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Views from the Choir Loft

In This Time Above All

Fr. David Friel · May 5, 2013

ID YOU EVER THROW a party? I mean a really big party. How much time did you spend preparing for it? It’s not uncommon for people to start a few days early. Early in the week, you do the shopping, then you clean the house, and you might even do some of the cooking the night before. By the time everything’s ready, it’s fairly easy to spend more time preparing for the feast than actually enjoying it.

One of the things I love about being Catholic is that we don’t do that. When we have a feast (and the Church has lots of them) we do it right. Take Easter, for example. We prepare for Easter with 40 days of Lent, but then we celebrate Easter for a full 50 days—ten days more than we spent preparing! For this reason, even though we’re six weeks beyond the Easter Vigil at this point, it is still perfectly appropriate to greet one another with “Happy Easter.”

Perhaps you know that one of the hallmarks of the Roman Rite is its changeable Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer. I’ve been transfixed this Easter season, however, by the similarity of the Easter Prefaces. In the opening line of each, the priest prays the same words: “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, at all times to acclaim You, O Lord, but in this time above all to laud You yet more gloriously, when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.”

This is a daring statement. It claims that during Easter, “in this time above all,” we are supposed to praise God even more gloriously than we do the rest of the year. Why? Because of the enormity of the Paschal Mystery we are celebrating.

The Passion, Death, & Resurrection of Christ is more wondrous than any of the other things we celebrate as a Church. The Easter Mystery is more wondrous than Christmas or the Annunciation or the feast of the Archangels. It’s the most wondrous of all the mysteries, and, because the mystery we’re celebrating is more wondrous, our celebration must be more festive. We sing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” on Palm Sunday, but we owe the Lord even greater laud throughout Paschaltide.

Lent is long, because we need an annual period of prayer & fasting & retreat. But Easter is longer, because we need that amount of time to do justice to what we celebrate. We’re not celebrating a good report card or a promotion at work or a World Series victory. We’re celebrating the triumph of Jesus Christ over the grave! Are we really still celebrating, or has the enormity of Easter passed us by?

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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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    “Glory To God” • (For Choir + Congregation)
    I wish to thank everyone for the nice comments I received vis-à-vis my Glory To God setting for Choir & Congregation. A gentleman with a musical doctorate from Indiana University wrote: “Love this setting so much. And I will pray, as you asked, for your return to composition more fully. You are very very good.” A female choir director wrote: “I love your harmonizations, your musicality, and the wonderful interplay you have with dissonance and consonance in your music. So fun to listen to, and great for intellect, heart, and soul!” A young woman from California wrote: “Thank you for releasing your new Glory To God in honor of Saint Noel Chabanel. I'm enjoying reading through the various parts and listening to your recordings.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    William Byrd • “Mass for Five Voices”
    Our volunteer choir is learning the “Sanctus” from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. You can hear a short excerpt (recorded last Sunday) but please ignore the sound of babies crying: Mp3 recording. We still have work to do—but we’re on the right track. Once we have some of the tuning issues fixed, I desire to use it as an example proving volunteers can sing complicated polyphony. — One of our volunteer choirs also sang that SANCTUS on 24 September 2023, and you can listen to how that came out.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Baptism” • A Unique Hymn
    Father Christopher Phillips is the founding Pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church. One of his hymns is unique and (in my humble opinion) quite beautiful. His hymn is basically a prayer to the Holy Trinity but also speaks of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. It would be an ideal Communion hymn on Trinity Sunday or the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. You can hear live recording from last Sunday by clicking here.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“As often as possible they gathered together the children of the village and sat them down in the cabin. Father Brébeuf would put on a surplice and biretta and chant the Our Father, which Father Daniel had translated into Huron rhymes, and the children would chant it after him. Next, he taught them the sign of the cross, the Hail Mary, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Commandments.”

— Biography of St. Jean de Brébeuf

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