Views from the Choir Loft

A Prayer For The Mission of CCW

Corpus Christi Watershed · February 23, 2013

A beautiful prayer was written for CCW by Fr. David Friel:

LMIGHTY GOD, We approach You as servants―servants of Your will and servants of the sacred liturgy. How grateful we are for the opportunity to give You praise.

Make us united in our work so that we can effectively accomplish the good You have established for us to do. Give us clarity so that we may proceed in the way that will bring You the most honor. Grant us humility to recognize Your will and sufficient courage to submit ourselves to it.

You, Father, are the great Artist of creation. In You, therefore, we find our highest model and our perfect end. Make us good artists, good stewards, and good disciples.

We invoke the intercession of the North American Jesuit martyrs, too. As you profited their labors with the conversion of souls, so now, in our time, use the work of the Corpus Christi Watershed to draw many souls to You, Who are Truth and Goodness and Beauty, Itself.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

31 December 2020 • “COMITES CHRISTI”

The feasts for Saint Stephen Proto-Martyr (26 December), Saint John the Evangelist The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved (27 December), and the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December) seem untouched by any liturgical reforms. These are very powerful feasts—I believe they once possessed octaves—and I believe they could sometimes “overpower” a Sunday feast. The rules for octaves in the olden days are extremely complex. These feasts are sometimes referred to as a single entity as: Comites Christi (“Companions of Christ”). This is just a guess, but there seems to be a triple significance: STEPHEN martyred after Christ lived, JOHN was a martyr who knew Christ personally, and the HOLY INNOCENTS were martyred before Christ’s birth.

—Jeff Ostrowski