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Views from the Choir Loft

Advent Exercise

Fr. David Friel · December 5, 2011

One of the biggest blessings of this third edition of the Roman Missal, for me, has been proclaiming the new proper orations. In particular, the prayer the priest prays at the end of the Introductory Rites (called the Collect) has really caught my attention for the last two weeks.

Both of these Collects give us the same image for Advent: the image of a run. On the first Sunday of Advent, we prayed this: “Grant Your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet Your Christ.” What a perfect match that is with this week’s oration: “Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet Your Son.” Maybe it’s just because I’m a runner, but these prayers seem so appropriate for the season of Advent.

You don’t have to be a fitness guru to appreciate the imagery, though. If you’ve ever gone for a run at all, you know that it’s not uncommon to start out strong but gradually lose steam. Or, once you get going, something throws you off, like a pebble that works its way into your shoe or a piece of uneven sidewalk that trips you. There are plenty of things that could easily derail our Advent preparations, but we have to remain steadfast if we’re going to reach the finish line.

The prophet Isaiah exhorts us: “Make straight . . . a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low.” That’s every runner’s dream! I ran the Philadelphia Marathon last year, and—I assure you—I wouldn’t have minded if someone had “made low” the hills throughout those 26.2 miles! John the Baptist’s vision is no different from Isaiah’s image when he says, “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight His paths!” A way prepared for the Lord has no pebbles or pavement to prevent us from receiving God’s grace.

Advent (and, really, the whole Christian life) is a process of removing obstacles to grace so that we can receive God’s blessings. What are the things—the “earthly undertakings”—that somehow “hinder” us from continuing the run toward Christ that we began last week? Are we still setting out in haste to meet Him, or have we allowed our Advent sprint to become a jog or a walk or a crawl?

It’s not out of the ordinary to begin running and then lose steam along the way. But Advent is no ordinary run. At the end of the Philly marathon, I got a pretzel, a T-shirt, and a high-five from Mayor Nutter. At the end of our Advent run is Jesus Christ, Himself.

Let’s keep running toward Him with the same energy we set out with last week. In the words of the first Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 9:24): “Run so as to win!”

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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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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