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Views from the Choir Loft

Nature’s Solitary Boast

Fr. David Friel · December 9, 2013

HEN GOD CREATED Adam & Eve, He gave them a beautiful place to live and abundant food to eat. But things went wrong. Adam & Eve, tempted by the notion that they could become like God, ate the forbidden fruit.

Adam & Eve were later blessed with the gift of children. But things went wrong. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain killed his brother, Abel.

When Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, the Lord made a covenant with His people and gave them the Ten Commandments to guide their way. But things went wrong. As soon as Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he found the people drinking & carousing & worshipping golden calves they had fashioned as idols.

When the Israelites demanded a king, the Lord gave them David, the great warrior who had conquered Goliath & all the Philistines and received the promise of God’s abiding help. But things went wrong. In an effort to cover up his sin of adultery, David had Uriah, the wife of Bathsheba, murdered, and eventually the Kingdom of Israel was divided.

Centuries thereafter, a man named Jeremiah was called to be a prophet and to bring the chosen people back to the practice of their faith. But things went wrong. The people rejected, arrested, imprisoned, and disgraced Jeremiah, and their apostasy led to the fall of Jerusalem and their captivity at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.

On went the centuries, and things never seemed to get into gear. Just when it seemed like God was making headway with His people, something always went wrong to pull the carpet out from under Him. Time after time, people rebelled against God’s will.

It was beginning to seem as though God were incapable of creating anything good. It seemed like He couldn’t create a person who would simply love Him with all their heart. It seemed like God’s whole experiment with creation might have been a mistake—even a failure.

And then He made Mary.

Whereas all the descendants of Adam & Eve had been held captive to the guilt of original sin, Mary was a different case. By an extraordinary act of God’s mercy, Mary was preserved from the very moment of her conception from any stain of that original sin. The Lord created her as the Immaculate Conception—utterly pure, totally clean, absolutely untainted.

With the creation of Mary and her perfectly pure spirit, there was all of a sudden a new glimmer of hope for humanity. My parish patron, Saint Anselm, wrote many beautiful things about the Mother of God. In today’s Office of Readings, one encounters this insight from one of his sermons:

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night—everything that is subject to the power or use of man—rejoice that, through you, they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. . . . God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the Mother of the re-created world.

Regardless of all the failings of those who had gone before her (and all those who have gone after her), Mary’s humble surrender to the will of God has brought about a new dawn of hope for all mankind. All of the previous rejections of God and His Word and His prophets were redeemed by the gracious obedience of Mary, who said “Yes” to God and, by her very existence, proved that God could create creatures to love Him.

Because of Mary, God’s work of creation can never be accused of being a failure. Not only is God capable of creating us well, He has fashioned all of us to be “capable of Him.” In philosophy, we say that men and women are capax Dei—“capable of God.” When we look at the history of the Old Testament, the history of the Church, and the history of our own personal lives, we can easily become ashamed of the countless sins and rejections of God’s love that we see. But we are not defined by our sins; we are defined by the capacity we have for holiness.

Humanity first caught a glimpse of the tremendous capacity we have when God created Mary as the Immaculate Conception. O Mary, conceived without sin: pray for us who have recourse to thee!

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

    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
    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

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

“We cannot approve of the attitude of those who use the problems raised and discussed by the Council to create in themselves and in others an attitude of unrest and a desire for radical reformation, as if the Council gives every private opinion a chance to destroy the heritage of the Church. acquired during Her many centuries of history and experience.”

— Pope Paul VI (30 June 1965)

Recent Posts

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Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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