• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

We’re a 501(c)3 public charity established in 2006. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and run no advertisements. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors.

  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Formation in the Liturgy

Fr. David Friel · July 2, 2017

NE DOES NOT expect to hear great speeches at graduations, particularly from celebrities or from student speakers. More often than not, such works of oratory are more to be endured than enjoyed. It is a safe bet that most people have little recollection of what was said in the speeches at their own high school or college graduations.

This year’s graduation season was marked with at least two exceptions to the norm.

First, as a graduate student at The Catholic University of America, I was interested to learn that Peggy Noonan would be this year’s commencement speaker. Punctuated with moments of good humor, her mid-May speech clocks in just under 25 minutes, and it is deeply insightful about contemporary America. The general theme is that reading books is necessary in order to be an educated person. The corollary, of course, is that those who do not read books are (and appear) uneducated. You can read or watch her address here.

Secondly, a truly magnificent speech was given in early June by a young man named David Hahn, the valedictorian of the Gregory the Great Academy Class of 2017. Gregory the Great Academy is a liberal arts boarding school for boys (grades 9-12) located near Scranton, PA.

Like Noonan’s address, Hahn’s speech is flavored with bits of comedy, and it is rife with insights that belie his youth. It is masterful in the way it appeals both to his classmates and to the parents, family, and faculty who were gathered for the occasion.

Of particular interest to readers of Views from the Choir Loft is one section of Hahn’s valedictory address that deals with sacred music and the liturgy, which are integral parts of students’ experience at the Academy. These experiences prompt him to observe:

When I came to St. Gregory’s my Sophomore year, I was not familiar with the ancient forms of the Mass. The traditions of the Catholic Church were as familiar to me as they are for any boy, I suppose. And so, when I arrived, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. As it turns out, my experience of the liturgy here at the Academy has been central to my time here, and it is the one experience that reflects my entire education. I was raised attending our local parish in a family with a Presbyterian background. What I found at St. Gregory’s was not the liturgy or the praise-and-worship that I was used to. I was exposed here to a liturgical diversity, especially in the Byzantine rite.

Though it was strange at first, I quickly came to fall in love with the structure and the poetry of the Mass, and most of all, by the musical traditions that bind East and West into a chorus of divine praise. I came to know anew what I had always known, but never understood: the tradition of my Faith. Much in the same way as I was converted to appreciate the many beauties of the Divine Liturgy, I was drawn into a new understanding of the Roman rite, seeing in its structure a common purpose which is the purpose of salvation and the depth of the sacred traditions. Through these traditions and the experience of the liturgy, I was brought into a new experience of my place in the divine family and my spiritual heritage. I never knew how hesitant I was to encounter real experiences until I came to Gregory the Great, and I was thrown headlong into a new world of tremendous meaning and mystery.

How many high school seniors do you know who could offer that reflection on the liturgy and its effect upon them? Taking the time to read Hahn’s full remarks will be worth your while.

Readers may recall that I once featured Gregory the Great Academy on these pages, about three years ago. Click here to revisit my interview with Matthew Williams, the school’s music director. This interview offers a glimpse of what extraordinary things are possible when a school proposes to introduce its students to truth, goodness, and beauty in all their varied forms.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Proof Which All Can Immediately See!
    “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” as the famous maxim goes. Over the years, I’ve observed malicious attacks on the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal. Rather than scoring a ‘hit’ on the Brébeuf Hymnal, its attackers often reveal profound ignorance. I’ve been advised never to reply … but I break that rule today. Certain voices online assert that the Brébeuf Hymnal is “untraditional” because it includes both the Urbanite and pre-Urbanite versions of the hymns. But if only they would glance at a copy of the 1913 VESPERALE (printed by order of Pope Saint Pius X) they would see how mistaken such statements are.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “8 June 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for the parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article includes a few anecdotes about Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Abraham Lincoln.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Gloria in Spanish” • Free Accompaniment
    Several people have requested an organ accompaniment for the GLORY TO GOD which prints the Spanish words directly above the chords. The Spanish adaptation—Gloria a Dios en el cielo—as printed in Roman Misal, tercera edición was adapted from the “Glória in excélsis” from Mass XV (DOMINATOR DEUS). I used to feel that it’s a pretty boring chant … until I heard it sung well by a men’s Schola Cantorum, which changed my view dramatically. This morning, I created this harmonization and dedicated it to my colleague, Corrinne May. You may download it for free. Please let me know if you enjoy it!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“A penalty is decreed against clerics, who, being in sacred Orders, or holding benefices, do not wear a dress befitting their Order. […] In these days, the contempt of religion has grown to such a pitch that—making but little account of their own dignity, and of the clerical honor—some even wear in public the dress of laymen…”

— ‘Council of Trent (Session 14, Chapter 6)’

Recent Posts

  • Proof Which All Can Immediately See!
  • New Bulletin Article • “8 June 2025”
  • “The Adalbert Propers” • Six (6) Quotations
  • PDF Download • “Entrance Chant” for 29 June … Which Falls on a Sunday This Year!
  • “Music List” • 6th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.