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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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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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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Offertory” for this Sunday
    This coming Sunday, 12 October 2025, is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). Its OFFERTORY ANTIPHON (PDF) is gorgeous, and comes from the book of Esther, as did the ENTRANCE CHANT last Sunday. Depending on a variety of factors, various hand-missals (all with Imprimatur) translate this passage differently. For instance, “príncipis” can be rendered: King; Prince; Lion; or Fierce lord. None is “more correct” than another. It depends on what each translator wants to emphasize and which source text is chosen. All these pieces of plainsong are conveniently stored at the blue-ribbon feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Why A “Fugue” Here?
    I believe I know why this plainsong harmonizer created a tiny fugue as the INTRODUCTION to his accompaniment. Take a look (PDF example) and tell me your thoughts about what he did on the feast of the Flight of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Egypt (17 February). And now I must go because “tempus fugit” as they say!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Reminder” — Month of October (2025)
    Those who don’t sign up for our free EMAIL NEWSLETTER miss important notifications. Last week, for example, I sent a message about this job opening for a music director paying $65,000 per year plus benefits (plus weddings & funerals). Notice the job description says: “our vision for sacred music is to move from singing at Mass to truly singing the Mass wherein … especially the propers, ordinaries, and dialogues are given their proper place.” Signing up couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Canonic” • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Fifty years ago, Dr. Theodore Marier made available this clever arrangement (PDF) of “Come down, O love divine” by P. R. Dietterich. The melody was composed in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958) and named in honor of of his birthplace: DOWN AMPNEY. The arrangement isn’t a strict canon, but it does remind one of a canon since the pipe organ employs “points of imitation.” The melody and text are #709 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“To me it is a most inspiring reflection that, while empires and kingdoms have tumbled down, while language and custom of every kind have changed beyond recognition, still day by day the humblest Catholic priest in the remotest mission stands at his altar dressed in the garb of old Rome.”

— Father Adrian Fortescue (8 February 1912)

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