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“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Startlingly Human

Richard J. Clark · August 30, 2013

ESUS, THE WORD MADE FLESH, is both Divine and fully Human. I have great difficulty wrapping my brain around this truth. However, I accept it joyfully as a matter of faith. Still, it will likely remain an unreachable understanding throughout my life.

That humanity is entwined in the divine is no more evident than in the Book of Psalms. Consider that “the Psalter is the basic songbook of the Liturgy.” (GIRM, no. 102.) Therefore, our greatest prayer, the Mass, weds the human with the divine, as does the crucified Jesus. This is a notion of great beauty, considering how fragile our humanity is.

St. Paul refers to our body as a “tent.” It decays. But as Catholics we believe in not only the resurrection of our spirit, but of the body. Sometimes we forget this or even deny it. From the Requiem Mass, the chant Credo quod Redemptor emphatically cries, “I believe that my Redeemer lives, and that on the last day, I shall rise from earth and in my flesh I shall behold God my Savior.”

“…and in my flesh” … This is astounding!

SALM 139 (138) most extraordinarily describes complete faith in the divine that mercifully upholds humble humanity. (Most telling of the importance of this psalm is that it is prescribed for the Introit, Resurrexi, on Easter Sunday.) Humanity’s intimate relationship with the divine is evident in its first lines:

You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

God’s watchful eye over us is most evident in this psalm. No matter how we try to flee from God, He will find us:

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Some of the most famous (and controversial lines) are in found here, in the wonderment of our human creation:

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Towards the end, King David reveals, as he often does, the despair and ugliness of humanity. In his song and prayer, he calls for the defeat – the blood of his enemies. He describes his hatred for God’s enemies. He laments that God does not destroy them.

If only you, God, would slay the wicked!

Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,

and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

That perhaps we can relate to this, may be disturbing to us. That we may pray for this may be frightening. These sentiments are startlingly human.

And so, the human is immersed in the divine with this conclusion of the psalm. Like the capitulation of a musical theme, David prays that God will search him and know his heart, and to lead him out of his great sinfulness:

Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

May we find the divine though our humanity. God will always find us, even in the depths of our earthly imperfection and sin.

MEZZO-SOPRANO, Katherine Dulweber sings a concert setting of Psalm 139:

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“Partly on account of these alterations, and partly because I have been unable to ascertain the authorship of many compositions—which have come to me either in manuscript or through other collections—I have thought it right to publish the volume without appending the names of writers to their works. This, however, I confess to be a defect…”

— Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1863)

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