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Views from the Choir Loft

Musings of an Aristotelian Catholic

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · August 22, 2013

476 Kwasniewski F I WERE to write a book in defence of Aristotle’s epistemology, I would entitle it The Primacy of Here and Now, the Ultimacy of Everywhere and Always.

As my central proof I would offer the mystery of love, which, in keeping with its paradoxical nature, makes a man rooted while uprooting him. On the one hand, Aristotle is an absolutely unbending realist: whatever I can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, feel, or otherwise perceive, is The Real; compared to these, concepts, memories, and imaginings are Less Real. On the other hand, Aristotle is an uncompromising spiritualist: God, the unseen, untouched, inaccessible, imperceptible object of pure thought is The Real, and the entire universe of bodies undergoing alteration, substantial change, and local motion is Less Real, emanating from Him who is the First Principle, striving upwards towards Him who is the Last End. Form and matter, the two great principles of all composites, are themselves unseen, untouched, and the rest. We surmise their necessary presence, hidden though they are behind the veil of common experience.

The Here and the Now is our daily bread, our human sacrament. What is Everywhere and Always is difficult to penetrate, hard to recognise, noble beyond all words, wise beyond all thoughts, consoling to the immortal man. The concrete physical presence of the beloved is the focus, the goal, the fulfillment of the Here and Now, but it is only the beginning of the Real Presence, the spiritual omnipresence of the beloved, by which the Here and the Now is elevated, enlarged, suffused with intimations of eternity and ubiquity that not even (what mortals call) absence can forestall or weaken.

Touch is the only sense that puts us, as we say, “in touch with” reality, touch tells us that things are there, not just in the mind. Touch is closer to matter, but also closer to the truth of material things, which have their being in matter; sight is closer to form. Touch is the sense of certainty. Whatever is fundamental to the sense of touch is fundamental to things themselves. This is our immediate and unshakeable perception of the world that lies before us, the world we “grasp.”

In the mystery of the Incarnation, God takes delight in responding to this foundation of sanity and realism. The being of the Word is not just to be divine, spiritual, holy, but to be man, and therefore to be bodily, embodied, tangible. Christ tells the doubting Thomas to touch him, He tells Mary Magdalen not to touch him. St. John later writes: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us…” (1 Jn 1:1–2)

In our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who is Always and Everywhere, who dwells in Light inaccessible, infinitely beyond us evanescent and confined mortals, deigns to become the Here and Now in flesh and blood, a body we can touch and hold on to for certain, a soul we can intimately know and love. Praised be this man, our God and Lord Jesus Christ, now and forever! “He is the head of the body, the Church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may hold the primacy.”

I make my own the wonderfully incarnational prayer of St. Gertrude the Great: “May my heart and my soul, with all the substance of my flesh, all my senses, and all the powers of my body and my mind, with all creatures, praise Thee and give Thee thanks, O sweet Lord, faithful lover of mankind, for Thy infinite mercy”!

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 Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (B.A. in Liberal Arts) and The Catholic University of America (M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is currently Professor at Wyoming Catholic College. He is also a published and performed composer, especially of sacred music.

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    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
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “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

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

“What matters is to prefer God to all else; to be ready to sacrifice all, rather than commit one sin.”

— Cardinal Merry Del Val (shortly before his death)

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