Meet the Faculty: Anthony Ruff, OSB

B.A., Saint John's University, 1986
M.Div., Saint John's University, 1993
S.T.M., Yale Divinity School, 1994
Th.D., University of Graz, Austria, 1998

Office: Luke Hall 223
Phone Number: 320-363-3233
Email: [email protected]

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB is a monk and priest of St. John’s Abbey. He teaches theology, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant. He has masters degrees from St. John’s and Yale University, and he earned his doctorate in liturgy from the University of Graz, Austria. He has studied organ with Kim Kasling, Thomas Murray, and Peter Planyavsky. He is the founding director of the National Catholic Youth Choir, a summer camp and touring experience at St. Johns for high-school singers. He served on the music subcommittee of the national Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy that drafted the 2007 document of the US bishops Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship. He was chair of the committee of three people that wrote the English chant melodies for the 2011 Roman Missal for all the English-speaking countries. He has served on the board of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians and the leadership team of the Catholic Academy of Liturgy, and he has served on the executive committee of the Hymn Society. He is a frequent presenter across the U.S. and internationally on topics of liturgy and music, he serves as English-German translator for the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Hymnologie, and he frequently publishes in liturgical and musical journals. He plays organ and directs Gregorian chant at the abbey. He is moderator of the popular liturgy blog “Pray Tell.”

The Amen Corner: “Revisiting Joseph Ratzinger’s Theological Basis of Church Music,” Worship 91.3 (May 2017).
Two chapters on Gregorian chant and contemporary liturgical music in So You Want to Sing Sacred Music (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).
"Greek, Latin, and Pre-Reformation Hymnody," in hymnal companion to Lutheran Service Book (book chapter, forthcoming).

Sung Gospels For Major Solemnities in Multiple Voices (Collegeville:Liturgical Press, 2013).
Chants of The Roman Missal: Study Edition (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2012), Author of scholarly introduction.
Canticum novum: Gregorian Chant for Today's Choirs (GIA Publications, 2012). Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2008).

“Protestants and Catholics Singing Together: Rich Traditions, Challenging Future,” “Veritas Series for Faith and Culture, King's University College, London Ontario, September 28, 2017.
“What Does Church Music Have to do with My Life? Liturgy and the New Evangelization,” Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, Notre Dame University, June 22, 2016.
"A Benedictine Spirituality of Music," Immaculate Conception Monastery, Ferdinand, Indiana, October 24, 2015.

The Amen Corner: “Revisiting Joseph Ratzinger’s Theological Basis of Church Music,” Worship 91.3 (May 2017).
Two chapters on Gregorian chant and contemporary liturgical music in So You Want to Sing Sacred Music (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).
"Greek, Latin, and Pre-Reformation Hymnody," in hymnal companion to Lutheran Service Book (book chapter, forthcoming).

Editoral Board, The Hymn, journal of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, 2013 -2016
Catholic Academy of Liturgy, member of three-person leadership team, 2012-2015
Member of Board of Directors, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, 2012-2015
Translator, International Abbots’ Congress, Rome, 2008 and 2012
Panel Respondent to Faith Healer, a play by Brian Freel, "Reflections by Theologians and Physicians," Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN, November 17, 2009