 at 9:49 AM

    The Director of Liturgy at the NAC is Fr. Kurt Belsole, OSB. He is the former Rector of St. Vincent’s Seminary in Latrobe, PA, from where I graduated last year. Fr. Kurt used the saying, “Say the black, do the red” often in our liturgy classes and in his formation conferences, and I feel that it is the best advice for priests. Let us pray that priests will follow these words!

  2. Mark says:
    23 September 2008 at 11:56 AM

    Not that this has anything to do with the blog entry, but I was baptized at St. Vincent’s 30 years ago. My family moved away when I was 9, but I’ll always consider St. Vincent’s to be my home. I miss that church. It’s been 21 years but I can still remember looking up at the beautiful stained glass windows during mass. And the smell of nuns baking bread Sunday mornings is still fresh in my memory. I really do miss it. Congratulations Fr. Bill on your recent graduation.

  3. Diasporix says:
    23 September 2008 at 2:10 PM

    Say the black, do the red! A great sentence. Has anyone in my parish already
    heard this sentence? Since 27th of August we pray the Rosary for the
    Vocations, Priests and a correct liturgy. We changed the people´s Altar also with a little trick into a temporary high altar. We have no correct Priests, so we have to be concerned laypersons…
    The only thing we can do is praying. And that we do. At my blog I have pictures, but the post
    is in german..

  4. mwa says:
    23 September 2008 at 4:04 PM

    I’m sure this has been touched on here before, but I can’t find it: can anyone point me to the correct reference that lays out at what points during Mass the priest may add words not in the Sacramentary? I think many priests themselves are not aware of this.

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