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Views from the Choir Loft

Hebdomas Sancta

Fr. David Friel · April 2, 2012

The theme of our week has been set: we are about meditation on the Lord’s Passion. It would be fitting for this meditation to extend throughout all of the coming week.

Whether one is able to attend the parish Triduum services or not, this week is an opportunity to delve into the Passion. It is an occasion to imagine its scenes and to relive these ancient events anew.

For my own part, every year I like to choose a different character in the story and spend Holy Week trying to experience things as they would have experienced them. I have found it a very fruitful practice to choose a character who speaks directly to me at this time in this particular year.

Maybe you want to spend some time as Mary, with all her special qualities as the mother of Jesus. Perhaps you’ve been asked to do something you really don’t want to do, and so you identify with Simon of Cyrene in the Fifth Station. Or maybe you’re struggling in your faith, and Peter appeals to you. Perhaps you feel like G.K. Chesterton, who wrote a famous poem from the point of view of the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Or maybe a name that you have never before given any attention caught your attention during the reading of the Passion this year: Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus or Barabbas or Mary Magdalene or Veronica or Salome or the Good Thief.

Wherever you feel drawn, try to imagine what Jesus looked like to that person, and how they felt, and what they might have been thinking. If we engage in that kind of meditation on the Passion, this week has the potential to be truly “Holy.”

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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Quick Thoughts

Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

I want to say one thing to you strongly, especially today: virginity for the Kingdom of God is not a “no,” it is a “yes!”

— Pope Francis (10/4/2013)

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