• 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.

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • 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
Views from the Choir Loft

Exodus and the Chair of Saint Peter

Richard J. Clark · February 22, 2013

OPE BENEDICT XVI states: “The Chair represents (the pope’s) mission as guide of the entire People of God. Celebrating the ‘Chair’ of Peter means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God.”

I am fortunate to be just old enough to remember the conclave that elected Pope John Paul I in late August of 1978. When Albino Luciani first appeared on St. Peter’s Benediction Loggia (balcony) as Pope John Paul I, I will never forget his beautifully radiant smile. This happy memory is etched in my mind and one that I still hold dear. It was big news in 1978 that he took two names – names that represented the continuity of the apostolic succession – names that sent a message that Vatican II was bigger than he was. Taking the names of his two predecessors demonstrated his understanding of his place in history and his role as servant of the Church.

Yet, his death thirty-three days later was big news even among fourth graders at St. William the Abbott School in Seaford, New York. We talked about this first thing in the morning as we waited in line in the hallway. The benevolent smile that captured me was gone. But his choice of names was perhaps a great gift for a generation to come.

Another distant memory is that of the young and energetic John Paul II. My sisters and I were fortunate to see him at Shea Stadium in Queens, NY in 1979. (Thus uniting my two great loves: baseball and the Church—not necessarily in that order) We waited for hours in torrential rain, and we didn’t care. Even as children, we appreciated that this experience was once in a lifetime. The young Pope John Paul II was electric. This John Paul shocked the world with his extensive travel schedule, a ministry of presence to the worldwide flock, unheard of for a pontiff then, and something we take for granted now.

Today, on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, the demands and scrutiny of the papacy are as great or greater than that of a head of state. Additionally, the heaviest burden and most grave responsibility of the papacy is to reform the Church from within of the great evils of sexual abuse of children. For over a decade, we watched this up close in Boston where this evil first played out for the world. Every parish was affected in various ways almost immediately. His Eminence Seán Patrick Cardinal O’Malley has faithfully and thanklessly navigated waters no one would ever wish to travel.

Quite interestingly, in 2010 John Allen described on both NPR and in the New York Times Opinion Page what he called the “Papal Conversion” of Cardinal Ratzinger in 2001 that lead to proactive reforms as Pope. “…after 2001, when he actually had to sit down and read all the case files for every Catholic priest, everyone in the world who had credibly been accused of sexual abuse, he began to talk much more openly about what he described as filth in the Catholic Church and became much more aggressive about prosecuting abusers. And that has followed into…his papacy, where we see him as the first pope to embrace a zero-tolerance policy on sex abuse, the first pope to meet with victims, the first pope to, in effect, break the Vatican’s wall of silence on this issue.” But the pain persists. Such vigilance and self-reform must now be part of every papacy moving forward.

In a few days, Pope Benedict XVI leaves the Chair to enter into his own personal wilderness to pray. This, in turn, leaves the faithful in the wilderness for a short time. In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict reminds us that Israel’s flight from Egypt had two distinct goals. The obvious goal was to reach the Promised Land. But the second is perhaps far more important: Exodus 7:16 “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” It is there in the wilderness that Israel learns to serve and worship God in the way He desires. It is in their wandering that they learn righteousness, i.e., true worship of God. It is in the wilderness, outside of the Promised Land, where the people of Israel establish their covenant with God.

In Israel’s exodus from Egypt and search for freedom, they truly discovered their right relationship with God. “Only when man is in covenant with God does he become free” (The Spirit of the Liturgy) Pope Benedict also writes, “…it is important to see that the covenant is a relationship: God’s gift of himself to man, but also man’s response to God…is love, and loving God means worshipping Him.” (ibid.)

Finally, perhaps Pope Benedict’s lasting legacy may be his contributions to liturgy and music. His 2007 Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962, has fostered widespread implementation of the Extraordinary Form. The exquisitely beautiful St. Edmund Campion Missal & Hymnal for the Traditional Latin Mass is among the great fruits of this Apostolic Letter. This hymnal and missal is a faithful response to serve the Church.

As such, to many musicians Pope Benedict XVI is a hero. Music may seem trivial and ancillary in light of the Church’s troubles. Music may seem unimportant next to feeding the poor and preaching the Word. Feeding the poor and hungry is undoubtedly more important than singing even the most beautiful work of sacred music. God is at the center of this important work, which is sustained and energized by prayer. Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, and Lex Vivendi reminds us if we believe what we pray, we must respond to God’s call by that way that we live. Music is prayer. Music helps preach the Word. Music is evangelization and strengthens our communities. Most of all prayer strengthens our resolve to serve God and to minister unto His people.

The mass, our greatest prayer, is a sung prayer. Pope Benedict’s gift is teaching us how better to pray—not by edict, or by decree, but through loving example of the Church’s music that grew up with the Roman Rite and lives with us today.

As Pope Benedict enters into his new life, let us enter for a time into the wilderness as well. There we will learn true freedom—to love and worship God. From this prayer we will learn to live in right relationship with each other and with the God who knows our needs better than we do, who knows every hair on our head, who knows when we sit and when we rise.

“The glory of God is the living man, but the life of man is the vision of God.” St. Irenaeus (cf. Adv. Haer. 4, 20, 7)

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 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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —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

“I prefer to say nothing, or very little, about the new calendar, the handiwork of a trio of maniacs who suppressed—with no good reason—Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost and who scattered three quarters of the Saints higgledy-piddledy, all based on notions of their own devising!”

— ‘Fr. Bouyer, Consilium member appointed by Pope Paul VI’

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up