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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

    Hymn by Cardinal Newman
    During the season of Septuagesima, we will be using this hymn by Cardinal Newman, which employs both Latin and English. (Readers probably know that Cardinal Newman was one of the world's experts when it comes to Lingua Latina.) The final verse contains a beautiful soprano descant. Father Louis Bouyer—famous theologian, close friend of Pope Paul VI, and architect of post-conciliar reforms—wrote thus vis-à-vis the elimination of Septuagesima: “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!”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Introit • Candlemas (2 February)
    “Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3). I'm not a fan of chant in octaves, but we had such limited time to rehearse, it seemed the best choice. After all, everyone should have an opportunity to learn “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium,” which summarizes Candlemas.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“What will be the results of this innovation? The results expected, or rather desired, are that the faithful will participate in the liturgical mystery with more understanding, in a more practical, a more enjoyable and a more sanctifying way.” [Enjoyable?]

— Pope Paul VI (26 Nov 1969)

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