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Views from the Choir Loft

Round Yon Virgin

Fr. David Friel · May 12, 2013

URELY, YOU HAVE SEEN the painting of two arms outstretched toward one another, with the fingertips not quite touching each other. That scene is one of the centerpieces of the ceiling artwork in the Sistine Chapel. One of the two arms in the fresco is the right arm of God the Father, and the other is the arm of Adam, the first man. The artist rather dramatically depicts through those arms the passionate love of God, Who, ever since creating man, has constantly been reaching out to us.

Where is God’s other arm? We usually only see a cropped image of the two hands, but have you ever looked at the fuller panel to see what God the Father is doing with His left hand? What we see is this: God’s left arm is around the shoulder of a mother holding her child. That’s a remarkable detail! Michelangelo is teaching us that, even as God creates mankind and reaches out to us, He has already thought of, and in fact is embracing, the mother & child.

Motherhood is one of the great ideas God had for the world when He fashioned it, and every one of us has been the beneficiary. There is no way into this world without a mother—not even for the Son of God, Himself. The topic of motherhood makes me think of the long prayer Jesus prayed the night before He died, on the first Holy Thursday. I have a favorite line from that prayer. Jesus, speaking to His Father about us, says this: “Father, they are your gift to Me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me.” That is the way Jesus honestly thinks about us, His children, His sheep, His people. He considers us a gift!

Can’t you hear that line being spoken by your mother? Whether you’re an only child or one of 10, every mother worthy of the name would say the same thing about her children: “Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me.” In so many ways, our society no longer sees children as a gift, and that is tragic. We need to reclaim the sense that children are pure gift—not an entitlement, not a burden, not something to be avoided, not to be taken advantage of or mistreated, and certainly not a choice. We also need to reclaim a healthy veneration for the role of mothers, since nothing could ever replace a good mother—no man, no machine, and no government program. Mothers are indispensable because of the love they bring into the world. Is there any warmer image—any image that better captures love & peace & joy—than the image of a mother holding her child?

The universal Church places just such an image before us. Today, the secular world celebrates Mother’s Day, which is a good & worthy celebration. But, in the Church, every year throughout the month of May, we honor the one great Mother whom we all mutually share. In so many statues and images of the Blessed Mother, we recognize the innate beauty of the Mother holding her Child. In my home parish growing up, our statue of Mary also showed her holding the brown scapular. For me personally, I wear the brown scapular as a daily reminder to me that Mary is, in fact, my Mother, and that I am a child in her arms. If you have never worn the scapular, I encourage you to be invested in it.

Some people think we Catholics focus too much on Mary. Many of our Protestant brothers & sisters think we are Mary worshippers. But those charges don’t make sense. For the same reason the world today recognizes natural mothers, the Church every May (and all year long) celebrates the gift of supernatural motherhood. In the words of St. Maximilian Kolbe: “ Do not be afraid to love the Immaculata too much, because we could never equal the love that Jesus has for her.”

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 is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    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

Random Quote

And since it is becoming that holy things be administered in a holy manner, and of all things this sacrifice is the most holy, the Catholic Church, to the end that it might be worthily and reverently offered and received, instituted many centuries ago the holy canon, which is so free from error that it contains nothing that does not in the highest degree savor of a certain holiness and piety and raise up to God the minds of those who offer.

— Council of Trent (1562)

Recent Posts

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  • Now Available! • “Hymns of Cardinal Newman: Kevin Allen’s Legendary Choral Settings”
  • Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)

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